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L2: The Middle Ages
Tipo Lecture Estado Completed Fecha 2.1 Experience Humanities 8 th ed, pp 211 213 2.2 Experience Humanities 8 th ed, pp 226 230 2.3 Experience Humanities 8 th ed, pp 239 246 2.4 Experience Humanities 8 th ed, pp 262 263 2.5 Experience Humanities 8 th ed, pp 281 291 MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC CULTURE From the ninth to the twelfth century, Islamic scholars, intellectuals, and inventors made significant advances in medicine; in the humanities, including mathematics, philosophy, and history; and in technology. Muslim scholars tended to be highly versatile, often making contributions in more than one field of study. Medicine Muslim doctors, whose skills were superior to those of their Western contemporaries, obtained their knowl- edge from Greek texts that were translated into Arabic about the middle of the ninth century. In addition, Is- lamic medicine had a practical approach to the curing of disease, namely, through the use of observation and experimentation. Islamic medicine also made advances in ophthalmology, formulated new drugs, stressed the role of diet in the treatment of various maladies, and made the first clinical distinction between measles and smallpox. Surgeries, such as amputations, trepanning (opening the skull), and cesarean sections, were occa- sionally performed Figure 9.6 . Figure 9.6 A Doctor Performing an Operation. Edinburgh University Library. Muslim physicians normally did not operate on patients, preferring to use medicines and noninvasive procedures. Sometimes operations were necessary, as in this illustration of a woman having a cesarean section. The surgeon is helped by several attendants: the one on the right holds the patientʼs head, while the one on the left hands instruments to the doctor. 211 212 CHAPTER NINE THE RISE OF IslAM Muhammad al-Razi [al-RAY-zee] (about 865 to be- tween 923 and 13 de abril de 2026
- set the standard for medicine, both as a practicing doctor and as a scholar. A prolific writer, he compiled a twenty-volume medical encyclopedia in which he noted his own findings and took issue with the ancient Greeks and their medical tradition. Al-Razi also treated childhood diseases and wrote a treatise on them, earning the title “Father of Pediatrics.” Most of his writings were translated into Latin and became part of the curriculum in Western medical schools un- til the nineteenth century. Mathematics and Astronomy Al- Khwarizmi [al-KWAHR-iz-me] 780 850) advanced the field of algebra; he also introduced Hindu numerals, which became known as Arabic numerals, and used them to make calculations. His near-contemporary al- Battani [al-ba-TAN e] (about 858 929) corrected errors in the Ptolemaic planetary system and constructed an elaborate astronomical table. His writings on equinoxes and eclipses, in which he showed the possibility of so- lar eclipses, were translated by European scholars into Latin, making him the best-known Arab astronomer in medieval Europe Figure 9.7 . Both al-Khwarizmi and al-Battani were associated with the “House of Wis- dom” in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid dynasty. Another scholar, Ibn al-Haytham IB-en al-hi-THAM 965 1039 , who spent his life in Cairo, studied the Ptol- emaic system of planetary motions, expanded on the mathematical work of Euclid, and developed new ideas about optics and light rays. Through points of contact in Sicily and Spain, Muslim mathematics and astron- omy were influential in the West until the seventeenth century. Philosophy and History The two most creative early Muslim thinkers were Ibn Sina IB-en SEE-nah] 980 1037 , known in the West as Avicenna [av-ah-SEN-ah], and Ibn Rushd IB-en RUSHT 1126 1198 , known in the West as Averroës Figure 9.7 Shahanshahnama Book of the King of Kings). 1581 1582. From historian Lokman bin Seyyid Huseyin. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul. In the 1570 s, Arab astronomers, under the guidance of Taqi al-Din, the head astronomer of the Ottoman Empire, studied the heavens with various instruments at an observatory in Istanbul. To make their observations and calculations, they used astrolabes, hourglasses, globes, and a mechanical clock built by Taqi al-Din. Many of their instruments were similar to those later used by Western astronomers in the explorations of the universe. [uh-VER-uh- weez]. Both were well educated in the lib- eral arts, and although both were trained in medicine and became highly respected physicians, they wrote extensively not only in medicine but also in metaphys- ics, theology, and religion. Philosophy Avicenna and Averroës served at the courts of Islamic rulers, where they engaged in heated controversies with other Muslim scholars. Avicenna, a Persian, spent most of his life in present-day Iran. By the age of
play the role of religion or divine forces and focus on the role of human activity. Historians, by probing beneath the surface explanations of human behavior, would discover that humans are governed not by reli- gion or idealism but rather by status concerns and the desire to identify with certain groups. Ibn Khaldun also offered a theory explaining the rise and fall of civilizations: As a civilization decays, its social bonds weaken, and it falls victim to a more vigorous people from outside its frontiers. The outsiders overthrow the weakened civilization, become powerful, and then cy- cle into a state of decay, to be invaded by more power- ful intruders—an outlook that reflected Ibn Khaldunʼs knowledge of the dramatic impact of Seljuk Turk, Mongol, and other nomadic forces on Muslim life.
🧠 Contexto general (siglos IX–XII)
Gran desarrollo en medicina, matemáticas, astronomía, filosofía e historia. Los sabios musulmanes eran polifacéticos (destacaban en varias disciplinas). Influencia clave de textos griegos traducidos al árabe.
🏥 Medicina
Basada en observación y experimentación (enfoque práctico). Avances importantes: Oftalmología (estudio de los ojos). Creación de nuevos medicamentos.
Importancia de la dieta en la salud. Diferenciación entre sarampión y viruela. Cirugías ocasionales: amputaciones, trepanaciones, cesáreas. Muhammad al-Razi: Autor de una enciclopedia médica en 20 volúmenes. Considerado el “padre de la pediatría”. Sus obras se usaron en Europa hasta el siglo XIX.
➗ Matemáticas y Astronomía
Al-Khwarizmi: Desarrolló el álgebra. Introdujo los números arábigos (de origen hindú). Al-Battani: Mejoró el sistema astronómico de Ptolomeo. Estudió eclipses y equinoccios. Ibn al-Haytham: Avances en óptica y estudio de la luz. Influencia en Europa hasta el siglo XVII.
📚 Filosofía
Ibn Sina Avicena): Médico y filósofo. Escribió el Canon de Medicina (referencia durante siglos). Intentó reconciliar filosofía griega Aristóteles, neoplatonismo) con el islam. Ibn Rushd Averroes): Comentó y difundió las obras de Aristóteles. Gran influencia en el pensamiento europeo medieval.
📜 Historia
intellectual life. Romanesque and then Gothic art, in painting, sculpture, and architecture, soared—literally and fi guratively—to new heights. The nave of Amiens cathedral, one of the dozens of Gothic cathedrals built in this era, is a testament in stone and glass to the ageʼs spiritual and substantive qualities. Carolingian exterior verticality has been brought in- side. The ribbed vaults, pointed arches, and numerous windows are a trib- ute to the rediscovery of ancient geometry. But there is also a calm logic here—and the twelfth- and thirteenth-century schools were dominated by logic. A building like this was very expensive, which reflected the eco- nomic prosperity of the time. But after money, geometry, and logic, there is also something mysterious, uplifting, spiritual about Amiens cathedral. In a world of bureaucrats, merchants, and logicians, there were also mys- tics who, in almost Platonic terms, imagined realities beyond those the eye could see. 227 228 CHAPTER TEN THE HIGH MiddLE AGEs POLITICS AND SOCIETY King Alfred the Great of England (r. 871
- said that a kingdom needed “men of war, men of prayer, and men of work,” and two French bishops spoke in the same terms. This tripartite scheme is helpful as a way of thinking about how medieval society and politics functioned—and it is contemporary. Nevertheless, this view is too narrow. Those who work, for exam- ple, were, in this aristocratic way of looking at things, the peasants, but not the townspeople, who were in- creasingly numerous and prominent. In addition, the scheme did not include women and minorities, such as Jews. free him—almost without exception, only men were involved—to perform his service Figure 10.1 . This was a violent society whose leaders were men trained to fight, ideally their lordʼs enemies but some- times each other. These warrior-aristocrats shared a guiding ethos: chivalry, from the French cheval, horse; so chivalry—chevalerie—means “horsiness,” the way of life for men who fought on horseback The word also meant “knighthood.” The essential values of the chivalric knight were prowess (a knight who cannot fight is a contradiction in terms); courage; loyalty, an ideal that was often violated; and generos- ity, openhanded giving. Originally, chivalric values were male and martial and did not pertain to relations between the sexes. Later, in the twelfth century, female influences began turning rough-and-ready warriors into gentlemen. Lords and Vassals: Those Who Fight The term feudalism is almost synonymous with me- dieval social and political practices, although the term itself never appeared in the Middle Ages. Like all mod- ern words that end in ism, feudalism has been used in different ways. Feudalism can mean a kind of govern- ment with shared, segmented power and authority; a set of relationships between free men bound to each other in both personal and
