Paul Halsall

Class 14: Byzantium and Islam Before the Crusades

Assigned Reading:

• An Arab Ambassador in Constantinople, (late 10th Century)
• Russian Primary Chronicle: The Christianization of Russia (988)
• Michael Psellos: Constantine Monomachos [not available yet]
• Anna Komnena: The Alexiad [not available yet]
• WWW Extra: David J. Wasserstein. The Caliphate in the West, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), chap. 1. "The Caliphal Institution in al-Andalus until 422/1031"
• WWW Extra: Yacov Lev. State and Society in Fatimid Egypt, (Leiden: E. J. Brill., 1991), Chapter 4: The Ruling Circles
• WWW Extra: J. J. Saunders. A History of Medieval Islam, (London: Routledge, 19??), chap. 9. "IX The Turkish Irruption" 
  

I.      Introduction

II.     Byzantium 867-1071

        A.      Iconoclasm
        B.      The Macedonian Renovatio
        C.      11th century Collapse
        D.      The Komnenoi
II.     Islam
        A.      Abbasid Break up, 
        B.      Iran
        C.      Tahirids
        D.      Fatamids
III.    The Arrival of the Turks
        A.      Seljuqs
        B.      Mantzikert
        C.      Seljuq collapse in 1092.

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© Paul Halsall, 1996.

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