1146
Bernard preaches the Second Crusade at Vezelay
On Easter Sunday, standing on a wooden platform in a field below the basilica because the church could not hold the crowd, Bernard of Clairvaux preached the crusade. Louis VII took the cross on the spot. Bernard cut up his own habit into cloth crosses when the pre-made supply ran out.
Nur al-Din succeeds Zengi
When his father Zengi was murdered in his tent by a disgruntled Frankish eunuch, the thirty-year-old Nur al-Din rode for Aleppo and claimed his share of the inheritance. He would prove a more patient and pious adversary than his father - the man who set in motion the reunification of Muslim Syria.
Almohads enter Marrakech
Abd al-Mumin's Berber reformers, descending from the Atlas Mountains, captured the Almoravid capital after a two-year siege, ending the dynasty that had united Morocco and Muslim Spain. The last Almoravid emir, Ishaq ibn Ali, was dragged from hiding and executed in his own palace. The Almohads rebuilt Marrakech's mosques and fortifications on a grander scale, erecting the Koutoubia minaret as a symbol of the new puritan dynasty's ambition.
Almohads take Seville
Abd al-Mumin's forces crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began the Almohad conquest of al-Andalus. Seville fell after a brief siege; Cordoba would follow within two years. The Berber puritans replaced the Almoravid dynasty on both sides of the Mediterranean. The Almohads brought a severe aesthetic to the cities they conquered, whitewashing the ornate Almoravid palaces and imposing a theological austerity that extended to public life.
Wendish Crusade authorized
Bernard of Clairvaux and Pope Eugenius III authorized northern European crusaders to attack the pagan Slavs east of the Elbe rather than travel to the Holy Land. The campaign, fought by Saxons and Danes, marked the beginning of the Christianization and Germanization of the southern Baltic coast. The crusade produced few lasting military results, but it established a precedent for armed missionary expansion into pagan northeastern Europe.