General Middle Ages
What are the rough dates for the Middle Ages?
c. 500-1500.
The middle of what?
The ancient and modern worlds.
What is the "Dark Ages"?
The idea that the (European) Middle Age was a time of decline, of darkness.
What present-day country was Byzantium in?
Türkiye/Turkey.
What is the name of the founder of Islam?
Muhammad.
What was the beginning of the Middle Ages? And when?
The fall of Rome. 476/5th century.
What was the main religion of the European Middle Ages?
Christianity. (After 1054, Catholicism.)
What is an example of something that confirms the idea of the (European) Middle Ages as a time of darkness?
Many possibilities: decline in literacy, decline in population, began with the plague, move from urban to rural, no major (larger, powerful, durable) empires/states, loss of ancient texts, no big public works projects, etc.
What was Byzantium's relationship to Rome?
It was part of the Roman Empire; when Rome fell (in the West) it continued on in the East (in/as Byzantium).
When did Islam (officially) begin?
622 C.E.
What are at least two types of travel common during the Middle Ages?
Many possible answers: trade, diplomacy, war, pilgrimage, learning/knowledge, etc.
Who was Abu al-Abbas and where did he go?
He was an elephant, born in India, but went to Baghdad. From there, he went to Aachen (then the center of the Holy Roman Empire, modern-day Germany).
What is an example of something that challenges the idea of the (European) Middle Ages as a time of darkness?
A number of possibilities: while no major empires/states there were still some states (though not as large, powerful, durable as ancient Greece or Rome); knowledge was still preserved (it wasn't total darkness; it's just that it was more spread out/fewer people had access to it); there was new knowledge (in western Europe, but also other places); trade/travel shows that it wasn't all economic decline; Chartres Cathedral is an example of a large building project.
What were the language and religion of Byzantium?
Greek and Christian.
How/why did Islam spread so rapidly?
What/when was the end of the Middle Ages?
The Renaissance! c. 1500.
From the 11th-13th centuries, Medieval Christians from western Europe traveled for holy war(s). What was the name of the war, and where did they go? And why?
The Crusades! Jerusalem! To take (back) the Holy Land from the Islamic empires of the region.
When does the idea of a the Middle Ages as a "dark age" come about?
Around the 1200s~1400s, i.e., during late Medieval/early modern Europe. They were creating a pivot point.
"During these times [542 C.E.] there was a pestilence." What was this pestilence?
The plague! The first plague pandemic. The Plague of Justinian.
What was the capital of the Abbasid dynasty?
Baghdad.
What does Renaissance literally mean? And to what does it specifically refer?
Rebirth. Bringing back all the great things from ancient Greece and Rome.
What is the term for Christians, Muslims, and Jews all getting along in the Iberian peninsula during the Middle Ages?
Convivencia.
Who made up the idea of a "Dark Ages"?
Petrarch, a 14th-century Italian humanist scholar/thinker.
"During these times [542 C.E.] there was a pestilence." Who wrote this?
The Byzantine historian Procopius.
What was the nickname for the center of learning in Medieval Baghdad?
The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma).