GREGORY'S SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY

Gregory was no less eminent as a churchman. His writings and his personal influence greatly furthered the advancement of the Roman Church in the West. We find him sternly repressing heresies wherever they arose, aiding the conversion of Arian Visigoths in Spain and Arian Lombards in Italy, and sending out monks as missionaries to distant Britain. [15] He well deserved by these labors the title "Servant of the servants of God," [16] which he assumed, and which the popes after him have retained. The admiration felt for his character and abilities raised him, in later ages, to the rank of a saint.

POSITION OF THE PAPACY

When Gregory the Great closed his remarkable career, the Papacy had reached a commanding place in western Christendom. To their spiritual authority the popes had now begun to add some measure of temporal power as rulers at Rome and in Italy. During the eighth century, as we have already learned, [17] the alliance of the popes and the Franks helped further to establish the Papacy as an ecclesiastical monarchy, ruling over both the souls and bodies of men. Henceforth it was to go forward from strength to strength.

124. MONASTICISM

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT

The Papacy during the Middle Ages found its strongest supporters among the monks. By the time of Gregory the Great monasticism [18] was well established in the Christian Church. Its origin must be sought in the need, often felt by spiritually-minded men, of withdrawing from the world —from its temptations and its transitory pleasures—to a life of solitude, prayer, and religious contemplation. Joined to this feeling has been the conviction that the soul may be purified by subduing the desires and passions of the body. Men, influenced by the monastic spirit, sought a closer approach to God.

EARLY CHRISTIAN MONASTICISM

The monastic spirit in Christianity owed much to the example of its founder, who was himself unmarried, poor, and without a place "where to lay his head." Some of Christ's teachings, taken literally, also helped to exalt the worth of the monastic life. At a very early period there were Christian men and women who abstained from marriage, flesh meat, and the use of wine, and gave themselves up to prayer, religious exercises, and works of charity. This they did in their homes, without abandoning their families and human society.

THE HERMITS

Another monastic movement began about the middle of the third century, when many Christians in Egypt withdrew into the desert to live as hermits. St. Anthony, who has been called the first Christian hermit, passed twenty years in a deserted fort on the east bank of the Nile. During all this time he never saw a human face. Some of the hermits, believing that pain and suffering had a spiritual value, went to extremes of self- mortification. They dwelt in wells, tombs, and on the summits of pillars, deprived themselves of necessary food and sleep, wore no clothing, and neglected to bathe or to care for the body in any way. Other hermits, who did not practice such austerities, spent all day or all night in prayer. The examples of these recluses found many imitators in Syria and other eastern lands. [19]



RULE OF ST. BASIL

A life shut off from all contact with one's fellows is difficult and beyond the strength of ordinary men. The mere human need for social intercourse gradually brought the hermits together, at first in small groups and then in larger communities, or monasteries. The next step was to give the scattered monasteries a common organization and government. Those in the East gradually adopted the regulations which St. Basil, a leading churchman of the fourth century, drew up for the guidance of the monks under his direction. St. Basil's Rule, as it is called, has remained to the present time the basis of monasticism in the Greek Church.

ST. BENEDICT

The monastic system, which early gained an entrance into western Christendom, looked to St. Benedict as its organizer. While yet a young man, St. Benedict had sought to escape from the vice about him by retiring to a cave in the Sabine hills near Rome. Here he lived for three years as a hermit, shutting himself off from all human intercourse, wearing a hair shirt, and rolling in beds of thistles to subdue "the flesh." St. Benedict's experience of the hermit's life convinced him that there was a surer and better road to religious peace of mind. His fame as a holy man had attracted to him many disciples, and these he now began to group in monastic communities under his own supervision. St. Benedict's most important monastery was at Monte Cassino, midway between Rome and Naples. It became the capital of monasticism in the West.



RULE OF ST. BENEDICT, 529(?) A.D.

To control the monks of Monte Cassino St. Benedict framed a Rule, or constitution, which was modeled in some respects upon the earlier Rule of St. Basil. The monks formed a sort of corporation, presided over by an abbot, [20] who held office for life. To the abbot every candidate for admission took the vow of obedience. Any man, rich or poor, noble or peasant, might enter the monastery, after a year's probation; having once joined, however, he must remain a monk for the rest of his days. The monks were to live under strict discipline. They could not own any property; they could not go beyond the monastery walls without the abbot's consent; they could not even receive letters from home; and they were sent to bed early. A violation of the regulations brought punishment in the shape of private admonitions, exclusion from common prayer, and, in extreme cases, expulsion.

SPREAD OF THE BENEDICTINE RULE

The Rule of St. Benedict came to have the same wide influence in the West which that of St. Basil exerted in the East. Gregory the Great established it in many places in Italy, Sicily, and England. During Charlemagne's reign it was made the only form of monasticism throughout his dominions. By the tenth century the Rule prevailed everywhere in western Europe. [21]

125. LIFE AND WORK OF THE MONKS

A MONASTIC COMMUNITY

St. Benedict sought to draw a sharp line between the monastic life and that of the outside world. Hence he required that, as far as possible, each monastery should form an independent, self-supporting community whose members had no need of going beyond its limits for anything. In course of time, as a monastery increased in wealth and number of inmates, it might come to form an enormous establishment, covering many acres and presenting within its massive walls the appearance of a fortified town.

THE MONASTERY BUILDINGS

The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the larger sort were grouped around an inner court, called a cloister. These included a church, a refectory, or dining room, with the kitchen and buttery near it, a dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter house, where they transacted business. There was also a library, a school, a hospital, and a guest house for the reception of strangers, besides barns, bakeries, laundries, workshops, and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these buildings lay vegetable gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, if the monastery was built on a stream. The high wall and ditch, usually surrounding a monastery, shut it off from outsiders and in time of danger protected it against attack.



MONASTIC OCCUPATIONS

St. Benedict defined a monastery as "a school for the service of the Lord." The monks under his Rule occupied themselves with a regular round of worship, reading, and manual labor. Each day was divided into seven sacred offices, beginning and ending with services in the monastery church. The first service came usually about two o'clock in the morning; the last, just as evening set in, before the monks retired to rest. In addition to their attendance at church, the monks spent several hours in reading from the Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For most of the day, however, they worked hard with their hands, doing the necessary washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the necessary supplies of vegetables and grain, and performing all the other tasks required to maintain a large establishment. This emphasis on labor, as a religious duty, was a characteristic feature of western monasticism. "To labor is to pray" became a favorite motto of the Benedictines. [22]



ATTRACTIVENESS OF THE MONASTIC LIFE

It is clear that life in a Benedictine monastery appealed to many different kinds of people in the Middle Ages. Those of a spiritual turn of mind found in the monastic life the opportunity of giving themselves wholly to God. Studious and thoughtful persons, with no disposition for an active career in the world, naturally turned to the monastery as a secure retreat. The friendless and the disgraced often took refuge within its walls. Many a troubled soul, to whom the trials of this world seemed unendurable, sought to escape from them by seeking the peaceful shelter of the cloister.

THE MONKS AS CIVILIZERS

The civilizing influence of the Benedictine monks during the early Middle Ages can scarcely be over-emphasized. A monastery was often at once a model farm, an inn, a hospital, a school, and a library. By the careful cultivation of their lands the monks set an example of good farming wherever they settled. They entertained pilgrims and travelers, at a period when western Europe was almost destitute of inns. They performed many works of charity, feeding the hungry, healing the sick who were brought to their doors, and distributing their medicines freely to those who needed them. In their schools they trained both boys who wished to become priests and those who intended to lead active lives in the world. The monks, too, were the only scholars of the age. By copying the manuscripts of classical authors, they preserved valuable books that would otherwise have been lost. By keeping records of the most striking events of their time, they acted as chroniclers of medieval history. To all these services must be added the work of the monks as missionaries to the heathen peoples of Europe.

126. SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY OVER EUROPE

THE ROMAN CHURCH AND THE BARBARIANS

Almost all Europe had been won to Christianity by the end of the eleventh century. In the direction of this great missionary campaign the Roman Church took the leading part. [23] The officers of her armies were zealous popes, bishops, and abbots; her private soldiers were equally zealous monks, priests, and laymen. Pagan Rome had never succeeded in making a complete and permanent conquest of the barbarians. Christian Rome, however, was able to bring them all under her spiritual sway.

RECONVERSION OF THE ARIAN GERMANS

Christianity first reached the Germanic invaders in its Arian [24] form. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards were all Arians. The Roman Church regarded them as heretics and labored with success to reconvert them. This work was at last completed when the Lombards, in the seventh century, accepted the Catholic faith.

FRANKS AND ANGLO-SAXONS CONVERTED TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM

The Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, whose kingdoms were to develop into the chief states of medieval Europe, adopted from the outset the Catholic form of Christianity. The conversion of the Franks provided the Roman Church with its strongest and most faithful adherents among the Germanic tribes. [25] The conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain by Augustine and his monks, followed later by the spread of Roman Catholicism in Ireland and Scotland, firmly united the British Isles to the Papacy. [26] Thus Rome during the Middle Ages came to be the one center of church life for the peoples of western Europe.

ST. BONIFACE AND THE CONVERSION OF THE GERMANS

An Anglo-Saxon monk, St. Boniface, did more than any other missionary to carry Christianity to the remote tribes of Germany. Like Augustine in England, St. Boniface was sent by the pope, who created him missionary bishop and ordered him to "carry the word of God to unbelievers." St. Boniface also enjoyed the support of the Frankish rulers, Charles Martel and Pepin the Short. Thanks to their assistance this intrepid monk was able to penetrate into the heart of Germany. Here he labored for nearly forty years, preaching, baptizing, and founding numerous churches, monasteries, and schools. His boldness in attacking heathenism is illustrated by the story of how he cut down with his own hands a certain oak tree, much reverenced by the natives of Hesse as sacred to the god Woden, and out of its wood built a chapel dedicated to St. Peter. St. Boniface crowned a lifetime of missionary labor with a martyr's death, probably in 754 A.D. His work was continued by Charlemagne, who forced the Saxons to accept Christianity at the point of the sword. [27] All Germany at length became a Christian land, devoted to the Papacy.

CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS

Roman Catholicism not only spread to Celtic and Germanic peoples, but it also gained a foothold among the Slavs. Both Henry the Fowler and Otto the Great attempted to Christianize the Slavic tribes between the Elbe of the Slavs and the Vistula, by locating bishoprics in their territory. The work of conversion encountered many setbacks and did not reach completion until the middle of the twelfth century. The most eminent missionaries to the Slavs were Cyril and Methodius. These brother-monks were sent from Constantinople in 863 A.D. to convert the Moravians, who formed a kingdom on the eastern boundary of Germany. Seeing their great success as missionaries, the pope invited them to Rome and secured their consent to an arrangement which brought the Moravian Christians under the control of the Papacy. [28] From Moravia Christianity penetrated into Bohemia and Poland. These countries still remain strongholds of the Roman Church. The Serbians and Russians, as we have learned, [29] received Christianity by way of Constantinople and so became adherents of the Greek Church.

FINAL EXTENSION OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM

Roman Catholicism gradually spread to most of the remaining peoples of Europe. The conversion of the Norwegians and Swedes was well advanced by the middle of the eleventh century. The Magyars, or Hungarians, accepted Christianity at about the same date. The king of Hungary was such a devout Catholic that in the year 1000 A.D. the pope sent to him a golden crown and saluted him as "His Apostolic Majesty." The last parts of heathen Europe to receive the message of the gospel were the districts south and east of the Baltic, occupied by the Prussians, Lithuanians, and Finns. Their conversion took place between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.

127. SEPARATION OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CHRISTIANITY

DIVERGENCE OF EAST AND WEST

Before the Christian conquest of Europe was finished, Christianity had divided into two great communions—the Greek Church and the Roman Church. Their separation was a long, slow process, arising from the deep-seated differences between East and West. Though Rome had carried her conquering arms throughout the Mediterranean basin, all the region east of the Adriatic was imperfectly Romanized. [30] It remained Greek in language and culture, and tended, as time went on, to grow more and more unlike the West, which was truly Roman. The founding of Constantinople and the transference of the capital from the banks of the Tiber to the shores of the Bosporus still further widened the breach between the two halves of the Roman world. After the Germans established their kingdoms in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain, western Europe was practically independent of the rulers at Constantinople. The coronation of Charlemagne in 800 A.D. marked the final severance of East and West.

THE PAPACY AND THE EASTERN EMPERORS

The division of the Roman Empire led naturally to a grouping of the Christian Church about Rome and Constantinople, the two chief centers of government. The popes, it has been seen, had always enjoyed spiritual leadership in the West. In temporal matters they acknowledged the authority of the eastern emperors, until the failure of the latter to protect Rome and Italy from the barbarians showed clearly that the popes must rely on their own efforts to defend Christian civilization. We have already learned how well such men as Leo the Great and Gregory the Great performed this task. Then in the eighth century came the alliance with the Frankish king, Pepin the Short, which gave the Papacy a powerful and generous protector beyond the Alps. Finally, by crowning Charlemagne, the pope definitely broke with the emperor at Constantinople and transferred his allegiance to the newly created western emperor.

RISE OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE

The patriarch of Constantinople, as bishop of the capital city, enjoyed an excellent position from which to assert his preeminence over the bishops of the other churches in the East. Justinian in 550 A.D. conferred on him the privilege of receiving appeals from the other patriarchs, and a few years later that dignitary assumed the high-sounding title of "Universal Archbishop." The authority of the patriarch of Constantinople was immensely strengthened when the Mohammedans, having conquered Syria and Egypt, practically extinguished the three patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. [31] The Church in the East now had a single patriarch, just as that in the West had the one bishop of Rome. Rivalry between them was inevitable.

RIVALRY BETWEEN POPE AND PATRIARCH

One source of strife between pope and patriarch was the controversy, arising in the eighth century, over the use of images in the churches. These images seem to have been, not statues, but pictures (icons) of the apostles, saints, and martyrs. Many eastern Christians sought to strip the churches of icons, on the ground that by the ignorant they were venerated almost as idols. The Iconoclasts ("image-breakers") gained no support in the West. The Papacy took the view that images were a help to true devotion and might, therefore, be allowed. When a Roman emperor issued a decree for the destruction of all images, the pope refused to obey the order in the churches under his direction, and went so far as to exclude the Iconoclasts from Christian fellowship. Although the iconoclastic movement failed in the East, after a violent controversy, it helped still further to sharpen the antagonism between the two branches of Christendom. Other causes of dispute arose in later times, chiefly concerning fine points of doctrine on which neither side would yield.

THE FINAL RUPTURE, 1054 A.D.

The final rupture of Christendom was delayed until the middle of the eleventh century. In 1054 A.D. the pope sent his legates to Constantinople to demand obedience to the Papacy. This being refused, they laid upon the high altar of Sancta Sophia the pope's bill of excommunication. Against the patriarch and his followers they pronounced a solemn curse, or anathema, devoting them "to the eternal society of the Devil and his angels." Then, we are told, they strode out of Sancta Sophia, shaking the dust from their feet and crying, "Let God see and judge." The two branches of the Christian Church, thus torn apart, were never afterward reunited. [32]

128. THE GREEK CHURCH

THE GREEK AND ROMAN CHURCH COMPARED

The Greek and Roman churches, in some respects, are nearer together than Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Both recognize three orders for the ministry, namely, bishops, priests, and deacons. Priests of the Greek Church may marry, but this privilege is not extended to bishops, who, therefore, are chosen from the monks. Baptism, by both churches, is administered to infants, but by the Greek Church under the form of total immersion. Confirmation in the Greek Church follows immediately after baptism; in the Roman Church it is postponed to the age of reason. In the communion service the Greek Church gives leavened bread, dipped in wine. The Roman Church withholds wine from the laity and uses only a dry, unleavened wafer. While the services of the Roman Church are conducted in Latin, for those of the Greek Church the national languages (Greek, Russian, etc.) of the communicants are used. Its festivals do not coincide in time of celebration with those of the Roman Church, since the "Julian Calendar" followed in the East is now thirteen days behind the "Gregorian Calendar." [33]

SPREAD OF THE GREEK CHURCH

The Greek Church has not lacked missionary zeal. Through her agency the barbarians who entered southeastern Europe during the early Middle Ages were converted to Christianity. At the present time nearly all the peoples of the Balkan peninsula, including Greeks, Montenegrins, Serbians, Bulgarians, and Rumanians, belong to the Greek Church. [34] Its greatest victory was won toward the close of the tenth century, when the Russians were induced to accept the Greek form of Christianity. Outlying branches of the Greek Church are found also in the Turkish Empire. It now includes about one hundred and thirty-five million adherents in European lands.

PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE GREEK CHURCH

The patriarch of Constantinople is the spiritual head of the Greek Church. He enjoys, however, no such wide authority over eastern Christians as that exercised by the pope over all Roman Catholics. There are as many as sixteen branches of the Greek Church, each self-governing and under its own officers. Despite the local independence of its branches, the Greek Church remains unified in doctrine. It claims to be the only "Orthodox" church and clings with almost Oriental conservatism to the traditions of earlier ages. Nevertheless, as the official church of Russia, the largest and most swiftly growing of European countries, the Greek Church has before it a future of great importance.

129. THE ROMAN CHURCH

THE ROMAN CHURCH PROGRESSIVE

The separation of eastern and western Christianity naturally increased the importance of the Papacy. The popes henceforth had a free hand to guide the destinies of the Roman Church. That church under their direction was to show itself vigorous and progressive, with a wonderful power of adaptation to new and changed conditions.

THE ROMAN CHURCH SURVIVES THE EMPIRE

The Roman Empire in the West had gone down before the assaults of the Germanic barbarians, but in its place had arisen a new creation—the Roman Church. The chief city of the old empire became the capital of the Papacy. The pope took, and has since retained, the title of Supreme Pontiff (Pontifex Maximus), once given to the head of the Roman state religion. [35] Latin has continued to be the official language of Roman Catholicism. The Roman genius for law and government found a new expression in the creation of the papal power. The true successors of the ancient Roman statesmen were the popes of the Middle Ages. The idea of Rome, of her universality and of her eternity, lived on in the Roman Church.

WORK OF THE ROMAN CHURCH

The Roman Church, as the successor of the Roman Empire in the West, formed the chief center of civilization during the earlier part of the Middle Ages. She stood between the conquering Germans and the Romanized provincials and helped to join them both in lasting union. To the heathen she sent out her missionaries, preaching a religion of love and charity and introducing a higher morality than the barbarians had ever known before. She multiplied hospitals, orphanages, and asylums. Her bishops were the only protectors of the weak and the oppressed. She fostered education, art, and learning within the walls of churches and monasteries. Her priests and monks were the only teachers in an ignorant age. In an age of bloodshed and violence, when might made right, she proclaimed the superiority of the spirit to mere brute force. To sum up: the Roman Church was an indispensable agent in the making of medieval Europe.

THE MENACE TO CHRISTENDOM

Christianity in its Greek and Roman forms was not the only great religion of the Middle Ages. In the seventh century, before the separation of the two churches had been completed and before all Europe had become Christian, another religion arose. It grew with marvelous rapidity, stripped the Church of much territory in western Asia, northern Africa, and Spain, and promised for a time to become the dominant faith of the world. This was Islam, or Mohammedanism, the religion of the Arabs.

