The most memorable feature of this century is the great Viking invasions, but the concurrent developments of the empires of Charlemagne and the Moslem Arabs are equally important to the Eurasian world. The Far East continued to have "barbarian" troubles, but in middle America it was the climax of the Classical Period.
The papacy at Rome sank to one of its lowest ebbs with a series of incompetent, immoral and irresponsible popes. In the eastern church, iconoclasm, which had produced a large crop of martyrs and exiles while it lasted, was officially banned in A.D. 843. (Ref. 8)
Similarly, the headquarters of the Islamic Church in Baghdad had a period of liquor, lechery, luxury and sloth which corrupted the caliphate. In this era Islam tolerated Christians and there were 11,000 Christian churches in various parts of the Islamic realm. The two main sources of Islamic knowledge were the Koran and the Tradition, a collection of reports of the acts and sayings of the Prophet and his companions. Ultimately six standard compilations of Tradition were produced in this century. Under the Abbasids, the direct descendents of Ali were allowed special privilege as religious leaders, known as ulema and this compromise between political and religious leadership was known as the "Abbasid Compromise" and those accepting this became known as Sunnites. (Ref. 68) At the end of the century, however, a group of the followers of Ali, called "Carmathians" developed the heretical Shi'ite sect, which was to grow into a powerful force in the future of the religion.
In limited respects this and the next century were actually the Golden Age of Islam, particularly in Spain, where many features were different than in the rest of the Moslem world. Music was prized, intellectual activity was great and tolerance was complete, with many marriages between Christians and Muslims. The Christian King Alfonso III even sent his son, the future Ordono II, to be educated at the Muslim court of Zaragoza. (Ref. 213)
Groups of Jews settling in Germany developed Yiddish as a unique language, combining German, Hebrew and other sources. (Ref. 222) Additional Notes
Back to Africa: A.D. 701 to 800
The old Axum monarchy established a new residence deep in the interior of Ethiopia around Lake Hayq sometime before A.D. 870. This was actually a Christian monastery with some 300 clerics. The old Axumite area was given up entirely to invading sheep herders. (Ref. 270) Nubia remained essentially as in the last century.
Egypt was a Moslem state but independently ruled by the Tulunid Dynasty. These men were Turkish in origin, having been brought into Islam as professional soldiers. One of them, Ahmad ibn Tulun (869-884) conquered Syria to add to his realm. Egypt, as the ancient granary for southern Europe, no long robbed of its products by foreign masters, entered upon a minor renaissance, with new learning and art, palaces, public baths, a hospital and a great mosque honoring Tulun.
All of the original Moslem provinces in north Africa were now more or less independent with separate rulers. After 800 Tunisia was ruled by the Aghlabid Dynasty until the end of the century when they were overthrown by the Kotama, a Berber tribe from Kabylia. Morocco, under the Idrisids, had founded a Shi'ite caliphate in 789 which had carried on into this century. Still farther west, just on the Mediterranean side of the Straits of Gibralter, were the Rostemids. (Ref. 137, 8) (Please see map in connection with CENTRAL EUROPE, this chapter.)
There were three major trade routes across the Sahara at this time. One went from Fezzan to Kanem, running north of Lake Chad; a second went from Gao, on the Niger bend, to central Maghrib; and the third ran from the western Maghrib to Ghana. (Ref. 83)
Commerce across the Sahara brought gold and slaves to the Mediterranean and stimulated the early Negro states of the sub-Saharan regions. Ghana had few natural resources of its own and its wealth was derived from levies imposed on this trade across the desert. We have seen in previous chapters how Jenne-jeno developed as a trade center on the Niger. By 800 it had perhaps 10,000 people and an extensive riverine trade with the Timbuktu region. (Ref. 268) To the Arabs, the ruler of Ghana was reputed to be the richest and most powerful monarch in all the Biladas-Sudan (Land of Blacks). Around
Lake Chad the empire of Kanem-Bornu developed about the beginning of this 9th century and survived for a millenium. This kingdom, founded by Zaghawa nomads, was originally only one of the seven Hausa city-states, each protected by strong city walls and excelling as manufacturers and long distance merchants. (Ref. 68, 175)
On the east coast of Africa a great wave of trading activity swept the countries bordering the Indian Ocean, resulting in a string of city-states along that coast, most of them founded by Muslims from the Persian Gulf and some from southern Arabia. Bantu-speaking Negroes soon joined them to produce a distinct culture and language (Swahili). Farther south in Zimbabwe, the Shona and particularly the Karangas sub-group, continued in this century to develop agriculture, stock raising, gold and copper trading and the building of large stone edifices. They probably originally came from iron-rich Katanga and had an advanced knowledge of iron mining and metallurgy. They soon became the overlords of the indigenous Gokomere and Leopard's Kopje people as the Rhodesian plateau became a beehive of gold, copper and iron production. The products went to the Arab merchants on the coast. The Shona civilization lasted until A.D. 1500. (Ref. 175, 176, 45)
Back to The Near East: A.D. 701 to 800
The original home of the Moslems was no longer the center of their activity, but Muhammed's home area at Mecca remained their religious focal point. At the end of this century this city was controlled by the heretical Shi'ite sect. Moslem states which remained separate from the Abbasid Caliphate were set up in eastern Arabia and Yemen. (Ref. 8 Additional Notes
Early in the century, with the Abbasid Moslem administration at Baghdad, there was remarkable growth of that city. By 814 it covered approximately 10 by 9 kilometers, the equivalent of modern-day Paris within the outer boulevards. (Ref. 8) The caliph in Baghdad was the most powerful man on earth and the Arab dhows rode the Indian Ocean from end to end. (Ref. 2) The reign of Mamun the Great (813-833) was probably the most glorious of all. Damascus and Baghdad each had observatories and a House of Knowledge, with a rich library in the latter city. (Ref. 119) Later, even as the administration began a decline there was still considerable progress in the area in science, literature, astronomy and medicine. Translations continued to be made from Syriac, Greek, Pahlavi and Sanskrit to Arabic. Johannitus was one of the great translators of medicine just after 800. The Hellenistic heritage was appropriated with some added original Moslem contributions. The mathematician, Al-Kharizmi, for example, became the first to use Indian (our Arabic) numerals to develop new forms of calculation.
