Word: omayyad
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Under the Omayyad caliphs, Moorish Spain became the strongest, richest nation in Europe. Shortly after the first millennium, the caliphate splintered into tiny Moorish principalities. In the era typified by El Cid, the soldier of fortune who served both Moslems and Christians, chivalry became a warring way of life for Christians. Spanish knights or caballeros, often owning nothing but horse and armor, served to oust the Moors. Monks wore chain mail and were led by bishops wielding battle-axes. The conflict, for Christians, took on the character of a holy crusade, but it was warfare often punctured by periods...
...responsible for the fact that the monastery contains nearly all the icons which survive from before the 8th century. In 726, the Emperor Leo the Isaurian ordered all icons within the Byzantine realm destroyed to discourage idolatry. Only those at Mount Sinai escaped, since the monastery had fallen under Omayyad rule. The Moslems left the monastery in peace; in return, the monks allowed the Moslems to build a mosque within the monastery...
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