STUDIES

1. In what different senses is the word "church" often used?

2. "The eastern patriarch was the shadow of the emperor, cast on the spiritual world." Explain this statement.

3. Why did heresies develop in the East rather than in the West?

4. Look up in the New Testament the following texts relating to the primacy of St. Peter: Matthew, xvi, 18-19; Luke, xxii, 31-32; and John, xxi, 15-17.

5. What is "the power of the keys" which the popes claim to possess?

6. What reasons for the growth of the Papacy have been set forth in this chapter?

7. In what non-Christian religions is monasticism an established institution?

8. Look up in the New Testament the following texts quoted as favorable to monasticism: Matthew, xix, 21; Mark, x, 29-30; and Luke, xiv, 26.

9. What is the origin of the words "monk," "hermit," "anchorite," and "abbot"?

10. Summarize the principal benefits which the monastic system conferred on Europe.

11. Give reasons for the rapid conversion of the Germans to Christianity.

12. In what sense is it true that "half Europe owes its Christianity to women"?

13. Who was the "Apostle to the Germans"?

14. Who were the "Apostles to the Slavs"?

15. Comment on the significance to European civilization of the missionary activity of the Christian Church in the Middle Ages.

16. Why has the separation of the Greek and Roman churches been described as "the most momentous fact in the history of Christendom during the Middle Ages"?

17. Why could not such an institution as the Papacy develop in the East?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter iii, "The Benedictine Rule"; chapter iv, "The Reestablishment of Christianity in Britain"; chapter v, "St. Boniface, Apostle to the Germans."

[2] The correspondence may be indicated as follows:

The Roman Empire The Christian Church City—Municipal officials. Bishop. Province—Governor. Archbishop, or Metropolitan. Diocese—Vicar. Patriarch. Prefecture—Prefect. (No corresponding division.)

[3] See page 235.

[4] See page 258.

[5] See page 236.

[6] See page 284.

[7] John, xx, i, 19; compare I Corinthians, xvi, 2.

[8] See page 235 and note 1.

[9] See Acts, ii, 1-4.

[10] See page 239, note 1.

[11] In modern India (Malabar) there are no less than 400,000 Syrian Christians who owe their religion to Nestorian missionaries.

[12] See page 362.

[13] See page 236.

[14] See pages 248-249.

[15] See page 322.

[16] Servus servorum Dei.

[17] See pages 305-307.

[18] From a Greek word which means "living alone."

[19] See Tennyson's poem, St. Simeon Stylites.

[20] From a Syrian word, abba, meaning "father." Hence a monastery was often called an abbey.

[21] Other monastic orders arose during the later Middle Ages (see pages 449, 452), but the Benedictines still exist, chiefly in Austria and Italy. Their order was introduced into the United States during the nineteenth century.

[22] Laborare est orare.

[23] For the missionary work of Celtic Christians see page 323 and note 1.

[24] See page 236.

[25] See pages 304-305.

[26] See pages 322-325.

[27] See page 308.

[28] Cyril and Methodius were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881 A.D. A millenial celebration of the two apostles was held in 1863 A.D. by the people of Moravia and Bohemia.

[29] See page 335. The Bulgarians also got their Christianity from Constantinople in the ninth century.

[30] See pages 217, 223.

[31] See page 376.

[32] Unsuccessful attempts to heal the schism between the two churches took place in the Middle Ages. The latest movement in this direction was made by Pope Leo XIII in 1894 A.D., but his efforts were not crowned with success.

[33] See page 186, note 2.

[34] Many Roman Catholics are found in Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Albania.

[35] See page 148, note 2.



CHAPTER XVI

THE ORIENT AGAINST THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM, 622-1058 A.D. [1]

130. ARABIA AND THE ARABS

THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

Arabia, a vast peninsula between the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea, forms the link between Asia and Africa. It is connected with Asia by the arid plains extending northward to the Euphrates; with Africa, by the equally arid isthmus of Suez. Though the country is more than one- third the size of the United States (excluding Alaska), it has never supported a large population. The interior, except for occasional oases, is a desert, inhabited only by wandering tribes. Along the southern and western coasts, between the mountains and the sea, the soil is generally fertile, the climate temperate, and the rainfall sufficient. Here the chief cities and towns are located.

INHABITANTS OF ARABIA

The original home of the Semites is believed to have been Arabia. Some Semitic peoples appear to have migrated northward to Babylonia and Syria, while others crossed the Red Sea to Abyssinia. Physically, the Arabs are an attractive people, with well-shaped, muscular figures, handsome, bronzed faces, brilliant, black eyes, and all the organs of sense exquisitely acute. Simple and abstemious in their habits, they lead healthy lives and often reach an extreme yet vigorous old age.

THE BEDOUINS OF THE DESERT

The Bedouin Arabs, by which name the nomadic inhabitants of the desert are known, claim Ishmael, the son of Abraham and half-brother of Isaac, as their ancestor. The life which they lead in the Arabian wilderness closely resembles that of the Hebrew patriarchs, as described in the Old Testament. The Bedouins are shepherds and herdsmen, continually moving with their sheep and camels from one pasturage and water-hole to another. Their virtues—hospitality to the stranger, generosity, faithfulness to the ties of kinship—are those of a nomadic, barbarian people. Such also are their vices—love of fighting and plunder, revengefulness, and impatience of restraint. Nothing like a settled government is known to them. The only tribal authority is that of the chief, or "sheik," who, because of his birth, courage, or wealth, has been chosen to the leadership. This description of the Bedouins to-day applies equally well to them in the age of Mohammed, during the sixth century.



THE SEDENTARY ARABS

The Arabs who settled along the southern and western coasts of the peninsula had reached in the sixth century a considerable degree of civilization. They practiced agriculture and carried on a flourishing trade across the Red Sea and even to distant India. Between these sedentary Arabs and the Bedouins raged constant feuds, leading to much petty warfare. Nevertheless the hundreds of tribes throughout the peninsula preserved a feeling of national unity, which was greatly strengthened by Mohammed's appearance on the scene.

ARABIAN HEATHENISM

The city of Mecca, located about fifty miles from the Red Sea, was a commercial metropolis and the center of Arabian heathenism. Every year the Arab tribes ceased fighting for four months, and went up to Mecca to buy and sell and visit the famous sanctuary called the Kaaba. Here were three hundred and sixty idols and a small, black stone (probably a meteorite), which legend declared had been brought from heaven. The stone was originally white, but the sins of the people who touched it had blackened it. Although most of the Arabs were idolaters, yet some of them recognized the "Unknown God" of the Semites, Allah, the Creator of all things. Arabia at this time contained many Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians, who helped to spread abroad the conception of one God and thus to prepare the way for a prophet of a new religion.

131. MOHAMMED: PROPHET AND STATESMAN, 622-632 A.D.

EARLY LIFE OF MOHAMMED

Mohammed, [2] born at Mecca about 570 A.D., belonged to the tribe of the Koreish, who had long been guardians of the sacred Kaaba. Left an orphan at an early age, the future prophet was obliged to earn his own living. He served first as a shepherd on the hillsides of Mecca. This occupation, though lowly, gave him the love of solitude, and helped to nourish in his soul that appreciation of nature which later found expression in so many of his utterances. While still a youth he became a camel-driver and twice crossed the deserts with caravans to Syria. Doubtless he made many acquaintances on these journeys and picked up much useful information. Mohammed, however, did not receive a regular education; it is doubtful whether he could read or write. His marriage, when about twenty-five years of age, to a rich widow, named Khadija, brought him wealth and consideration. For some time, henceforth, he led the life of a prosperous merchant of Mecca.



MOHAMMED'S VISIONS

Mohammed seems always to have been a deeply religious man. As he grew older, his thoughts more and more centered on spiritual themes. He could not reconcile the gross idolatry of the Arabs with that belief in the unity of God which he himself had reached. In his distress he would withdraw into the wilderness, where he spent much time in fasting and solitary vigils, practices perhaps suggested to him by the example of Christian hermits. [3] During these lonely hours in the desert strange scenes passed before his eyes and strange voices sounded in his ears. At first Mohammed thought that evil spirits possessed him, but Khadija encouraged him to believe that his visions were a revelation from another world. One day, so he declared, God's messenger, the archangel Gabriel, appeared to him and bade him preach a new religion to the Arabs. It was very simple, but in its simplicity lay its strength: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

THE HEGIRA, 622 A.D.

The prophet made his first converts in his wife, his children, and the friends who knew him best. Then, becoming bolder, he began to preach publicly in Mecca. In spite of Mohammed's eloquence, obvious sincerity, and attractive personality, he met a discouraging reception. A few slaves and poor freemen became his followers, but most of the citizens of Mecca regarded him as a madman. Mohammed's disciples, called Moslems, [4] were bitterly persecuted by the Koreish, who resented the prophet's attacks on idolatry and feared the loss of their privileges at the Kaaba. Finally Mohammed and his converts took refuge in Medina, where some of the inhabitants had already accepted his teachings. This was the famous Hegira (Flight of the prophet). [5]

LATER LIFE OF MOHAMMED

At Medina Mohammed occupied a position of high honor and influence. The people welcomed him gladly and made him their chief magistrate. As his adherents increased in number, Mohammed began to combine fighting with preaching. His military expeditions against the Arab tribes proved to be very successful. Many of the conquered Bedouins enlisted under his banner and in 630 A.D. captured Mecca for the prophet. He treated its inhabitants leniently, but threw down all the idols in the Kaaba, After the submission of Mecca most of the Arabs abandoned idolatry and accepted the new religion.

