scholarly journals Survival at the Frontier of Holy War: Political Expansion, Crusading, Environmental Exploitation and the Medieval Colonizing Settlement at Biała Góra, North Poland

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Sawicki ◽  
Aleksander Pluskowski ◽  
Alexander Brown ◽  
Monika Badura ◽  
Daniel Makowiecki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Landscape Context ◽  
Holy War ◽  
North Central ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Second Wave

Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries AD, the Lower Vistula valley represented a permeable and shifting frontier between Pomerelia (eastern Pomerania), which had been incorporated into the Polish Christian state by the end of the tenth century, and the territories of western Prussian tribes, who had resisted attempts at Christianization. Pomeranian colonization eventually began to falter in the latter decades of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, most likely as a result of Prussian incursions, which saw the abandonment of sites across the borderland. Subsequently, the Teutonic Order and its allies led a protracted holy war against the Prussian tribes, which resulted in the conquest of the region and its incorporation into a theocratic state by the end of the thirteenth century. This was accompanied by a second wave of colonization, which resulted in the settlement pattern that is still visible in the landscape of north-central Poland today. However, not all colonies were destroyed or abandoned in between the two phases of colonization. The recently excavated site of Biała Góra, situated on the western side of the Forest of Sztum overlooking the River Nogat, represents a unique example of a transitional settlement that included both Pomeranian and Teutonic Order phases. The aim of this paper is to situate the site within its broader landscape context which can be characterized as a militarized frontier, where, from the later twelfth century and throughout much of the thirteenth century, political and economic expansion was combined with the ideology of Christian holy war and missionary activity. This paper considers how the colonists provisioned and sustained themselves in comparison to other sites within the region, and how Biała Góra may be tentatively linked to a documented but otherwise lost outpost in this volatile borderland.

The Merovingian monastery of St Evroul in the light of conflicting traditions

1972 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Marjorie Chibnall
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Historical Truth ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Old Men

Historians of early monasticism in Frankish Gaul either have little to say about the monastery founded by St Evroul or, like Dom Laporte, devote their attention to a discussion of the probable date of his life. The disappearance of almost all early documentary sources is one reason for this: there was certainly a break in the occupation of the site for perhaps half the century between the destruction of the monastery in the tenth century and its refoundation in 1050, and only one charter, dated 900, was rescued and copied in the eleventh century. The fact that there has been no systematic excavation of the site, so that archaeological evidence of buildings before the thirteenth-century church is lacking, is another. Early annals and reliable lives of other saints have nothing at all to say on the subject. The first historian to tackle it, Orderic Vitalis, writing in the early twelfth century, had to admit that he could discover nothing about the abbots for the four hundred years after St Evroul; and he had to draw on the memories and tales of the old men he knew, both in the monastery and in the villages round about. Needless to say he harvested a luxuriant crop of legends and traditions of all kinds. The problem of the modern historian is to winnow a few grains of historical truth out of the stories that he garnered, and the hagiographical traditions, some of which he did not know.

scholarly journals And We cast upon his throne a mere body: A Historiographical Reading of Q. 38:34

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.O. Klar
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
World History ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Islamic Historiography ◽  
Islamic Society

This paper focuses on Q. 38:34 from the perspective of early and medieval works of Islamic historiography and collections of tales of the prophets: the early tenth century works of cUmāra b. Wathīma and Ṭabarī, the eleventh century Tales of the Prophets by Thaclabī, the twelfth century folkloric collection of Kisāↄī, along with Ibn cAsākir's History ofDamascus, the thirteenth century world history by Ibn al-Athīr, and the fourteenth century historiographical work by Ibn Kathīr. These various works are viewed not as any particular stage in the development of a genre, but as variations on a (Qur'anic) theme, and the avenue of medieval historiographers and storytellers is utilised as a bridge to explore various possible interpretations of the Qur'anic passage. Historiographers and storytellers provide us with an illustration of how lessons of admonition implied in the Qur'anic text were perceived in medieval Islamic society. They also, as will become clear, provide a picture of Solomon that is consistent with the Qur'anic figure as a whole.

The Infantazgo in the Reign of Alfonso VIII

2019 ◽  
pp. 59-79
Author(s):  
Janna Bianchini
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Significant Source ◽  
Royal Women

This chapter looks at the Infantazgo during the reign of Alfonso VIII. Beginning as early as the tenth century, the royal women of León-Castile laid claim to a little-understood share of the crown's patrimony, known as the Infantazgo. These Infantazgo properties were usually a significant source of power and income; their possession appears to be a major factor in the unusual prominence of certain women in the Leonese-Castilian monarchy. Contrary to previous assumptions, the Infantazgo did not disappear in the mid-twelfth century. It was altered, certainly, by the upheavals that attended the partition of León and Castile in 1157. But it endured, to last through the reign of Alfonso VIII and well into the reign of his grandson, Ferdinand III. Eventually, of course, the Infantazgo's significance did fade, due to the changes of the mid-thirteenth century. Ferdinand III's unification of León and Castile radically altered the kingdom's axes of power. The old domains of the Infantazgo, especially those on the Leonese-Castilian border, lost some of their strategic and economic value as a result.