In the west of this region, Syria played its usual role as a border state between two rival empires, this time the eastern Abbasids of Baghdad and the Turkish controlled Egypt. Early in the century the former dominated but about 870 Syria was conquered for Egypt by Ahmad ibn Tulun, one of the Turkish mercenaries originally hired by the caliphs for personal body guards and armies.
As the Abbasid Caliphate eventually became corrupt and weakened, it gave way in the last of the century in Persia to the native Saffarid Dynasty, which also ruled part of Central Asia. One spot just south of the Caspian remained separate as the Shi'ite Emir- ate of Alid (Descendant of Ali). (Ref. 137) The Persian language was revived. Windmills with vertical sails fitted to wheels turning horizontally were operating in Persia by this century and possibly much earlier. These mills may have spread from Iran to China as well as to the Mediterranean. (Ref. 260) Additional Notes
Although the Emperor Nicephorus made peace with Charlemagne in 803 so that the eastern empire could retain control of southern Italy, Venice and Dalmatia, he could not pacify the Arabs who resumed raids in 804 through 806. As a result the Byzantines lost control of the seas and African Moslems took Crete and invaded Sicily. The Rus took over the Black Sea and by 860 attacked Constantinople itself. After 867 Byzantine fortunes improved, however, as a capable general, Basil I, founded the Macedonian Dynasty. Although born in Macedonia, Basil was actually of Armenian descent. In the meantime, in spite of the more or less constant and losing warfare, as is so often the case, the Greek Byzantine Empire at the same time enjoyed a brief renaissance as the University of Constantinople was restored and an Alexandrian Age of scholarship developed. Schools of law and medicine, as well as philosophy and mathematics, were promoted. A unique and formidable religious art accompanied the intellectual activity, particularly after the Council of Sophia had allowed the return of iconoclasm and instituted a new period of persecution of certain monks.
The Christian kingdom of Armenia, which now included the old Georgian kingdom of Iberia, kept independent of the Arabs by paying tribute. The Bagratuni family established a dynasty under the title of "Prince of Princes", built a capital at Ani and gave the country several generations of progress and relative peace. Ashot I was the first independent sovereign, ushering in Armenia's "Golden Age". (Ref. 137)
Forward to The Near East: A.D. 901 to 1000
The most important early Islamic archaeological complex in Arabia, outside Mecca and Medina, is the more than 600 mile-long Darb Zaubaida, or pilgrim road. Actually it extended even father, to Baghdad, in Mesopotamia. It was lavishly equipped with wells, catch basins, rest stops and hostelries for pilgrims to Mecca. The name "Zubaida" was that of the wife of Caliph Harun al Rashid. (Ref. 315)
Slaves from Russia were at a premium in Persia in this century and sold for as much as 600,000 dirhams. (Ref. 301)
Back to Europe: A.D. 701 to 800
As this century opened, and particularly in A.D. 814, the year of the death of Charlemagne, Europe and Asia were recovering from the previous waves of barbarian invasions and a series of powerful empires extended in unbroken sequence from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The northern ones of Europe, however, - Frankish and Bulgarian - were really conquests of war bands and had very little stability. (Ref. 8)
The copper mines of Cyprus continued to be exploited. Over a period of some 3,000 years about 200,000 tons of that metal has been produced on Cyprus. The smelting requires charcoal in the amount that would be the equivalent of 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 square miles) of forest. Since all Cyprus totals only 9,300 square kilometers, the forests of the island must have been destroyed at least 16 times. (Ref. 281) The Turks took Crete from the Byzantine controlled Venetians and in 825 built a base with a surrounding moat, where Moslem pirates dominated until the middle of the next century. Malta was taken by the Moslems in 869. (Ref. 38, 222)
The greater part of Greece was a part of Byzantium and, as such, shared in its temporary renaissance. Bulgaria took over part of northern Greece as a part of their expansion early in the century. Demonstrating the geological instability of the region, an earthquake of 856 killed 45,000 Corinthians. (Ref. 222)
The Avars were conquered by Charlemagne in 805 and as the remnants were pushed out of Hungary into the upper Balkans, they were absorbed by the Bulgars and Slavs. In 811 the still pagan Bulgars, under Prince Drum, defeated and destroyed the Byzantine armies of Emperor Nicephorus and then they took over a large part of the peninsula, even including some of Greece. Their territory then stretched from the Danube to the Theiss and from the Carpathians to the Dniester. Originally a Turkish people, the Bulgars became, by repeated admixture, almost entirely Slavonic in race and language. The Bulgar Khanate, under Czars Malamir and Boris , continued to expand rapidly and their empire even included a great part of Hungary until about 893, when the Magyars overcame the light hold of the Bulgarians in that region. (Ref. 137, 8)