DEATH OF MOHAMMED, 632 A.D.

Mohammed did not long enjoy his position as uncrowned king of Arabia. He died in 632 A.D., at Medina, where he was buried and where his tomb is still visited by pious Moslems. His followers could scarcely believe that their great prophet had gone away from them forever. They were ready to worship him as a god, until old Abu Bekr, Mohammed's father-in-law, rebuked them with the memorable words: "Whoso worshipeth Mohammed, let him know that Mohammed is dead; but whoso worshipeth God, let him know that God liveth and dieth not."

MOHAMMED'S CHARACTER

The character of Mohammed has been variously estimated. Moslem writers make him a saint; Christian writers, until Mohammed's recent times, have called him an "impostor." We know that he was a man of simple habits, who, even in the days of his prosperity, lived on dates, barley bread, and water, mended his woolen garments, and attended to his own wants. He was mild and gentle, a lover of children, devoted to his friends, and forgiving toward his foes. He seems to have won the admiration of all with whom he came in contact. We know, too, that Mohammed was so deeply impressed with the consciousness of his religious mission that he was ready to give up wealth and an honorable position and face for years the ridicule and hatred of the people of Mecca. His faults—deceitfulness, superstitiousness, sensuality—were those of the Arabs of his time. Their existence in Mohammed's character should not prevent our recognition of his real greatness as a prophet and as a statesman.

132. ISLAM AND THE KORAN

FORMATION OF THE KORAN

The religion which Mohammed preached is called Islam, an Arabic word meaning "surrender," or "resignation." This religion has its sacred book, the Koran ("thing read" or "thing recited"). It contains the speeches, prayers, and other utterances of Mohammed at various times during his career. Some parts of the Koran were dictated by the prophet to his disciples and by them were written out on skins, leaves of palm trees, bones, and bits of parchment. Many other parts remained at first only in the memory of Mohammed's followers. Soon after his death all the scattered passages were collected into one book. Since the middle of the seventh century the Koran, every word of which the Moslems consider holy, has remained unchanged.



RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN

The doctrines found in the Koran show many adaptations from the Jewish and Christian religions. Like them Islam emphasizes the unity of God. The Moslem cry—"Allah Akbar!" "God is Great!"—forms its cardinal principle. Like them, also, Islam recognizes the existence of prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but insists that Mohammed was the last and greatest of the prophets. The existence of angels and demons is recognized. The chief of the demons, Iblis, bears some resemblance to the Jewish Satan and the Christian Devil. The account of the creation and fall of man is taken, with variations, from the Old Testament. The description of the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and the division of the future world into paradise and hell, the former for believers in Islam, the latter for those who have refused to accept it, seems to have been based on Persian and Jewish ideas. These borrowings from other religions facilitated the spread of Islam among eastern peoples.

OBSERVANCES OF ISLAM

The Koran imposes on the faithful Moslem five great obligations. First, he must recite, at least once in his life, aloud, correctly, and with full understanding, the short creed: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God." Second, he must pray five times a day: at dawn, just after noon, before sunset, just after sunset, and at the end of the day. In every Mohammedan city the hour of prayer is announced from the tall minaret of the mosque by a crier (muezzin). Before engaging in prayer the worshiper washes face, hands, and feet; during the prayer he turns toward Mecca and bows his head to the ground. Third, he must observe a strict fast, from morning to night, during every day of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Mohammedan year. [6] In this month God presented the Koran to Gabriel for revelation to the prophet. Fourth, he must give alms to the poor. Fifth, he must, "if he is able," undertake at least one pilgrimage to Mecca. The annual visit of thousands of pilgrims to the holy city helps to preserve the feeling of brotherhood among Moslems all over the world. These five obligations are the "pillars" of Islam.

ORGANIZATION OF ISLAM

As a religious system Islam is exceedingly simple. It does not provide any elaborate ceremonies of worship and permits no altars, pictures, or images in the mosque. Islam even lacks a priesthood. Every Moslem acts as his own priest. There is, however, an official, who on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, offers up public prayers in the mosque and delivers a sermon to the assembled worshipers. All work is suspended during this service, but at its close secular activities are resumed.

MORAL TEACHINGS OF THE KORAN

The Koran furnishes a moral code for the adherents of Islam. It contains a few important prohibitions. The Moslem is not to make images, to engage in games of chance, to eat pork, or to drink wine. This last prohibition has saved the Mohammedan world from the degradation and misery which alcohol has introduced into Christian lands. To Mohammed strong drink was "the mother of all evil," and drunkenness, a sin. The Koran also inculcates many active virtues, including reverence toward parents, protection of widows and orphans, charity toward the poor, kindness to slaves, and gentle treatment of the lower animals. On the whole it must be admitted that the laws of the Koran did much to restrain the vices of the Arabs and to provide them with higher standards of right and wrong. Islam marked a great advance over Arabian heathenism.

133. EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN ASIA AND EGYPT

ISLAM SPREAD BY THE SWORD

Mohammed, as we have learned, did not scruple to use the sword as a means of spreading his new religion among the idolatrous Arab tribes. By thus following up preaching with force, he subdued the greater part of Arabia. The prophet's methods were adopted by his successors. Within a century after Mohammed's death, they carried the doctrines of Islam over a large part of the civilized world and founded an Arabian Empire.

ISLAM AS A RELIGION OF CONQUEST

Islam was a religion of conquest. It proclaimed the righteousness of a "holy war," or jihad, against unbelievers. It promised rich booty for those who fought and won, and paradise for those who fell. The Arab soldier, dying on the battlefield, expected to be carried away by bright- eyed maidens to a garden of delight, where, reclining on soft cushions and rugs, he was to enjoy forever an existence of sensual ease. "Whosoever falls in battle," so runs a passage in the Koran, "his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim."

ISLAM AS A POLITICAL FORCE

The sudden creation of the Arabian power must not be understood, however, as solely a religious movement. Pride and greed, as well as fanaticism, drove the Arabs forward on their conquering career. Long before Mohammed's time Arabia had been in a state of unrest. Its warlike tribes, feeling a sense of their superiority to other peoples, were eager to overrun the rich districts of western Asia, much as the Germans had overrun western Europe. Islam strengthened the racial pride of the Arabs, united them into one nation, and gave them an effective organization for world-wide rule.

ARAB CONQUESTS IN THE EAST, 632-642 A.D.

The most extensive conquests of the Arabs were made within ten years after Mohammed's death. During this time the Moslem warriors, though poorly armed, ill-disciplined, and in every battle greatly outnumbered, attacked with success the two strongest military powers then in the world—Rome and Persia. From the Roman Empire in the East they seized the provinces of Syria and Palestine, with the famous cities of Damascus, Antioch, and Jerusalem. [7] They took Mesopotamia from the Persians and then, invading Iran, overthrew the Persian power. [8] Egypt also was subjugated by these irresistible soldiers of the Crescent.

TREATMENT OF THE CONQUERED PEOPLES

According to the strict teaching of the Koran, those who refused to accept Islam were either to be killed or to be reduced to slavery. As a matter of fact, the Arabs treated their new subjects with marked liberality. No massacres and no persecutions occurred. The conquered peoples were allowed to retain their own religions, on condition of paying ample tribute. In course of time, however, many of the Christians in Syria and Egypt and most of the Zoroastrians [9] in Persia adopted Islam, in order that they might acquire the rights and privileges of Moslem citizens.

LATER ARAB CONQUESTS

The sweeping conquests of the decade 632-642 A.D. were followed in later years by a further extension of the boundaries of the Arabian Empire. In the remote East the Arabs sent their victorious armies beyond the Oxus and Indus rivers to central Asia and India. They captured the island of Cyprus, annexed parts of Armenia and Asia Minor, and at length threatened to take Constantinople. Had that city fallen, all eastern Europe would have been laid open to invasion.



SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 716-717 A.D.

The first attempts on Constantinople were made by sea and were repulsed, but during the years 716-717 A.D. the city had to face a combined attack by a Moslem navy and army. The eastern emperor, Leo the Isaurian, conducted a heroic defense, using with much effectiveness the celebrated mixture known as "Greek fire." This combustible, probably composed of sulphur, naphtha, and quicklime, was poured or hurled on the enemy's ships in order to burn them. "Greek fire," the rigors of an uncommonly severe winter, and timely aid from the Bulgarians at length compelled the Arabs to beat a retreat. Their failure to take Constantinople gave the Roman Empire in the East another long lease of life.



134. EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN NORTH AFRICA AND SPAIN

NORTH AFRICA SUBDUED

Though repulsed before the impregnable walls of Constantinople, the Arabs continued to win new dominions in other North Africa parts of the Christian world. After their occupation of Egypt, they began to overrun North Africa, which Justinian, little more than a century earlier, had reconquered from the Vandals. [10] The Romanized provincials, groaning under the burdensome taxes imposed on them by the eastern emperors, made only a slight resistance to the Moslem armies. A few of the great cities held out for a time, but after the capture and destruction of Carthage [11] in 698 A.D., Arab rule was soon established over the whole extent of the Mediterranean coast from Egypt to the Atlantic.

ARABS AND BERBERS

Islam made in North Africa one of its most permanent conquests. After the coming of the Arabs many of the Christian inhabitants appear to have withdrawn to Spain and Sicily, leaving the field clear for the introduction of Arabian civilization. The Arabs who settled in North Africa gave their religion and government to the Berbers, as the natives of the country were called, and to some extent intermingled with them. Arabs and Berbers still comprise the population of North Africa, though their once independent states have now been absorbed by European powers. [12]

SUBJUGATION OF SPAIN BEGUN, 711 A.D.

