The Byzantine & Moslem Empires contains 12 full-color transparencies (print books) or PowerPoint slides (eBooks), 12 reproducible pages, and a richly detailed teacher's guide. Among the topics covered in this volume are Constantinople, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Mohammed, Islamic religion, politics, architecture, and arts, and Islam's contribution to world culture.
This magnificent volume explores the epochal transformations and unexpected continuities in the Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 9th century. At the beginning of the 7th century, the Empire's southern provinces, the vibrant, diverse areas of North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, were at the crossroads of exchanges reaching from Spain to China. These regions experienced historic upheavals when their Christian and Jewish communities encountered the emerging Islamic world, and by the 9th century, an unprecedented cross- fertilization of cultures had taken place. This extraordinary age is brought vividly to life in insightful contributions by leading international scholars, accompanied by sumptuous illustrations of the period's most notable arts and artifacts. Resplendent images of authority, religion, and trade—embodied in precious metals, brilliant textiles, fine ivories, elaborate mosaics, manuscripts, and icons, many of them never before published— highlight the dynamic dialogue between the rich array of Byzantine styles and the newly forming Islamic aesthetic. With its masterful exploration of two centuries that would shape the emerging medieval world, this illuminating publication provides a unique interpretation of a period that still resonates today.
While the old Roman Empire of the west crumbled to ruin, the Byzantines grew strong and powerful, creating such cities as Constantinople. Under such leaders as Constantine and Justinian the Great, the Byzantine Empire flourished. Readers will discover how the Byzantines transformed Christianity, protected Europe from would-be invaders, and later carried the seeds of the Renaissance to Italy during their thousand-year reign. Through eye-catching images, engaging facts, and easy-to-read text, readers can learn all about the Edict of Mila, feudalism, Byzantine art, the Ottoman Empire, Kurds as well as the Byzantine-established religion of Eastern Orthodoxy. A glossary and index are provided to give readers the tools they need to better understand the content.
This book is designed to help students understand the culture and history of the world’s largest religions. The development, spread, teachings, practices, holy days, and festivals are all covered in a concise, yet thorough manner. In addition to valuable historical and practical information, the books provide maps, questions for discussion, essay ideas, key word lists, and answer keys.
This is a study of how and why the Byzantine Empire lost many of its most valuable provinces to Islamic (Arab) conquerors in the seventh century, provinces which included Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Armenia. It investigates conditions on the eve of those conquests, mistakes in Byzantine policy toward the Arabs, the course of the military campaigns, and the problem of local official and civilian collaboration with the Muslims. It also seeks to explain how, after terrible losses, the Byzantine government achieved some intellectual rationalisation of its disasters and began the complex process of transforming and adapting its fiscal and military institutions and political controls in order to prevent further disintegration.
The essays in this volume deal with the history of the Middle East from c.550 to 1000 AD. There are three main themes: Syria in Late Antiquity and the changes and continuities with the early Islamic period; relations between Muslims and the Byzantine Emp
The arrival of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia forms an indispensable part of modern Turkish discourse on national identity, but Western scholars, by contrast, have rarely included the Anatolian Turks in their discussions about the formation of European nations or the transformation of the Near East. The Turkish penetration of Byzantine Asia Minor is primarily conceived of as a conflict between empires, sedentary and nomadic groups, or religious and ethnic entities. This book proposes a new narrative, which begins with the waning influence of Constantinople and Cairo over large parts of Anatolia and the Byzantine-Muslim borderlands, as well as the failure of the nascent Seljuk sultanate to supplant them as a leading supra-regional force. In both Byzantine Anatolia and regions of the Muslim heartlands, local elites and regional powers came to the fore as holders of political authority and rivals in incessant power struggles. Turkish warrior groups quickly assumed a leading role in this process, not because of their raids and conquests, but because of their intrusion into pre-existing social networks. They exploited administrative tools and local resources and thus gained the acceptance of local rulers and their subjects. Nuclei of lordships came into being, which could evolve into larger territorial units. There was no Byzantine decline nor Turkish triumph but, rather, the driving force of change was the successful interaction between these two spheres.
"The Renaissance" (1300—1500) provides an overview of the years from the Late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Special emphasis is given to the natural and political disasters that ravaged 14th-century Europe, as well as the unprecedented intellectual, cultural, and artistic flourishing of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Black Death, The Hundred Years' War, the invention of the printing press, the birth of humanism, and the life of Leonardo da Vinci are among the dramatic events vividly documented in this richly illustrated text. Challenging map exercises and provocative review questions encourage meaningful reflection and historical analysis. Tests and answer keys are included.