material ways; or the ex- ploitation of the peasantry by the nobility. While each of these definitions grasps a part of the truth, none grasps it whole, and it is impossible to speak about a feudal “system.” People from Iceland, through Britain and France, to Russia, over many centuries, had nu- merous ways of organizing politics and government that can be called feudal. The best way to understand feudalism is to exam- ine the mutual, honorable relationships between lords and vassals. Lords were those who held both public and private power in their hands. They could be kings, or the powerful local officers of kings, or self-serving regional leaders who profited from the breakup of the Carolingian Empire. The great problem of government in the Middle Ages was harnessing the numerous lords to peaceful and productive purposes. Vassals, who were the retainers of lords, swore homage and fealty to a lord, and promised aid and counsel. Hom- age involved a public, ceremonial acknowledgment of allegiance, and fealty implied loyalty. Aid usually took the form of military service, and counsel meant giving advice, whether privately and intimately or publicly in hall or court. Lords agreed to protect their vassals in judicial disputes or against the attacks of others and usually provided them with something of material value, such as clothing and weapons, hous- ing, money, or land. When land was involved, it was called a fief ( feudum in Latin, whence feudalism). A fief was an estate—typically of the bipartite kind (see Chapter 8 that was already developed and inhab- ited. The fief was supposed to support the vassal and Figure 10.1 A Vassal Paying Homage, from the Westminster Psalter. Ca. 1250. British Library, London. MS Royal 2 A XXII, fol 220.) The image shows a decked-out warrior: sword, chain mail, banner and lance, and horse. He also bears crosses on his cloak—he is crucesignatus, “signed by the cross,” that is, a crusader. Is he offering his hands in homage to his feudal lord or extending them in prayer to God? One cannot say. He seems the perfect knight in secular or spiritual terms. But as early as the tenth century, the church began to try to ameliorate and redirect the worst excesses of the warriorsʼ behavior. In the Peace and Truce of God, a movement that began in France and then spread widely, the church tried to civilize violence. Fighting was forbidden on religious feasts (more than 150 days per year) or near churches, and noncombatants and their property were to be protected. Framed more positively, knights were to protect the weak and the poor, women, widows, and children. Instead of fight- ing other Christians, knights were to direct their vio- lence against pagans and infidels. Ironically, though, church teachings against violence served as one spur to crusading. Peasants: Those Who Work The routine of the serfs and the free peasants—rural slaves were
buyers, secure trade routes, and markets for their products. The ear- liest trade routes were the rivers and the old Roman roads, but as demand increased in the West for luxury 230 CHAPTER TEN THE HIGH MiddLE AGEs Figure 10. AmBRoGIo LoRenZettI (active ca. 1319 1347 . Street Scene in Medieval Siena. Detail from Allegory of Good Government in the City. 1338 1339. Fresco in the Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Although an idealized image, this painting is nevertheless an accurate representation of medieval Siena as a bustling country town built on a hill. Signs of prosperity abound. In the middle right and center, farmers, perhaps from the nearby countryside, lead pack animals loaded with sacks of wool and other goods. Nearby, three weavers are making textiles. On the lower right, a goatherd coaxes his flock, probably to the city market. In the middle left foreground, a shopkeeper arranges his wares. Through the large opening on the left may be glimpsed a classroom, where a seated teacher addresses his students. On the extreme right, two women, perhaps servants, carry objects, one woman with a large bundle balanced on her head. items from the East, new trade routes opened. Italian cities led this international commerce, trading the lux- urious woolen cloth of Flanders for the silks of China and the spices of the Middle East Map 10.1 . Along the overland routes in Europe, local lords guaranteed traders safe passage through their territory for a fee. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the fairs of the Champagne region in France brought virtually all of Europeʼs commerce together. As on the estate, the position of women in the me- dieval urban world was subordinate to that of men, even though urban women often worked closely with their husbands in trade or crafts. In this hierarchical society, gender roles became increasingly differenti- ated through custom and legislation. The few women with economic power, such as those directly involved in manufacturing and trade or the occasional rich widow who kept her husbandʼs business afloat, were exceptions to this general exclusionary rule. Some as- pects of the cloth and brewing industries were such exceptions. In Europeʼs growing towns, Jewish communities be- came more numerous and important. Often forbidden to own land, Jews specialized in commerce, banking, and moneylending. Jewish scholars were sometimes confidentially consulted by Christian schoolmen. The growth of Jewish communities led to an increase in anti-Semitism. In the twelfth century, mobs attacked Jews and governments sometimes confiscated their wealth. Atrocities were perpetrated on Jewish commu- nities by crusading armies on their march to the East (see Interpreting Art).
