This was the century of the Mongol conquests throughout Eurasia. Although trade between the continents of Europe and Asia had gone on since before the time of the Romans, the merchant communities had not dealt directly with each other but through caravaneers and market-owners of the Middle East. Islam later created such a barrier that people of medieval Europe had no more knowledge of the East than had the citizens of imperial Rome. Thus, when the Mongols came the inhabitants of Europe had no concept of the nature of those people or from whence they came. This was again a warm century throughout Europe and Asia, and this may, in a sense, have facilitated the Mongol travels by virtue of increased grass as food for their horses and better traveling conditions. (Ref. 27, 224)
Throughout the Middle Ages, the church had been attempting to emulate the old Roman Empire in the sense of maintaining a universal sovereignty over a motley of states but still allowing a modicum of self rule within each state. The secular and parochial princes were to dwell together in unity under the guidance of an ecclesiastical shepherd, the pope. At the start of this century papal power reached its peak and the German Empire had to yield to many of its demands, as the church's bureaucracy had been continuously improved. But this papal growth and its increasing need for money made the clergy seem worldlier and even corrupt, so that an anti-clerical movement drawing on long hidden Manicheism, stressing poverty and chastity, again arose. (Ref. 137) The rebellions, and there were several, were precipitated in part by a bull, Clericis larcos, issued by Pope Boniface VIII, in which the clergy were forbidden under pain of excommunication to give any part of their revenues to temporal rulers without papal consent. In southern France the Albigensian, or Cathari, heresy had appeared at the end of the preceding century and had precipitated wars with the pope for 30 years. They had their own priests, who denied all matter as evil even including Christ's cross and made the Sermon on the Mount the essence of their ethics. The wars to annihilate this sect were devastating and the lands and properties of even the faithful in those areas were confiscated.
In the Balkans the rebels were known as "Bogomils" and they were actually beyond the reach of the papacy but Pope Gregory IX, aware of this, made heresy equal to treason and punishable by death. In this way the Inquisition was officially started in A.D. 1231.
Mariolatry, or the worship of Mary, arose from the people themselves as a measure for transforming the religion of terror to one of mercy and love. It represented a reversion back to the tenderness of the old Egyptian Mother Goddess Isis with her infant son, Horus. The church, apparently sensing the need for this softening of the religion, gradually made way for Mary in her doctrines. This was the time of St. Francis of Assisi, who was perhaps a schizophrenic and of Dominic, who established the Dominican order of monks, so active in the coming Inquisition. It was the age of Siger and of Thomas Aquinas who will be discussed in a later paragraph. (Ref. 49)
The 13th century saw the continuation of and the end of the Crusades:
Pope Innocent III arranged for the Venetian Republic to transport the Crusaders on their ships to attack Egypt and then go from that base on to Palestine. Once at sea, however, the Venetians, who had much trade with Egypt, diverted the chiefly French Crusaders to attack a rival seaport, Zara in Dalmatia although belonging to Hungary, and then they proceeded on to Constantinople, which was sacked and ravaged in Easter week, even though it was still a Christian city. Only a handful of these Crusaders ever went on to Palestine and those had no effect there. The remainder stayed and continued to plunder Byzantium while the Venetians consolidated their hold on Crete. The entire Crusade was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III following the sack of Zara. (Ref. 49, 222)
NOTE: Insert Map 40. The Crusades and The Political Situation c 1230
One group of children from Germany got only into Italy and collapsed. Another group from France embarked and was sold into slavery by Venetian seamen. Some historians consider these disasters as examples of mass hysteria, which seemed to characterize many actions of the Middle Ages. (Ref. 125)
This group left Germany, Austria and Hungary under Hungarian King Andrew II and after a year took Damietta, at the mouth of the Nile. They finally got the "True Cross" from the Moslems, but soon lost their foothold in Egypt when reinforcements under the German Frederick II failed to arrive.
Frederick II led this Crusade, even though he had been excommunicated by the pope for his failure to join the previous one. On his arrival in Palestine he was shunned by the Christians already there because of the papal ruling, but be negotiated with Al-Kamil, the Saracen general, and eventually signed a treaty which gave Acre, Jaffe, Sidon, Nazareth, Bethlehem and all of Jerusalem, except the Dome of the Rock, to the Christians and gave free access of both religions to the holy areas, as well as releasing all prisoners on both sides. Pope Gregory IX considered the treaty an insult, however, and refused to ratify it. The Moslems then re-took Jerusalem in 1244.
