Part II:
DIVERGING PATHS
New Configurations (c.1050 - c.1150)
In the second half of the 11th century the Europeans built cities, reorganized the church, and created new
varieties of religious life. It was also the beginning of the Crusades. A new commercial economy lay at
the heart of these developments.
The Seljuks and the Almoravids
- In the 11th century the Seljuk, a new Turkic group from outside the Islamic world, entered and
took over its eastern half and took a bite out of Byzantium
- Soon they split themselves apart and the Islamic world fragmented again, ruled by
dozens of Emirs.
- Meanwhile, the Almoravids (Berber tribespeople) formed a new empire in the Islamic far West.
From the Sultans to the Emirs
Seljuk Turks were nomadic warriors from Kazakhstan steppe
th
- Some entered the region from the Caspian Sea at the end of the 10 century as mercenaries
serving rival Muslim rulers.
th
- During the first half of the 11 century they began conquest on their own.
The Seljuks divided themselves in two states around the mid-12th century
- East: Great Seljuk sultanate (c.1040-1194).
- West: Seljuk sultanate of Rum (c.1081-1308).
The Seljuk were Sunni, Shi’ism was seen as a heresy
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- Madrasas were sponsored by leader Nizam al-Mulk, hoping that they would fan new life into
political, religious and cultural Sunnism
- Cultural and political centres of the Islamic world shifted to Iran and Anatolia.
- Great strength and wealth, of both the sultanate, was shown in their architecture.
Nizam al-Malk cemented his position as virtual ruler thanks to the iqta: a way to pay for army leaders,
bureaucrats and members of dynasty by giving them the right to collect revenues due from a particular
piece of land.60
The emirs of Iran and Iraq broke away from the sultan’s centralized state in the 12th century → the Great
Seljuk empire fell apart
- Seljuk culture and institutions persisted in numerous smaller centres.
- The Anatolian brand of the dynasty prospered, but Seljuk Anatolia was a sort of ‘wild west’ with
mud houses and not much intellectual and artistic activity.
- Anatolia had a significant Christian population → mosques and minarets were built quickly.
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Centers of advanced scholarship attached to mosques.
60
Very similar to the European fiefts. It was hereditary.
,From Pastoralists to State-Builders
In the Western part of the Islamic world, Berber Sanhaja tribesmen from the Sahara desert forged a state
similar to that of the Seljuks
- Originally pastoralists, they learned Islam from Muslim traders.
- Since 1030s they followed a strict form of Sunni orthodoxy
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- Men wore a veil over the lower part of their faces to demonstrate their devotion.
The Sanhaja formed the Murabitun federation (Almoravids) and began conquering the regions to
their north, taking over cities bordering the Sahara
- The foundation of their city at Marrakesh c.1070 marked their transformation from nomads to
settled state → they kept conquering ground (mainly what is now Morocco).
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- The Andalusian rulers called on them to help fight Christian armies, Yusuf Ibn Tashfin
responded in 1086, but they were defeated by the Christian king Alfonso VI of León and
Castile
- The Almoravids began conquering the peninsula
- By 1115 the Islamic part of the peninsula was under Almoravid control → ended
in 1147 when another Berber group took over.
- The Almoravids came to control a huge empire
- Wealth and power mirrored in their crafts: fine textiles that were appreciated in Europe
Together the Seljuks and Almoravids rolled back the Shi’ite wave: this division between Sunni and Shi’ite
only grew somewhat closed when they pulled together to fight the Christian Crusaders.
Byzantium: bloodied but unbowed
The empire of Basil II was unable to sustain its successes in the face of Turks and Normans
- While the Turks triumphed in Anatolia, the Turkic Pechenegs raided the Balkans.
- The Normans had established themselves in southern Italy and started attacking Byzantium in
the Balkans
- They conquered Muslim Sicily in 1093.
The Byzantine army was not very effective anymore63
- But in many cases they turned to diplomacy: Emperor Constantine IX (r.1042-1055) welcomed the
Pechenegs, when he couldn’t stop them entering, he baptized them and let them settle in
depopulated areas
- In this way, the Byzantine grip over its territories and frontiers gradually slipped, but
Byzantium still stood.
There were changes at the imperial court as well:
- More ‚familial‛ model of government: through marriages and appointments the most important
families became connected and took the most important positions in the government → they
received pronoiai: temporary grants of imperial lands.
Byzantine rulers became more like European rulers:
- Holding a relatively small territory and handing some of it out in grants.
- Spending most of their time in battle.
61
They were called al-Mulaththamun (The Veiled Ones)
62
Leader of the Almoravid at the time.
