Add in that the mongols were in talks of a partnership with the crusader states (via Christian Mongolian diplomats) and you have the biggest unlikely alliance that almost but never was
@@nenenindonu he fought the two weaken and separated. Raided by the mongols while sandwiched in between Nubia and a France that aims at egypt and does not wait to death next to the nile, the story would have been very different. You ought to recognise this at least, whatever you think of baybar's greatness.
@@Akirashiro407 Probably because he’s tired of people like me who post unoriginal comments to just get some quick and easy internet points and that temporary shot of dopamine. If you go to 90% of any other video by History Matters you would see the exact comment I posted, which even though the statement is indeed true, it’s still extremely unoriginal. It certainly gets old for many people after reading this comment for the thousandth time when watching videos from this channel.
Still, when the Portuguese sailed around Africa, the Ottomans went to war against their neighbours to try and break out into the oceans; during this period, an alliance between Portugal and Ethiopia was formed to prevent them from breaking out into the Indian ocean, which worked out pretty well.
They weren’t trying to “break” out, the Portuguese were blockading the Red Sea preventing pilgrims from reaching Mecca. And as far as I can recall, the ottomans did manage to break the blockade pretty easily.
@@ibrahimmustafa2481 you should probably read up on the history of the ottoman-Portuguese conflict, pretty disingenuous statement as the conflict saw the ottomans expand influence in the red sea while the portuguese took the persian gulf
@@harmanthind2147 the goal of the Portuguese was to kick Arab merchants out of the Red Sea and diverge the spice trade route from the Red Sea and Egypt to around the cape of good hope ( Africa). They failed in achieving that goal since the two spice routes continued to coexist for a century, until the Dutch and english arrived. And they failed because of the ottomans.
@@EmisoraRadioPatio got their asses kicked, did they really? Besides the ottomans were fighting wars on two fronts, the entirety of Europe and Savavid Persia. And last but not least, being small doesn’t necessarily mean the state is weak, look at Venice for example.
Fun fact: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a part of the broader Coptic Orthodox Church, meaning they reported to the Patriarch of Alexandria. For a few hundred years, the Egyptians held the bishop appointed to Ethiopia hostage so they couldn't get to Ethiopia. Eventually, the Ethiopians invaded to get their bishop.
Actually, I don't think we invaded. The Emperor at the time threatened to dam the Nile and started to march his army, then the Sultan relented and released the bishop.
When the crusaders invaded Egypt under the command of King Aimry of Jerusalem they didn't spare the coptic population 🙄 hence the local Christians weren't found of the Frankishs.
Sultan baybars the great Will march into ethiopia and Jerusalem Will easily beat them both, he also can seek help from persia or delhi sultanate very easily Case ended
@@afdalridwan3813 There was no Persia at that time the region was dominated by the Mongol Ilkhanate which was a major rival of Baybars and his Sultanate
Interestingly, Ethiopia (Aksum) did basically launch a crusade against Himyar (a Jewish kingdom in Yemen) with help from the Byzantines and Arab Christians in the 6th century. Additionally, there was the war between Ethiopia and Adal, which was a big war between Christian and Muslim empires in the Horn of Africa in the 16th century (this became a proxy war between the Portuguese and Ottomans, who did fight each other directly too). Also, I heard 100+ Nubians fought with Rome in the Great Siege of Jerusalem (I can't find a reliable source for this tho).
After the 1630s, the ethiopians banned european christians from the country and established better ties with the ottomans, yemenis, persians, and mughals
Also Emperor dawit l would invade Egypt and reach all the way North as aswan but instead of accepting Emperor dawit l challenge for battle the emir that previously arrested the patriarch of Alexandria now he was so scared the Emir released the patriarch of Alexandria Matthew l to beg Emperor dawit l to return back Ethiopia by gifting him the piece of the TRUE CROSS BADASS
That Aksum crusade has the ending part of it written in the Qur'an in Surah (Chapter) Al-Fil 'The Elephant'. In its verses God explains to us how the Army of Aksum that attacked Yemen and then Mecca in the same year that Muhammad was born (570) in order to demolish the Mecca mosque (which was thought by the Aksumites not to be a mosque at that time) because it attracted Arabs from all over the Peninsula for annual pilgrimage but instead attract them to the newly built Aksumite church in Yemen. In the verses, Allah explains how he sent a huge number of eagles throwing and spitting burning rocks over their heads and their military elephants (hence why the chapter is named the elephant) and that these eagles totally annihilated their army before it arrived to Mecca to demolish the mosque.
