Theme 2.writing and City Life (Ancient Mesopotamia)

THEME 2.
WRITING AND CITY LIFE

(ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA)
Mesopotamia is derived from two Greek words mesos meaning middle and Potamas meaning river
Mesopotamia means land between two rivers-Euphrates and Tigris. Today it is part of Iraq
Mesopotamia was known for its
Writing City life Trade Literature Mathematics Astronomy
 In the beginning the land was called Sumer and Akkad-language Sumerian
 Babylonia was the southern region and became important after 2000 BCE
 Assyria was the region where Assyrians established their kingdom in the north by about 1100
BCE
Languages
Sumerian Akkadian Aramaic
Sources
Buildings statues ornaments graves tools seals written documents
Mesopotamia and Its Geography

Iraq is a land of diverse environments
 North east lie green undulating plains, gradually rising to tree-covered mountain ranges with
clean streams and wild flowers, with enough rainfall to grow crops. Here, Agriculture began
between 7000 and 6000 BCE.
 In North-There is a stretch of upland called a steppe, where animals herding offers people a
better livelihood than agriculture. Sheep and goats produced meat, milk and wool in abundance
 In the East-tributaries of the Tigris provide routes of communication in to mountains of Iran
 The South is a desert-the place with the first cities and writing emerged. Euphrates and Tigris
carry loads of silt and deposited on the flood fields.
 The small channels of Euphrates and Tigris functioned as irrigation canals. Fish was available
in rivers and date-palms gave fruit in summer.
Hsslive 1 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

The Significance of Urbanisation
 Urban centres involve in various economic activities such as food production trade, manufactures
and services.
 City people were not self sufficient. The carver of stone seal requires bronze tools, coloured
stones.
 The bronze tool maker needs metals, charcoal. So they depend on the products or services of
other people.
 The division of labour is a mark of urban life.
 There must be a social organisation in cities
 Fuel,metal,various stones, wood etc.,come from many places for city manufacturers
 There are deliveries of grain and other food items from the village to the city
 Thus organized trade and storage is needed.
 In such a system some people commands and those others obey.
 Urban economies often require the keeping of written records .
Movement of Goods into cities

 Food resources were abundant in Mesopotamia but lacked stones, wood, metal.
 So they imported wood, copper, tin, silver, gold, shell, stones from Turkey and Iran.
 They exported their textiles and food resources
 Transport is also important for urban development
 The canals and natural channels were routes for goods transport
 Euphrates became a world route
The Development of Writing
Cuneiform is derived from the Latin words cuneus,

meaning 'wedge' and forma, meaning 'shape’. The
word cuneiform means wedge-shaped letters
 The Mesopotamian tablets contained picture like signs and numbers.

 Writing began in Mesopotamia in 3200 BCE.
 Writing began when society needed to keep record of transactions.
 Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay.
 Scribe would impress wedge shaped signs on wet clay with the sharp end of a reed.
 Once written, tablets were dried hard in the sun and it would be almost indestructible.
 Once it dried, signs could not be pressed on to a tablet.
 So each transaction required a separate written tablet.
 This is why tablets occur by the hundreds at Mesopotamian sites.
 By 2600 BCE the letters became cuneiform and language was Sumerian.

Writing was used for,
 1.keeping records
 2.making dictionaries
 3.giving legal validity to land transfers
 4.narrating the deeds of kings
 5.announcing the changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land
 6. Storing information and of sending messages
The System of Writing
 The sound that a cuneiform sign represented was not a single consonant or vowel
but syllables
 Thus the scribe had to learn hundreds of signs.
 He had to handle a wet tablet and get it written before it dried.
 So writing was a skilled craft
 It conveys visual form of system of sounds of a particular language.
Literacy
 King and Very few could read and write.

 There were hundreds of signs to learn and many of these were complex.
 If a king could read, that was recorded in his boastful inscriptions.
 Writing reflected the mode of speaking.
 It was kingship that organised trade and writing
Urbanisation in Southern Mesopotamia: Temples and Kings
By 5000 BCE, Settlements began in Mesopotamia. The earliest cities emerged from some of these
settlements.
There were three kinds of cities
Cities that developed Cities that developed as Imperial cities

around temples centres of trade
Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia

• The earliest known temple was a small shrine made of unbaked bricks.
• Temples were the residence of various gods: Moon God of Ur and for Inanna the Goddess of
Love and War.
• Temples became larger over time with several rooms around open courtyards.

• Temples always had their outer walls going in and out at regular intervals.
• The god was the focus of worship.
• People brought grain, curd and fish to god
• The god was the theoretical owner of the agricultural fields, the fisheries, and the herds of the
local community
• Production process such as oil pressing, grain grinding, spinning and weaving of woollen
cloth done in the temple.
• Thus temple became the main urban institution by organizing production, employing merchants
and keeping records of distribution and allotments of grain, plough animals, bread, beer, fish
etc.
Role of Kings in Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia
• Archaeological records show that villages were periodically relocated in Mesopotamian history
because of flood in the river and change in the course of the rivers.
• There were man made problems as well. Those who lived on the upstream stretches of a channel
could divert so much water in to their fields that villages of downstream were left without water.
• There was continuous war fare in Mesopotamian villages for land and water.
• The victorious chiefs distributed the loot among their followers and took prisoners from the
defeated groups
• They were employed as their guards or servants
• The chiefs also offer precious booty to the gods to beautify temples
• He organise the distribution of temple wealth by keeping records
• This gave the king high status and authority
• War captives and local people had to work for the temple, or for the ruler.
• Those who were put to work were paid rations
• Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking of clay cones for temples
Life in the City of Ur.
 In Mesopotamian society the nuclear family system was the norm.
 The father was the head of the family
Marriage
 We know little about the procedures of marriage

 A declaration was made about the willingness to marry by the bride's parents.
 when the wedding took place gifts were exchanged by both parties who ate together and
made offerings in a temple
 The bride was given her share of inheritance by her father
 The father's house, herds, fields etc. were inherited by the sons.
• Ur was a town and one of the earliest cities excavated in the 1930s
• Narrow winding streets indicate the wheeled carts could not have reached many of the houses.

• Sacks of grain and firewood would have reached on donkey back
• Town planning and street drains were absent at Ur.
• Instead of drains clay pipes were found in the inner courtyards of houses.
• House roofs sloped inwards and rainwater was channelled via the drain pipes in to sumps in the inner
courtyards.
• People had swept their house hold refuse in to the streets. This made street level rise, and overtime
the thresholds of houses had to be raised. So that no mud would flow inside after rains.
• Light came into the rooms not from windows but from doorways opening in to courtyards.
• Superstitions about houses. As recorded in omen tablets at Ur:
. A raised threshold brought wealth;
. A front door that did not open towards another house was lucky;
. If the main door of a house open outwards, the wife would be a torment to her husband
Town cemetery at Ur
 The graves of royalty and commoners have been found there. Very few individuals were found
buried under the floors of ordinary houses.
A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone (Life in the city of Mari)
After 2000 BCE the royal city of Mari flourished.
• Mari was located on the upstream of Euphrates.

• Agriculture and animal rearing were carried out in this region.
• Most of the region was used for pasturing sheep and goats.
• Herders exchanged animals, cheese, leather and meat in return for, metal tools etc. with the farmers.
• Nomadic groups of the western desert filtered into the prosperous agricultural land.
• Such groups would come as herders, harvest labourers or hired soldiers and settled down
• These included the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Armaneans.
• The kings of Mari were Amorites and raised a temple at Mari for Dagan, god of steppe.
• Mesopotamian society and culture were open to different cultures
• Thus the vitality of the civilization was of course an inter mixture culture
• Mari is a good example of an urban centre prospering on trade.
• Wood, copper, wine, tin,oil,etc. were carried in boats along the Euphrates between the south and
Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.
• Boats carrying grinding stones, wood, and wine and oil jars, would stop at Mari on their way to
southern cities.
• Officers of this town would go abroad, inspect the cargo and levy a charge of about one-tenth the
value of the goods.
Thus, although the kingdom of Mari was not militarily strong but it was exceptionally prosperous.

Cities in Mesopotamian culture
Mesopotamians valued city life .Many communities and cultures lived side by side. After cities were
destroyed in war, they recalled them in poetry.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh remind us the pride of the Mesopotamians who took in their cities
• Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk and a great hero who subdued people far and wide.
• He got a shock when his heroic friend died .He then set out to find the secret of immortality.
• After a heroic attempt, Gilgamesh failed, and returned to Uruk. There he consoled himself walking
along the city wall, back and forth.
The Legacy of Writing

The greatest legacy of Mesopotamia
Scholarly tradition of time reckoning
Mathematics
Calendar Mathematical contribution
The division of the year in to 12 months, Tablets with multiplication and division tables
The division of month in to four weeks Square-square-root tables
The division of day into 24 hours, Tables of compound interest
The division of the hour into 60 minutes.
 Solar and lunar eclipses were observed and recorded.

 There were schools where students read and copied earlier written tablets
Passage Based references
➢ The Book of Genesis of the Old Testament refers to 'Shimar'as a land of brick built city was Sumer
➢ The Mesopotamian tablets refer to copper from 'Alashiya', the island of Cyprus, as a major item
of trade contributing to Mari's urban prosperity.
➢ The warka Head (Lady of Uruk) is a world famous piece of sculpture, made of white marble at
Uruk before 3000BCE.It is the earliest representation of the woman's mouth, chin and cheeks.
➢ The Palace at Mari of King Zimrilim was the residence of the royal family, the hub of administration, and a
place of production. The palace had only one entrance, open courtyards beautifully paved and 260 rooms.
➢ The great Assyrian king Assurbanipal collected a library at his capital Nineveh, possessing
tablets on history, epics, omen literature, astrology, hymns and poems.
➢ Nabonidus was the last Babylonian king who was the world's first archaeologist.
➢ Connection between city life and trade and writing is brought out in a Sumerian epic poem about
Enmerkar, the first king of Uruk.

