3. Rituals and Communications (1000- 1200)

Question 1

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the political unity of the Islamic world disappeared. New political units appear, but what does this mean for Islamic culture and civilization?

Answer 1

• The Fatimids created a new capital city Cairo filling it with libraries filling it with palaces, libraries, shops, gardens and mosques which shows and growing lively culture
• Arab court culture continued with multiple courts attempting to outdo each other in artistic, scientific, literary and theological production
• A renaissance of literary culture echoing that of Greek antiquity
• Umayyad court at cordoba the wealthiest and showest city of the west their mosque was a centre for scholars and they had 30 free schools set up. Women there were doctors, teachers librarians and copyists
• Ibn Sina systemisation of Aristotle was briefly imprisoned when not in the favour of regional govenors
• Despite political disunity Abbasids fostered a intellectual life which even in decline was copied by new rulers
• Children sent to school to learn the Qur’an read and write good manners and religious obligations were all taught in elementary school
• Religion pulled culture apart due to the split between the Sunnis and Shi’ites political figures gained from this

Question 2

The West is threatened by invasions from the outside. What peoples are involved in this and how do the rulers in the West deal with these threats?

Answer 2

• The Vikings, Muslims and Magyars
• In Ireland the Vikings added their own claims to the dynasty, in Scotland by 900 there shared common Scottish identity similarly in England it became unified.
• King Alfred the Great (England) bought time and peace by paying tribute to the invaders with the income of new tax then raided the Vikings and camped outside their stronghold under the leader surrendered and accepted baptism. The pressure of invasion eased when he set up an army, navy and stronghold. Vikings still dominated the east so uneasy stability but his successors gained control of the rest
• Muslims came to the south of France, northern Italy, and the Alpine Passes. In la garde freinet the were hired as soldiers but when they held Abbot Majolus of Cluny for ransom the local aristocracy ousted the muslims from their midst
• Magyars raided Germany Italy and southern France but worked for many western rulers ie they spared Bavaria until 937 because they worked for the duke but they settled for farming in hungary which stopped there attackes but otto I took credit due to victory at Lechfeld 955

Question 3

On page 156, Rosenwein concludes that ‘political fragmentation did not mean chaos’. Explain what she means by this, and illustrate your point with reference to the political fragmentation that occurred in Byzantium, the Islamic world, and the West. Which developments are similar across these three cultures? What differences do you notice?

Answer 3

• It means new order
• In Byzantium trouble was at the centre for example Basil II’s struggle was dynatoi (a legal term in the Byzantine Empire, denoting the senior levels of civil, military and ecclesiastic including monastic officialdom, which usually, but not always, also commanded considerable fortunes and landed estates) who wanted to be emperors not from people who wanted regional rulers
• In the Islamic world fragmentation meant replication as courts that were competitive the Abbasids were set up by Fatimid caliphs and other rulers
• In the West the rise of local rulers was accompanied by personal dependency like vassalage and serfdom who could be easily manipulated that lost the most from the dispersal of power
• The real fragmentation from 950- 1050 was among the formal heirs of the roman empire they didn’t have the same languages religions and knew nothing about one another.

Question 4

What does the career of Theophanu – and the negotiations with her mother-in-law – tell you about the position of aristocratic women in the Ottonian Empire?

Answer 4

• secured the succession of her son, Otto III and ruled as regent. She built churches, placed her daughters in positions of power in key nunneries, issued acts as imperator and imperatrix, received ambassadors, waged war and negotiating peace-essentially doing everything expected of a male emperor with the exception of personally engaging in battle.
• Their power was tied to who they married when her father in law dies than Theophanu receives more power than how mother in law

Question 5

Why, according to the Wangerin, is it important to understand whether Theophanu was ever made a saint?

Answer 5

• Goes against the image of other women at the time if she was made a saint she would have been the exception

Question 6

Although Theophanu could count on the loyalty of a large segment of the Saxon aristocracy, her position was never entirely secure. On what grounds was her authority doubted?

