Circling the Mediterranean: Europe and the Islamic World (Volume B)

History and Nation Europe as a multinational concept almost never appeared during the Middle Ages; people referred to themselves by their nation, primary language, and, above all, their religion. The Islamic world was similarly divided by rival communities in the caliphates of Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo, as well as by the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century. The opposition between the Islamic world and Europe is a modern invention, which has led to a misleading view of history. The image is from an illuminated thirteenth century Arabic manuscript, depicting the Greek philosopher Socrates discoursing with his students.

Roman Rule of Judea In the Roman-ruled province of Judea (modern Israel), suppression by the civil authorities of a loosely organized rebellion culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and a scattering of the Jewish community in 70 C.E. The image is a painting titled The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, AD 70 (1850), by David Roberts.

“Christianity” Jewish followers of James and John who had embraced the gospel, and those mixed Jewish and Gentile communities that adopted Paul’s hellenized brand of Christianity, were exiled after the Roman suppression of 70 C.E.; however, a codified Christian doctrine did not appear until Jerome’s production of the Latin Bible and Augustine’s works almost three centuries later. The values of Rome and its celebration of the arts and worldly pleasures were very much at odds with a Christian ethic that demanded rejection of worldly things; classical principles of poetic composition became applied to new types of writing, including religious hymns and saints’ lives and confessions. The left image is a painting of Saint Jerome (1570–75), by Titian. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. The right image is a tempera and gold panel of Saint Augustine (1437–44). Private Collection.

Constantinople While the capital of Rome remained the seat of imperial power in the West, the city of Byzantium (Istanbul) represented Rome in the East. Germanic tribes invaded Italy during the fifth century, while Rome’s eastern capital in Byzantium (called Constantinople) remained intact until the end of the Middle Ages. Boethius bears witness to the decay of Rome and birth of a new Christian culture. The image is a medieval map of Constantinople (1422), by Cristofor Buondelmonti.

Islam “obedience” Prophet Muhammad Ca. 632 C.E. monotheism Shi’a, Sunni Islam Islam (“obedience” or “voluntary submission to God”) arose with Muhammad the Prophet in the seventh century C.E. as a sibling religion to the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism and Christianity; the religion split into two main groups after Muhammad’s death (632 C.E.)—Sunni and Shi’a—based on who would succeed as leader for the faith.

Spread of Islam The spread of Islam took place not only through cultural and religious means but also through direct military conquest, such as the assault on the Byzantine Christian empire that culminated in the Battle of Yarmuk in 636: after that time, the southern regions of Anatolia (modern Turkey) and virtually the whole of the Levant (modern Near East) were under Islamic control. After the fall of the Umayyad caliphate that had been based in Damascus, the Abbasid caliphate was established at Baghdad, where it endured for more than five hundred years. The image is a photograph of part of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Islam: Articles of Faith Sunni Muslims God’s oneness angels four books messengers (prophets) days of judgment and resurrection destiny Shi’a Muslims God’s oneness justice prophethood day of judgment caliphate (leadership) Religious divisions cut across the nations gathered under Islamic rule. The most important is the division of Sunni from Shi’a Islam: the former centers on a strict conformity to the exemplary life of the Prophet Muhammad and a literal reading of the Holy Book; the latter prescribes a special veneration of the family of the Prophet, especially his daughter Fatima, her husband (the Prophet’s cousin) Ali, and their sons. Shi’a Islam works are highly emotional and affective, as expressed in devotional stories and plays chronicling the martyrdom of the Prophet’s family, which became the basis for Sufi mysticism.

Abbasid Empire The Abbasid, which overthrew the Umayyad caliphate, was the third dynasty of caliphates who were descended from Muhammad’s uncle. The caliphate’s move to Baghdad (Iraq) from Damascus (Syria) marks the Islamic Golden Age, during which Islam was shaped more by Persian rather than Arab influences, and social conventions changed to permit non-Arab Muslims’ assimilation. Scholarship was emphasized over martyrdom and international relations were established: Euclidean math was restored, algebra developed, optics and mathematics advanced, and agricultural, textile, and paper industries flourished. The left image depicts the siege of Amorium by the Abbasid caliphate in 838 (12th or 13th century). From the Madrid Skylitzes (cod. Vitr. 26-2, fol. 59v). The Amorium Project. The right image depicts Harun Al-Fashid, the fifth and most famous Abbasid caliph, whose reign and court appear in The Thousand and One Nights.

Mongol Invasion Baghdad, 1258 Ottomans, 1453 Arabic language al-Andalus Persian influence Shahnameh, Ferdowsi Mongols invaded and seized Baghdad in 1258, soon converted to Islam and ruled until the Ottomans invaded and consolidated their power in Constantinople in 1453. In spite of the shifting power of the caliphate to different regions, the Arabic language served as the standard language of administration and of religious observance for all Muslims everywhere, including for the Christians and Jews who lived in Spanish al-Andalus (then under Islamic rule). The Persian language and myths were largely influential as well, as seen in the Shahnameh (Book of Kings) by Ferdowsi. The image shows the Mongol invasion on the Mongol Scrolls (13th century).