Theme 3.An Empire across Three Continents
It was the ancient Roman Empire which was spread across the three continents namely Europe,
Asia and Africa.
Sources
Texts Documents Material remains
Histories written by Inscriptions

Contemporaries’ documents on papyrus scrolls. Buildings, monuments, pottery, coins
(Annals)
The two most powerful empires

 The two empires that ruled between the birth of Christ and 630 CE were Rome and Iran.
 The Romans and Iranians were neighbours, separated by narrow strip of land that ran along the
river Euphrates.
 They were rivals and fought against each other for much of their history.
Roman Empire Iranian Empire
The Roman Empire stretched from Iran controlled the entire area south of
Spain in Europe to Syria in the East Caspian Sea to eastern Arabia and at
times large parts of Afghanistan.
along the Mediterranean Sea in to
Africa's desert. In the north its
boundaries were marked by the river
Rhine and Danube. In the South by
the Sahara desert.
The Phases of Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire can broadly divide into two phases-Early Roman Empire and Late Roman
Empire.
• The whole period down to the main part of the 3rd century can be called the 'early empire'. The
period after 3rd Century can be called the 'late empire'.
Early Late
Roman Roman
Empire Empire
The main part of the 3rd century
The period after 3rd Century

Difference between the Roman Empire and Iranian Empire
Major difference between the Roman and Iranian Empires were:
• Roman Empire had a diverse population as compared to that of Iran.

• The Parthians and Sasanians dynasties, that ruled Iran in this period, ruled largely
over the Iranian population.
• Whereas the Roman Empire was a variety of territories and cultures bound by the common
system of govt.
• Many languages were spoken in the Roman Empire, but for the administrative purposes only
Greek and Latin were used. The upper class of east spoke Greek and those in the western part
spoke Latin.
• All the people in the Roman Empire were subjects of single ruler, the emperor, irrespective of
where they lived and what language they spoke.
The three main players in the political history of the empire
The Emperor The Senate The Army
Source of authority Body of Wealthy families Paid& Professional
Features of Roman Army
The Army which was a paid and professional army where soldiers had to put up twenty five years of
service. The existence of paid army was a distinctive feature of the Roman Empire. The army was the
largest single organised body of the Roman Empire. It had the power to decide the fate of the emperors.
The army was hated by the Senators. Thus, it can be said that the emperor, the aristocracy, and the army
were the three players in the political history of the empire.
Succession to the throne in the Roman Empire
Family descent, either natural or adoptive, was the decisive factor in the succession to the throne in the
Roman Empire. The army was also wedded to this concept. For e.g. Tiberius was not the natural but
adopted son of Augustus.
The Augustan age
The Augustan age is remembered as the age of peace. It brought peace after decades of internal strife and
centuries of military conquest. External warfare was also much less common in the first two centuries.

Administration of the vast Roman Empire
• The vast Roman Empire was controlled and administered with the help of urbanisation.
• All the territories of the empire were organised in to provinces and were subject to taxation.
• Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch that lined the shores of Mediterranean were the foundations
of the imperial system.
• It was through these cities that the government was able to collect tax from the provincial
countryside which generated much of the wealth.
• This shows that the local upper class was actively involved with the Roman state in
administering their own territories and collecting taxes from them.
• Throughout the second and third century the provincial upper classes provided experienced
officers that administered the provinces and commanded the army.
• Thus, they became the new elite of the Roman Empire. They controlled the army and looked
after the provincial administration. They became much more powerful than the senatorial class
because they had the backing of the Emperors.
• Emperor Gallienus consolidated their rise to power by excluding senators from military
command. He did this in order to prevent control of the empire from falling in to their hands.
Meaning of Roman city
An Urban centre with its own magistrates,city council and a ‘territory’containing villages under its
jurisdiction.The villages could be upgraded to the status of city and vice-versa generally as a mark of
favour from the emperor.
Advantages of living in the city of Roman Empire
The advantage of living in the city was that it might be better provided for during food shortages and
famines in the country side. The cities had public baths and the urban population enjoyed a higher level of
entertainment
The Third- Century Crisis
• The first and second centuries were a period of peace, prosperity and economic expansion. But
the third century was a period of crisis.
• In 225, new dynasty called Sasanians emerged in Iran. They were more aggressive and expanding
rapidly in the direction of the Euphrates.
• The Germanic tribes (barbarians) began to move against the Rhine and Danube frontiers. From
233 to 280 saw repeated invasions. The Romans were forced to abandon much of the territory
beyond the Danube.
• The quick succession of emperors (25 emperors in 47 years) is a sign of strain faced by the
empire in the 3 rd century.

Gender, Literacy, Culture
Structure of Family
There was widespread prevalence of nuclear family. Adult sons did not live with their parents and it was
exceptional for adult brothers to share a common household. Slaves were however included in the family.
Status of women
• The women enjoyed considerable legal rights in owning and managing property.
• They were married off in the late teens or early thirties.
• Arrange marriage was the general norm
• women were often subject to domination by their husbands
• Wives were even beaten up by their husbands.
• The typical form of marriage was one where the wife did not transfer to her husband's authority but
retained full rights in the property of her natal family.
• Women remained a primary heir to father's property after marriage. They could become independent
property owners after their father's death.
• Divorce was easy for both men as well as women.
Literacy
• The rate of literacy varied greatly between different parts of the empire.
• Literacy was widespread in army officers, estate managers and soldiers
• Casual literacy existed and it varied from place to place.
There was a wall in pompei which carried advertisements and graffiti, which indicates high level of casual
literacy.
Cultural diversity
• The cultural diversity was reflected in many ways and at many levels.
• There was a vast diversity of religious cults and local deities, the plurality of languages that were
spoken, the styles of dresses that were worn.
• The food the people ate their forms of social organisation and their types of settlement, all reflected
cultural diversity.
• Different languages were spoken in different areas. Most of the linguistic cultures were purely oral, at
least until a script was invented for them.
• As late as fifth century, Armenian began to be used as written form of language.
• In other areas the spread of Latin displaced the other widespread written form of languages.
Economic activities of the Ancient Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire had substantial economic infrastructure of harbours, mines, quarries, brickyards,
olive oil factories etc.
• Goods for trade consisted mainly wheat, wine and olive oil and they came from Spain, the Gallic
provinces, north Africa, Egypt and Italy. These areas had conditions best suited for these crops.
• Spanish olive oil was a vast commercial enterprise that reached its peak in the years 140-160.

• The Roman Empire included regions that had a reputation for exceptional fertility. E.g.Compania
• Italy, Sicily, Fayum in Egypt, Galilee, Byzacium (Tunisia), southern Gaul, Baetica (southern Spain)
.These area had best conditioned crops.
• The large expenses of Roman territory were in a much less advanced state.
• Transhumance was widespread in the country side of Numidia(Modern Algeria)
• As Roman estates expanded in North Africa, the pastures of those communities were drastically
reduced and their movements more tightly regulated.
• Even in Spain the north was economically much less developed. In these areas peasantry who were
Celtic-speaking lived in hilltop villages known as castella.
• In the Roman Empire water power was very efficiently used around Mediterranean and there were
advances in the water powered milling technology, the use of hydraulic mining techniques in Spanish
gold and silver mines.
• Well organised commercial and banking networks existed.
• Widespread use of money indicates that the Roman Empire had sophisticated economy.
Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire
• Slavery was an institution deeply rooted in Ancient Roman world.

• Though slavery was institutionalized and was greatly used as labour but it was not always slaves that
performed labour in the Roman economy.
• As peace was established in the first century, the supply of slaves declined and users of slave labour
had to turn to slave breeding or cheaper substitutes such as wage labour which were easily
dispensable.
• Most of the time free labour was used, as slaves had to be provided with food and maintained
throughout the year which proved expensive. This is the reason that the slaves were not employed in
the agriculture.
• On the other hand ,slaves and freedmen were extensively used in jobs where labour was not required
in large number that is as business managers
• There was a presumption that without supervision no work would ever get done .So supervision was
most important for both freed slaves and slaves.
• For a better supervision the slaves were grouped into gang of ten. So that it could be easy to see who
is putting in effort and who is not.
• This method was criticised by Pliny the Elder. He was of the opinion that the slave gangs were the
worst method of organizing production because slaves who worked in gangs were usually chained
together by their feet.
• Although all this look harsh yet similar principles of labour control are being enforced in most of the
factories in the world today.
• Debt contracts were a type of agreements between the private employees and their workers. In these
debt contracts it was claimed that the employees were in debt to their employers and as a result were
under tighter control. A large number of families went in to debt bondage in order to survive.

Social Hierarchies
Senators
Equites
‘Respectable’ middleclass
Humiliores
Slaves
Social Hierarchies
• Tacitus, a Roman historian has described the social hierarchy of the early empire.
• To him, in the early Roman Empire Senators were at the top.
• Next were the leading members of equestrian classes.
• Respectable section of the people who were attached to the great houses was next in the social order
• Then was the untidy lower classes and slaves came to the bottom
• In the fourth century by the time of Constantine I, the Senators and equities had merged in to an
expanded aristocracy and at least half of the families were of Eastern or African origin.
• Like Senators, most 'knights' were landowners, but unlike Senators many of them involved in
business activities like shipping, trade and banking.
• This late Roman aristocracy was very wealthy but was less powerful than purely military elites who
came entirely from non-aristocratic background.
• Next in the social hierarchy was the middle class. It consisted of persons working in bureaucracy and
army, prosperous merchants and farmers.
• According to Olympiodorus,a historian of the early 5th century, the aristocracy based in the city of
Rome received annual incomes up to4,000pounds of gold from their estates.
• They also consumed grain, wine and other produce which, if sold, would have amounted to 1/3 of the
income in gold. The income of the households at Rome of the second class was one thousand or
fifteen hundred pounds of gold.
• Below the middle class were the vast class collectively known as humiliores. Literally it means
'lower'.
• They consisted of rural labourers ,workers in industrial and mining establishments; migrant workers
who worked for the grain and olive harvests and building industry; self employed artisans, who were
in better condition than the wage workers; a large number of casual labourers employed in big cities,
and finally the slaves.
Monetary system of the late empire
The monetary system broke down in the late empire because Spanish silver mines were exhausted and the
government ran out of stock of the metal to support a stable coinage in silver. This is also led to the
introduction of a new denomination in gold, the solidus.

