Chapter Summary
At the end of the period of Late Antiquity in the seventh century, Western civilization centered around three great civilizations: the Byzantine, the Islamic, and Western Europe. The history of these three civilizations through the eleventh century is characterized by rivalries and interactions between them, each of which preserved different aspects of the legacy they inherited.
The Byzantines spoke Greek and combined the imperial tradition of the Roman world with an intense Christianity. Although they faced several challenges from Persia, Islam, and the Seljuk Turks, their history is largely the story of violence and palace revolts. Religious controversies sometimes spilled over into politics for the simple reason that the emperor represented the highest power of church and state. The Iconoclastic Controversy was as much about doctrinal disputes as it was political machinations. Despite the palace intrigue, Byzantine civilization was an important bulwark against Islamic encroachment as much as it was for preserving Greek ideas and classical literature.
The Islamic world was quite different: it was Arabic speaking and the most cosmopolitan of the three civilizations. Central to Islamic civilization was its religion; the religion was founded by Muhammad while he was engaged in a period of spiritual reflection in the Arabian desert. He was able to gain a few converts; however, the community at Mecca, a large trading depot, would have nothing to do with him. Migrating to Medina, his following grew until 630, when he returned to Mecca. Mecca would emerge as the holiest site of Islamic pilgrimage. After Muhammad's death, the religion split into various factions. The issue was not necessarily theological, but rather political, and so Islam, like the Byzantines, was a culture in which religion and politics were interconnected. Also, like the Byzantine Empire, Islam helped to preserve and transmit the classical heritage of learning. Scholars not only preserved and translated texts, they also commented on them. In the end, our knowledge of Plato, Aristotle and others was not only preserved by Islamic scholars, it was enriched at the same time.
In Western Europe, the situation is also quite different. While Byzantium and Islam were building civilizations of great material wealth and internal dynamism, Western Europe was rebuilding after the fall of Rome. In Gaul, came the Merovingians who, under Clovis, became committed Christians. The number of monastic houses increased dramatically and Pope Gregory I tried to mend the theological split with Constantinople. The Frankish law of succession led to nothing but political instability until the reign of Charlemagne at the end of the seventh century. It has been said that "as Charlemagne ruled, Europe was born." He stabilized his empire and conquered new lands-his goal was nothing short of a Christian Republic, a unified Christian society. With the help of Alcuin of York, Charlemagne also managed to institute the Carolingian Renaissance, in which classical learning would find itself at the center of the palace and cathedral schools. Following the death of Charlemagne, the Frankish kingdom collapsed as Europe entered what is, perhaps, rightly called a Dark Age.