AP World Unit 1

The Coastal Trading Ports

A 1st-century Greek account of the Indian Ocean, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, mentione some ports in east Africa but was vague about whether the inhabitants were Africans or immigrant from the Arabian peninsula. From that century to the 10th century, the wave of Bantu migration had clearly reached the east African interior. Bantu-speaking herders in the north and farmers in the south mixed with older populations in the region. Other peoples were also moving to the African coas Contact across the Indian Ocean dated back to at least the 2nd centur B.C.E. From Indonesia or Malaya, seaborne immigrants settled on the large island of Madagascar and from there introduced foods such bananas and coconuts to the African coast. These were widely adopted and spread rapidly along the coast and into central Africa. Small coastal villages of fishers and farmers, making rough pottery and working iron dotted this coast. By the 8th and 9th centuries, Muslim visitors and refu gees from Oman and the Persian Gulf had established themselves a some of these villages, attracted by the possibilities of trade with the land of Zenj (zehnj), the Arabic term for the east African coast. By the 13th century, a string of urbanized east African tradin ports had developed along the coast. These towns shared the common Bantu-based and Arabic-influenced Swahili (which means "coastal" language and other cultural traits, although they were governed by separate Muslim ruling families. Towns such as Mogadishu, Mombasa Malindi, Kilwa, Pate, and Zanzibar eventually contained mosques tombs, and palaces of cut stone and coral. Ivory, gold, iron, slaves, and exotic animals were exported from these ports in exchange for silks from Persia and porcelain from China for the ruling Muslim families. The Arab traveler Ibn Batuta was impressed with the beauty and refinemen of these towns. He described Kilwa as "one of the most beautiful and well constructed towns in the world" and was also impressed by the gold coming from the interior and the fact that it was the furthest poin pomp and luxury of its ruler. Kilwa's advantage was its access to the south from which the ships sailing from India could hope to return in a single monsoon season. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Kilwa flourished in the contex of international trade, but it was not alone; about 30 of these port town eventually dotted the coast. They were tied to each other by an active goods from China came to the coast thereafter in the ships of Arab o and rare woods. The Chinese discontinued such contact after 1431, and directly from China stopped at the east African coast to load ivory, gold and as late as 1417 and 1431, large, state-sponsored expeditions sailing Some Chinese ports sent goods directly to Africa in the 13th century although it was usually Africans who brought the goods to the coast coastal commerce and, in a few places, to the interior by a caravan trade Indian traders.

THE DECLINE OF THE MEDIEVAL SYNTHESIS

A major war engulfed France and England during the 14th and 15th centuries, and this proved to be both symptom and cause of larger difficulties. The Hundred Years' War, which sputtered into the mid-15th century, lasted even longer than its name and initially went very badly for France-a sign of new weakness in the French monarchy. As the war dragged on, kings reduced their reliance on the prancing forces of the nobility in favor of paid armies of their own. New military methods challenged the key monopoly of the feudal lords, as ordinary paid archers learned how to unseat armored knights with powerful bows and arrows and with crossbows (Figure 11.8). The war ended with a French victory, sparked in part by the heroic leadership of the inspired peasant woman Joan of Arc, but both its devastation and the antifeudal innovations it encouraged suggested a time of change. Concurrently, from about 1300 onward, key sources of Western vitality threatened to disappear. Medieval agriculture could no longer keep pace with population growth: The readily available new lands had heen used up, and there were no major new technological gains to com- nensate. The result included severe famines and a decline in population Jevels until the end of the century. A devastating series of plagues that persisted for several centuries, beginning with the Black Death in 1348, further reduced Europe's population (Figure 11.9). Plague came from Asia and the Middle East, due to trade contacts, but the results were devastating. New social disputes arose, heightening some of the ten- sions noted earlier between peasants and landlords, artisans and their employees. Not until the 16th century would the West begin to work out a new social structure. The West's economy did not go into a tailspin. In some respects, as in manufacturing and mining technology, progress may even have accelerated. The 150 to 200 years after 1300 form in Western history a transition period in which the features of the Middle Ages began to blur while new problems and developments began to take center stage. Western civilization was not in a spiral of decline, but the postclassical version of this civilization was.

Persia and the Mongols

A second great civilization conquered by the Mongols was that of an Islamic Persia. There the Mongol takeover was far more abrupt than the extended process of con- that quest in China. A first invasion (1219-1221), led by Chinggis Khan himself, was fol- lowed thirty years later by a second assault (1251-1258) under his grandson Hulegu, who became the first il-khan (subordinate khan) of Persia. More destructive than the conquest of Song dynasty China, the Mongol offensive against Persia and Iraq had no precedent in their history, although Persia had been repeatedly attacked, from the invasion ofAlexander the Great to that of the Arabs. The most recent incursion had featured Turkic peoples, but they had been Muslims, recently converted, small in number, and seeking only acceptance within the Islamic world. The Mongols, however, were infidels in Muslim eyes, and their stunning victory was a profound shock to people accustomed to viewing history as the progressive expansion of Islamic rule, Furthermore, Mongol military victory brought in its wake a degree of ferocity and slaughter that simply had no parallel in Persian experience. The Persian historian Juwayni described it in fearful terms: Every town and every village has been several times subjected to pillage and massacre and has suffered this confusion for years so that even though there be generation and increase until the Resurrection the population will not attain to Fetimids)" tenth part of what it was before.4 The sacking of Baghdad in 1258, which put an end to Abbasid caliphate, was accompanied by the massacre of more than 200,000 people, according to Hulegu himself. Beyond this human catastrophe lay the damage to Persian and Iraqi agriculture and to those who tilled the soil. Heavy taxes, sometimes collected twenty or thirty end times a year and often under torture or whipping, pushed large numbers of peasants off their land. Furthermore, the in-migration of nomadic Mongols, together with their immense herds of sheep and goats, turned much agricultural land into pasture and sometimes into desert. In both cases, a fragile system of underground water chan- nels that provided irrigation to the fields was neglected, and much good agricultural nearthe land was reduced to wastc. Some sectors of the Persian economy gained, however. Wine production increased because the Mongols were fond of alcohol, and the Persian silk industry benefited from close contact with a Mongol-ruled China. In general, though, even more so than in China, Mongol rule in Persia represented "disaster on a grand and unparalleled scale."as Nonetheless, the Mongols in Persia were themselves transformed far more than their counterparts in China. They made extensive use of the sophisticated Persian bureaucracy, leaving the greater part of government operations in Persian hands. age caused by earlier policies of ruthless exploitation, by rebuilding damaged cities During the reign of Ghazan (1295-1304), they made some efforts to repair the daum- and repairing neglected irrigation works. Most important, the Mongols who con- quered Persia became Muslims, following the lead of Ghazan, who converted to Islam in 1295. No such widespread conversion to the culture of the conquered occurred in or in Christian Russia, Members of the court and Mongol elites learned at least some Persian, unlike most of their counterparts in China. A number of Mongols also turned to farming, abandoning their nomadic ways, while some married local people. When the Mongol dynasty of Hulegu's descendants colapsed in the 1330s for lack of a suitable heir, the Mongols were not driven out of Persia as they had been from China. Rather they and their Turkic allies simply disappeared, assimilated into Persian society. From Persian point of view, the barbarians had been civilized. (but note that Hulegu+most ble the Great khan

KINGDOMS OF THE GRASSLANDS

A the Islamic wave spread across north Africa, it sent ripples across the Sahara, not in the form of liva ding armies but at first in the merchants and travelers who trod the dusty and ancient caravan Toules toward the savanna. Africa had three important Očean, and the savanna on the southern rim of the Sahara. "coasts" of contact: the Atlantic, the Indian zones came together, African states such as On the edge of the desert, where several resource Ghina had already formed by the 8th century by exchanging gold from the forests of west Africa for CHAPTER 9 African 9.3 salt or dates from the Sahara or for goods from Mediterranean north Africa. Camels, which had been introduced from Asia to the Sahara between the Ist and 5th centuries C.E., had greatly improved the possibilities of trade, but these animals, which thrived in arid and semiarid environments, could not live in the humid forest zones because of disease. Thus, the sahel, the extensive grassland belt at the southern edge of the Sahara, became a point of exchange between the forests to the south and north Africa-an active border area where ideas, trade, and people from the Sahara and beyond arrived in increasing numbers. Along the sahel, several African states developed between the trading cities, tak. ing advantage of their position as intermediaries in the trade. But their location on the open plains of the dry sahel also meant that these states were subject to attack and periodic droughts. Founded probably in the 3rd century C.E., Ghana rose to power by taxing the salt and gold exchanged within its borders. By the 10th century, its rulers had converted to Islam, and Ghana was many times that size. Eventually, however, Almoravid armies invaded Ghana from north Africa ln for his invasion. of England, Muslim accounts reported that the king of Ghana could field an army at the height of its power. At a time when William the Conqueror could muster perhaps 5000 troops 1076. The kingdom survived, but its power declined. By the beginning of the 13th century, new states had risen in the savanna to take Ghana's place of leadership, Sudanic States competing states persisted, The Sudanic states often had a patriarch to review some of the elements these states had in common. River) to the east. Before we deal with the most important kingdoms that followed Ghana, it is useful such as Takrur on the Senegal River to the west and Gao (on the Nige There were several Sudanic kingdoms, and even during the height of Ghana's power, neighboring and lineages as leaders. Usually these states same linguistic or ethnic background, were conquest states, which drew on the taxes, their sovereignty are the usual definition of empires. The Sudanic states of Ghana, Mal, and Songhay control of subordinate societies and the legal or informal contro tribute, and military support of the subordinate areat but their power extended over subordinate had a territorial core area in which the people were of the or council of elders of a particular family or group of communities. These lineages, and villages. The effective fit that definition (Map 9.1). The rulers of these states were considered sacred and were surrounded by rituals that separated them from their subjects. With the ruling families also drew on their a royal cult. Much of the tury, Islam was used to reinforce indigenous ideas of Several savanna states rose among the various peoples in the Sudan. We traditional powers to fortify their rule population never converted, kingship, so that Islam became something of conversion of the rulers of Ghana and Takrur after the 10tth cen and the Islamicited fusion of Islamic and indigenous African of two of the most important, Mal and Songhay, as cultures within the context of trade examples of the can trace the development and culture and military expansion.

Arab Pressure and the Empire's Defenses

After some setbacks, Justinian's successors began to con- centrate on defending the castern empire itself. Persian successes in the northern Middle East were reversed in the 7th century, and the population was forcibly recon- verted to Christianity. The resultant empire, centered in the southern Balkans and the western and central por- neering tions of present-day Turkey, was a far cry from Rome's greatness. However, it was sufficient to amplify a rich

Indian Influences on Islamic Civilization

Although the impact of Islam on the Indian subcontinent in this period was limited, the Arab foothold n Sind provided contacts by which Indian learning was transmitted to the Muslim heartlands in the Middle Bast. As a result, Islamic civilization was enriched by the skills and discoveries of yet another arest civilization. Of particular importance was Indian scientific learning, which rivaled that of the Creeks as the most advanced of the ancient world. Hindu mathematicians and astronomers traveled to Baghdad after the Abbasids came to power in the mid-8th century. Their works on algebra and 0ometry were translated into Arabic, and their instruments for celestial observation were copied and Improved by Arab astronomers. Most critically, Arab thinkers in all fields began to use the numer- Als that Hindu scholars had devised centuries earlier. Because these numbers were passed on to the Europeans through contacts with the Arabs in the early Middle Ages, we call them Arabic numerals today, but they originated in India. Because of the linkages between civilized centers established by the spread of Islam, this system of numerical notation has proved central to two scientific revolutions. The first in the Middle East was discussed earlier in this chapter. The second, discussed In Chapter 18, occurred in Europe some centuries later. From the 16th century to the present, it has brought fundamental transformations to Europe and much of the rest of the world. In addition to science and mathematics, Indian treatises on sub- jects ranging from medicine to music were translated and studied by Arab scholars. Indian physicians were brought to Baghdad to run the well-endowed hospitals that the Christian crusaders found a source of wonderment and a cause for envy. On several occasions, Indian doc- tors were able to cure Arab rulers and officials whom Greek physicians had pronounced beyond help. Indian works on statecraft, alchemy, and palmistry were translated into Arabic, and it is believed that some of the tales in the Arabian Nights were based on ancient Indian stories. Indian musical instruments and melodies made their way into the repertoires of Arab performers, and the Indian game of chess became a favorite of both royalty and ordinary townspeople. Arabs who emigrated to Sind and other Muslim-ruled areas often adopted Indian dress and hairstyles, ate Indian foods, and rode on ele- phants just as the Hindu rajas (kings) did. As Figure 8.5 illustrates, the conquerors also adopted Indian building styles and artistic motifs. In this era, additional Arab colonies were established in other coastal areas, such as Malabar to the south and Bengal in the east (Map 8.3). These trading enclaves later provided the staging areas from which Islam was transmitted to island and mainland southeast Asia.

Baghdad's Influence

Baghdad's Influence In addition to serving as a capital city, Baghdad became a center of learning. Although the paper-making process originated in China, the invention of techniques to make thicker, more useful paper was an achievement of Baghdad. A cataloguer of books in the tenth century listed thousands of existing titles and authors, many from lands far from the caliph's court. The expansion of the intellectual world of Baghdad represented a "golden age" of learning.

Vocab

Battle of Kulikova Russian army victory over the forces of the Golden Horde; helped break Mongol hold over Russia.

Vocab

Batu (BAH-too) Ruler of Golden Horde; one of Chinggis Khan's grandsons; responsible for invasion of Russia beginning in 1236. Ogedei (OHGD-dih] (1186-1241) Third son of Chinggis Khan; succeeded Chinggis Khan as khagan of the Mongols following his father's death.

Black Death

Black Death Plague that struck Europe in 14th century: significantly reduced Europe's population; affected social structure.

Abbasid Empire Both Umayyad Empire

Branch of Islam: Sunni Ethnicity of Leaders: Arab Foreign Policy: spread influence of Islam

Umayyads and Abbasids

By the end of 90 years, the Umayyad rulers had grown weak and corrupt. In 750, their capital, Damascus, fell to a group known as the Abbasids. The new rulers founded a new city for their capital, Baghdad. Situated in an ideal spot for trans-Eurasian trade, Baghdad soon rivaled Constantinople in both wealth and population, and the Abbasid Caliphate became one of the most powerful and innovative empires of its time.

Swahik Coast Cities

By the second century C.E., Bantu peoples had populated much of cast Africa. They introduced agriculture, cattle herding, and iron metallurgy to the region, and here, as elsewhere in sub-Saharan by small, local states. As their ments on the coasts and offshore population increased, Africa, they founded complex societies governed Bantu peoples founded settle- islands as well as the interior regions of east Africa. These coast dwellers supplemented their agricultural production with ocean fishing and maritime trade. They were the builders of Swahili society, Swabili is an Arabic term meaning "coasters," referring to those who engaged in trade along the east African coast. The Swahili dominated the east African coast from Mogadishu in the north to Kilwa, the Comoro Islands, and Sofala in the south. They spoke Swahili, a Bantu language supplemented with words and ideas borrowed from Arabic. Swahili peo- communicated readily among themselves be- cause individuals frequently visited other Swahili communities in their oceangoing craft. ples developed different dialects, but they attention from Islamic slaves, ivory, and Indeed, all along the east African coast, Swahili society underwent similar patterns of de- velopment with respect to language, religion, architecture, and technology. By the tenth century, Swahili society attracted increasing merchants. From the interior regions of east Africa, the Swahili obtained gold, exotic local products such as tortoise shells and leopard skins, which they traded for pottery, glass, and textiles that Muslim merchants brought from Persia, India, and China. The rapidly increasing volume and value of trade had large repercussions for Swahili states and societies, just as such changes did for west African societies. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, trade had brought tremendous wealth to By coastal east Africa. By controlling and taxing trade within their jurisdictions, local chiefs strengthened their own authority and increased the influence of their commu- ous enough tury, Kilwans nities. Gradually, trade joyed sheltered or especially concentrated at several coastal and island port cities that en- convenient locations: Mogadishu, Lamu, Malindi, Mom- basa, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mozambique, and Sofala. Each of these sites developed into a powerful city-state governed by a king who supervised trade and organized public life in the region. The cities themselves underwent an impres- sive transformation. Villages in the inte- rior regions of east Africa had buildings made of wood and dried mud, the principal materials used even for prominent structures like mosques. By about the twelfth century, how- ever, Swahili peoples began to construct much larger buildings of coral, and by the fifteenth cen- tury the main Swahili towns boasted handsome stone mosques and public buildings. Meanwhile, the ruling elites and wealthy mer- chants of Swahili trading cities dressed in silk and fine cotton clothes, and they set their tables with porcelain imported from China.

Crusaders

Crusaders The conquest by the Seljuk Turks brought a third invader to the region: Crusaders from Europe. Under the Abbasids, Christians could travel easily to and from their holy sites in and around Jerusalem. When the Seljuk Turks limited this access, Christians in Europe organized Crusades to reopen access. The Crusades will be described in more detail in Chapter 12.

Long Distance Trade and Cross-Cultural Exchange: Life under the Mongol Imperium

Despite their aggressiveness as warriors and the destruction they could unleash on those who resisted their demands for submission and tribute, the Mongols were remarkably astute and tolerant rulers. Chinggis Khan himself set the standard. He was a complex man, capable of gloating over the ruin of his enemies but also open to new ideas and committed to building of his empire could live together in peace. Although illiterate, Chinggis Khan was neither the ignora a world where the diverse people savage nor the cultureless vandal often depicted in the accounts of civilized writers-usually tho who had never met him. Once the conquered peoples had been subdued, he took a keen interest their arts and learning, although he refused to live in their cities. Instead, he established a new capit at Karakorum on the steppes and summoned the wise and clever lavish palace of tents with gilded pillars where he lived with his wives and closest advisors. from all parts of the empire to th At Karakorum, Chinggis Khan consulted with Confucian scholars Muslim engineers about how to build siege weapons and improve trade with the lands farther we could give him an elixir that would make him immorta about how to rule China, wit and with Daoist hôly men, whom he hoped spirits) beliefs of his ancestors, a language to facilitate recordkeeping and the talents of both Muslim and Chinese bureaucrats Although he himself followed the shamanistic (focused on nature religions were tolerated in his empire. An administrative framework that drew on the advice an was created. A script was devised for the Mongolia standardization of laws. Chinggis Khan's legal code wa enforced by specially designated policemen. Much of the code was aimed at ending the divisions an quarrels that had so long plagued the Mongols and other nomadic peoples. Grazing lands were allo established for rustling livestock or stealing horses of Asia that in some areas persisted for genera production and scholarship flourished and artistic cre ted to specific tribes, and harsh penalties were The Mongol conquests brought peace to much tions. In the towns of the empire, handicraft cosmopolitan cities. One ativity was allowed free expression. Secure trade routes made for prosperous merchants and wealth Muslim historian wrote of the peoples within the might have journeyed from the land of sunrise to the land of sunse Mongol empire that the "enjoyed such a peace that a man Mongol expansion, which sedentary with a golden platter upon his head without suffering the least violence from anyone" Paradoxicall chroniclers condemned as a "barbarian" orgy of violence and civilized tife. But there was also a downside, the facilitated the spread of disease. destruction, also became a major force for economic and social development and the enhancement o movement of merchants and commercial goods als In fact, some historians believe that the infamous intercontinenta wave of bubonic plague that came to be known as the Black Death was carried from China by the fleas on rats nesting in the saddle bags of Mongol cavalrymen across central Asia to the Black Sea and from there by ships to the Mediterranean and Europe.

Expanding Agrarian Production and Life in the Country

Expanding Agrarian Production and Life in the Country Their officials actively encouraged peasant groups to migrate to uncultivated areas or those occupled of Chinese settlement and agricultural production was promoted by the rulers of both dynasties tems was part of a larger process of agrarian expansion in the Tang and Song period. The expansion The movement of the population southward to the fertile valleys of the Yangzi and other river sy shifting cultivators or peoples of non-Chinese descent. The state also supported military garrisons 13.2 nk of subduing non-Chinese peoples. State-regulated besc areas to protect the new settlements and to complete tbe on and embankment systems advanced agrarian wAunts who grew specialized crops, such as tea, or those who anslon. For example, the great canals made it possible for vited silkworms to market their produce over much of the emplre, The Introduction of new seeds, such as the famed Chumpa rice from Vietnam; better use of human, animal, and nd multiple cropping and improved water control techniques lt manures: more thorough soil preparation and weeding: Bsed the yields of peasant holdings. Inventions such as the heelbarrow eased the plowing, planting, weeding, and har- vesting tasks that occupied much of the time of most Chinese Reople The engraving shown in Figure 13.6 gives us a glimpse rural scenes that were reproduced hundreds of thousands of times across China all through the Tang and Song centuries and much of the millennium that followed, The rulers of both the Sui and Tang dynasties had adopted policles almed at breaking up the great estates of the old aris- totracy and distributing land more equitably among the free peasant households of the empire. These policies were designed in part to reduce or eliminate the threat that the powerful aris- tocracy posed for the new dynasties. They were also intended to bolster the position of the ordinary peasants, whose labors and well-being had long been viewed by Confucian scholars s essential to a prosperous and stable social order. To a point, hese agrarian measures succeeded. For a time the numbers of the free peasantry increased, and the average holding size in many areas rose. The fortunes of many of the old aristocratic familes also declined, thus removing many of them as inde- pendent centers of power. They were supplanted gradually in the rural areas by the gentry side of the scholar- gentry combi- natlon that dominated the imperial bureaucracy. the The extended-family households of the gentry that were rice, found in rural settlements in the Han era increased in size and elegance in the Tang and Song. The widespread use of the graceful curved roofs, with upturned corners that one associ- Hes with Chinese civilization, dates from the Tang period. By imperial decree, curved roofs were reserved for people of high Nik, Including the scholar-gentry families. With intricately carved and painted roof timbers topped left no doubt about the status with glazed tiles of yellow or green, the great dwellings of the gentry nd power of the families who lived in them. At the same time, their muted colors, wood and bamboo cohstruction, and simple lines blended beautifully with nearby gardens and groves of trees.

The Death of Chinggis Khan and the Division of the Empire

In 1226, his wars to the west won, Chinggis Khan turned east with an army of 180,000 warriors to complete the conquest of China that he regretted having left unfinished more than a decade earlier After routing a much larger Tangut (TANG-uht) army in a battle fought on the frozen waters of the Yellow River, the Mongol armies overran the kingdom of Xi Xia, plundering, burning, and mercilessly survivors. As his forces closed in on the Tangut capital and last refuge, Chinggis hunting down Tangut Khan, who had been injured in a skirmish some months earlier, fell grievously ill. After lecturing his sons on the dangers of quarreling among themselves for the spoils of the empire, the khagan died in August 1227. With one last outburst of wrath, this time directed against death itself, the Mongols carried his body back to Mongolia for burial. The Mongol forces escorting the funeral procession hunted down and killed every human and animal in its path. The vast pasturelands the Mongols now controlled were divided between Chinggis Khan's three remaining sons and Batu, a grandson and heir of the khagan's recently deceased son, Jochi. Towns and cultivated areas such as those in north China and parts of Persia were considered the common property of the Mongol ruling family. A kuriltai was con- vened at Karakorum, the Mongol capital, to select a successor to the great conqueror. In accordance with Chinggis Khan's preference, Ogedei, his third son, was elected khagan. Although not as capable a military leader as his brothers or nephews, Ogedei was a crafty diplomat and deft manipulator. As it turned out, these skills were much needed to keep the ambitious heads of the vast provinces of the empire from each other's throats. For nearly a decade, Ogedei directed Mongol energies into further campaigns and conquests. The areas targeted by this new round of Mongol expansion paid the price for peace within the Mongol empire. The fate of the most important victims-Russia and Eastern Europe, the Islamic heartlands, and China-will be the focus of most of the rest of this chapter.

Christian Crusades

Just as Europeans fought to drive Muslims out of Europe, they also sought to reclaim control of the Holy Land, the region of Palestine in the Middle East that contains sites of spiritual significance to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. European Christians had enjoyed access to these lands for centuries, even after they came under the control of Muslims. This access was reduced, however, when the Seljuk Turks took control of the region around 1071. Social and economic trends of the eleventh century added to the pressure among Europeans to invade the Middle East. Rules of primogeniture, in which the eldest brother in a family inherited the entire estate, left a generation of younger sons with little access to wealth and land. The landed nobles saw a military campaign as a way to divert the ambitions of these restless nobles as well as unemployed peasants, who often pillaged the lands of neighboring lords. Furthermore, merchants began to desire unfettered access to trade routes through the Middle East. The combination of these religious, social, and economic pressures resulted in a series of European military campaigns between 1095 and the 1200s in the Middle East known as the Crusades. Politics shaped the manner in which the Crusades were conducted. Tensions between popes and kings and between different rulers strengthened the intention of the Church to take control. The Church could also use its spiritual authority to recruit believers. Sinners were promised heaven and, of more immediate concern, relief from their required acts of atonement and penance, if they would join the Crusade. Support also came for the Eastern branch of Christianity as well. Alarmed by news of the persecution and massacre of Christian pilgrims by Seljuk Turks, the Orthodox patriarch at Constantinople appealed to Pope Urban II to help retake the Holy Land from Islamic control. The First Crusade Of the four major Crusades, only the first was a clear victory for the forces of Christendom. They conquered Jerusalem in July 1099. 1187. (Tėst Prépi Greate a timelinėtracing the spread of Islam up through the However, when Muslim forces under Saladin regained control of Jerusalem in Cusades: See pages 147 Venice was not paid all of what Crusader debtors first to sack Zara, an Italian city, and then Constantinople, was due, so the Venetians persuaded the Crusaders to the Middle East, which they referred to as the Levant. However, 1204), Venice, a wealthy city-state in northern Italy, had a contract to transport The Fourth Crusade During the fourth and last major Crusade (1202- Holy Land. Eventually, Islamic forces prevailed in the Levant. a major trade competitor of Venice. The Fourth Crusade never made it to the Effects of Crusades increased as Crusaders encountered both the Byzantine and Islamic cultures. The Knowledge of the world beyond Westem Europe encounter also increased opening up to global trade, however, Western Europeans also opened themselves demand in Europe for newfound wares from the East. In to disease. The plague, referred Additional outbreaks occurred over the succeeding by way of trading routes. A major epidemic broke out between 1347 and 1351. to as the Black Death, was introduced to Europe decades. As many as 25

Aftershock: The Brief Ride of Timur, the Last of the Great Nomadic Conquerors

Just as the peoples of Europe and Asia had begun recover from the upheavals caused by Mongol expansion, a second nomadic outburst from central Asia plunged them again into fear and despair. This time the nomads in question were Turks, not Mongols, and their leader, Timur-i Lang (Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane) was from a noble land-owning clan, not a tribal, herding background. Timur's personality was complex. On one hand, he was a highly cultured person who delighted in the fine arts, lush gardens, and splendid architecture and who could spend days conversing with great scholars such as Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun (see the Document feature in Chapter 8). On the other, he was a ruthless conqueror, apparently indifferent to human suffering and capable of commanding his troops to commit atrocities on a scale that would not be matched in the human experience until the 20th century. Beginning in the 1360s, his armies moved out from his base at Samarkand to conquests in Persia, the Fertile Crescent, India, and southern Russia. Although his empire did not begin to compare with that of the Mongols in size, he outdid them in the ferocity of his campaigns. In fact, Timur is remembered for little more than barbaric destruction: is armies built pyramids of skulls with the heads of those they killed. Tens of thousands of people re slaughtered after they took the city of Aleppo in Asia Minor, and thousands of prisoners were massacred as a warning to the citizens of Delhi, in north India, not to resist his armies. In the face f this wanton slaughter, the fact that he spared artisans and scientists to embellish his capital city at Sumarkand counts for little. Unlike that of the Mongols, his rule brought neither increased trade and ross-cultural exchanges nor internal peace. Fortunately, his reign was as brief as it was violent. After his death in 1405, his empire was pulled apart by his warring commanders and old enemies anxious for revenge. With his passing, the last great challenge of the steppe nomads to the civilizations of Eurasia came to an end.

Abbasid Empire

Location: Southwest Asia and North Africa Capital: Baghdad

substantial, but they did contribute important changes including a growing capacity to participat in transregional trade.

New Strains in Rural Life free farmers with only a few horse and armor were prerequisites for fighting in place in many areas. Noble Some peasants were able to shake off the most severe The improvements in agriculture after 900 c.E. brought important new ingredients to rural life constraints of manorialism, becoming almos obligations to their landlords, although rigid manorialism remaine landlords still served mainly military functions, for ownership of until the end of the medieval period. Although mos nobles shunned the taint of commerce-like aristocrats in many societies, they found too muc money-grubbing demeaning-they did use trade to improve their standard of living and adopt mor polished habits. The courtly literature of the late Middle Ages reflected this new style of life. As many lords sought improved conditions, they were often tempted to press their serfs to pa higher rents and taxes, even as serfs were gaining a new sense of freedom and control over their ow land. From the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, this tension produced a recurrent series a peasant-landlord battles in Western society. Peasants sought what they viewed as their natural an traditional right to the land, free and clear. They talked of Christian equality, turning such phrases a "When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then a gentleman?" A more complex economy clearl brought new social strains, similar to the recurrent wave of popular unrest in China or the rura uprisings in the Middle East, where religion helped prompt egalitarian sentiments as well. The ga between lord and peasant was the crucial social inequality in Europe, but it was open to change an it generated some egalitarian ideas in response. On the whole, the lives of western peasants improvea between 900 and 1300. Landlord control were less tight than they had become in other societies, such as the Middle East. Western agricultur was not yet particularly advanced technologically (compared with east Asia, for example), but it ha improved notably over early medieval levels.

