ANGLO-SAXONS• Roman civilization can to an end in

Britain with the invasions of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes– Known together as the the Anglo-

Saxons– Between 450 and 650 AD, they sailed

up rivers, cleared forests, settled on land, built villages and made native Celts their slaves

– Independent Celtic kingdoms survived in the west

• Ireland, Wales, and western Scotland

• But roots of English civilization lay in the laws, customs, language, and institutions of Anglo-Saxons

TAKEOVER• Anglo-Saxons took over Britain

over an extended period of time– Small bands grabbing up

pieces of the island• By 450 AD, Romans had

completely abandoned Britain and native Celts had been enslaved by the invaders– Angles took over northern

England– Saxons took over the south– Jutes took Isle of Wight and

regions of Kent and Hampshire

BEOWULF• Values of Anglo-Saxon

warriors best described in Beowulf– Old English epic poem– Product of Germanic

oral tradition• Beowulf consists of three

episodes– Beowulf’s battle with

the monster Grendel– The slaying of

Grendel’s mother– Beowulf’s attempt to

kill a fire-breathing dragon

Beowulf and Grendel

ANGLO-SAXON VALUES• Strongest bond among Anglo-Saxon warriors

was between man and his lord– This was a society in which every chief and

every king was surrounded by a company of warriors

• Later called thegns– Thengs owed loyal service to their chief

and, in return, he rewarded them with treasure, arms, gold, and land

• Survival of a kingdom depended on the ability of the king to win battles and thereby gain the treasure and land to provide booty for his men

• Greatest virtues in Anglo-Saxon society were courage, honor, endurance, generosity, battlefield prowess, and the ability to drink a lot

Beowulf

Seven Anglo-Saxon

kingdoms occupied Britain by

650 AD

Northumbria

Deira (Kent)

Mercia

East Anglia

Essex

Wessex

Sussex

What would happen

between 650 and 800 AD is

that these seven

kingdoms would be

unified into a single

kingdom known as Anglaland (England)

ST. PATRICK• Conversion of Ireland to Christianity

was, according to legend, the work of St. Patrick– Lived 390-461 AD– Born in England– Captured by Irish pirates as

young man and spent several years in Ireland as a slave

– Escaped to Gaul where he spent the next 20 years studying in monasteries

– Returned to Ireland in 432 and spent the rest of life preaching and teaching there

• Mass conversion of Irish people probably mostly due to his efforts

IRISH CHURCH ORGANIZATION• Irish Christianity developed differently

than it did in the former Roman Empire• Biggest difference was in organization

and administration– Church in old Roman Empire was

divided into districts, each headed by a bishop who made headquarters in an old Roman city

• Monasteries were basic units of church organization in Ireland

– Each clan had its own monastery, ruled by an abbott who was from local chieftain’s family

– Bishops were little more than figureheads

IRISH MONASTERIES

• Irish monasteries were just a cluster of thatched huts surrounding a small church– Guarded by a wooden stockade– Monks spent most of their day in absolute silence

• Underwent frequent fasts• Prayed for hours while immersed in cold water• Tried to lived absolute perfect lives and were obsessed with finding any flaws in

their daily behavior– Led to frequent confessions

CLASSICAL EDUCATION• Irish monks dedicated to learning

– Came from belief that a person could become a perfect Christian only by meditating on the Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers

• Problem was that the Bible was in Latin and the Church Fathers wrote in Greek

– Irish monks therefore studied ancient grammar books and learned these languages in their pure classical form

– Pure classical Latin therefore survived best in the remote island of Ireland, a place that had never been part of the Roman Empire

IRISH MISSIONARIES• Initial reason for the spread of Irish influence

beyond Ireland was the tendency of Irish monks to go into voluntary exile– In 563, St. Columba established monastery

on island of Iona, off the coast of Scotland– St. Columbanus established Irish-style

monasteries in Burgundy and Italy• Irish monasteries in Europe helped to convert

rural peasants to Christianity– Irish monks were rural themselves and knew

how to preach to peasants– Their work led to the mass conversion of the

rural population of Western Europe– Irish missionaries also began to assimilate

Germany into the religious culture of Western Europe

CLEVER TACTICS

• Irish missionaries often assimilated many more-or-less harmless pagan practices into Christianity– Figuring that peasants might be more inclined to accept

