1148
Siege of Damascus
The reunited Second Crusade camped in the orchards outside Damascus and, after four days, made the strange decision to shift to the city's arid eastern side. Within hours their camp was raked by archers and they had to retreat in disarray. The humiliation effectively ended the crusade. The debacle at Damascus destroyed whatever trust remained between the Crusader residents and the newly arrived European kings, who blamed each other for the failure.
Gerard of Cremona arrives in Toledo
An Italian scholar traveled to the recently reconquered Spanish city specifically to read Ptolemy's Almagest, which he had heard existed there in Arabic. He stayed for decades, mastering Arabic and eventually translating some ninety scientific and philosophical works into Latin. Gerard's translations introduced the Latin West to Aristotle's natural philosophy, Galen's medicine, and the mathematical works of al-Khwarizmi, reshaping European intellectual life.
Anna Komnene completes the Alexiad
The Byzantine princess, retired to a Constantinople convent after a failed coup against her brother, finished a fifteen-book Greek history of her father Alexios I's reign. It remains the most vivid eyewitness account of the First Crusade from the Byzantine side and the earliest major history written by a woman.
Almohads capture Almeria
An allied force of Genoese, Castilians, and Catalans retook Almeria from the Almohads after a lengthy siege. The port would change hands again within a decade. Its harbor was critical for both Christian and Muslim Mediterranean trade. Almeria had been the chief naval base of Muslim Spain, and its capture temporarily disrupted the maritime links between North Africa and al-Andalus that sustained the Almohad empire.