Introduction: Europe moves out to encounter the world.

1. The Muslim Conquests [reviewing here what Spielvogel sets out in some detail in Chaps. 8,10, and 11]
1. Islam
1. Muhammad (~570-632)
1. Visitation from Gabriel - "Read (iqra')!"
2. Hijra [16 July] 622 (Mecca to Medina) - start of Muslim calendar (AH)
3. Soon unites Arab tribes under his leadership, retakes Mecca and then whole of Arabia
1. Former great kingdoms in the south: Qataba, Sheba
2. Empire
1. Rapid expansion under `Umayyads (632-750; capital at Damascus)
1. Syria 634
2. Egypt 639-41
3. Persia 638
4. India 712
5. Spain (via N. Africa) 712 -> Poitiers (Charles Martel, 732)
6. Muslim trade with Far East, Islamic S.E. Asia; Arabic becomes lingua franca of the area

"The great difference between the Latin and the Moslem worlds is the difference between slow growth on the one hand and precocious maturity on the other." (R.W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages, 8)

2. Fragile structure under `Abbasids (750-1258; capital at Baghdad from 762)
1. Spain remained `Umayyad
2. Shi'ite Fatimids in Egypt 973 (Cairo)
3. Conquest by Seljuk Turks 1055
1. defeated Byzantine army at Manzikert 1071
2. In retrospect, turning point for Islamic empire
4. Baghdad sacked by Mongols 1258
3. Assimilation of Greek and Indian learning
1. Islam generally tolerant of conquered people, esp. Jews and Christians (people of the book) in part because needed them for taxes
2. Islam = submission to word of God
1. ~Jews - strict monotheism
2. ~Christians - but new prophet beyond Christ, i.e. Muhammad
3. also ~Christian - total, evangelical, but not quite as otherworldly
4. but no counterpart to Roman Church as institution and hence no similarity to European notion of separation of Church and State
3. faced same problems as Christianity in becoming majority religion in large, varied empire
1. development of theology to support fundamentally revelationist religion
2. response to (implied) critique from other systems of thought
4. Translations from Greek to Arabic at Baitu'l-hikma under Harun al-Rashid (786-809) and al-Ma'mun (813-833)
5. Independent achievements in mathematics, astronomy, optics, medicine (diseases of the eye; standard texts in the West until C17), technics
2. European Responses (Southern)
1. "The existence of Islam was the most far-reaching problem in medieval Christendom." (Southern, 3)
1. It made the West profoundly uneasy because it seemed
1. dangerous
2. unpredictable
3. unhistorical (i.e. no classical precedent)
2. Changing response over three periods
2. Ignorance -> late C11
1. Different concerns
1. Northern Europeans: continuing threat
2. Spanish Christians: preserving identity in Muslim area
2. Bible
1. Where from? Ishmael, son of Hagar; wild man in desert
2. Why? Apocalyptic vision
3. Engagement C11-13
1. Reconquest of Spain and Sicily during 11th century by Norman cadets - here is where Europe took account of Islam
1. Toledo (1085) - translations
1. Greek texts
2. Arabic commentaries
3. continued through 13th century
4. => vast new body of learning to be assimilated to Christian thought => Lecture 10
2. Translation of Qur'ân, 1143
1. by Robert of Ketton under direction of Peter the Venerable at Cluny
2. redone in late 1450s by John of Segovia with aim of finding textual evidence to disprove claim that it was word of God (i.e. needed text free of inaccuracies of translation)
2. => Islam as heresy and hence as basis of comparison with enemy at home
1. reinforced during next century by Averroes' commentary on Aristotle
2. => Aquinas's effort to separate Aristotle from his Commentator
3. Crusades
1. first summoned by Urban II at Council of Clermont, 1095
2. reasons
1. reconquest already part of aggressive policy of Italian commercial republics (Venice, Genoa) and of Norman cadets in Italy and Sicily
2. appeal from Constantinople (Alexius I Comnenus) following defeat by Seljuks at Manzikert in 1071
3. recovery of Holy Land, i.e. free passage to Jerusalem for pilgrims
4. get cadets out of Europe
3. Initial success fosters some economic exchange, commercial links to Italy
1. Crusader states centered at Edessa (1098), Antioch (1098), Jerusalem (1099), Tripoli (1109); set up as feudal kingdoms on European model
2. Italian republics make commercial concessions price of collaboration; e.g. Genoese received third of Caesarea, free of all tolls, for helping to conquer it in 1101
3. not much intellectual engagement but familiarity on practical level, e.g. Leonardo of Pisa (though he spent most of his time in North Africa)
4. Eventual failure
1. Europeans try to run things their way; can't get act together
1. many visit, few stay to settle

