Historic Dynasties & Families, VIS-ṬūL
Follow the dynasties and powerful families whose marriages, rivalries, successions, and ambitions shaped courts, kingdoms, and empires across centuries.
Historic Dynasties & Families Encyclopedia Articles By Title
Vischer family
Vischer family, sculptors and brass founders working in Nürnberg in the 15th and 16th centuries. Hermann the Elder......
Visconti Family
Visconti Family, Milanese family that dominated the history of northern Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries. Originating......
Vizetelly family
Vizetelly family, family of Italian descent active in journalism and publishing from the late 18th century in England......
Văcărescu Family
Văcărescu Family, Romanian boyars of Phanariote (Greek) origin, a gifted family that gave the first poets to Romanian......
Warburg family
Warburg family, a family whose members were eminent in banking, philanthropy, and scholarship. Presumably of Italian......
Wei dynasty
Wei dynasty, (386–534/535 ce), the longest-lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties that existed......
Welf Dynasty
Welf Dynasty, dynasty of German nobles and rulers who were the chief rivals of the Hohenstaufens in Italy and central......
Welser Family
Welser Family was a family of German merchants, most prominent from the 15th to the 17th century. It first became......
Westmore Family
Westmore Family, family of Hollywood makeup artists credited with having introduced the art of makeup to the motion-picture......
Wettin Dynasty
Wettin Dynasty, major European dynasty, genealogically traceable to the start of the 10th century ad. Its earliest......
Windsor, house of
house of Windsor, the royal house of the United Kingdom, which succeeded the house of Hanover on the death of its......
Wittelsbach, house of
house of Wittelsbach, German noble family that provided rulers of Bavaria and of the Rhenish Palatinate until the......
Wood Family
Wood Family, celebrated English family of Staffordshire potters, a major force in the development of Staffordshire......
Wurlitzer Family
Wurlitzer Family, American family of musical-instrument makers and dealers. Rudolph Wurlitzer (b. Jan. 30, 1831,......
Xi Jin
Xi Jin, first phase of the Jin dynasty (265–420 ce), ruling China from 265 to 316/317 and constituting one of the......
Xia dynasty
Xia dynasty, (c. 2070–c. 1600 bce), early Chinese dynasty mentioned in legends. According to legend, the founder......
Xin dynasty
Xin dynasty, (ad 9–25), short-lived dynasty in China formed by Wang Mang, whose usurpation of power from the ruling......
Yadava dynasty
Yadava dynasty, rulers of a 12th–14th-century Hindu kingdom of central India in what is now the Indian state of......
Yamanouchi family
Yamanouchi family, family of Japanese feudal lords who from 1600 to 1868 dominated the important fief of Tosa on......
York, house of
house of York, younger branch of the house of Plantagenet of England. In the 15th century, having overthrown the......
Younger Brothers
Younger Brothers, four Midwestern American outlaws of the post-Civil War era—Thomas Coleman (“Cole”; 1844–1916),......
Ypsilanti family
Ypsilanti family, Greek family prominent in the 19th century. Early members were Greek Phanariots (residents of......
Yuan dynasty
Yuan dynasty, dynasty established by Mongol nomads that ruled portions and eventually all of China from the early......
Zagwe dynasty
Zagwe dynasty, line of 12th- and 13th-century Ethiopian kings who combined a nomadic military life with an impassioned......
Zamoyski Family
Zamoyski Family, great Polish family whose members influenced Polish politics and history for almost 400 years.......
Zand Dynasty
Zand Dynasty, (1750–79), Iranian dynasty that ruled southern Iran. Following the death of the Afshārid ruler Nāder......
Zangid dynasty
Zangid dynasty, Muslim Turkic dynasty that was founded by Zangī and which ruled northern Iraq (Al-Jazīrah) and......
Zeyārid Dynasty
Zeyārid Dynasty, (927–c. 1090), Iranian dynasty that ruled in the Caspian provinces of Gurgān and Māzandarān. The......
Zhou dynasty
Zhou dynasty, dynasty that ruled ancient China for some eight centuries, establishing the distinctive political......
Ziyādid Dynasty
Ziyādid Dynasty, Muslim dynasty that ruled Yemen in the period 819–1018 from its capital at Zabīd. The ʿAbbāsid......
Zīrid dynasty
Zīrid dynasty, Muslim dynasty of Ṣanhājah Berbers whose various branches ruled in Ifrīqiyyah (Tunisia and eastern......
Árpád dynasty
Árpád dynasty, rulers of Hungary from the late 9th century until 1301, under whom the Hungarian nation was transformed......
Āl Bū Saʿīd dynasty
Āl Bū Saʿīd dynasty, Muslim dynasty of Oman, in southeastern Arabia (c. 1749 to the present), and of Zanzibar,......
ʿAbbasid caliphate
ʿAbbasid caliphate, second of the two great dynasties of the Muslim empire of the caliphate. It overthrew the Umayyad......
ʿAbbādid dynasty
ʿAbbādid dynasty, Muslim-Arab dynasty of Andalusia that arose in Sevilla (Seville) in the 11th century, in the......
ʿAbd al-Wādid Dynasty
ʿAbd al-Wādid Dynasty, dynasty of Zanātah Berbers (1236–1550), successors to the Almohad empire in northwestern......
ʿAnnazid dynasty
ʿAnnazid dynasty, Kurdish dynasty (c. 990/991–1117) that ruled territory on what is now the Iran-Iraq frontier......
ʿUqaylid Dynasty
ʿUqaylid Dynasty, Muslim Arab dynasty whose various branches ruled Mosul (c. 992–1096) and Takrīt (1036–c. 1057),......
Ḥafṣid dynasty
Ḥafṣid dynasty, Amazigh (Berber) dynasty of the 13th–16th century in Ifrīqiyyah (Tunisia and eastern Algeria),......
Ḥamdānid Dynasty
Ḥamdānid Dynasty, Muslim Arab dynasty of northern Iraq (Al-Jazīrah) and Syria (905–1004) whose members were renowned......
Ḥammūdid dynasty
Ḥammūdid dynasty, in Spain, Muslim Berber dynasty, one of the party kingdoms (ṭāʾifahs) that emerged during the......
Ḥasanwayhid dynasty
Ḥasanwayhid dynasty, Kurdish dynasty (c. 961–1015) that ruled a principality around Kermānshāh in the central Zagros......
Ḥusaynid dynasty
Ḥusaynid dynasty, the ruling dynasty of Tunisia from 1705 until the establishment of the Republic of Tunisia in......
Ṣabāḥ dynasty
Ṣabāḥ dynasty, Ruling family of Kuwait since 1756. In that year the Banū ʿUtūb, a group of families of the ʿAnizah......
Ṣulayḥid dynasty
Ṣulayḥid dynasty, (1047–1138), Muslim dynasty nominally subject to the Fāṭimid caliph in Egypt, responsible for......
Ṭūlūnid Dynasty
Ṭūlūnid Dynasty, first local dynasty of Egypt and Syria to exist independently of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate in Baghdad,......