Informal family networks offered them many of the same advantages as branch
offices: friends and family in Iran shipped the Tustaris fine textiles to sell in Egypt,
while they exported Egyptian fabrics back to Iran.
Only Islam itself, ironically, pulled Islamic culture apart. In the tenth century the
split between the Sunnis and Shi‘ites widened to a chasm. At Baghdad, al-Mufid
(d.1022) and others turned Shi‘ism into a partisan ideology that insisted on publicly
cursing the first two caliphs, turning the tombs of Ali and his family into objects of
veneration, and creating an Alid caliph by force. Small wonder that the Abbasid
caliphs soon became ardent spokesmen for Sunni Islam, which developed in turn its
own public symbols. Many of the new dynasties—the Fatimids and the Qaramita
especially—took advantage of the newly polarized faith to bolster their power.
The West: Fragmentation and Resilience
Fragmentation was the watchword in Western Europe in many parts of the shattered
Carolingian Empire. Historians speak of “France,” “Germany,” and “Italy” in this
period as a shorthand for designating broad geographical areas (as will be the case in
this book). But there were no national states, only regions with more or less clear
borders and rulers with more or less authority. In some places—in parts of “France,”
for example—regions as small as a few square miles were under the control of
different lords who acted, in effect, as independent rulers. Yet this same period saw
unified European kingdoms emerge, or begin to emerge. To the north coalesced
England, Scotland, and two relatively unified Scandinavian states—Denmark and
Norway. In the center-east appeared Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. In the center of
Europe, a powerful royal dynasty from Saxony, the Ottonians, came to rule an
empire stretching from the North Sea to Rome.
THE LAST INVADERS OF THE WEST
Three groups invaded Western Europe during the ninth and tenth centuries: the
Vikings, the Muslims, and the Magyars (called Hungarians by the rest of Europe).
(See Map 4.5.) In the short run, they wreaked havoc on land and people. In the long
run, they were absorbed into the European population and became constituents of a
newly prosperous and aggressive European civilization.
