Guo Wei, a Han Chinese, serves as the Assistant Military Commissioner at the court of the Later Han Dynasty, a regime ruled by Shatuo Turks.

A teenager has come to the throne of the Later Han in 948 after the death of the founding emperor, Gaozu.

Guo Wei leads a successful coup against the teenage emperor and declared himself emperor of the new Later Zhou Dynasty on New Year’s Day in 951.

Posthumously known as Emperor Taizu of Later Zhou, Guo Wei is the first Han Chinese ruler of northern China since 923.

He is regarded as an able leader who attempted reforms designed to alleviate burdens faced by the peasantry.

His short rule will be considered vigorous and well-organized.

The Southern Tang Kingdom absorbs the Chu state.

Emperor Taizong had been on campaign in China when he died in 947.

His nephew Ruan had accompanied him on this campaign, allowing him to quickly gain the support of army leaders.

While returning to the capital, his grandmother, the empress dowager Yingtian, had plotted to have her third son, Prince Lihu, ascend to the throne, and had sent an army to intercept her grandson.

She had denounced Ruan in her campaign to support her son.

However, the Khitan nobles, knowing that Prince Lihu was entirely unfit for the throne, had refused to support her this time as they did previously with the ascension of Deguang as Emperor Taizong.

Fortunately, the strong support the court gave to Ruan’s claim had prevented a civil war among the Khitans.

Shizong is known both for his generosity as well as for his martial prowess.

This generosity is not extended to either his grandmother or his uncle (Prince Lihu) both of whom had been sent far from the capital by Shizong.

Both had died soon afterward, Prince Lihu in rebellion and Yingtian of old age.

Shizong takes to the field in 951 in a successful effort to resist Chinese advances from the south.

However, later this year, a mere four years after his ascension as emperor, he i killed by a rebellious nephew who is part of an effort within the imperial clan to usurp the throne.

The Bulgarian empire, after reaching its peak under Simeon in the early tenth century, has declined under Tsar Peter, his son and successor.

The Bogomil heresy meanwhile gains adherents in Bulgaria toward the middle of the tenth century.

The Bogomils' central teaching, based on a dualistic cosmology, is that the visible, material world was created by the devil.

Thus, they deny the doctrine of the incarnation and reject the Christian conception of matter as a vehicle of grace.

They reject Baptism, the Eucharist, and the whole organization of the Orthodox Church.

The moral teaching of the Bogomils is as consistently dualistic.

They condemn those functions of man that bring him into close contact with matter, especially marriage, the eating of meat, and the drinking of wine.

Even their fiercest opponents invariably acknowledge the moral austerity of the Bogomils.

The Black Stone of Mecca, according to historian Al-Juwayni, is returned under mysterious circumstances in 951, twenty-two years after it’s removal by the Qarmatians.

Wrapped in a sack, it is thrown into the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back."

The theft and removal of the Black Stone had caused it to break into seven pieces.

The Qarmatians, under Abu Tahir Al-Jannabim, had come close to raiding Baghdad in 927 and had sacked Mecca and Medina in 930.

The assault on Islam's holiest sites had seen the Qarmatians desecrate the Well of Zamzam with corpses of Hajj pilgrims and take the Black Stone from Mecca to Al-Hasa.

Holding the Black Stone to ransom, they force the Abbasids to pay a huge sum for its return in 951.

Adelaide, after four months’ imprisonment, manages to escape with the help of Count Adalbert Atto of Canossa.

Besieged by Berengar II in Canossa, she sends an emissary across the Alps seeking Otto’s protection and marriage.

Otto, widowed since 946, knows a marriage to Adelaide will allow him to fulfill his ambition of ruling Italy and, ultimately, claiming the imperial crown as Charlemagne’s true heir.

Knowing of Adelaide’s great beauty and immense wealth, the thirty-eight-year-old Otto accepts the nineteen-year-old queen's marriage proposal and prepares for an expedition into Italy.

Otto’s son Liudolph, from his stronghold in Swabia located just north of the Alps, is in closer proximity to the Italian border than his father in Saxony.

Liudolf prepares an Italian campaign is to overthrow Berengar II and therefore render unnecessary Otto's own expedition into Italy, and thus his marriage to Adelaide.

While the exact reason for Liudolf's actions are unclear, dynastic concerns and family ties to Adelaide may have been a factor.

Adelaide's mother, Bertha of Swabia, was a daughter of Regelinda, the mother of Liudolf's wife Ida, from her first marriage to Burchard II, Duke of Swabia.

Liudolf, therefore, may have intervened in the Italian campaign at the request of Adelaide's relatives.

Additionally, Liudolf, nineteen years old himself, does not view the idea of a young stepmother as in his best interests.

Though Otto had named him as his successor, Liudolf fears any potential stepbrother may usurp his claim to the German throne.

While Liudolf is preparing his expedition, the Bavarian Duke Henry, Otto's brother and Liudolf's uncle, conspires against him; Swabia and Bavaria share a long common border and the two dukes are involved in a border dispute.

Henry influences the Italian aristocrats not to join Liudolf's campaign.

Therefore, when Liudolf arrives in Lombardy in early summer 951, he finds no support and is unable to sustain his troops.

His army is near destruction until Otto's own army crosses the Alps.

The King reluctantly receives Liudolf's forces into his command, angry at his son for his inconsiderate and independent actions.

Otto and Liudolf arrive n northern Italy in September 951 without opposition from Berengar II.

As they descend into the Po River valley, the Italian nobles and clergy withdraw their support for Berengar and provide aid to Otto and his advancing army.

Recognizing his weakened position, Berengar II flees from his capital in Pavia.

When Otto arrives at Pavia on September 23, 951, the city willingly opens its gate to the German king.

In accordance with Lombard tradition, Otto is crowned with the Iron Crown of the Lombards on October 10.

Like Charlemagne before him, Otto is now concurrent King of Germany and King of Italy.

Otto sends a message to his brother Henry in Bavaria to escort his bride from Canossa to Pavia, where the two marry.

Soon after his father's marriage, Liudolf leaves Italy and returns to Swabia.

Abd ar-Rahman had ordered the construction of a fleet based in Almeria to counter the increasing Fatimid power in North Africa.

The caliph had helped the Maghrawa Berbers conquer Melilla (927), …

…Ceuta (931) and …