Mediterranean world in XIIe century

This article described the Mediterranean World at the 12th century on the plans Civilisationnel and Géostratégique.

The the Mediterranean, is the pond nostrum Latin, on whom three continents have a frontage, the Africa, the Europe and the Asia, and the countries which surround it were dominated only by the Romain Empire. At the 12th century, it is a zone of richnesses which attracts covetousnesses.

In 1085, Tolède, Moslem city, falls vis-a-vis the Christians, and Alphonse de Castille in fact its capital. In 1095, Jerusalem falls to the hands from the Turks (Moslem). That causes a shock among Christians, and thus began the crusades.

Three involved civilizations are: the Muslim world, the Christian Occident and the Byzantine Empire.

Byzance and its empire

The Byzantine Empire is in fact the old Empire Romain d' Orient. Its capital, Constantinople, are located on the strait of the the Bosphorus. The city was called formerly Byzance, from where the name of Byzantine Empire, but the Empereur Constantin renamed it on the site of the latter. In XIIe century, the dynasty of Comnènes reigns on the Byzantine Empire.

The Emperor (called basileus ) is the chief of the Church. The Byzantine Empire is a Christian civilization orthodoxe. The orthodoxe ones were évangélisés by the monks Cyril and Méthode and are submitted to a Patriarch and do not obey the Pope, from where the Schisme in 1054, between Christians of the East (orthodoxe) and Christians of Occident (catholic).

The Byzantine churches are in the shape of Greek cross surrounded by a square: the square symbolizes the Earth; the Sky is symbolized by one or more cupolas.

Byzantine art is characterized by the icon S and the mosaic S. But this empire is weakened on the financial plan, policy, and soldier. In 1082, threatened by the Norman ones installed in Sicily, the Byzantines pay the Venetian ones to protect them from a possible attack Norman.

The Islamic world

The Islamic world seems a world as parcelled out and unable to unify as the Christian world. Several dynasties control it:

Turkish Seldjoukides, who dominates the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad and creates small emirates in Jezirah, in Anatolia and Syria. They are helped by governors, the atabegs, which have all more or less inclinations of independence. They are Moslems Sunnites.
the Fatimides, a dynasty Shiite, control Egypt since Cairo; however, this one is invaded since 1169 by an envoy of the atabeg Aldine Nur, and definitively conquered by Saladin in 1171
the Berbères, Almoravides then Almohades, dominate the the Maghreb and Al-Andalus.

If the leading elite of the Islamic world is converted with the Islam (litt. tender with God ), a religion monotheist created by Mahomet (570 - 632), the majority of the population is not yet Moslem. Many Christians, of Jews and animists live the Islamic world: they are the Dhimmi S.

Moslem civilization is a brilliant civilization on the level artistic and intellectual and its craft industry is developed more than in occident at the same time. The intellectual life is intense grace in particular to the contacts with civilizations Greek, Indian and Chinese which they inherited knowledge. The Moslems imported the figures known as Arab - which replace the Roman numerals - positional numeration and the zero ( cf Brahmagupta ), of the inventions of Indian origin. Al-Khawarizmi, Persian mathematician, invented the algebra with the systems of equation (Algorithme). Al Idrissi was a powerful geographer, and Averroès with Cordoue was important philosophical, doctor, lawyer and mathematician. The doctors of the Islamic world like Averroès or Persan the Avicenne, were very advances some compared to those of the occident: their science was taught thereafter in medical colleges of the Christian world.

A clean art and an architecture are developed, with buildings like the Mosquée S and the Madrasa S, specific to this field; however, a great diversity of forms and techniques are employed according to the areas and the cultures.

The Latin world

They are the Christians of Occident. Their religion is Catholicism, they form Christendom with at its head the Pope in Rome. This one is made obey of all the Catholics.

The language for the mass is Latin what characterizes the Christians of the west. The churches are in the shape of Latin cross. They are impregnated Romanesque art. Indeed, their vaults are in the shape of cradle. One finds in Occident an Eastern influence, such as for example in Venice with the basilica Saint Marc; Venice is the town of occident which has the most contacts with the East.