Political Divisions and the First Muslim Invasions

Political Divisions and the First Muslim Invasions The first and least enduring Muslim intrusion which came in 711, resulted indirectly from the peaceful trading contacts that had initially brought Muslims into contact with Indian civilization. Since ancient times, Arab seafar- ers and traders had been major carriers in the vast trading network that stretched from Italy in the Mediterranean to the South China Sea. After converting to Islam, these traders con tinued to visit the ports of India, particularly those on the western coast. An attack by pirates sailing from Sind in western India (Map 8.3) on ships owned by some of these Arab traders prompted the viceroy of the eastern provinces of the Umayyad Empire to launch a puni- tive expedition against the king of Sind. An able Arab general, Muhammad ibn Qasim who was only 17 years old when the cam- paign began, led more than 10,000 horse- and camel-mounted warriors into Sind to avenge the assault on Arab shipping. After victories in several fiercely fought battles, Muhammad ibn Qasim declared the region, as well as the Indus valley to the northeast, provinces of the Umayyad empire. In these early centuries, the coming of Islam brought little change for most inhabit- ants of the Indian subcontinent. In fact, in many areas, local leaders and the populace surrendered towns and districts willingly to the conquerors because they promised lighter taxa tion and greater religious tolerance. The Arab overlords decided to treat both Hindus and Buddhists as protected "people of the book. Bible, the book in question. This meant that (reedom to worship as they pleased. dihough they were obliged to pay special taxes, ite the fact that their faiths had no connection to the non-Muslims, like Jews and Christians, enjoyed the ulons, which did much to reconcile them to Muslim As in other areas conquered by the Arabs, most of the local officials and notables retained their rule. The status and privileges of the brahman conquered areas, they remained ries or special garrison towns. utes were respected. Nearly all Arabs, Because little effort was expended in converting the peoples of the who made up only a tiny minority of the population, lived in overwhelmingly Hindu or Buddhist.

THE MONGOL DRIVE TO THE WEST

Russia and Europe were added to the Mongols' agenda for world conquest. Subjugating these regions kecame the project of the armies of the Golden Horde, named after the golden tent of the carly khans i the western sector of the Mongol Empire. The territories of the Golden Horde made up one of the four great khanates into which the Mongol Empire was divided at the time of Chinggis Khan's death Map 15.2). Under the rule of Chinggis Khan's grandson Batu, Mongol armies began an invasion of Russia in 1236. In a very real sense, the assault on Russia was a side campaign, a chance to fine-tune the war machine and win a little booty on the way to Western Europe. As we saw in Chapter 10, in the first half of the 13th century when the Mongol warriors first descended, Russia had been divided into numerous petty kingdoms, centered on trading cities such as Novgorod and Kiev (see Map 10.3). By this time, Kiev, which originally dominated much of central Russia, had been in decline for some time. As a result, there was no paramount power to rally Russian forces against the invaders. Despite the warnings of those who had witnessed the crushing defeats suffered by the Georgians S in the the early carly 1220s, the princes of Russia refused to cooperate. They preferred tht alone, and they were routed individually. In 1236, Batu led a Mongol force of more than than 120,000 cavalrymen into the Russian heartlands. From 1237 to 1238 and later in 1240, these Tatars, or Tartars (meaning people from hell), as the Russians called them, carried out out the the only successful winter invasions in Russian history. In fact, the Mongols preferred to fight in the winter. The frozen earth provided good footing for their horses, and frozen rivers gave them access to their enemies. One after another, the Mongol armies defeated the often much larger forces of local nomadic groups and Russian princes. Cities such as Ryazan, Moscow, and Vladimir, which resisted the Mongol command to surrender, were destroyed; their Inhabitants were slaughtered or led into slavery. As a contemporary Russian chronicler observed, "No eye remained to weep for the dead." Just as it seemed that all of Russia would be ravaged by the Mongols, whom the Russians compared to locusts, Batu's armies withdrew. The largest cities, Novgorod and Kiev, appeared to have been spared. Russian priests thanked God; the Mongol com- manders blamed the e spring thaw, which slowed the Mongol horsemen and raised the risk of defeat in the the treacherous mud. The Mongols returned in force in the winter of 1240. In this second campaign, even the great walled city of Kiey, which had reached a population of more than 100,000 by the end of the 12th century, fell. Enraged by Kievan resistance-its ruler had ordered the Mongol envoys thrown from the city walls-the Mongols reduced the greatest city in Russia to a smoldering ruin. The cathedral of Saint Sophia was spared, but the rest of the city was looted and destroyed, and its inhabitants were smoked out and slaughtered. Novgorod braced itself for the Mongol onslaught. Again, according to the Russian chroniclers, it was "miraculously" spared. In fact, it was saved largely because of the willing- ness of its prince, Alexander Nevsky, to submit, at least temporarily, to Mongol demands. In addition, the Mongol armies were eager to move on to the main event: the invasion of Western Europe, which they perceived as a far richer but equally vulnerable region.

Islam

Sacred Text: Qur'an (Koran) AP Loves: Displaced Zoroastrianism (also Buddhism and Christianity) • Provided a sense of unity Sects: • Sunni vs. Shia

Judaism

Sacred Text: Torah • AP Loves: Diasporic Communities (living outside the homeland)

THE MONGOL INTERLUDE IN CHINESE HISTORY

Soon after Ogedei was elected as the great khan, the Mongol advance Into China was resumed. Having conquered the Xi Xia and Jin empires, the Mongol commanders turned to what remained of the Song Empire in south China (Maps 15.1 and 15.2). In the campaigns against the Song, the Mongol forces were directed by Kubilai Khan (Figure 15.5). Kubilai was one of the grandsons of Chinggis Khan, and he would play a pivotal role in Chinese history for the next half century. Even under a decadent dynasty that had long neglected its defenses, south China was one of the toughest areas for the Mongols to conquer. From 1235 to 1279, the Mongols were constantly on the march; they fought battle after battle and besieged seemingly innu- merable, well-fortified Chinese cities. In 1260, Kubilai assumed the title of the great khan, much to the chagrin of his cousins who ruled other parts of the empire. A decade later, in 1271, on the recom- mendation of Chinese advisors, he changed the name of his Mongol regime to a Chinese-language dynastic title, the Yuan. Although he was still nearly a decade away from fully defeating the last-ditch efforts of Confucian bureaucrats and Chinese generals to save the Song dynasty, Kubilai ruled most of China. He now set about the task of establishing more permanent Mongol control. As the different regions of China came under Mongol rule, Kubilai passed many laws to preserve the distinction between Mongol and Chinese. He forbade Chinese scholars to learn the Mongol script, which was used for records and correspondence at the upper levels of the imperial government. Mon- gols were forbidden to marry ethnic Chinese, and only women from nomadic families were selected for the imperial harem. Even friendships between the two peoples were discouraged, and Mongol military forces remained separate from the Chinese. Mongol religic ceremonies and customs were retained, and a tent encampment in traditional Mongol style was set up in the imperial city even thou Kubilai usually lived in a Chinese-style palace. Despite his measures to ensure that the conquering Mongol mind ity was not completely absorbed by the culture of the defeated, Kub lai Khan had long been fascinated by Chinese civilization. Even befo beginning the conquest of the Song Empire, he had surrounded hit self with Chinese advisors, some Buddhist, others Daoist or Confucia His capital at Dadu in the north (present-day Beijing) was built on th site occupied by earlier dynasties, and he introduced Chinese ritua and classical music into his own court. Kubilai also put the empire o the Chinese calendar and offered sacrifices to his ancestors at a specia temple in the imperial city. But he rebuffed the pleas of his Confucia advisors to reestablish the civil service exams, which had been discon tinued by the Jin rulers. In the Yuan era, a new social structure was established in Chin with the Mongols on top and their central Asian nomadic and Muslin allies right below them in the hierarchy. These two groups occuple most offices at the highest levels of the bureaucracy. Beneath them cam the ethnic Chinese and then the minority peoples of the south. Thus ethnic Chinese from both north and south ran the Yuan bureaucrac at the regional and local levels, but they could exercise power at the top only as advisors to the Mongols or other nomadic officials. At al levels, their activities were scrutinized by Mongol functionaries from an enlarged and much strengthened censors' bureau.

guilds

Sworn associations of people in the same business or craft in a single city; stressed security and mutual control; limited membership, regulated apprenticeship, guaranteed good workmanship; often established franchise within cities.

Political Trends in the Later Middle Ages

Stronger monarchies that developed in the later Middle Ages displayed two common characteristics that increased the power of the monarchy at the expense of feudal lords: a growing bureaucracy to carry out the monarch's decisions and an organized army that was controlled by the monarch. In many instances, the desire of people for representation and the desire of monarchs for strong absolutist government conflicted. Sometimes the desire for power also created tension between monarchs and the pope. Capetian France When the Carolingian Dynasty split into three sections in 987, the western Frankish nobles chose Hugh Capet as their king. The area was called Gaul by the Romans and had been part of Charlemagne's empire; by the time Hugh Capet became king, it was called the "Kingdom of the French." In spite of his title, however, Capet held little real power. It would be left to later kings, such as Philip II (ruled 1180-1223), to develop the first real bureaucracy. Not until Philip IV (ruled 1285-1314) did the first Estates-General-a body to advise the king that included representatives from each of the three legal classes, or estates, in France: the clergy, nobility, and commoners-meet. Although the French kings consulted this Estates-General when necessary, they did not exact regular taxes from the upper two estates, the clergy and nobility. Consequently, the Estates-General had little power. The clergy and nobility felt little responsibility to protect a government that they were not financing, a problem that only continued to increase in France up to the eve of the French Revolution of 1789. Holy Roman Empire The German king Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, hearkening back to Charlemagne's designation as Emperor of the Romans. Otto's successors survived the power struggle with the papacy over the lay investiture controversy of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The dispute was over whether a secular leader, rather than the pope, could invest bishops with the symbols of office. It was finally resolved in the Concordat of Worms of 1122, when the Church achieved autonomy from secular authorities. The Holy Roman Empire remained vibrant until it was virtually destroyed during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), from which it never recovered. The Empire came to an end with Napoleon's invasion in 1806. Norman England The Normans were descendents of Vikings who settled in the northwest corner of France, a region know as Normandy. In 1066, a monarch of Normandy known as William the Conqueror invaded England and ruled kingdoms on both sides of the English Channel. He presided over a tightly organized feudal system, using royal sheriffs as his administrative officials. William also standardized law codes issued by his royal court. In time, objections to the power of William and his successor Norman monarchs were responsible for limits on that power in England. First, the Magna Carta, signed by King John in 1215 under pressure from leading nobles, required the king to observe certain rights, such as the right to a jury

The Mixture of Cultures on the Swahili Coast

The Islamic influence in these towns promoted long-distance commerce The 13th century was a period of great Islamic expansion, and as tha faith spread eastward to India and Indonesia, it provided a religiou bond of trust and law that facilitated trade throughout ports of the Indian Ocean. The ruling families in the east African trading ports bul mosques and palaces; the mosque at Mogadishu was begun in 1231 Many of these ruling families claimed to be descendants of immigrant from Shiraz in Persia-a claim intended to legitimize their position and orthodoxy. In fact, some evidence indicates that the original Muslim families had emigrated to the Somali coast and from there to other s farther south. The institutions and forms of the Muslim world operated in these cities. Whereas OMlers and merchants tended to be Muslim, the majority of the population on the east African ost and perhaps even in the towns themselves, retained their previous beliefs and culture. African culture remained strong throughout the area. The Swahili language was essentially a Bantu language containing 16th a large number of Arabic words, although many of these words were not ncorporated until the century. The language was written in an Arabic script some time before the tentury the ruling families could also converse in Arabic. Islam itself penetrated very little into among the hunters, pastoralists, and farmers. Even the areas of the coast near the trading the interiot s remained largely unaffected. In the towns, the mud and thatch houses of the non-Muslim towns mon peoples surrounded the stone and coral buildings of the Muslim elite. Islamization was to ome extent class-based. Still, a culture developed that fused Islamic and traditional elements. For example family lineage was traced both through the maternal line, which controlled property (the raditional African practice), and through the paternal line, as was the Muslim custom. Swahili culture was dynamic hybrid, and the Swahili people spread their language and culture along the coast of east Africa. and Mombasa on the Kenya coast, but the commerce across the Indian Ocean continued. Eventually, diffused. Kilwa was no longer the predominant city, and the focus of trade had shifted to Malindi By the time the Portuguese arrived on this coast around 1500, the Swahili culture was widely the Portuguese raided Kilwa and Mombasa in an attempt to take control of trade. Their outpost on Portuguese built a major outpost at Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1592, they were never able to control Mozambique and their control of Sofala put much of the gold trade in their hands. Although the the trade on the northern Swahili coast. The east African patterns, as established by 1500, persisted West Africa, Muslims remained a minority, and in other areas like the central African forests Islam African savanna, Islam became a dominant cultural force. In other Even more than those of the Sudanic kingdoms. In some areas like the Swahili coast and the West areas such as the forest region of hardly penetrated at all.

Justinian's Achievements

The early history of the Byzantine Empire was marked by a recurrent threat of invasion. Eastern emperors, relying on their local military base plus able generalship by upper-class Greeks, beat off attacks by the Sassanian Empire in Persia and by Germanic invaders. Then, in 533 C.E., with the empire's borders reasonably secure, a new emperor, Justinian, tried to reconquer western territory in a last futile effort to restore an empire like that of Rome. He was somber, autocratic, and prone to grandiose ideas. A contemporary histo- rian named Procopius described him as "at once vil- lainous and amenable; as people say colloquially, a moron. He was never truthful with anyone, but always guileful in what he said and did, yet easily hoodwinked by any who wanted to deceive him." The emperor was also heavily influenced by his wife Theodora, a cour- tesan connected with Constantinople's horse-racing world, who was eager for power. Theodora stiffened Justinian's resolve in response to popular unrest and pushed the plans for expansion. Justinian's positive contributions to the Byzantine Empire lay in rebuilding Constantinople, ravaged by ear-. lier riots against high taxes, and systematizing the Roman legal code. Extending later Roman architecture, with its addition of domes to earlier classical styles, Jus- tinian's builders created many new structures, the most inspiring of which was the huge new church, the Hagia Sophia, long one of the wonders of the Christian world. This was an achievement in engineering as well as archi- tecture, for no one had previously been able to build the supports needed for a dome of its size. Justinian's codifi- cation of Roman law reached a goal earlier emperors had sought but not achieved, summing up and reconcil- reduced confusion but also united and organized the ing many prior edicts and decisions. Unified law not only by later emperors, the code ultimately helped spread new empire, paralleling the state's bureaucracy. Updated Italy. Justinian's forces made their Belisarius, new gains were made in north Africa and Roman Empire itself. With the aid of a brilliant general, results. The emperor wanted to recapture the old Justinian's military exploits had more ambiguous Roman legal principles in various parts of Europe. temporary capital,

The Empire of Mali and Sundiata, the "Lion Prince

The empire of Mali, centered between the Senegal and Niger rivers, wat the creation of the Malinke peoples, who in the 13th century broke aww from the control of Ghana, which was by then in decline. In Mali the old forms of kingship were reinforced by Islam. As in many of the Sudar states, the rulers supported Islam by building mosques, attending pub lie prayers, and supporting preachers. In return, sermons to the faithfal emphasized obedience and support of the king, Mali became a model of these Islamicized Sudanic kingdoms. The economic basis of society in the Mali Empire was agriculture. This was combined with an active tradition of trade in many products, although like Ghana, Mali also depended on it access to gold-producing areas to the south. Malinke merchants, or juuls formed small partnerships and groups to carry out trade throughout the area. They spread beyond the borders of the empire and throughout much of west Africa. The beginning of Malinke (also called Mandinka or Mandingo) expansion is attributed to lata (sometimes written Sunjata), a brilliant leader whose exploits were celebrated in a great rs to kings, began their epic histories of Mali with Sundiata, the "Lion Prince" ition. The griots, professional oral historians who also served as keepers of traditions and sten then sons of Mali, children Sundiata, the father of the Bright Country, of the savanna land, the ancestor of those who draw of the black people, listen to my word, for I am going to tell you He was great among kings, he was peerless mong men, he was beloved of God because he was he bow, the master of a hundred vanquished kings... the last of the great conquerors. Aera ditficult childhood, Sundiata to him the creation of the basic rules and relationships from a period of interfamily and regional fighting Aste a unified state. Oral histories ascribed world," which meant that he was considered the And four clans were specialists such as blacksmiths the bow and quiver of arrows as the rieinator of social arrangements. Sixteen clans of free t emperor It was said that Sundiata "divided up the NMalinke society and the outline of the government of the empire of Mali. He became the mansa, people were entitled to bear arms and carry ameng the peoples of the savanna and had he created the political institutions of rule that allowed for great regional existed in ancient Ghana, but now Sundiata was credited and griots. Such clan arrangements were traditional symbol of their status, five clans were devoted to religious duties, with their origins. Although ind ethnie differences in the federated curity Travel was secure eential element in a state where tbelr emperor pardons none Arab traveler, reported: "Of all peoples," mast of the Niger valley almost to the Atlantic coast. A sumptuous Sundiata died about 1260, but his successors expanded the borders of Mali until it controlled commerce played so important a role. who is guilty of it." The security of travelers and their goods was an he said, "the Blacks are those who most hate injustice, and and crime was severely punished, as Ibn Battuta provinces, he also stationed garrisons to maintain loyalty and (1304-1368 c.B.), the attention of the Muslim world to Mali, Scessors was Mansa Kankan Musa (c. alarge number of traders. Mali grew wealthy from the 1312-1337), whose pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 brought the trade. Perhaps the most famous of Sundiata's court was established and hosted as was described in the as well. From Mecca he brought back poet and the building of several that made use of beaten clay This can important mosques, and architect Ishak al-Sahili, beginning of this chapter. Mansa Musak atill be seen in the great mosque of Jenne. wntually a distinctive form of Sudanic who came from Muslim tphad other consequences Spain. The architect directed architecture developed

Africa: The Swahili and Zimbabwe

Trade expanded steadily along the East African coast from about 1250, giving rise to be- tween thirty and forty separate city-states by 1500. As a result of this rising prosperity, new masonry buildings, sometimes three or four stories high, thatch African fishing villages a many of the mud and Archaeology reveals the growing presence of imported glass beads, Chinese tacts, many loan celain, and other exotic goods. As a result of trading con- words from Arabic and Persian enriched the language of the coastal Africans, and the first to write it used Arabic script. The visitors called these people "Swahili,"" from the Arabic name sawahil al-sudan. meaning "shores of the blacks," and the name stuck At the time of Ion Battuta's visit, the s southern city of Kilwa had displaced Mogadishu the Swahili Coast's most important commercial center as The rovel Kilwa "one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world." He noted that its dark-skinned in- habitants were devout and pious Muslims, he took special pains to praise their ruler as a man rich the tra- ditional Muslim virtues of humility and generosity. Swahili oral traditions associate the coast's commer- cial expansion with the arrival of Arab and franian mer- chants, but do not say what had attracted them. In Kilwa's case the answer is gold. By the late fifteenth cen- tury the city was exporting a ton of gold a year. The gold was mined by inland Africans much farther south. Much of it came from or passed through a powerful state-on the plateau south of the Zambezi River, whose capital city is known as Great Zimbabwe. At its peak in about 1400, the city, which occupied 193 acres (78 hectares), may have had 18,000 inhabitants. Between about 1250 and 1450, local African crafts- men built stone structures for Great Zimbabwe's rulers, priests, and wealthy citizens. The largest structure, a walled enclosure the size and shape of a large football stadium, served as the king's court. Its walls of un- mortared stone were up to 17 feet (5 meters) thick and 32 feet (10 meters) high. Inside the walls were many build- ings, including a large conical stone tower. The stone ru- ins of Great Zimbabwe are one of the most famous historical sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Mixed farming and cattle-herding was Great Zim- babwe's economic base, but, as in Mali, the state's wealth with copper ingots from the upper Zambezi Valley, salt, came from long-distance trade. Trade began regionally and local manufactures. The gold exports into the Indian dents depleted nearby forests for firewood while their power. However, historians suspect that the city's resi- Zimbabwe to the peak of its political and economic Ocean in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries brought ecological crisis hastened the empire's decline in the fif- cattle overgrazed surrounding grasslands. The resulting teenth century.

Mongol Incursions and the Retreat from Europe

Until news of the Mongol campaigns in Russia reached European peoples such as the Germans, Poles, and Hungarians farther west, Christian leaders had been quite pleased by the rise of a new military power in central Asia. Rumors and reports from Christians living in the area, chafing under what they saw as persecution by their Muslim overlords, convinced many in western Europe that the Mongol khan was none other than Prester John. Prester John was the name given to a mythical rich and powerful Christian monarch whose kingdom had supposedly been cut off from Europe by the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. Sometimes located in Africa, sometimes in central Muslim enemy from the rear and join up with European Christians to destroy their common adver- Asia, Prester John loomed large in the European imagination as a potential ally who could strike the sary, The Mongol assault on the Muslim Khwarazm empire appeared to confirm the speculation that Chinggis Khan was indeed Prester John. The assault on Christian, although Orthodox, Russia made it clear that the Mongol armies were neither the legions of Prester John nor more partial to Christians than to any other people who stood in their way. The rulers of Europe were nevertheless slow to realize the magnitude of the threat the Mongols posed to western Christendom. When Mongol envoys, one of whom was an English- man, arrived at the court of King Bela of Hungary demanding that he surrender a group of nomads who had fled to his domains after being beaten by the Mongols in Russia, the king contemptuously dismissed them. King Bela also rebuffed Batu's demand that he submit to Mongol rule. The Hun- garian monarch reasoned that he was the ruler of a powerful kingdom, whereas the Mongols were just another ragtag band of nomads in search of easy plunder. His refusal to negotiate provided the Mongols with a pretext to invade. Their ambition remained the conquest and pillage of all western Europe. That this goal was clearly attainable was demonstrated by the sound drubbing they gave to the Hungarians in 1240 and later to a mixed force of Christian knights led by the Polish ruler, King Henry of Silesia. These victories left the Mongols free to raid and pillage from the Adriatic Sea region in the south to Poland and the German states of the north. It also left the rest of Europe open to Mongol conquest. Just as the kings and clergy of the western portions of Christendom were beginning to fear the worst, e the Mongol forces disappeared. The death of the khagan Ogedei, in the distant Mongol capital at Karakorum, forced Batu to withdraw in preparation for the struggle for succession. The campaign the conquest of Europe was never resumed. Perhaps Batu was satisfied with the huge empire of the Golden Horde that he ruled from his splendid new capital at Sarai on the Volga River in what is southern Russia today. Most certainly the Mongols had found richer lands to plunder in the following decades in the Muslim empires of the Middle East. Whatever the reason, Europe was spared the full fury of the Mongol assault. Of the civilizations that fringed the steppe homelands of the Mongols, only India was as fortunate.

Political and Social Life in the Sudanic States

We can generalize from these brief descriptions of Mali and Songhay about the nature of the Sudanid of life in the savanna. The development states. The village communities, clans, and various ethnic groups continued to organize many aspects of unified states provided an overarching structure that allowed the various groups and communities to coexist. The large states usually represented the politi- cal aims and power of a particular group and often of a dominant family. Many states pointed to the immigrant origins of the ruling families, and in reality the movement and fusion of populations were constant features in the Sudan. Islam provided a universalistic faith that served the interests of many groups. Common religion and law provided solidarity and trust to the merchants who lived in the cities and whose caravans brought goods to and from the savanna. The ruling families used Islamid titles, such as emir or caliph, to reinforce their authority, and they surrounded themselves with literate Muslim advisors and scribes, who aided in government administration. The Muslim concept of a ruler who united civil and religious authority reinforced traditional ideas of kingship. It is also important to note that in Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the formation of states heightened social differences and made these societies more hierarchical. In all the Sudanic states, Islam was fused with the existing traditions and beliefs. Rulership and authority were still based on the ability to intercede with local spirits, and although Sundiata and Sunni Ali were nominally Muslim, they did not ignore the traditional basis of their rule. For this reason, Islam in these early stages in the Sudan tended to accommodate pagan practice and belief Large proportions of the populations of Mali and Songhay never converted to Islam, and those who did convert often maintained many of the old beliefs as well. We can see this fusion of traditions clearly in the position of women. Several Sudanic societies were matrilineal, and some recognized the role of women within the lines of kinship, contrary to the normal patrilineal customs inscribed in the Sharia, or Islamic law. As in the case of Songhay, north African visitors to the Sudan were shocked by the easy familiarity between men and women and the freedom enjoyed by women. Finally, slavery and the slave trade between black Africa and the rest of the Islamic world had a major impact on women and children in these societies. Various forms of slavery and dependent labor had existed in Africa before Islam was introduced. Although we know little about slavery in central Africa in this period, slavery had been a marginal aspect of the Sudanic states. Africans had been enslaved by others before, and Nubian (African) slaves had been known in the classical world, but with the Muslim conquests of north Africa and commercial penetration to the south slavery became a more widely diffused phenomenon, and a slave trade in Africans developed on a new scale. In theory, Muslims viewed slavery as a stage in the process of conversion-a way of prepar ing pagans to become Muslims-but in reality, conversion did not guarantee freedom. Slaves in the Islamic world were used in a variety of occupations, as domestic servants and laborers, but they were also used as soldiers and administrators who, having no local ties and affiliations, were considered to be dependent on and thus trustworthy by their masters. Slaves were also used as eunuchs and con cubines, hence the emphasis on enslaving women and children. The trade caravans from the sahe across the Sahara often transported slaves as well as gold, and as we shall see, other slave trade routes developed from the African interior to the east African coast. Frequently the children of slave mothers were freed and integrated into Muslim society. Although this custom was positive in one sense, it also meant a constant demand for more slaves to replace those freed. Estimates of the volume of the trans-Saharan slave trade vary widely. One scholar places the total at 4.8 million, with another 2.4 million sent to the Muslim ports on the Indian Ocean coast Actual figures may have been considerably lower, but the trade extended over 700 years and affected a large area. It was one more way in which Islamic civilization changed sub-Saharan Africa.

Cont

although the pressure was less severe than that provid- ed by the Germanic tribes in the West. It responded by recruiting armies in the Middle East itself, not by rely- ing on barbarian troops. Complex administration around a remote emperor, who was surrounded by elaborate ceremonies, increasingly defined the empire's political style.