That's not entirely true tho Emperor Iyasu's litreally establish diplomatic ties with Christian monarchies like Louis XIV of France and Ethiopian delegates had been sent to foreign countries."In 1689, an embassy, led by an Armenian named Murad was sent to Batavia, Dutch East Indies. One of the benefits of these efforts was that Emperor Iyasu received a bell from Johannes Camphuys, governor of the Dutch East Indies, which was then donated to Debre Berhan Selassie Church in Gondar. The problem with Catholics started because Catholics converted Emperor Susenyos l which resulted in huge civil war that cost many Christians lives after the Emperor fasil Victory He sent for a new abuna from the patriarch of Alexandria, restoring the ancient relationship that had been allowed to lapse. He confiscated the lands of the Jesuits at Dankaz and elsewhere in the empire, relegating them to Fremona. When he heard that the Portuguese bombarded Mombasa, Fasilides assumed that Afonso Mendes, the Roman Catholic prelate, was behind the act, and banished the remaining Jesuits from his lands. he also ordered the "Books of the Franks"-the remaining religious writings of the Catholics-burn But again Six Franciscans sent by Pope Alexander VII to succeed in converting Ethiopia to Catholicism where the Jesuits had failed 30 years before, were executed during Emperor Yohannis l reign.its not that Ethiopians hated Europeans they actually favored Armenian and Greek visitors, whose beliefs also embraced Miaphysitism, and were in harmony with the Ethiopian Church.
@@khediveabbashilmiiiofegypt9475 "which was thought by the Aksumites not to be a mosque at that time" Because even according to Muslim historiography it was used by Pagans at the time.
You forgot to mention a French Knight called Robert de Clari who was part of the ill-fated Fourth Crusade saw an unnamed Christian Nubian king and wrote about it in his account of the Crusade, Conquest of Constantinople (which he wrote around 1216). He gave an account of the presence of Africans in medieval Europe. According to Robert’s account, in 1203 the Crusaders on the Fourth Crusade were in Constantinople playing a part in a major imperial power struggle. They had come there upon the request of Alexios IV Angelos, with the aim to restore his deposed father, Isaac II Angelos, to the throne, ultimately resulting in both being jointly named as co-emperors. While they were in the city, they witnessed an unnamed Nubian king. As Robert described: "And while the barons were there at the palace, a king came there whose skin was all black, and he had a cross in the middle of his forehead that had been made with a hot iron. This king was living in a very rich abbey in the city, in which the former emperor Alexios had commanded that he should be lodged and of which he was to be lord and owner as long as he wanted to stay there." This king may have been king Moses Georgios of Makuria but we can't be certain but, he may have been there during the fighting.
@@TomorrowWeLive there was no remotely relevant minority of africans in medieval europe, but due to diplomacy, the arab slave trade etc. you could sometimes find a black person in europe. It was extremely rare and pretty much all europeans would have never encountered one, but it's not like there was an invisible barrier stopping people from traveling.
Real Nubians are from northern Sudan and southern Egypt 🇪🇬 the beja people are real Nubians……the Nilotic and Dinka was never Nubians the Nubians sold Nilotic and Dinka as slaves to North Africans Berbers …Nilotic and Dinka was not Nubians or kingdom of kush/kushite the beja people are really Nubians and kush
To highlight how much Europe knew about Africa, some medieval myths were: There were "people with one eye and covered their heads with their feet", There were "people with one leg, 3 faces, and the head of a lion", and Africa was home to a bird called "the rock", a gigantic bird that could carry elephants in it's claws. One of the more enduring myths, going as far as the Portuguese explorations of Africa in 1482, was the Legend of Prester John, a Christian king who ruled over a vast Empire in the interior of Africa. He ruled over 42 lesser kings, as well as some centaurs and giants, and had a castle made out of translucent crystals and precious gems with a table of pure emerald to entertain guests. In short, they knew absolutely NOTHING beyond the sharhara.