The Gothic art (called art francilien initially) appears in Ile de France. It makes it possible to build more in height and to make finer walls. Thus, the churches are much more luminous, slimmer and less massive.

In the Latin world, one distinguishes several types of State:

of great States (example: Kingdom of France)
of small States (example: Kingdom of Castille)
of the city-States (example: Republic of Venice)

The Latin company is divided into three orders:

the Clergy (at the top): its members are clergy;
the Knighthood (origin of the nobility): a warlike class from which the aristocracy is resulting. A bond of the feudal type links between them the members of the nobility, of the vassal to the Suzerain. When they are not in war, between them generally, they go to hunting, one their privileges, or organize tournaments to be involved, one of the favorite leisures of this class increasingly idler. They are often illiterate. With died the lord, the elder one inherits the stronghold whereas the junior enters the Church, which prohibits with the knighthood to fight at certain times of the year;
the Third state: represented by the farming community, the middle-class of the increasingly powerful cities, which soon will be able to buy seigneureries, and the craftsmen.

excrement

Armed conflicts

In addition to the local conflicts engaging often rival seigniories, the armed conflicts have been primarily the fact of the crusades and the wars of “Reconquista” with the detriment of the Moslems installed for several centuries in the south of the Iberian peninsula or Italy. In France, the Moslem expansion had been stopped close to Poitiers by Charles Martel into 732.

On the seas of the Mediterranean basin prevails the Barbaresques.

Multiple migrations carried crowd or small groups of Westerners towards Jerusalem, of the 11th century at the 13th century. These peregrinations were qualified crusades only tardily. The contemporaries indeed did not distinguish pilgrimage and crusade clearly. In 1095, the pope Urbain II lance what was called the first crusade thereafter, in order to take again the Holy Places in Jerusalem (of which the Holy Sepulchre, tomb of Christ) which had been conquered by the Moslems at the 7th century. In 1099, Jerusalem falls to the hands from the crusaders, but in 1189, the Egyptian caliph Saladin takes again the city. In 1204, the fourth crusade devastates Constantinople, put at bag, burned and plundered, which is a prelude to with the schism of the churches of the East and Occident. In spite them conflicts of being able and interest which often prevailed on the spiritual ideal, one cannot however forget the mystical motivations, sufferings and dashes of cross which began in these perilous forwardings.

Commercial contacts

The trade in the Mediterranean is very active:

of Northern Europe comes from wood and the furs;
of Eastern Europe comes from the Esclave S. the slaves never have the same religion that their Masters (the Moslems have Christian slaves for the Harem and the Christians have African slaves) - to see the article Traite Eastern on this subject.
of Western Europe comes from cloths (woolen articles) manufactured in England and Flanders which is very appreciated in the Mediterranean. The weapons are also the speciality of Europeans of the West (knights);
of the East comes the spice S, the jewel X, the Soie, and of the fabric S (luxury items).

The large Mediterranean ports are Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Constantinople maritime republics which owes their fortune with the crusades that they arm.

Cultural contacts

The coexistence of populations of origins, languages and various religions allows a cultural effervescence, as in Sicily for example. With Tolède, city conquered in 1085 by the Castilians, cohabit Christian, Moslem, and Jewish.

They are the Westerners who benefitted the most from the cultural exchanges. Indeed, through the Muslim world, they discovered the Xylographie (ancestor of printing works), the Porcelaine, the Soie, the Papier, the Arab numerals, the Médecine, the Algèbre, of the unknown plants until at the time the such apricot tree, the cherry tree, the orange tree… They could redécouvrir the Greek and Latin authors, the mathematicians, the Philosophe S like Aristote and Plato. They also discovered the Byzantine Art (cupola…). The warlike techniques of the Westerners were however more effective.

Roger II even took Arab and Christian scientists to him, and it was very astonished by the intellectual advance by Arabic compared to the Westerners.

See too

the the Middle Ages
Mediterranean World

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