Historic Dynasties & Families
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Historic Dynasties & Families Encyclopedia Articles
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Medici family
Medici family, Italian bourgeois family that ruled Florence and, later, Tuscany during most of the period from 1434 to 1737, except for two brief intervals (from 1494 to 1512 and from 1527 to 1530). It...
Tang dynasty
Tang dynasty, (618–907 ce), Chinese dynasty that succeeded the short-lived Sui dynasty (581–618), developed a successful form of government and administration on the Sui model, and stimulated a cultural...
house of Este
House of Este, princely family of Lombard origin who played a great part in the history of medieval and Renaissance Italy. The family first came to the front in the wars between the Guelfs and Ghibellines...
Maccabees
Maccabees were a priestly family of Jews who organized a successful rebellion against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV and reconsecrated the defiled Temple of Jerusalem. The name Maccabee was a title of...
Mamluk
Mamluk, slave soldier, a member of one of the armies of slaves established during the Abbasid era that later won political control of several Muslim states. Under the Ayyubid sultanate, Mamluk generals...
Ming dynasty
Ming dynasty, Chinese dynasty that lasted from 1368 to 1644 and provided an interval of native Chinese rule between eras of Mongol and Manchu dominance, respectively. During the Ming period, China exerted...
Barmakids
Barmakids, priestly family of Iranian origin, from the city of Balkh in Khorāsān, who achieved prominence in the 8th century as scribes and viziers to the early ʿAbbāsid caliphs. Their ancestor was a barmak,...
Wei dynasty
Wei dynasty, (386–534/535 ce), the longest-lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties that existed before the reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties. The Wei dynasty was...
Hōjō Family
Hōjō Family, family of hereditary regents to the shogunate of Japan who exercised actual rule from 1199 to 1333. During that period, nine successive members of the family held the regency. The Hōjō took...
Fujiwara Family
Fujiwara Family, dynastic family that, by shrewd intermarriage and diplomacy, dominated the Japanese imperial government from the 9th to the 12th century. The power and authority of the Fujiwara family...
Fugger family
Fugger family, German mercantile and banking dynasty that dominated European business during the 15th and 16th centuries, developed capitalistic economic concepts, and influenced continental politics....
Fatimid dynasty
Fatimid dynasty, political and religious dynasty that dominated an empire in North Africa and subsequently in the Middle East from 909 to 1171 ce and tried unsuccessfully to oust the Abbasid caliphs as...
house of Habsburg
House of Habsburg, royal German family, one of the principal sovereign dynasties of Europe from the 15th to the 20th century. The name Habsburg is derived from the castle of Habsburg, or Habichtsburg (“Hawk’s...
Rothschild family
Rothschild family, the most famous of all European banking dynasties, which for some 200 years exerted great influence on the economic and, indirectly, the political history of Europe. The house was founded...
house of Bourbon
House of Bourbon, one of the most important ruling houses of Europe. Its members were descended from Louis I, duc de Bourbon from 1327 to 1342, the grandson of the French king Louis IX (ruled 1226–70)....