"and was home to a bird called "the rock", a gigantic bird that could carry elephants in it's claws. " First, it's roc. Second, the myth of the roc did not originate in europe, nor was it created by europeans. The roc is part of persian or arab folklore/mythology, and the europeans "believed" in it because the persians/arabs/jews did and spread the stories about it in the first place. And that whole "a gigantic bird that could carry elephants" part is not what europeans believed, it is what Marco Polo wrote about it, to make his stories more fascinating. For the other stuff you claim, maybe check your sources and be sure that that's actually the case and not just what a single person believed.
@@RinoGato In regards to your second statement, Spaceman Spud is not claiming the myth originated from Europe, but is claiming that it was a myth present in medieval (european) society. Cheers for the extra information and context though!
It was originally kush, I believe that the reason it was called Ethiopia was that they were a fragment of kush and were apart of the kingdom but the kingdom was primarily located in Sudan, later ran by the Egyptians.
Modern day Ethiopia adopted that name after WW2. Ethiopia in the ancient times just meant all of black africa not the specific nation of Ethiopia which was called Axum
@@makeytgreatagain6256 oh neat. The two are close to each others area so maybe it was just a mistake in the English translation that has been fixed in modern translations or a note will be at the bottom stating it actually kush.
@@Aceshot-uu7yx kush was only Sudan but both were very intertwined so some Greeks thought Axum and Kush were the same place even though they weren’t and invaded eachother on occasions. Infact Egypt was sometimes lumped alongside kush as well
Love the detail at 1:03 where it just says "words" in Arabic in the background. Little details like that make these videos just that much more enjoyable!
@@King_of_Cards no that is Arabic. Arabic is an abdjad which means vowel sounds are generally "guessed" when reading (not really guessing when you're used to the language) and not clearly shown and diacritics are only mostly only used when it comes to the Qur'an because preserving the exact pronunciation is considered of utmost importance .
Ethiopia is the ancient cradle of Christianity and even Judaism with regards to Africa, not to mention with overall human species. Really rich and interesting history, without a doubt in my top three African countries.
@@gequitz Just goes to show that an act of goodwill can lead to disastrous consequences, considering how right after Muhammad’s death, the Islamic caliphates started their conquests, much of which were against Christians, most from the Eastern (Byzantine) Roman Empire.
Europeans did actually make contact and knew where Ethiopia was prior to the 19th century - Portuguese explorers and diplomats arrived during the early 1500s and Jesuits converted many on later expeditions. Ethiopia briefly converted to Catholicism for the king's personal interest and political gains in the hopes of military assistance.
some historians make the claim, had the Portuguese not provided military assistance to the Ethiopians in 1540 , they would have lost their Christian kingdom to local Islamic empires.
I read that in the first quarter of the 15th century, an Ethiopian king planned to contact the ruler of Burgundy, John the fearless, but this attempt failed as the messenger was caught by the Mamluks in Egypt.
1440 was also about the time some Portuguese aided the Ethiopians in wars against Somalia. Vasco da Gama's son was one of them. Also fun fact: the Ethiopians had no idea who Prester John was, despite being called that by the Europeans
@@Zeyede_Seyum of course, I was just trying to simplify matters. The Turks/Ottomans also sent support to the Sultanate so it was quite an international war with belligerents from 3 continents
Man, I love your channel! You ask questions that I never knew I needed the answer for, then you keep us latched to the screen as you elaborate in an approachable manner, using just the right amount of context, and when the video finishes, I really feel that I've learnt something interesting without much effort. Kudos to you, keep up the good work 👏
It would be great if you could explore the Legend of Prester John, which was a legend of a lost Christian Kingdom in either Africa or India, and how Portuguese explorers kept looking for this so called lost kingdom.
1:48: This is the funniest way that plan could have failed. It would be foolish enough to rely on a potential foreign ally without contacting them first in this era of global news and social media, but it's all the worse in the medieval period. The Crusaders just expected the Nubians to hear rumors of their arrival and mobilize an army at the last minute before following the Europeans' battle plans. Iconic crusader moment.