Roman bureaucracy of the late Roman Empire
• The bureaucracy of the late Roman Empire both at higher and middle level was affluent as it drew
much of its salary in gold and invested in buying land.
• There was corruption in the administration of judiciary and military supplies.
• The extortion by higher bureaucracy and the provincial governors was common.
• But the government intervened repeatedly to stop these forms of corruption.
• Laws were made to put and end to them.
• Historians and other members of intelligentsia denounced such practices.
• The Roman emperors were not free to do anything as they liked.
• By the 4th century the tradition of Roman law acted as a brake and was actively used to protect civil
rights.
• Because of these laws powerful bishops could deal with powerful emperors when they were
extremely harsh on civilian population.
Late Antiquity
• Late antiquity is the term used to describe the final, fascinating period in the evolution and break-up
of the Roman Empire and refers from the fourth to seventh centuries.
• The period saw considerable changes in cultural, economic, and administrative levels.
Changes effected by the Emperor Diocletian in administration

• The emperor Diocletian abandoned territories with little strategic and economic importance.
• He fortified frontiers, recognised provincial boundaries and separated civilian from the military
functions.
• He granted greater autonomy to the military commanders who became powerful. Constantine
consolidated some of these changes and added others of his own.
Innovations of Emperor Constantine I

• The most important innovations of Constantine were in the monetary sphere. He introduced Solidus,
a coin weighing 4 ½ gm of pure gold. These coins were minted in millions.
• The other innovation was the creation of a second capital at Constantinople.
•
Changes in the economic life.
 The late Antiquity period witnessed considerable change in economic life.
 Monetary stability and an expanding population stimulated economic growth.
 Archaeological record shows investments in rural establishments, including industrial
installations like oil presses and glass factories, in newer technologies such as screw presses and
multiple water-mills.
 The period also saw a revival of the long- distance trade. All this led to strong urban prosperity.
Changes in the religious life
• There were significant changes in the religious life.
• Emperor Constantine declared Christianity as official religion of the Roman empire.(4th century)
• Seventh century was associated with the rise of Islam The traditional religious culture of the
classical world, both Greek and Roman, had been polytheist. The other religions in the empire
were Judaism and Islam.

Decline of the Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire was divided in to eastern and western halves in the fourth century C.E.
• During the late antiquity period, the general prosperity was especially marked in the East.
• In the Eastern Roman empire, population was still expanding till the 6th century.
• The East remained united under Emperor Justinian.
• There were wars between Rome and Iran during the 7th century.
• The East Roman Empire came to be known as Byzantium.
• The expansion of Islam has been called the greatest political revolution in the history of the
ancient world.
• Large parts of the Roman and Iranian Empires had fallen into the hands of the Arabs.
• Nomadic tribes in frontier areas such as Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and others attacked the Roman
Empire in the west by the 5th century C.E.
• The Germanic groups established their own kingdoms within the empire.
• With the prompting of the Christian Church, a Holy Roman Empire was formed from some of
these kingdoms from the 9th century CE.
Key words
• Republic: The name for a regime in which the reality of power lay with the Senate.
• Senate : A body dominated by a small group of wealthy families.
• Civil war: Armed struggles for power within the same country.
• Transhumance: Herdsman's regular annual movement between the higher mountain regions and low
lying ground in search of pasture.
• Draconian: Harsh(so-called because of early sixth century BCE Greek law maker, Draco who prescribed
death as the penalty for most crimes
Dressel 20/Amphorae: oil containers especially olive oil.

1 Sujith.K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor ,Kasargod
Theme-4 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS
Islamic lands brought three aspects of human civilization:Religion,Community and Politics
Sources to understand the History of central Islamic land
1. Semi-historical works, such as biographies, records of the sayings and doings of the Prophet (hadith) and
commentaries on the Quran (tafsir) are available.
2. Large collection of eyewitness reports (akhbar) transmitted over a period of time either orally or on paper.
The authenticity of each report was tested by a critical method called isnad.
3. Christian chronicles, written in Syriac are fewer but they throw interesting light on the history of early
Islam.
4. Besides chronicles, we have legal texts, geographies, travelogues and literary works, such as stories and
poems.
The Rise of Islam in Arabia:

Arabs before Muhammad(Bedouins)
. Before the Prophet Muhammad, the Arabs were divided in to tribes(qabila).
. A chief was chosen on the basis of his family as well as his personal courage, wisdom and generosity.
. Many Arab tribes were nomadic (Bedouins), moving from dry to green areas (oases) of the desert in search of food
. Some settled in cities and practised trade or agriculture.
Importance of Mecca
• It was in this city that Muhammad lived and controlled the main shrine ,a cube like structure ,known as Kaba
in which idols were placed.
• Tribes outside Mecca also considered the Kaba holy,and placed their idols in it and annual pilgrimage there.
• Mecca was located on the crossroad of a trade route between Yemen and Syria which added to the importance
of the city.
Principles and Messages of Prophet Muhammad

• Muhammad was an Arab by language and culture and a merchant by profession
• He declared himself to be a messenger of God (rasul) and commanded to preach that Allah alone should be
worshipped.
• He preached that worship should involve simple rituals such as daily prayers(salat)
• His followers should follow moral principles such as
• a.abstain from theft,
• b.distribute alms,and
• c.be bound together through common religious beliefs.
• He preached to found a single community of believers(umma).
• His followers were called Muslims.
• They were promised salvation on the Day of Judgment (qiyama)and a share of the resources of the
community while on earth.
Islamic Calendar
• The Muslims and their new religion had faced considerable opposition from the Meccans.
• In 622,Muhammad was forced to migrate with his followers to Medina.
• The year of his journey marked the beginning of the Muslim calendar.(Hijri era)
The Caliphate and its Objectives
• After the death of Muhammad in 632 AD ,no one remained there to succeed him as prophet.
2 Sujith.K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
• So his authority was transferred to umma with no established rule of succession.
• Then began the process of innovations which led to the formation of the institution of Caliphate in which the
leader of the community (amir al-muminin)became the deputy(khalifa) of the prophet.
• There were two main objectives of Caliphates
• First was to retain the control over the tribes constituting umma and
• Secondly to raise resources for the state.
The First Four Caliphs
• The first caliph was Abu Bakr. He suppressed revolts by a series of campaigns.
• The second caliph was Umar. He shaped the umma's policy of expansion.
• The third caliph was Uthman. He packed his administration with his own men and this led to opposition in
Iraq and Egypt.
• The fourth caliph was Ali. It was in his time that Muslims broke in to shias and Sunnis
The administration of the conquered territories by the Caliphs

• The administration of conquered territories was headed by governors(amirs)and tribal chieftains(ashraf).
• The central treasury(bait-al-mal)obtained its revenue from taxes paid by Muslims as well as its share of booty
from raids.
• The caliphs soldiers,mostly Bedouins,settled in camp cities at the edge of the desert,such as Kufa and Basra.
• So that they remained within their natural habitat and at caliph's command.
• The ruling class and soldiers received shares from booty and monthly payment(ata)
• The non-muslim population retained their rights on property and religious practices on payment of taxes.
Such as kharaj and jiziya.
• Jews and Christians were declared as protected subjects of the state(dammis) and were given a measure of
autonomy in the conduct of their communal affairs
The Umayyads and the changes introduced by Umayyads in Politics or administration

• Muawiya was the first Umayyad caliph.He had made himself the caliph after the death of Ali,in 661 C.E
• Umayyads were a prosperous clan of Qurayshi tribe.
• The Umayyads implemented a series of political measures which first consolidated their leadership within
umma.
• Muawiya was the first Umayyad caliph moved his capital to Damascus and adopted the court ceremonies and
administrative institutions of Byzantine Empire.
• He also introduced hereditary succession and persuaded the leading Muslims to accept his son as his heir.
• Although there were Christian adviser in administration and Zoroastrian bureaucrats and scribes, it was Islam
that provided legitimacy to their rule.
• In the Umayyad state the imperial power was not based directly on Islam but on statecraft. They appealed for
unity and suppressed rebellions in the name of Islam.
The contribution of Abda Malik(685-705)
• It was in his time that Arab and Islamic identity was emphasized
• Arabic was adapted as language and administration and Islamic coinage was introduced.
• He built the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem which is an Arab-Islamic identity.
Difference between the Islamic and other coins that were circulating in the caliphate.
• Before the introduction of Islamic coins the gold Dinar and silver Dirham were in circulation in the Caliphate
which were the copies of Byzantine and Iranian coins(denarius and drachm).They had symbols of crosses
and fire altars and Greek and Pahlavi(the language of Iran) inscription on them. Abd-al-Malik and his
successors removed these symbols and introduced coins with Arabic inscriptions.
The Abbasid Revolution

• The Umayyads were replaced by a movement called dawa,led by Abbasids ,another family of Mecca origin
in 750.The Umayyad regime was portrayed as evil by the Abbasids. They promised to restore the original
Islam of prophet.
• Their army was led by an Iranian slave, Abu Muslim, who defeated the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan, in a
3 sujith.K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
battle at the river Zab.