Answer 6

• She was seen as Greek despite quickly learning Latin
• Competing political ambition with her mother in law
• “Theophanu would have been an easy target for detractors: not just by being foreign, but also by actively embodying and promoting evidence of that foreignness while representing and deploying very real political power”

Question 7

What do you notice about the chosen form, format and layout of Theophanu’s marriage certificate, and what do these choices tell you about the function of this document? How important, do you think, was the text itself? Read the translation of the text

Answer 7

The chosen format + layout indicates a formal and well put together document. Additionally, it being red/scarlet suggests that this is highly precious (dye found from the kermes insects in the Mediterranean) and of royal connections (emperors own document)
These choices tell us that the function of this document are important, especially as it is from a holy viewpoint to an empress/ in an initiation of an extremely religious bonding experience, which is marriage.
It shows the instance of political alongside cultural contact between the religious and ‘holy’ Roman empire and the Byzantine empire.
According to the article, it is an example of Ottanian Renaissance art which includes golden calligraphy - leading it to be seen as one of the most beautiful diplomatic documents of the middle ages.

Question 8

Which aspects of an imperial marriage are deemed especially important?

Answer 8

Legitimacy- “the blessing of the most holy and universal pope Lord John XIII”
Marriage described as being very pure - Virgin Mary. Marriage formed on a legitimate formation would be good and holy.

The goal of marriage would be pro-creation of children.

Legitimate = suggests marriages are illegitimate –> God was not there and couldn’t approve of it. Was not formed with God. –> many reasons for the marriage not to be legitimate. But if it is, it is good + holy.

Love is not the central concept. Kingship love rather than marriage love

The transfer of lands/ gifts to the bride. –> huge section of the text is dedicated to this and it is emphasised that there should be no oppose to this fact. There is even an explanation of what will happen if one were to oppose the bride’s new gifts

Question 9

Ttry to figure out which elements of a charter you can discern in this text. What does the genre tell you about the intention behind the document?

Answer 9

Establishing legitimicay, rules or structure ect
There is an inclusion of a recognition symbol to show that the document was legitimately written by the emperor.
I believe that there is ab Intitulatio included upon the text - at the top with a title and the name Otto.
No seal however has it was made to remain open and another certificate was probably a more particle one
Seals and the absence of a seal:
–> maybe read somewhere and not delivered.
–> was made to be public (possibly a copy) –> potential formal document that may be lost?
Parchment with purple silk layered on top and then gold lettering.
The colour is the colour of emperorship. + that it was created in the Holy Toman empire. Mixing red and purple, symbolising the mix of the two dynasties.

Question 10

What does the narrative of the text tell you about the ritual as it took place?

Answer 10

His most sacred law that a man should leave his father and mother and cling to his wife. And in order that He might show that a marriage celebrated upon a legitimate foundation was good and holy .
that marriage pact should be formed with God.
Consult with the father (Otto) + faithful God + holy Church + imperial rule.
Then the wife and marriage can be legitimate. - blessings.
gifts… imperial estates. –> grant these great things to the bride + transfer them into her jurisdiction and lordship. She may possess all of these things, without any sort of contradiction.
if anyone violates these wedding gifts etc they will have to face the emperor and will receive punishment + pay compensation to the bride.
then this is all strengthened by the marriage and the ring.

Question 11

Rosenwein views on Islam

Answer 11

Arabia: disparate peoples
Nomadic and sedentary peoples
Tribal organization; no written literature; manliness as a virtue
Mecca a commercial and religious centre (Ka’ba)

Question 12

Prehistory of Islam

Answer 12

Kingdom of Himyar in Southern parts of the peninsula: Jewish kingdom
On the other side of the Red Sea: Christian kingdom of Axum
King of Axum invades Arabia and founds a kingdom (525)
In Medina a substantial community of Jews has settled
We have indications for the existence of prophets preaching ideas that were influenced by Jewish and Christian concepts.

Question 13

Mohammed

Answer 13

Born ca. 570
Orphan raised by the Quryash
from 610: receiving revelations in the form of voices
Written down in the Quran
Strict monotheistic
622 flight to Medina (Hijra): begin islamic calendar
From Medina struggle for Mecca
ca.630: Mecca captured
632 death of the prophet

Question 14

Out of Arabia

Answer 14

At his death Mohammed has united the greater part of the tribes in Arabia: the ummah
a supertribe
Mohammed is succeeded by the caliphs (Deputy of [the prophet of] God).
635: islamic troops capture Damascus and Antioch
637: capture of Ctesiphon: capital of the Sassanian empire
642: Alexandria
664 Kabul
698: Carthage
711: Spain

Question 15

Reasons for this swift Islam expansion

Answer 15

The Arabs were formidable fighters, and their enemies relatively weak.”
Formidable fighters: a community making a living from expansion and war attracts other fighters (ethnogenesis)
Religious motivation
Enemies relatively weak: the Byzantine and Sassanian empires had become exhausted by frequent warfare with one another.
There was no major local opposition against the new rulers because
Taxes were not raised
Islam was tolerant for the other religions of the book