Louis IX of France again conquered Damietta but the Nile flooded and stalled the expedition for six months while his men became diseased and unruly. When they finally went on they were defeated and King Louis became ill, was captured and then cured by an Arab physician. A few more abortive Christian raids were made following this - last Crusade but by the end of the century, Baibars, the slave Sultan of Egypt, had conquered back one Christian city after another in his domain, while Sultan Khalid of Syria re-conquered the rest. (Ref. 49)
Throughout the Crusades, disease undoubtedly killed more Crusaders than did Saracen swords. There are repeated accounts of "plague" and "pestilence". Scurvy was common and in some camps it was almost universal, producing severe morbidities. Barber surgeons had to cut away the hypertrophic gums, in spite of the screams of pain, so that the people could eat. Dysentery and leprosy added their own tolls. The Christian medical care was bad, much inferior to that of the Moslems, although both were primitive and associated with superstitions. (Ref. 42)
From Durant (Ref. 49) and Tannahill (Ref. 211)
Jerusalem was left in the hands of the ferocious Egyptian Mamluks
Moslem powers, once tolerant of religious diversity, had been made intolerant
Much of the Mediterranean became a back-water as the cities of Spain, southern France, northwestern Italy, Cyprus and north Africa, as well as Palestinian and Syrian ports, lost their trade. Some were virtually abandoned
Trade now went through Constantinople and Baghdad via Trebizond on the southern shore of the Black Sea - a roundabout concession to Arab-Byzantine enmity. The trade west from Constantinople went to Venice, to Pavia and the River Po, connecting with land routes over the Alpine passes to Germany and northern France or even beyond through Switzerland with transfer to the Rhine. Thus eastern Italy recaptured the Mediterranean trade
Moslem civilization proved superior in refinement, comfort, education and ability to wage war, when compared to the Christian. Secular life in Europe was stimulated by the acquaintance with Moslem commerce and industry; better banking techniques were adopted, paving the way for an economic revolution. Surgery profited from the knowledge of the Moslems and the Jews and advances were made in the use of anesthetic combinations of Mandragora, opium, wild lettuce and hyoscyamus and in the treatment of wounds
As the wealth of the French nobles went to the Crusades, the power and wealth of the French monarch actually rose
The western Roman Empire lost prestige by the emperors' failures
Orthodox Christian belief weakened in this 13th and the following centuries
Europeans returned to the custom of shaving beards through contact with the Moslems and a thousand Arabic words flowed into Europe
The greatest medical administrative gain was the formation of the paramedical organization, the Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, which subsequently served as a medical corps throughout Europe and the Near East. (Ref. 42)
The Islamic center at Baghdad was destroyed by Mongols in 1258 but a new capital was then established in Persia at Maragha and a new culture developed which Toynbee (Ref. 220) says marks the beginning of the present day Islamic Society. The Islamic church had little influence in world affairs after that time until the 20th century, even though it continued to expand its geographical boundaries up through the 17th century.
After the 4th Lateran Council in 1215 the Jews' position in Europe deteriorated still further, as they were often subject to arbitrary financial payments and severe business restrictions. Pope Innocent III ordered all Jews to wear special, pointed, yellow hats, although in some areas they had to wear other distinguishing badges, usually yellow in color. Sporadically they were expelled from some countries (in England in A.D. 1290) and in others confined to ghettos. The term "ghetto", however, was actually not used until 1516 in Venice, when the Italian word "ghetti" was coined. (Ref. 8) Thousands of Jews fled Germany and went to Poland in this century.
Back to Africa: A.D. 1101 to 1200
In the highlands of Ethiopia there were several Muslim sultanates. In Lasta, King Labibela, who gave his name to the capital city, is credited with 11 monumental rock-cut churches. Egyptian Coptic refugees were allegedly welcome here, as Labibela attempted to establish a "new Jerusalem". Juniper trees were planted (in place of cedars), a local stream was named the "Jordan River" and a grove of olives became the "Mount of Olives". (Ref. 270) Nearer the coast this rejuvenated dynasty line from the old Axumite kings gave way in 1270 to a new family claiming to be a restoration of the old Solomon line, calling themselves the Solomonid Dynasty. These Amharic-speaking people developed a true Ethiopian culture and came in conflict with the Muslim coastal states on the Horn of Africa, notably Adal. The Solomonid ruler became known as the "King of Kings" and had many vassal kings under him. Christianity in this area then began to absorb many Judaic and pagan practices from the mixed peoples living there. (Ref. 43, 8, 83)
Nubia was invaded by Sultan Baibars of Egypt in the middle of the century and a puppet ruler was set up and tribute paid to the Mamluks.
