Western Civilization

LIFE IN CONSTANTINOPLE: TRADE AND THE EMPEROR’S BUILDING PROGRAM After riots destroyed much of Con- stantinople in 532, Emperor ...

huge arena known as the Hippodrome. No residential district was particularly fashionable; palaces, tene- ments, and slums ranged ...

fights were held there, the main events were the char- iot races; twenty-four would usually be presented in one day. The citizen ...

The Rise of Islam Q FOCUSQUESTION: What was the basic message of Islam, and why was it able to expand so successfully? The Arabs ...

symbolized by a sacred stone, and each tribe had its own stone. All tribes, however, worshiped a massive black meteorite—the Bla ...

In accordance with Bedouin custom, males were per- mitted to have more than one wife, but Muhammad attempted to limit the practi ...

son-in-law, as the true rulers, and the Sunnites, who claimed that the descendants of the Umayyads were the true caliphs. This s ...

The Arab advance had finally come to an end, but not before the southern and eastern Mediterranean parts of the old Roman Empire ...

CHAPTER TIMELINE CHAPTER REVIEW Upon Reflection Q What role did monks and nuns play in early medieval society? Q What contributi ...

For an excellent survey of late antiquity and the emergence of the medieval world, seeChris Wickham,The Inheritance of Rome: A H ...

C H A P T E R 8 European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750–1000 CHAPTER OUTLINE AND FOCUS QUESTIONS The World of the Ca ...

writer, “as the king rose from praying before the tomb of the blessed apostle Peter, Pope Leo placed a golden crown on his head. ...

The Achievements of Charlemagne Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, was born in the valley of the Main River in Germany abou ...

the North Sea. As Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer, recounted it: No war ever undertaken by the Frank nation was carried on wit ...

WHAT WAS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHARLEMAGNE? The significance of this imperial coronation has been much debated by historians. We a ...

Empire. More important, it symbolized the fusion of Roman, Christian, and Germanic elements. Did this fusion constitute the foun ...

Germanic, and Christian practices. The last in particu- lar seem to have exercised an ever-increasing influence. THE FAMILY AND ...

The upper classes in Carolingian society enjoyed a much more varied diet than the peasants. Pork was the primary meat. Domestic ...

through the intervention of God, Jesus, or the saints soon replaced pagan practices. Medieval chronicles abound with accounts of ...

their behavior to appease God’s anger, as in this ser- mon by an English archbishop in 1014: Things have not gone well now for a ...