Question 16

Fitna

Answer 16

After Mohammed: unproblematic succession by two caliphs: Abu Bakr (632-634) en Umar (634-644)
After Umar’s death a division appears
Uthman (grandson of Ummaya) becomes caliph (Ummayads)
Rival candidate in Mohammed’s son in law Ali
Division between Shi’ites (followers of Ali) and Sunnis (followers of the Ummayads)

Question 17

Islamic rule

Answer 17

No major changes in the system of rule.
Administrative institutions of the Byzantine empire were simply adopted and often run by the same Christian, Greek speaking families
Numismatic continuity (coins)
Decoration in the mosque of Damascus: Christian artists
No effort to convert Jews and Christians

Question 18

Why is the lack of sources source from this period problematic?

Answer 18

particularly for the early stages of Islam (6th - 7th century)
The sources generally employed are late and often written with a specific point to argue (Shi’ite, Sunni, anti-Jewish)
For a long period, historians have used these sources without any problems
Some historians try to be more critical in the sources they use and consult only those from the period itself (Syriac, Greek).
Some even conclude that Mohammed never existed and that the early Arabian history of Islam was a later invention.

Question 19

Who is Caliph Abd-al-Malik?

Answer 19

• Lived from 685-705 and ruled the Islamic empire
• Started a process of state-building
• Changed the Islam empire from a loose group of conquerors to a bureaucratic organization with a clear ideology
• Reorganised the taxes and the army
• Arabic becomes the language of government
• Local elites start to learn Arabic
• Building of the Dome of the Rock demonstrating the superiority of the new religion: “The messiah Jesus, son of Mary, was only a messenger of God.”

Question 20

Arabization and Islamization

Answer 20

Umar II (715-720): All muslims are equal: incentive for conversion
From the 9th century Christian in the muslim world use the Arab language
Christians play a lesser role in the administration
They become “second class citizens”, who can no longer express their religion in public
They have to wear special clothing
Many Christians choose to convert to Islam, but in a lot of muslim regions Christians and Jews remained important minorities

Question 21

Compare the east and the west in the years 1000-1200

Answer 21

In the East (Islam):
- Importance of military conquest
- No organized form of mission
- Motives for conversion: mostly social?
- Religious minorities decrease in numbers and social status

In the West (Christianity):
- Political dominance and conquest are important but not as dominant
- Importance of monasticism
- Organized missions
- But also less visible forms of conversion (social motives?)
- No religious minorities (with a few exceptions)

Question 22

How does Rosenwein show feudalism as a complex concept?

Answer 22

Rosenwein:
- “The term for such an estate, fief (feodum), gave historians the word ‘feudalism’ to describe the social and economic system created by the relationships among lords, vassals, and fiefs.

• During the last half century, however, the term has provoked great controversy.
• Some historians argue that it has been used in too many different and contradictory ways to mean anything at all.
• In her book the word feudalism is avoided, but the institutions of personal dependency that historians associate with that term cannot be ignored.

she distinguished between three main concepts:
1. a mode of exploiting the land that involves lords and serfs
2. a state of ordered gradations of power, from the king on down
3. a state of anarchy and lawlessness

Question 23

Explain the how feudalism was used as a mode of exploiting the land

Answer 23

Marx’s historical materialism makes the distinction between a slave economy – feudalism – capitalism.
- Human civilization has manifested itself in a series of organizational structures, each determined by its primary mode of production, particularly the division of labor that dominates in each stage. One of these stages is feudalism.
- Exploitation functioned differently during this stage than during the height of capitalism because each feudal peasant knew exactly what proportion of his labor had to be handed over to the aristocracy and the church; the rest was his or hers to use. In the city trade guilds acted created feudalism.

Marc Bloch: La société féodale (1939-40)
- The relationship between aristocrats and unfree tillers of the land determines society in general.
- The manorial system where a lord owned a large estate and fiefs and serfs were tied to the land. These manors were largely self-sufficient.

Criticism
-No clear relation between fiefs (feodum) and the economic exploitation of the land.
- Too simplistic binary opposition between lords and serfs. Oversimplifies a complex and diverse set of social, economic, and political arrangements that varied across different regions and time periods. The term may not accurately capture the nuances of medieval societies. Implies a uniform system.
- Does the manorial system describe medieval forms of land exploitation?

