Medieval World: 500 AD-1500 AD

⇒ The Eastern Roman empire or Byzantine empire was a vast empire and its capital Constantinople was the largest city of that time.

⇒ The Byzantines built beautiful churches. The most famous of these is the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople. This church was built during the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD.

⇒ The Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine territories in 1453.

⇒ The word ‘feudal’ comes from the word feud which originally meant a fief or land held on condition of service. In a feudal society, land was the source of power.

⇒ Feudalism originated in the 8th & 9th centuries.

⇒ First of all, the feudal system developed in western Europe.

⇒ The main division in feudal society was between ‘feudal lords, who either got a share of the peasants’ produce or had peasants to work on their lands without any payment and Peasants’, who worked on the land.

1. Feudal Lords: (a) Kings (b) Dukes & Earls (c) Barons (d) Knights.

2. Peasants: three categories of peasants villeins & serfs. – freeholders,

In the feudal hierarchy, the king stood at the top and the peasant stood at the bottom.

⇒ The economic life under the feudal system was predominantly rural. The unit of land, which was like a village-farm, was called ‘manor.

⇒ Crusades means the military expeditions, under the banner of the Cross, organised in western christendom primarily to recover the Holy Places of Palestine from Muslim occupation.

⇒ Four Crusades were fought by the European Christians to liberate Jerusalem from Seljuq Turks (Muslims) who did not permit Christian pilgrims to enter the holy land.

⇒ The 1st Crusade (1095-99) was launched after the provoking preachings of Pope Urban II. Note: The greatest leader of the church was called ‘the Pope’. The Pope means ‘The Father’. Jerusalem was captured and the Crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the country of Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli were created.

⇒ The fall of Edessa (1144) inspired the unsuccessful IInd Crusade (1147-48).

⇒ The capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187 led to the inconclusive IIIrd Crusade (1189-92), led by Philip II Augustus of France, Frederich I Barbarossa of Germany, and Richard I (the ‘Lion Heart’) of England.

⇒ The IVth Crusade (1202-91) was diverted from its original objective, Egypt and sacked Constantinople (1204). This Crusade failed to recover the lost ground and Acre, the last foothold of West in Palestine was lost in 1291.

⇒ In the 7th century, a new religion, Islam, arose in Arabia, which led to the establishment of a big empire.

⇒ Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca in 570 AD.

⇒ When he was 40, he had ‘visions of truth’ and became a prophet.

⇒ Muhammad’s visions completely convinced him that Allah was the only god.

⇒ He forbade the worship of idols and made many enemies. Ultimately, he had to leave Mecca and take refuge in Medina. This event took place in 622 AD and is known as the year of Hijra, or migration and from it Muslims date their era (Hijra Samvat).

⇒ The Quran, the holy book of Islam, contains the word of Allah (God) as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the archangel gibril (Gabriel). The Quran, is divided into 114 suras (chapters) which furthar divided into ayat (verses). Besides the Quran, the life of a Muslim is guided by the Sunna, the practices of Muhammad, and the Hadees, the sayings of the Muhammad.

⇒ Muhammad was not only a religious leader but also a political leader.

⇒ After his death (632 AD), his successors were known as Caliphs or Khalifas who held both religious and political authority.

⇒ Nearly all Arabia had accepted the new religion and become a unified state before the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD.

⇒ From Arabia, Islam spread very fast to many other parts of the world. Within a hundred years, the Khalifas and their generals had conquered Iran, Syria, Egypt, Central Asia, North Africa and Spain. The Arab empire was the largest that the world had seen so far.

⇒ The first three Khalifas ruled from the city of Medina. Then the capital was shifted to Kufah.

⇒ By 660 AD, when the Omayyad dynasty took over the reins of government, the principal city was Damascus.

⇒ About 750 AD, the Omayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids, who made Baghdad their capital. Harun Rashid, famous in many legends, was an Abbasid ruler.

⇒ The Abbasids ruled for about 300 years, till the Seljuq Turks took over Baghdad and ended the Arab rule. During the next four centuries, the Turks dominated the Islamic world.

