1. The ‘Middle’ Ages?

2014 ◽  
pp. 4-28
Author(s):  
Miri Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Political Units ◽  
The Middle Ages

The term ‘Media aetas’ or ‘Middle age’ was first used by the poet Petrarch (1304–74), and later by intellectuals who wished to emphasize their own achievements agains a background of that ‘darker age’. In fact, the period from 500 to 1500 saw many and diverse transformations of late antique institutions. The Germanic tribes of the Ostragoths, Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths transformed the Roman Empire through often violent interactions; the Mediterranean Empire was transformed by the spread of Islam in the 7th century; and the 12th and 13th centuries saw a remarkable consolidation of political units and increased European integration. The famine of 1314–17 and the Black Death (1347–52) resulted in a loss of half the population and the remaking of the European economy and the next century saw the effect of the Ottoman challenge as well as the beginnings of exploration in Africa and the Americas.

scholarly journals Local Religions in Roman North Africa on the Eve of the Middle Ages

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-68
Author(s):  
Chiara Ombretta Tommasi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Reliable Information ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
The Middle Ages

This paper considers how late antique Latin authors (mainly Augustine and Corippus) dealt with ancestral rites and practices of probable autochthonous (i. e. Berber) origin and provided an ideological resemantisation. Although motivated by anti-pagan pleas and also allowing for some exaggeration, they nevertheless provide reliable information, which can be compared against epigraphic evidence, and offer further contributions that enrich the knowledge of the North African local pantheon, otherwise largely documented by epigraphical evidence. It might therefore be surmised that, notwithstanding the deep Christianisation of the region, at the end of the Roman Empire, North Africa still witnessed the survival of residual and isolated pagan fringes.

The Sailor in the Middle Ages

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. G. R. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Middle Ages

The sailor will not be kept from the sea, even though empires fall and foreign invaders multiply. Yet we cannot expect to hear much of him in such troubled times. We know, however, that although European ships no longer sailed to India, yet, after the barbarian destruction of the Roman Empire, overseas trade did revive, and the foundations of such famous maritime states as Venice were laid. We know, too, that although the Arabs overran the whole length of the Mediterranean Sea, they were pushed back out of the islands by sea-borne expeditions from Italy and Catalan Spain, while when the Holy Places in Palestine were captured by the Turks (who were not ‘gentlemen’ like the Arabs), there were ships and sailors ready and able to carry crusading armies to the East, and to provision them while they were there.

The Making of the Medieval Middle East

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Tannous
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The Middle Ages

In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. This book argues that key to understanding these dramatic religious transformations are ordinary religious believers, often called “the simple” in late antique and medieval sources. Largely agrarian and illiterate, these Christians outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East's history. What did it mean for Christian communities to break apart over theological disagreements that most people could not understand? How does our view of the rise of Islam change if we take seriously the fact that Muslims remained a demographic minority for much of the Middle Ages? In addressing these and other questions, the book provides a sweeping reinterpretation of the religious history of the medieval Middle East. The book draws on a wealth of Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to recast these conquered lands as largely Christian ones whose growing Muslim populations are properly understood as converting away from and in competition with the non-Muslim communities around them.

WESTERN EUROPEAN AND BYZANTINE SOURCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES ABOUT THE RELATIONS BETWEEN WESTERN AND EASTERN CHRISTIANS AND THE CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE CRUSADERS IN 1204

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Dmitriy M. Abramov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Western European ◽  
The Military ◽  
Detailed Picture ◽  
The Middle Ages

Historical sources and evidence of the eyewitnesses of the 4th crusade in many respects reflect the complexity and sharpness of the contradictions between the Western and Eastern Christendom at the turn of the 12th – 13th centuries. The evidence and narrations proceed from the most direct participants in the military events, broke out on the shore of the Bosporus in 1203–1204. The authors of those materials belonged to the two opposing camps, and therefore the analysis of those sources represents a sufficiently complete and detailed picture of the occurred tragedy. A thorough analysis of the sources makes it possible to at least partially see and comprehend the causes of the military confrontation between the Western and Eastern Christians, who represented – just a while ago, in the first half of the 11th century – the united Ecumenical Church. The sources vividly reflect the mood that prevailed in the crusaders’ encampment in April, 1204, hesitation and doubt of the bulk of the Cross Warriors who were not sure of the rightness of their actions in the preparation for the assault of Constantinople. Many of them understood that they would have to raise the sword against their fellow believers – the Christians of the East. But the most tragic outcome of the 1202–1204 Crusade was the crushing defeat of Constantinople by the Cross Warriors. For the Romans (Byzantines) that became the reason for the disintegration of the Roman Empire. For all Eastern Christians it indicated the demise of the capital of the Orthodox Christendom.

Medieval Transculturality in the Mediterranean from a Literary-Historical Perspective. The Case of Rudolf von Ems’ Der guote Gêrhart (ca. 1220–1225)

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-160
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Mediterranean Studies ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract Most scholars working on the concept of transculturality consider it a modern phenomenon, but we can discover forms of transculturality already in the Middle Ages, and this in terms of political, scholarly, artistic, medical and literary exchanges. Within the framework of Mediterranean Studies, this article examines the extraordinary case of Rudolf von Ems’ Der guote Gêrhart (ca. 1220–1225) which illustrates how much the Mediterranean world proved to be a highly useful backdrop for the description of transcultural exchanges between the protagonist and a Moroccan castellan, Stranmûr. The verse narrative is based on the experiences of a wealthy Cologne merchant who proves to be extraordinarily open to other cultures, languages and religions and encounters an equally minded Muslim lord. We would not be far off by describing the poet’s projections as a case of medieval tolerance.

scholarly journals Life and activity of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-367
Author(s):  
Maryam Seyidbeyli
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Scientific Center ◽  
North West ◽  
Entire Complex ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Middle Ages

At the beginning of the VII century in the political life of the Near and Middle East, fundamental changes have taken place. The Arabs conquered a colossal territory, which included the lands of Iran, North Africa, North-West India, the Asian provinces of Byzantium, most of the former Roman Empire. In the conquered cities of the caliphate, observatories, madaris, libraries were built. At the end of VII century, the first scientific center, an academy, the House of Wisdom, was founded in Baghdad, in which scholars who spoke different languages were assembled. Here the translation and commentary activity were very developed, the main works of ancient thought, such as the writings of Aristotle, Ptolemy were published in the 9th century in the Arabic-speaking world. For two centuries from 750 to 950 years, the works of ancient authors on philosophy, mathematics, medicine, alchemy, and astronomy were translated into Arabic, which indicates the high scientific potential of that time in the East. At the same time, in the XII century, Ibn Rushd composed 38 commentaries on the works of Aristotle, the “Republic” of Plato, the treatise “On the Mind” of Alexander of Aphrodisias, which subsequently had an important influence on the work of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Thus, this period in the history of Eastern scientific thought is marked by high intellectual potential. To this day, historians of medieval Arabic literature face a sufficient number of difficulties, since the vast majority of manuscripts remain inaccessible to them. The works of many renowned Arab authors of the middle Ages are more than 1000 years old, so it seems obvious that the manuscripts of the vast majority of authors have not survived to this day. The researchers of the history of Azerbaijan and neighboring countries in the middle Ages, with all the variety of available sources on which they rely, still attract little factual material related to the Arabic-language works of the historical and scientific genre. Undoubtedly, a comprehensive study of the entire complex of information of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on the history of science in Azerbaijan is of great importance.

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