Question 24

Explain feudalism as a means of organising the state

Answer 24

François-Louis Ganshof: Qu’est-ce que la feodalité (1944)

Vassal and Lord
- Feudalism in a more technical sense as it defines the relation between the king and vassals. Union between theses two under the carolingians through hommage. Through this there was a formation of caverly as the vassals were typically armed.
- Involes a fief who has land tenure, after an owner grants a piece of land for life to another person

The state
- Social promotion of vassals as they now participated in the administration of the kingdom and in the army
- Public organization of the state was weak
- Public office (honor) is seen as a fief
- Feudalism put a hold to a further desintegration of the state
- Personal ties replace public institutions
- From the 9th century onwards fiefs become heritable.

The classical period: 10-13th century
- Feudal arrangements spread throughout Europe
- From the 12th century onwards: a learned legal discourse on feudalism comes into existence (feudal law)
- In France and England feudal relations strengthen the monarchy
- In German lands the opposite is the case

Critics:
- Elisabeth A.R. Brown, ‘The tyranny of a construct: feudalism and historians of medieval Europe’, American Historical Review (1974)
- C. Van de Kieft, ‘De feodale maatschappij der Middeleeuwen’, BMGN (1974)
- Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals. The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted (Oxford 1994)

Criticism of Ganshof:
- Focus on finding feudal relations has neglected to investigate other social ties.
- No clear indications that the relationship between a king and the nobility results from armed retainers who were being rewarded with a fief by the king
- Not enough attention to geographical variety. We should speak of feudalisms, not feudalism.
- 13th century legal sources do not describe reality
- These sources cannot be used to describe earlier centuries.
- The Carolingian state knew the concept of public office, not only feudal relations.
- Because of the fundamental social and legal developments of the year 1000, it is impossible to see the period 900-1300 as a single period.
Because legal circumstances changed so much, Carolingian fiefs cannot be regarded as similar to 13th century ones.
- ‘Classical feudalism’ as it functioned in the 12/13th centuries, resulted from an emerging state and therefore cannot be seen as an alternative to the state.

Question 25

Explain feudalism as a state of anarchy and lawlessness

Answer 25

• Historians speak of a ‘feudal revolution’ that took place in the late 9th and 10th century
• Local lords rule like a petit roi.
  Seigneurie
  La mutation de l’an mille Guy Bois

Lords and castles
- In this period lords start building castles which gives them more control over the countryside and reinforces their position in relation to the king and his officers.
- This process is known as incastellamento
- Within their lordship (seigneurie) the lords control all forms of public authority including jurisdiction
- This makes all tillers of their land (free and unfree) dependent on the lord . Thus the distinction between free and unfree fades away. Only the distinction lord and serf remains.

Duby and the Mâconnais
- Concept of feudal anarchy was developed by French scholars like Georges Duby who has analysed this process for the region of the Mâconnais, is the most influential
- Through his students Duby’s explanatory model was also used in other regions.

Critism of Feudal Revolution
- Are we dealing with a Western European phenomenon or is it restricted to France?
- Is there a real break/difference with the Carolingian period?
- Are anarchy and lawlessness appropriate concept in this context?
- Was there peace in the feud?
- The argumentation is often relying too much on modern notions of the state
- In how far does the modern state guarantee ‘order’ and a control of violence?

• Feudalism as a descriptive model for medieval society in a social and economic sense, is too one-dimensional
• Ganshof’s views on the importance of feudalism as a combination of vassalage and a beneficium for political order is focussing too much on one aspect
• Lords and castles are a new phenomenon, but is this a European development?
• Can one speak of a revolution?

Question 26

Provenance of Marriage certificate

Answer 26

• Otto II was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Reigned from 973-983. Was written April 972 in Rome and is a marriage charter with Theophanu.
• Good chance that this text was physically written at a monastery by someone else.
• Relative distance: He was incredibly close to the event. Was one half of the marriage mentioned within the charter.
• The narrative is used regarding formality.
• Pretty immediate text, signed at the wedding but where was it written and when was it written. Discussed in advance. Written directly in its context but there was a prior discussion to its creation.
• Social –> marriage. He was an emperor, made by the Pope. Religiously very important. Can assume he has a high intellectual lever.
• Religious –> a religious ceremony with religious undertones and practices.
• Author’s motivation - marriage and want for it to be actually accepted. Clarify the borders between the east and the west. –> the marriage itself was political in the first place. Received the lands of the previous empresses etc. Dowry. The land goes to her though rather than her family.