The Songhay Kingdom

based. As the power of Mali began to wane, a successor state from within the old empire was already heginning to emerge. The people of Songhay dominated the middle areas of the Niger valley. Tre ditionally, the society of Songhay was made up of "masters of the soil," that is, farmers, herders, nd "masters of the waters," or fishers. Songhay had begun to form in the 7th century as independent kingdom, perhaps under a Berber dynasty. By 1010, a capital was established at Gao on the Niger River, and the rulers had become Muslims, although the majority of the popula- tion remained pagan. Dominated by Mali for a while, by the 1370s Songhay had established its Independence again and began to thrive as new sources of gold from thlawest African forests began to pass through its territory. Gao became a large city with a resident foreign merchant community and several mosques. Under a dynamic leader, Sunni Ali (r. 1464-1492), the empire of Songhay was forged. Sunni Ali was a great tactical commander and a ruthless leader. His cavalry expanded the borders and seized the traditional trading cities of Timbuktu and Jenne. The middle Niger valley fell under kls control, and he developed a system of provincial administration to mobilize recruits for the army and rule the far-flung conquests. Although apparently a Muslim, he met any challenge to his authority even when it came from the Muslim scholars of Timbuktu, whom he persecuted. A line of Muslim rulers who took the military title askia succeeded him. These rulers, especially Muhammad the Great, extended the boundaries of the empire so that by the mid-16th century Songhay dominated the central Sudan. Life in the Songhay Empire followed many of the patterns established in the previous savanna states. The fusion of Islamic and pagan populations and traditions continued. Muslim clerics and jurists sometimes were upset by the pagan beliefs and practices that continued among the population, and even more by the local interpretation of Islamic law. They wanted to impose a strict interpretation of the law of Islam and were shocked that men and women mixed freely in the markets and streets, that women went unveiled. Songhay remained the dominant power in the region until the end of the 16th century. In 1591, a Muslim army from Morocco, equipped with muskets, crossed the Sahara and defeated the vastly larger forces of Songhay. This sign of weakness stimulated internal revolts against the ruling family, and eventually the parts of the old empire broke away. the Hausa peoples of northern Over the animistic villages, where the majority of the population lived. With powerful cavalry forces cities of the region, an urbanized royal court in a fortified capital ruled ruler of Kano took control in the late 14th century and turned the city into a center of Muslim learn- Nigeria, based on cities such as Kano and Katsina. The earliest Muslim tradition of the western Sudan. Other states that combined Muslim and pagan traditions rose among The demise of the Songhay imperial structure did not mean the end of the political and cultural Ing. In Kano and other Hausa these states extended their rule and protected their active trade in salt, grains, and cloth. Although these later Islamicized African states tended to be small and their goals were local, they reproduced ated with particular families. As merchants and groups of Societies, composed of elite families, occupational groups, free people, and slaves. Intermarriage often leaders became important minorities in these segmented African pastoralists established their outposts in the area of Guinea. Muslim trad- Networks of trade and contact were established widely over the region most of the major trading cities, and religious communities developed in each of these, often associ- Beyond the Sudan, Muslim penetration came in various forms. Merchants became established in many of the social, political, and religious forms of the great empires of the grasslands. ers, herders, warriors, and religious

"For if I am subject to the Mus lim, at least he will not force me to share his faith. But if I have to be under the Frankish rule and united with the Roman Church, I may have мерагate myself from God." The split between the East- ern and Western churches fell short of complete divorce. A common Christianity with many shared or revived classical traditions and frequent com- mercial and cultural contacts continued to enliven the rela- tionship between the two Euro- pean civilizations. The division did reflect the different pat- terns of development the two civilizations followed during the postclassical millennium.

break. The Eastern church acknowledged the pope as first among equals, but papal directives had no hold in the Byzantine church, where state control loomed larger. Religious art conveyed different styles and beliefs, as Fig- ures 9.4 and 9.5 suggest. Even monastic movements oper- ated according to different rules. Then, in 1054, an ambitious church patriarch in Constantinople raised a host of old issues, including a quarrel over what kind of bread to use for the celebra- tion of Christ's last supper in the church liturgy. The bread quarrel was an old one, relating to ritual use of bread in Christ's day. Patriarch Michael now revived the issue. Must bread used for communion be baked with- out yeast? The patriarch also attacked the Roman Catholic practice, developed some centuries earlier, of insisting on celibacy for its priests; Eastern Orthodox priests could marry. Delegations of the two churches dis- cussed these disputes, but this led only to new bitterness. The Roman pope finally excommunicated the patriarch and his followers, banishing them from Christian fel- lowship and the sacraments. The patriarch responded by excommunicating all Roman Catholics. Thus, the split between the Roman Catholic church and Eastern Orthodoxy-the Byzantine or Greek, as well as the Russ- ian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, and others-became formal and has endured to this day. A late-12th-century church patriarch in Constantinople even argued that Muslim rule would be preferable to that of the pope:

A New Phase of Intercontinental Commercial Expansion by Land and Sea

building of the canal system did eras. The extension of Tang control deep into central Asia ma much to promote commera Tang conquests in central Asia and the expansion in the Tang and Song that the overland silk routes between China international contacts in the postclassical period. Tang control and Buddhist centers in the nomadic west. Horses, Persian rugs, and porcelain, and paper were exported tapestries passed to China lands of central Asia as well and Persia were reopened and protected. This intensifi promoted exchanges between Chi as with the Islamic world f along these routes, while fine silk textil to the centers of Islamic civilization. As in the Han era, Chin areas, such as southeast Asia, while importisa exported mainly manufactured goods to overseas mainly luxury products such as aromatic woods and spices. In late Tang and Song times, Chinese merchants and sailors increasingly carried Chinese trad overseas instead of being content to Arabs, Chinese junks were the ruddener best ships in the world in this seafarers come to them. Along with the dhows of the period. They were equipped with water tight bulkheads, sternpost rockets for self-defense. With such ,oars, werans, sails, compasses, bamboo vessels, Chinese sailors and merchants fenders, and gunpowder-propelle became the dominant force in the Asian seas east of the Malayan peninsula. in the market quarters found in all The heightened role of commerce and the money economy in Chinese life was readily apparent cities and major towns (Figure 13.1). These were filled with shops and stalls that sold products drawn from local farms, regional centers of artisan production, and tride centers s as as distant as the Mediterranean. eall, The The Tang and Song governments supervised the hours and marketing methods in these centers, and merchants specializing in products of the same kind banded together in guilds to promote their interests with local officials and to regulate competition. This expansion in scale was accompanied by a growing sophistication in commercial orga zation and forms of credit available in China. In the following millennium these innovations t instruments for economic exchange transformed domestic marketing and international commerce worldwide. The proportion of exchanges involved in the money economy expanded greatly, and deposit shops, an early form of the bank, were found in many parts of the empire. The first use of paper money also occurred in the Tang era. Merchants deposited their profits in their hometowns before setting out on trading caravans to distant cities. They were given credit vouchers, or what the office in the city of destination This This arrangeme money, which they could then Chinese called flying ent tor reimbursement at the appropriate arrangement greatly reduced the danger of robbery on the often perilous journeys merchants made Hom from one one man market center to another. In the early 11th century the government began to issue paper money when an economic crisis made it clear that the private scould no longer handle the demand for the new currency. The expansion of commerce and artisan production was complemented by a surge in urban growth in the Tang and Song eras. At nearly 2 million, the population of the Tang capital and its suburbs at Chang'an was far larger than that of any other city in the world at the time. The imperial city, an inner citadel within the walls of Chang'an, gardens and a hunting park were laid out for the The spread of commerce and the increasing especially the south, old cities mushroomed as suburbs spread in all directions from population also fed urban growth in the rest of China amusement of the emperors and favored courtiers secretariats of the imperial government. Near the imperial city but outside Chang'an's walls, elaborate nated by the palace and audience halls and a section crowded with the offices of the ministries and was divided into a highly restricted zone doml In the north and the original city walls. Towns grew rapidly into cities, living in urban centers grew steadily. The have been as high as 10 pertent, was also far greater than that found in any civilization until after the number of people living in large cities in China, which may and the proportion of the empire's population Industrial Revolution. Expanding Agrarian Production and Life in the Country The movement of the population of Chinese settlement and agricultural tems was part of a larger process of agrarian shifting cultivators or peoples of non-Chinese descent. The state also supported military garrisons peasant groups to migrate to uncultivated production was promoted by the rulers of both dynastles expansion in the Tang and Song period. The expansion southward to the fertile valleys of the Yangzi and other river areas or those occupies Their officials actively encouraged

Religious Syncretism

combining of different beliefs, blending practices of various schools of thought/religion

Mongol Tolerance and Foreign Cultural Influence

ke Chinggis Khan and other Mongol overlords, Kubilai and Chabi Junbounded curiosity and very cosmopolitan tastes. Their generous tronage drew scholars, artists, artisans, and office-seekers from many nds to the splendid Yuan court. Some of the most favored came from Muslim kingdoms to the east that had come under Mongol rule. Mus- ims were included in the second highest social grouping, just beneath the Mongols themselves. Persians and Turks were admitted to the inner circle Kubilai's administrators and advisors. Muslims designed and supervised the building of his Chinese-style imperial city and proposed new systems for more efficient tax collection. Persian astronomers imported more advanced Middle Eastern instruments for celestial observations, corrected ihe Chinese calendar, and made some of the most accurate maps the Chi- nese had ever seen. Muslim doctors ran the imperial hospitals and added ranslations of 36 volumes on Muslim medicine to the imperial library. In addition to the Muslims, Kubilai welcomed travelers and emis- aries from many foreign lands to his court. Like his grandfather, Kubilai Had a strong interest in all religions and insisted on toleration in his Homains. Buddhists, Nestorian Christians, Daoists, and Latin Christians made their way to his court. The most renowned of the latter were mem- bers s of of the Polo family from Venice in northern Italy, who traveled exten- sively in the Mongol empire in the middle of the 13th Polo's account of Kubilai Khan's court and empire, where Polo lived and century. Marco served as an administrator for 17 years, is perhaps the most famous travel account written by a European (Figure 15.7). Polo accepted fantastic tales of grotesque and strange customs, and he may have taken parts of His account from other sources. Still, his descriptions of the palaces, cit- les, and wealth of Kubilai's empire enhanced European interest in Asia and helped to inspire efforts by navigators, such as Columbus, to find a sea route to these fabled lands.

mandate of heaven

legitimizing authority to justify overthrowing leader- Han Empire (202 BCE -220 BCE

Patterns of Accommodation

of the Muslim conquests, complained openly about the prevailing Indian disdain for the newcomers: As the bearers of an upstart religion and as polluting outcastes. Al-Biruni, one of the chief chroniclers political rule over large areas of the subcontinent, high-caste Hindus in particular saw the invaders lon on the Hindu population as a whole. Despite military reverses and the imposition of Muslim Although Islam won many converts in certain areas and communities, it initially made little impres- relligion like theirs, no science like theirs, They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited and stolid. The Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no kings like theirs, no Many Hindus were willing to take positions as administrators in the bureaucracies of Muslim socially aloof from their conquerors,. Separate living quarters were established everywhere Muslim overlords or as soldiers in their armies and to trade with Muslim merchants. But they remained communities developed. Genuine friendships between members of high-caste groups and Muslims were rare, and sexual liaisons between them were severely restricted. to that outcome. Hindus staffed the bureaucracies and made up a good portion of the armies of Mus- be absorbed by the superior religions and more sophisticated cultures of India, the peoples who had entered the subcontinent in the preceding millennia, the Muslims would soon During the early centuries of the Muslim influx, the Hindus were convinced like so many of Many signs pointed lim rulers. In addition, Muslim princes adopted regal styles and practices that were Hindu-inspired and contrary to the Qur'an. Some Muslim rulers proclaimed themselves to be of divine descent, and others minted coins decorated with Hindu images such as Nandi, the bull associated with a major Hindu god, Shiva. followed by "clean" artisan and merchant groups. Lower-caste and untouchable converts remained depending on whether they were Arab, Turk, or Persian. High-caste Hindu converts came next, Muslims generally were on top of the hierarchies that developed, and even they were divided More broadly, Muslim communities became socially divided along caste lines. Recently arrived at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This may help to explain why conversions in these groups were not as numerous as one would expect given the original egalitarian thrust of Islam. Muslims also adopted Indian foods and styles of dress and took to chewing pan, or limestone wrapped with betel leaves. The Muslim influx had unfortunate consequences for women in both Muslim and Hindu com- munities. The invaders increasingly adopted the practice of marrying women at the earlier ages favored by the Hindus and the prohibitions against the remhrriage of widows found especially at the high-caste levels of Indian society. Some high-caste Muslim groups eveh performed the ritual of sati, the burning of widows on the same funeral pyres as their deceased husbands, which was found among some high-caste Hindu groups.

The Founding of the Song Dynasty

of the once-glorious to resign, China appeared and social strife. In 960, Tang Empire. By 907, when the to be entering another however, a military phase of nomadic By the end of the 9th century little remained last emperor of the Tang dynasty was forced dominance, political division, commander emerged to reunite a far-flung reputation as one Dynasties that had struggled to control north warrior, Zhao was a scholarly man who collected Amid the continuing struggles for control in the north, Zhao's himself emperor. In the next few China under a single of the most honest last of the Five dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin had established and able of the generals of the China after the fall of the Tang. Although a fearless while out campaigning subordinates and regular troops years Zhao, renamed Emperor Taizu. dynasty that was to rule most of China books rather than booty insisted that he proclaim routed all his rivals except one, thus for the next three centuries, founding the Song 13.3 The one rival Taizu could not overcome was the northern O7 by the nomadic Khitan peoples from Manchuria. This failure Liao dynasty, which had been founded set a precedent for weakness on e the dynasty from its earliest he part of the Song rulers in dealing with the nomadic peoples of the north. This shortcoming years to its eventual destruction by the Mongols in the late 13th defeats at the hands of the Khitans to sien militarily adept northern neighbors. These es of humiliating ury Beginning in 1004, the Song were forced by military treaties with their smaller but more entics committed the Song to paying a very nd possibly conquering the Song domains. The Khitans, who had been highly Sinified, or influenced heavy tribute to the Liao dynasty to keep it from raiding Chinese culture, during a century of rule in north China, seemed content with this arrangement. hey clearly saw the Song empire as culturally superior-an area from which they could learn much in statecraft, the arts, and economic organization.

The Kingdoms of Kongo and Mwene Mutapa

on the lower Congo River By Beginning shout the 13th century, enother kingdom was forming late ISth century this kingdom, Kengo, was flourihing developed the skills of weaving, pottery, blacksmithing, and carving Individeal wtise lled On a firm gricuhural bese, its peple a he working of wood,copper, and iron, were highly esteemed. There aharp division of labor between men and women. Men took onaibility for clearing the forest and scrub, producing palm oil pulm wine, building houses, hunting, and long-distance trade. Waten took charge of cultivation in all its aspects, the care of Aon atic animals, and household duties. On the seacoast, women made salt from seawater, and they also collected the seashells that ned currency in the Kongo kingdom. The population was dutributed in small family-based villages and in lowns. The area round the capital, Mbanza Kongo, had a population of 60,000 to 100.000 by the early 16th century. The kingship of the Kongo was hereditary but local dieftalnships were not, and this gave the central authority power to ntrol subordinates. In a way, the Kongo kingdom was a confedera on smaller states brought under the control of the manikongo. or king, and by the 15th century it was divided into eight major provinces The word mani means "blacksmith, and it demonstrated the importance of iron and the art of working it in its association with political and ritual power. Farther to the cast, another large Bantu confederation devel- oped among the farming and cattle-herding Shona-speaking peoples in the region between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers Beginning in the 9th century cE, migrants from the west began buld royal courts in stone, to which later immigrants added more polished constructions. There were many of these zimbabwe, atone house, sites (about 200 have been found) that housed local rulers and subchiefs, but the largest site, called Great Zimbabwe, was truly impressive (Figure 9.5). It was the center of the kingdom and had a religious importance, associated with the bird of God, agle that served as a link between the world and the spirits. The symbol of the bird of God is found at the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and throughout the arca of its control. Great Zimbabwe (not to confused with the modern nation of Zimbabwe) included several structures, some with strong stone walls 15 feet and 30 high, a large conical tower, and extensive cut stone architecture made without the use of mortar to join the bricks together. Observ- each side of the main figure's en in the 19th century suspected that Phoenicians or Arabs had hullt these structures, mostly because their prejudices prevented them from believing that Africans were capable of erecting such buildings, but archeologists have established that a Bantu kingdom had begun construction in stone by the 11th century C.E. and had done its most sophisticated bullding in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the 15th century, a centralized state ruled from Great Zimbabwe had begun to form. It Great Zimbabwe Bantu controlled a large portion of the interior of southeast Africa all the way to the Indian Ocean. confederation of Shona-speaking Under a king who took the title Mwene Mutapa (which the Portuguese later pronounced "Mono peoples located between Zambez molapa"), this kingdom experienced a short period of rapid expansion in the late 15th and 16th and Limpopo rivers; developed after centuries. Its dominance over the sources of gold in the interior eventually with the Arab port of Sofala on the coast. Evidence of this bult of stone; created centralized gave it great advan- 9th century, featured royal courts ages in commerce, which it developed state by 15th century; king took title trade is found in the glass beads and porcelain unearthed by archeologists at Great Zimbabwe. of Mwene Mutapa. By the 16th century, internal divisions and rebellion had split the kingdom apart, and perhaps an emphasis on cattle as a symbol of wealth led to soil exhaustion. Control of the gold fields still provided a source of power and trade. Representatives of the Mwene Mutapa called at the ecast- oast ports to buy Indian textiles, and their regal bearing and fine iron weapons impressed the firnt Europeans who saw them. As late as the 19th century, a much smaller kingdom of Mwene Mutapa survived in the interior and provided some leadership against European encroachment, but pastoralism had come to play a central role in the lives of the Shona people who descended from the great tradition.

Animism

| - religious belief that focuses on the roles of various gods/spirits in the natural world and human life (e.g. Japanese Shinto) • Ancestor Veneration

Shamanism

| - the practice of identifying special individuals who interact with spirits for the benefit of the community (e.g. The Americas, Central Asia)

Christianity

• Sacred Text: The Bible (New Testament) • AP Loves: • Monasticism • Welcomed women, lower classes • Spread on trade routes (Mediterranean, Silk Roads) • Sects: • Catholic vs. Orthodox vs. Protestant

Hinduism

• Sacred Text: The Vedas • AP Loves: Caste system Cultural unity in Offshoots: • Buddhism • Jainism

Buddhism

• Sacred Text: Tripitaka • AP Loves: Rejected caste system Monasticism • Welcomed women & lower classes Spread along trade Roads and Indian Ocean) • Sects: • Theravada vs. Mahayana • Mahayana→Boddhisattva's

Continued

Ali, the fourth caliph, ruled from 656 until he was assassinated in 661. At that time, a network of merchants from Mecca, aided by capable generals and strong armies, assumed power. They founded the Umayyad Dynasty. This Sunni dynasty moved its capital to Damascus, from where it governed its huge empire for approximately 90 years. Ultimately, the Umayyads' control reached as far west as Gibraltar, in the Iberian peninsula, and as far east as India. They controlled the largest territory of anyone since the Roman Empire. Followers of Ali, however, resisted the Umayyad leaders, causing Shia beliefs to develop political as well as religious components. Their community leader became known as imam rather than caliph.

Songhay

Songhay (sohng-HEYEJ Successor state to Mal; dominated middle reaches of Niger valley: formed as Independent kingdom under a Berber dynasty; capital at Gao; reached imperial status under Sunni All (r. 1464-1492).

The Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to Timur demoralized Muhammad Shah, the The Mongol retribution came so swiftly and was so ferocious that it completely ruler of Khwarazm, whose arrogance brought death and destruction to his kingdom on an appalling scale. Muhammad Shah had scoffed at Chinggis Khan's demand for retribution for the plunder and slaughter of a Mongol caravan that had entered Khwarazm in 1218 (Map 15.1). Chinggis Khan had personally dispatched the caravan as a signal that he wished to establish political and commercial relations with Khwarazm. Having in effect declared war on the Mongols by ignoring their demands for just recompense, Muhammad Shah compounded his folly by quarreling with the caliph of Baghdad, who consequently had little Inclination to come to his rescue.

Caught off guard by the Mongol assault that drove deep into his empire from several directio Muhammad Shah was at first immobilized with fear, and then in full flight, leaving his hapless subiel to fend for themselves. Columns of battle-hardened Mongol cavalry besieged, then stormed.one af another of the legendary cities that were the glory of Khwarazm. Bukhara was taken in early 1220 af its Turkish garrison was eliminated; several months later, most of the inhabitants of Samarkand wd had initially attempted to resist the invaders, were massacred. The Mongols inundated Gurgani, ti former capital of Khwarazm, by opening the flood gates of a nearby river. And the ancient citadel Bamian, where Chinggis Khan's much-loved grandson was killed bya defender's arrow, was oblita ated and given the name "accursed city" Over time the mass slaughters (often dramatized by references to pyramids of skulls) an the destruction of Khwarazm's ancient cities became defining features in accounts of the suddd and barbaric peoples on ancient emergence of the nomadic Mongols as conquerors of much of Eurasia. Until quite recently, mol histories have depicted these and similar Mongol conquests as savage assaults by backwar and highly developed centers of human civilization. But eve the Khwarazm campaign, which was certainly one of the most violent launched by Mongd forces, provides ample illustration of another side to the Mongol imperium. Traditionally, th Mongols' contributions to cross-cultural exchange and human advance have been neglected b historians. But in many of the cities of Khwarazm, where the population resisted and was kille wholesale, skilled artisans were spared in the thousands. Some of these were sent to the Mongd capital at Karakorum. Others carried their skills throughout the empire, and both manufacturin and commerce soon thrived under the aegis of Mongol rule. The century and a half of Mongol dominance also saw a revitalization of commerce and urban life in places like Bukara and Samarkand, along the Silk Road-the great trading networ that had, for millennia, linked China and East Asia with the Middle East, India, and Europe (sed the Visualizing the Past feature). Without ques tion, the price of Muhammad Shah's treachery and the resistance that opened the way to this renewal was high-perhaps intolerably so-but it is important to take fully into account the con- structive aftermath of Mongol expansionism in Khwarazm and other regions.

Carolingian Dynasty

Charles Martel was a military leader of the Franks who led Christian forces of northern France, Belgium, and western Germany to defeat the Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732. This victory stopped the expansion of Muslim forces into northern Europe, although most of the Iberian Peninsula, present-day Spain and Portugal, remained under Muslim control. This caliphate came to be known as Al-Andalus and is discussed in more detail in Chapter 8. Martel founded the Carolingian Dynasty of the Frankish kingdom and ruled from 737 to 741. His son Pepin (ruled 752-768) consolidated his power by getting the pope to declare his right to the throne, increasing his legitimacy over rivals. Pepin's son Charlemagne ruled the Frankish kingdom from 768 to 814. In exchange for conquering Lombardy in Italy, Charlemagne was named Emperor of the Romans by the pope in 800. As emperor, he led a force east that defeated the Saxons and converted them to Christianity. With relative peace established, Charlemagne encouraged church-based education and used regional administrators to help govern his empire. Although no lasting centralized government developed, Charlemagne's rule foreshadowed the coming of the Holy Roman Empire. The Carolingian Dynasty lasted only through its division among the grandsons of Charlemagne.

Ravenna, a key artistic center, embellished by some of the most beautiful Christian mosaics known anywhere in the world (Figure 9.2). But the major Italian holdings were short-lived, unable to withstand Germanic pressure, and north African territory was soon besieged as well. Furthermore, Justinian's westward ambitions had weakened the empire in its own sphere. Persian forces attacked in the northern Middle East, while new Slavic groups, moving into the Balkans, pressed on another front (Map 9.1). Justinian finally managed to create a new line of The Empire Byzantine Under defense and even pushed Persian forces back Justinian again, but some Middle Eastern territory was lost. Furthermore, all these wars, offensive and defensive alike, created new tax pressures on the government and forced Justinian to exertions that con- tributed to his death in 565 C.E.

Cont

Slave women might find themselves who already had wed their allotment of four wives, Slave serving as concubines to Islamic men women were allowed more independence-for example, to go to than the legal wives. Only slave women were permitted to dance or perform men. This opportunity sometimes enabled female markets and to run errands- musically before unrelated slaves to accumulate enough money to buy their freedom.

Cont

and other religious figures, often richly ornamented- expressed this artistic impulse and its marrjage with Christianity. The icons' blue and gold backgrounds set with richly dressed religious figures were meant to rep- resent the unchanging brilliance of heaven.

Cont

Confucianism • Sacred Text: The Analects • AP Loves: • Chinese bureaucracy • Scholar gentry • Civil service examination • vs. Neo-Confucianism

Daoism • Sacred Text: Tao Te Ching • AP Loves: • Daoist art • Inspiration for astronomy, alchemy, and science

West was not yet powerful enough to hold this ground, and a small Byzantine Empire was restored, able through careful diplomacy to survive for another two centuries. Turkish settlements pressed ever closer to Con- stantinople in the northern Middle East-in the area that is now Turkey-and finally, in 1453, a Turkish sul- tan brought a powerful army, equipped with artillery purchased from Hungary, against the city, which fell after two months. By 1461, the Turks had conquered remaining pockets of Byzantine control, including most of the Balkans, bringing Islamic power, farther into eastern Europe than ever before. The great east- en empire was no more. The fall of Byzantium was one of the great events world history, and we will deal with its impact in several later chapters. It was a great event because the Byzantine Empire had been so durable and important, anchoring a vital corner of the Mediterranean even amid the contacts and its ability to preserve and rapid surge of Islam. The empire's trading spread classical and Christian learning made a vital unit throughout the postclassical period. After its demise, its influence continued to affect other societies including the new ottoman empire

Fall cont

Family and Society in the Tang and Song Eras

Family and Society in the Tang and Song Eras class levels in the Tang and Song centuries closely resembled Chinese family organization at various that found in earlier periods. Nonetheless, the position of women showed signs of improving under the Ting and early Song eras, and then deteriorated ttended-family households were preferred, but normally they could be afforded only by the upper hierarchy promoted by Confucius and other early thinkers held sway authority of elders and males within the family was but- tressed by laws that prescribed beheading as a punishment for children Brandparents in anger, hit their older siblings. and two and one-half years of hard labor for younger brothers sisters who who struck their parents or steadily in the late Song. As in the classical age, dases. The male-dominated at all class levels. In the Tang period, the Over the centuries, a very elaborate process of forging go-betweens, almost always women, helped both marriage alliances developed. Profession families to negotiate such prickly to be paid to the husband's family. Brides a issues as matchir young men and women and the amount of the dowry grooms in China, in contrast to those of the Confucian reluctance to mix generations. in India, were generally about the same age, probably becane and Wei and the concubine Yang Guifei some evidence suggests that at least for Both within the family and in society at large, women remained clearly subordinate to men B women of the upper classes in urban areas, the opportunin for personal expression increased in the Tang and early Song. As the example of the empresses W make clear, Tang women could wield considerable power society. That they also enjoyed access to a broad range of activities, if n by a surviving pottery figure from the early Tang period of a youn the highest levels of Chinese career possibilities, is indicated woman playing polo. Tang and Song law allowed divorce by mutual consent of both husband and wife. There were alse aside his wife if her parents were dead or if he had been po0 suggest that Chinese wives had more defense case in India at this time. A remarkab degree of independence laws prohibiting a husband from setting when they were married and later became rich. These against capricious behavior by their husbands than was the is also indicated by the practice, women in large cities such as Hangzhou husbands") with the knowledge of their husbands. taking lovers (or what were politely called "complimentsar reported in late Song times, of wealth

Islamic Challenge and Hindu Revival Despite a significant degree of acculturation to Hindu lifestyles and social organization, Muslim migrants to the subcontinent held to their own distinctive religious beliefs and rituals. The Hindus found Islam impossible to absorb and soon realized that they were confronted by an actively pros- elytizing religion with great appeal to large segments of the Indian population. Partly in response to CHAPTER 8 Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islamic Civilization to

Gxhxh

The Spread of Civilization in Eastern Europe

I Christian missionaries, new trade routes, and Byzantine military activity affected much of eastern Europe. Within this context, the Kievan Rus' formed the core of Russian cul ture and politics. Long before the Byrantine decline after the 1lth century, the empire had been the source of a new northward surge of Christianity. Orthodox missionar ies sent from Constantinople busily converted most their wake. In 864, the Byzantine government sent the and some other trappings of Byzantine culture came in people in the Balkans to their ersion of Christianity missionaries Cyril and Methodius to the territory that is now the Czech and Slovak republics. Here the ven- ture failed, in that Roman Catholic missionaries were

Political and Social Structures of the Early Middle Ages

In contrast to the large Roman Empire of the past, smaller, less-centralized states developed in the Early Middle Ages. The Franks, despite their name, were not French at all but Germanic. They established an early capital in Paris. King Clovis (ruled 481-511) became the first monarch to unite all the Frankish tribes and was also the first Roman Catholic ruler of the Franks. However, government under his heirs was unstable. In a recurring historical pattern, succession problems haunted those who tried to establish a centralized monarchy in Western Europe.

Pre-Islamic Bedouin Culture

In the sixth century, the Bedouins were well established in the Arabian Peninsula. Their culture was mostly nomadic, tribal, and polytheistic. In each clan or tribe, a sheikh ruled with consent of tribal council. Shaping a sheikh's decisions was a feeling of allegiance to other clans or tribes in the region. as a way to care for widows whose husbands had died in raids or warfare. Polygyny, in which a man has more than one wife at a time, was allowed, partly Although polytheistic, the religion of the Bedouins included worship of honesty and generosity. All of these features-except polytheism-would religion, and there was no separate class of priests. Tribal values emphasized was a large black stone at the city of Mecca. The entire tribe was a part of the supreme deity: Allah. Each tribe had a sacred stone, but the most revered of all Sea became more suffered. The Bedouins had to compete with the coastal merchants and traders, popular than overland routes and the Bedouin trade caravans and the Sassanid to the north and east, water travel by the Red Sea and Arabian When fighting calmed between two nearby empires, the Byzantine to the north Land trade routes via camels formed the basis provide some continuity when incorporated into Islam. of the Arabian economy. whose wealth was growing.

Core Theological Principles of Muhammad

Islam emerged as the third great world religion to come from Southwest Asia, Like the other two, Judaism and Christianity, Islam was a monotheistic faith that honored Abraham and other prophets. Because of these similarities, followers of Islam showed great respect toward these other People of the Book. Core theological principles of Islam include: the ideas of salvation and hope of an afterlife; the importance of submission to the will of Allah (the one true God); and a belief in the Quran as the sacred book providing guidance and laws for the followers.

Vocab

Jurchens [YUHR-chehns] Founders of the Jin kingdom that succeeded the Liao in northern China; annexed most of the Yellow River basin and forced Song to flee to south. Jin Kingdom north of the Song Empire; established by Jurchens In 1115 after overthrowing Liao dynasty: ended 1234. Southern Song Rump state of Song dynasty from 1127 to 1279; carved out of the much larger domains ruled by the Tang and northern Song; culturally one of the most glorious reigns in Chinese history. Grand Canal Bult in 7th century during reign of Yangdi during Sul dynasty; designed to link the original centers of Chinese civilization on the north China plain with the Yangtze river basin to the south; nearly 1200 miles long.

