This set provides coverage that is broad in areas of achievement as well as geography, while at the same time including the recognized shapers of history essential in any liberal arts curriculum. Major world leaders appear here–emperors, conquerors, kings, and khans–as well as the giants of religious faith who were central to the medieval world: popes, monks, and saints who left their imprint on political as well as spiritual institutions. The set also includes figures who have received little or no attention in the past–from the seventh century queen of the Berbers Damia el-Kahina to the eleventh century Italian gynecologist Trotula.