High Middle Ages · Middle East · Religion
1009
Fatimid caliph orders Holy Sepulchre destroyed
October 18, 1009
The unstable caliph al-Hakim, whose reign produced an encyclopedia of bizarre decrees, ordered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem leveled. Workmen pried up its marble floors. The shock rippled west and would be cited decades later as a grievance that justified the First Crusade. Byzantine emperor Constantine IX eventually negotiated permission to rebuild the church in 1048, though on a much reduced scale.
In context
Also in 1009 (3 other events on record)
- Ly Cong Uan founds the Ly dynasty in Vietnam · Southeast Asia · Politics
- Sack of Cordoba begins · Europe · War
- Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim founds Dar al-Ilm in Cairo · Middle East · Culture
Before and after in Middle East
Before and after in Religion
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.