With North Africa in their hands the Moslems did not long delay the invasion of Spain. In 711 A.D. an army of Arabs and Berbers, under their leader Tarik, crossed the strait which still bears his name [13] and for the first time confronted the Germans. The Visigothic kingdom, [14] already much enfeebled, proved to be an easy prey. A single battle made the invaders masters of half of Spain. Within a few years their hosts swept northward to the Pyrenees. Only small districts in the northern part of the Spanish peninsula remained unconquered.

THE MOSLEM ADVANCE IN GAUL

The Moslems were not stopped by the Pyrenees. Crossing these mountains, they captured many of the old Roman cities in the south of Gaul and then advanced to the north, attracted, apparently, by the booty to be found in Christian monasteries and churches. In the vicinity of Tours they encountered the great army which Charles Martel, the chief minister of the Frankish king, [15] had collected to oppose their advance.

BATTLE OF TOURS, 732 A.D.

The battle of Tours seems to have continued for several days. Of its details we know nothing, though a Spanish chronicler tells us that the heavy infantry of the Franks stood "immovable as a wall, inflexible as a block of ice" against the desperate assaults of the Moslem horsemen. When the Franks, after the last day's fighting, wished to renew the struggle, they found that the enemy had fled, leaving a camp filled with the spoils of war. This engagement, though famous in history, was scarcely decisive. For some time afterward the Moslems maintained themselves in southern Gaul. It was the Frankish ruler, Pepin the Short, who annexed their possessions there and drove them back across the Pyrenees to Spain. [16]

135. THE CALIPHATE AND ITS DISRUPTION, 632-1058 A.D.

THE FOUR "ORTHODOX" CALIPHS, 632-661 A.D.

Only eighteen years after the battle of Tours, the Arabian Empire was divided into two rival and more or less hostile parts, which came to be called the Eastern and Western caliphates. The title of caliph, meaning "successor" or "representative," had first been assumed by Mohammed's father-in-law, Abu Bekr, who was chosen to succeed the prophet as the civil and religious head of the Moslem world. After him followed Omar, who had been one of Mohammed's most faithful adherents, and then Othman and Ali, both sons-in-law of Mohammed. These four rulers are sometimes known as the "Orthodox" caliphs, because their right to the succession was universally acknowledged by Moslems.

OMMIAD CALIPHS AT DAMASCUS, 661-750 A.D.

After Ali's death the governor of Syria, Moawiya by name, succeeded in making himself caliph of the Moslem world. This usurper converted the caliphate into a hereditary, instead of an elective, office, and established the dynasty of the Ommiads. [17] Their capital was no longer Medina in Arabia, but the Syrian city of Damascus. The descendants of Mohammed's family refused, however, to recognize the Ommiads as legitimate caliphs. In 750 A.D. a sudden revolt, headed by the party of the Abbasids, [18] established a new dynasty. The Abbasids treacherously murdered nearly all the members of the Ommiad family, but one survivor escaped to Spain, where he founded at Cordova an independent Ommiad dynasty. [19] North Africa, also, before long separated itself from Abbasid rule. Thus the once united caliphate, like the old Roman Empire, split in twain.

THE ABBASID CALIPHS, 750-1058 A.D.

The Abbasids continued to reign over the Moslems in Asia for more than three hundred years. The most celebrated of Abbasid caliphs was Harun-al- Rashid (Aaron the Just), a contemporary of Charlemagne, to whom the Arab ruler sent several presents, including an elephant and a water-clock which struck the hours. The tales of Harun-al-Rashid's magnificence, his gold and silver, his silks and gems, his rugs and tapestries, reflect the luxurious life of the Abbasid rulers. Gradually, however, their power declined, and in 1058 A.D. the Seljuk Turks, [20] recent converts to Islam, deprived them of their power. A Turkish chieftain, with the title of "King of the East and West," then took the place of the Arabian caliph, though the latter remained the religious head of Islam. He lost even this spiritual authority, just two centuries later, when the Mongols from central Asia overran the Turkish dominions. [21]

BAGDAD

The Abbasids removed their capital from Damascus to Bagdad on the banks of the middle Euphrates. The new city, under the fostering care of the caliphs, grew with great rapidity. Its population in the ninth century is said to have reached two millions. For a time it was the largest and richest city in the Moslem world. How its splendor impressed the imagination may be seen from the stories of the Thousand and One Nights. [22] After the extinction of the Abbasid caliphate, its importance as the religious and political center of Islam declined. But memories of the former grandeur of Bagdad still cling to it, and even to-day it is referred to in Turkish official documents as the "glorious city."

EXTINCTION OF THE ARABIAN EMPIRE A MISFORTUNE

It was a very great misfortune for the eastern world when the Arabian Empire passed under the control of rude Asiatic peoples. The Turks accepted Islam, but they did little to preserve and extend Arabian civilization. The stagnant, non-progressive condition of the East at the present time is largely due to the misgovernment of its Turkish conquerors.

136. ARABIAN CIVILIZATION

THE ARABS AS ABSORBERS OF CIVILIZATION

The great Moslem cities of Bagdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova were not only seats of government for the different divisions of the Arabian Empire; they were also the centers of Arabian civilization. The conquests of the Arabs had brought them into contact with highly developed peoples whose culture they absorbed and to some extent improved. They owed most to Persia and, after Persia, to Greece, through the empire at Constantinople, In their hands there was somewhat the same fusion of East and West as Alexander the Great had sought to accomplish. [23] Greek science and philosophy mingled with the arts of Persia and other Oriental lands. Arabian civilization, for about four centuries under the Ommiad and Abbasid caliphs, far surpassed anything to be found in western Europe.

AGRICULTURE

Many improvements in agriculture were due to the Arabs. They had a good system of irrigation, practiced rotation of crops, employed fertilizers, and understood how to graft and produce new varieties of plants and fruits. From the Arabs we have received cotton, flax, hemp, buckwheat, rice, sugar cane, and coffee, various vegetables, including asparagus, artichokes, and beans, and such fruits as melons, oranges, lemons, apricots, and plums.

MANUFACTURING

The Arabs excelled in various manufactures. Damascus was famous for its brocades, tapestries, and blades of tempered steel. The Moorish cities in Spain had also their special productions: Cordova, leather; Toledo, armor; and Granada, rich silks. Arab craftsmen taught the Venetians to make crystal and plate glass. The work of Arab potters and weavers was at once the admiration and despair of its imitators in western Europe. The Arabs knew the secrets of dyeing and they made a kind of paper. Their textile fabrics and articles of metal were distinguished for beauty of design and perfection of workmanship. European peoples during the early Middle Ages received the greater part of their manufactured articles of luxury through the Arabs. [24]

COMMERCE

The products of Arab farms and workshops were carried far and wide throughout medieval lands. The Arabs were keen merchants, and Mohammed had expressly encouraged commerce by declaring it agreeable to God. The Arabs traded with India, China, the East Indies (Java and Sumatra), the interior of Africa, Russia, and even with the Baltic lands. Bagdad, which commanded both land and water routes, was the chief center of this commerce, but other cities of western Asia, North Africa, and Spain shared in its advantages. The bazaar, or merchants' quarter, was found in every Moslem city.

GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE

The trade of the Arabs, their wide conquests, and their religious pilgrimages to Mecca vastly increased their knowledge of the world. They were the best geographers of the Middle Ages. An Abbasid caliph, the son of Harun-al-Rashid, had the Greek Geography of Ptolemy [25] translated into Arabic and enriched the work with illuminated maps. Arab scholars compiled encyclopedias describing foreign countries and peoples, constructed celestial spheres, and measured closely the arc of the meridian in order to calculate the size of the earth. There is some reason to believe that the mariner's compass was first introduced into Europe by the Arabs. The geographical knowledge of Christian peoples during the Middle Ages owed much, indeed, to their Moslem forerunners.

EDUCATION

Schools and universities flourished in Moslem lands when Christian Europe was still in the "Dark Ages." The largest institution of learning was at Cairo, where the lectures of the professors were attended by thousands of students. Famous universities also existed in Bagdad and Cordova. Moslem scholars especially delighted in the study of philosophy. Arabic translations of Aristotle's [26] writings made the ideas of that great thinker familiar to the students of western Europe, where the knowledge of Greek had all but died out. The Arabs also formed extensive libraries of many thousands of manuscripts, all carefully arranged and catalogued. Their libraries and universities, especially in Spain, were visited by many Christians, who thus became acquainted with Moslem learning and helped to introduce it into Europe.

CHEMISTRY AND MEDICINE

The Arabs have been considered to be the founders of modern experimental science. They were relatively skillful chemists, for they discovered a number of new compounds (such as alcohol, aqua regia, nitric acid, and corrosive sublimate) and understood the preparation of mercury and of various oxides of metals. In medicine the Arabs based their investigations on those of the Greeks, [27] but made many additional contributions to the art of healing. They studied physiology and hygiene, dissected the human body, performed difficult surgical operations, used anaesthetics, and wrote treatises on such diseases as measles and smallpox. Arab medicine and surgery were studied by the Christian peoples of Europe throughout the later period of the Middle Ages.



MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY

The Arabs had a strong taste for mathematics. Here again they carried further the old Greek investigations. In arithmetic they used the so- called "Arabic" figures, which were probably borrowed from India. The Arabic numerals gradually supplanted in western Europe the awkward Roman numerals. In geometry the Arabs added little to Euclid, but algebra is practically their creation. An Arabic treatise on algebra long formed the textbook of the subject in the universities of Christian Europe. Spherical trigonometry and conic sections are Arabic inventions. This mathematical knowledge enabled the Arabs to make considerable progress in astronomy. Observatories at Bagdad and Damascus were erected as early as the ninth century. Some of the astronomical instruments which they constructed, including the sextant and the gnomon, are still in use. [28]

ROMANCE AND POETRY

In prose and verse there are two Moslem productions which have attained wide popularity in European lands. The first work is the Thousand and One Nights, a collection of tales written in Arabic and describing life and manners at the court of the Abbasids. The book, as we now have it, seems to have been composed as late as the fifteenth century, but it borrows much from earlier Arabic sources. Many of the tales are of Indian or Persian origin, but all have a thoroughly Moslem coloring. The second work is the Rubaiyat of the astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam, who wrote about the beginning of the twelfth century. His Rubaiyat is a little volume of quatrains, about five hundred in all, distinguished for wit, satirical power, and a vein of melancholy, sometimes pensive, sometimes passionate. These characteristics of Omar's poetry have made it widely known in the western world. [29]

ARCHITECTURE

Painting and sculpture owe little to the Arabs, but their architecture, based in part on Byzantine and Persian models, reached a high level of excellence. Swelling domes, vaulted roofs, arched porches, tall and graceful minarets, and the exquisite decorative patterns known as "arabesques" make many Arab buildings miracles of beauty. Glazed tiles, mosaics, and jeweled glass were extensively used for ornamentation. From the first the Arab builders adopted the pointed arch; they introduced it into western Europe; and it became a characteristic feature of Gothic cathedrals. [30] Among the best-known of Arab buildings are the so-called "Mosque of Omar" at Jerusalem, [31] the Great Mosque of Cordova, and that architectural gem, the Alhambra at Granada. Many features of Moorish art were taken over by the Spaniards, who reproduced them in the cathedrals and missions of Mexico and California.



137. THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM

GROWTH OF ISLAM

The division of the Arabian Empire into rival caliphates did not check the spread of Islam. The Turks and Mongols during the Middle Ages carried it to the uttermost regions of Asia and throughout southeastern Europe. Some parts of the territory thus gained by it have since been lost. Spain and the Balkan peninsula are once more Christian lands. In other parts of the world, and notably in Africa and India, the religion of Mohammed is spreading faster than any other creed. Islam to-day claims about two hundred million adherents.



THE BENEFITS OF ISLAM

The growth of Islam is evidence that it meets the needs of Asiatic and African peoples. Its simple creed—the unity of God, man's immortal soul, and material rewards and penalties in a future life—adapt it to the understanding of half-civilized peoples. As a religion it is immeasurably superior to the rude nature worship and idolatry which it has supplanted. The same is true of Islam as a system of morality. The practice of the virtues recommended by the Koran and the avoidance of the vices which that book condemns tend to raise its adherents in the moral scale.

TREATMENT OF WOMEN

From the moral standpoint one of the least satisfactory features of Islam is its attitude toward women. The ancient Arabs, like many other peoples, seem to have set no limit to the number of wives a man might possess. Women were regarded by them as mere chattels, and female infants were frequently put to death. Mohammed recognized polygamy, but limited the number of legitimate wives to four. At the same time Mohammed sought to improve the condition of women by forbidding female infanticide, by restricting the facilities for divorce, and by insisting on kind treatment of wives by their husbands. "The best of you," he said, "is he who behaves best to his wives." According to eastern custom Moslem women are secluded in a separate part of the house, called the harem. [32] They never appear in public, except when closely veiled from the eyes of strangers. Their education is also much neglected.

SLAVERY

Slavery, like polygamy, was a custom which Mohammed found fully established among the Arabs. He disliked slavery and tried in several ways to lessen its evils. He declared that the emancipation of Moslem slaves was an act of special merit, and ordered that in a war between Moslems the prisoners were not to be enslaved. Mohammed also insisted on kind treatment of slaves by their masters. "Feed your slaves," he directed, "with food of that which you eat and clothe them with such clothing as you wear, and command them not to do that which they are unable to do." The condition of Moslem slaves does not appear to be intolerable, though the slave traffic which still exists in some parts of Africa is a disgrace to Islam.

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate the Arabian Empire at its widest extent. Locate the more important cities, including Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Bagdad, Cairo, Alexandria, Granada, Cordova, and Seville.

2. Define the following: Kaaba; Islam; Koran; and caliph.

3. How did the geographical situation of Arabia preserve it from being conquered by Persians, Macedonians, or Romans?

4. Why had the Arabs, until the time of Mohammed, played so inconspicuous a part in the history of the world?

5. Mohammed "began as a mule driver and ended as both a pope and a king." Explain this statement.

6. How does Mohammed's career in Mecca illustrate the saying that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country"?

7. What resemblances may be traced between Islam on the one side and Judaism and Christianity on the other side?

8. Did religion have anything to do with the migrations of the Germans? How was it with the Arabs?

9. Contrast the methods of propagating Christianity in Europe with those of spreading Islam in Asia.

10. Why is the defeat of the Moslems before Constantinople regarded as more significant than their defeat at the battle of Tours?

11. Compare the eastern limits of the Arabian Empire with those of Alexander's empire (maps facing pages 124, 376).

12. Show that the Arabian Empire, because of its geographical position, was less easily defended than the Roman Empire.

13. Locate on the map facing page 376 the following commercial cities in the Arabian Empire: Samarkand; Cabul; Bokhara; Mosul; Kairwan; Fez; Seville; and Toledo.

14. Can you suggest any reason why the Arabs did little in painting and sculpture?

15. What are some of the best-known stories in the Thousand and One Nights?

16. Discuss the justice of this statement: "If our ideas and our arts go back to antiquity, all the inventions which make life easy and agreeable come to us from the Arabs."

17. "From the eighth to the twelfth century the world knew but two civilizations, that of Byzantium and that of the Arabs." Comment on this statement.

18. Show that Islam was an heir to the Graeco-Oriental civilization.

19. Can you suggest any reasons why Islam to-day spreads among the African negroes more rapidly than Christianity?

20. How does Islam, by sanctioning polygamy and slavery, hinder the rise of women and of the working classes?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter vi, "The Teachings of Mohammed."

[2] The earlier spelling was Mahomet.

[3] See page 352. [4] From the Arabic muslim, "one who surrenders himself" (to God's will). During the Middle Ages the Moslems to their Christian enemies were commonly known as Saracens, a term which is still in use.

[5] The year 622 A.D., in which the Hegira occurred, marks the beginning of the Mohammedan era. The Christian year 1917 A.D. nearly corresponds to the Mohammedan year 1336 A.H. (Anno Hegirae).

[6] Feasting during the nights of this month is allowable.

[7] See page 333.

[8] See page 219, 332.

[9] See page 54, note 1.

[10] See page 330.

[11] See page 245.

[12] Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis belong to France; Tripoli, to Italy.

[13] Gibraltar = Gibal al Tarik, "the mountain of Tarik."

[14] See pages 244-245.

[15] See page 306.

[16] For Charlemagne's Spanish conquests, see page 309.

[17] So called from a leading family of Mecca, to which Moawiya belonged.

[18] So called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed.

[19] This was at first known as the emirate of Cordova, but in 929 A.D. it became the caliphate of Cordova. See the map facing page 308.

[20] See page 333.

[21] See page 485. Descendants of the Abbasids subsequently took up their abode in Egypt. Through them the claim to the caliphate passed in 1538 A.D. to the Ottoman Turks. The Sultan at Constantinople still calls himself caliph of the Moslem world. However, in 1916 A.D. the Grand Sherif of Mecca, a descendant of Mohammed, led a revolt against the Turks, captured Mecca and Medina, and proclaimed Arab independence. Should the European war end in favor of the Allies, the caliphate will undoubtedly go back to the Arabs.

[22] Popularly called the Arabian Nights.

[23] See page 126.

[24] The European names of some common articles reveal the Arabic sources from which they were first derived. Thus, damask comes from Damascus, muslin from Mosul, gauze from Gaza, cordovan (a kind of leather) from Cordova, and morocco leather from North Africa.

[25] See page 133.

[26] See page 275.

[27] See page 131.

[28] Many words in European languages beginning with the prefix al (the definite article in Arabic) show how indebted was Europe to the Arabs for scientific knowledge. In English these words include alchemy (whence chemistry), alcohol, alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac, Aldebaran (the star), etc.

[29] The translation of the Rubaiyat by Edward Fitzgerald is almost an English classic.

[30] See page 564.

[31] See the illustration, page 471.

[32] The Athenians had a similar practice. See page 257.



CHAPTER XVII

THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 A.D. [1]

138. SCANDINAVIA AND THE NORTHMEN

A NEW SERIES OF MIGRATIONS

From the East we return once more to the West, from Asia to Europe, from Arabia to Scandinavia. We have now to deal with the raids and settlements of the Norsemen or Northmen. Like the Arabs the Northmen quitted a sterile peninsula and went forth to find better homes in distant lands. Their invasions, beginning toward the close of the eighth century, lasted about three hundred years.

A TEUTONIC MOVEMENT

The Northmen belonged to the Teutonic family of peoples. They were kinsmen of the Germans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Dutch. Their migrations may be regarded, therefore, as the last wave of that great Teutonic movement which in earlier times had inundated western Europe and overwhelmed the Roman Empire.

SCANDINAVIA

The Northmen lived, as their descendants still live, in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The name Scandinavia is sometimes applied to all three countries, but more commonly it is restricted to the peninsula comprising Sweden and Norway.



SWEDEN

Sweden, with the exception of the northern highlands, is mostly a level region, watered by copious streams, dotted with many lakes, and sinking down gradually to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. The fact that Sweden faces these inland waters determined the course of her development as a nation. She never has had any aspirations to become a great oceanic power. Her whole historic life has centered about the Baltic.