Cont effects of crusades

Knowledge of the world beyond Westem Europe increased as Crusaders encountered both the Byzantine and Islamic cultures. The encounter also increased demand in Europe for newfound wares from the East. In opening up to global trade, however, Western Europeans also opened themselves to disease. The plague, referred to as the Black Death, was introduced to Europe Additional outbreaks occurred over the succeeding decades. As many as 25 by way of trading routes. A major epidemic broke out between 1347 and 1351. million people in Europe may have died from the plague. With drastically reduced populations, economic activity declined in Europe. In particular, a shortage of people to work on the land had lasting effects on the feudal system. Christian banner and stopped squabbling among local rulers. For the longer term, of the Holy Land brought fighting forces of Western the Church from reformers and monarchs. The pope's call for military conquests The Crusades posed a temporary answer to some of the growing challenges to Europe together under the christian banner and stopped squabbling among all rulers

Prosperity Under Islam

Like the Abbasids in Baghdad, the Umayyad rulers in Córdoba created a climate of toleration with Muslims and Christians coexisting easily. They also promoted trade, with Chinese and Southeast Asian products entering Spain, and through it the rest of Europe. Many of the goods in this trade traveled aboard ships called dhows. These ships, first developed in India or China, had long, thin hulls that made them excellent for carrying goods, though less useful for conducting warfare. The influence of Islamic architecture can still be seen in Spain today. Impressive buildings were constructed during this period, such as the palaces and fortresses of the Alhambra (thirteenth century), built outside present-day Grenada.

Seljuk Turks

Like the Abbasids, the Seljuk Turks were Muslims. They originated from Central Asia. They seized parts of the Middle East, including Baghdad itself. Their leader took the title sultan, reducing the Abbasid caliph the role of chief Sunni religious authority. The Turks almost immediately began threatening the neighboring Byzantine Empire.

Umayyad Empire

Location: Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Southwest Europe Capital: Damascus and then Córdoba

Chinese Civilization: The Era in of the Tang and Song Dynasties Under the aegis of two of its most celebrated dynasties, the Tang and the Song, which ailed from the early 7th century to the late 13th century C.E., Chinese society advanced in virtually ll areas of human endeavor as far as any to that time. It was the largest (both in population and teritory) and most prosperous empire on earth. Nowhere during these centuries were China's remarkable achievements so obvious as in the great cities found throughout the empire (see Faure 13.1), several of which exceeded a million people, surpassing those of any other civilization of the age. Although it was not the largest city, Hangzhou (hohng-joh), the capital of the Song rulers, was renowned for its beauty and sophistication.

Located between a large lake and a river in the Yangzi delta (Map 13.1), Hangzhou was criss crossed by canals and bridges. The city's location near the Yangzi and the coast of the tast China Sea allowed its traders and artisans to prosper through the sale of goods and the manufactur of products from materials drawn from throughout China as well as overseas. By late Song times Hangzhou had more than a million and a half residents and was famed for its wealth, cleanliness and the number and variety of diversions it offered. A visitor to Hangzhou could wander through its ten great marketplaces, each stocked with products from much of the known world. The less consumption-minded visitor could enjoy the city's many parks and delightful gardens or go boating on the Western Lake. There the pleasure craft of the rich mingled with special barges for gaming, dining, or listening to Hangzhou's famous "singing-girls." In the late afternoon, one could visit the bath houses that were found throughout the city. At these establishments, one could also get a massage and sip a cup of tea or rice wine In the evening, one might dine at one of the city's many fine restaurants, which specialized in the varied and delicious cuisines of the different regions of China. After dinner, there were a vari ety of entertainments from which to choose. One could take in the pleasure parks, where acrobats jugglers, and actors performed for the passing crowds. Other options included the city's ornate tea houses, an opera performance by the lake, or a viewing of landscape paintings by artists from the city's famed academy. Having spent such a day, it would be hard for a visitor to disagree with Marco Polo (a native from another beautiful city of canals, Venice) that Hangzhou was "the most noble city and the best that is in the world." Although enjoyed mainly by elite social groups, the good life in cities like Hangzhou was made possible by the large, well-educated bureaucracy that had governed China for centuries. As we will see in this chapter, centralized control and a strong military brought long periods of peace, during which the ruling elites promoted technological innovation, agrarian expansion, and commercia enterprise at both home and overseas. Despite increasing pressure from nomadic invaders from wes and north from the 11th century onward, these trends persisted. Well into the modern era, China went on to produce some of the great art of humankind and remained one of the world's most prosperous societies.

Mongols

Mongols The fourth group to attack the Abbasid Empire were among the most famous conquerors in history: the Mongols. Like the Seljuk Turks, they hailed from Central Asia. The Mongols conquered what was left of the Abbasid Empire in 1258, and pushed Seljuk Turks out of Baghdad. They continued to push westward, but were stopped in Egypt by the Mamluks. The Mongols will be described in more detail in Chapter 13.

Comparing Carolingians and Tang china

Numerous political similarities existed between the Carolingians in France and the Tang Dynasty in China (618- 907). Both used religion to legitimize their rule, placed a high value on education, and attempted to control the nobles through regional administrators. In addition, both were successful in repelling invaders. For example, Charles Martel in Europe turned back the Muslims at Tours in 732, and Lİ Yuan, the Duke of Tang, defeated nomadic border peoples and agrarian rebels in 615. Despite these similarities, the two political systems faced opposite outcomes. The splitting of the Carolingian Kingdoms in 814 led to the intensification of feudalism and local power. In contrast, China entered a period of great prosperity under a strong central government. China's rulers built the Grand Canal to facilitate its rule in two ways: maintaining better contact with southern Chinese regions and providing a better way for those regions to send tribute. The Tang prosperity led to more international contacts through the now- safer Silk Road, with its fortified command posts and garrisons of soldiers. The challenging civil service exams, which required an expanded educational system in China, were unknown in Europe. While leaders in both Western Europe and China used religion to legitimize rule, ideologies differed as a result of the religious and philosophical trends in each area. The Roman Catholic Church provided the major ideology for Western Europe, and leaders sought legitimacy through their relationships with the papacy. Chinese rulers thought to be legitimate claimed to have the Confucian Mandate of Heaven, but Confucianism and Buddhism vied for influence in China. Empress Wu (ruled 665-705) tried to make Buddhism a state religion, but persecution of Buddhists followed herreign, and Confucianism

The First Assault on the Islamic World

Once they had established a foothold in north China and solidified their empire in the steppes, the Mongol armies moved westward against the Kara Khitai (KAH-rah KIHT-uh) empire, which had been established by a Mongolian-speaking people a century earlier (Map 15.1). Having overwhelme and annexed the Kara Khitai by 1219, and, as we have seen, provoked by Muhammad Shah, Chinggis Khan led his armies in the conquest of the Khwarazm (kwahr-ahzm) empire further west. Again and again, the Mongols used their favorite battle tactic in these encounters. Cavalry were sent to attack the enemy's main force. Feigning defeat, the cavalry retreated, drawing the opposing forces out of forma tion in the hope of a chance to slaughter the flecing Mongols. Once the enemy's pursuing horsemen

Social and Cultural Life

Over time, the Islamic world fragmented politically but advanced culturally. Trade brought in new goods and fresh ideas. In addition to the cities of Baghdad and Córdoba, Cairo in Egypt and Bukhara in central Asia developed great universities. Islamic centers of learning were not limited to the study of religious teachings. Indeed, in the sayings of the prophet Muhammad is the injunction to "Go in quest of knowledge Greek literary classics into Arabic, saving the works of Aristotle and other even unto China." Islamic scholars translated Greek thinkers from oblivion. Scholars also brought back mathematics texts hospital care improved in cities such as Cairo, while doctors and pharmacists from India and techniques for paper-making from China. Medical advances in such as the Persian Omar Khavvám, author of The Rubaivat, created works studied for examinations for licenses that would allow them to practice. Writers

Patterns of Conversion

Patterns of Conversion came to be dominated by accommodation Although the Muslims fought their way into India, their interaction with the indigenous peoples soon and peaceful exchanges. Over the centuries when much of sizable Muslim communities developed in different the north was ruled by dynasties centered at Delhi, areas of the subcontinent. The largest of the Indus valley that were the points of entry for most of the Muslim peoples who migrated into India. Few of these converts were won forcibly. The main carriers of the new faith often were merchants, who played a growing role in both coastal and inland trade, but were most especially Sufi mystics The latter shared much with Indian gurus and wandering ascetics in both style and message. Belief of these were in Bengal to the east and in the northwestern areas in their magical and healing powers enhanced the Sufis' stature and increased their following. Their mosques and schools often became centers of regional political power. Sufis organized their devotees in militias to fend off bandits or rival princes, oversaw the clearing of forests for farming and settle- ment, and welcomed low-caste and outcaste Hindu groups into Islam. After their deaths, the tombs of Most of the indigenous Sufi mystics became objects of veneration for Indian Muslims as well as Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims. converts, who came to form a majority of the Muslims living in India, were drawn from specific regions and social groups. Surprisingly found in the Indo-Gangetic centers of Muslim political power, a fact small numbers of converts were that suggests the very limited importance of forced conversions. Most Indians who converted to Islam were from Buddhist or low- caste groups. In areas such as western India and Bengal, where Buddhism had survived as a popular religion until the era of the Muslim invasions, esoteric rituals and corrupt practices had debased Buddhist teachings and undermined the morale of the monastic orders. This decline was accelerated by Muslim raids on Buddhist temples and monasteries, which pro- vided vulnerable and lucrative targets for the early invaders. Without monastic supervision, local congregations sank further into orgies and experiments with magic. All of these trends opposed the Buddha's social concerns and religious message. Disorganized and misdirected, Indian Buddhism was no match for the confident and vigorous new religion the Muslim invaders carried into the sub- continent. This was particularly true when those who were spreading the new faith had the charisma and organizing skills of the Sufi mystics. 196 PART III The Postclassical Period, 600-1450: New Faith and New Commerce Buddhists probably made up the majority of Indians who converted to Islam. But untouchables low-caste Hindus, as well as tribal peoples who were animists worshiping spirits found in the Aal world, were also attracted to the more égalitarian social arrangements promoted by the new naAs was the case in earlier centuries with the Buddhists, group conversions were essential because ose who remained in the Hindu caste system would have little to do with those who had changed lielons, Some conversions resulted from the desire of Hindus or Buddhists to escape the head tax ike Muslim rulers levied on unbelievers. They were prompted by intermarriage between local peoples and Muslim migrants. Muslim migrants also swelled the size of the Islamic community in the subcon- Hinent. This was particularly true in periods of crisis in central Asia. In the 13th and 14th centuries. for exumple, Turkic, Persian, and Afghan peoples retreated to the comparative safety of India in the face of the Mongol and Timurid conquests that are examined in detail in Chapter 15.

Vicab

Prester John In legends popular from 12th to 17th century, a mythical Christian monarch whose kingdom was cut off from Europe by Muslim conquests; Chinggis Khan was originally believed to be this mythical ruler,

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia The lands of Southeast Asia-now the modern countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam-were all heavily influenced by South Asia. Indian merchants had contact with these Southeast Asian lands as early as 500 B.C.E. The merchants introduced Indian goods such as gold, silver, metal goods, and textiles to the region and brought back its fine spices. Through trade, Southeast Asia was also introduced to the Indian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The Ramayana and Mahabharata epics were especially popular among the Funan rulers of the first century to sixth century C.E., because the epics served to reinforce ideas of kingship. These rulers- whose kingdom included parts of modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand-conducted royal business in Sanskrit and even adopted the Sanskrit word for king, raja, as a way to refer to themselves. Though most of their subjects worshipped local deities or spirits associated with nature, over time Hinduism came to be accepted is the larger culture. Funan rulers profited from the India-China trade by controlling a thin stretch of land on the Malay Peninsula that many merchants used as a shortcut between the two countries. The rulers extracted a fee from all traders who used it. The Funans developed an extensive irrigation system on their lands that helped increase agricultural production. The system was destroyed, however, after peoples from the north- the Chams and Khmers-invaded and occupied the Funan kingdom. During the post-classical period, several kingdoms attempted to control Southeast Asia, including the Srivijaya (670-1025), Singosari (1222-1292),

Mahmud of Ghazni (ma-MOOD of GAHZ-neel (971-1030) Third ruler of Turkish slave dynasty in Afghanistan led invasions of northern India: credited with sacking one of wealthiest of Hindu temples in northern India: gave Muslims reputation for intolerance and aggression. Muhammad of Ghur (1173-1206) Miltary commander of Persian extraction who ruled small mountain kingdom in Afghanistan; began process of conquest to establish Muslim political control of northern India; brought much of indus valley, Sind, and northwestern india under his control. Qutb-ud-din Aibak (KUHTH- uhd-dihn ay-BAHK) Lieutenant of Muhammad of Ghur; established kingdom in India with capital at Delphi; procialmed himself Sultan of houses India (r. 1206-1210).

Vocab

Cont

and Majapahit (1293-1520). However, the Angkor Kingdom, also known as the Khmer, situated near the Mekong River, was the most successful of all. The reasons for Angkor's success have been debated by historians. A leading theory states that the kingdom's sophisticated irrigation and drainage systems led to greater economic prosperity. Irrigation allowed farmers to harvest rice crops several times a year, and drainage systems reduced the impact of the heavy monsoon rains. The Angkor kingdom lasted for more than 500 years (889-1431), controlling land in what is now Cambodia. Its capital was Angkor Thom. The royal monuments at Angkor Thom are evidence of Indian cultural influences on Southeast Asia. Founded by rulers in the eighth century with the help of Indian advisors, the city of Angkor Thom was built to house the king and display the grandeur of his rule. Hindu artwork and sculptures of Hindu gods abounded in the royal city. Building resumed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Khmer rulers, who had become Buddhist, added Buddhist sculptures and artwork to the complex without destroying any of the Hindu artwork. The entire complex covered about two square miles and was surrounded by a large moat. During the same period, the ornate and majestic Buddhist temple complex of Angkor Wat was constructed, one-half mile from Angkor Thom. In 1451, the Thais invaded the area, forcing the Khmers out. Nevertheless, ruins of the magnificent structures in Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat still stand, testifying not only to the greatness of Southeast Asian culture but also to the powerful

Building the Mongol War Machine

be men of the Mongol tribes that had elevated Chinggis Khan to lead- 7rip were natural warriors. Trained from youth not only to ride but L to bunt and fight, they were physically tough, mobile, and accus- ed to killing and death. They wiekded a variety of weapons, including xes hatchets, and iron maces. None of their weapons was as devastat- gas their powerful short bows. A Mongol warrior could fire a quiver of LTOWS with stunning accuracy without breaking the stride of his horse. He could hit enemy sokdiers as distant as 350 yards (the range for the ghly contemporary English longbow was 250 yards) while ducking of his pony, or leaning over the horse's rump. The fact that the Mongol dly that their advances s alone armies were entircly cavalry meant that they moved so could be demoralizing to enemy forces. To a people whose very lifestyle bred mobility, physical courage, and a love of Chinggis Khan and his many able subordinate comanders I brought organization, PIO quarrels and vendettas between clant and and discipline, and unity of command. teib tribes were overrid- den by loyalty to the khagan. Thus, energies once devoted to infighting were now directed toward conquest and and the forcible exaction of tribute, bech in areas controlled by other r nomadie groups and the civilized centers that tringed armies md the sieppes on all sides The Mone Mongol forces were dded into mes made up of basic fighting units called t tumens, each cosisting of 10,000 warriors. Each tumen was of 1000, 100, and 10 warriors. Commanders at each level were respon- further divided into units Ele for training, arming, and disciplining the cavalrymen under their charge. The tumens were also divided into heavy cavalry, which carried lances s and wore some metal armor, and light cavalry, which relied pri anly on the bow and arrow and leather helmets and body covering. Even more lightly armed were the scouting parties that rode ahead of Mongol armies and, using flags and special signal fires, kept the main Force informed of the enemy's movements. Chinggis Khan also created a separate messenger force whose bodies were tightly bandaged to allow them remain in the saddle for days, switching from horse to horse to carry urgent messages between the khagan and his commanders. Military discipline had long been secured by personal ties between commanders and ordinary soldiers. Mongol values, which made courage in battle a prereg- uisite for male self-esteem, were buttressed by a formal code that dictated the immediate of a warrior who deserted his unit. Chinggis Khan's swift executions left little doubt about the fate d traitors to his own cause or turncoats who abandoned enemy commanders in his favor. His genero ity to brave foes was also legendary. The most famous of the latter, a man named Jebe, nicknamed the Arrow, won the khagan's affection and high posts in the Mongol armies by standing his ground after his troops had been routed and fearlessly shooting Chinggis Khan's horse out from under him A special unit supplied Mongol armies with excellent maps of the areas they were to invade. These were drawn largely according to the information supplied by Chinggis Khan's extensive network of spies and informers. New weapons, including a variety of flaming and exploding arrows, gunpowder Khan's armies rode projectiles, and later bronze cannons, were also devised for the Mongol forces. By the time Chinggis east and west in search of plunder and conquest in the second decade of the 13th century, they were among the best armed and trained and the most experienced, disciplined, and mobile soldiers in the world.

Continued from bottom!! empire a favorable trading position with less sophisti- cated lands. Only China produced luxury goods of with India, the Arabs, and east Asia while receiving sim- comparable quality. The empire also traded actively pler products from western Europe and Africa. At the same time, the large merchant class never gained sig- nificant political power, in part because of the elabo- rate network of govermment controls. In this, notably from the looser social and political networks of Byzantium again resembled China and differed the West, where merchants were gaining greater voice. Byzantine cultural life centered on the secular tra- ditions of Hellenism, so important in the education of burcaucrats, and on the evolving traditions of Eastern, or Orthodox, Christianity. The Byzantine strength lay in preserving and commenting on past forms more than in developing new ones. Art and architecture were excep- tions; a distinct Byzantine style developed fairly early. The adaptation of Roman domed buildings, the elabo- ration of powerful and richly colored religious mosaics, and a tradition of icon paintings-paintings of saints

bureaucratic corruption, although her severe retalia- tion against personal enemies brought criticism. Supplementing the centralized imperial authority was one of history's most elaborate bureaucracies. Trained in Greek classics, philosophy, and science in a secular school system that paralleled church education for the priesthood, Byzantine bureaucrats could be recruited from all social classes. As in China, aristocrats predominated, but talent also counted among this elite of highly educated scholars. Bureaucrats were spe- cialized into various offices, and officials close to the emperor were mainly eunuchs. Provincial governors were appointed from the center and were charged with keeping tabs on military authorities. An elaborate system of spies helped preserve loyalty while creating intense distrust even among friends. It is small wonder that the word Byzantine came to refer to complex insti- arrangements. State control of the church and frs annointment of head church officials was another key aspect of the government structure. Careful military organization arose as well, as Figure 9.2 suggests. Byzantine rulers adapted the later Roman system by recruiting troops locally and rewarding them with grants of land in return for their military service. The land could not be sold, but sons inherited its admin- istration in return for continued military responsibility. Many outsiders, particularly Slavs and Armenian Chris- tians, were recruited for the army in this way. Increasing- ly, hereditary military leaders assumed regional power, displacing more traditional and better-educated aristo- crats. One emperor, Michael II, was a product of this sys- tem and was notorious for his hatred of Greek education and his overall personal ignorance. On the other hand, the military system had obvious advantages in protecting a state recurrently under attack from Muslims of various sorts-Persians, Arabs, and later Turks-as well as nomadic intruders from central Asia. Until the 15th cen- tury, the Byzantine Empire effectively blocked the path to Europe for most of these groups. Socially and economically, the empire depended on Constantinople's control over the countryside, with the bureaucracy regulating trade and controlling food prices. The large peasant class was vital in supplying goods and providing the bulk of tax revenues. Food prices were kept artificially low, to content the numer- ous urban lower classes, in a system supported largely by taxes on the hard-pressed peasantry. Other cities were modest in size-for example, Athens dwindled- because the focus was on the capital city and its food needs. The empire developed a far-flung trading net- work with Asia to the east and Russia and Scandinavia to the north. Silk production expanded in the empire, with silkworms and techniques initially imported from China, and various luxury products, including cloth, carpets, and spices, were sent north. This gave the

A New Phase of Intercontinental Commercial Expansion by Land and Sea

by Tang conquests in central Asia and the building of the canal system did much to promote commerd control deep into central Asia n expansion in the Tang and Song eras. The extension of Tang that the overland silk routes between China and Persia were international contacts in the postclassical period. Tang control reopened and protected. This intensified and Buddhist centers in the nomadic lands of central Asia as well promoted exchanges between China as with the Islamic world fanh west. Horses, Persian rugs, and tapestries passed to China along these routes, while fine silk tevil to the centers of Islamic civilization. As in the Han era, Chi porcelain, and paper were exported exported mainly manufactured goods to overseas areas, mainly luxury products such as aromatic woods and spices. In late Tang and Song times, Chinese merchants and sailors such as southeast Asia, while importine increasingly carried Chínese trad. overseas instead of being content to let foreign seafarers come to them. Along with the dhows of the Arabs, Chinese junks were the best ships in the world in this period. They were equipped with water tight bulkheads, rockets for self-defense. With such vessels, Chinese sternpost rudders, oars, sails, compasses, bamboo fenders, and gunpowder-propelled sailors and merchants became the dominant force in the Asian seas east of the Malayan peninsula. in the market quarters found in all The heightened role of commerce and the money economy in Chinese life was readily apparent cities and major towns (Figure 13.1). These were filled with shops marketing methods in these centers as distant as the Mediterranean. and stalls that sold products drawn from local farms, regional centers of artisan production, and trade The Tang and Song governments supervised the hours and centers, and merchants specializing in products of the same kind banded together in guilds to promote their interests with local officials and to regulate competition. This expansion in scale was accompanied by a growing zation and forms of credit available in China. In the following instruments for economic exchange transformed domestic marketing and international commerce involved in money economy expanded greatly, and millennium these innovations in sophistication in commercial organi- worldwide. The proportion of exchanges deposit shops, an early form of the bank, were found in many parts of the empire. The first use of paper money also occurred in the Tang era. Merchants deposited their profits in their hometownt before setting out on trading caravans to distant cities. They were given credit vouchers, or what the Chinese called flying money, which they could then present for reimbursement at the appropriate office in the city of destination. This arrangement greatly reduced the danger of robbery on the often market center to another. In the early 11th century the government began to issue paper money when an merchant banks could no longer handle the demand for the new currency. economic crisis made it clear that the private perilous journeys merchants made from one The expansion of commerce and artisan production was complemented by a surge in urban growth in the Tang and Song eras. At nearly 2 million, the population of the Tang capital and its suburbs at Chang'an was far larger than that of any other city in the world at the time. The imperial nated by the palace and city, an inner citadel within the walls of Chang'an, was divided into a highly restricted zone doml- audience halls and a section crowded with the offices of the ministries and secretariats of the imperial government. Near the imperial city but outside Chang'an's walls, elaborate gardens and a hunting park were laid out for the amusement of the emperors and favored courtiers In the north and The spread of commerce and the increasing population also fed urban growth in the rest of China especially the south, old cities mushroomed as suburbs spread in all directions from the original city walls. Towns grew rapidly into cities, and the proportion of the empire's population living in urban centers grew steadily. The number of people living in large cities in China, which may have been as high as 10 pertent, was also far greater than that found in any civilization until after the Industrial Revolution.

Islamic World Through 1450

he fastest growing major religion in the world today, Islam, is rooted in faith in one God, Allah, as taught by several prophets. The last of these prophets was Muhammad (570-632 C.E.), who lived in the desert lands of the Arabian Peninsula. In the course of the first century after Muhammad's life, Islam expanded rapidly, reaching from Persia to Spain. Today, Islam remains the predominant religion in the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in non-Arab countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Niger.

The Split Between Eastern and Western Christianity Byzantine culture and politics, as well as the empire's eco- nomic orientation toward Asia and northeastern Europe,

helped explain the growing break between its eastern ver- sion of Christianity and the western version headed by the pope in Rome. There were many milestones in this rift. Different rituals developed as the Western church translated the Greek Bible into Latin in the 4th century. Later, Byzantine IMAGE emperors deeply resented papal attempts to Twelfth- loosen state control over the Eastern church to make it conform more fully to their own idea of church-state relations. Contact between the two branches of Christianity trailed off, though neither the Eastern nor Weoern church cared to make a definitive

as a Marker of Male Dominance Footbinding

hich women in the Tang-Song era were constricted in terms vo ASPECT OF GENDER RELATIONS EXEMPLIFIES the degree to tivitif career choices and subordinated to males as dramatically as footbinding. This practice may have had its origins in the delight ne of the Tang emperors took in the tiny feet of his favorite dancing girls or, as has been recently argued, the fashion prefer- beence of elite women for small feet. Whatever its rationales, by the later Song era, upper-class men had developed a preference for small feet for women. This preference gradually spread to some groups further down on the social scale, including the well-to-do peasantry. In response to male demands, on which the successful nego- tiation of a young woman's marriage contract might hinge, moth- ers began to bind the feet of their daughters as early as age five or six. The young girl's toes were turned under and bound with silk, which was wound more tightly as she grew, as shown by the accompanying photo. By the time she reached marriageable age, a young woman's feet had been transformed into the "lotus petal" or golden lily" shapes that were presumably preferred by prospec- tive husbands. Bound feet were a constant source of pain for the rest of a woman's life, and they greatly limited her mobility by making it very difficult to walk even short distances. Limited mobility made it easier for husbands to confine their wives to the family com- Pound. It also meant that women could not engage in occupations except ones that could be pursued within the extended family household, such as textile production. For this reason, the lower casses, whose households often depended on women's labor in fields, markets, or homes of the wealthy to make ends meet, were slow to adopt the practice. But once it was in fashion among the scholar-gentry and other elite classes, footbinding became vital to winning a husband. In part, because a good marriage for their daughters was the primary goal of Chinese mothers, the practice was usually unquestioningly passed from one generation of women to the next.

Vocab

junks Chinese ships equipped with watertight bulkheads, stempost rudders, compasses, and bamboo fenders; dominant force in Asian seas east of the Malayan peninsula. flying money Chinese credit instrument that provided credit vouchers to merchants to be redeemed at the end of the voyage: reduced danger of robbery: early form of currency.

Western Europe After Rome, 400-1450 C.E.

ollowing the breakdown of the Roman Empire in 476 C.E., Western Europe entered a period of chaos known as the Middle Ages the medieval period. Roman rule was replaced by a collection of Germanic tribal kingdoms that fought one another for power and territory. The first 500 years of the medieval period, until 1000 C.E., are often referred to as the Early Middle Ages. Some historians, however, call this period the "Dark Ages," because learning was less widespread than in Roman times and cities were in decline. Moreover, roads were in disrepair and the ancient practice of barter returned to replace the Roman coinage system. Nevertheless, Western Europe remained somewhat connected to the wider world in this period; coastal towns still participated in global trade by way of the Mediterranean Sea. The years 1000 to 1450 are often called the High Middle Ages. In this later period, European learning and trade began to flourish once again. The French thinker Peter Abelard (1079-1142) quoted above exemplified this rebirth of learning in European society. Although he was the son of a knight, he chose to study philosophy, especially the logic of Aristotle. As a monk and theologian, Abelard used these logical methods to address seeming contradictions in Roman Catholic Church teachings and practices. In spite of his critical writings, Abelard remained faithful to the Church throughout his life.

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pulled together diverse aspects of Chinese civilization. The brushes and techniques used were sim lar to those used in writing the Chinese depicted were not only paintings were symbolic, intended to teach moral language, whích itself was regarded as a high art form The lessons or explore philosophical ideas. The obje beautiful in themselves but stood for larger concepts: A crane and a ping tree, for example, represented longevity; bamboo shoots were associated with the scholar-gentr number of things, including the emperor, the cosmos, class; and a dragon could call to mind any life-giving rain. day. The artists were not concerned There was an abstract quality to the paintings that gives them a special appeal in the prese with depicting nature accurately but rather with creating a highly personal vision of natural beauty. A premium was placed on subtlety and suggestide For example, the winner of an imperial contest painted a lone monk drawing water from a icy stream to depict the subject announced by the mountains during the winter. Song landscapes often were painted on scrolls emperor: a monastery hidden deep in the that could be rea by the painter, which as the viewer unfolded them bit by bit. Most were accompanied by a poem, sometimes compose complemented the subject matter and was aimed at explaining the artis ideas.