🌍 Expansión europea Europa vive un período dinámico y creativo tras la crisis carolingia. La población se duplica (≈ 70 millones). Surgen nuevos estados en Europa eslava y Escandinavia. Crecen: Ciudades Gobiernos (más fuertes y organizados) Economía y comercio Desarrollo cultural: Literatura en latín y lenguas vernáculas. Aparición de las universidades. Auge del arte románico y gótico. ⛪ Arte gótico Evolución del estilo románico. Características: Arcos apuntados Bóvedas de crucería Grandes ventanas con luz Ejemplo: Catedral de Amiens
Valores principales: Valentía Lealtad Generosidad Habilidad militar Evolución: Influencia femenina → comportamiento más refinado La Iglesia intenta limitar la violencia: Paz y Tregua de Dios Protección de débiles Canalización hacia las cruzadas 🌾 Campesinos Mayoría de la población. Vida dura: Trabajo agrícola Subsistencia básica Mejoras: Rotación de cultivos (tres campos) Mejores herramientas Algunos avances: Pago en dinero en lugar de trabajo Mejora relativa en Europa occidental 🏙 Crecimiento de las ciudades Aumento de la importancia urbana. Aparición de: Gremios (guilds):
Artesanos Comerciantes Comunas: Ciudades con autogobierno Economía: Expansión del comercio Nuevas rutas comerciales Ferias importantes (como Champagne) 💰 Comercio Intercambio internacional: Lana europea ↔ seda china ↔ especias orientales Italia lidera el comercio. Señores cobran por proteger rutas. Mujeres y minorías Mujeres: Papel subordinado Algunas participan en comercio/artesanía Judíos: Importantes en banca y comercio Aumento del antisemitismo: Ataques Confiscaciones Violencia durante cruzadas THE AGE OF SYNTHESIS EQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND THE SECULAR Between 1000 and 1300, Christian values permeated European cultural life. The Christian faith was a uni- fying agent that reconciled the
been tainted, and, for his transgression, Abelard has been cas- trated by men in the hire of Fulbert, Heloiseʼs uncle and protector. you know, beloved, as the whole world knows, how much I have lost in you, how at one wretched stroke of fortune that supreme act of fl agrant treachery robbed me of my very self in robbing me of you; and how my sorrow for my loss is nothing compared with what I feel for the manner in which I lost you. surely the greater the cause for grief the greater the need for the help of consolation, and this no one can bring but you; you are the sole cause of my sorrow, and you alone can grant me the grace of consolation.... God knows I never sought anything in you except yourself; I wanted simply you, nothing of yours. I looked for no marriage-bond, no marriage portion, and it was not my own pleasures and wishes I sought to gratify, as you well know, but yours. The name of wife may seem more sacred or more binding, but sweeter for me will always be the word mistress, or, if you will permit me, that of concubine or whore. I believed that the more I humbled myself on your account, the more gratitude I would win from you, and also the less damage I should do to the brightness of your reputation. Interpreting This Slice of Life 1. What are the relationships among Abelard, Helo- ise, and Fulbert? 2. What is the treachery to which Heloise refers in her letter? 3. In what ways does Heloise think Abelard can con- sole her? 4. How does Heloise describe her love and relationship to Abelard? 5. Why do we still read their correspondence and love letters? 6. Does this letter have a modern tone and message? Why or why not? Figure 10.9 Auxerre Cathedral. Begun ca. 1225. Auxerre, France. Looming over the town and dominating the countryside for miles around, the Gothic cathedral symbolized the preeminent role of the Christian church in medieval life. No other building could soar past its spires, either literally or fi guratively. People worshiped inside it, built their houses right up to its walls, and conducted their business affairs within the shadows of its towers. Thus, the cathedral also symbolized the integration of the secular and the sacred in medieval life. THE AGE OF syNTHEsIs: EqUILIBRIUM BETWEEN THE sPIRITUAL ANd THE sECULAR 241 his immense learning posed an acute problem: How could the potentially competing claims of faith and reason, of natural and of divine truth, be reconciled? The scholastic method used deductive logic to clarify existing issues and to explore the intellectual ramifi cations of a topic. A scholastic thinker would pose a problem, argue for and against various possible solutions to the problem, and then draw a conclusion, which itself led to a new problem. The arguments de- ployed might come from Christian or pagan sources, but the aim was to achieve synthesis and recon- ciliation, not to prove that one kind of learning was superior to another. Anselm