"The steady flow of European travellers to the east cannot, however, alter the fact that the great majority of those who survived the rigours of the hourney went home again. There was no substantial transfer of population from Europe to the east to form a permanent colonial settlement, and this at a time when the population of Europe was growing steadily.. Instead the overflow of population served to fill the empty lands which still existed within wester Europe itself, went to the land newly conquered from the Slavs in eastern Europe and the Baltic area, or was used to strengthen control of conquered territory in Wales or Ireland." (J.R.S. Phillips, The Medieval Expansion of Europe, 51)

2. those who stayed made little or no effort to understand either Muslims or non-Roman Christians in whose midst they lived (i.e. by whom they were surrounded)
3. no indigenous basis for feudal system; local population did not have custom in same sense
4. Crusader states lacked large enough armies to enforce their will and to push out from borders; always on defensive
5. Italian republics never focused on trade with crusader states; kept eye on Alexandria and Constantinople, making conquest of latter in 1204 almost inevitable
2. Muslims do regroup, e.g. Saladin
1. 1169 Egypt
2. 1187 Hattin, reconquest of Jerusalem
3. 1189 negotiated settlement

In the end the survival of the European colonies in Syria and Palestine depended not just on their own limited resources, but on the degree of practical interest displayed by their fellows at home in Europe in the form of colonists for permanent settlement and military assistance at all times, no just when it was most urgently needed, and on a strong commercial incentive for preserving these European footholds. But their survival also depended on the good will of their Moslem neighbours or, if that could not be ensured, on Moslem disunity. When none of these conditions was fulfilled the end of the crusader states could be predicted. (Phillips, 53)

4. Neglect or Indifference
1. Crusades go downhill, each less successful than predecessor, except for 4th and 6th, each with its special story
1. Fourth - 1204 sack of Zara (==> excommunication of entire Crusade), Constantinople
2. Sixth - Frederick II
1. excommunicated twice
2. settlement with nephew of Saladin
3. Fall of Acre in 1291 simply completed the process of dissolution already underway a century earlier. Europeans had some to conquer, not to colonize; to visit, not to settle; to dabble, not to exploit. Hence, the paradoxical episodes of Richard I and Frederick II gaining more by negotiation than by war, but only so that they could go home again and attend to more pressing matters, and to be viewed askance by those who rated (or desired) zeal above success. But then what did "success" mean?
2. Failure of Crusades, coupled with new concerns at home, refocus attention
1. Enemy at home; Islam comparative only: while some sought understanding and reconciliation, or even debate and conversion, others (notably Luther) saw in Islam a reflection or symbol of evils at home
2. Failing interest in recuperating Holy Land despite various proposals, e.g. Pierre DuBois and Philip IV
3. Turks remained a threat to Europe through C17, though Mongol Empire brought some respite during C14. Yet Islam not pressing concern after C14. Turkish threat finally turned by circumstances, not by European action.
4. When Islam again threatened militarily, Europe's attention had turned to other cultures
1. China, Japan via the Mongols in 13th century (next lecture)
2. The New World at end of 15th century (after break)