0:05 I can't believe that you didn't include Flanders in that map. The nation that send knights and royal family members with every single crusader that was called.
"Why wasn't Hungarian the official (administrative) language of Hungary until 1844?" I have been wondering about this ever since i discovered this information
I mean it isn't rare for countries to adopt a foreign language as court language, even more so countries with nomadic past. Ottomans(and other turkish beyliks) spoke a modified version of persian for example
This is a question I have been asking for years after I read of a Crusader church in Germany that had a statue of an African in full military crusader regalia. It always amazed me as to why and how such a figure could be in a medieval church and that led me to read about the Nubian and Ethiopian churches and also sadly the destruction and annihilation of Nubian Christianity by the Mamluks. It opened my eyes to a chapter of Christianity that I had little knowledge about. I'm so glad we're starting to hear more about these Christians that dissapeared into the pages of history
1:03 Ah yes, such beautiful words, as an arab, a tear was brought to my eyes at the sight of such magnificent poetry. jk كلمات (transliteration(official): Kalimaat) is Arabic for words.
A question I had: what did non-Abrahamic faiths think of the crusades? Had they heard of them and what was their opinion on them and did they support any side (e.g, Hindus and Buddhists)
Muslim trade was flourishing in Southeast Asia and Southern China with Hindu and Buddhist cultures by The 9th Century and continued, so it is quite possible they carried news of The Crusades. Being so far away and of such an inconsequential meaning, the locals might have only been concerned about whether they would affect trade.
Prester John and no, they would have expect Charlemagne coming back as mote likely as last time I checked, Preston John was ling dead and they thought Ethiopia was his kingdom that he established a ling time ago.
@@Aceshot-uu7yx prestor means pastor (presbyter) and Prestor John was more of a title for the leader of a great Christian kingdom than a specific man at this point in history.
Please make a video on why US-France relations soured over time. Your insight on British and American relations was on point and it'd be nice to see your take on French and American relations which were initially friendly.
They were bummed that the allies weren't fighting another enemy but on a personal note they had little love for the nazis. They were allies of convenience
@@Toonrick12 that and the incoming Soviet invasion which they believed would be distinctly less pleasant than an American occupation, and represented the death of their last (extremely misguided) hope of foreign aid
the comment about ethiopia not having any sizable european contact after the crusades until the scramble for africa is very much untrue, during the ethiopian-adal war portuguese mercenaries and attachés were instrumental in helping the abyssinian empire defeat the adal sultanate in a key battle which basically saved the ethiopian war effort
Glad there's a reference to Prestor John in there. Was it the Crusades that started the story since that is when the distant Christians were more well known? The African Christians were one of the reasons the Age of Exploration started.
Martin Luther appears to have looked to the Ethiopian church for inspiration, and met with a representative of the Ethiopian church a decade or two after 1517.
0:09 "Depends on who you ask" Is very true. Some people are acting like it's still happening today, and will throw violent threats at you for even talking about the other side.
Not every nation in the Middle East is a theocracy anymore, so the situation is way more eased up than many years/one century ago. Racism against europeans isn't as dominant anymore, especially with the local conflicts still being on fire.
@@dusk6159 Hopefully now with Europe having to deal with an equivalent of what they justifying doing elsewhere we may have less NATO and particularly American meddling in the Muslim world which may finally lead to peace. Silver lining .
@@dusk6159 You must live in your own little eco chamber that you think " racism against Europeans" is anything more than a non issue. Maybe the constant brutal invasions by said Europeans could end first?
Love everything you put out. Curious to hear more about African and Asian history. Not because I'm a critic of "Eurocentrism"; I love Western history. But I know little about the non-Western world, especially prior to colonization, and so am vastly curious.
Why is being a critic of Eurocentrism a bad thing? It just means not looking at everything from a European perspective. You should be against that if your a scholar or objective truth.
Yasuke was a black samurai that served under Oda Nobunaga in 16th century Japan. African slaves were brought to China by Arabs as early as the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty. Some wealthy Chinese used them almost like status symbols because they were more "exotic" and expensive than standard Chinese slaves. There's a lot of noteworthy Africans and African history that just gets ignored.