63
Still largely composed of mercenaries.
,The Quickening of the European Economy
Behind the European expansion was a new economy: new lands were brought into cultivation; 64 with
new tools such as heavy ploughs, the three-field system and more crop variety,65 they were able to
generate agricultural surplus
- Great landowners became efficient economic organisers: they set up mills to grind grain forcing
their tenants to pay for its use.
- With the agricultural surplus came greater health and the repopulation of old city as well as the
creation of new urban centres
- Here city dwellers elaborated new instruments of commerce, self-regulating organizations
and forms of self-government.
Towns and City
Around castles monasteries and old city centres merchants from the countryside arrived with their wares
to sell them and artisans to set up shop → these cities grew in population.
Early cities developed without prior planning, but some later ones were ‚chartered‛ (plotted out in
advance)
- Medieval cities varied from place to place
- Nearly all included a marketplace, a castle and several churches.
- Lots had walls around them and a network of streets within them.
- Most cities were situated next to waterways and had bridges.
Commercial centres developed fastest and most densely along key waterways: the Mediterranean coasts
of Italy, France, and Spain; northern Italy along the Po River; the Rhineland; the English Channel and the
shores of the Baltic Sea
- During the 11th and 12th century West-European waterways became part of a single,
interdependent economy.
- At the same time, new roads through the countryside increasingly linked urban centres to rural
districts, and stimulated the growth of fairs.66
Business Arrangements
The revival of urban life and expansion of trade was invigorated by merchants
- Some were local traders, others were long-distance traders (Jews and Italians)
- Jews were driven out of the countryside by landowners, forcing them into commerce
- Key traders from Italy were from Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi and Venice
- Regular merchants at Constantinople
- Traded with the Islamic world
- New forms of collective enterprises invented by merchants to pool their resources and finance
large undertakings:
- The cloth industry began, powered by watermills.
- Forging iron into agricultural tools and plows → more food production.
- Beer brewers moved from monasteries to urban centres.
- The new economy was sustained by guilds
- Guilds regulated and protected professionals of all kinds, they guaranteed their members
a place in the market.
- Craft guilds agreed on quality standards and defined work hours, materials and prices.
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Extencive growth.
65
Intensive growth.
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Regular short-term markets.
, Merchant guilds regulated business arrangements, weights and measures, and prices.
-
- ‚Commune‛ was town self-government67
- City dwellers recognized their mutual interest in reliable coinage, laws to facilitate
commerce and independence to buy and sell at markets.
- They petitioned the political powers that ruled them (bishops, kings, counts, castellans,
dukes) for the right to govern themselves
- Prevalent in Italy, France and Germany
- In Italy life was already city-cantered, and there communes sought to restore
power to the citizens.
Church Reform and its Aftermath
‚Gregorian Reform‛: reform in the church and society that wanted to free the church form the world
- Broke up clerical marriages, unleashed civil war in Germany, changed the procedure for
episcopal elections and transformed the papacy into a monarchy.
The Coming of Reform
In 910 the duke and duchess of Aquitaine founded the monastery of Cluny
- They gave the monastery’s property and its worldly possessions to Saints Peter and Paul → the
effectively control was thus in hands of the Pope, who was the successor to Saint Peter, and thus
the worldly protector of the monastery
- But the monks weren’t subject to any earthly power.
- Cluny prestige was great because of the influence of their founders, the status of Saint Peter and
the fame of their prayers
- Anyone who could afford it gave Cluny donations of land in exchange for prayer.
- New monasteries were formed after the Cluniac model.
- The Cluny abbots came to see themselves as reformers. They preached:
- Clerical celibacy, going against the norm at the time, were priests and even bishops were
married.
- The Laity could be reformed, become more virtuous and cease its oppression of the
poor.
- During the 11th century, they increasingly called upon the popes to help them when they
disputed bishops or laypeople about lands and rights.
A parallel movement emphasizing two abuses, nicolaitism68 and simony,69 emerged
- German king and emperor Henry III felt he was responsible for the well-being of the church in
his empire:
- He denounced simony, and refused to accept gifts or money when he appointed bishops
to their posts.
- He presided over the Synod of Sutri (1046), which deposed three papal rivals and
appointed a new one
- When that pope, and his successor, died he appointed a reforming bishop: Leo IX
(1049-1054).
- Leo IX revolutionized the papacy → ‚papal supremacy‛
67
Political counterpart of the Guilds.
68
Clerical marriage: married clerics were considered less pure, and their offspring might claim church property.
69
Buying church offices: gifts given or received by churchmen for their offices or duties, were considered attempts to
purchase the Holy Spirit.