⇒ In the 15th century, most of these territories came under the dominance of the Ottoman Turks. It was the Ottoman Turks who took over Constantinople and ended the Eastern Roman empire in 1453.

⇒ The establishment of a vast empire facilitated the coming together of intellectual and scientific traditions of various civilizations, particularly Greek, Iranian & Indian. The Arabs made all knowledge their own and developed it further.

⇒ Al Razi (Rhazes), an Arab scientist, discovered the true nature of small pox, and Ibn Sina (Avicenna)discovered that tuberculosis is infectious.

⇒ In Mathematics, the Arabs learned the Indian numerals (Hindsah) and spread their use far and wide, so that in the West they are to this day called Arabic numerals.

⇒ Some of the famous literary works of the Arab civilization are the ‘Rubaiyat’ by Omar Khayyam, ‘Shahnama’ by Firdausi and the ‘Arabian Nights’, a collection of 1001 stories.

⇒ The Arabs developed their own decorative designs. Their buildings had bulblike domes, small minarets, horse-shoe arches and twisted columns.

⇒ The Arabs also developed a decorative style of writing called Calligraphy and made book-illumination an art.

⇒ Arab carpets, leather work, beautiful swords, silks, inlays, metal-work, and enamelled glassware were prized everywhere.

⇒ From the early 7th century, China was ruled by the Tang dynasty.

⇒ The rule of Tang dynasty (618 AD – 906 AD) was followed by the Sung dynasty for about 300 years.

⇒ After this, for about 100 years China was ruled by the Mongols.

⇒ The rule of the Mongols in China was followed by that of Ming dynasty which continued for about 300 years. who

⇒ In 1644, China was conquered by the Manchus continued to rule until 1911 AD.

⇒ To prevent drain on the country’s wealth, the Sung rulers started the use of paper-money.

⇒ Gun-powder was invented in China in the 10th century about 400 years before the knowledge reached the Western world.

⇒ The Chinese made iron-chain suspension bridges as early as the 10th century.

⇒ The Chinese devised the first method of printing in the 10th century. The importance of this invention for the spread of knowledge was as great as the invention of paper.

⇒ Japan consists of hundreds of small islands of which four are major islands – Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu & Shikoku.

⇒ Almost the entire country was unified into a single state by around the 7th century AD.

⇒ In the 8th century Edo (modern Kyoto) became the capital and continued to be the seat of the emperors of Japan for over 1000 years. The real power, however, was in the hands of an aristocratic family.

⇒ Towards the end of the 12th century, a new political institution Shogun came into being. The Shogun or the ‘General’ became the commander of Japan’s army and ruled Japan, while the emperor remained at his capital at Edo (Kyoto).

⇒ Until 1867, the Shoguns were the real rulers of Japan. Tokugawa Leyasu was the founder of last Shogun dynasty.

⇒ In 1867, the last Shogun of Tokugawa dynasty was overthrown and the power was restored to the emperor. Now Japan launched herself on the road to industrial development, modernization and expansion.

⇒ Samurai or the warriors were similar to the knights of Western Europe.

⇒ The most unique contribution of medieval Japan to literature was a form of poetry called Haiku. Haiku poems are short poems of only 17 syllables.

⇒ The important contribution of medieval Japan to art was Ikebana or the art of flower arrangement, which is being imitated throughout the world.

⇒ Buddhism reached Japan early in the 6th century from China through Korea and during the course of centuries it became widespread. In certain periods it even eclipsed Shintoism, the old religion of Japan.

⇒ Gradually, the Japanese developed their own distinct schools of Buddhism, the most famous of which is Zen Buddhism. The word Zen is derived from ‘Dhyana’.

1. Collosseum of Rome

2. Great Wall of China

3. Porcelain Tower of Nanking

4. Stonehenge of England

5. Mosque at St. Sophia (Constantinople)

6. Catacombs of Alexandria

7. Leaning Tower of Pisa.

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