Ottoman Empire, 1300 C.E. cultural elite = new converts from Christianity linguistically and religiously diverse languages: Turkish, Arabic, Persian nomadic origins resigned to character tales slave-based political and military elite feudal army religious tolerance did not mean equality Islam became the dominant religion of the ruling classes in various Arab empires. Because the Islamic religion was not imposed on indigenous cultures, however, local religious practices often existed alongside Islam; however, religious groups were taxed differently and did not have the same access to power. The new political and military elite largely consisted of carefully selected and highly educated slaves of the sultan, which contrasted greatly against the large feudal army that did not become a landed aristocracy as it had in Europe. Turkish was both the administrative language and ethnic background for the Ottoman Dynasty.

Mi’raj Persian philosopher Avicenna integrated the Islamic narrative of miraculous ascent into the heavens with a Platonic vision of the cosmos and its relationship to the individual soul in his Mi’rajnameh. The mi’raj (meaning “ladder”) details Muhammad’s journey on Buraq into the seven circles of heaven, where he speaks with other prophets and receives instructions for prayer rituals from God. The Buraq (active Intelligence) is described as steed, not because it is a physical animal, but rather because the concept is best related as a mount due to its characteristics and relationship with the Prophet—he is traveling, and a mount helps for traveling.

The Thousand and One Nights The Thousand and One Nights was written by many unknown authors over centuries and countries of the Middle East. The first document bearing any evidence of The Thousand and One Nights was a single pace of old Syrian paper that dates from 879 C.E., discovered in 1948 by a scholar studying in a Cairo archive. The Nights circulated through the Mediterranean, finding its way into other collections, including Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The manuscript is from the oldest text of The Thousand and One Nights, found in Syria (1300s).

Mappamundi The medieval map, with its deeply religious imaginative geography and central focus on Jerusalem, illuminates the ways in which the repeated cycles of European warfare around the Mediterranean and into the Middle East—called “Crusades”—functioned as both military campaign and control of the spiritual homeland. One notes a shift away from the symbolic geography of the world map, or mappamundi, oriented toward the east, with the Garden of Eden at the top and centered on Jerusalem. It was replaced by Ptolemaic maps, based on the empirical observations and instructions of the second-century Greek astronomer, Ptolemy, and from medieval navigation charts. The image shows a mappamundi from a London Psalter of the twelfth century.

Crusades First Crusade, 1095 Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem economic opportunities anti-Semitism Song of Roland The First Crusade (1095) established the “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.” The crusades functioned as opportunities for economic development and international cooperation among the nations of Europe, helping to unify those disparate Christian nations through their shared opposition to the Muslim enemy. Violent attacks were also made on the only locally available non-Christian people in European cities—the Jews. The response to non-Christian peoples and the Crusades is visible in poetry, including the Song of Roland, which accounts for Charlemagne’s battle over the Muslims at Saragossa. The image shows a kneeling knight with his horse before setting off on the crusades. Westminster-Psalter (13th century). British Library.

Literary Developments epic romance Beowulf Ferdowsi, Shahnameh Chrétien de Troyes Marie de France French and Italian as literary languages Epic is often opposed to romance: the former is portrayed as a masculine genre that recounts the deeds of knights and the matter of war; the latter is a feminine genre that focuses on the relations of the lady and her lover in the domestic sphere of the court. Both genres rose to prominence in the twelfth century. Beowulf intertwines myth and history (Christianity and Anglo-Saxon history) as does Ferdowsi’s Persian Shahnameh (Islam and Persian history). The romances of Chrétien de Troyes and lais of Marie de France idealize the role of the knight. The French origins of the romance genre are tied to the emergence of French as a literary language.

Petrarch Petrarch championed classical Latin at a time when vernacular languages were reaching new levels of sophistication in literature. Petrarch wrote important treatises in Latin but wrote poetry in Italian. The image is a fresco on wood of Petrarch (ca. 1450), by Andrea del Castagno. Uffizi Gallery, Italy.

Frame Narrative Transmitted from India to Persia and then disseminated throughout the Islamic world and across the Mediterranean, frame-tale narratives such as The Thousand and One Nights were widely popular in written and oral form. Petrus Alfonsi’s Scholars Guide is one of the first medieval examples of the genre. Characteristics of the frame narrative include flexibility of theme, length, and style; interpolation of stories from other contexts and periods; adaptability to different linguistic contexts; and a sense of incompleteness or perpetual storytelling that can be customized according to the audience and storyteller. The painting shows a scene from a story from The Thousand and One Nights (1873), by Gustave Boulanger.

