1. John Julius Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, p 200.
2. Arian Christianity is derived from Bishop Arius, who led the Church in claiming that God and Jesus were separate beings. His view was rejected at the Church's first ecumenical (general) council, in the year 325.
3. From Wikipedia, documented as "Plague, Plague Information, Black Death Facts, News, Photos," National Geographic, retrieved 3 November 2008.
4. Monophysites believed that Jesus Christ had but one composite nature.
5. Reza Aslan, No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, p 1.
6. Lewis, Bernard, The Arabs in History, p 42
7. John Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 1989, p 325.
8. Judith Herrin, Byzantium, p 255.
9. The book A Thousand and One Nights portrays the Abbasid caliph, al Rashid (who ruled from 786 to 809) as an attractive person, but in reality he was a mean-spirited and cruel despot and hated by his subjects. He spent much of his time during Islam's "Golden Age" crushing revolts with his army. The book is also about Ali Baba, Sinbad the Sailor, and Aladdin.
10. The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol 4, Cambridge Univeristy Press, 1975, pp 505-09.
11. A source for the 33 million figure is Pitirim Sorokin, The Sociology of Revolution, New York, H. Fertig, 1967, OCLC 325197.
12. See works by Robert M Hartwell.
13. Will Durant, The Age of Faith, 1950, p 445.
13. Ferdinand Schevill, The History of the Balkan Peninsula, 1922, p 75.
15. Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order, 2011, p 239.
16. Will Durant, Age of Faith, 1950, p 442.
17. John Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, 1989, p 331
21. Will Durant , The Age of Faith, 1950, p 427.
23. Judith Herrin, Byzantium, 2007, p 112.
24. Ferdinand Schevill, Creation of the Bulgar State, p 94.
25. "Granada" by Richard Gottheil and Meyer Kayserling, Jewish Encyclopedia. 1906 edition.
26. Stephen Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, p. 67.
28. History of the Christian Church, Volume V, Chapter 7, § 54, citing Wilken, VI. p 83.
29. Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror,1978, p 63.
30. Max Boot, War Made New, p 21.
33. Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order, p 214-15.
34. Britannica Online Encyclopedia "Desiderius"
35. Quotes from Wikipedia and R Scott Peoples, Crusade of Kings, 2007, p 13.
36. Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, p 83.
37. Mongols culture excluded frequent bathing – the result of their living with a scarcity of water. They saw lake water as holy and washing clothes in it as pollution.
38. George Modelski, World Cities, -3000 to 2000, 2003.
39. Documented by Wikipedia as "Nicolle, David; Angus Mcbride (1990). Attila and the Nomad Hordes. Osprey Publishing. pp. 46–47. ISBN 0-85045-996-6."
40. This and preceeding paragraph from Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, p 68.
41. Alvin M. Josephy, The Indian Heritage of America, 1991, pp 52-53.
42. Harold E Driver, Indians of North America, pp 374-77.
44. Peter Zagorin, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West, 2003, p 38.
45. Bernard Lewis, Islam: The Religion and the People, p 155.
46. Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, p 42.3
47. Quoted by Wikipedia and documented as Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield (1965), The Ancestry of Science: The Discovery of Time, p 64, University of Chicago Press (cf. The Contribution of Ibn Sina to the development of Earth sciences).
48. Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p 357.