1033 1109 , the most ac- complished logician since Aristotle and the formu- lator of an ingenious proof for the existence of God, expressed the early scholastic view this way: “Faith seeking Understanding.” Peter Abelard Among the daring independent masters who challenged the standing of the great ca- thedral schools, the greatest, and most controversial, was Peter Abelard AB uh-lard] 1079 1142 . Intellectu- ally gifted and instinctively argumentative, Abelard quarreled with his own teachers and with other in- fl uential scholars. He quickly became the sensation of Paris and his words found eager listeners. What divided Abelard and his teachers was the problem of universals, an intellectual issue that arose between 1050 and 1150 and attracted attention for centuries. This controversy revolved around the question of whether or not universals, or general con- cepts, such as “human being” and “church,” exist in reality or only in the mind. At stake in this dispute between the two schools of thought, known as real- ism and nominalism, were basic Christian ideas, such as whether Jesusʼs sacrifi ce had removed the stain of original sin from each individual. The realists, fol- lowing Plato, reasoned that universals do exist inde- pendently of physical objects and the human mind. Hence, “humanity,” for example, is present, albeit im- perfectly perceived, in every individual. In opposition, the nominalists said that universals are merely names (from Latin nomen, name) and claimed that only par- ticular objects are real. Hence, “church” and “human being” exist only in particular instances. In these debates, Abelard showed that extreme real- ism denied human individuality and was thus incon- sistent with church teachings. For his part, Abelard taught a moderate realism that held that the univer- sals existed, but only as mental concepts and as men- tal devices to sharpen and focus thinking. When new translations of Aristotle became available, thinkers discovered that Abelard and the Greek genius agreed in part about universals, a discovery that further en- hanced Abelardʼs fame. The Rise of the Universities The university— called a studium generale because it was a place where almost everything could be studied—emerged around 1200 in the towns where numerous masters and pupils converged. Imitating the practices of secular guilds, the masters organized, in the north, and the students, in the south, especially in Italy. Irrespective of who organized the university, the central issues were fac- ulty appointments, curricula, examinations, and fees. The universities secured charters from both royal and ecclesiastical authorities. Universities typically had an arts faculty and then one or more higher faculties in law, medicine, and theology. Paris was especially fa- mous for theology, Bologna for law, Montpellier for medicine. students came from all over Europe to at- tend
begin in the supernatural world and thus could not arise in the senses, as Aris- totle had argued. A new and brilliant theological view, and the one that prevailed, was set forth by Thomas Aquinas [uh-KWI-nus] 1226 1274 , a Dominican friar who taught at the University of Paris for many years. Avoiding the pure rationalism of the Latin Averroists and the Augustinianism of Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas steered a middle path, or via media, which gave Aristotle a central role in his theology while honoring traditional Christian beliefs. This theologi- cal system—called Thomism—in its complex design and sheer elegance remains one of the outstanding achievements of the High Middle Ages. Of Thomas Aquinasʼs two monumental summas— comprehensive summaries of human thought—the Summa Theologica is his masterpiece. In this work, he showed that God had given human beings two divine paths to truth: reason and faith. Following Aristotle, he made the senses a legitimate source for human knowledge—a bold step that sharpened the difference between reason and faith. At the same time, Thomism escaped the strict rationalism of the Latin Averroists by denying that philosophy, or reason, could answer all theological questions. Aquinas claimed that natu- ral reason, based on sensory