Christianity if it contained elements that were part of old traditional popular culture

– Thus old pagan holidays continued to be celebrated under new, Christian names and for Christian purposes

• Christmas, Easter, and All Saints Day were all celebrated at the same time as old pagan holidays

• Carnival still retains strong pagan flavor– Places that had been sacred in pagan religions became

sacred Christian places• Located churches on the sites of old pagan temples

PANTHEON OF SAINTS

• Rural people used to worshipping lots of gods, each with a special function– Saints made good transitional

medium for them• Although not gods, each

had a unique function• People could pray to a saint

for a special problems• Saint could not do anything

on his or her own but could intercede with God on the prayer’s behalf

St Luke

St Christopher

ENGLISH MISSIONARIES

• Irish missionaries also helped to convert Anglo-Saxons of England– Was not easy but by 670 or so all of

England had converted to Christianity• By early 700s, English began to replace

Irish missionaries in still pagan parts of Europe– Most famous was St. Boniface– Zealous, great organizers, and always

worked in close cooperation with Rome

• Strengthened papal control in Europe

St Boniface

VISIGOTHIC SPAIN• 200,000 Visigoths migrated into

Spain in the 400s AD from southwestern France– Established themselves as

overlords of Hispano-Roman population by 497

– Forced native landowners to give 2/3s of their land to them (but did not take everything)

• By the reign of King Leovigild, the Visigoths controlled all of Spain and had made city of Toledo their capital– 568-586

RELIGION

• Visigoths were never assimilated by native population of Spain– Because they were Arian

Christians while Hispano-Romans were mainstream ones

• Ultimately, King Recared converted to mainstream Christianity in 589

– Removed source of tension between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans

– Also removed prohibition against intermarriage between the two groups

King Recared

LAWS

• Visigoths at first governed themselves according to their own laws and let their subjects be governed by their older local laws– Beginning in the reign of King

Leovigild, Visigoths began to pass laws which were binding on entire population

– Collection of these new laws which combined Roman and Gothic measures was drawn up during reign of King Recceswinth (672)

• Book of Judgments• Provided common law for all

Spanish people

Crown of King Recceswinth

SUCCESSION

• Primary source of instability was principle of elective monarchy– Resulted in bloody struggles for the crown each

time a king died– Sometimes a restive noble would murder a king

• Four kings murdered between 531 and 555• Lack of stable succession resulted in ultimate

disappearance of Visigoths as a separate people– In 711, Arabs invaded Spain and took over

without serious opposition because various local Visigothic factions were feuding over succession to throne

ARABIA

• Arabia was a no-man’s land between the Byzantine and Persian empires– Arid region inhabited by

fierce nomadic tribes– No central government– Always in a state of violent

anarchy– A few isolated Christian and

Jewish enclaves in commercial cities along the Red Sea

• But dominant religion was a primitive form of pagan idol worship

MOHAMMAD

• Semi-successful merchant born in city of Mecca in 570• Experienced series of vision when he was thirty years old

– Compiled them in a book known as the Koran– Religion of Islam founded on the basis of these visions

• Mohammad’s god, Allah, was all-powerful and all-knowing– No concept of Trinity– Revealed himself to Man through a series of prophets

• Mohammad was the last prophet and the culmination of all the others• Mohammad’s revelations were the most complete and perfect of them all

PRIME DUTY

• Emphasis on all-powerful god was influenced by Jewish doctrine– Stress on immortality

after death influenced by Christianity

• Claimed that it was prime duty of human beings to carry out the will of Allah– Those who failed would

go to hell– True servants would

enter heaven• Described in great

detail in Koran

ETHICAL COMPONENT• All people equal in Allah’s eyes

– True believers should therefore treat each other with justice and mercy

– Emphasized duty to help the unfortunate, the weak, and the poor

• Had strict dietary regulations– Borrowed from Jewish practice– Could not eat pork– Banned drinking alcoholic beverages and gambling

• Required to pray five times a day• Required to fight for their faith if need be

