Ch 7 Summary and Ebook

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CHAPTER SUMMARY

Justinian’s Imperial Ambitions

In the seventh century, at the end of the period of Late Antiquity, Western civilization centered around three great civilizations: the Byzantine, the Islamic, and Western Europe. The history of these three civilizations through the eleventh century is characterized by the rivalries and interactions between them.

The Roman Empire of Byzantium

The Byzantines spoke Greek and combined the imperial tradition of the Roman world with an intense Christianity. Although they faced several challenges from Persia, Islam, and the Seljuk Turks, their history is largely the story of violence and palace revolts. Religious controversies sometimes spilled over into politics because the emperor represented the highest power of church and state. Despite the palace intrigue, Byzantine civilization was an important bulwark against Islamic encroachment as much as it was for preserving Greek ideas and classical literature.

Muhammad and the Teachings of Islam

The Islamic world was quite different: it was Arabic speaking and the most cosmopolitan of the three civilizations. Central to Islamic civilization was its religion, which was founded by Muhammad while he was engaged in a period of spiritual reflection in the Arabian desert. After Muhammad's death, the religion split into various factions. The issue was not necessarily theological, but rather political, and so the culture of Islam, like that of the Byzantines, was one in which religion and politics were interconnected. Also, like the Byzantine Empire, Islam helped to preserve and transmit the classical heritage of learning. Scholars not only preserved and translated texts, they also commented on them. In the end, our knowledge of Plato, Aristotle, and others was not only preserved by Islamic scholars, it was enriched by them at the same time.

The Conversion of Northwestern Europe

In Western Europe, the situation was also quite different. While Byzantium and Islam were building civilizations of great material wealth and internal dynamism, Western Europe was rebuilding after the fall of Rome. The Frankish law of succession led to nothing but political instability until the reign of Charlemagne at the end of the seventh century. It has been said that "as Charlemagne ruled, Europe was born." He stabilized his empire and conquered new lands—his goal was nothing short of a Christian Republic. With the help of Alcuin of York, Charlemagne also managed to institute the Carolingian Renaissance, in which classical learning would find itself at the center of the palace and cathedral schools. Following the death of Charlemagne, the Frankish kingdom collapsed as Europe entered what is, perhaps rightly, called a "dark age."