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swift after the invention of the horse collar to yoke teams of horses. Riding horses became easier, too, when the use of stirrups to Europe about the seventh century. Stirrups distributed spread from Central Asia the rider's weight more evenly over the horse's back, saving the horse discomfort and back injury while helping the rider to be more secure. The manor produced everything that people living on it required, limiting the need for trade or contact with outsiders. Many serfs spent their entire life on a single manor, unaware of what was happening in the rest of Europe. A serf might not see more than 100 different people in an entire lifetime. The languages that almost everyone understood-Latin and German- evolved as areas developed their own dialects, or regional ways of speaking. Over time, the Latin dialects developed into new vernacular languages, such as French, Italian, and Spanish. Latin remained the formal language used by clergy, scholars, and lawyers, while the vernacular languages were used by common people. Literary works developed in these new languages as well. Comparing Social Classes in Europe and Asia Social classes were hierarchical in both Western Europe and Asia. While some similarities existed between the feudal system of Western Europe and the caste system of South Asia during the post-classical period, European feudalism allowed for more social mobility. While the practice of serfdom became hereditary in some areas, it was never as restrictive as was the position of untouchables in the Hindu caste system. In addition, knights could receive additional fiefs for services rendered to their lords, and squires, who served the knights, could rise to knighthood through deeds of valor. Moreover, the Church offered priests opportunities for upward mobility. In Tang China (618-907), the emperor ruled a strong central government supported by an efficient bureaucracy. Although there was a class of aristocrats, there were few large estates as land ownership was more widespread than in Europe. Merchants were not as frowned upon as they were in Western Europe, as profit-making was not despised to the extent that it was by the Catholic Church. A scholar-gentry class also developed under the Tangs. Organized religions in both Western Europe and South Asia provided some opportunities for women through convent life in the Christian areas and Jainist or Buddhist religious communities in South Asia. Women in Tang China were better off now than they were later under the Song Dynasty (960-1279) when foot-binding came into fashion.

o honor the Chinese ystem, an arrangement in which other states had to pay money or provide goods emperor. For example, the Silla Kingdom in Korea was not pay a large tribute to the emperor. The tributary art of China, but it had to ystem cemented China's economic and political power over several foreign sountries, but it also created erform a ritual Tang emperors also expected stability and stimulated trade for all parties involved. representatives from tributary states to kowtow, a requirement in which anyone greeting the Chinese mperor must bow his or her head until it reached the floor. This act was a way o acknowledge China's superior status. Tang Accomplishments The Tang Dynasty had some notable chievements. Emperor Tang Taizong nodes of transportation that had begun during oads and canals, as well as postal and messenger uccessfully reduced the dangers from bandits. the Sui Dynasty, such as (ruled 627-649) further developed services. His government Tang Taizong expanded the empire's bureaucracy, which developed into n important and ongoing feature of Chinese government. Candidates for he bureaucracy had to pass an extremely rigorous civil service examination. he exam system had a tremendous impact on Chinese culture. Since the xamination was difficult, education became increasingly important in China, development that fostered economic growth for many centuries. Further, erving in the bureaucracy was highly regarded. So, just as communities today night take pride in producing an Olympic athlete or a noted actor, communities n China took pride in their natives who won a good position working for the overnment. Though most bureaucrats earned their positions in government, ome were appointed. Aristocratic families had greater access to high-level ositions in the bureaucracy than did any other group. Spread of Buddhism In 629, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Xuanzang eft China to go on a pilgrimage to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. He traveled vest on the Silk Roads to Central Asia, then south and east to India, which e reached in 630. Along the way and in India he met many Buddhist monks nd visited Buddhist shrines. In order to gain more insight into Buddhism, he tudied for years in Buddhist monasteries and at Nalanda University in Bilar, ndia-a famous center of Buddhist knowledge. After 17 years away, Xuanzang nally returned to China, where people greeted him as a celebrity. He brought ack many Buddhist texts, which he spent the rest of his life translating into Chinese. These writings were highly instrumental in the growth of Buddhist cholarship in China. An Lushan By the eighth century, the Tang Empire already showed dministering the affairs of government and became distracted by his favorite igns of weakness. Emperor Hsuan Tsung (ruled 712-756) was not devoted to oncubine, Yang Guifei. A military leader named An Lushan orchestrated a ne government and defeat the rebels. The rebellion did tremendous damage. sia on land controlled by China, arrived from the west to restore power to sung in 755. Finally, an army of Uighurs, an ethnic group living in Central ebellion involving about a hundred thousand soldiers, overthrowing Hsuan

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Slavery

Slavery Although Islam allowed slavery, Muslims could not enslave other Muslims. Also exempt were Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. Slaves were often imported from Africa, Kievan Rus, and Central Asia, but the institution of hereditary slavery did not develop. Many slaves converted to Islam, after urhich their ownere freed them and thair ohildran wara aonnidorad fann

Signs of Strain

Signs of Strain The decline of medieval society involved increasing challenges to several typical medieval institutions. During the 14th century, the ruling class of medieval society, the land-owning aristocracy, began to show signs of confusion. It had long staked its claim to power on its control of land and its military prowess, but its skill in warfare was now open to question. The growth of professional armies and new weaponry such as cannon and gunpowder made traditional fighting methods, including fortified castles, increasingly irrelevant. The aristocracy did not simply disappear, however. Rather, the nobility chose to emphasize a rich ceremonial style of life, featur- ing tournaments in which military expertise could be turned into competitive games. The idea of chivalry-carefully controlled, polite behavior, including behavior toward women-gained ground. The upper class became more cultivated. We have seen similar transformations in the earlier Chinese and Muslim aristocracy. Yet at this transitional point in Europe, some of the elaborate ceremonies of chivalry seemed rather hollow, even a bit silly-a sign that medieval values were losing hold without being replaced by a new set of purposes. Another key area involved decisive shifts in the balance between church and state that had char- acterized medieval life. For several decades in the aftermath of the taxation disputes in the early 14th century, French kings wielded great influence on the papacy, which they relocated from Rome to Avignon, a town surrounded by French territory. Then rival claimants to the papacy confused the issue further. Ultimately, a single pope was returned to Rome, but the church was clearly weakened. Moreover, the church began to lose some of its grip on western religious life. Church leaders were so preoccupied with their political spiritual side. Religion was not declining; indeed, signs s of of intense popular piety continued d to to involvement that they tended to neglect the blossom, blossom and new new religious in the towns. But devotion became partially separated from the institution of the church. One result, again beginning in the 14th century, was a series of popular heresies, with lead- ers in es such as England and Bohemia (the present-day Czech Republic) preachino a against the hierarch I apparatus of the church in favor of direct popular experience of God. Another result s an important new series of mystics, many of them women, who claimed direct, highly emotional contacts with God. A third area in which medievalism faded was the breakdown of the intellectual and even artistic synthesis. After the work of Aquinas, church officials became less tolerant of intellectual daring, and they even declared some of Aquinas's writings heretical. The earlier blend of rationalism and religion no longer seemed feasible. Ultimately, this turned some thinkers away from religion, but this daring

Economic Challenges

The Abbasids faced economic as well as military challenges. In particular, trade patterns were shifting. Baghdad lost its traditional place on the southern Silk Roads route when goods began to move more frequently along northern routes. Over time, Baghdad lost population and its canals fell into disrepair and the countryside could not sustain the agricultural needs of the urban population. Slowly, the infrastructure that had made Baghdad a great city fell into decay.

confucianism

east asia- han A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

Vocab

kuriltai (KURL-tuhl Meeting of all Mongol chieftains at which the supreme ruler of all tribes was selected. khagan (KAH-gahn] Title of the supreme ruler of the Mongol tribes. tumens Basic fighting units of the Mongol forces; consisted of 10,000 cavalrymenç each unit was further divided into units of 1000, 100, and 10.

The Srivijayan Kingdom

7-3b The Srivijayan Kingdom By the sixth century a new, all-sea route had developed. Merchants and travelers from south India and Sri Lanka now sailed through the Strait of Malacca (between the west side of the Malay Peninsula and the northeast coast of the island of Sumatra) and into the South China Although presenting both human and navigational hazards, the new route significantly shortened the journey. A new center of power, Srivijaya (sree-vih-JUH-yuh)-Sanskrit for "Great Conquest"-dominated the new southerly route by 683 CE. The capital of the Srivijayan kingdom was at modern-day Palembang in southeastern Sumatra, 50 miles (80 kilometers) up the broad and navi- gable Musi River, with a good natural harbor. The kingdom was well situated to control the southern part of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, parts of Java and Borneo, and the Malacca (muh-LAH-kuh) and Sunda straits-vital passageways for shipping (see Map 7.2). The Srivijayan kingdom gained ascendancy over its rivals and assumed control of the international trade route by fusing four distinct ecological zones into an interdependent network. The core area was the productive agricultural plain along the Musi River. The king and his clerks, judges, and tax collectors controlled this zone directly. Control was less direct over the second zone, the upland regions of Sumatra's

Feudalism: Political and Social Systems

8rg/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id%3D%2Fperse While kings fought, they needed people to protect their lands. Kings paid nobles with land called fiefs; the amount of land owned determined a person's wealth. In return, these landowners, called lords, promised to fight for the king. The lords were the kings' vassals, people who owed service to another person. Lords could have their own vassals if they had enough land to spare. For example, lords could hire knights to fight for them by offering them a piece of land. The knights would be the vassals of the lords and owe the lords service. This system of obligations, called feudalism, was widespread in Europe from the similarities aud differences between the feudalishi in Europe and teudalism in Japan: Feudalism was a mutually beneficial relationship of free persons. Sanctioned by oaths of loyalty, the system cut down on losses to robbers and bandits, provided equipment for fighters who could hope to become knights, and gave land in return for service of the lord. A king controlled larger areas of land and could give larger fiefdoms to lords loyal to him. Local lords often represented the only law and order in their areas, and their power was absolute. The feudal system incorporated a code of chivalry as a way to resolve disputes and to show etiquette. Since women were to be protected, the code put them on a pedestal while not investing them with any significant additional importance. In practice, women did not have many rights.

had spread themselves over the countryside, main force of Mongol heavy cavalry, until then concealed, attacked them in a devastating pincer formation. And the great cities of adversary powers fell to the new siege weapons and tactics the Mongols had perfected in their north China campaigns. Within two years, his once flourishing citie i ruin and his kingdom in Mongol hands, Muham- mad Shah, having retreated across his empire, died on a desolate island in the Caspian Sea. In addi- tion to greatly enlarging his domains, Chinggis Khan's victories meant that he could bring tens of thousands of Turkic horsemen into his armies. By 1227, the year of his death, the Mongols ruled an empire that stretched from eastern Persia to the North China Sea.

A European Assessment of the Virtues and Vices of the Mongols AS WE HAVE SREN, MUCH OF what we know about the history of turns another away, but instead helps him and supports him as nomadic peoples is based on the records and reactions of observ- much as possible. ers from sedentary cultures that were often their mortal enemies. The Tartars are prouder than other men and despise every Polo, who visited the vast Mongol domains at the height of the Some of the r most famous observers were those, including Marco one else; indeed it is as through they held outsiders for nothing whether noble or base born.. The Tartars become quite angry with other men, are indignant by nature and lie to all outsiders; khans' power in the 12th and 13th centuries. Many tried to Assess the strengths and weaknesses of these people, who were suddenly almost no truth is found among them. At first they are very mild, such a great impact inciel on the history of much of the known but in the end they sting like a scorpion. The Tartars are subtle . Che or the most insightful of these observers was a Fran and treacherous and, if they can, they get around everything by ciscan friar named Giovanni de Piano Carpini. In 1245. s, Pope cunning. The men are filthy with regard to their clothing, food Innocent IV Sent sent Piano Carpini as an envoy to the "Great Khan" and other things.... Drunkenness is honorable among the to protest the by his Mongol forces on Christian Tartars.... They are very jealous and greedy, demanding of Europe. The pope's protest had little effect on the Mongol deci- favors, tenacious of what they have and stiney givers, and they sion to strike elsewhere in the following years. But Piano Carpini's think nothing of killing foreigners. In shbecause their evil extensive travels produced one of the most detailed accounts of habits are so numerous they can hardly be set down. Mongol society and culture to be written in the mid-13th century. As the following passages suggest, like other visitors from seden- tary arcas, he gave the Mongols a very mixed review: The aforesaid men (namely the Tartars) obey their lords more than anyone else in the world, whether clergymen or laymen, and they respect them greatly and do not easily lie to them. The Tartars seldom argue to the point of insult, and there are no wars, quarrchs, injuries or murders among them. Each man respects his fellow and they are friendly cach other, and though food is scare among them, there is still enough to share....When riding horses they tolerate great cold and heat. Nor are the men touchy; they do not appear jealous of their neighbors, and it seems that none are envious. No man

Politics: Settling for Partial Restoration Song

A comparison of the boundaries of the early Song Empire (Map 13.3) with that of the Tang domains MAD 13.2) reveals that the Song never matched its predecessor in political or military strength. The weakness of the Song resulted in part from imperial policies that were designed to ward off the con- ditions that had destroyed the Tang dynasty. From the outset, the military was subordinated to the civilian administrators of the scholar-gentry class. Only civil officials were allowed to be governors, thereby removing the temptation of regional military commanders to seize power. In addition, mili- tary commanders were rotated to prevent them from building up a power base in the areas where they were stationed. At the same time, the early Song rulers strongly promoted the interests of the Confucian scholar- gentry, who touted themselves as the key bulwark against the revival of warlord influence. Officials salarles were increased, and many perks-including additional servants and payments of luxury goods such as silk and wine-made government posts more lucrative. The civil service exams were fully routinized. They were given every three years at three levels: district, provincial, and imperial. Song these successful candidates were much more likely to receive an official post than their counterparts in examiners passed a far higher percentage of those taking the exams than the Tang examiners had, and litle to do. In this way, the ascendancy of the scholar-gentry class over its aristocratic and Buddhist the Tang era. As a result, the bureaucracy soon became bloated with well-paid officials who often had rivals was fully secured in the Song era.

architect, philosopher, physician, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi (1201-1274), better known as Nasir al-Din Tusi, was a Persian polymath, scientist, and theologian. He is often considered the creator of trigonometry as spurred understanding of biology, math, astronomy, logic, and a mathematical discipline. His interests chemistry. Astronomy Tusi convinced Hulegu Khan to construct an observatory for establishing accurate astronomical tables for better astrological predictions. Beginning in 1259, an observatory was الصضدة constructed in Azarbaijan, the capital of the Ilkhanate Empire. Based on the observations in this for the time being most advanced observatory, Tusi made very accurate tables of planetary movements. He calculated the positions of the planets and the names of the stars. His model for the planetary system is believed to be the most advanced of his time and was used extensively until the development of the heliocentric model in the time of Nicolaus Copernicus. Between Ptolemy and Copernicus, he is considered one of the most eminent astronomers of his time. For his planetary models, he invented a geometrical technique called a Tusi-couple, which generates linear motion from the sum of two circular motions. He used this technique replace Ptolemy's for many planets. The Tusi couple was later employed in Ibn al-Shatir's geocentric model and Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric Copernican model. Tusi criticized Ptolemy's use of observational evidence to show that the Earth was at rest, noting that such proofs were not decisive. Although it doesn't mean that he was a supporter of mobility of the earth, as he maintained that the earth's immobility could be demonstrated, only by physical principles found in natural philosophy. Tusi's criticisms of Ptolemy were similar to arguments later used by Copernicus in 1543 to defend the Earth's rotation. About the real essence of the Milky Way, Tusi wrote: "The Milky Way, i.e. the galaxy, is made up of a very large cloudy patches. because of this, it was consisting of manv stars came in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used a telescope to studv the Milkv Wav and likened to milk in color." Three centuries later the proof of the Milky Way number of small, tightly-clustered stars, which, on account of their concentration and smallness, seem to be

Abbasid innovation

THE COMING OF ISLAM TO SOUTH ASIA

All through the millennia when a succession of civilizations from Harappa to the brahmanic empire of the Guptas developed in south Asia, foreigners had entered India in waves of nomadic invaders or as Muslim small bands of displaced into the civilizations they encountered peoples seeking refuge. Invariably, those who chose to remain were assimilated in the lowland areas. They converted to the Hindu or Buddhist religion, found a place in the caste hierarchy, and adopted the dress, fobds, and lifestyles of the farming and city-dwelling peoples of the many regions of the subcontinent. This capacity to absorb peoples moving into the area resulted from the strength and flexibility of India's civilizations and from the fact that India's peoples usually enjoyed a higher level of material culture than migrant groups entering pubcontinent. As a result, the persistent failure of Indian rulers to unite against aggressors meant dic disruptions and localized destruction but not fundamental challenges to the existing order. this changed with the arrival of the Muslims in the last years of the 7th century C.E. (Map 8,2). With the coming of the Muslims, the peoples of India encountered for the first time a large-scale bux of bearers of an outside civilization as sophisticated, if not as ancient, as their own. They were lo confronted by a religious system that was in many ways the very opposite of the ones they had urtured. Hinduism, the predominant Indian religion at that time, was open, tolerant, and inclusive of widely varying forms of religious devotion, from idol worship to meditation in search of union eth the spiritual source of all creation. Islam was doctrinaire, proselytizing, and committed to the exelusive worship of a single, transcendent god.

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Also, the nobles won the right (a form of tax placed on a knight who service). Finally, the first English Parliament increased the rights of the English trial before a noble could be sentenced to prison. to be consulted on the issue of scutage wanted to "buy out" of military was formed in 1265. These developments nobility, but not of the general population. In the first full parliamentary meeting in 1265, represented the nobles and Church hierarchy, while the House of Commons representatives of wealthy townspeople. Eventually bodies in England became stronger than that continent. The course of English feudalism for the individual. By contrast, Japanese feudalism the House of Lords was made up of elected the power of these two legislative of similar bodies on the European led to modern democracy developed on a similar retained only the port of the rival monarchies: protection of the individual through course, but it emphasized rights of the group rather than checks on those in authority. In the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), the tables were turned between this time England invaded France. Although the English Calais in France as a result of the war, a strong sense of unity evolved in both countries during the period. Another result of the war was the spreading use of gunpowder. Invented by the Chinese and brought to the Middle East by Mongols, gunpowder was in use in Europe by the fourteenth century. The Mongols also popularized the use of horses in Europe. In addition to conquering England, the Normans in the eleventh century also conquered Sicily, taking control of that Mediterranean island from Muslims. In the same century, other Christian forces began taking control of Spain from Muslim rulers. This reconquista or reconquest was finally completed in 1492.

From Booty to Empire: The Second Wave of Muslim Invasions

Alter the initial conquests by Muhammad ibn Qasim's armies, little ertitory was added to the Muslim foothold on the subcontinent. In het, disputes between the Arabs occupying Sind and their quarrels with first the Umayyad and later the Abbasid caliphs gradually weakened the Muslim hold on the area. This was reflected in the reconquest of parts of the lower Indus valley by Hindu rulers. But the gradual Muslim retreat was dramatically reversed by a new series of military invasions, this time launched by a Turkish slave dynasty that in 962 had seized power in Afghanistan to the north of the Indus valley. The third ruler of this dynasty, Mahmud of Ghazni, led a series of expeditions that began nearly two centuries of Muslim raiding and conquest in northern India. Drawn by the legendary wealth of the subcontinent and a zeal to spread the Muslim faith, Mahmud repeatedly raided northwest India in the first decades of the 11th century. He defeated one confederation of Hindu princes after another, and he drove deeper and deeper into the subcontinent in the quest of ever richer temples to loot. The raids mounted by Mahmud of Ghazni and his successors gave way in the last decades of the 12th century to sustained campaigns aimed at seizing political control in north India. The key figure in this transition was a tenacious military commander of Persian extraction, Muhammad of Ghur After barely surviving several severe defeats at the hands of Hindu rulers, Muhammad put together a string of military victories that brought the Indus valley and much of north central India under his control. In the following years, Muhammad's conquests were extended along the Gangetic plain as far as Bengal, and into west and central India, by several of his most gifted subordinate command- ers. After Muhammad was assassinated in 1206, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, one of his slave lieutenants, seized power. Significantly, the capital of the new Muslim empire was at Delhi along the Jumna River on the Gangetic plain. Delhi's location in the very center of northern India graphically proclaimed that a Muslim dynasty rooted in the subcontinent itself, not an extension of a Middle Eastern central Asian empire, had been founded. For the next 300 years, a succession of dynasties ruled much of north and central India. Alternately of Persian, Afghan, Turkic, and mixed descent, the rulers of these imperial houses proclaimed themselves the sultans of Delhi (literally, princes of the heartland). They fought each other, Mongol and Turkic invaders, and the indigenous Hindu princes for control of the Indus and Gangetic heartlands of Indian civilization,

CHANGING ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FORMS IN THE POSTCLASSICAL CENTURIES

Although culture provided the most obvious cement for Western society during the Middle Ages, economic activity and social structure also developed common features. Here too, the postclassical West demonstrated impressive powers of innovation, for classical patterns had little hold. As trade revived by the 10th century, the West became a common commercial zone. Most regions produced primarily for local consumption, as was true in agricultural societies generally. But Italian merchants actively sought cloth manufactured in the Low Countries (present-day Belgium and the Netherlands), and merchants in many areas traded for wool produced in England or timber supplies and furs brought from Scandinavia and the Baltic lands. Great ports and trading fairs, particularly in the Low Countries and northern France, served as centers for Western exchange well markets for few exotic products such as spices brought in from other civilizations (Map 11.3). Western Europe also saw a clear expansion in productive capacity during much of the postclassical period, with gains in agriculture supporting some growth in urban manufacturing. Their achievements here did not rival those of east Asia, where the production gains and social consequences were more

Sufism

As Islam spread, it became more varied. In India and Persia, Islamic groups called Sufis began to appear. Notable for their shaved heads, Sufis followed rituals and ecstatic chants in attempts to unite with God. Sufi groups abstained response to the perceived love of luxury by the early Umayyad Caliphate. through learning. Sufism may have begun as a mystical of the Quran, Sufis emphasized introspection to grasp truths that they believed ecstasy. Unlike Muslims who focused on intellectual pursuits, such as the study from earthly pleasures, and some used whirling dancing to express religious could not be understood

String of Invasions

As with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, outside invaders pressured Western European kingdoms and contributed to the decentralization and chaos in the region. As noted earlier, Muslim armies moved up from the south until they were defeated at Tours in 732. Vikings A second group of invaders Scandinavian Vikings (also known as Norsemen) came from the north. They traveled in light longships that enabled sailors to travel far inland on rivers as well as conduct coastal raids on seas. These longships were frightening vessels, with dragons on the prows and fierce sailors aboard. Carrying as many as fifty men each, longships had banks of oars and a single large sail. Beginning in the ninth century, these Scandinavians, from present-day Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, landed in England, Ireland, France, Belgium, and harbors up and down the European coastline. From settlements in Iceland they reached Greenland, and then a coastal area of North America that they named Vinland. They also made inroads into neighboring Russia along its rivers. This route was one way that Western Europe kept in touch with Constantinople and, through it, with the rest of the Arab and Islamic world. The Mediterranean trade routes were still in use as well. Byzantine and Islamic coins have been found as far northwest as Poland, perhaps evidence of a far-flung Viking trade with Kievan Rus as discncced in Chanter 7 Magyars A third wave of invaders, the Magyars, came from the east. Originally from Central Asia, the Magyars encroached on the Byzantine Empire soon after the fall of Rome and went on to settle in present-day Germany, Italy, and France. The Magyars, whose modern descendants live in Hungary, were slowly assimilated into Christianity and came under the control of the monarchs of central Europe after the tenth century. The political instability of Europe in this period might be compared with South Asia. After the fall of the Carolingian Dynasty in 888 in Western Europe, little effective political organization existed until the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in 962. Even then, much of the empire's power existed at the pleasure of the Church. Similarly, the Gupta Dynasty in South Asia collapsed in the late sixth century under pressure from the White Huns (also known as Hunas) of Central Asia, so there was only loose political organization in India until Mahmud of Ghazni came to power in 998. A major difference between the two regions was that a single major religion unified Europeans, while multiple relgions, especially Hinduism and Sunni Islam, divided South Asians.

The First Four Caliphs and Umayyads

At Muhammad's death in 632, his followers split over who should become the leader of the Islamic community. Some supported his father-in-law, Abu Bakr. Others advocated for Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Abu Bakr won the dispute and took over as caliph, or head of state. He was responsible for guiding the Islamic world in accordance with the dictates of the Quran. Ali, who lost the dispute, eventually become the fourth caliph. This succession dispute divided Islam into factions that still exist today. The supporters of Abu Bakr became the Sunni group, or Sunnis. They consider the first four successors the "Rightly Guided Caliphs." Supporters of Ali became the Shia group, also known as Shiites. They consider Ali the first true caliph. Today, about 85 to 90 percent of Muslims are Sunni. Shia are strongest in Iran and Iraq. The term Dar al-Islam has come to refer to all of Islamic culture, including Shia and Sunni. (Test Prep: Make an outline comparing the division in Islam with the schism in Christianity. See page 134.) As caliphs conquered lands beyond the Arabian Peninsula, they spread Islam, the Arabic language, and the cultivation of cotton, sugar, and citrus crops. Abu Bakr led raids into and seized land from the Byzantine Empire based in Constantinople and the Persian Sassanid Empire. Political conquest often led to religious conversion, but not always. Muhammad had taught that people should not be forced to become Muslims. Further, the conquering forces had a financial reason not to require religious conversion. Because Muslims were exempt from certain taxes. conversions reduced on tax collections.

Social Classes in the Islamic World

Before the era of Muhammad, farmers and sailors were more common in the Arabian Peninsula than pastoral nomads. However, the nomads led the camel caravans that built trade relationships between coastal and interior dwellers. As always, trade spread ideas. Trade between the Byzantine and Islamic empires created contacts between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Even as society changed, kinship remained the foundation of social relations in the early Islamic world. Clan members felt strong mutual loyalties, just as they had in the Bedouin world. However, the increase of trade along the Red Sea caused the growth of a powerful merchant elite in many cities. Both Mecca and Medina in Muhammad's day were stops on the long-distance camel routes. In these cities, mosques and shariah provided a common base for social and cultural life. In the non-Arab areas of Islamic expansion, control by Islamic caliphs led to discrimination toward non-Arabs, though rarely to open persecution. This discrimination gradually faded in the ninth century. The caliph's soldiers were forbidden to own territory they had conquered. The presence of a permanent military force that kept order but did not own property allowed life for most of the inhabitants of the countryside to remain virtually unchanged. However, people paid tribute to Islamic caliphs rather than to Byzantine rulers.

The Founding of the Song Dynasty

By the end of the 9th century little remained of the once-glorious Tang Impire. By 907, when the last emperor of the Tang dynasty was forced to resign, China appeared to be entering anothd phase of nomadic dominance, political division, and social strife. In 960, however, a military commander emerged to reunite China under a single dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin had established a far flung reputation as one of the most honest and able of the generals of the last of the Fiv Dynasties that had struggled to control north China after the fall of the Tang. Although a fearless warrior, Zhao was a scholarly man who collected books rather than booty while out campaigning Amid the continuing struggles for control in the north, Zhaos subordinates and regular troop insisted that he proclaim himself emperor. In the next few years Zlhao, renamed Emperor Taizu routed all his rivals except one, thus founding the Song dynasty that was to rule most of Chin for the next three centuries. he rival Taizu could not overcome the nomadic Khitan peoples from Manchuria. This failure set a precedent for weakness 907 by nomadie Khitan peoples was the northern Liao dynasty, which had been founded Llao (lyow) dynasty Founded in N of the Song rulers in dealing the dynasty from its earliest years to its eventual destruction by the defeats at the hands of the Khitans to sign In China. Mongols in the late 13th with the nomadic peoples of the north. This shortcoming from Manchurla; maintained. Independence from Song dynasty Beginning in 1004, the Song were forced by military Dmitted the Song to paying a very conquering the Song domains. The Khitans, who had been highly Sinified, or influenced Superior to Song dynasty China but heavy tribute to the Liao dynasty to keep it from raiding peoples of Manchurla; militarily humiliating treaties with their smaller but more militarily adept northern neighbors. These Khitans (kiht-ahn] Nomadic Influenced by Chinese culture; forced ese culture, during a century of rule in north China, seemed content with this arrangement. humiliating treaties on Song China Nrly saw the Song empire as culturally superioran area from which they could learn much In 11th century. t, the arts, and economic organization.

High Middle Ages

By the year 1000, the growth of new states and Europeans' increasing interest in foreign goods were leading Western Europe toward a more expansive and progressive period. Both the new states and greater trade were brought about in part by the Christian Crusades and the weakening of feudalism at the local level. Social and political changes would produce a new form of monarchy, and a spirit of Renaissance or rebirth, both of which would shape three key areas: commerce, class relations, and gender roles. European lords and knights retreated from actually fighting each other in battles in favor of more tournaments, organized competitions that included jousts, combat between knights using blunt weapons, which also became social occasions.