knowledge, could prove certain truths—that God and the soul exist —but that spiritual reason (or revealed truth) alone could prove that the soul was immortal, that Jesus had been born of a virgin, and that God was Triune, or had three aspects. Thomas Aquinasʼs contributions to medieval thought extended beyond theology into political and economic matters. He followed Aristotle in seeing the secular state as natural and necessary. For Aquinas, politics and society had “natural” ethical roots, which allowed him to write about, for example, law, marriage, and economic issues such as usury (the practice of charg- ing exorbitant interest) and setting a just price for con- sumer goods. Science and Medicine Medieval science inherited classical works and inter- preted them within the framework of Christian theol- ogy. As noted above, by 1200, many Latin translations of Arabic versions of Greek scientific and philosophi- cal works, as well as original writings by Muslim sci- entists and thinkers, were available in the West. Their arrival coincided with the birth of the universities. The spread of these writings encouraged scientific- minded scholars to explore the natural world. Once again, conflicts and differences arose as natural truths confronted Christian teachings. Science Scholastic thinkers faced the daunting challenge of reconciling Aristotelian science and its Muslim commentaries with Christian thought. For Thomas Aquinas, the study of nature was not an end in itself but a means to understand God and his cre- ation. Thus, any question about the natural world, such as motion, light,
cosmology, or matter, would include Aristotleʼs and other thinkersʼ explanations, but the reason to explore these topics was to discover Godʼs purposes, such as for creating the universe (cos- mology) or living things (matter). Often the pursuits of medieval science were in direct relationship to their theological importance, such as studying light in or- der to account for a particular characteristic of God (“God is Light”) or trying to understand the process of creation found in the biblical book of Genesis. Even though the role of reason was carefully circumscribed within the context of Christian thought and often had to give way to revelation, a genuine rational tradition persisted throughout this period—one that originated in ancient Greece and passed through medieval Islam, then would be transmitted into Renaissance thought, and, finally, would help bring about the Scientific Rev- olution, which would inaugurate modern times. Medicine Medieval medicine also inherited beliefs and practices from the past while making significant advances. The preservation of ancient medical texts and the teaching of these works in the newly founded universities and hospitals paved the way for modern medicine. Included in the vast number of Greek and Roman texts now made available to the learned were the writ- ings of Hippocrates and Galen (see Chapters 3 and 7 . Their works, along with The Canon of Medicine, by the Muslim scholar Avicenna (see Chapter 9 , became the basis of the curricula in the new medical schools. The first prestigious medical schools were in Salerno, Italy, dating from the ninth century, and Montpellier, France, founded in about 1200; they were eclipsed in the late Middle Ages by new medical schools in Paris, and in Bologna and Padua, in Italy. THE AGE OF SyNTHEsis: EqUILIBRIUM BETWEEN THE sPIRITUAL ANd THE sECULAR 243 In these schools, aspiring doctors read medical works, attended lectures by scholars and practicing physicians, dissected human bodies (after the mid– thirteenth century), and learned to identify and treat certain disorders and diseases. Students were taught that the body is composed of four humors—black bile, phlegm, blood, and yellow bile— a belief of the ancient Greeks. Patients who suffered from certain maladies would be treated to correct the imbalance of humors by means of herbs, diet, or bleeding. Of the many teachers in these schools, perhaps the most influential was William of Saliceto [sah-le-CHAY-toe] 1210 1277 , an Italian who taught at the University of Bologna and, later, was city physician (appointed medical of- ficer) in Verona, Italy. In his book, Cyrurgia, or Surgery, the most advanced study on this subject in his day, he discussed surgical anatomy and advocated a union between medicine and surgery—a view that ran con- trary to the prevailing medical wisdom that relegated surgery to the status of a craft.