• The Abbasid Rule
• Under the Abbasid's rule the influence of Arabs declined and the importance of Iranian culture increased.
• The Abbasids established their capital at Baghdad.
• The army and bureaucracy were reorganized on a non-tribal basis to ensure greater participation by Iraq and
Khurasan.
• The religious status and the functions of the caliphate were strengthened under their rule.
• They patronised Islamic institutions and scholars.
• They retained the centralized nature of state .
• They maintained the splendid imperial architecture and elaborate court ceremonials of the Umayyads.
Causes for the Break-up of the Caliphate

• A number of causes were responsible for the decline of the Abbasid state.
• 1.The Abbasid state became weaker because the control from Baghdad to distant places of the empire
declined.
• 2.A conflict between pro-Arab and pro-Iranian factions of the army and bureaucracy also led to the decline.
• 3.In 1810,a civil war broke out between the supporters of Amin and Mamun,the sons of Harun-al-Rashid
which led to the creation of a new power block of Turkish slave officers.
• All these developments led to creation of number of dynasties and Abbasid power limited to central Iraq and
western Iran
• In 945 the Buyids, a Shiite clan from the Caspian region of Iran captured Baghdad. They kept the Abbasid
caliph as the symbolic head of their sunni subjects.
• Fatimids were of shiite origin and had ambition to rule the Islamic world. They claimed descendants of
Fatima the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and hence rightful rulers of Islam. They had their base in North
Africa and conquered Egypt and established new capital at Qahira (Cairo)
• The Turks were nomadic tribes from the Central Asian steppes who gradually converted to Islam. They were
skilled riders and warriors and entered the Abbasid, Samanid and Buyid administrations as slaves and
soldiers, rising to high positions on account of their loyalty and military abilities.
The Rise of Sultanates

• The Ghaznavid sultanate was established by Alptegin (961).It was consolidated by Mahmud of Ghazni.
• Ghaznavids were a military dynasty with a professional army of Turks and Indians.
• The Abbasid caliphs were not rivals but a source of legitimacy for Ghaznavids.
• Mahmud was eager to receive the title of Sultan from the caliph.
• The caliph was willing to support the Sunni Ghaznavid as a counterweight to Shiite power
• The Saljuq Turks entered Turan as soldiers .They later established themselves as a powerful group under the
leadership of two brothers, Tughril and Chaghri Beg.
• After the death of Mahmud ,they conquered Khurasan and made Nishapur their Capital.
• Then they moved to western Persia and Iraq and restored Baghdad to sunni rule(1055)
• The caliph, al-Qaim, conferred on Tughril Beg the title of Sultan. The two Saljuq brothers ruled together.
The Crusades
• Crusades were the wars fought by Christians against Muslims to free the Holy Land of Palestine.
• On the death of Malik Shah ,Saljuq sultan of Baghdad his empire started disintegrating.
• This gave a chance to Byzantine Emperor Alexius I to regain Asia Minor and Northern Syria.
• So the Pope Urban II joined hands with the Byzantine emperor for a war ,in the name of God to liberate the
Holy Land.
• Several wars were fought between western Christians and Muslim cities(between 1095 and 1291)on the
coastal plains of the eastern Mediterranean. These wars were later known as Crusades.
I, II and III Crusade wars
• In the first crusade (1098-99), soldiers from France and Italy captured Antioch in Syria, and claimed
Jerusalem. Their victory was accompanied by the slaughter of Muslims and Jews in the city.
• The Franks quickly established four crusader states in the region of Syria-Palestine. Collectively, these
territories were known as Outremer(crusader states)
• When the Turks captured Edessa in 1144, an appeal was made by the Pope for a second crusade (1145-49).
• A combined German and French army made an attempt to capture Damascus but they were defeated.
• After this, there was a gradual erosion of the strength of crusader states.
• Salah al-Din (Saladin) created an Egypto-Syrian empire and gave the call for jihad or holy war against the
Christians and defeated them in 1187.He regained Jerusalem, nearly a century after the first crusade.
• The loss of the city Jerusalem prompted a third crusade in 1189.But the crusaders gained little victory in
Palestine and got free access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims.
• The Mamluks,the rulers of Egypt, finally expelled the crusading Christians from all of Palestine in1291.
The Consequences of the Crusades

• The crusades left Muslims bitter and this in turn made the Muslim state hostile towards its Christian subjects
where there were mixed populations.
• Increased influence of Italian mercantile communities in the trade between the East and the West even after
the restoration of Muslim power.
Economy
• a.Agriculture
• Agriculture was the main occupation of the settled population in the newly acquired territories.
• The state had complete control of agricultural land.
• Land revenue was the main source of income
• In the land conquered by the Arabs that remained in the hands of the owners were subjected to
tax(kharaj)which varied from half to fifth of produce.
• The Muslims paid one tenth(ushr)of produce as tax.
• Since the Muslims had to pay less tax,the non-Muslims started converting to Islam,which resulted in short fall
• In order to overcome this problem a uniform policy of taxation was adopted.
Measures adopted by the state to Improve agricultural production
• To increase agricultural production ,the state supported irrigation systems such as construction of dams,canals
and wells.
• Islamic law gave tax concessions to people who brought land under cultivation.
• Even in the absence of major technological changes, the cultivable land expanded and productivity rose
because of peasant initiative and state support.
• Crops like cotton,oranges,bananas,spinach and brinjals were grown and exported to Europe.
b.Urbanisation (city in the Islamic world)

• Islamic civilisation flourished along with the growth of a number of cities.
• Many new cities were founded to settle the Arab soldiers. Some of these garrisons cities were Kufa and Basra
in Iraq and Fustst and Cairo in Egypt.
• At the heart of the city were two building:the congregational mosque which could be seen from a distance
and central market place with shops in a row,merchants' lodging and office of the money changers.
• The administrators,scholars and merchants lived close to the centre.
• Ordinary citizens and soldiers lived in the outer circle each with its own mosque,church or a
synagogue,subsidiary market and public bath.
• At the outskirts were houses for urban poor,a market for vegetables and fruits, caravan stations,and unclean
shops that is those dealing with tanning and butchering.
• Beyond the city walls were inns for people to rest.
c. Commerce
• Geography favoured the Islamic empire in trade. The Muslim world was spread between the trading zones
of Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. The Arabs and Iranians monopolised the maritime trade between
China,India and Europe for five centuries.
• The two major trading routes were the Red sea and the Persian Gulf.
• High value goods suitable for long distance trade like spices,textile,porcelain and gun powder were supplied
to the port of Aden and Aydhab in Red sea and Siraf and Basra in the Persian Gulf.
• From here the goods were taken by land routes for local consumption and to the Mediterranean end of these
trade routes for onwards export to Europe.
• The export to Europe was handled by Jewish merchants .some of whom were in direct touch with their Indian
counterparts.
• With the rise of Cairo as centre of power and commerce in the 10th century,Red sea route became important.
• In the eastern end the Iranian merchants set out from Baghdad along the Silk route to china via Bukhara and
Samarkand to bring Central Asian and Chinese goods which included paper from China.
• Samarqand(Transoxiana) was an important link in the trade,which extended north to Russia and
Scandinavia,for exchange of European goods,mainly fur and Slavic captives.
• Islamic coins were used in this trade.
• Male and female slaves were also purchased here for the courts of caliphs and sultans
• The fiscal system and market exchange increased the importance of money in the Central Islamic lands.
• Coins of gold ,silver and copper were minted and circulated to pay for the goods and services.
Methods of Payment and Business organisation
• Muslims developed a sophisticated methods of payment and business organisation by introducing Letter of
credit and and bill of exchange (like present days cheque or draft).It is regarded as one of the greatest
contribution of the Muslim world to the methods of payment and business organisation.
• The traders and bankers used these modes of payment to transfer money from one place to another or from
one individual to another.
• The widespread use of commercial paper freed the merchants from the need to carry cash everywhere and
made their journey safer.
• Even the caliph used these letters of credit to pay pay the salaries or reward to poets and musicians.
• Islam did not stop people from making money provided certain prohibition were imposed. They were,
• 1.Interest bearing transactions were unlawful.
• 2.Money obtained by illegal means should not be kept ;it is harm for a Muslim.
Learning and Culture
• For religious scholars of Islam knowledge is derived from the Quran and the model behaviour of the Prophet.
They devoted themselves to writing tafsir and documentary Muhammad's authentic hadith.
• Sharia is a law which governs the relationship of Muslims with God through rituals and with rest of the
humanity through social affairs.
• The sharia provided guidance on all possible legal issues within Sunni society, though it was more precise on
questions of personal status such as marriage, divorce and inheritance than on commercial matters or penal
and constitutional issues.
• Before it took final forms,the Sharia was adjusted to take in to account the customary laws of the state on
political and social order.
• When life had become increasingly complex with urbanisation which led to the formation of four schools of
law in the eighth and ninth centuries. These were the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafii and Hanbali schools,each
named after a leading jurist.
• Sufis were a group of religious minded people in medieval Islam. They sought a deeper and more personal
knowledge of God through asceticism and mysticism.
• The more society gave itself up to material pursuits and pleasure,the more the sufis sought to renounce the
world and religion God alone(tawakkul).
• Sufis used musical concerts(sama) to induce ecstasy and stimulate emotions of love and passion.
• Bayazid Bistami an Iranian Sufi was the first to teach the importance of fana(submerging the self)in God.
• Rabia of Basra ,a woman saint preached that unity with God can be achieved through an intense love for God.
• Sufism is open to all irrespective of religion,status and gender and posed a challenge to orthodox Islam.
The influence of Greek philosophy and Science in the field of education
• In the schools of Alexandria,Syria and Mesopotamia Greek philosophy,mathematics and medicine were
taught along with other subjects.
• Translation of Greek and Syriac books in to Arabic by Christian scholars began under the Umayyad and
Abbasid caliphs. Translation became a well organised activity.
• A huge library cum Institute of science(Bayt-al-Hikma) was set up in Baghdad where the scholars worked.
• The works of Aristotle, the Elements of Euclid and Ptolemy's Almagest were brought to the attention of the
Arabic reading scholars.
• During the same period ,the Indian works on the medicine,astronomy and mathematics were also translated.
When they reached Europe they aroused the interests in philosophy and science .
• The study of new subjects promoted critical inquiry and had a profound influence on Islamic intellectual life.
Scholars and Philosophers posed wider questions on Islam and provided fresh answers.
Al-Qanun fil Tibb(Canon of Medicine)
• Ibn Sina was a Philosopher a doctor by profession. Ibn Sina’s medical writings were widely read.
• The book Al-Qanun fil Tibb(Canon of Medicine) is written by Ibn Sina. It is a million word manuscripts
which include a list of 760 drugs sold by the pharmacists of his times and note of his own experiments which
were conducted in the hospitals. This book points to the importance of healing through dietary regulation and
influence of climate and environment on health and the contagious nature of some diseases. This book was
used a textbook in Europe where the author was known as Avicenna. It is believed that Umar Khayyam,a well
known poet and scientist,had read this book just before his death.
• In medieval Islamic societies, fine language and a creative imagination were among the most appreciated
qualities in a person. Adab forms of expressions included poetry and prose which were meant to be
memorised and used when the occasion arose.
• Abu Nuwas, who was of Persian origin,broke new ground by composing classical poetry on new themes
such as wine and male love with the intention of celebrating pleasures forbidden by Islam.
• By the time the Arabs conquered Iran, Pahlavi, was in decay. A version of Pahlavi, known as New Persian,
with a huge Arabic vocabulary, soon developed.
• Rudaki was considered the father of New Persian poetry, which included new forms such as the short. lyrical
poem (ghazal) and the quatrain (rubai).
• The rubai is a four-line stanza in which the first two lines set the stage, the third is finely poised, and the
fourth delivers the point. The subject matter of the rubai is unrestricted.
• The rubai reached its zenith in the hands of Umar Khayyam,
• During 11th century,Ghazni became the centre of Persian literary life.
• Mahmud of Ghazni gathered around him a group of poets who composed anthologies and epic poetry. The
most outstanding was Firdausi's,Shahnama (Book of Kings)
Shahnama
• Shahnama is an epic of 50,000couplets. He took 30 years to complete this work. It is a collection of traditions
and legends which poetically depicts Iran from Creation to the Arab conquest. It has become a masterpiece of
Islamic literature.
The catalogue(Kitab al-fihrist)
• The catalogue of Ibn Nadim describes a large number of works written in prose for the moral education and
amusement of readers. The oldest of these is a collection of animal fables called Kalila wa Dimna which is
the Arabic translation of the Panchtantra. The most widespread and lasting literary works are the stories of
hero-adventurers such as Alexander and Sindbad, or those of unhappy lovers known as Majnun or the
Madman.
• The Thousand and One Nights is another collection of stories told by a single narrator,Shahrzad, to her
husband night after night. The collection was originally in Ind-Persian and was translated into Arabic in
Baghdad in the eighth century.
• From the ninth century onwards, the scope of writing books was expanded to include biographies, manuals
of ethics, history and geography. For rulers and officials, history provided a good record of the glories and
achievements of a dynasty as well as examples of the techniques of administration.
• Alberuni’s famous Tahqiq ma lil-Hind (History of India) was the greatest attempt by an eleventh-century
Muslim writer to look beyond the world of Islam.
Architecture of the Islamic world of the 10th century
• Religious buildings were the greatest external symbols of Islamic world.
• Mosques, shrines and tombs from Spain to Central Asia showed the same basic design – arches,domes,
minarets and open courtyards.
Design of a Mosque
• In the first Islamic century the mosques acquired a distinctive architecture from roof supported by pillars
which transcended regional variations.
• The mosque had an open courtyard with a fountain or pond.
• The courtyard led to a vaulted hall which could accommodate long lines or worshippers an Imam,the prayer
leader.
• Two special features were located inside the hall -a 'mihrab' in the wall which indicated the direction of
mecca and a pulpit from where sermons were delivered during noon prayers on Friday.
• A minaret was attached to the building,it was a tower used to call to the faithful to prayer at the appointed
time and to symbolize the presences of the new faiths.
• The time was marked in the cities and villages by the five daily calls for prayers and weekly sermons.
• The same pattern of construction was also appeared in caravan serais, hospitals and palaces.
• The Umayyads built ‘desert palaces’ in oases and decorated with sculptures, mosaics and paintings.
Other Art forms
• The rejection of representing living beings in the religious art of Islam promoted two art forms:
• 1.calligraphy(the art of beautiful writing) and
• 2.arabesque (geometric and vegetal designs)
• Small and big inscriptions, usually of religious quotations, were used to decorate architecture.
• Calligraphic art has been best preserved in manuscripts of the Quran dating from the eighth and ninth
centuries. Literary works were illustrated with miniature paintings.
• Plant and floral designs, based on the idea of the garden, were used in buildings and book illustrations.
Key Words
• 1.Aramaic: A language related to Hebrew and Arabic
• 2.Tribes: Societies organised on the basis of blood relationships.
• 3.Crusades:According to some sources Pope Urban II gifted cross to all the Christian soldiers to fight in the
war that is why the war was named so.
• Mutazila: Scholars with a theological bend of mind.
• Adab: A term which implied literary and cultural refinement.
Passage Based References