During the postclassical period two major Christian civilizations took shape in Europe. Both developed close relations with the Islamic world and both played major roles in world trade. Both had distinctive fea- tures of their own with desirable implications for the regions involved. The Byzantine Empire maintained high levels of political, economic, and cultural activity during much of the period from 500 to 1450 C.E. It controlled an important but fluctuating swath of territory in the Balkans, the northern Middle East, and the eastern Mediterranean. Its leaders saw themselves as Roman emperors, and their government was in many ways a direct continuation of the eastern portion of the late Roman Empire. The real significance of the Byzantine Empire goes well beyond its ability to keep Rome's memory alive. The empire lasted for almost a thousand years, between Rome's collapse in the West and the final overthrow of the regime by Turkish invaders. The empire's capital, Constantinople, was one of the truly great cities of the world, certainly the most opulent and important city in Europe in this period. From Constantinople radiated one of the two major branches of Christianity: the Orthodox Christian churches that became dominant throughout most of eastern Europe. Like the other great civilizations of the period, the Byzantine Empire spread its cultural and political

Byzantines

The classical societics also faced the chal- lenge of trying to maintain an equitable distri- bution of land and wealth. As some individuals flourished and accumulated land and wealth, they enjoyed economic advantages over their neighbors. Increasingly sharp economic dis- tinctions gave rise to tensions that fucled bitter class conflict. In some cases conflicts escalated into rebellions and civil wars that threatened the very survival of the classical societies. All the classical societies engaged in long- distance trade. This trade encouraged eco- nomic integration within the societies, since their various regions came to depend on one another for agricultural products and manu- factured items. Long-distance trade led also to the establishment of regular commerce be- tween peoples of different societies and cul- tural regions. The volume of trade increased dramatically when classical empires pacified large stretches of the Eurasian landmass. Long-distance trade became common enough that a well-established network of land and sea routes, known collectively as the silk roads, linked lands as distant as China and Europe. Finally, all the classical societies generated sophisticated cultural and religious traditions. Different societies held widely varying beliefs and values, but their cultural and religious tra- ditions offered guidance on moral, religious, political, and social issues. These traditions often served as foundations for educational systems that prepared individuals for carcers in government. As a result, they shaped the val- ues of people who made law and imple- mented policy. Several cultural and religious traditions also attracted large popular follow- ings and created institutional structures that enabled them to survive over a long term and extend their influence through time. Over the centuries specific political, so- cial, economic, and cultural features of the classical societies have disappeared. Yet their legacies deeply influenced future societies and in many ways continue to influence the lives of the world's peoples. Appreciation of the legacies of classical societies in Persia, China, India, and the Mediterranean basin is crucial for the effort to understand the world's historical development.

Classical societies part two page two

Swanui donst. It ulimately The settlements along the East African coast traded over great distances, and some of their inhabitants reaped the rewards in the form of wealth, but their economic success would have been impossible without the interior. Most of the people of this zone lived a more modest life than those we have discussed previously in this chapter, living in small villages with limited class stratifica- tion. One of their contributions to the coast was providing food and other necessities not always available in the quantities required to support the coastal cities and towns. Some of these small-scale societies specialized in animal herding, others focused on agriculture, and still others practiced both. A second contribution of these peoples to the coastal lifestyle was in supplying many of the materials the coastal people traded with foreign- ers, particularly ivory and slaves. In return, they received salt, shell and glass beads, cotton cloth produced in the coastal towns, and perhaps some of the fancy cloth imported from Asia. One exception to this characterization stands out starkly: Zimbabwe. The ancient Zimbabwe state (around 1150-around 1600) in the highlands of present-day Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) was centered on a major city, usually termed "Great Zimbabwe." This city consisted of several massive circular buildings of storie, as well as areas of thatched huts. The stone buildings have attracted a great deal of attention because of their size. The largest had an exterior wall of stone nearly 800 feet long, more than 15 feet thick, and about 31 feet high; this amounts to about 50,000 cubic feet of masonry. Put into perspective, this is enough masonry to face an Egyptian pyramid measuring more than 200 feet at the base of each side. Fur- ther, the stone blocks are very finely cut and set together closely with mortar, reflecting high build- ing standards. Great Zimbabwe is the largest of the settle- ments of the historic Zimbabwe state, with an esti- mated population of 10,000 to 12,000 persons within its walls, but there also are nearly 200 other sites known that have similar stone structures. These cities and towns are generally believed to be regional centers under the capital at Zim- babwe. In addition, there are many village sites with no stone architecture of the sort that sur- rounds the larger settlements, representing the smallest unit in the settlement hierarchy. This clearly is an urban system.

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hese areas to protect the new settlements and to complete lask of subduing non-Chinese peoples. State-regulated on and embankment systems advanced agrarian slon. For example, the great canals made it possible for unts who grew specialized crops, such as tea, or those who ivated silkworms to market their produce over much of the empire. The introduction of new seeds, such as the famed Champa rice from Vietnam; better use of human, animal, and anures; more thorough soil preparation and weeding: nd multiple cropping and improved water control techniques ANed the yields of peasant holdings. Inventions such as the wheelbarrow eased the plowing, planting, weeding, and har- wsting tasks that occupied much of the time of most Chinese Nople The engraving shown in Figure 13.6 gives us a glimpse of rural scenes that were reproduced hundreds of thousands tincs across China all through the Tang and Song centuries d much of the millennium that followed. The rulers of both the Sui and Tang dynasties had adopted policies almed at breaking up the great estates of the old aris- oracy and distributing land more equitably among the free pasant households of the empire. These policies were designed in part to reduce or eliminate the threat that the powerful aris- tocracy posed for the new dynasties. They were also intended to bolster the position of the ordinary peasants, whose labors and well-being had long been viewed by Confucian scholars s essential to a prosperous and stable social order. To a point, these agrarian measures succeeded. For a time the numbers of the free peasantry increased, and the average holding size in miny areas rose. The fortunes of many of the old aristocratic families also declined, thus removing many of them inde- pendent centers of power. They were supplanted gradually the rural areas by the gentry side of the scholar-gentry combi- nation that dominated the imperial bureaucracy. The extended-family households of the gentry that were found in rural settlements in the Han era increased in size and elegance in the Tang and Song. The widespread use of greceful curved roofs, with upturned corners that one associ- ates with Chinese civilization, dates from the Tang period. By imperial decree, curved roofs were reserved for people of high construction, and simple lines blended beautifully with nearby gardens and groves of trees. and power of the families who lived in them. At the same time, their muted colors, wood and bamboo with glazed tiles of yellow or green, the great dwellings of the gentry left no doubt about the status rank, including the scholar-gentry families. With intricately carved and painted roof timbers topped

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influence of Indian culture on the region. Together, Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat are on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their historical and cultural significance. Islam A discussion of Southeast Asia would not be complete without a discussion of Islamic influences. Islam's movement into the Indian Ocean region was not very different from its expansion elsewhere. The first Southeast Asian Muslims were local merchants, who converted in the 700s in hopes of having better trading relations with the Islamic traveling merchants who arrived on their shores. Islam was most popular in urban areas at the time. Over the centuries, Islam spread to Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula. Sufis did their missionary work in Southeast Asia as well. Because of Sufis' tolerance for local faith traditions, many people of Indonesia, for example, felt comfortable converting to Islam because they were still allowed to honor local deities. One Muslim city-state, Melaka, also spelled Malacca, became wealthy by building a navy and by imposing fees on ships that passed through the Strait of Melaka, a narrow inlet that many ship captains used to travel between ports in India and ports in China. The Sultan of Melaka became so powerful in the 1400s that he expanded the state into Sumatra and the southern Malay Peninsula. Similar to city-states in East Africa, Italy, and the Americas, Melaka's prosperity was based on trade rather than agriculture or mining or manufacturing. The sultanate ended when the Portuguese invaded the city in 1511. The Portuguese hoped that by conquering the key city on the Strait of Melaka, they could control the trade that flowed through it between Europe, India, and China. They were successful enough to generate great wealth for their empire. However, they were less successful than they had hoped. Their conquest touched off conflicts among the other states in the region and caused traders to diversify their routes and the ports they used.

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inlands Poaises ZIMBABWE The Zimbabwe state probably developed shortly before 1150, perhaps with an original capi- tal at Mapungubwe," shifting to Great Zimbabwe around 1250. While there are no documents to guide interpretation, oral history and archaeology suggest that the ancestors of the modern Shona people built and lived in Great Zimbabwe. The great wealth of Zimbabwe is reflected both in its architecture and in some of the artifacts that have been found there. Persian bowls, Chi- nese ceramics, Southwest Asian glass, shell and glass beads, and a coin minted in Kilwa, all found at Great Zimbabwe, indicate wealth. They also point to the apparent source of that wealth: exten- sive trade with the coastal settlements. Zimbabwe controlled areas rich in gold, and gold was perhaps the most sought-after commod- ity the coastal towns had to offer Asian traders. Evidence of Zimbabwean gold mines and proces- sing areas have been found, and some histor- ians believe that a fifteenth-century Portuguese account referring to gold mines in the kingdom of Butua may refer to Zimbabwe. Little is known regarding the government of Zimbabwe. The assumption usually is that it was a state with a king and lesser district chiefs. Many scholars believe that trade was a royal monopoly, and some believe that the king was a hereditary ruler identified as the descendant of a god. These conclusions are supported by oral traditions, but there are no documents to corroborate them. In the seventeenth century, Portuguese con- trol of the East African coast became greater, and it began to extend inland. At the same time that its coastal partners were in the process of being con- quered by a foreign power, for reasons presently unknown, Zimbabwe collapsed. First the gold trade languished, then the urban system broke down, and shortly thereafter elite culture at Zim- babwe disintegrated.

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mosque attendants refused to encourage resistance, they were attend to the spiritual and physical needs of the survivors. In the usually left unharmed and permitted to aftermath of the Mongol invasions, this privileging of religious leaders was reflected in a broader tolerance on the part of these nomadic overlords for the diverse faiths and ethnic groups that had come under their rule. As we will argue in this chapter, although the Mongols were indeed fierce fighters and capable of terrible acts of retribution against those who dared to defy them, their conquests brought much more than death and devastation. At the peak of their power, the domains of the Mongol khans made up a vast realm in which once-hostile peoples lived together in peace and most religions were toler- ated. From the khanate of Persia in the west to the empire of the fabled Kubilai Khan in the east, the law code promulgated by Chinggis Khan gave order to human interaction. Like the far less warlike Islamic expansion that preceded it, the Mongol explosion laid the foundations for human interac- tion on a global scale, extending and intensifying the world network that had been building since the classical age.

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products. Local rulers there were bound to the interior, with its commercially valuable forest center by oaths of loyalty, elaborate court ceremonies, and the third zone consisted of river ports that had been controlled thanks to an alliance between Srivijaya and sharing of profits from trade. The Srivijaya's main rivals. They were conquered neighboring sea nomads, pirates who served as a Srivijayan navy in return for a steady income. The fourth zone was a fertile "rice bowl" on the central plain of the nearby island of Java- houses and feeds the majority of the maintained alliances, cemented by a region so productive, because of its volcanic soil, that it population of present-day Indonesia. Srivijayan monarchs intermarriage, with several ruling dynasties in this region, and the Srivijayan kings claimed descent from the main Javanese dynasty. These arrangements gave Srivijaya access to large quan- tities of foodstuffs that people living in the capital and merchants and sailors visiting the various ports needed. The kings of Srivijaya who constructed and maintained this complex network of social, political, and economic relationships were men of energy and skill. Although their authority depended in part on force, it owed more to diplomatic and even theatrical talents. Like the Gupta monarchy, Srivijaya was a theater-state, sheer splendor and its ability to attract labor, securing its preeminence and binding dependents by its talent, and luxury products. The court was the scene of ceremonies designed to dazzle observers and reinforce an image of wealth, power, and sanctity. Subordinate rulers took oaths of loyalty carrying dire in their home locales they imitated the splendid ceremonials of the capital. threats of punishment for violations, and The Srivijayan king, drawing upon Buddhist conceptions, presented himself as a bodhisat- tva, one who had achieved enlightenment and utilized his precious insights for the betterment of his subjects. The king was believed to have magical powers, controlling powerful forces of fertility associated with the rivers in flood and mediating between the spiritually potent realms of the mountains and the sea. He was also said to be so wealthy that he deposited bricks of gold in the river estuary to appease the local gods, and a hillside near town was covered with silver and gold images of the Buddha. The gold originated in East or West Africa and came to Southeast Asia through trade with the Muslim world (see Chapter 9). The kings built and patronized Buddhist monasteries and schools. In central Java local dynasties allied with Srivijaya built magnificent temple complexes to advertise their glory. The most famous of these, Borobodur (booh-roe-boe-DOOR), built between 770 and 82s CE, was the largest human construction in the Southern Hemisphere. The kings of Srivijaya carried out this marvelous balanc- ing act for centuries. But the system was vulnerable to shifts in the pattern of international trade. Some such change must have contributed to the decline of Srivijaya in the eleventh century, even though the immediate cause was a destructive raid on the capital Palembang by forces of the Chola king- dom of southeast India in 1025 CE. After the decline of Srivijaya, leadership passed to new, vigorous kingdoms on the eastern end of Java, and the maritime realm of Southeast Asia remained prosperous and connected to international trade networks. Through the ages Europe- ans remained dimly aware of this region as a source of spices and other luxury items. Some four centuries after the decline of Srivijaya, an Italian navigator serving under the flag of Spain- Christopher Columbus-sailed westward across the Atlantic Ocean, seeking to establish a direct route to the fabled "Indies" from which the spices came.

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this challenge, the Hindus placed greater rler had proved so effective in neutralizing the challenge of Buddhism. emphasis on the devotional cults of gods and goddesses that ome of the most celebrated Membership in these bhaktic cults was open to all, including women and untouchables. In fact, writers of religious poetry and songs of worship were women, such as Mira Bai. Saints from low-caste origins were revered by warriors and brahmans as well as by farm- er5, merchants, and outcastes. One of the most remarkable of these mystics was a Muslim weaver named Kabir. In plain and direct verse, Kabir played down the significance of religious differences and proclaimed that all faiths could provide a path to spiritual fulfillment. He asked, O servant, where do thou seek Me? Lo! I am beside thee. I am neither in temple nor in mosque: Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation. Because many songs and poems, such as those by Mira Bal and Kabir, were composed in regional languages, such as Bengali, Marathi, and Tamil, they were more accessible to the common people and became prominent expressions of popular culture in many areas. Bhakti mystics and gurus stressed the importance of a strong emotional bond between the devotee and the god or goddess who was the object of veneration. Chants, dances, and In some instances drugs were used to reach the state of spiritual Intoxication that was the key to individual salvation. Once one had achieved the state of ecstasy that came through intense emotional attachment to a god or goddess, all past sins were removed and caste distinctions were rendered meaningless. The most widely worshiped deities were the gods Shiva and Vishnu, the latter particularly in the guise of Krishna the goat herder depicted in the folk painting in Figure 8.6. The goddess was also venerated in a number of different manifesta- rons. By increasing popular involvement in Hindu worship nd by enriching and extending the modes of prayer and ritual, the bhakti movement may have done much to stem the flow of converts to Islam, particularly among low-caste groups. CHAPTER

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whem A man with two wives and several unmarried sons could work more land than a man with fe and a smaller family. Polygamy, the practice of having multiple wives, was common in the reglon, and it remains so today. lven the difficulties of the soil, the periodic droughts, insect pests, storage problems, and the Utations of technology, the farmers of the Sudanic states-by the methods of careful cultivation, rotation, and in places such as Timbuktu, the use of irrigation-were able to provide for their ple the basic foods that supported them and the imperial states on which they were based. The and the bow became symbols of the common people of the savanna states.

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word Caesar, through war steady Byzantine pressure eroded the regional kingdom. In the 11th century, the Byzantine emperor Basil II, known as Bulgaroktonos, or slayer of the Bulgarians, used the empire's wealth to bribe many Bulgarian nobles and generals. He defeated the Bulgar- ian army in 1014, blinding as many as 15,000 captive sol- diers. The sight of this tragedy brought on the Bulgarian king's death. Bulgaria became part of the empire, its aristocracy settling in Constantinople and merging with the leading Greek families. Briefly, at the end of the 10th century, the Byzan- tine emperor may have been the most powerful monarch on earth, with a capital city whose rich build- ings and abundant popular entertainments awed visi- tors from western Europe and elsewhere.

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Socially, Islam was highly egalitarian, proclaiming all believers equal in the sight of God. In sharp contrast, Hindu beliefs validated the caste hierarchy. The latter rested on the acceptance of inborn differences between individuals and groups and the widely varying levels of material wealth, status, and religious purity these differences were believed to produce. Thus, the faith of the invading Muslims was religiously more rigid than that of the absorptive and adaptive Hin. dus. But the caste-based social system of India was much more compartmentalized and closed than the society of the Muslim invaders, with their emphasis on mobility and the community of believers. Because growing numbers of Muslim warriors, traders, Sufi mystics, and ordinary farmers and herders entered south Asia and settled there, extensive interaction between invaders and the rulers employed large numbers indigenous peoples was inevitable. In the early centuries of the Muslim influx, conflict, often violent, predominated. But there was also a good deal of trade and even religious interchange between them. As time passed, peaceful (if often wary) interaction became the norm. Muslim of Hindus to govern the largely non-Muslim populations they conquered; mosques and temples dominated different quarters within Indian cities. In addition Hindu and Muslim mystics strove to find areas of agreement between their two faiths. Nonethe- less, tensions remained, and periodically they erupted into communal rioting or warfare between Hindu and Muslim rulers.

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The Empire's Decline Shortly after the split between the Eastern and Western churches, the Byzantine Empire entered a long period of decline (Map 9.2). Turkish invaders had converted Islam central Asia began to press on its eastern borders, hav- ing already gained increasing influence in the Muslim caliphate. In the late 11th century, Turkish troops, the Seljuks, seized almost all the Asiatic empire, thus cutting off the most provinces of the tax revenue and the territories that had prosperous cunlied sources ceen supplied most the empire's food. The Byzantine emperor lost the bat- tle of Manzikert in 1071, his larger army was annihilated, and the empire never recovered. staggered along for another four centuries, but its doom, at least as a signifi- cant power, was sealed. The creation of new, independ- ent Slavic kingdoms in the Balkans, such as Serbia, showed the empire's diminished power. Eastern emperors appealed to Western leaders for help against the Turks, but their requests were largely ignored. Although the appeals helped motivate Western Crusades to the Holy Land, this did not help the Byzantines. At the same time, Ital- ian cities, blessed with powerful navies, gained increasing advantages in Constantinople, such as special trading privileges-a sign of the shift in power between East and West. One Western Crusade, in 1204, ostensibly set up to conquer the Holy Land from the Muslims, actually turned against Byzantium. Led by greedy Venetian merchants, the Crusade attacked and conquered Constantinople, briefly unseating the emper- or and weakening the whole imperial structure. But the

Decline of Byzantine

Problems for the Abbasids

Even as Baghdad flourished in intellectual areas, the rulers confronted difficulties with tax collection and control of far- flung provinces. Grain and produce reached the city as partial payment for taxes from provincial governors, so the central administration tried to standardize tax collection to be in cash only. Administrators hoped that this reform would better support the government and minimize corruption by provincial officials. Over time, the political empire became increasingly hierarchical with an ever-growing bureaucracy. Viziers (prime ministers) would communicate the will of the ruler to the people-the ruler himself was often seated behind a screen. Being a ruler was a dangerous occupation and leaders faced frequent assassination attempts. Some were successful.

The Neo-Confucian Assertion of Male Dominance

Evidence of the independence and legal rights enjoyed by a small minority of women in the Tang and Song eras is all but overwhelmed by the worsening condition of Chinese women in general. The assertion of male dominance was especially pronounced in the thinking of the neo-Confucian phi- losophers, who, as we have seen, became a major force in the later Song period. The neo-Confucians stressed the woman's role as homemaker and mother, particularly as the bearer of sons to continue the patrilineal family line. They advocated confining women and emphasized the importance of virginity for young brides, fidelity for wives, and chastity for widows. Like their counterparts in India, widows were discouraged from remarrying. At the same time, men were permitted to have premarital sex without scandal, to take concubines if they could afford them, and to remarry if one or more of their wives died. The neo-Confucians attacked the Buddhists for promoting career alternatives for women, such as scholarship and the monastic life, at the expense of marriage and raising a family. They drafted laws that favored men in inheritance, divorce, and familial interaction. They also excluded women from the sort of education that would allow them to enter the civil service and rise to positions of political power. Footbinding epitomized the extent to which elite women's possibilities for self-fulfillment had been constricted by the later Song period.

East Asia in the Post-Classical Period

Foet Li Bo (701-762 C.E.) was one of the most accomplished artists of the Tang era in China. Many of his poems, such as the one above, describe someone contemplating nature. Others focus on attending parties and other ways people enjoy life with friends. These themes, both positive and uplifting, the Tang and Song dynasties, China enjoyed great wealth, political stability, seem to reflect the buoyancy of Post-Classical China. During the 600 years of and fine artistic and intellectual achievements. These years were a golden era in Chinese history. During the Post-Classical period, China dominated East Asia. Its neighbors, including Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, developed vibrant and distinctive cultural traditions, but each also displayed China's influence. Political Structures in China After the collapse of the Han Dynasty in the third century C.E., China fell into a state of anarchy for nearly 400 years. People suffered from reduced trade and greater political turmoil until the short-lived Sui Dynasty (581-618 C.E.). and Central Asia. Sui Yangdi ruled through harsh, dictatorial methods, which expanded the reach of China's government. He also sent troops into Korea through violence and repression. Successful military expeditions to the south Unity under the Sui Dynasty Emperor Sui Yangdi unified China made dissent risky. Grand Canal The greatest accomplishment of the dynasty was the project involved thousands of conscripted peasants working for many years. inception of the construction of the Grand Canal. This ambitious public works The idea behind the canal was to provide a means of transporting rice and other south to populous northern China and the nenter of nouanmnnt af I Auan crops from the food-rich Yangtze River valley in the A ha nanthan nnd of tha

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Grand Canal was the city of Hangzhou, Dynasty because of the increased trade. It was which expanded greatly during the Sui during the Sui Dynasty that the city leaders had a defensive also to reinforce the "Long Wall" in the north wall built around the city. The Sui used conscripts begun by earlier dynasties. (The complained about high taxes Long Wall would later become part of the Great Wall of China.) Downfall of the Sui The rule by the Sui lasted only 40 years. People needed to pay for the expensive military escapades, the conscription of laborers for the building dictatorial ways. The emperor was assassinated in 618, and the dynasty ended. projects, and the emperor's Tang Dynasty The short Sui Dynasty prepared the way for the longer, more influential Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.). During this period, China enjoyed relative prosperity and stability. Rulers extended the territory of the Chinese Empire. At its height, the Tang Dynasty extended west to Central Asia, north to Manchuria, and south into modern-day Vietnam. Tributary System The Tang Dynasty dominated its neighbors. The Chinese viewed their country as the Middle Kingdom, a society around which the whole world revolved. At the very least, China was the center of a tributary

Growth of Trade and Banking

Growth of Trade and Banking economic life. Urban growth allowe activities, which in turn promoted still greate the dismay of many Christian Gains in agriculture promoted larger changes in medieval more specialized manufacturing and commercial trade. Spearheaded by Italian businesspeople, banking was introduced to the West to facilitate th long-distance exchange of money and goods (Figure 11.7). The use of money spread steadily, to moralists and many ordinary people who preferred the more direct personal ways of traditional society. The largest trading and banking operations, not only in Ital but in southern Germany, the Low Countries, France, and Britain, were clearly capitalistic. Bi merchants invested funds in trading ships and the goods they carried, hoping to make large profit on this capital. Profitmaking was not judged kindly by Christian thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas who urged that all prices should be "just," reflecting only the labor put into the goods. Rising trade took several forms. There were exchanges between western Europe and other part of the known world. Wealthy Europeans developed a taste for some of the luxury goods and spices a Asia. The latter were not used merely to flavor food but were vital in preserving perishable items such a meat. Spice extracts also had great medicinal value. The Crusades played a role in bringing these prod ucts to wider attention. A Mediterranean trade redeveloped, mainly in the hands of Italian merchants in which European cloth and some other products were exchanged for the more polished goods of th East. Commerce within Europe involved exchanges of timber and grain from the north for cloth and metal products manufactured in Italy and the Low Countries. At first an exporter of raw wool, England developed some manufactured goods for exchange by the later Middle Ages. Commercial alliance developed. Cities in northern Germany and southern Scaladinavia grouped together in the Hanseati League to encourage trade. With growing banking facilities, it became possible to organize commercia transactions throughout much of western Europe. Bankers, including many Jewish businesspeople were valued for their service in lending money to monarchs and the papacy. The growth of trade and banking in the Middle Ages served as the origin of capitalism it Hanseatic cities, were clearly capitalistic in their willingness to invest in trading ventures with th Western civilization. The greater Italian and German bankers, the long-distance merchants of th expectation of profit. Given the dangers of trade by land and sea, the risks in these investments wer

The Fall of the House of Yuan

Historians often remark on the seeming contradiction between the military prowess of the Mong conquerors and the short life of the dynasty they established in China. Kubilai Khan's long reis encompassed a good portion of the nine decades in which the Mongols ruled all of China. Alrea Song loyalists raised revolts by the end of his reign, the dynasty was showing signs of weakening. the south, and popular hostility toward the foreign The Mongol aura of military invincibility was badly tarnished by Kubilai's rebuffs at the hands overlords was expressed more and more open the military lords of Japan and the 1274 and again in a much larger effort in failure of the expeditions that he sent to punish them, first 1280, The defeats suffered by Mongol forces engaged and Java during this same period further undermined the Mongo similar expeditions to Vietnam standing. Kubilai's dissolute lifestyle in his later years, wife, Chabi, and five years later the death of his favorite son, led to a general softening of the Mong partly brought on by the death of his most belove ruling class as a whole. Kubilai's successors lacked his capacity for leadership and cared little for t tedium of day-to-day administrative tasks. Many of the Muslim and Chinese functionaries to whoi they entrusted the imperial finances enriched themselves through graft and angered the hard-pressed peasantry, who bore the burden of rising taxes and demands for force corruption. This great

Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages

In 1054, the Christian Church experienced a division, often called the Great Schism, and split into two branches: the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox. The Roman Catholic Church continued to dominate Western Europe until the Reformation in the sixteenth century, while the Orthodox Church was strong farther east, into Russia. (See page 134 for more on the Great Schism.) The Roman Catholic Church was extremely influential during the Middle Ages. Indeed, it was the only authority that covered much of Europe. Many factors helped the Church keep its influence. First, few people knew how to read or write. Most Church staff, however, were literate. If common people needed something written or read, they asked a Church official to do it. Most manors had a small church and a priest on the grounds. Education and Art The Church established the first universities in Europe. Because the Church led in the area of education, most of the great thinkers of the Middle Ages were Church leaders. All artists worked for the Church. The insides of Church buildings were decorated quite beautifully with paintings, statues, and stained-glass windows. Most artwork focused on religious themes as it was one way to educate the illiterate serf and peasant class.

THE TRANSCONTINENTAL EMPIRE OF CHINGGIS KHAN

In most ways, the Mongols epitomized nomadic society and culture. Their survival depended on the well-being of the herds of goats and sheep they drove from one pasture area to another according to the cycle of the seasons. Their staple foods were the meat and milk products provided by their herds, Supplemented in most cases by grain and vegetables gained through trade with sedentary farming peoples, They also traded hides and dairy products for jewelry, weapons, and cloth made in urban centers. They dressed in sheepskins, made boots from tanned sheep hides, and lived in round felt tents made of wool sheared from their animals (Figure 15.2). The tough little ponies they rode to round up their herds, hunt wild animals, and make war were equally essential to their way of life. Mongol boys and girls could ride as soon as they were able to walk. Mongol warriors could ride for days on end, sleeping and eating in the saddle. Like the early Arabs and other nomadic peoples we have encountered, the basic unit of Mongol society was the tribe, which was together on a regular basis. When threatened by external divided into kin-related clans whose members camped and herded enemies or preparing for raids on other nomads or invasions of sedentary arcas, clans and tribes could be combined in great confederations Depending on the skills of their leaders, these confederations could be held even years. But when the threat had passed or the raiding their own pasturelands and campsites. At all organizational of the group. Although women exercised influence within the family was done, clans and tribes drifted back to together for months or levels, leaders were elected by the free men and had the right to be heard in tribal councils, men dominated leadership positions. attract dependents were vital leadership Courage in battle, usually evidenced by bravery in the hunt, and the ability to forge alliances and skills. A strong leader could quickly build up a large following groups. If the leader grew old and feeble or sufiered severe reveeses this to happen, and the subordinates felt of chiefs from other clans and tribal his subordinates would quickly abandon him. He expected no remorse. Their survival and that of their dependents hinged on attaching themsclves to a strong tribal leader.

Invasions and Trade Shifts

In the 1100s and 1200s, the Abbasid Empire suffered from a problem that plagued many prosperous empires in history: attacks from outside groups. Four different groups successfully assaulted parts of the Abbasid Empire. All came from the west or north. Mamluks Originating from Egypt, the Mamluks were a Turkic group that had formerly been military slaves. They took control of Egypt and established an empire across North Africa.

Islamic Rule in Spain

Islamic Rule in Spain While the Umayyads ruled only briefly in the Middle East, they had more success farther west. In 711, after Muslim forces had defeated Byzantine armies across North Africa, they successfully invaded Spain from the south. They designated Córdoba as their capital for Spain. They rapidly expanded northward, sending forces into France. Battle of Tours The Islamic military was turned back in 732 when it lost the Battle of Tours against Frankish forces. This defeat, rare for Islamic armies during the 700s, marked the limit of rapid Islamic expansion into Western Europe. Most of the continent remained Christians, but Muslims ruled Spain for the next seven centuries. (Test Prep: Write a paragraph tracing the Islamic influences on Spanish culture. See also pages 227-229.)

Vocab

Jurchens [YUHR-chehns] Founders of the Jin kingdom that succeeded the Liao in northern China; annexed most of the Yellow River basin and forced Song to flee to south. Jin Kingdom north of the Song Empire; established by Jurchens in 1115 after overthrowing Liao dynasty; ended 1234. Southern Song Rump state of Song dynasty from 1127 to 1279; carved out of the much larger domains ruled by the Tang and northern Song: culturally one of the most glorious reigns in Chinese history.