Hey, some time ago I saw your Q&A from 2019, you mentioned there that Poland is reciving less attention that it should. Well, there is actually nice story of "Drzymała's wagon" that is easy to cram into 3 min episode.
Too often, Habesha nations get overlooked when talking about the history of Christianity. But the truth, the Kingdom of Axum -- known as Æthioia by foreigners -- became a Christian Civilization during the 3rd or 4th century. And, biblically speaking, one of the wise men that visited Jesus after his birth was an "Æthiopian [/Axumite] King".
No no the name ethiopian is self identifying by the axumites Now the word axum kingdom is given by modern historians naming it after the area , its old empire name was ethiopia , there is MILLIONS OF Proofs , and the greeks heard of the empire named ethiopia that is ruled by brown people , so they wrote one or two things about a place named ethiopia with kingdom and burnt face and how they are curious about it Modern historians found it and said oh ethiopia means burn face the Greeks named them , they literally wrote about a great kingdom and how they're curious about it 😂 and they don't know about it 😂
Greeks did not have direct relationship or influence over the region and empire ethiopia enough to name it , they hear about it , probably saw travelers from say that region , but it's been clear they didn't have DIRECT connected with it , so they'll never name something they don't have knowledge over , If you know ethiopians we are proud people and hv rich history that speaks for itself , and and the only name outsiders gave us is habash and it's the middle easterners Arabs that refered us with , with is understandable considering the historical interaction between the
Anotehr question: Did the Crusaders ever try to get the many copts in Egypt to revolt against their muslim rulers? How did they feel about the crusaders?
iirc they did at first, but then the crusaders attacked bilbeis and indiscriminately massacred the population so the copts ended their support of the crusaders theres also that when the crusaders took jerusalem they banned the copts from going there, calling them heretics and atheists, and it was actually saladin who let them back in saying that they were his subjects
They did take part , just not as much as the Holy Roman Empire. The nubians mainly fought the egyptian ayyubids , and ethiopia was directly fighting in jerusalem and parts of east Africa ( possibly parts of Arabia as well )
More like why indonesia keeps on insisting too keep east timor free.spoiler australia stole oil from them and e.timor is still economically dependent on indonesia.
It's actually kind of sad to think about. If the African Christians and European Christians had maintained greater knowledge of one another, and the African Christian kingdoms had retained a higher degree of power, it's doubtful that the subsequent transatlantic slave trade would've occurred because Europeans and their colonists in the Americas would've likely seen Africans as their Christian equals, and the "savages" narrative never would've taken off.
Uh... the "savages" thing was a pretty gradual occurrence since scientific racism extended it's half life, blacks didn't stay inslaved for millennia under european christians so imo it's a testament to how dislocated this way of thinking way...
The Europeans wouldn’t care about them being “Christian” it was done all out of greed and to get their Industrial Revolutions moving, Plus Africa isn’t a monolith barely any kingdoms were practicing Christianity besides Ethiopia at the time so they would’ve just found another community to exploit and enslave, religion was just used as a tool to get their citizens onboard with the atrocities they were gonna commit
I'd say Ethiopa dodged a bullet there. Alliances, treaties, and trade agreements, and even European missionaries means Europeans making a grab for your country and pimping out its resources.
Week 4 of asking history matters-what happened to the end of the year q and a and what happened to the industrial revolution video that he has been hinting at
@@raja2850 no Central Asia is inhabitant by turk people and Iranian peoples East Africa is inhabitant by Somalian peoples you don't have the right information
@@سلامسالمي-ر6ذ if central Asia is inhabited by Turks and Iranians. Then on what basis do they claim to be 'uzbek' or 'kazakh' or 'tajik'? My point still stands. These people have no culture of themselves.
No joke I thought that History Matters and Extra History was doing a same video or colab since Extra history started to do a Ethiopia Christian series on there channel and here come History Matters with a Ethiopia Christian video
A solid what if scenario is if the European Crusaders managed to coordinate with the African Christians. Probably could have reclaimed Egypt and the Holy Land, cutting a rift between Muslim held lands.
@@ibrahimmustafa2481 Ægyptus and Syria Palæstina rightfully belong to the Empire of the Romans, and thus to those under the oversight of the Pontifex Maximus of Rome, who are the Christians.