NORWAY

Norway, in contrast to Sweden, faces the Atlantic. The country is little more than a strip of rugged seacoast reaching northward to well within the Arctic Circle. Were it not for the influence of the "Gulf Stream drift," much of Norway would be a frozen waste for the greater part of the year. Vast forests of fir, pine, and birch still cover the greater part of the country, and the land which can be used for farming and grazing does not exceed eleven per cent of the entire area. But Norway, like Greece, [2] has an extent of shore-line out of all proportion to its superficial area. So numerous are the fiords, or inlets of the sea, that the total length of the coast approximates twelve thousand miles. Slight wonder that the Vikings, [3] as they called themselves, should feel the lure of the ocean and should put forth their frail barks upon the "pathway of the swans" in search of booty and adventure.

PREHISTORIC TIMES IN SCANDINAVIA

The Swedes and Norwegians, together with their kinsmen, the Danes, probably settled in Scandinavia long before the beginning of the Christian era. During the earlier part of the prehistoric period the inhabitants were still in the Stone Age, but the use of bronze, and then of iron, was gradually introduced. Excavations in ancient grave mounds have revealed implements of the finest polished stone, beautiful bronze swords, and coats of iron ring mail, besides gold and silver ornaments which may have been imported from southern Europe. The ancient Scandinavians have left to us curious records of the past in their picture writing chiseled on the flat surface of rocks. The objects represented include boats with as many as thirty men in them, horses drawing two-wheeled carts, spans of oxen, farmers engaged in ploughing, and warriors on horseback. By the close of the prehistoric period the northern peoples were also familiar with a form of the Greek alphabet (the "runes" [4]) and with the art of writing.

139. THE VIKING AGE

DAWN OF HISTORY IN SCANDINAVIA

The Viking Age, with which historic times begin in northern Europe, extends from about 800 A.D. to the introduction of Christianity in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This was the period when the Northmen, or Vikings, realizing that the sea offered the quickest road to wealth and conquest, began to make long voyages to foreign lands. In part they went as traders and exchanged the furs, wool, and fish of Scandinavia for the clothing, ornaments, and other articles of luxury found in neighboring countries. But it was no far cry from merchant to freebooter, and, in fact, expeditions for the sake of plunder seem to have been even more popular with the Northmen than peaceful commerce.

THE NORTHMEN AS SAILORS

Whether the Northmen engaged in trade or in warfare, good ships and good seamanship were indispensable to them. They became the boldest sailors of the early Middle Ages. No longer hugging the coast, as timid mariners had always done before them, the Northmen pushed out into the uncharted main and steered their course only by observation of the sun and stars. In this way the Northmen were led to make those remarkable explorations in the Atlantic Ocean and the polar seas which added so greatly to geographical knowledge.

SHIPS OF THE NORTHMEN

It was not uncommon for a Viking chieftain, after his days of sea-roving had ended, to be buried in his ship, over which a grave chamber, covered with earth, would be erected. The discovery of several of these burial ships enables us to form a good idea of Viking vessels. The largest of them might reach a length of seventy feet and hold as many as one hundred and twenty men. A fleet of the Northmen, carrying several thousand warriors, mail-clad and armed with spears, swords, and battle-axes, was indeed formidable. During this period the Northmen were the masters of the sea, as far as western Europe was concerned. This fact largely explains their successful campaigns.

[Illustration: A VIKING SHIP The Gokstad vessel is of oak, twenty-eight feet long and sixteen feet broad in the center. It has seats for sixteen pairs of rowers, a mast for a single sail, and a rudder on the right or starboard side. The gunwale was decorated with a series of shields, painted alternately black and gold. This ship, which probably dates from about 900 A.D., was found on the shore of Christiania Fiord. A still larger ship, of about the same date, was taken in 1904 A.D. from the grave of a Norwegian queen at Oseberg. With the queen had been buried a four-wheeled wagon, three sleighs, three beds, two chests, a chair, a large loom, and various kitchen utensils, in fact everything needed for her comfort in the other world.]

THE SAGAS

A very important source of information for the Viking Age consists of the writings called sagas. [5] These narratives are in prose, but they were based, in many instances, on the songs which the minstrels (skalds) sang to appreciative audiences assembled at the banqueting board of a Viking chieftain. It was not until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the sagas were committed to writing. This was done chiefly in Iceland, and so it happens that we must look to that distant island for the beginnings of Scandinavian literature.

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE SAGAS

The sagas belong to different classes. The oldest of them relate the deeds of Viking heroes and their families. Others deal with the lives of Norwegian kings. Some of the most important sagas describe the explorations and settlements of the Northmen and hence possess considerable value as historical records.

THE NORTHMEN AS SEEN IN THE SAGAS

The sagas throw much light on the character of the Northmen. Love of adventure and contempt for the quiet joys of home comes out in the description of Viking chiefs, who "never sought refuge under a roof nor emptied their drinking-horns by a hearth." An immense love of fighting breathes in the accounts of Viking warriors, "who are glad when they have hopes of a battle; they will leap up in hot haste and ply the oars, snapping the oar-thongs and cracking the tholes." The undaunted spirit of Viking sailors, braving the storms of the northern ocean, expresses itself in their sea songs: "The force of the tempest assists the arms of our oarsmen; the hurricane is our servant, it drives us whithersoever we wish to go." The sagas also reveal other characteristics of the Northmen: a cruelty and faithlessness which made them a terror to their foes; an almost barbaric love of gay clothing and ornament; a strong sense of public order, giving rise to an elaborate legal system; and even a feeling for the romantic beauty of their northern home, with its snow-clad mountains, dark forests of pine, sparkling waterfalls, and deep, blue fiords.

EDDAIC POEMS

It is to the Viking Age also that we owe the composition of the poems going by the name of the Elder Edda. These poems, as well as the prose sagas, were collected and arranged in Iceland during the later Middle Ages. The Elder Edda is a storehouse of old Norse mythology. It forms our chief source of knowledge concerning Scandinavian heathenism before the introduction of Christianity.

140. SCANDINAVIAN HEATHENISM

THE GOD ODIN

The religion of the Northmen bore a close resemblance to that of the other Teutonic peoples. The leading deity was Odin (German Woden), whose exploits are celebrated in many of the songs of the Elder Edda. Odin was represented as a tall, gray-bearded chieftain, carrying a shield and a spear which never missed its mark. Though a god of battle, Odin was also a lover of wisdom. He discovered the runes which gave him secret knowledge of all things. Legend told how Odin killed a mighty giant, whose body was cut into pieces to form the world: the earth was his flesh, the water his blood, the rocks his bones, and the heavens his skull. Having created the world and peopled it with human beings, Odin retired to the sacred city of Asgard, where he reigned in company with his children.

THE GOD THOR

Enthroned beside Odin sat his oldest son, Thor (German Thunor), god of thunder and lightning. His weapon, the thunderbolt, was imagined as a hammer, and was especially used by him to protect gods and men against the giants. The hammer, when thrown, returned to his hand of its own accord. Thor also possessed a belt of strength, which, when girded about him, doubled his power.

THOR'S DEEDS OF STRENGTH

Many stories were told of Thor's adventures, when visiting Joetunheim, the abode of the giants. In a drinking-match he tried to drain a horn of liquor, not knowing that one end of the horn reached the sea, which was appreciably lowered by the god's huge draughts. He sought to lift from the ground a large, gray cat, but struggle as he might, could raise only one of the animal's feet. What Thor took for a cat, however, was really the Midgard serpent, which, with its tail in its mouth, encircled the earth. In the last trial of strength Thor wrestled with an old woman, and after a violent contest was thrown down upon one knee. But the hag was in truth relentless old age, who sooner or later lays low all men.

MYTH OF BALDER

Most beautiful and best beloved of the Scandinavian divinities was Odin's son, Balder. He was represented as a gentle deity of innocence and righteousness. As long as he lived, evil could gain no real control in the world and the power of the gods would remain unshaken. To preserve Balder from all danger his mother Frigga required everything on earth to swear never to harm her son. Only a single plant, the mistletoe, did not take the oath. Then the traitor Loki gathered the mistletoe and came to an assembly where the gods were hurling all kinds of missiles at Balder, to show that nothing could hurt him. Loki asked the blind Hoeder to throw the plant at Balder. Hoeder did so, and Balder fell dead. The gods tried to recover him from Hel, the gloomy underworld, but Hel demanded as his ransom a tear from every living creature. Gods, men, and even things inanimate wept for Balder, except one cruel giantess—Loki in disguise— who would not give a single tear. She said, "Neither living nor dead was Balder of any use to me. Let Hel keep what it has."

"TWILIGHT OF THE GODS"

Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned up the world and the human race. The giants invaded Asgard and slaughtered its inhabitants. Odin fell a victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having killed the Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom which the dying monster cast over him. The end of all things arrived. This was the catastrophe which had been predicted of old—the "Twilight of the Gods."

VALHALLA

Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed the idea of Valhalla, [6] the abode to which Odin received the souls of those who had died, not ingloriously in their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop of divine maidens, the Valkyries, [7] rode through the air on Odin's service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave warriors for Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought with one another by day, but at evening the slayer and the slain returned to Odin's hall to feast mightily on boar's flesh and drink deep draughts of mead.

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

As with most heathen religions that of the Northmen was full of terrors. Their lively imagination peopled the world with many strange figures. Fiends and monsters inhabited the marshes, giants lived in the dark forest, evil spirits haunted all solitary places, and ghosts stalked over the land by night. The use of charms and spells to guard against such creatures passed over into Christian times. Their memory also survives in folk tales, which are full of allusions to giants, dwarfs, goblins, and other supernatural beings.

CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NORTHMEN

Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through the work of Roman Catholic missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious. [8] Two centuries elapsed before the Danes were completely converted. From Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Norway owed its conversion largely to the crusading work of King Olaf (1016-1029 A.D.), whose zeal for Christianity won him the title of Olaf the Saint. The Norwegians carried Christianity to Iceland, where it supplanted the old heathenism in the year 1000 A.D. With the general adoption of the Christian religion in Scandinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end.



