678 suicide
suicide Suicide was seemingly rare in the Middle
Ages. Sources are reticent, but it is evident that suicides
occurred among all social classes. The basic motives and
natural methods were comparable to those of later cen-
turies. The motives were physical and mental illness,
chronic or sudden poverty, arrest, disgrace, heartbreak in
love, and depression. The law in some Italian COMMUNES
following Roman law considered suicide as an intrinsi-
cally innocent act. However, most legal systems con-
demned self-slaughter which was to be punished by the
denial of church burial. Theologians corroborated gen-
eral condemnations of suicide as a mortal sin with
promises of hell and damnation. There is evidence that
individual priests and religious orders sympathetically
sought to soften the penalties and even prayed for the
soul of suicides.
Further reading:Georges Minois, History of Suicide:
Voluntary Death in Western Culture, trans. Lydia G.
Cochrane (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1999); Alexander Murray, Suicide in the Middle Ages.Vol.
1, The Violent against Themselves;Vol. 2, The Curse on
Self-Murder(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998–2000).
summa The philosophical and theological genre
summa, developed in the 12th century, was supposed to
be an exposition of a totality that is, a compilation or a
summary and systematic presentation of knowledge in a
given field. Summae were written for advancement in
every field of medieval scholarship and knowledge
in universities, including MEDICINE, the liberal arts,
LOGIC, PHILOSOPHY, RHETORIC, SERMONS, liturgy, biblical
exegesis, penitential guidance, but especially in LAWand
THEOLOGY. They were intended as an overall view of an
author’s original thought and as a verification of his
learning in a subject.
See also SCHOLASTICISM ANDSCHOLASTIC METHOD;
UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS.
Further reading: John W. Baldwin, The Scholastic
Culture of the Middle Ages, 1000–1300(Lexington, Mass.:
Heath, 1971); Gordon Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities
in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: An Institutional
History(New York: Wiley, 1968); Lynn Thorndike, ed.,
University Records and Life in the Middle Ages(New York:
Columbia University Press, 1944).
sumptuary laws SeeCLOTHING AND COSTUME.
Sunna, Sunnis, Sunnites, and Sunnism The term
Sunna designates a “usage sanctioned by tradition” or the
“well-marked way.” In ISLAMsunnadesignates the exem-
plary practice of the Prophet, or the facts, deeds, words,
and silent approvals. Custom, normative precedent, con-
duct, and traditions are therefore based on the actions
and example of MUHAMMADand collected in the HADITH;
these actions and sayings complement the divinely
revealed message of the QURAN. This orthodox knowl-
edge, which became the sunnah, was passed down
through generations. Sunnis stress the importance of this
tradition, seeking consensus and in this process calling
themselves Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Ijmaor “the People of Cus-
tom and Community.”
The Sunna movement arose out of the conflict of the
midseventh century and was meant to be a middle way to
help reconcile believers who had a variety of ideas. Sunni
life was guided during the period up to 1500 by four
schools of legal thought or madhhabsthe Hanafi, Maliki,
Shafi, and Hanbali. It was further divided by historical
setting, locale, and broader culture of different groups of
Muslims. Sunni Muslims were united by a belief in the
legitimacy of the first four CALIPHSand agreed also that
other sects had introduced dubious innovations that
departed from majority belief. They considered them-
selves to be the orthodox Muslims and rejected excessive
rationalism and intellectualism.
See alsoSHIA,SHIISM, ANDSHIITES.
Further reading:Binyamin Abrahamov, Islamic The-
ology: Traditionalism and RationalismEdinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1998); Mohamed Mohamed
Yunis Ali, Medieval Islamic Pragmatics: Sunni Legal Theo-
rists’ Models of Textual Communication(Richmond: Cur-
zon, 2000); Daphna Ephrat, A Learned Society in a Period
of Transition: The Sunni “ulama” of Elevent Century Bagh-
dad(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000);
Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An
Introduction to Sunni Usul al-fiqh(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997); G. H. A. Juynboll, “Sunna,”
Encyclopedia of Islam,9.878–881; Christopher Melchert,
The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9th–10th Cen-
turies C.E.(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997).Suso, Henry SeeHENRYSUSO.Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo was a sixth- to eighth-century
Anglo-Saxon barrow grave field in Suffolk, claimed as a
burial ground of the kings of East Anglia. Most of the
finds were from the seventh century. It consisted of 15 to
20 circular burial visible mounds. It was best known for
an extraordinary ship burial in which the impression of
an 80-foot-long open boat was discovered in the sand
beneath a mound. The various other burials contained
rich and diverse grave goods, including a decorated hel-
met with face mask, a pattern welded sword, spears, a
shield, gold jewelry with cloisonné garnets, glass, bits
and a harness, a saddle, and fragments of a maple wood
lyre. Some of these items were from the Continent and
the Mediterranean. There were inhumations of three chil-
dren, a woman, and a young man, some with coffins,
some showing ritual trauma and evidence of cremation,
along with a horse and other domestic animals. It was a