• Islamic Calendar
The Hijri era was established during the caliphate of Umar in 622 CE.The Hijri year is a lunar year of 354
days, 12 months (Muharram to Dhul Hijja) of 29 or 30 days. Each day begins at sunset and each month with
the sighting of the crescent moon. The Hijri year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year. Therefore, none
of the Islamic religious festivals, including the Ramazan fast, Id and hajj, corresponds in any way to seasons.
• The Great Mosque of al-Mutawwakil in Samarra. The mosque was built in 850 It is 50 metres high,and is
made of brick.It was the largest mosque in the world for centuries.
• The Quran: A book in Arabic divided into 114 chapters. It is a collection of messages which god sent to the
Prophet. It is a scripture,a text vested with religious authority. It speaks in metaphors and does not narrate
events. Many hadith were written to help the reading of the Quarn.
• Abd al-Latif was a 12th century legal and medical scholar of Baghdad.
Prepared by Sujith.K,HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod Dist.

Theme 6 The Three Orders Sujith.K.HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
The three orders of the European society between the ninth and and sixteenth centuries were:Christian priests,land
owning nobles and peasants. The changing relationships between these three groups was an important factor in
shaping European history for several centuries.
Sources to understand Medieval European society

1.There is a lot of material in the form of documents,details of landownership,prices and legal cases. Churches had kept
records of births ,marriages and deaths .The inscriptions in churches give information about traders' associations,and
songs and stories give a sense of festivals and community activities. All these can be used to understand economic and
social life.
2.Marc Bloch and his ideas about European feudalism
Marc Bloch(1886-1944) was one of the earliest scholars of France who worked on the concept of feudalism. He argued
that history is not all about political history but also includes international relations and lives of great people. He
stressed on the importance of geography in determining human history and the requirement to realise the collective
activities or approaches of groups of people.
His book Feudal Society talks about the European society between 900 and 1300 A.D especially of France. It had
significant detailed social relations and hierarchies and land related affairs and cultural achievements of that period.
Condition of Europe on the eve of rising feudalism

There were some socio-political changes that occurred in Europe between the ninth and and sixteenth centuries.
After the decline of the Roman Empire, several Germanic groups of people of eastern and central Europe captured
areas of Italy,Spain and France. Due to the absence of a single political power, there were regular military clashes in
order to gather resources to continue hold on own land. Social institution was therefore revolved around the control of
land. Christianity was the religion of land as it was spread in almost whole Europe. The church was not only a religious
institution but also a political power. The church was a major land holder in Europe.
Meaning of Feudalism
The term 'feudalism' is derived from a German word 'feud' which means 'a
piece of land'.It refers to the kind of society that developed in Medieval France
and later in England and Italy. Feudalism was a system that centred around the
principles of land related matters. Historians used the term feudalism to describe
the economic,legal,political and social relationships that existed in Europe in the
medieval era.
Features of feudalism in Europe

The roots of feudalism can be traced back to the practices that existed in the Roman Empire. Feudalism became an
established way of life during the era of French king Charlemagne. It was said to be emerged later and spread in whole
Europe later.
Feudalism refers to a kind of an agricultural production which was based on the relationship between the lords and
peasants. The peasants cultivated their own land and worked on the lands of the lords also. In lieu of labour
service ,peasants received military protection from the lord. The lords also decided the judicial matters of the peasants.
Therefore ,that lord was all in all proprietors of lands and peasant's fortunes. Thus ,besides economic
aspects,feudalism also began to cover the political and social aspects of life.
2 Sujith.K.HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
History of the name ''France'
There was a province of Roman Empire named ''Gaul' which was had extensive
coastlines,mountain ranges,long rivers,forests and large plain area suited to agriculture. A
Germanic tribe named ''the Franks 'gave their name to Gaul and it later came to be known as
France. By the sixth century this region was a kingdom under the rule of Christian Frankish or
French got strengthened when Charlemagne was given the title of 'Holy Roman Emperor' by
the pope around 800 AD
The Three Orders

The French priests were of the view that people were part of the one of three 'orders 'according to their
occupation. A bishop quoted that,'”Here below some pray,others fight,other still work” .So the three orders of
society were generally the clergy,the nobility and the peasantry.
The First Order:The Clergy
The Christians of Europe were directed by bishops and clerics of church. They made the first order of the feudal
society. Above those bishops and clerics was the head of western church,the Pope,who lived in Rome. The Catholic
church was the most dominant body which did not depend on the king. The church had its own laws,owned land
granted by the king collected taxes of own. Almost all villages had church,where people gathered on Sunday pray and
listened to the sermons of the priests. Men who became priest could not marry. Serfs,the physically challenged and
women could not became a priest. The Bishops were nobles in religious field. They owned lands like lords,had vast
estates and lived in grand palaces.
The church collected one tenth of share from peasants' produce every year called the'tithe'.The church also got money
in the form of donations by the rich for own and their relatives' welfare in the afterlife. Several rites and rituals of
feudal nobles were copied by church to increase its influence. The act of knelling while praying,with hands clasped and
head bowed was identical to knights' act to take vow for their lord. The term 'lord' for God was also a debt from feudal
customs.
Monks and Monasteries
There were devout Christians in feudal society known as monks. They opted to live isolated in contrast to the clergy
who lived in towns and villages. They lived in religious communities called abbeys or monasteries away from human
settlements. Monks vowed to stay in the abbey for the rest of their life. They spent their time in worship,study and
manual labour like farming. Their life was different from priesthood and was quiet open to both men and women and
women became nuns. Most of the abbeys were single -sex communities. There were separate abbeys for men and
women. Like priests,monks and nuns did not marry. Two well known monasteries were one established by St.
Benedict in Italy in 529 and another of Cluny in Burgundy in 910.
Relation between the Church and Society
Christianity entered Europe and influenced most of the people. But they did not forget old beliefs in magic and folk
traditions. Christmas and Easter became important dates from the fourth century. They replaced old pre-Roman
festival as which were based on solar calender. The Easter day marked the crucifixion of Christ and his rebirth from the
dead and it was celebrates on replaced date of old festival based on lunar calender. On coming of spring ,people used to
travel around their village lands on that day. Holiday or holidays were welcomed by over worked peasants as free
days ,They usually spent more time in fun and feasting rather than prayer.
The Second Order:The Nobility
The nobility possessed a central role in the social processes. They had control over lands,which was the result of old
custom known as 'vassalage'.The nobles of kings were big land holders and they used to be vassal of the king whereas
the peasants were vassals to the land owners. In France the rulers were linked to 'vassalage',similarly the Franks of
Gaul also followed the same tradition. In that tradition a noble accepted the king his seigneur or lord in all matters and
king had to give a mutual assurance that he would protect the vassals. Under that link both seigneur and the noble had
to make vows with the Bible in the church. The vassal received a written charter or a staff or even a clod of earth as
symbol of land granted by his lord. The nobles enjoyed several privileges. They had judicial powers and even right to
issue coins. They also had power to raise their army known as feudal levies. A noble was lord of each and every person
settled on his land. He possessed huge tracts of land which included his residences ,his personal fields,pastures and
the fields of peasant-tenants. The house of noble was known as manor. The peasants cultivated their fields also,worked
as cultivators on his fields and as the foot soldiers in time of military need.
The Manorial Estate