Vocab

Kubilai Khan [KOO-bluh KAHN) (1215-1294) Grandson of Chinggls Khan; commander of Mongol forces responsible for conquest of China; became khagan in 1260; established Sinicized Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1271. Dadu Present-day Beijing: so-called when Kubilai Khan ruled China. Chabi (CHAH-beel Infiuential wife of Kubilai Khan; promoted interests of Buddhists in China; indicative of refusal of Mongol women to adopt restrictive social conventions of Chinese; died c. 1281.

Manorial System

Large fiefs or estates were also referred to as manors. The manorial system provided both economic self-sufficiency and defense. Manor grounds were small villages that often included a church, a blacksmith shop, a mill, and presses for making cider, wine, or oil, in addition to the homes of peasants known as serfs. Serfs, while not slaves, were tied to the land, and they could not marry or travel without permission from their lords. In exchange for protection provided by the lord of the manor, they paid tribute in the form of crops, labor or, in rare cases, coins. Children born to serfs also became serfs. Less than ten percent of land was cultivated in the Early Middle Ages and climatic conditions were wet and cold. As both weather and technology improved around the ninth century, the amount of arable or farmable land gradually increased. Agriculture became more efficient toward the end of the Middle Ages due to several developments. The three-field system, in which crops were rotated in and out of three fields, came into use. • One field was planted to wheat or rye, crops that provided food. • A second field was planted to legume plants such as peas, lentils, or beans. These plants made the soil more fertile by adding nitrogen to it. • A third field was allowed to remain fallow, or unused, each year. Technological developments included windmills and several new types of plows. Heavier plows with wheels were developed to deal with the type of soil in areas north of the Alps, while lighter plows were sufficient for the soil in southern Europe. Drawn at first by oxen, the plows became more efficient and

Gender Roles and the Convergence of Mongol and Chinese Culture

Mongol women remained aloof from Chinese culture-at least Chinese culture in its Confucian guise. They refused to adopt the practice of footbinding, which so limited the activities of Chinese women. They retained their rights to property and control within the household as well as the freedom to move about the town and countryside. No more striking evidence of their independence can be found than contem porary accounts of Mongol women riding to the hunt, both with their husbands and at the head of their own hunting parties. The daughter of one of Kubilai's cousins went to war, and she refused to marry until one of her many suitors was able to throw her in a wrestling match. The persisting influence of Mongol women after the Mongols set- tled down in China is exemplified by Chabi, the wife of Kubilai Khan (Figure 15.6). She was one of Kubilai's most important confidants on political and diplomatic matters, and she promoted Buddhist interests in the highest circles of government. Chabi played a critical role in fostering policies aimed at reconciling the majority ethnic Chinese population of the empire to Mongol rule. She convinced Kubilai that the harsh treatment of the survivors of the defeated Song imperial family would only anger the peoples of north China and make them more demonstrated that she shared Kubilai's respect for Chinese difficult to rule. On another occasion, she culture by frustrating a plan to turn cul- tivated lands near the capital into pasturelands for the Mongols' ponies. Thus, the imperial couple was a good match of astute political skills and cosmopolitanism, tempered by respect for their own traditions and a determination to preserve those they found the most valuable. The Mongol era was too brief and the number of influential Mongol women far too small to reverse the trends that for centuries had been lowering the position of women in Chinese soci- ety. As neo-Confucianism gained ground under Kubilai's successors, the arguments for confining women multiplied. Ultimately, even women of the Mongol ruling class saw their freedom and power reduced.

Muhammad's Policies

Muhammad raised the status of women in several ways. He treated his wives with love and devotion. He insisted that dowries, the price a prospective husband paid to secure a bride, be paid to the future wife rather than to her father. He forbade female infanticide, the killing of newborn girls. Maybe most important was that Muhammad's first wife was educated and owned her business, which set a pattern for recognition of women's abilities.

Muhammad and Islam

Muhammad was born into the Bedouin world in 570. He became a caravan manager. In the course of his work, Muhammad regularly came into contact with Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. Muhammad married a rich widow in Mecca and settled there. Over the course of many years, he experienced revelations that he attributed to an angel of the deity he referred to as Allah. These revelations were later collected by those who had heard his message in the Quran (also spelled Koran, meaning "recitation"). Muhammad criticized polytheism, tribal loyalties, and commercial practices in his society. He called for social justice, including alms for the poor. The Spread of Islam Slowly at first, Muhammad's ideas spread through his preaching. According to tradition, it took Muhammad three years to gather 30 people to follow Allah. Muslims, those who accepted Muhammad's teachings, viewed him as a great prophet, the final one in a line that included Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. But Muslims did not, and do not today, worship Muhammad as divine. This contrasts with the position of Jesus in Christianity, who is considered divine by almost all Christians. Muha mad's teaching led to conflict with Mecca's existing leaders. They rejected the idea that Muhammad was the agent of the one true deity and began to persecute his kin and those who worshipped Allah. Due to the persecution, Muhammad and his followers fled the city in 622 and escaped to Medina (the flight is called the Hegira). There he formed the first Muslim community. Muhammad returned ten years later to conquer Mecca and declare the building housed the sacred black stone there-the Ka'aba-a shrine of Islam. During Muhammad's lifetime, most of the Arabian Peninsula was united under Islam. Conditions in Arabia contributed to the rapid spread of Islam. A drought, combined with the desire of the rulers of Islam to extend their trade routes, encouraged the new converts to move out of the Arabian Peninsula. As they moved, they carried their faith with them and introduced it to others. Islam was also expanded through military conquest. But after an area was conquered, Islamic rule was relatively tolerant: No one was forced to convert to the faith. If conquered peoples paid a tax, they could become exempt from military service. The strong allegiance among Arabs to Islam and the egalitarian nature of the religion attracted many new converts.

The Status of Women

Overall, Islamic women enjoyed a higher status than Christian or Jewish women. Islamic women were allowed to inherit property and retain ownership after marriage. They could remarry if widowed, and they could receive a cash settlement if divorced. Under some conditions, a wife could initiate divorce. Moreover, women could practice birth control. Islamic women who testified in a court under shariah were to be protected from retaliation, but their testimony was worth only half that of a man. One gap in the historical record is written evidence of how women viewed their position in society: most of the records created before 1450 were written by men. As elsewhere, the rise of towns and cities resulted in new limitations on women's rights. Their new status might best be symbolized by the veil and the harem, a dwelling set aside for wives, concubines, and the children of these women.

Invention, Artistic Creativity, and China's Global Impact

Perhaps even more than for political and economic transformations, the Tang and Song eras are remembered as a time of remarkable Chinese accomplishments in science, technology, literature, and the fine arts. Major technological breakthroughs and scientific discoveries were made under each dynasty. Some of them, particularly those involving the invention of new tools, production techniques and weapons, gradually spread to other civilizations and fundamentally changed the course of human development. Until recent centuries, the arts and literature of China were not well known beyond its borders. Their impact was confined mainly to areas such as central Asia, Japan, and Vietnam, where Chinese imports had long been a major impetus for cultural change. But the poetry and short stories of the Tang and the landscape paintings of the Song are some of the most splendid artistic creations of all human history. As we have seen, new agricultural tools and innovations such as banks and paper money contrib- uted a great deal to economic growth and social prosperity in the Tang and Song eras. In this respect. the engineering feats of the period are particularly noteworthy. In addition to building the Grand

hortly af Hom sapiens sapiens turned agriculpare, human commu- nitieegan toexperiment with meth- od of sactal organization. In several cases t experimentation encouraged the develment of complex societies that inte- grad the lives and livelihoods of peoples r large regions. These early complex ci etics launched human history on a trajectory that it continues to follow today. States, so- cial classes, technological innovation, special- ization of labor, trade, and sophisticated cul- tural traditions rank among the most important legacies of these societies. Toward the end of the first millennium B.C.E., several carly societies achieved particu- larly high degrees of internal organization, extended their authority over extremely large regíons, and elaborated especially influential cultural traditions. The most prominent of these societies developed in Persia, China, India, and the Mediterranean basin. Because their legacies have endured so. long and have influenced the ways that literally billions of people have led their lives, historians often refer to them as classical societies. The classical societies of Persia, China, India, and the Mediterranean basin differed from one another in many ways. They raised

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Scholarly Refinement and Artistic Accomplishment

Scholarly Refinement and Artistic Accomplishment The reinvigorated scholar gentry elite was responsible for much of the artistic and literary creativity of the Tang and Song eras. Buddhist art and architecture had been heavily patronized by the court, prosperous merchants, and wealthy monasteries in the Tang period. But scholar-administrators and Confucian teachers wrote much of the literature for which the Tang is best remembered. They also painted the landscapes that were the most sublime cultural productions of the Song era. Confucian thinkers valued skillful writing and painting, and educated people were expected to practice these arts. The Chinese educational establishment was geared to turning out generalists rather than the specialists who are so revered in our own society. A well-educated man dabbled with varying degrees of success in many fields. After a hard day at the Ministry of Public Works, a truly accomplished official was expected to spend the evening composing songs on his lute, admiring a new painting or creating his own, or sipping rice wine while composing a poem to the harvest moon. Thus, talented and often well-trained amateurs wrote most of the poems, composed much of the music, and painted the landscapes for which the Tang and Song eras are renowned (Figure 13.7). As the Confucian scholar-gentry supplanted the Buddhists as the major producers of art and literature, devotional objects and religious homilies gave way to a growing fixation on everyday life and the delights of the natural world. Much of the short story the common people, popular beliefs in witchcraft and demons, ill-fated romances, and even detective literature was focused on the lives of stories about brutal murders. Tang poetry moved from early verses that dwelt on the "pleasant breezes that envelope[d] the emperor's chair" to a seemingly endless variety of ways of celebrating the natural world. No one was better at the latter than the most famous poet of the Tang era, Li Bo. His poems, like authors, blend images of the everyday world with philosophical musings: those of the great Persian The rain was over, green covered the land. One last cloudlet melted away in the clear sky. The east wind came home with the spring Bearing blossoms to sprout on the branches. Flowers are fading now and time will end. All mortal men perceive it and their sighs are deep. But I will turn to the sacred hills And learn from Tao [Dao) and from magic how to fly. This intense interest in nature came to full artistic Song era. Most of them were produced by the cultivated men of the scholar-gentry class, and they fruition in the landscape paintings of the

Scholars in Spain

Scholars in Spain The Islamic state in Spain known as al-Andalus, became a center of learning. Córdoba had the largest library in the world at the time. Among the famous scholars from Spain was Ibn Rushd, known in Europe as Averroes (twelfth century). He wrote influential works on law, secular philosophy, and the natural sciences. Another great scholar of ethics during this period was Maimonides, who was Jewish.

Free Women in Islam

Some practices now associated with Islam Central Asia and the Byzantine Empire were common cultural customs in before the time of Muhammad. For under Islam, with most example, women often covered their heads and faces. This practice solidified women observing hijab, a term that can refer either to the practice of dressingly modestly or to a specific wore head coverings, from turbans to skull caps. While and read, they were not to do so in the company of men not related to them. women could study type of covering. Men often

Song Politics: Settling for Partial Restoration

Song Politics: Settling for Partial Restoration A comparison of the boundaries of the early Song Empire (Map 13.3) with that of the Tang domains (Map 13.2) reveals that the tary commanders were rotated to prevent them from building up a power base in the areas where thereby removing the temptation of regional military commanders to seize power. In addition, mili- civilian administrators of the scholar-gentry class. Only civil officials were allowed to be governors, ditions that had destroyed the Tang dynasty. From the outset, the military was subordinated to the weakness of the Song resulted in part from imperial policies that were designed to ward off the con- Song never matched its predecessor in political or military strength. The they were stationed. influence. Officials salaries were increased, and many perks-including additional servants and gentry, who touted themselves as the key bulwark against the revival of warlord At the same time, the early Song rulers strongly promoted the interests of the Confucian scholar- payments of luxury goods such as silk and wine-made government posts more lucrative. The civil service exams were fully routinized. They were given every three years at three levels: district, provincial, and imperial. Song taking the exams than the Tang examiners had, and receive an official post than their counterparts in the Tang era. As a result, the bureaucracy soon became these successful candidates were much more likely to examiners passed a far higher percentage of those bloated with well-paid officials who often had little to do. In this way, the ascendancy of the scholar-gentry class over its aristocratic and Buddhist rivals was fully secured in the Song era.

Central African Kingdoms

South of the rain forest that stretched across Africa almost to Lake Victoria lay a broad expanse savanna and plain, cut by several large rivers such as the Kwango and the Zambezi. From their original home in Nigeria, the Bantu peoples had spread into the southern reaches of the rainforest along Congo River, then southward onto the southern savannas, and eventually to the east coast. By the 5th century C.E., Bantu farmers and fishers had reached beyond the Zambezi, and by the 13th century they were approaching the southern end of the continent. Mostly beyond the influence of Islam, many of these central African peoples had begun their own process of state formation by about 1000 c.E replacing the pattern of kinship-based societies with forms of political authority based on kingship Whether the idea of kingship developed in one place and was diffused elsewhere or had multiple origins is unknown, but the older system based on seniority within the kinship group was replaced with rule based on the control of territory and the parallel development of rituals that reinforced the ruler's power. Several important kingdoms developed. In Katanga, the Luba peoples modified the older system of village headmen to a form of divine kinship in which the ruler and his relatives were thought to have a special lineage was fit to rule. A sort of bureaucracy grew to administer the state, but it was hereditary, so power that ensured fertility of people and crops; thus, only the royal that brothers or male children succeeded to the position. In a way, this system was a half step toward more modern concepts of bureaucracy, but it provided a way to integrate large numbers of people in a large political unit.

Stand-Off: The Muslim Presence in India at the End of the Sultanate Period

Stand-Off: The Muslim Presence in India at the End of the Sultanate Period The attempts of mystics such as Kabir to minimize the differences between Hindu and Islamic belie and worship won over only small numbers of the followers of either faith. They were also strong repudiated by the guardians of orthodoxy in each religious community. Sensing the long-term thre to Hinduism posed by Muslim political dominance and conversion efforts, the brahmans denounce the Muslims as infidel destroyers of Hindu temples and polluted meat-eaters. Later Hindu mystic such as the 15th-century holy man Chaitanya, composed songs that focused on love for Hindu deiti and set out to convince Indian Muslims to renounce Islam in favor of Hinduism. For their part, Muslim ulama, or religious experts, grew increasingly aware of the dangers Hir duism posed for Islam. Attempts to fuse the two faiths were rejected on the grounds that althoug Hindus might argue that specific rituals and beliefs were not essential, they were fundamental fe Islam. If one played down the teachings of the Qur'an, prayer, and the pilgrimage, one was no longe a true Muslim. Thus, contrary to the teachings of Kabir and like-minded mystics, the ulama and eve some Sufi saints stressed the teachings of Islam that separated it from Hinduism. They worked t promote unity within the Indian Muslim community and to strengthen its contacts with Muslims neighboring lands and the Middle Eastern centers of the faith. After centuries of invasion and migration, a large Muslim community had been established i the Indian subcontinent. Converts had been won, political control had been established throughou much of the area, and strong links had been forged with Muslims in other lands such as Persia an Afghanistan. But non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, remained the overwhelming majority of th population of the vast and diverse lands south of the Himalayas. Unlike the Zoroastrians in Persi or the animistic peoples of north Africa and the Sudan, most Indians showed little inclination to convert to the religion of the Muslim conquerors. After centuries of Muslim political dominance and missionary activity, south Asia remained one of the least converted and integrated of all the area Muhammad's message had reached.

Vocab

Sundiata The "Lion Prince"; a ember of the Keita clan; created a unified state that became the Mali Empire; died about 1260. griots (grEE O, grEE O, grEE ot) Professional oral historians who served as keepers of traditions and advisors to kings within the Mali Empire. Ibn Battuta (b. 1304) Arab traveler who described African societies and cultures in his travel records

footbinding Practice in Chinese society of mutilating women's feet in order to make them smaller; pro- duced pain and restricted women's movement; made it easier to confine women to the household.

Tang and Song engineers made great advances in building dikes and dams and regulating the of water in complex irrigation systems. They also devised ingenious new ways to build bridges, major focus of engineering efforts in a land dominated by mountains and waterways. From and segmented to trussed and suspension, most of the basic bridge types known to humans thepioneered in China tion of explosive powder, at first One of the most important of the many technological advances made in the Tang era, the inve had little impact on warfare. For centuries, the Chinese used the potent chemical mixtures mainly for fireworks, which delighted emperors and the masses alike, By the late Song, however, and bombs that were hurled at the enemy by with naphtha flamethrowers, poisonous explosive powder was widely used by the imperial armies in a variety of grenade catapults. Song armies and warships also were equippyd gases, and rocket launchers. These projectiles were perhan the habit of drinking tea swept the empire, the most effective weapons On the domestic scene, chairs the dynasty used in its losing struggle to check nomadic incursions modeled on those found in India were introduced into the household coal was used for fuel for the first time, and the first kir soared into the heavens. were pivotal for the future of all Although the number of major inventions in the Song era was lower than in the Tang, several civilizations. Compasses, which had been used since the last centuries and magicians, were applied to sea navigation ancestor of the modern calculator, was introduced to heln collectors keep track of revenues. In the mid-11th century a for the first B.C.E. by Chinese military commanders time in the Song period. The abacus, the merchants count their profits and tax remarkable artisan named Bi Sheng devised the technique of printing in China in the preceding centuries, the use of movable type was a with movable type. Although block printing had been perfected great advance in the production the Chinese had invented in the Han period, printing literacy that excelled that of any preindustrial civilization. of written records and scholarly books. Combined with paper, which made it possible for them to attain a level of

Byzantine Society and Politics

The Byzantine political system had remarkable similar- ities to the earlier patterns in China. The emperor was held to be ordained by God, head of church as well as state. He appointed church bishops and passed reli- gious and secular laws. The elaborate court rituals sym- bolized the ideals of a divinely inspired, all-powerful ruler, although they often immobilized rulers and inhibited innovative policy. At key points, women held the imperial throne while maintaining the ceremonial power of the office. The experiences of Empress Theodora (981-1056), namesake of Justinian's powerful wife, illustrate the complex nature of Byzantie politics and the whims of fate that affected women rulers. Daughter of an emperor, Theodora was strong and austere; she refused to marry the imperial heir, who then wed her sister Zoë. Zoë was afraid of Theodora's influence and had her confined to a convent. A popular rebellion against the new emperor installed Theodora and Zoë jointly (and one assumes uneasily) as empresses. Later, Theodora managed to check unruly nobles and limit

Church and State

The Church held great power in the feudal system. If a lord displeased the Church, the Church could pressure the lord in various ways. For example, it might cancel religious services for his serfs. This distressed the serfs, who would demand that the lord to do what the Church wanted. Organized similarly to the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church had an extensive hierarchy of regional bishops, who owed allegiance to the pope, the supreme bishop in Rome. The bishops selected and supervised local priests. Missionaries spread Christianity through Europe, providing a common identity even as regional monarchies and vernacular languages developed. To consolidate power, a Roman document called the Donation of Constantine from the eighth century provided the Church with "evidence" that the pope should assume political as well as spiritual authority. The Donation of Constantine was later discovered to be forged. Nevertheless, the influence and power of the papacy increased as exemplified by the pope An example of the papal authority was his ability to inspire members of the aristocracy of Europe to embark on the Crusades, beginning in 1095, discussed later in the chapter. Rival Popes After the Great Schism in 1054, the authority of the papacy in the West seemed assured. However, that influence waned when French pope Clement V was selected. He refused to relocate to Rome and established instead the papacy in France from 1309 to 1377. This period of nearly 70 years is sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity, a reference to the Jewish exile in the sixth century B.C.E. During this period, a second candidate for pope and then a third arose for the head of the Church-all at the same time. Monasticism Although clergy withdrew to monasteries to meditate and pray, they remained part of the economies of Western Europe. The monasteries had the same economic functions of agriculture and protection as other manors. Although they took vows of poverty and supported charities in their communities, the clergy also wielded considerable political influence, and some monasteries became quite wealthy. Wealth and political power led to corruption. The Cluniac Reforms, originating from the monastery at Cluny, France, in eleventh century, attempted to reform the Church from within. Eventually, corruption, as well as theological disagreements, drove reformers such as John Wycliffe, John Huss, and Martin Luther to part ways with the Catholic Church.

development took time. In art, growing interest in realistic portrayals of nature, although fruitful, suggested the beginnings of a shift away from medieval artistic standards. Religious figures became less stylized as painters grew more interested in human features for their own sake. The various constraints on forms of postclassical culture prompted many Western intellectuals to look for different emphases. In Italy most clearly, new kinds of literature and art took shape that differed from the styles and subjects of the postclassical centuries.

The Postclassical West and Its Heritage Medieval Europe had several faces. The term Middle Ages implies a lull between the glories of the glitter of more modern Europe. There is some truth to this, for medieval Europe did grapple But the Middle Ages were also a period of growing dynamism. Particularly after 900 c.., gains in population, trade and cities, and intellectual activity created a vigorous period in European history developments set a tone that would last even after the specifically medieval centuries had ended. intertwined, in the many American campuses that revived the Coltic style for their buildings) were an enduring legacy to Western society. Distinctive ideas about vernment, building on Christian and feudal traditions, constituted another medieval contribution. The medieval period was also a special moment in the relationship between Europe and the raoions around it. Opportunities to advance by imitation were particularly striking, from technology lence to trade and consumption. Even the medieval university may have had Arab origins in the bigher schools of the Muslim world. Europe was able to develop new contacts, but it did not reach the technological o s of the leading Asian societies. Medieval Europe warrants a particular comparison with other areas in which civilization was partially new during the postclassical period and where change and imitation proceeded rapidly. Divided political rule Europe resembled conditions in west Africa and Japan (the only other feudal society in the period). The imitation process can be compared among Europe, Africa, Japan, and Russia, But the Crusades revealed a distinctive expansionist spirit in Europe that also warrants attention, suggesting a more aggressive interest in the wider world than the other emerging societies were demonstrating.

City Dwellers and Villagers

The cities of the western Sudan began to resemble those of north Africa, but with a distinctive local architectural style. The towns were commercial and often included craft specialists and a resident foreign merchant community. The military expansion of states such as Ghana, Mali, and later Songhay contributed to their commercial success because the power of the state protected traders. A cosmo- politan court life developed as merchants and scholars were attracted by the power and protection of Mali. Malinke traders ranged across the Sudan and exploited their position as intermediaries. Cities of commercial exchange flourished, such as Jenne and Timbuktu, which lay just off the flood plain on the great bend in the Niger River. Timbuktu was reported to have a population of 50,000, and by the 14th century, its great Sankore mosque contained a library and an associated university where scholars, jurists, and Muslim theologians studied. The book was the symbol of civilization in the Islamic world, and it was said that the book trade in Timbuktu was the most lucrative business. For most people in the empire of Mali and the other Sudanic states, life was not centered on the foyal court, the great mosque, or long-distance trade but rather on the agricultural cycle and the vil- Tage Making a living from the land was the preoccupation of most people, and about 80 percent of the villagers lived by farming. This was a difficult life. The soils of the savanna were sandy and shallow. Plows were rarely used. The villagers were people of the hoe who looked to the skies in the spring for the first rains to start their planting. Rice in the river valleys, millet, sorghums; some wheat, fruits, and vegetables provided the basis of daily life in the village and supplied the caravan trade. Even large tarms rarely exceeded 10 acres, and most were much smaller. Clearing land often was done commu- nany, accompanied by feasts and competition, but the farms belonged to families and were worked African

Cont

The death toll from the fighting, combined with the starvation and disease associated with the conflict, reached the millions and maybe the tens of millions. It was probably one of the most devastating wars in human history. The Tang survived, but they never fully recovered their power. They had to pay an annual tribute to the Uighurs. The Tang Dynasty finally collapsed in 907.

The Revival of Confucian Thought

The great influence of the scholar-gentry in the Song era was mirrored in the revival of Confucie ideas and values that dominated intellectual life. Many scholars tried to recover long-neglected ter and decipher ancient inscriptions. New academies devoted to the study of the classical texts war founded, and impressive libraries were established. The new schools of philosophy propounded rival interpretations of the teachings of Confucius and other ancient thinkers. They also sought to proe the superiority of indigenous thought systems, such as Confucianism and Daoism, over imported ones, especially Buddhism. The most prominent thinkers of the era, such as Zhu Xi, stressed the importance of apply. ing philosophical principles to everyday life and action. These neo-Confucians, or revivers of what they believed to be ancient Confucian teachings, argued that cultivating personal morality was the highest goal for humans. They argued that virtue could be attained through knowledge gained by book learning and personal observation as well as through contact with men of wisdom and high morality. In these ways, the basically good nature of humans could be cultivated, and superior men. fit to govern and teach others, could be developed. Neo-Confucian thinking had a great impact on Chinese intellectual life during the eras of all the dynasties that followed the Song. Its hostility to foreign philosophical systems, such as Buddhism, made Chinese rulers and bureaucrats less receptive to outside ideas and influences than they had been earlier. The neo-Confucian emphasis on tradition and hostility to foreign influences was one of a number of forces that eventually stifled innovation and critical thinking among the Chinese elite. The neo-Confucian emphasis on rank, obligation, deference, and traditional rituals reinforced class, age, and gender distinctions, particularly as they were expressed in occupational roles. Great importance was given to upholding the authority of the patriarch of the Chinese household, who was compared to the male emperor of the Chinese people as a whole. If men and women kept to their place and performed the tasks of their age and social rank, the neo-Confucians argued, there would be social harmony and prosperity. If problems arose, the best solutions could be found in examples drawn from the past. They believed that historical experience was the best guide for navigating the uncertain terrain of the future.

Limited Sphere for Women

The increasing complexity of medieval social and economic life may have had one final effect, which is familiar from patterns in other agricultural societies: new limits on the conditions of women. Women's work remained vital in most families. The Christian emphasis on the equality of all souls and the practical importance of women's monastic groups in providing an alternative to marriage continued to have distinctive effects on women's lives in Western society. The veneration of Mary and other female religious figures gave women real cultural prestige, counterbalancing the biblical emphasis on Eve as the source of human sin. In some respects, women in the West had higher status than their sisters under Islam: They were less segregated in religious services (although they could not lead them) and were less confined to the household. Still, women's voice in the family may have declined in the Middle Ages. Urban women often played important roles in local commerce and even operated some craft guilds, but they found themselves increasingly hemmed in by male-dominated organizations. In contrast to Islam, women were not assured of property rights. By the late Middle Ages, a literature arose that stressed women's roles as the assistants and comforters to men, listing supplemental household tasks and docile virtues as women's distinctive sphere. Patriarchal structures seemed to be taking deeper root.

Roots of Decline: Attempts at Reform

The means by which the Song emperors had secured their control over China undermined their empire in the long run. The weakness they showed in the face of the Khitan challenge encouraged other nomadic peoples to carve out kingdoms on the northern borders of the Song domains. By the mid-11th century, Tangut tribes, originally from Tibet, had established a kingdom named XI Xia to the southwest of the Khitan kingdom of Liao (Map 13.3). The tribute that the Song had to pay these peoples for protection of their northern borders was a great drain on the resources of the empire and a growing burden for the Chinese peasantry. Equally burdensome was the cost of the army-numbering nearly I million soldiers by the mid-11th century-that the Song had to maintain to guard agalnst invasion from the north. But the very size of the army was a striking measure of the productivity and organizational ability of Chinese civilization, It dwarfed its counterparts in other civilizations from Japan to western Europe. The emphasis on civil administration and the scholar-gentry and the growing disdain among the Song elite for the military also took their toll. Although Song armies were large, their command- ers rarely were the most able men available. In addition, funds needed to upgrade weapons or repair fortifications often were diverted to the scholarly pursuits and entertainments of the court and gentry. At the court and among the ruling classes, painting and poetry were cultivated, while the horseback riding and hunting that had preoccupied earlier rulers and their courtiers went out of fashion. In the 1070s and early 1080s, Wang Anshi, the chief minister of the Song Shenzong emperor, tried to ward off the impending collapse of the dynasty by introducing sweeping reforms. A celebrated Confucian scholar, Wang ran the government on the basis of the Legalist assumption that an energetic and interventionist state could greatly increase the resources and strength of the dynasty. For 20 years, in the face of strong opposition from the conservative ministers who.controlled most of the adminis tration, Wang tried to correct the grave defects in the imperial order. He introduced cheap loans and government-assisted irrigation projects to encourage agricultural expansion. He taxed the landlord and scholarly classes, who had regularly exempted themselves from military service. Wang used the

Roots of Decline: Attempts at Reform

The means by which the Song emperors had secured their control over China undermined their empire in the long run. The weakness they showed in the face of the Khitan challenge encouraged other nomadic peoples to carve out kingdoms on the northern borders of the Song domains. By the mid-11th century, Tangut tribes, originally from Tibet, had established a kingdom named Xi Xia to nearly 1 million soldiers by the mid-11th century-that the Song had to maintain to guard agalnst growing burden for the Chinese peasantry. Equally burdensome was the cost of the army-numbering peoples for protection of their northern borders was a great drain on the resources of the empire and a the southwest of the Khitan kingdom of Liao (Map 13.3). The tribute that the Song had to pay these invasion from the north. But the very size of the army was a striking measure of the productivity and organizational ability of Chinese civilization. It dwarfed its counterparts in other civilizations from Japan to western Europe. The emphasis on civil administration and the scholar-gentry and the growing disdain among At the court and among the ruling classes, painting and poetry were cultivated, while the horseback fortifications often were diverted to the scholarly pursuits and entertainments of the court and gentry ers rarely were the most able men available. In addition, funds needed to upgrade weapons or repalt the Song elite for the military also took their toll. Although Song armies were large, their command tration, Wang tried to correct the grave government-assisted irrigation projects to encourage agricultural expansion. He taxed the landlor defects in the imperial order. He introduced cheap loans and ministers who controlled most of the admini and interventionist state could greatly increase the resources and strength of the dynasty. For 20 year Confucian scholar, Wang ran the government on the basis of the Legalist assumption that an energet tried to ward off the impending collapse of the dynasty by introducing sweeping reforms. A celebrate In the 1070s and early 1080s, Wang Anshi, the chief riding and hunting that had preoccupied earlier rulers and their courtiers went out of fashion. minister of the Song Shenzong empero in the face of strong opposition from the conservative and scholarly classes, who had regularly exempted themselves from military service. Wang used the

Commerce and Class

The role of merchants in Islamic society was more prestigious than in other societies in Europe and Asia at the time. Muhammad himself had been a merchant, as had his first wife. Merchants could grow rich from their dealings with far-flung trade routes across the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. They were esteemed as long as they maintained fair dealings and gave to charity in accord with the pillars of the Islamic faith.

