Toledo 695hours designated precise moments in days and nights to
which were assigned particular devotions or activities.
There were difficulties in using instruments measuring
and keeping track of time. The horologiumevaluated an
interval, or clepsydra, of time; other instruments
expressed a moment in a scale of time such as sundials,
and from the late 13th century, mechanical clocks. The
computation of time and the establishment of a com-
monly known calendar had taken place by the 1340s.
These public CLOCKS rang or sounded to establish the
time and particular hours within the town where they
were installed. Work was more regimented and tied to a
fairly obvious schedule as it was announced by bells and
on publicly visible clocks. Time in Islam was also pub-
licly proclaimed so Muslims could order and fulfill their
prayer obligations.
See alsoCALENDARS AND THE RECKONING OF DATES;
ESCHATOLOGY; LABOR; OFFICES, MONASTIC AND CANONICAL.
Further reading: Muhammad Taqi Amini, Time
Changes and Islamic Law,trans. Ghulam Ahmed Khan
(Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1988); Pierre Duhem,
Medieval Cosmology: Theories of Infinity, Place, Time, Void,
and the Plurality of Worlds,ed. and trans. Roger Ariew
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985); Richard
Lock, Aspects of Time in Medieval Literature(New York:
Garland, 1985); Reginald Lane Poole, Medieval Reckon-
ings of Time (London: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1918); Pasquale Porro, ed., The Medieval
Concept of Time: Studies on the Scholastic Debate and Its
Reception in Early Modern Philosophy (Leiden: Brill,
2001); Tamar Rudavsky, Time Matters: Time, Creation, and
Cosmology in Medieval Jewish Philosophy(Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2000).
Timurids The Timurids were a Mongol-Turkish dynasty
founded in central Asia, India, and Persia by the descen-
dants of TAMERLANEin the 15th century. Just before his
death, Tamerlane divided his territories among his sons
and grandsons. Constant disputes over parts of the
empire led to their eventual fall. Among the Timuruds,
the most important group was the dynasty who ruled
Persia between 1405 and 1517. However, their rule
created civil war, POVERTY, and ruin. On the other hand,
they promoted achievements in architecture, in Persian,
Turkish literature, and in PAINTINGand book production.
They were the last Islamic dynasty of steppe origin.
See alsoIRAN;SAMARKAND.
Further reading:Khvurshah ibn Qubad al-Husayni,
“From Timur to Akbar,” in Tarikh-i-Qutbi: Also Known as
Tarikh-i-elchi-i-Nizam Shah of Khwurshah bin Qubad al-
Husaini: A Work of the History of the Timurids, ed.
Mujahid Husain Zaidi (New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia,
1965); Bernard O’Kane, Timurid Architecture in Khurasan
(Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazdâ Publishers in association with
Undena Publications, 1987); Syed Jamaluddin, The State
under Timur: A Study in Empire Building(New Delhi: Har-
Anand, 1995); W. M. Thackston, ed. and trans., A Cen-
tury of Princes: Sources on Timurid History and Art
(Cambridge: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture,
1989); John E. Woods, The Timurid Dynasty(Blooming-
ton: Indiana University, Research Institute for Inner Asian
Studies, 1990).tithes Based on a biblical injunction to give a tenth
part of the harvest to a priestly tribe, tithes evolved into a
medieval tax on agrarian produce, fruits, and profits to be
paid to the church. The New Testament put greater
emphasis on voluntary giving. From the fourth century,
the church promoted the collection of tithes which were
due to the local bishop and canonically divided among
the bishop, the clergy, the fabric of the church, and poor
relief. As church communal structures evolved and
advanced, the rector of a parish supported himself by
receiving a tenth part of the agricultural produce of his
parishioners. In a wealthy parish this could prove to be a
valuable form of endowment. For the care of souls, a
vicar would take what came to be known as the lesser
tithes, which included milk, calves, eggs, and young ani-
mals. The greater tithes were taken by the monastery as a
corporate right of income. From the ninth to the 11th
century, the ownership of tithes was purchased or
usurped by lay lords and families. In certain cases the
tithes were donated by their lay owners to abbeys. There
was much resistance to paying the tithe at various times
during the Middle Ages.
See alsoANTICLERICALISM.
Further reading: Catherine E. Boyd, Tithes and
Parishes in Medieval Italy: The Historical Roots of a Modern
Problem(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1952);
Giles Constable, Monastic Tithes: From Their Origins to
the Twelfth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1964); Piotr Górecki, Parishes, Tithes, and Society
in Earlier Medieval Poland, c. 1100–c. 1250(Philadelphia:
American Philosophical Society, 1993).Toledo A city in central SPAINon the Tago River, Toledo
has been attested from the time of the Roman conquest.
The VISIGOTHSchose Toledo as their capital from 520.
After the conversion to Catholicism by the Visigothic king
RECAREDI, important general COUNCILSof the Spanish
church were held in Toledo in the sixth and seventh cen-
turies. Its canons involved the bishops in secular as well
as ecclesiastical affairs. The town was controlled by Mus-
lims between 711 and 1085 with its governors dependent
on caliphs in DAMASCUS,BAGHDAD,CÓRDOBA, and later in
the kingdoms of the Taifas or local emirs. The population
became more and more Islamized during this period.
The two centuries following the capture of Toledo
by Alfonso VI (r. 1065–1109), king of CASTILEand LEÓN,
in 1085 began what has been called the Mozarabic stage