A lord house was known as manor-house in feudal society. He would control peasant's villages in the manorial estates
either in small number containing few dozen of houses or in large number consisting of around fifty to sixty houses of
peasants. The manorial estates were self sufficient economic centres,where each and every requirement of daily life
was fulfilled in the estate. The grains were grown in the fields,blacksmiths and carpenters maintained the lords
equipments and refurnished the ornaments,whereas stone masons managed their building. The women prepared fabrics
and children worked in lord's wine-presses. The estates consisted of woodlands and forests where the lord did hunting.
The estates also contained pastures. The church was part of estate and the castle was there for defence,where knights
lived. In England ,the castles were developed as centres of administration and military strength under the feudal
system.
Knights: A Distinctive Group
There were regular localised wars in Europe. The insufficient amateur peasant soldiers and lack of good cavalry
had created problems. This led to the evolution of new section of people in society known as Knight. They were under
the lord,who were subordinates of the king. The knights paid his lord customary fees and pledged to fight for him in
war. The lords granted a piece of land called fief,for knights in lieu of their services as their protectorate. The fief of
knight could be hereditary and was of any size from 1000 to 2000 acres or more. A knight's fief consisted of a house for
him and his family,church settlements of dependent together with water mill and wine press. The peasants cultivated
the land of the fief. In exchange ,the knight paid his lord a regular fee and promised to fight for him in war. A knight
could serve more than one lord but remained loyal to his own lord.
The Third Order:Peasants,Free and Unfree
The third order consisted of vast majority of people which were mainly cultivators. The cultivators had two
categories:free peasants and serfs. The free peasants were those who had own lands but worked as tenants of the land.
They had to give military service for least forty days in a year. They had to work on lord's fields for three days
generally in a week in the form of labour-rent. Together with this they had to provide unpaid services for works like
digging ditches,gathering firewood,building fence and maintaining roads and buildings. Women and children had to do
several tasks together with work on fields like spinning thread,weaving cloth,making candles and preparing wine from
grapes. The free peasants had to pay a tax 'taille' to king from which clergy and nobles were exempted. The serfs tilled
the land of lord. Most part of the produce was submitted to the lord. They had to work on the lands of lord without
wages. They were not allowed to leave the estate without prior permission from the lord. The lord claimed several
monopolies at the cost of his serfs .Serfs could use only lord's flour mill,his oven to bake their bread and his
wine-presses to distil wine and beer. The lord decide whom a serf should marry or might give the blessing to the serf's
choice but on a payment of a free.
England the land 'Angles'
The Angles and Saxons came from central Europe and got settled in England during sixth
century. The name of the country England is a modification of 'Angle-land' as England was
inhabited by Angles.
Factors Affecting social and Economic Relations.

There were several processes which were affecting the social and economic relations.
The Environment
Between fifth and tenth centuries, Europe had undergone an extreme cold climatic change. This shortened growing
season for crops and reduced agricultural production. By the eleventh century,Europe entered a warm phase. Increase
in temperature had a deep impact on agriculture. Peasants had a longer growing season and soil could be easily
ploughed. This resulted in the expansion of agriculture.
Land Use
Agricultural technology used by peasants initially was primitive. They had to use wooden plough drawn by couple of
oxen,which could only scratch the surface of earth instead of drawing full fertility of soil. So,fields needed to be dug by
hand ,regularly once in four years. Agriculture was therefore very labour demanding. An unproductive method of crop
rotation was in use ;in which the land was divided in two halves. In one winter wheat was grown in autumn and other
left fallow and vice versa. Rye was grown in other half. This was a system of destroying fertility of soil and caused
frequent famines. Chronic malnutrition occurred and life of the poor became more difficult. The lords were
apprehensive to increase their income,as it was difficult to increase output from land. So they forced the peasants to
work on his manorial estates more than the legal time.
Technological Changes in the Field of Agriculture
The eleventh century saw several changes in the field of agriculture.
 The heavy iron-tipped ploughs and mould-boards replaced old wooden equipments. These ploughs dug much
deeper and mould -boards turned soil suitable which resulted in better use of nutrients from the soil.
 The shoulder-harness replaced neck-harness of animals that allowed animals to wield great power. Use of iron
horseshoes prevented foot decay of horses.
 There was increased use of wind and water energy for agriculture. All over Europe wind and water powered
mills were established for the purpose of grinding corn and pressing grapes .
 There was introduction of three field system for land use in place of older two field system. In that,a peasant
could use two out of three fields by sowing one crop in autumn and another crop in spring a year and half late.
They could grow wheat or rye in autumn in one field then in second field they could grow peas,beans and lentils
during spring and could grow oats and barley for horses also. The third field was left fallow and by that they
could rotate the use of all three fields every year.
 With the improvement in agricultural technology there was instant enhancement in food produced from every
unit of land. The greater use of plants like peas and beans meant increase in protein diet of Europeans and
better source of fodder for animals. Now cultivator could produce more food from small land. The average
holding of peasant's farm shrank from 100 acres to 20 or 30 acres. Now small holdings reduced the
requirement of labour and could be efficiently cultivated which gave time to peasants for other creative
activities.
 During the eleventh century the personal bonds base of feudalism weakened. The lords asked for rents in cash
instead of kind,also peasants found it easy to sell their crops to traders. The increased use of money began to
influence prices,which became higher in times of poor harvest.
A Fourth Order? New towns and Towns people
• The advent of new agricultural technology resulted in growth of agriculture which was accompanied by
progress in three related areas:population,trade and towns.
• The population of Europe rose from 42 million in 1000 to 62 million around 1200 and 73 million in 1300.Due to
th
better food the lifespan increased. An average European could expect to live 10 years longer in the 13
th
century than 8 century.
• The growth of population resulted into development of towns in the Roman Empire. Peasant needed a place to
• sell their surplus produce and buy tools and cloth. This led to the increase in holding regular fairs and small
townships. These townships gradually developed into town with features like town square,a church,streets
where merchants built shops and homes,an office where administrators of city could meet. The towns
developed along large castles,bishops' estates or large churches.
• Instead of services,people paid taxes to lords who were the owner of the land on which the town stood. Towns
offered the prospect of paid work and freedom for young people of peasantry.
• 'Town air makes free' was a saying popular in medieval Europe. Many serfs escaped from their masters and
hid themselves in towns. If they successfully completed one year and a day without being discovered by their
masters ,they could become freemen.
• There was a large number of shopkeepers and merchants,later there was a need of skilled individuals like
lawyers and bankers. The bigger towns had population of around 30,000 which might form the fourth order.
• Guilds were the basis of economic organisation in the medieval Europe . Crafter industry was
organised into guild. These guilds controlled the quality,price and the sale of the goods. The guild- hall was
part of every town where heads of all guilds met. Due to the expansion of trade and commerce also the town
merchants became wealthy and powerful and completed with power of the nobility.
Cathedral -towns
th
The large churches were called cathedrals. By 12 century onwards, cathedrals were being built in France. The
cathedrals belonged to monasteries. Different people contributed to their construction with their own labour,material
or money. A cathedral was made of stone and took several years to complete. The area around the cathedrals became
more populated and they became centres of pilgrimage. Small towns developed around them. Cathedrals were designed
in a way that voice of the priest could reach all people assembled in the hall. Singing sound of monks and the chiming
bells reached greater distance as a call for prayer. Stained glass was used for windows of the cathedrals. These glasses,
during day time ,made the cathedrals radiant for the people who were inside and during the nights ,the light of the
candles made them visible for the people outside. The stained glass narrated the stories in the Bible through pictures.
So that illiterates could understand those stories.
The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century
➢ By the early fourteenth century,Europe's economic expansion slowed down.
th
➢ In 13 century the warm summers of the previous years had given way to bitterly cold summers.
➢ Seasons for growing crops were reduced by a month.
➢ Storms and oceanic flooding destroyed many farmlands that reduced the income in taxes for govts.
➢ Population growth caused shortage of resources and the immediate result was famine.
➢ Trade was hit by a severe shortage of metal money because of the short fall in the output of silver mines in
Austria and Serbia.
➢ The ships came with rats carrying the deadly bubonic plague infection(Black death).
➢ This catastrophe ,combined with the economic crisis, caused immense social disorder.
➢ Serious imbalances were created between agriculture and manufacture.
Social Unrest
The income of lords was declining rapidly because of fall prices of agriculture products and rise in wages of
labourers. In desperation,they tried to give up the money-contracts and revive labour-services. This was fiercely
opposed by all peasants including better-educated and more prosperous one. The peasants revolted in Flanders in
1323,in France in 1358 and in England in 1381.Although the revolts were ruthlessly crushed but one significant thing
was that they occurred with more brutal intensity in the areas which experience economic growth. It was a sign of
peasant's attempt for securing their gains which they had made in previous centuries. The aggression of peasants made
it certain that old feudal order would not be reinstalled. Thus the lords were able to crush the rebellions but were not
able to reinstitute old feudal privileges
th th
Political Changes between 15 and 16 century
th th
Development in the political sphere was parallel to the social processes. In the 15 and 16 centuries,emergence of
th th
triumphant rulers in Europe was stimulated by the social changes of 13 and 14 centuries as the feudal system
weakened. Both the powerful new states and the economic changes that were occurring were significant for Europe.
The historians called these kings' the new monarchs'.The kings like Louis XI in France,Maximilian in
Austria,Henry-VII in England and Isabelle and Ferdinand in Spain were absolute monarchs. They started
the process of organizing standing armies,a permanent bureaucracy and national taxation and,in Spain and France
began to play a role in European expansion overseas.
The monarchs dispensed with the system of feudal levies for their armies and initiated professionally trained
infantry equipped with gun and siege artillery directly under their control. The resistance of the nobility collapsed in
the face of the military efficiency of the kings.
The centralized power did not establish easily confrontation of aristocracies. The nobility managed a tactical transfer
from being opponents to the new regime into loyalists. The king was at the centre of an elaborate courtier society and a
network of patron-client relationships. All rulers powerful or weak required the assistance of those who could control
power which could be arranged or acquired by way of money. The merchants and bankers acquired an important role
because they could solve problem of money for the kings by lending it to them. Therefore,they got easy access to royal
court. Kings, thus made way for non-feudal constituents in the state scheme. The later history of France and England
was to be shaped by these changes in the power structure.
Key words
Medieval Era:The term' medieval era' refers to the period in European history between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries.
Abbey : Abbey is derived from the Syriac abba,meaning father. An abbey was governed by an abbot or an abbess.
Monastery :The word 'monastery' is derived from the Greek word 'monos',meaning someone who lives alone.
Doon de mayence:A thirteenth century French poem to be sung recounting adventures of Knights.
The Canterbury Tales:A poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer
Piers Plowman:A poem written by Langland
The Black death:Black death or bubonic plague caused the large scale deaths in Europe. It was brought by the rats that
come to Europe ,along with the trading ships.
Fourth Order :The bigger towns had population of around 30,000 .They could be said to have formed a fourth order.
Passage Based Reference