The descendant of the Kurd, Saladin, ruled Egypt in the first third of this century and one of the greatest achievements of the time was the building of the Mansur Hospital in Cairo, a very large institution which had separate wards for different diseases such as fevers, eye problems, female disorders, etc. Ruling the country in about 1238, Sultan al-Salih, to augment his Turkoman army, purchased white slaves from the Mongols as they crossed southern Russia. These slaves were mixtures of Cumans, Circassians and Alans and they became the most powerful cavalry unit in the Egyptian army and were known as mamluks from the Arabic verb "to own". The practice of taking such men as royal bodyguards had been started by the caliphs of Baghdad, who could not trust even their own relatives. The last Egyptian sultan of the Kurd Ayyubin line died in 1249 and after a few murders, one of the white slave Mamluks named Aybak married Queen Shajar al-Durr, founded the Burji Dynasty and became the first Mamluk sultan of Egypt. After seven years Aybak made the mistake of trying to add a new wife, the daughter of the ruler of Mosul, Iraq. Queen Shajar al-Durr murdered him in his bath, but she, in turn, received the same type of death three days later from Aybak's loyal concubines. (Ref. 125, 5)
The Mamluk General Baibars (also Baybars) led an army through Palestine, thwarting the last of the Crusaders, and then went on to defeat his former captors in a great battle at Ain Jalut in 1260 and the Mongol advance was stopped. As a result of these victories Baibars was elevated to be sultan and he proceeded to be one of the most cruel, ambitious and yet able of the Mamluks. He traded ambassadors with the Mongol Berke in Russia and persuaded him to wage war against fellow Mongol Hulegu in the Middle East, thus pinching the latter's forces between them. He brought the last Abbasid caliph to Cairo from the destroyed Baghdad, set him up as a puppet and then proceeded to form a strong administration, reconstruct fortresses, roads, bridges and canals, although late in the century the old Necho canal from the Nile to Red Sea was filled in. He had a regular postal service between Egypt and his domains in Syria. At the height of his career, in 1277, he was poisoned. With the subsequent reign of Qalawun (1279-1290) the Bahri[187] Mamluk Empire reached its height and the prosperity continued with his family successors until the middle of the next century. It was a period of a full treasury and resulting commissioning of great works of art, both secular and religious, including great palaces and mosques, manuscripts, glass vessels inlaid with gold and other treasures. (Ref. 137, 5)
All of north Africa had changes of regimes during this century. When the Baghdad Caliphate was destroyed by the Mongols, the Hafsid Dynasty took the title of calph in Africa in A.D. 1259 and assumed control of Tunisia and some of Morocco. In the latter area the Almohades were in collapse because of their losses in Spain to the Christians, and they were displaced by the Marinid Sultan of Fez in 1269. Both Fez and Marraqesh were great Moroccon cities, exceeded in population by very few European cities of that time.
Algeria was taken over by still another dynasty, the Zujanids. All of these north African states contributed to trans-Saharan trade and the crossing of the great desert by these medieval Arab merchants was a tremendous undertaking. Caravans could cover 200 miles in a week but were subject to black-veiled Taureg pirates and if wells and oases failed, men and beasts alike could perish. (Ref. 175, 137, 83)
The area was not devoid of intellectual activity. Hasan published tables of sines for each degree and Nasir ud Din wrote a treatise on trigonometry. In addition the whole science of botany was revised by these Arab-Berbers.
In western Africa in the great bend of the Niger River, several states vied for supremacy. At the beginning of the century, Sumanguru, greatest of the rulers of Soso, next to the Mossi states, plundered the old capital of Ghana, Kumbi, and in 1224 conquered and annexed Manding. This situation was reversed 11 years later, however, when the Mandingos defeated the ruler of Soso and re-established independence, in a decisive battle of Kirina. This cleared the way for the creation of Mali as a successor state to Ghana and it became the second great empire of the western Sudan, extending from the Lower Gambia and Senegal rivers to the Niger-Benue junction. In contrast to the Ghana homeland, which was in a semi-arid sahil, the Mali center was in a fertile agricultural land a little to the south and they even had better access to gold. Sundiata was the warrior hero of these conquering Malinke Mandingos. Exactly where the recently excavated city of Jennejeno fits into this new empire is not clear, but it is known that this ancient city was already starting to decline in this century. The Tellem territory near the Bandigara cliff at the bend of the Niger apparently was never governed politically by the Mali and evidently offered refuge.
