Lecture 9 Byzantium and Islam on the Periphery Neighbors and the lack of good fences I Byzantium Eastern half of the Roman Empire Capital was Constantinople Has a lot of different parts that made up the empire The things that allowed the eastern part of the empire to stay because of 4 things 1 Military strength was good and had a clear line of control 2 They had economy advantages that other countries didn t Trade Lines Capital Position and Large Cities etc 3 Had strong cohesive political and religious structure they had a strong leadership line and it stayed in the same family for years which went hand in hand with the religious aspect because of a new form of Christianity which gained a lot of power from surrounding countries also had a mindset of the old Roman culture not expanding having good friendship with surrounding countries 4 They also had good management throughout the empire Justinian I Was the last Emperor that spoke Latin he believed in a unified empire he retook Roman the southern part of the Italian Peninsula and takes back North Africa Lasted 25 years and took back a lot of land through his reign But the problem that occurs is the Byzantine Empire was not able adapt to expand and take back the land After his death most of the land is retake because of the weakening of the empire His lasting expression on the west society was The Code It had three parts to it 1 Justinian appoints new leaders to look over all the laws and they redo the criminal laws so that everyone would know the laws and what the costs of breaking them were 2 The next thing these new leaders do is took look over the Judies Pruritus the ruling on matters this becomes known as The Digest 3 The last thing was The Institutes these are the laws that go over the contracts and thing like that all these make up the Corpus Uris Civilus Under his rule Christianity flourished and grew Eastern Orthodox Christianity Grew during the rule of Justinian 1 Religious similarities Had same similarities with western Europe 2 Differences with the west They saw the emperor as supreme leader of the church not the pope Intellectual and Philosophical Traditions During this time nothing new was really being created and there was a loss of knowledge in the western part of the empire but in the east there was surge to preserve what was around them and most of the people in the east were highly educated Scientific Development During this time there weren t a lot of advancements but they preserved it so well that later in life other groups could use it They did set up the first hospitals to help the very sick also they had the best doctors in Europe at the time But sense they preserved a lot of their ways they did not further it The one problem that comes was the Justinian Plague that comes from India and traders and it took out a lot of people and weakened the whole empire and country II Islam Influence in Western Europe Sassanid Empire in the Arabian Peninsula dominated by to groups the nomadic non nomadic people and the trading ports on the Red Sea side which was a big thing back then Muhammad Founded Islam created the Qur an and there was very little known about him He was an orphan at 6 and was raised by his uncle and was later a great trader he falls in love with a widow woman that has a vast trading source and later they marry He later gets visions and only tells his wife and he only starts preaching because he was visited by the angel Gabriel this was a problem because the surrounding countries were all mostly Christian or Catholic Everyone around them believe that if Muhammad starts preaching that he will cause troubles so they push him out of Mecca Expansion in Europe Muhammad travels to Maida and sets up the Umma this is a grouping and he goes back to Mecca with an army that he raised at Umma he doesn t use it because Islam had spread all over the empire and he was welcomed back in Islam in a short time spread everywhere North Africa Iberian Peninsula Byzantine Empire this all creates a foot hold for the Muslim Army and it allows them to spread throughout Europe Intellectual and Philosophical Traditions The Muslim army protect the Jewish Scholars after they took Andalusia in Spain this was because they could translate and write in different languages which means they could record and help spread their knowledge throughout Europe Scientific Medicinal and Mathematical Advances One of the famous things that come out of this is Algebra created by al Khwarizmi he created with Arabic Numerals which allows people to start to do complex mathematics Cordoba every street was paved and had lights at night on the streets Also had a huge library books a million with books in a variety of different languages This shows how much Muslims valued knowledge At this time al Razi comes about and he was a famous doctor that wrote great books Another doctor was Abasinia he comes up with the germ theory but it is not discovered until later Another doctor was al Zahrawi who comes up with new works for wounds and how to deal with them During this time doctors could due autopsy on bodies so that they could learn how to help people Paper Muslim innovators borrow the formula of making paper and added starch to it so that paper would be smoother and easier to write on and easier to make This leads to paper to being it s worth its weight in gold They did this 858 CE and this was way before any other country even started to try making it Agriculture After take over the Islamic people redefined the land agriculturally New things came from like peaches grains and wheat This was the major factor of change was the wheat the harvest was such much that it changed the world around them It made the people wealthy because of it Key Terms al Zahrawi Cannon of Medicine al Khwarizmi Cordoba Islam Muhammad Justinian I The Digest Constantinople al Razi Hindu Arabic Numerals Algebra Andalusia al Andalus umma Justinian Plague The Institutes The Code Lecture 10 The Carolingians From Employee to Emperor I Life in Francia 7th and 8th Centuries Life was hard starvation was ramped and the government wasn t helping War fair was the only way to get money Food was lacking during this time and there was little trade throughout Francia o Control of Land The Merovingian held control over the lands as Kings but the kingdom is going down because of Divided Succession and the land being split up so much o Violence and Societal Structures Groupings o Lack of nearly everything