Rules followed by Monks
The monks had to follow many rules .A manuscript with 73 chapters have been found in the Benedictine monasteries. Some
of the important rules were:
Chapter 6 said The consent to speak should be granted to monks only on rare occasions
Chapter 7 said Humanity means obedience
Chapter 33 said A monk should never own private property
Chapter 47 said Idleness is the enemy of the soul,so friars and sisters should be occupied at certain times in manual
labour and at fixed hours in readings.
Chapter 48 said The monasteries should be settled out in the way that all necessities (water,mill,garden,workshops
etc.) are found within its premises.
Prepared by Sujith. K, HSST History,Govt. Vocational Higher Secondar y School,Kayyoor,Kasargod Dist.
Theme 7 Changing Cultural Traditions Sujith K HSST History GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
It was Renaissance that marked the change of cultural traditions in Europe
Sources
There is a lot of material in the form of documents,printed books,paintings,sculptures ,buildings,textiles etc. Many of
these are preserved in archives,art galleries and museums in Europe and America.
Jacob Burckhardt and his view about Renaissance

Jacob Burckhardt(1818-97) was a Swiss scholar from the University of Basle of Switzerland. To him,politics was not
the central concern in history writing. History was also concerned with culture as with politics. In his book 'The
Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy',he referred the literature ,architecture and painting to describe how a new
th
humanist culture had flowered in Italian towns from the 14 century to seventeenth century. He also wrote the
development of new beliefs of this culture as the man of that age was capable of making his own decisions and
developing his skills as an individual. He further wrote that man was modern in matters of thinking in contrast to the
medieval man whose thinking was controlled by the Church.
th th
Changes that occurred in Europe between 14 century and 17 century A.D
th th
• In Europe from 14 century to the end of 17 century, a number of towns had grown in different countries
together with distinctive 'urban culture'.
• The people of towns started to think that they were more civilised than the people of villages.
• Many towns developed as centres of art and education such as Florence,Venice and Rome of Italy.
• The rich and aristocratic class began to patronise artists and writers.
• The invention of printing press made books and other printed materials easily available.
• A new sense of history developed in Europe and people divided history as medieval and modern.
• The developments in science and geography broke all the traditional notions of church like earth was the
centre of solar system and Mediterranean sea was the centre of the world.
Factors that led to the revival of Italian Cities

 After the decline of the Roman Empire,the towns of Italy which were political and cultural centres,were fell
into ruin.
 After the fall of Roman Empire,western Europe was restructured by feudal bonds and unified under the Latin
Church.
 Eastern Europe went under the rule of Byzantine Empire and Islam was building a common society further
west.
 At this time, Italy was weak and fragmented.
 All these developments helped in the revival of the Italian culture.
 The ports on the Italian coast revived because of the developments of trade between the Byzantine empire and
the Islamic countries.
th
 From the 12 century,the Mongols started trading with china through the Silk Route and as trade increased
with European countries,Italian cities played a vital role. These cities kept their identity as independent city
states. Florence and Venice were among the republics.
 Many cities came into existence because their administration was in the hands of rich merchants and
bankers,free from the control of clergy or feudal lords and this helped the idea of citizenship.
2 Sujith K HSST History GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
Role of Universities in spreading Humanism
In Europe ,earlier universities were established in Italian towns. The universities Padua and Bologna had been
th
centres of legal studies from 11 century. There was a growing demand for lawyers and notaries to write and interpret
rules and written contracts as increasing trade and commerce depended over them. There was a change in emphasis
and Law became a popular subject of study. Francisco Petrarch represented this change and stressed the significance
of a deep reading of ancient authors. The educational programme of that period was a means of study more which
th
religious teaching alone could not give. The term humanist began to be applied in early 15 century for masters who
could teach grammar,rhetoric,poetry,history and philosophy. These subjects had no connection with religion. They
were developed through discussions and debates of individuals. These ideas influenced other universities also
th
especially in newly established university in Florence ,the home town of Petrarch. By 15 century,Florence became
famous as trade and education centre. A city was known not only for its wealth but also for its citizens and Florence
had become popular because of Dante Alighieri a layman who wrote religious themes and Giotto ,an artist who painted
lifelike portraits. From then it developed as the most exciting intellectual city in Italy and a centre of artistic creativity.
The Humanist view of History
The humanists thought that an age of darkness existed for centuries after the decline of the Roman Empire,which
th
they termed as 'dark age'.Later scholars assumed that 'new age' began after the 14 century. The period of thousand
years(a millennium) after the fall of Roman Empire was considered as 'Middle Ages'or 'Medieval Period'.About 'middle
ages,they said that religion or church controlled the minds of all men in a way that all the learning of the Greeks and
th
Romans had been washed out. The humanists termed the period from the 15 century as 'modern'.Modern historians
were debating over labelling of an age as dark which they thought as an unfair thing.
Periodisation used by humanists

th
5th-14 century The Middle Ages
th th
5 -9 century The Dark Ages
th
9th-11 century The Early Middle Ages
th th
11 -14 century The Late Middle Ages
th
15 century onwards The Modern Age
Developments in Science and Philosophy and Arab's Contribution.

The monks and clergymen were familiar with the works of Greek and Roman scholars from the 'middle Ages' but they
th
did not left them get known to other people. By 14 century many scholars started to read the translation of Greek
writers like Plato and Aristotle. They were translated and preserved by Arab translators. Some Europeans read Greek
works in Arabic translation and the Greek translated Arabic and Persian scholars work in European languages. These
works were on natural science ,mathematics,astronomy,medicine and chemistry. The Almagest of Ptolemy was the work
of 140 CE on astronomy in Greek language and was translated into Arabic. It carried in Arabic alphabet 'al'which shows
connection with Arabs. Ibn Sina,an Arb physician and philosopher of Bukhara and al-Razi the author of medieval
encyclopaedia were considered as men of knowledge in Italian states. The Christian thinkers adopted the method of
Arab philosopher of Spain(Ibn Rushd) who tried to resolve the tension between philosophical knowledge and religious
faith.
Artists and Realism
Humanism was not only propagated through education but also by art,architecture and books. The artists were
inspired by studying the works of the past. The material remains including fragments of art wee found on the ruins of
ancient Rome and other deserted cities .Italian sculptors were influenced with perfectly proportioned male and female
figures Donatello initiated the new ground with his life like statues. The artists were helped by the scientists by making
accurate human figures. The artists went to laboratories of medical schools for studying bone structures. A professor
of medicine Andreas Vesalius at the university of Padua first dissected the human body ,which was the beginning of
modern physiology. Painters did not get any older work. So they painted as realistically and their pictures had a
three-dimensional effect due to the use of light effect of colours. The use of anatomy,geometry and physics together
th
with logic of 'what is beautiful' created a quality called realism introduced in Italian art which continued up to the 19
century.
Architectural Developments of the Period

th
In the 15 century,Rome made its mark in a spectacular way. Since the Popes were politically stronger by
1417,after the weakness caused by the election of two rival Popes in 1378,they actively encouraged study of Rome. The
new classical architecture was actually a revival of the Imperial Roman Style. The wealthy merchants ,popes and
aristocrats engaged those architects who were familiar with classical architecture. Artists and sculptors began to
decorate buildings with paintings ,sculptures and reliefs. Several persons were expert equally as painters,sculptors and
architects. Michaelangelo Buonarroti is remembered for his immortal work in Rome such as the painted ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel,the sculpture called 'The Pieta' and the design of the dome of St. Peter's Church. Filippo Brunelleschi
started his career as a sculptor but became famous for designing the Duomo of Florence. By this time artists were
famous individually,by their name instead being a member of a group or a guild.
Development of Printing technology

Europeans borrowed the idea of printing technology from Chinese people .because the European traders and
diplomats became familiar with it during their visits to the Mongol rulers'courts. Earlier texts were found in hand
written form. Johannes Gutenberg,a German ,made first printing press and printed 150 copies of the Bible in 1455 .The
same time was taken by a monk to write a single copy of the Bible. All classical texts in Latin had been printed in Italy
by 1500 AD. With he availability of printed books ,the dependency of students over lecture notes was ended. The
ideas,opinions and information spread widely and rapidly. The printed books promoted new views rapidly. This made it
possible for individuals to read books ,as it was possible to buy a copy for oneself. The printed books were the chief
th
factor to spread humanist culture quickly across the Alps by the end of 15 century.
The New Concept of Human Beings