In Ife, Nigeria, superb sculptured heads reached a peak production in this and the next century. It was the holy city of the Yoruba tribe and home of its priest-king, the Oni. Some of the sculptures are believed to represent former Onis. (Ref. 45, 175, 119, 83)
In the region of the southern Congo was the Lunda-Luba Empire. The trading states on the east coast were in a golden age with the Indian Ocean becoming a vast Muslim lake. From Somalia in the north to Mozambique in the south, dozens of coastal states flourished with between 30 and 40 medieval city-states, many on islands adjacent to the coast. Kilwa, on the coast of southern Tanzania, was the greatest medieval east African city, with caravans arriving there with ivory from around Lake Malawi and dhows coming up the coast from the south with gold, much of which came from Zimbabwe. From Kilwa great oceangoing ships took off for Arabia, India and China on the monsoon winds. (Ref. 175) Although the ruling dynasties of those eastern states were Muslim, the populations were mixed Arabs, Persians, and indigenous Bantu. This resulted, in time, in the distinctive east African Swahili Culture. The political control extended only a few miles inland and the interior peoples, themselves, brought the wealth of east and central Africa to the shores of the Indian Ocean. Slaves with tusks on their heads plodded for hundreds of miles to the coast and then were sold with the ivory. (Ref. 68)
Slightly inland and going from north to south, we should mention the rise of the Bantu kingdoms, especially Bunyoro, the largest at that time, in the area of present day Uganda. (Ref. 175) Farther south, in the Great Lakes area the cattle herding Cwezi kings held sway. (Please see also the summary after the section on AFRICA, in the 15th century chapter). Continuing south, the leading state of central Africa was governed by Mwana Mtapa and covered a 700 mile stretch of the Zambesi Valley.
Mtapa was also the heir to an even older Shona Dynasty which had built the fortress of Zimbabwe, the ruins of which still stand today. The Shonas formed loose federations to control gold mining regions and trade routes to the coast. There is some evidence, however, of a burning of the original Great Zimbabwe dwellings in this century. (Ref. 35, 8)
Back to America: A.D. 1101 to 1200
Runic inscriptions left by Norse explorers about A.D. 1300 have been found near Upernavik far up in Baffin Bay on the western Greenland coast. In addition, recent excavations in an old Thule Arctic Culture settlement still farther north, beyond the tip of Greenland on the Canadian Island of Skraeling, have revealed links of chain-mail, iron boat rivets, parts of barrel bottoms, pieces of oak (not native to that part of Canada) and European-style knife blades and spear points. All of this would indicate that the Viking Norse explored much farther north in America than previously believed, although at the moment one cannot say with certainty that these Norse artifacts were not carried north by Thule contacts made farther south. (Ref. 189)
The southern Greenland settlements were still very much Catholic and a crisis arose because of the absence of grain for bread and grapes for the sacraments. The local parish asked Rome for permission to substitute meat and beer, but Pope Gregorius personally insisted that at least bread be used. (Ref. 138)
No special information concerning the Inuit of the far northern climes and the Indian populations of central and western Canada during this 13th century has been located, and we assume that life continued in much the same fashion as noted in previous modules.
The Missouri River Valley Indians continued to farm in the Dakotas and the Mississippian Culture persevered with great ceremonial centers at Cahokia, Moundville and Etowah. The latter was a large site in Georgia, dating from 1200 to 1700, which was a fortified farming village with three temple mounds and carved stone figures of men, some of which were 15 to 30 feet in height. The figures were portrayed in the sitting position, suggesting a Mexican influence. The largest of the mounds there was 70 feet high with 380 square feet of base and probably containing 4,000,000 cubic feet of earth. (Ref. 215, 45)
The Mesa Verda cliff dwellers began construction of a great masonry temple, sun oriented and containing kivas three walls thick. Recently, excavations in the Montezuma Valley near Cortez, Colorado, have indicated tremendous pueblo type buildings and kivas on level ground. Dr. Arthur Rohn has identified 103 kivas at Yellowjacket and more than 80 at Mud Springs. It may be that the real center of the Mesa Verde culture was not on the mesa, but in this valley where conditions were better for agriculture. All of these complexes reached their peaks in this 13th century, but by 1300 the entire region was abandoned for good. Some of the Anasazi moved south to confront the Mogollons in the mountains, some simply went north and joined their relatives who were the ancestors of present day Hopis and some went eastward across the continental divide to the Rio Grande, where they developed the final phase of their culture from south of Albuquerque to Taos - the modern Pueblo Indians. The movement included the Sinaguas, who went to the Verde River Valley and built clu