Persian dynasty (AD 224–651). Founded by Ardashīr I (r. AD 224–241) and named for his ancestor Sāsān (circa 1st century AD), it replaced the Parthian empire (see Parthia). Its capital was Ctesiphon. The dynasty battled the Roman Republic and Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire in the west and the Kushāns and Hephthalites in the east throughout much of its existence. In the 3rd century its empire stretched from Sogdiana and Georgia to northern Arabia, and from the Indus River to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Traditions of the Achaemenian dynasty were revived, Zoroastrianism was reestablished as the state religion, and art and architecture experienced a renaissance. Its important rulers included Shāpūr I (d. 272), Shāpūr II (309–379), Khosrow I, and Khosrow II. The Sāsānids were the last native Persian dynasty before the Arab conquest of the region in the late 7th century.

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(1368–1644) Chinese dynasty that provided an interval of native rule between eras of Mongol and Manchu dominance. The Ming, one of the most stable but autocratic of dynasties, extended Chinese influence farther than did any other native rulers of China. Under the Ming, the capital of China was moved from Nanjing to Beijing, and the Forbidden City was constructed. Naval expeditions led by Zheng He paved the way for trade with Southeast Asia, India, and eastern Africa. During the Ming dynasty, novels were written in the vernacular, while philosophy benefited from the work of Wang Yangming in Neo-Confucianism. Ming monochrome porcelain became famous throughout the world, with imitations created in Vietnam, Japan, and Europe.

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(1250–1517) Rulers of Syria and Egypt. The term mamlūk is an Arabic word for slave. Slave soldiers had been used in the Islamic world since the 9th century, and they often exploited the military power vested in them to seize control from the legitimate political authorities. In 1250 a group of mamlūk generals seized the throne of the Ayyūbid dynasty on the death of the sultan Al-Malik al-Ssubdotālihsubdot Ayyūb (r. 1240–49). The resulting dynasty legitimized its rule by reconstituting the caliphate of the aynAbbāsid dynasty (destroyed by the Mongols in 1258) and by acting as patrons to the rulers of Mecca and Medina. Under Mamlūk rule the remaining crusaders were expelled from the eastern Mediterranean coast, and the Mongols were driven back from Palestine and Syria. Culturally, historical writing and architecture flourished during their rule. A shift in their ethnic makeup from Turkish to Circassian corresponded with their slow decline; their failure to adopt field artillery as weapons (except in siege warfare) contributed to their defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. They afterward remained intact as a social class, however, and continued to exercise a high degree of political autonomy, though they were only one of several forces influencing Egyptian political life. Their power was finally broken by the Albanian-Egyptian officer Muhsubdotammad aynAlī in a massacre in 1811. Seealso Baybars I.

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(1130–1269) Berber confederation born out of religious opposition to the Islamic doctrines of the Almoravid dynasty. The Almohad leader Ibn Tūmart began his rebellion in the 1120s. Marrakech was captured in 1147 under the leadership of his successor aynAbd al-Muhamzahmin. By the 1170s all of the Maghrib was under unified control for the only time in its history, and the Almohads also controlled Muslim Spain. Their rule was marked by, on the one hand, the cultivation of science and philosophy and, on the other, efforts at religious unification by compelling Jews and Christians to convert or emigrate. They lost control of Spain to the Christians in 1212 and of their North African provinces to the Hsubdotafssubdotid dynasty in Tunis (1236) and the Marīnids in Marrakech (1269).

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