The Concept of jadhb and the Image of majdhūb in Sufi Teachings and Life in the Period between the Fourth/Tenth and the Tenth/Sixteenth Centuries

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARIN SALAMAH-QUDSI
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Technical Term ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Ability To Act ◽  
Late Part

AbstractThis paper discusses the theoretical basis of the Sufi term jadhb (the effortless attraction of man by God), and examines the different approaches towards the figure of majdhūb as developed and presented in Sufi compendia and both Sufi and non-Sufi biographies of the period between the fourth/tenth and the tenth/sixteenth centuries. It suggests that there are three major phases in the development of the theoretical basis of jadhb. The first stage covers the period between the fourth/tenth century and the first half of the sixth/twelfth century. Jadhb during this stage was not discussed as a separate technical term, and its early foundations were embedded particularly in the early discussions of tawba (repentance) beside other expressions such as ghayba and fanā’. The period that began with the late part of the sixth/twelfth century and reached the early part of the seventh/thirteenth century was distinguished by attempts of later Sufi authors to moderate the problematic aspects of jadhb and to integrate it with the detailed discussions of mashyakha (sheikh status). In light of the increasing antinomian appearances of the majdhūbs and the anarchistic qalandariyya in Muslim landscapes, the period following the early part of the seventh/thirteenth century up to the tenth/sixteenth century witnessed the popularity of majdhūb Sufis whose antinomian approach towards social codes and religious rituals came to be freely presented in the sources. Jadhb became separated from the institutionalised doctrinal system of mashyakha, although some attempts were made to integrate jadhb with sulūk and, thus, to maintain the majdhūb’s ability to act as a spiritual guide.

A Short Survey of Yemeni Sufism from Its Inception up to the Thirteenth Century

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Muhammad Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Mountainous Area ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Short Survey ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Intellectual Activities

This paper analyzes the historical conditions of Yemen’s Sufi movement from the beginning of Islam up to the rise of the Rasulid dynasty in the thirteenth century. This is a very difficult task, given the lack of adequate sources and sufficient academic attention in both the East and theWest. Certainly, a few sentences about the subject can be found scattered in Sufi literature at large, but a respectable study of the period’s mysticism can hardly be found.1 Thus, I will focus on the major authorities who first contributed to the ascetic movement’s development, discuss why a major decline of intellectual activities occurred in many metropolises, and if the existing ascetic conditions were transformed into mystical tendencies during the ninth century due to the alleged impact ofDhu’n-Nun al-Misri (d. 860). This is followed by a brief discussion ofwhat contributed to the revival of the country’s intellectual and economic activities. After that, I will attempt to portray the status of the major ascetics and prominent mystics credited with spreading and diffusing the so-called Islamic saintly miracles (karamat). The trademark of both ascetics and mystics across the centuries, this feature became more prevalent fromthe beginning of the twelfth century onward. I will conclude with a brief note on the most three celebrated figures of Yemen’s religious and cultural history: Abu al-Ghayth ibn Jamil (d. 1253) and his rival Ahmad ibn `Alwan (d. 1266) from the mountainous area, andMuhammad ibn `Ali al-`Alawi, known as al-Faqih al-Muqaddam (d. 1256), from Hadramawt.

Bastard Feudalism and the Framing of Thirteenth-Century England

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Coss
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

In the introduction to his great work of 2005, Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham urged not only the necessity of carefully framing our studies at the outset but also the importance of closely defining the words and concepts that we employ, the avoidance ‘cultural sollipsism’ wherever possible and the need to pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities. Chris has, of course, followed these precepts on a vast scale. My aim in this chapter is a modest one. I aim to review the framing of thirteenth-century England in terms of two only of Chris’s themes: the aristocracy and the state—and even then primarily in terms of the relationship between the two. By the thirteenth century I mean a long thirteenth century stretching from the period of the Angevin reforms of the later twelfth century on the one hand to the early to mid-fourteenth on the other; the reasons for taking this span will, I hope, become clearer during the course of the chapter, but few would doubt that it has a validity.

