Chapter 8 - European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750-1000

Pepins

Pepins

________ death in 768 brought to the throne of the Frankish kingdom his son, a dynamic and powerful ruler known to his- tory as Charles the Great or Charlemagne.

Europe

Baghdad became the center of an enormous trade empire that extended into ________, Asia, and Africa, greatly adding to the wealth of the Islamic world.

Bulgars

Although the ________ were originally an Asiatic people who conquered much of the Balkan peninsula, they were eventually absorbed by the larger native southern Slavic population.

Muslims

________ embellished their buildings with unique decorative art that avoided representation of living things because their religion prohibited the making of graven images.

Macedonian rulers

Under the ________, Byzantium enjoyed a strong civil service, talented emperors, and military advances.

dietary deficiencies

Drought or too much rain could mean meager harvests, famine, and ________ that made people susceptible to a wide range of diseases.

Islamic cities

________ had a distinctive physical appearance due to their common use of certain architectural features, such as the pointed arch and traceried windows, and specific kinds of buildings.

Abbasids

In 762, the ________ built a new capital city, Baghdad, on the Tigris River far to the east of Damascus.

Swedish Vikings

________, known to the eastern Slavs as Varangians, moved down the extensive network of rivers into the lands of the eastern Slavs in search of booty and new trade routes.

labor requirements

Although ________ varied from manor to manor and person to person, a common work obligation was three days a week.

Byzantine civil service

The ________ was staffed by well- educated, competent aristocrats from Constantinople who oversaw the collection of taxes, domestic administration, and foreign policy.

southern Slavic peoples

The ________ were converted to the Eastern Orthodox Christianity of the Byzantine Empire by two Byzantine missionary brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who began their activities in 863.

Muslim

Although the Quran instructed men to treat women with respect, the male was dominant in ________ society.

Serfs

________ were required to provide labor services, pay rents, and be subject to the lords jurisdiction.

Bulgars

The ________ were defeated, and both the eastern and western parts of Bulgaria were annexed to the empire.

Charlemagne

________ personally promoted learning by establishing a palace school and encouraging scholars from all over Europe to come to the Carolingian court.

Charlemagne

________ was a deter- mined and decisive man, intelligent and inquisitive.

Charlemagne

________ encouraged his own artists to look to the arts of ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire.

Early Middle Ages

The cultivation of new land proved especially difficult in the ________. Given the crude implements of the time, it was not easy to clear forests and prepare the ground for planting.

Hungarian Graves

One study of ________ found that of every five skeletons, one was a child below the age of one, and two were children between one and fourteen; more than one in five was a woman below the age of twenty.

Carolingian Renaissance

His efforts led to a revival of learning and culture that some historians have labeled the ________, or ‘‘rebirth’’ of learning.

Alcuin

Best known was ________, from the famous school at York, founded as part of the great revival of learning in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

French

By the ninth century, inhabitants of the western Frankish area were speaking a Romance language derived from Latin that became ________.

Byzantine Empire

During the reign of Michael III, the ________ began to experience a revival.

Constantinople

Thanks to this prosperity, the city of ________ flourished. To western Europeans, it was the stuff of legends and fables.

Barbarians

The Germans assumed responsibility for the conversion of these Slavic peoples because German emperors considered it their duty to spread Christianity to the ________.

Baghdad

________ became the center of an enormous trade empire that extended into Europe, Asia, and Africa, greatly adding to the wealth of the Islamic world.

al-Hakeem

One caliph, ________, collected books from different parts of the world and then had them translated into Arabic and Latin.

Cordoba

Large numbers of women served as teachers and librarians in ________.