Bukhara, Uzbekistan 131the position of a canon of that cathedral, and in 1056 he
was appointed its head teacher, a position he held for
nearly two decades, teaching theology and grammar. One
of his numerous important students was the future Pope
URBANII.
EREMITIC LIFE AND
THE FOUNDATION OF THE ORDERIn 1081, Bruno was chosen as bishop of Rheims, but he
had already resolved to lead an eremitic life. Bruno
moved to a mountain near Grenoble in the Alps and
founded a community there in June 1084. The brothers
with Bruno as their leader lived alone in cells or cabins,
gathering together only for the prayers of the monastic
office. Lay brothers did the work and provided income
for the community. In 1090 Pope URBANII called him to
Rome as an adviser. Bruno went but stayed only a few
months, refusing all ecclesiastical appointments. In the
autumn of that year he withdrew to establish a new iso-
lated community similar to his first, at La Torre near
Squillace in Calabria in southern Italy. Bruno never wrote
an official rule but communicated to his brothers that his
own life of prayer, poverty, contemplation, and solitude
was to be their model. He died at La Torre on October 6,
- His cult was approved in 1514. His order still
exists.
Further reading:Gordon Mursell, The Theology of
the Carthusian Life in the Writings of St. Bruno and Guigo I
(Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Uni-
versität Salzburg, 1988); John V. Skinner, Hear Our
Silence: A Portrait of the Carthusians (London: Fount,
1995).
Brut (Layamon’s Brut)(ca. 1200) According to his
own testimony, the author Layamon, was a parish priest
in Worcestershire. He wrote a rhymed version of the
Roman de Brutby Robert or William WACE. It was a his-
tory of Brutus of Troy, thought to be the first legendary
king of Britain. His romance-chronicle, the Brut,dealt
with the legendary establishment of a Trojan dynasty in
ENGLAND. The link to the Trojans was intended to give
more importance and prestige to the early Britons. They
were considered ancestors of the legendary King ARTHUR.
The poem of 16,000 lines became part of the Arthurian
cycle and a source for 13th-century ROMANCES.
Further reading: Layamon, Layamon’s Arthur: The
Arthurian Section of Layamon’s Brut (Lines 9229–14297),
ed. and trans. W. R. J. Barron and S. C. Weinberg (Har-
low: Longman, 1989); Layamon, Layamon’s Brut: A His-
tory of the Britons,trans. Donald G. Bzdyl (Binghamton:
Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State
University of New York at Binghamton, 1989); Lister M.
Matheson, The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle
English Chronicle(Tempe, Ariz.: Medieval and Renais-
sance Texts and Studies, 1998).
bubonic plague SeePLAGUES.Buda and Pest They were two important towns in
central HUNGARYseparated by the Danube. Pest was built
in the 10th century by the newly arrived Hungarians on
an old Roman and Hun fort controlling a convenient
crossing point of the Danube. From the early 13th cen-
tury it became a commercial crossroad and received in
the 1230s a royal charter. After its destruction in the
MONGOLinvasion of 1241, King Béla IV (1235–70) in
1247 built a new fortress and royal residence at Buda on
the other bank of the Danube. Pest became a suburb of
Buda. The two united towns enjoyed commercial and cul-
tural growth from the 14th century along with much
architecture in a fine GOTHICstyle as they became the
capital of the kingdom of Hungary.
See alsoCORVINUS,MATTHIAS.
Further reading:László Gerovich, The Art of Buda
and Pest in the Middle Ages,trans. L. Halápy (Budapest:
Akadémiai Kiadó, 1971); Martyn C. Rady, Medieval Buda:
A Study of Municipal Government and Jurisdiction in the
Kingdom of Hungary (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1985); Mátyás Sárközi, Budapest(Santa Barbara,
Calif.: Clio Press, 1997).Bukhara, Uzbekistan (Bokhara)First mentioned by
Chinese sources in the seventh century, Bukhara was a
major commercial city in Transoxiana, the region north
of the Oxus River, now part of Uzbekistan. Bukhara
dealt in locally made goods and foodstuffs from its
oasis as part of a trading network among Russia, Scan-
dinavia, Central Asia, China, India, and the Middle
East. It attained its greatest prosperity in the 10th cen-
tury and was famous for the high quality of its silver
coinage, which contributed much to its role as a center
of trade.
After the arrival of ISLAMin about 710 and the Arab
conquest about 728/729, it became the capital of the Ira-
nian SAMANIDSbetween 875 and 999 and of the Turkish
Qarakhanids or Ilek Khans and later the SELJUKSbetween
999 and 1032. During that era, it was second only to
SAMARKANDin importance as a center for SUNNIIslamic
learning for the whole of western and Islamic central
Asia. According to travelers in the 10th century, it was
also important as a center of the slave trade and a rich
market in manuscripts.
It suffered political and dynastic conflict and a gen-
eral deterioration in its agricultural environment by- In 1220, the MONGOLSsacked the city and massa-
cred many of its inhabitants. Despite a short revival of
trade involving the new Mongol capital of Karakorum,
Bukhara suffered further devastation by various Mongol
armies in 1273, in 1316, and later. It never recovered
from those events.
See alsoTAMERLANE.