Bulgaria and Serbia were won for the eastern Christian Church in 870 and 879, respectively, through the efforts of Cyril and Methodius, Macedonian Brothers, who helped Khan Boris to evolve a Slavonic or Cyrillic alphabet, thus allowing the development of a national written language and culture. Faced with Slavonic sounds which did not exist in Greek, they stretched the Greek alphabet as far as it would go, then drafted one or two Hebrew characters and invented others. The Eastern Church (Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian and Bulgarian) still uses this Cyrillic alphabet. (Ref. 168, 222) Farther for Western Christianity in 879, after they had made themselves independent of the German Empire in 869. (Ref. 137)
We noted in the last chapter that Charlemagne had seized the Lombard Kingdom in 774 and this remained under his control until his death in 814. Italy, as a whole was under divided rule. By the Treaty of Verdun of 843, the Frankish heir, Lothar, got a long central strip of Europe along with northern Italy and down to the frontier of the Duchy of Benevento in southern Italy and he retained the title of emperor. A weak papacy, leagued with France, ruled a central area; the Venetians had their own kingdom; and various dukes ruled scattered provinces. Part of Sicily was conquered by the Aghlabids from Tunisia in 827 and by 840 they held most of that island and the heel of Italy. They were finally expelled by the Byzantines at the end of the century. During the period of the Moslem raids, even Rome had been attacked. (Ref. 8, 137)
While eastern and southern Italy, in spite of the Moslem raids, remained for the most part Byzantine in culture, the rest of the peninsula developed a new civilization, a new language, religion and art from its Roman heritage. The Italian language became the most melodious of tongues; Italian Christianity was a romantic and colorful paganism, - a frank mythology of legend and miracle. Rome itself declined and science succumbed to superstition and only medicine kept its head up through the monasteries. Latin Christendom adopted the Iranian type of heavy armored cavalry and with this began to stem the barbarian tide and pave the way for counter-expansion in the next two centuries. A bright spot on the peninsula was Salerno, where a university with a medical school was founded, which soon became famous throughout Europe. (Ref. 49, 125)
CENTRAL EUROPE
The empire of Karl the Great (Charlemagne) was a theocratic church-state with his functioning as a priest-king and as an emperor. Included in his religious missions had been the conquest and conversion of the Saxons. He regarded the pope as simply his chaplain. (Ref. 181) At the same time, his empire was actually an artificial construction and did not survive him. Nevertheless, in a sense, he saved civilization because through him the Atlantic world re-established contact with the ancient, Mediterranean culture. He did this by arranging for the collecting and copying of books. With the exception of 3 or 4 surviving original antique manuscripts, our whole knowledge of ancient literature has come only through the copying that began under Charlemagne. These copyists also developed the Carolingian script which has survived until today. Their books were works of art and overall splendid masterpieces. (Ref. 33) The emperor died in 814, five years after the realm had been swept by famine. (Ref. 213) The Carolingian Dynasty immediately declined as the empire was divided by his one surviving son among three grandsons - Pepin, Louis and Karl, all of whom died within 8 years. Their successors were weak leaders and many local wars broke out between rulers, nobles and church with resulting recurrent partitions of the empire. Finally by the Treaty of Verdun (843) the original empire was officially divided into three parts, with Lothair keeping the title of emperor and a central area, extending from the Netherlands almost to Naples. Charles the Bald got the western area and Ludwig the eastern area and in this way France and Germany became dissociated. (Ref. 57) It was not originally a difference of race or temperament but a difference of language and tradition. The western branch was assimilated by the country-side Latin, which became French, while the Germanic group had retained their original Germanic tongue. The Franks in north Germany even differed also from the Swabians and south Germans. Ludwig actually was the first king of Germany, but the artificial divisions of the empire were still poorly arranged because they paid no heed to these growing regional differences. The monstrous territory of Lotharingia (French - "Lorraine") was to be disputed between France and Germany well up into the 20th century. The Italian part was also a continued problem area, with subsequent German emperors having to attempt to reconquer the region at frequent intervals for centuries. Additional Notes
NOTE: Add Map 36: Division of Charlegmagne's Empire at Verdun in 843
Map taken from Reference 97.
As the old Frankish kingdom disintegrated in the early century, the separ