Byzantine Scyphate Bronze coinage in Greece

1961 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 42-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The Other ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Market Place ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
Unusual Form

The Byzantine coinage in the twelfth century was of three kinds. There were gold nomismata, with a purchasing power which must have been a good deal greater than that of a present-day five-pound note, and also nomismata of ‘pale gold’—gold alloyed with silver—of lower value; at the other extreme there were bronze coins, smaller than a modern farthing, which were the coinage of the market-place; intermediate, but still of low value, there were coins about the size of a halfpenny, normally made of copper lightly washed with silver. The silvered bronze and the gold were not flat, as are most coins, but saucer-shaped. The reason for their unusual form is not known. Numismatists describe them as scyphate, and refer to the middle denomination in the later Byzantine system of coinage as Scyphate Bronze, to distinguish it from the petty bronze coinage. Scyphate Bronze was first struck under Alexius I (1081–1118). Substantive issues were made by John II (1118–43), and such coinage became extremely plentiful under Manuel I (1143–80) and his successors Isaac II (1185–95) and Alexius III (1195–1203). After the capture of Constantinople in the course of the Fourth Crusade, the successor-states to the Byzantine Empire at Nicaea, Salonica, and in Epirus continued to issue scyphate bronze coinage, although in much smaller quantities, until after the middle of the thirteenth century.

A Thirteenth-Century Ismā ‘īlī Ḥammām at Qal‘at al-Kahf

1983 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Public Baths ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Public Bath ◽  
First Time

SummaryThe aim of this paper is to record for the first time the architectural remains of a thirteenth-century public bath (ḥammām) located at the Assassin castle of al-Kahf in the Syrian Jabal Anṣariya. After describing the site, the paper examines the design and layout of the ḥammām and attempts to reconstruct those parts of it which have disappeared either because of structural decay or because of subsequent modifications to the plan. Building materials and decorative techniques are among the topics discussed, and there is an account of the ḥammām's heating apparatus and of the arrangements made to store and articulate its water supply. Two phases of construction are identified in the ḥammām, the second being necessitated, apparently, by a need to restore the building after it had fallen into disrepair at some later stage in its history. Finally, the ḥammām is compared and contrasted with a number of other Islamic public baths in order to establish the extent to which it followed earlier traditions of planning and design.

VIII.—The Palace of Westminster in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries

Archaeologia ◽  
1906 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Lethaby
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Parallel Case ◽  
Edward The Confessor ◽  
The Church

We do not know when the English kings took up their residence at Westminster. Some slight indications suggest that Canute may have first established himself here. It is clear from the name Westminster that the Abbey was first in place, and this is confirmed by the position of the Palace, built along a narrow marshy strip between the better ground of the Abbey precinct and the river. Holyrood seems to be a parallel case of a famous religious house drawing the king's palace to its side. There is no certain evidence for the existence of the Abbey itself until the opening of the last third of the tenth century. The points in favour of Canute's residence at Westminster are as follows. His son Harold was buried in the Abbey, and according to the traditions of the house he was a great benefactor to it, presenting it with many relics, and being much attached to the Abbot Wulnoth. Gaimar, a twelfth-century writer, says that the dispute as to the tide happened at Westminster. “He was in London on the Thames, the tide was flowing near the church called Westminster, and the king stood at the strand on the sand.” The first positive evidence as to the Saxon palace is contained in William of Malmesbury's Chronicle, which tells how King Edward the Confessor was wearing his crown at Westminster, and while sitting at table one Easter Day, surrounded by nobles, he saw a vision.

Simon of Pattishall, Pioneer Professional Judge

1977 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph V. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Civil Servant ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Middle Years ◽  
Magna Carta ◽  
English Law

The latter part of the twentieth century may not find many of us wishing to pay tribute to bureaucrats, but as Helen Cam reminded us, the civil servant “deserves more credit than he has yet had for building up and maintaining our precious tradition of law and order.” In the late twelfth century and the thirteenth century the process of “bureaucratization” first got underway in England. An early professional civil servant, one specializing in judicial activity, was Simon of Pattishall. His name surfaces in the records in 1190, and it disappears after 1216. His time of activity, then, coincides with an important period for English common law: the years between “Glanvill” and Magna Carta.Simon was one of that group of royal judges who might be termed the first “professionals,” a group that took shape by the middle years of Richard I's reign. By the time of John, about ninety men acted at various times as royal judges, either at the Bench at Westminster, with the court following the king, or as itinerant justices. Many of these had only temporary appointments, making circuits in the counties; but a core of fifteen, who concentrated on the work of the courts, can be regarded as early members of a professional judiciary. Simon of PattishalPs is perhaps the most respected name among the fifteen. He had the longest career on the bench, from 1190 until 1216. He founded a judicial dynasty, for his clerk, Martin of Pattishall, became a judge, as did his clerk, William Raleigh, who had as his clerk Henry of Bracton, author of the great treatise on English law.

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