One of the features of humanist culture was a loosening of the control of religion over human life. Italians remained
religious though they were attracted by material wealth,power and glory. A humanist from Venice,Francesco Barbaro
wrote pamphlet in defence of the possession of the wealth and called it a virtue. Lorenzo Valla who thought that the
study of history leads a man to attempt for a life of perfection,he in his book On Pleasure condemned the Christian
restriction against pleasure. There was a concern over good manners that how one should speak politely and dress
properly. Humanism stressed that individuals were able of shaping their own lives through resources rather than the
mere search of power and money. This belief was linked with view that human nature was many-sided which went
against the three separate orders that feudal society believed in. Machiavelli believed that 'all men are bad and ever
ready to display their vicious nature partly because of the fact that human desires are insatiable'.
The Aspiration of Women(Condition of Women)
The new ideas like individuality and citizenship regarding human beings excluded women. Men from aristocratic
families led the public life and were the decision-makers of their families. The sons were provided with education to
lead a family business or public life. Women had no say in business matters though their dowries were invested in
family business,marriages were a means to support business alliances. Those girls whose dowry was not arranged were
4 Sujith K HSST Histor y GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
sent to convents to lead the life of nuns. The women were looked upon as keeper of households only. The condition of
women in families of merchants was in contrast to that of aristocratic families. They assisted their husbands in running
the business. The wives of merchants and bankers looked after their business when they were away. The early death of
a merchant forced his widow to play a bigger public role rather than the women of aristocratic family. Several women
were intellectual humanists .Venetian Cassandra Fedele was one of them. She was known for her proficiency in Greek
and Latin language and was invited to deliver lectures at the University of Padua. Her works focus the general regard
the general regard for education. Fedele was among those women who criticised the republic for creating a highly
limited definition of liberty that favoured the wishes of men over those of women. Another outstanding woman was
the Marches of Mantua,Isabella d'Este.She ruled the state in the absence of her husband and the court of that small
state got fame for its intellectual vividness. The writings of women of that period revealed their confidence that they
should have economic power,property and education to get individuality in a world dominated by men.
Changes within the Christianity

th th
In the 15 and 16 centuries, the north European universities' scholars were attracted by humanist ideas. Like
Italian scholars they also paid attention to classical Greek and Roman texts together with the sacred books of the
Christians. The professional scholars led the humanist movement which also influenced the members of the church.
They discarded the meaningless rites which they considered as later additions and directed the Christians to follow the
religion mentioned in ancient texts of their religion.
The Christian humanists like Thomas More of England and Erasmus of Holland assumed that the church in their
respective country had become a centre of greed and extortion money forcibly from common men. The selling of
'indulgence' document was one of the method to obtain money. The Indulgences promised the people to free them from
the sins committed by them in the past. The printed Bible in local languages disclosed the Christians that their religion
did not allow such practises .The peasants ,commons and the princes began to rebel against taxes imposed by the
Church and their increasing interference in the work of the state.
In 1517,Martin Luther ,a German monk,started the protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church. He said
that a person did not need priest to set up contact with God. That led to the break-up of German and Swiss Churches
with the Pope and Catholic Church.
In Switzerland,Ulrich Zwingli and Jean Calvin followed Martin Luther's ideas .These reformers had greater popular
support in towns and rural areas. Other German reformers like Anabaptists were more radical. They blended the idea of
salvation to all kinds of social oppression. They argued that God has created all men as equals and therefore ,they are
not expected to pay tax and have the right to choose their priests. These ideas influenced the feudal oppressed
peasantry and they revolted. Martin Luther opposed radicalism and asked the German rulers to suppress the rebellions
in 1525.In England,the rulers broke the connection with the Pope. The King or queen was the head of the church from
then onwards.
In Spain,Ignatius Loyola organised the Society of Jesus in 1540.His followers were called Jesuits. The aim of the
society was to serve poor and to widen their knowledge of other cultures.
The Developments in Science and Astronomy (The Copernican Revolution)

The scientists had questioned the Christian notion of man as a sinner. The Christians believed that the earth was a
place of sin and the burden of sin made it stationary. The earth was centre of universe around which celestial planets
moved. Copernicus developed a theory that earth together with other planets revolved around the sun. He handed
5 Sujith K HSST Histor y GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod
over his manuscript De revolutionibus (The Rotation) to his disciple Joachim Rheticus before his death. People took
time to accept the truth.
Johannes Kepler popularised the theory that earth is a part of sun-centred solar system. In his Cosmographical
Mystery,he demonstrated that planets revolved around the sun not in circle but in eclipses.Galileo Galilee in his work
'The Motion' proved the notion of dynamic world. The revolution in science reached its climax with the theory of
gravitation by Isaac Newton. The works of extended rapidly into the forms of physics ,chemistry and biology.
Historians termed this new approach to the knowledge of man and nature as the Scientific Revolution.
As a result of this ,in the minds of sceptics and non-believers Nature replaced God as a source of creation. The
believers of God said that their God did not directly control the act of living in the world. A new scientific culture came
into existence as several scientific societies popularised distant God's idea. The scientific societies were formed like the
Royal Society of London in 1662 and the Paris Academy in 1670. They held lectures and carried out experiments for
public viewing.
The concept of Renaissance

Modern writers like Peter Burke of England suggested that Burckhardt exaggerated the sharp distinction between
this period and the one that preceded it by terming it as 'Renaissance'.The term implied the rebirth of the Greek and
Roman civilizations and the substitution of the pre-Christian world for the Christian world by the artists and scholars of
that period. Both these arguments were exaggerated. By terming the Renaissance as a period of imaginative creativity
and the Middle Ages as a period of darkness is a easy generalisation. The elements of Renaissance were already seen
th th th
from 12 and 13 centuries. Even in 9 century in France ,same type of literary and artistic efforts flourished.
The archaeological and literary findings of Roman culture show that the technologies and skills in Asia had
contributed to the cultural changes of Europe. The expansion of Islam and Mongol invasions linked Asia and North
Africa with Europe in trade and learning skills along with political connections. Europe along with Romans and Greeks
got knowledge from India,China,Iran,Arabia and Central Asia. The Asian contributions were soon forgotten with the
writing of history from the Europe-centred view point.
An important change that did happen in this period was the gradual separation of the public and private life of a
th
person. By 18 century ,in political sense all men had equal political rights. Europe which was united earlier,now got
dissolved into states,each united on the basis of common language.
Passage Based Refere nce
th
I. Important events of the 14 century
➢ Humanism taught as subject in Padua University in Italy(1300)
➢ Petrarch given the title of 'Poet Laureate' in Rome(1341)
➢ Establishment of University in Florence (1349)
➢ Publication of Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer(1390)
th
II. Important events of the 15 century
➢ Designing of the Duomo in Florence by Brunelleschi(1436)
➢ Defeat of the Byzantine ruler of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks (1453)
➢ Printing of the Bible with movable type by Gutenberg(1454)
➢ Calculation of latitude by observing the sun by Portuguese mathematicians(1484)
➢ Columbus reached America (1492)
➢ The Last Supper painted by Leonardo da Vinci(1495)
➢ Painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michaelangelo(1512)
th
III. Important events of the 16 century
➢ Publication of Utopia by Thomas More(1516)

➢ Martin Luther gave the Ninety Five Theses(1517)and translated the Bible into German (1522)
➢ Peasant uprising in Germany(1525)
➢ Andreas Vesalius wrote 'On Anatomy' (1543)
➢ Anglican church with king/queen as head was established in England (1559)

➢ Gerhardus Mercator prepared cylindrical map of the earth(1569)
➢ Pope Gregory XIII Introduced the Gregorian calendar(1582)
th
IV. Important events of the 17 century
➢ William Harvey linked the heart with blood circulation(1628)
➢ Academy of sciences founded in Paris (1673)
➢ Isaac Newton published 'Principia Mathematica'(1687)
Leonardo Davinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo Davinci was a versatile genius who had command over botany,anatomy,mathematics,art etc. He painted the
Monalisa and The Last Supper. He dreamed for ability to fly and spent so many years observing birds in flight and
designed a flying machine. He used to sign his name 'Leonardo da Vinci' meaning 'disciple of experiment.
Key words
Humanism: The Latin word humanists from which 'humanities was derived had been used many centuries ago by the
Roman lawyer and essayist Cicero. It is not drawn from or connected with religion.
Renaissance Man :The term Renaissance man is often used to describe a person with many interests and skills. They
were scholar-diplomat-theologian-artist combined in one
The New Testament:The New Testament is the section of the Bible dealing with the life and teachings of Christ and his
early followers.
Sujith K HSST Histor y GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Theme 2.writing and City Life (Ancient Mesopotamia)

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THEME 2.

WRITING AND CITY LIFE

Mesopotamia was known for its

Writing City life Trade Literature Mathematics Astronomy

Sumerian Akkadian Aramaic

Buildings statues ornaments graves tools seals written documents

Mesopotamia and Its Geography

Hsslive 1 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Movement of Goods into cities

The Development of Writing

Cuneiform is derived from the Latin words cuneus,

 The Mesopotamian tablets contained picture like signs and numbers.

Hsslive 2 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

The System of Writing

 King and Very few could read and write.

Urbanisation in Southern Mesopotamia: Temples and Kings

There were three kinds of cities

Cities that developed Cities that developed as Imperial cities

Construction and Maintenance of Temples in Mesopotamia

Hsslive 3 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

 We know little about the procedures of marriage

Hsslive 4 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

A Trading Town in a Pastoral Zone (Life in the city of Mari)

After 2000 BCE the royal city of Mari flourished.

• Mari was located on the upstream of Euphrates.

Hsslive 5 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

The Legacy of Writing

Scholarly tradition of time reckoning

Calendar Mathematical contribution

The division of month in to four weeks Square-square-root tables

The division of day into 24 hours, Tables of compound interest

The division of the hour into 60 minutes.

 Solar and lunar eclipses were observed and recorded.

Passage Based references

Hsslive 6 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Texts Documents Material remains

Histories written by Inscriptions

The two most powerful empires

The Phases of Roman Empire

The main part of the 3rd century

The period after 3rd Century

Hsslive 1 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Major difference between the Roman and Iranian Empires were:

• Roman Empire had a diverse population as compared to that of Iran.

The three main players in the political history of the empire

The Emperor The Senate The Army

Source of authority Body of Wealthy families Paid& Professional

Features of Roman Army

Hsslive 2 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Meaning of Roman city

Advantages of living in the city of Roman Empire

The Third- Century Crisis

Hsslive 3 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Hsslive 4 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Controlling of Workers in the Roman Empire

• Slavery was an institution deeply rooted in Ancient Roman world.

Hsslive 5 Sujith K HSST History,GVHSS Kayyoor,Kasargod

Monetary system of the late empire