Travel Literature accuracy, truth value descriptive elements writer’s impressions, personal values versus travel guides “They would have wild elephants and lots of unicorns that are no smaller than elephants: they have hair like buffalo and feet like elephants, with a very thick, black horn in the middle of the forehead. And I tell you it doesn’t do harm with its horn but with its tongue” (p. 815). Travel literature (travelogues) differs from travel guides with respect to observation and the traveler’s intent—they need not be accurate or truthful. Travelogue focus tends to be descriptive and written for the purpose of providing readers with a view of the location through the writer’s impressions and personal values, whereas travel guides offer practical, tourist information without personal reflections or experiences. Some accounts of European travel eastward during the medieval ages were fictional, written to entertain audiences with exotic accounts. Others offered practical knowledge and ethnographies of the cultures, as well as suggestions for travel routes and preparation. Writing was initially based on the practical experience of pilgrims, who made the difficult journey over land to Jerusalem, and who covered the physical and spiritual journey in their writing. By the thirteenth century, the pilgrimage account had been taken up by traveling preachers (mainly Franciscan friars) who voyaged to the distant East in order to convert the Orient to Christianity.

Marco Polo merchant guide prison writing French-Italian vernacular Silk Road Kublai Khan Polo’s book, The Diversity of the World, offered practical guides for merchants and information on local customs, currencies, and commodities needed to facilitate trade. It begins as a story recounted by a merchant in an Italian jail, originally written in French-Italian vernacular. The story accounts for Polo’s father and uncle (and later Marco himself), who traveled the Asian trade route known as the Silk Road. Polo worked for the “Great Khan” (Kublai Khan), making surveys of local customs and becoming an envoy in Sumatra. The image is an illustration of Marco Polo traveling toward India (1375).

John Mandeville synthesist work Classical influence Sumatra nudity, marriage, property John Mandeville’s work is a synthesis of other medieval travel narratives, bestiaries, and naturalist works of the Classical period, particularly those of the pilgrimage genre, in which claims are made to provide accounts of the customs and behaviors of exotic lands. It begins with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but then goes on a speculative journey through Asia in search of Prester John’s Land. Mandeville seems to have an agenda for discovering the roots of Christianity in any culture he observes. The image is a page from an illustrated manuscript of Mandeville’s journeys(14th century), by Jean de Bourgogne. French National Library.

Europe, North Africa, Arabia, Asia Minor & Western Central Asia The spread of Christianity and of Islam into various parts of the world in and around the Mediterranean during the first millennium had an enormous impact. This map depicts the extent of various Christian (the Byzantine) and Islamic empires (the Shiite and Sunni empires). These empires traded territory in ongoing military campaigns. The Christian Byzantine Empire suffered a major defeat by Islamic armies at the battle of Yarmūk in 636, for example. This gave Islam control of most of what is now southern Turkey. But Arab fleets were not always successful in their military efforts.

Europe The idea of Europe as “the West” (relative to an Asian “East”) did not develop until the later Middle Ages, though it included territory that stretched from England to Russia. This map depicts the extent of Europe at about this time (ca. 1300), and it indicates the spread of Christendom from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries through both military conquest and also population migration. Notice how far reaching the Crusades were, which sought to take Christendom into the Middle East and which saw non-Christian (i.e., Islamic) belief as the “enemy.”

Test Your Knowledge In 382 Saint Jerome was commissioned to produce: a. a common prayer book b. a Latin Bible c. a translation of Plato’s work d. a synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine Answer: B Section: Christianity and Platonism Feedback: Saint Jerome’s translation into Latin of the Bible in 382 helped to codify the various brands of Christian belief into a more unified, single doctrine. However, many other authors, like Augustine in his Confessions (NAWOL, Volume B), focused on synthesizing Christian belief with ancient Greek and Roman ideas.

Test Your Knowledge Which of the following were recognized as capital cities in the Roman Empire under Constantine? a. Rome and Constantinople b. Cairo and Damascus c. Persia and Europe d. Athens and Constantinople Answer: A Section: Christianity and Platonism Feedback: The Roman Empire, for which Christianity had become the state religion, stretched so widely that two “centers” were recognized: Rome in the West and Constantinople (what had been Byzantium) in the East. (Readers may be interested in a modern poet’s invocation of “Byzantium”: see William Butler Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium” in NAWOL, Volume F.)

Test Your Knowledge What text is central to the Islamic faith? a. the Qur’an b. Muhammad c. Allah d. the Latin Vulgate Answer: A Section: The Spread of Islam Feedback: The Qur’an was disseminated by the prophet Muhammad and his followers in the seventh century and had a profound effect on cultures of the Mediterranean. Certain branches of Islam adhere very closely to the text of the Qur’an.

Test Your Knowledge Which of the following is NOT a frame narrative? a. The Thousand and One Nights b. Decameron c. Mi’raj-nameh d. Canterbury Tales Answer: C Section: The Spread of Islam Feedback: The Mi’-raj-nameh of Avicenna is not a frame narrative. This literary device, however, increased greatly in popularity in Persian literature of the Middle Ages (as in The Thousand and One Nights, NAWOL, Volume B).

Test Your Knowledge Which of the following was pivotal in helping to solidify the idea of “the West”—i.e., of Christian Europe—during the Middle Ages? a. the fall of the Ottoman Empire b. the discovery of America c. the Crusades d. the sack of Rome Answer: C Section: The Invention of the West Feedback: The medieval Christian Crusades, beginning in 1095, helped to solidify the identity of “Christian Europe.” Unfortunately, this identity grew out of a perceived opposition to non-Christian enemies: Muslims and Jews.

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for The Norton Anthology Of World Literature