– Jihad (holy war)• Death in jihad regarded as a sure way to get into heaven

CONTROL OF ARABIA• Originally, Mohammad’s attack on idol

worship aroused the hostility of people of Mecca– Drove him out of the city in 622

• Found refuge in Medina– Converted entire population to

Islam within a year and became religious and political leader of city

– Attacked Mecca in 630, took control of it, and converted all inhabitants to Islam

• Using Mecca and Medina as a power base, he then gradually won over all the tribes in Arabia and united them under Islam and his political authority

UMAYYAD DYNASTY• Mohammad died in 632 and did not name

successor– Followers selected Abu Bakr to lead

Islam• Old friend of Mohammad’s• Gave him title of “caliph”

– Abu Bakr and the two caliphs who followed him founded Umayyad Dynasty

• Ruled Arab world until 750• Briefly challenged by Ali, a son-in-law

of Mohammad’s– Defeated and Ali’s followers

formed a dissident Islamic sect that became the Shi’ites

Abu Bakr

Mohammad had launched several attacks on border

regions of Byzantine Empire before he died

Abu Bakr invaded and took over

Syria and Palestine in 640

Took over Egypt in 641

Conquered entire Persian Empire and ultimately pushed to the

borders of China

Arab armies then pushed west out of

Egypt and took over all of North Africa to

Morocco

Attacked Constantinople in 674 but failed to capture

city

By 700, Umayyads moved their capital to Damascus and ruled the largest empire the world had ever seen

REASONS FOR SUCCESS• Brilliant generals and soldiers were

inspired by a deep, sometimes fanatical, faith

• Also very lucky in the sense that their attacks came when both Persian and Byzantine empires had been seriously weakened by a long war against each other

• Byzantines had imposed heavy taxes on Egypt and Syria to recoup war debts– Also persecuted Jews in Syria and

Monophysites in Egypt• Alienated people of these regions

• Arabs proved to be better rulers than Byzantines– Never persecuted people because of

their religious beliefs

Invaded Spain from North Africa in 700s and took

over Visigothic Kingdom there—with new capital at

Cordoba

Pushed north into southern France in 720 with goal of

conquering entire country and then also Germany

Stopped at the Battle of Tours in 732 by Frankish army led by

Charles Martel

Northward expansion was stopped and the Arabs were

also eventually pushed out of southern France as well

Attacked Constantinople again and once again failed

First wave of Arab expansion was over and Western Europe

remained independent and Christian—as did Constantinople, Asia Minor, and Eastern

Europe

A NEW DYNASTY

• Any chance the Arabs had to renew their attacks in the near future was ruined by a series of civil wars against the Umayyad Dynasty in the late 730s– Umayyads overthrown in 750

and replaced by Abbasid Dynasty

• Moved capital to Baghdad• Unable to maintain firm

control of empire and many areas broke off and became independent Moslem states

– Such as Spain and Egypt

Abbasid palace in Baghdad

CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS I

• Arabic became an international language and also developed a great vernacular literature– Arabian Nights

• Arabs also assimilated the more advanced cultures of the lands they conquered– Adopted Persian and Byzantine

administrative systems– Translated Greek philosophy and

science into Arabic and then added to by Arab philosophers, theologians, and scientists

– New forms of art and architecture were developed

• Based on Persian—not Greek or Roman--models

Arabic numerals

INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS II

• Famous schools of medicine were founded, based on teachings of Hippocrates

• Arabs picked up sophisticated mathematical concepts from India and China– Such as decimal systme and use of

zero– Invented algebra

• Arab learning was later transmitted to Europe and would profoundly influence medieval thought and culture– But not until after 1000 AD because

Western scholars lacked the intellectual capacity to learn from another culture until that time

MATERIAL PROSPERITY

• Material prosperity of Arab world was at high level– Especially when compared to

Western Europe• Wealthy material base of richest

provinces of old Roman Empire were used by Arab merchants to produce a thriving economy– Great cities with magnificent

mosques, palaces, libraries, schools, hospitals, etc. were built

– At the same time a “city” in Europe was a group of wooden huts surrounded by a crude stockade