Abd al-Rahman I was the founder of a Muslim dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries (including the succeeding Caliphate of Córdoba). The Muslims called the regions of Iberia under their dominion al-Andalus....

Charlemagne, meaning Charles the Great, was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Cent...

Jayavarman II, a 9th century king of Cambodia, is widely recognized as the founder of the Khmer Empire, which ruled much of the Southeast Asian mainland for more than six hundred years. Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 80...

Rurik or Riurik was a legendary Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Rurik Dynasty, which ruled Kievan Rus (and later the Grand Duchy of Moscow and Tsardom of...

Tsar Simeon the Great was the ruler of Bulgaria, who reigned 893 - 927. He was 27 when he took the throne from his brother Vladimir, the son of Prince Boris, who was deposed and possibly blinded by his own father after his attempt to return...

Emperor Taizu of Song was the founder and first emperor of the Song dynasty in China. He reigned from 960 until his death in 976. Formerly a distinguished military general of the Later Zhou dynasty, Emperor Taizu came to power after staging...

Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham) was a Muslim scientist, polymath, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, described in various sources as either Persian or Arab. He made significant contributions to the principles of optics, as well as to physi...

Tancred of Hauteville was an eleventh-century Norman petty lord about whom little is known. His historical importance comes entirely from the accomplishments of his sons and later descendants. He was a minor noble near Coutances in the Cote...

Anselm of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk, an Italian medieval philosopher, theologian, and church official who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. Called the founder of scholasticism, he is famous as the origin...

Urban is best known for starting the First Crusade. Urban's crusading movement took its first public shape at the Council of Piacenza, where in March 1095 Urban received an ambassador from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, asking fo...

Genghis Khan was the founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding...

Rudolf I, First German king (1273 – 91) of the Habsburg dynasty. He inherited lands in Alsace, the Aargau, and Breisgau and extended his territory by marriage and through negotiation. Crowned king in 1273, he was recognized by Pope Gregory...

Azzone Visconti was lord of Milan from 1329 until his death. He is considered the founder of the state of Milan, which later became a duchy. Born in Ferrara, he was the sole legitimate son of Galeazzo I Visconti and Beatrice d'Este. In 1322...

The Hongwu Emperor, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founder and first emperor 1368-1398 of the Ming Dynasty of China. His era name, Hongwu, means "Immensely Martial." The previous Mongol Yuan Dynasty was perceived as "foreign", and the...

Jogaila was Grand Duke of Lithuania (1377–1434), King of the Kingdom of Poland (1386–1399), and then sole King of Poland (1399–1434). He ruled in Lithuania from 1377. In 1386 in Kraków he was baptized as Wladyslaw, married the young Queen r...