Conclusion

This chapter traces the emergence of complex societies in India and Southeast Asia between Because of migrations, trade, and the the second millennium BCE and the first millennium CE. spread of belief systems, an Indian style of civilization spread throughout the subcontinent and adjoining regions and eventually made its way to the mainland and island chains of Southeast Asia. In this period were laid cultural foundations that in large measure still endure. The development and spread of belief systems-Vedism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism- have a central place in this chapter because nearly all the sources of information are religious. A museum visitor examining artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and China will find many objects of a religious nature. Only the Indian artifacts, however, will be almost exclusively from the religious sphere. Writing came later to India than to other parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, for reasons par- ticular to the Indian situation. Like Indian artifacts, most ancient Indian texts are of a religious nature. Ancient Indians did not develop a historical consciousness and generate historiographic texts like their Israelite, Greek, and Chinese contemporaries, primarily because they held a strik- ingly different view of time. The distinctive Indian conception-of vast epochs in which uni- verses are created and destroyed again and again and the essential spirit of living creatures is reincarnated repeatedly-made the particulars of any brief moment seem relatively insignificant. The tension between divisive and unifying forces can be seen in many aspects of Indian life. Political and social division has been the norm throughout much of the history of India, a consequence of the topographical and environmental diversity of the subcontinent and the complex mix of ethnic and linguistic groups inhabiting it. The elaborate structure of classes and castes was a response to this diversity-an attempt to organize the population and position individuals within an accepted hierarchy, as well as to regulate group interactions. Strong cen- tral governments, such as those of the Mauryan and Gupta kings, gained ascendancy for a time CE. and promoted prosperity and development. They rose to dominance by gaining control of metal resources and important trade routes, developing effective military and administrative institu tions, and creating cultural forms that inspired admiration and emulation. However, as in archaic Greece and Warring States China, the periods of fragmentation and multiple small centers of power seemed as economically and intellectually dynamic as the periods of unity.

Islam in Practice

To put these principles into practice, Muslims have a core set of obligations that have become known as the Five Pillars: 1. Believing in only one God-Allah 2. Praying five times daily 3. Giving alms to the poor 4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan 5. Making a pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime Another principle of Islam, and the most controversial one today, is the concept of jihad, or struggle to strive in the way of Allah and to improve both oneself and society. While many Muslims view jihad as an inner struggle, some have interpreted it as a requirement to go to war to preserve and extend Islam. Shariah Developed by Muslim scholars after the death of Muhammad, the Islamic code of law called shariah outlines behavioral requirements for daily life. For example, it requires morality and honesty, and bans gambling, eating pork, and drinking alcohol. Polygymy is permitted in some circumstances, but Muhammad attempted to limit the practice to four wives. Also, Muslims were cautioned not to enslave Muslims, Christians, or Jews. Countries that in recent years have based their laws on shariah include Iran, parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen.

The Influence of Persia

When Islam was brought to Persia in 651, Arabic was the official language, and non-Arab believers such as Persians were treated as second-class citizens. In the ninth century, Persian Muslims began a movement against the privileged status of Arabs, arguing that the practice went against the Islamic principles of brotherhood and equality. Through such efforts, Persians were able to convert to Islam while maintaining their distinctive Persian culture and language. During the Islamic Golden Age that followed, Persia contributed remarkable scholars, scientists, and poets. The polymath known to the West as Avicenna (980-1037) advanced the science of medicine and wrote on numerous topics, including astronomy, geography, and logic. Rumi (1207-1273) was a Persian poet, theologian, and jurist. His poetry, mostly written in Persian, has been influential not only in Persia, but around the world. Rumi's teachings became the basis of the Sufi movement within Islam, which is described on page 155.

Conquest: The Mongol Empire Under Chinggis Khan

When he was proclaimed the khagan he was the supreme nomads who had been defeated ruler of nearly one-half million in 1206, Temujin probably was not yet 40 years old. At that point, Mongols and the overlord of 1 to 2 million more by his armies or had allied themselves with this promising young ambitions. He once said that his greatest pleasure forcing "their beloved [to] weep, riding on their horses and his sons as men marked for a spe- commander. But Chinggis Khan had much greater in life was making war, defeating enemies, embracing their wives and daughters." He came to see himself cial destiny: warriors born to conquer the known world. In 1207, he set out to fulfill this ambition. His first campaigns humbled the Tangut (TANG-uht) kingdom of Xi Xia (shee-shyah) in northwest of the khagan and pay a hefty China (Map 15.1), whose ruler was tribute. Next, the Mongol armies attacked the much forced to declare himself a vassal more powerful Jin empire, which the Manchu- related Jurchens (YUHR-chchns) had established a century carlier in north China. In these campaigns, the Mongol armies were confronted for the first time with large, fortified cit ies whose inhabitants assumed that they could easily withstand the assaults of these uncouth nomads invaders were thwarted at first by the intricate defensive works from the steppes. Indeed, the Mongol that the Chinese had perfected over the centuries to deter nomadic incursions. But the adaptive Mongols, with the help of captured Chinese artisans and military commanders, soon devised a whole arsenal of siege weapons. These included battering rams, catapults that hurled rocks and explosive balls, and bamboo rockets that spread fire and fear in besieged towns. Chinggis Khan and the early Mongol commanders had little regard for these towns, whose inhab- retribution. Although the Mongols itants they saw as soft. Therefore, when they met resistance, the Mongols adopted a policy of terrifying often spared the lives of famous scholars, whom they employed as advisors, and artisans with particularly useful skills, towns that fought back were usually sacked once they had been taken. The townspeople were slaughtered or sold into slavery; their homes, palaces, mosques, and temples were reduced to rubble. Towns that surrendered without a fight were usually spared this fate, although they were required to pay tribute to their Mongol conquerors as the price of their deliverance.

THE SWAHILI COAST OF EAST AFRICA

While the kingdoms of west Africa came under the influence of Islam from across the Sahara, another center of Islamic civilization was developing on the seaboard and offshore islands of Africa's Indian Ocean coast (Map 9.2). Along that coast, extending south from the horn of Africa to modern- day Mozambique, a string of Islamicized trading cities developed that reflected their cosmopolitan contacts with trading partners from Arabia, Persia, India, and China. Islam provided the residents of these towns a universal set of ethics and beliefs that made their maritime Atrica, as in the savanna kingdoms of west Africa, Islamization was slow to reach the general popu- contacts easier, but in east Tation. When it did, the result often was a compromise between indigenous ways and the new faith. CHAPTER

TANG AND SONG PROSPERITY: THE BASIS OF A GOLDEN AGE

developments? The attention given to canal building by the Sui emperors and the Tang rulers who followed them was driven by a major shift in the population balance within Chinese civilization. The Grand Canal, which Yangdi risked his throne to have built, was designed to link the original centers of Chinese civilization on the north China plain with the Yangzi River basin more than 500 miles to the south (see Maps 13.1 and 13.2). Because the great river systems that were essential to China's agrarian base ran from west to east-from the mountains of central Asia to the sea-the movement of people and goods in that direction was much easier than from north to south. Although no major geographic barriers separated the millet-growing areas of northern China from the rice-producing Yangzi basin, overland travel was slow and difficult. The transport of bulk goods such as millet and rice was prohibitively expensive. The great increase of the Chinese popula- tion in the southern regions in the later Han and Six Dynasties periods made it necessary to improve communications between north and south once the two regions were joined by the Sui conquests. Not only did more and more of the emperor's subjects live in the southern regions, but the Yangzi basin and other rice-growing areas in the south were fast becoming the major food-producing areas of the empire. By late Tang and early Song times, the south had surpassed the north in both crop production and population. Yangdi's Grand Canal was intended to facilitate control over the southern regions courts, bureaucracies, and armies centered in ancient imperial centers such as Chang'an and Luoyang in the north. The canal made it possible to transport to the capital revenue collected in the form of grain from the fertile southern regions and to transfer food from the south to districts threatened by drought and famine in the north. No wonder that Yangdi was obsessed with canal construction. By the time the Grand Canal was finished, more than a million forced laborers had worked, and many had died, on its locks and embankments. The completed canal system was an engineering achievement Every bit as impressive as the northern wall. Most stretches of the canal, og. were 40 paces wide, and imperial highways lined with willow trees ran along the banks on both which was nearly 1200 miles sides.

Classical societies page one part two

different food crops, constructed buildings out of different materials, lived by different legal and moral codes, and recognized differ- ent gods. Classical China and India depended on the cultivation of rice, millet, and wheat, while in Persia and the Mediterranean wheat was the staple food crop. In China packed carth and wood served as the principal con- struction material even for large public build- ings; in India wood alone was the most com- mon building material, and in Persia and the Mediterrancan, architects designed buildings of brick and stone. The classical soçieties dif- fered even more strikingly when it canme to millennium beliefs and values. They generated a wide va- riety of ideas about the organization of family and society, the understanding of what con- stituted proper public and private behavior, the n'ature of the gods or other powers thought to influence human affairs, and proper relationships between human beings, the natural world, and the gods. Despite these differences, however, these societies faced several common problems. They all confronted the challenge, for exam- ple, of administering vast territories without advanced technologies of transportation and communication. Rulers built centralized im- perial states on a scale much larger than had

influence to parts of the world that had not previously been controlled by any major civilization. Just as Mus- lim influence helped shape civilization in parts of Africa south of the Sahara, the Byzantines began to create a new civilization in the Balkans and western Russia (present-day Ukraine and Belarus as well as western Russia proper). This was a major expansion of civilization. There were many commonalities between devel- opments in eastern and in western Europe. In both cases, civilization spread northward partly because of the missionary appeal of the Christian religion. In both cases, polytheism gave way to monotheism, although important compromises were made, particularly at the popular level. In both cases, more northerly political units, such as Russia, Poland, Germany, and France, struggled for political definition without being able to rival the political sophistication of the more advanced societies in Asia and north Africa or in Byzantium itself. In both cases, new trading activities brought northern regions into contact with the major centers of world commerce, including Constantinople. In both Roman past, as well as to Christianity, for cultural cases, newly civilized areas looked back to the Greco- political ideas and of the same inspiration, using some artistic styles. tions that expanded in the east and developed in the Yet with all these shared ingredients, the civiliza- west operated largely on separate tracks. They pro-

duced different versions of Christianity that were cul- turally as well as organizationally separate, even hostile. The civilizations had little mutual contact. Until late in recru this period, commercial patterns in both cases ran ing south to north rather than east to west. During most of the postclassical millennium, major portions of eastern Europe were significantly more advanced than western Europe in political sophistication, cultural range, and economic vitality. When the two civilizations did meet, in this period and later, they met as distant cousins, related but not close kin.

Reaction and Disaster: The Flight to the South

ertanately, Wang's ability to propose and enact reforms depended on continuing support from the favored the conservative cliques that on emperor. In 1085 that emperor died, and his successor z opposed Wang's changes. The neo-Confucians came to power, ended reform, and reversed of Wang's initiatives. As a result, economic conditions continued to deteriorate, and peasant t grew throughout the empire. Facing banditry and rebellion from within, an unprepared mili- CaTy o match for the the horth dynasty of the Khitans empie. and 15, a new nomadic contender, the Jurchens, overthrew the Liao lihed the Jin kingdom north of the Song empire (Map 13.3). After successful invasions of Song r the Jurchens annexed most of the Yellow River basin to their Jin kingdom. These c esed the Song to flee to the south. With the Yangzi River basin as their anchor and their capital trasferred to Hangzhou, the Song dynasty survived for another century and a half. Politically, the Sathern Song dynasty (1167-1279) was little more than a rump state carved out of the much larger ins ruled by the Tang and northern-based Song. Culturally, its brief reign was to be one of the Eost glorious in Chinese history-perhaps in the history of humankind.

The Making ofa Great Warrior: The Early Career of Chinggis Khan

leader, The Making ofa Great Warrior: The Early Career of Chinggis Khan Since the early millennia of recorded history, nomadic peoples speaking Mongolian languages had enjoyed moments of power 4th and 10th centuries c.E. In the and had actually carved out regional kingdoms in north China in the early 12th century, Chinggis Khan's (JEHNG-gihs kahn) great- them by the Jin kingdom of north China. Soon grandfather, Kabul Khan, led a Mongol alliance that had won glory by defeating an army sent against after this victory, Kabul Khan became ill and died. His successors could neither defeat their nomadic enemies nor hold the Mongol alliance together. Divided and beaten, the Mongols fell on hard times. Chinggis Khan, who as a youth was named Temujin, was born in the 1170s into one of the splinter ans that fought for survival in the decades after the death of Kabul Khan. Temujin's father was an he leader who built up a decent following and negotiated a promise of marriage between his eldest g and the daughter of a stronger Mongol chief. According to Mongol accounts, just when the family ertunes seemed to be on the upswing. Temujin's father was poisoned by the agents of a rival nomadic up. Suddenly, Temujin, who was still a teenager, was thrust into a position of leadership. But most ahe chiefs who had attached themselves to his father refused to follow a mere boy, whose prospects of survival appeared to be slim. In the months that followed, Temujin's much-reduced encampment was threatened and finally acked by a rival tribe. He was taken prisoner in 1182, locked into a wooden collar, and led in humili- tion to the camp of his enemies. After a daring midnight escape, Temujin rejoined his mother and brothers and found refuge for his tiny band of followers deep in the mountains. Facing extermination, Temujin did what any sensible nomad leader would have done: He and his people joined the camp of more powerful Mongol chieftain who had once been aided by Temujin's father. With the support of this powerful leader, Temujin avenged the insults of the clan that had enslaved him and another that had taken advantage of his weakness to raid his camp for horses and women. These successes and Temujin's growing reputation as a warrior and military commander soon won Sim allies and clan chiefs cager to attach themselves to a leader with a promising future (Figure 15.3). Within a decade, the youthful Temujin had defeated his Mongol rivals nd routed the forces sent to crush him by other nomadic peoples. In 1206, at a kuriltai, or meeting of all of the Mongol chieftains, Temujin- renamed Chinggis Khan-was elected the khagan, or supreme ruler, of the Mongol tribes. United under a strong leader, the Mongols prepared to launch a massive assault on an unsuspecting world.

The Revival of Confucian Thought

mirrored in the revival of Cont The great influence of the scholar-gentry in the Song era was ideas and values that dominated intellectual life. Many scholars tried to recover long-neglected and decipher ancient inscriptions. New academies devoted to the study of the classical text founded, and impressive libraries were established. The new schools of philosophy propounded r interpretations of the teachings of Confucius and other ancient thinkers. They also sought to pro the superiority of indigenous thought systems, such as Confucianism and Daoism, over importe ones, especially Buddhism. The most prominent thinkers of the era, such as Zhu Xi, stressed the importance of apply. ing philosophical principles to everyday life and action. These neo-Confucians, or revivers of wh they believed to be ancient Confucian teachings, argued that cultivating personal morality was the highest goal for humans. They argued that virtue could be attained through knowledge gained book learning and personal observation as well as through contact with men of wisdom and h morality. In these ways, the basically good nature of humans could be cultivated, and superlor men fit to govern and teach others, could be developed. Neo-Confucian thinking had a great impact on Chinese intellectual life during the eras o( all the dynasties that followed the Song. Its hostility to foreign philosophical systems, such as Budapism, made Chinese rulers and bureaucrats less receptive to outside ideas and influences than they had been earlier. The neo-Confucian emphasis on tradition and hostility to foreign influences was one of a number of forces that eventually stifled innovation and critical thinking among the Chinese elite. The neo-Confucian emphasis on rank, obligation, deference, and traditional rituals reinforced class, age, and gender distinctions, particularly as they were expressed in occupational roles. Great importance was given to upholding the authority of the patriarch of the Chinese household, who wa compared to the male emperor of the Chinese people as a whole. If men and women kept to their place and performed the tasks of their age and social rank, the neo-Confucians argued, there would be social harmony and prosperity. If problems arose, the best solutions could be found in examples drawn from the past. They believed that historical experience was the best guide for navigating the uncertain terrain of the future.

Russia in Bondage The crushing victories of Batu's armies initiated nearly two and a half centuries of Mongol dominance in Russia. Russian princes were forced to submit as vassals of the khan of the Golden Horde and to pay tribute. Mongol demands fell particularly heavily on the Russian peasantry, who had to give their crops and labor to both their own princes and the Mongol overlords. Impoverished and ever fearful f the lightning raids of Mongol marauders, the peasants fled to remote areas or became, in effect. the serfs (see Chapter 10) of the Russian ruling class in return for protection. Some Russian towns made profits on the increased trade made possible by the Mongol links, Sometimes the gains exceeded the tribute they paid to the Golden Horde. No town benefited from the Mongol presence more than Moscow. Badly plundered and partially burned in the carly Mongol assaults, the city was gradually rebuilt, and its ruling princes steadily swallowed up nearby towns and surrounding villages. After 1328, Moscow also profited from its status as the tribute collector for the Mongol khans. Its princes

not only used their position to fill their Owr own coffers but also annexed other towns as punishment for falling behind on tribute payments. As Moscow grew in strength, the power of the Golden Horde declined. Mongol religious tolera- tion benefited both the Orthodox Church and Moscow. The choice of Moscow as the seat of the Orthodox leaders brought new sources of wealth to its princes and buttressed its claims to be Russia's leading city. In 1380, those claims got an additional boost when the princes of Moscow shifted from being tribute collectors to being the defenders of Russia. In alliance with other Russian vassals, they raised an army that defeated the forces of the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikova. Their victory and the devastating blows Timur's attacks dealt the Golden Horde two decades later effectively broke the Mongol hold over Russia. Although much of the Mongols' impact was negative, their conquest was a turning point in Rus- sian history in several ways. In addition to their importance to Moscow and the Orthodox Church, Mongol contacts led to changes in Russian military organization and tactics and in the political style of Russian rulers. Claims that the Tatars were responsible for Russian despotism, either tsarist or Stalinist, are clearly overstated. Still, the Mongol example may have influenced the desire of Russian princes to centralize their control and reduce the limitations pladd on their power by the landed nobility, clergy, and wealthy merchants. By far the greatest effects of Mongol rule were those resulting hand, the Mongols protected a from Russia's isolation from Christian lands farther west. On one vided and weak Russia from the attacks of much more powerful kingdoms such as Poland, Lithu- nla, and Hungary (Map 15.2). On the other hand, in the period of Mongol rule, Russia was cut off from key transformations in western Europe that were inspired by the Renaissance and led ultimately to the Reformation.

Deaction and Disaster: The Flight to the South

ortunately, Wang's ability to propose and enact reforms depended on continuing support from the long opposed Wang's changes. The Ong emperor. In 1085 that emperor died, and his successor favored the conservative cliques that neo-Confucians came to power, ended reform, and reversed y of Wang's initiatives. As a result, economic conditions continued to deteriorate, and peasant t grew throughout the empire. Facing banditry and rebellion from within, an unprepared mili- y proved no match for the increasing threat from beyond the northern borders of the empire, 15, a new nomadic contender, the Jurchens, overthrew the Liao dynasty of the Khitans and ablished the Jin kingdom north of the Song empire (Map 13.3). After successful invasions of Song ritory the Jurchens annexed most of the Yellow River basin to their Jin kingdom. These conquests ed the Song to flee to the south. With the Yangzi River basin as their anchor their capital ferred to Hangzhou, the Song dynasty survived for another century and a half. Politically, the Sonthern Song dynasty (1167-1279) was little more than a rump state carved out of the much larger Aomains ruled by the Tang and northern-based Song. Culturally, its brief reign was to be one of the most glorious in Chinese history-perhaps in the history of humankind.

Arab Pressure and the Empire's Defenses cont

surge of the Arab Muslims, though not without massive losses. By the mid-7th century, the Arabs had built a fleet that challenged Byzantine naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean while repeatedly attacking Constantinople. They quickly swallowed the empire's remaining provinces along the eastern seaboard of the k Mediterranean and soon cut into the northern Middle Eastern heartland as well. Arab cultural and commer- cial influence also affected patterns of life in Constan- tinople. Byzantine territory was cut back to about half the size of the earlier eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire held out nevertheless. A major siege of the capital in 717-718 C.E. was beaten back, partly because of a new weapon, a kind of napalm called Greek fire (a petroleum, quicklime, and sulfur mixture) that devastated Arab ships. The Arab threat was never removed entirely. Furthermore, wars with the Muslims had added new economic burdens to the empire, as inva- sions and taxation, weakening the position of small farm- he ers, resulted in greater aristocratic estates and new power sta for aristocratic generals. The free rural population that had served the empire during its early centuries-pro- viding military recruits and paying the bulk of the taxes- was forced into greater dependence. Greater emphasis was given to organizing the army and navy. After the greatest Arab onslaughts had been faced, the empire was run by a dizzying series of weak and strong emperors. Periods of vigor alternated with seem- ing decay. Arab pressure continued. Conquest of the island of Crete in the 9th century allowed the Muslims to harass Byzantine shipping in the Mediterranean for several centuries. Slavic kingdoms, especially Bulgaria, periodically pressed Byzantine territory in the Balkans, although at times military success and marriage alliances brought Byzantine control over the feisty Bul- garian kingdom. Thus, while a Bulgarian king in the 10th century took the title of tsar, a Slavic version of the

Classical societies page 2 part one

their predecessors in carlier complex soci- eties. They constructed elaborate systems of bureaucracy, and they experimented with. administrative organization in an effort to secure as much influence as possible for cen- tral governments and to extend imperial au- thority to the far reaches of their realms. To encourage political and economic integra- tion ol their lands, classical nulers also built into roads and supported networks of trade and the communication that linked the sometimes far-flung regions under their authority. The classical societies all faced military challenges, and they raised powerful armies for both defensive and offensive purposes Military challenges frequently arose from within classical societies themselves in the form of rebellion, civil war, or conflict be- tween powerful factions. External threats who sought to share in the wealth generated came from nomadic and migratory peoples by the productive agricultural economies of classical societics. Sometimes mounted no- madic warriors charged into settlements, seized what they wished, and departed be- fore the victims could mount a defense. In other cases, classical societles in such large numbers that migratory peoples moved into they disrupted the established political and social order. In lands, rulers of most classical societies ders and enhancing the welfare of their hopes of securing their bor- launched campaigns of expansion that ulti- mately produced massive imperial states. abled classical societies to address some The bureaucracies and armies that en- tributc. Most of them also required their surplus of their lands in the form of taxes or portion of the agricultural and industrial of the classical societies all claimed some administrative and military machinery, rulers reaucracies and armies. To finance expensive volved around the maintenance of the bu- well. One particularly pressing problem re- problems effectively created difficulties as subjecis to provide highways, bridges, and irrigation systems. nance of structures such as defensive walls, projecis involving the building and mainte- sated labor services for large-scale public compulsory, uncompen-

TANG AND SONG PROSPERITY: THE BASIS OFA GOLDEN AGE

those The attention given to canal building by the Sui emperors and the Tang rulers who followed them was driven by a major shift in the population balance within Chinese civilization. The Grand Canal, which Yangdi risked his throne to have built, was designed to link the original centers of Chinese civilization on the north China plain with the Yangzi River basin more than 500 miles to the south (see Maps 13.1 and 13.2). Because the great river systems that were essential to China's agrarian base ran from west to east-from the mountains of central Asia to the sea-the movement of people and goods in that direction was much easier than from north to south. Although no major geographic barriers separated the millet-growing areas of northern China from the rice-producing Yangzi basin, overland travel was slow and difficult. The transport of bulk goods such as millet and rice was prohibitively expensive. The great increase of the Chinese popula- tlon In the southern regions in later Han and Six Dynasties periods made it necessary to improve of the empire. By late Tang and early Song times, the south had surpassed the north in both crop Fasin and other rice-growing areas in the south were fast becoming the major food-producing areas Not only did more and more of the emperor's subjects live in the southern regions, but the Yangzi communications between north and south once the two regions were joined by the Sui conquests. production and population. the north. The canal made it died, on its locks and embankments. The completed highways lined with willow trees ran along the banks on both wall. Most stretches of the canal, which was nearly 1200 miles canal system was an engineering achievemeat time the Grand Canal was finished, more than a million forced laborers had worked, and many had drought and famine in the north. No wonder that Yangdi was obsessed with canal construction. By the griln from the fertile southern regions and to transfer food from the south to districts threatened by possible to transport to the capital revenue collected in the form of bureaucracies, and armies centered in ancient imperial centers such as Yengdi's Grand Canal was intended to facilitate control over the southern regions by courts, Chang'an and Luoyang in very bit as impressive as the northern fong. were 40 paces wide, and imperial sides.

Social Policies and Scholar-Gentry Resistance

to preserve Mongol Kubilai's efforts to promote Mongol adaptation to Chinese culture were overshadowed in the long run by measures separateness. The ethnic Chinese who made up the vast majority of his subjects, particularly in the south, were never really reconciled to Mongol rule. Despite Kubilai's cultivation of Confucian rituals and his extensive employment of Chinese bureaucrats, most of the scholar- gentry saw the Mongol overlord and his successors as uncouth barbar- lans whose policies endangered Chinese traditions. As it was intended to do, Kubilai's refusal to Confucian scholars from dominating officials further alienated the scholar-gentry. To add insult to injury, Kubilai went to great lengths to bolster the position of the artisan classes, who had never enjoyed high standing, and the merchants, whom the Confucian thinkers had long had shown great regard for artisans and because reinstate the examination route to administrative office prevented politics. The favoritism he showed Mongol and other foreign fellow city dwellers. During the Yuan dismissed as parasites. From the outset the Mongols of their useful skills had often spared them while killing their period in China, merchants also prospered and commerce boomed, partly because of Mongol efforts the supply of paper money. With amazing speed for a people to improve transportation and expand a major role in the conquest who had no prior experience with seafaring, the Mongols developed a substantial navy, which played of the Song empire. After the conquest of China was completed, the great Mongol war fleets were used to put down Toward the end of Kubilai's reign, the navy also tHon and conquest, which led to attacks on Japan and a brief reoccupation of Vietnam. pirates, who threatened river and overseas commerce. launched a number of overseas expeditions of explora-

The Byzantine Empire

was shaped by the decline of the Roman Empire the Arabs. The empire weathered many and the rise of attacks and flourished for several centuries. Origins of the Empire The Byzantine Empire in some senses began in the 4th century C.E., when the Romans set up their eastern capital in Constantinople. This city quickly became the most vigorous center of the otherwise fading imperial structure. Emperor Constantine constructed a host of elegant buildings, including Christian churches, in his new city, which was built on the foundations of a previ- ously modest town called Byzantium. Soon, separate eastern emperors ruled from the new metropolis, even before the western portion of the empire fell to the Germanic invaders. They warded off invading Huns and other intruders while enjoying a solid tax base in the peasant agriculture of the eastern Mediterranean. Constantinople was responsible for the Balkan penin- sula, the northern Middle East, the Mediterranean coast, and north Africa. Although for several centuries Latin was the court language of the eastern empire, Greek was the common tongue, and after Emperor Jus- tinian in the 6th century, it became the official lan- guage as well. Indeed, in the eyes of the easterners, Latin became an inferior, barbaric means of commu- nication. Knowledge of Greek enabled the scholars of the eastern empire to read freely in the ancient Athen- ian philosophical and literary classics and in the Hel- - lenistic writings and scientific treatises. The new empire benefited from the high levels of commerce long present in the eastern Mediterranean. New blood was drawn into administration and trade as Hellenized Egyptians and Syrians, long excluded from Roman administration, moved to Constantinople and entered the expanding bureaucracy of the Byzantine rulers. The empire faced many foreign enemies,