Bete Giyorgis, Lalibela, Ethiopia. Photo: Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Before 1500
Ancient & Precolonial Africa
The great kingdoms, empires, and civilizations of Africa before sustained European colonization, from ancient Nubia and Aksum to Mali, Great Zimbabwe, and the Swahili coast.
On This Day
- Mark Antony won a final, short-lived victory over Octavian's forces outside Alexandria before his army dese… (-30)
- Octavian's forces entered Alexandria, Egypt, effectively ending the Ptolemaic Kingdom and bringing the coun… (-30)
- Cleopatra VII, the last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, died by suicide in Alexandria following her and… (-30)
- Twelve North African Christians, later known as the Scillitan Martyrs, were tried and sentenced to death in… (180)
- Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage and influential early Christian theologian in Roman North Africa, was behea… (258)
- Augustine of Hippo, the influential theologian and philosopher who became one of the most important thinker… (354)
- A massive earthquake off Crete triggered a tsunami that devastated the coasts of Libya and Egypt, especiall… (365)
- Athanasius of Alexandria, the Egyptian bishop and theologian famed for his defence of Christian orthodoxy,… (373)
- The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom was carved at the Temple of Isis on Philae, the last known inscription written… (394)
- The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, captured Carthage in North Africa, making it the capital of the Vandal K… (439)
- Byzantine general Belisarius decisively defeated the Vandal Kingdom at the Battle of Ad Decimum near Cartha… (533)
- A Muslim Arab army under 'Amr ibn al-'As defeated Byzantine forces near Heliopolis in Egypt, a decisive bat… (640)
- Fatimid general Jawhar led Friday prayers in Fustat in the name of Caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, symbolica… (969)
- Shajar al-Durr, who briefly ruled Egypt as sultana and was the only woman to hold the Egyptian throne durin… (1257)
- Yekuno Amlak seized the Ethiopian imperial throne, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a century… (1270)
- King Louis IX of France died at Tunis during the Eighth Crusade, which he had led. (1270)
- Ibn Khaldun, the Tunisian-born historian and scholar regarded as a father of sociology and historiography,… (1332)
- An-Nasir Muhammad, the longest-reigning Mamluk sultan of Egypt whose rule marked a golden age of Cairo's ar… (1341)
- Abu Inan Faris, the Marinid sultan who had pushed Moroccan rule east over Tlemcen, Bijaya and, briefly, Tun… (1358)
- Ibn Khaldun, Tunisian-born historian and sociologist regarded as a father of historiography and sociology,… (1406)
- Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Romanus Pontifex, granting Portugal exclusive rights to trade with an… (1455)
- A revolution overthrew Morocco's Marinid dynasty, during which the city of Fez's Jewish mellah quarter was… (1465)
- Eskender, who ruled as Emperor of Ethiopia during a turbulent minority reign, was born. (1471)
- Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão became the first European to find the mouth of the Congo River. (1482)
- Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias landed at Mossel Bay, becoming the first known European to round the C… (1488)
- A Portuguese fleet carrying missionaries entered Mpinda, the port of Soyo province in the Kingdom of Kongo.… (1491)
- Nzinga a Nkuwu, king of Kongo, was baptized with several of his nobles and took the name João, after the ki… (1491)
- Eskender, who reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia, died. (1494)
- Vasco da Gama's fleet departed Lisbon on the voyage that would round the Cape of Good Hope and open the fir… (1497)
- Vasco da Gama's fleet passed the Great Fish River at the southern tip of Africa, sailing beyond the point w… (1497)
- Vasco da Gama's fleet visited the Island of Mozambique during his voyage around Africa to India. (1498)
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