141. THE NORTHMEN IN THE WEST

CAUSES OF THE VIKING MOVEMENT

The Northmen were still heathen when they set forth on their expeditions of plunder and conquest. Doubtless the principal cause of this Viking movement is to be sought in the same hunger for land which prompted the Germanic invasions and, in fact, has led to colonial expansion in all ages. By the ninth century Scandinavia could no longer support its rapidly growing population, and enforced emigration was the natural consequence. The political condition of Scandinavia at this time also helps to explain the Viking expansion. Denmark and Norway had now become strong kingdoms, whose rulers forced all who would not submit to their sway to leave the country. Thus it resulted that the numbers of the emigrants were swelled by exiles, outlaws, and other adventurers who turned to the sea in hope of gain.

RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN

The Northmen started out as pirates and fell on the coasts of England, France, and Germany. In their shallow boats they also found it easy to ascend the rivers and reach places lying far inland. The Northmen directed their attacks especially against the churches and monasteries, which were full of treasure and less easily defended than fortified towns. Their raids inspired such great terror that a special prayer was inserted in the church services: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us."

THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND THE ISLANDS

At first the incursions of the Northmen took place only in summer, but before long they began to winter in the lands which they visited. Year by year their fleets became larger, and their attacks changed from mere forays of pirates to well-organized expeditions of conquest and colonization. Early in the ninth century we find them making permanent settlements in Ireland, and for a time bringing a considerable part of that country under their control. The first cities on Irish soil, including Dublin and Limerick, were founded by the Northmen. Almost simultaneously with the attacks on Ireland came those on the western coast of Scotland. In the course of their westward expeditions the Northmen had already discovered the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands and the Hebrides. These barren and inhospitable islands received large numbers of Norse immigrants and long remained under Scandinavian control.



THE NORTHMEN IN ICELAND

The Northmen soon discovered Iceland, where Irish monks had previously settled. Colonization began in 874 A.D. [9] One of the most valuable of the sagas—the "Book of the Land-taking"—describes the emigration to the island and enumerates the Viking chiefs who took part in the movement. Iceland soon became almost a second Norway in language, literature, and customs. It remains to-day an outpost of Scandinavian civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN GREENLAND

The first settlement of Greenland was the work of an Icelander, Eric the Red, who reached the island toward the end of the tenth century. He called the country Greenland, not because it was green, but because, as he said, "there is nothing like a good name to attract settlers." Intercourse between Greenland and Iceland was often dangerous, and at times was entirely interrupted by ice. Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric the Red, established a new route of commerce and travel by sailing from Greenland to Norway by way of the Hebrides. This was the first voyage made directly across the Atlantic. Norway and Greenland continued to enjoy a flourishing trade for several centuries. After the connection with Norway had been severed, the Greenlanders joined the Eskimos and mingled with that primitive people.

THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA

Two of the sagas give accounts of a voyage which Leif Ericsson about 1000 A.D. made to regions lying southward from Greenland. In the sagas they are called Helluland (stone-land), Markland (wood-land), and Vinland. Just what part of the coast of North America these countries occupied is an unsolved problem. Leif Ericsson and the Greenlanders who followed him seem to have reached at least the shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. They may have gone even farther southward, for the sagas describe regions where the climate was mild enough for wild vines and wild wheat to grow. The Northmen, however, did not follow up their explorations by lasting settlements. Before long all memory of the far western lands faded from the minds of men. The curtain fell on the New World, not again to rise until the time of Columbus and Cabot.

142. THE NORTHMEN IN THE EAST

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS OF THE NORTHMEN

In the Viking movement westward across the Atlantic the Norwegians took the leading part. They also sailed far northward, rounding the North Cape and reaching the mouth of the Dwina River in the White Sea. Viking sailors, therefore, have the credit for undertaking the first voyages of exploration into the Arctic.

THE NORTHMEN IN FINLAND

The Swedes, on account of their geographical position, were naturally the most active in expeditions to eastern lands. At a very early date they crossed the Gulf of Bothnia and paid frequent visits to Finland. Its rude inhabitants, the Finns, were related in language, and doubtless in blood also, to the Huns, Magyars, and other Asiatic peoples. Sweden ruled Finland throughout the Middle Ages. Russia obtained control of the country during the eighteenth century, but Swedish influence has made it largely Scandinavian in civilization.

THE NORTHMEN IN RUSSIA

The activities of the Swedes also led them to establish settlements on the southern shore of the Baltic and far inland along the waterways leading into Russia. An old Russian chronicler declares that in 862 A.D. the Slavs sent an embassy to the Swedes, whom they called "Rus," saying, "Our country is large and rich, but there is no order in it; come and rule over us." The Swedes were not slow to accept the invitation. Their leader, Ruric, established a dynasty which reigned in Russia for more than seven hundred years. [10]

NOVGOROD AND KIEV

The first Russian state centered in the city of Novgorod, near Lake Ilmen, where Ruric built a strong fortress. [11] Novgorod during the Middle Ages was an important station on the trade route between Constantinople and the Baltic. Some of Ruric's followers, passing southward along the Dnieper River, took possession of the small town of Kiev. It subsequently became the capital of the Scandinavian possessions in Russia.

SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN RUSSIA

The Northmen in Russia maintained close intercourse with their mother country for about two centuries. During this period they did much to open up northeastern Europe to the forces of civilization and progress. Colonies were founded, cities were built, commerce was fostered, and a stable government was established. Russia under the sway of the Northmen became for the first time a truly European state.

THE NORTHMEN AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST

Having penetrated the wilds of Russia, it was comparatively easy for the Northmen to sail down the Russian rivers to the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. Some of them went as raiders and several times devastated the neighborhood of Constantinople, until bought off by the payment of tribute. [12] Many Northmen also joined the bodyguard of the eastern emperor and saw service under his standard in different parts of the Mediterranean.

CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA, 988 A.D.

During the reign of Vladimir, a descendant of Ruric, the Christian religion gained its first foothold in Russia. We are told that Vladimir, having made up his mind to embrace a new faith, sent commissioners to Rome and Constantinople, and also to the adherents of Islam and Judaism. His envoys reported in favor of the Greek Church, for their barbarian imagination had been so impressed by the majesty of the ceremonies performed in Sancta Sophia that "they did not know whether they were on earth or in heaven." Vladimir accepted their report, ordered the idols of Kiev to be thrown into the Dnieper, and had himself and his people baptized according to the rites of the Greek Church. At the same time he married a sister of the reigning emperor at Constantinople.

IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVERSION OF RUSSIA

Vladimir's decision to adopt the Greek form of Christianity is justly regarded as one of the formative influences in Russian history. It meant that the Slavs were to come under the religious influence of Constantinople, instead of under that of Rome. Furthermore, it meant that Byzantine civilization, then incomparably superior to the rude culture of the western peoples, would henceforth gain an entrance into Russia. The country profited by this rich civilization and during the early part of the Middle Ages took a foremost place in Europe.

CHARLEMAGNE AND THE NORTHMEN

No part of western Europe suffered more severely from the Northmen than France. They first appeared on the French coast toward the end of Charlemagne's reign. A well-known legend relates that the emperor, from window of his palace once saw the dark sails of the Vikings and wept at the thought of the misery which these daring pirates would some day inflict upon his realm.

THE NORTHMEN IN FRANCE

After Charlemagne's death the wars of his grandsons left the empire defenseless, and the Northmen in consequence redoubled their attacks. They sailed far up the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne to plunder and murder. Paris, then a small but important city, lay in the path of the invaders and more than once suffered at their hands. The destruction by the Northmen of many monasteries was a loss to civilization, for the monastic establishments at this time were the chief centers of learning and culture. [13]

THE NORTHMEN IN GERMANY

The heavy hand of the Northmen also descended on Germany. The rivers Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine, and Elbe enabled them to proceed at will into the heart of the country. Liege, Cologne, Strassburg, Hamburg, and other great Frankish cities fell before them. Viking raiders even plundered Aachen and stabled their horses in the church which Charlemagne had built there. [14] Thus the ancient homeland of the Franks was laid completely waste.

ROLLO AND THE GRANT OF NORMANDY, 911 A.D.

The history of the Northmen in France began in 911 A.D., when the Carolingian king granted to a Viking chieftain, Rollo, dominion over the region about the lower Seine. Rollo on his part agreed to accept Christianity and to acknowledge the French ruler as his lord. It is said, however, that he would not kneel and kiss the king's foot as a mark of homage, and that the follower who performed the unwelcome duty did it so awkwardly as to overturn the king, to the great amusement of the assembled Northmen. The story illustrates the Viking sense of independence.

DUCHY OF NORMANDY

The district ceded to Rollo developed into what in later times was known as the duchy of Normandy. Its Scandinavian settlers, henceforth called Normans, [15] soon became French in language and culture. It was amazing to see how quickly the descendants of wild sea-rovers put off their heathen ways and made their new home a Christian land, noted for its churches, monasteries, and schools. Normandy remained practically independent till the beginning of the thirteenth century, when a French king added it to his possessions. [16]

THE NORMANS AND HUGH CAPET, 987 A.D.

The Normans helped to found the medieval French monarchy. During the tenth century the old Carolingian line of rulers, which had already died out in Germany and Italy, [17] came also to an end in France. A new dynasty was then founded by a nobleman named Hugh Capet, who secured the aid of the powerful Norman dukes in his efforts to gain the throne. The accession of Hugh Capet took place in 987 A.D. His descendants reigned over France for almost exactly eight hundred years. [18]