The rise of Spain from obscurity to the position of one of Europe's greatest powers is centrally important in the history of Western Europe in the sixteenth century. Spain 1474-1598 explores key themes including the unification of Spain and the domestic and foreign policies of each of the monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V and Philip II. This book also examines whether the sixteenth century was a 'golden century' for Spain culturally with its art and literature, as well as its society and economy.

Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England provides a unique survey of the six major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms - Kent, the East Saxons, the East Angles, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex - and their royal families, examining the most recent research in this field. Barbara Yorke moves beyond narrative accounts of the various royal houses to explain issues such as the strategies of rule, the reasons for success and failure and the dynamics of change in the office of king. Sixteen genealogical and regnal tables help to elucidate the history of the royal houses.

'Barbarians' is the name the Romans gave to those who lived beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire - the peoples they considered 'uncivilised'. Most of the written sources concerning the barbarians come from the Romans too, and as such, need to be treated with caution. Only archaeology allows us to see beyond Roman prejudices - and yet these records are often as difficult to interpret as historical ones. Expertly guiding the reader through such historiographical complexities, Edward James traces the history of the barbarians from the height of Roman power through to AD 600, by which time they had settled in most parts of imperial territory in Europe. His book is the first to look at all Europe's barbarians: the Picts and the Scots in the far north-west; the Franks, Goths and Slavic-speaking peoples; and relative newcomers such as the Huns and Alans from the Asiatic steppes. How did whole barbarian peoples migrate across Europe? What were their relations with the Romans? And why did they convert to Christianity? Drawing on the latest scholarly research, this book rejects easy generalisations to provide a clear, nuanced and comprehensive account of the barbarians and the tumultuous period they lived through.

This volume discusses infirmitas ('infirmity' or 'weakness') in ancient and medieval societies. It concentrates on the cultural, social and domestic aspects of physical and mental illness, impairment and health, and also examines frailty as a more abstract, cultural construct. It seeks to widen our understanding of how physical and mental well-being and weakness were understood and constructed in the longue duree from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The chapters are written by experts from a variety of disciplines, including archaeology, art history and philology, and pay particular attention to the differences of experience due to gender, age and social status. The book opens with chapters on the more theoretical aspects of pre-modern infirmity and disability, moving on to discuss different types of mental and cultural infirmities, including those with positive connotations, such as medieval stigmata. The last section of the book discusses infirmity in everyday life from the perspective of healing, medicine and care.

No overall survey of the Muslim inscriptions in India has ever been attempted on this scale before. The book reveals the significance of epigraphy as a source for Islamic history and culture, and goes on to trace in fascinating detail the diffusion of Islam in Bengal from early merchants, to the mighty Mughals through to the British Raj; covering royalty to Sufis and Khanquahs.

Stimulating, encyclopaedic, and often downright funny, this is a book worth remembering." , Stephen O'Shea, Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada) A lively, full-to-bursting history of the turbulent tenth century in Europe, . Collins presents chaotic upheaval across Europe in an organized and riveting fashion." , Kirkus (starred review)The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne's empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. The stability once provided by Imperial Rome had dissolved, leaving a perilous landscape behind. Yet the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture's birth. This was the moment that civilization emerged from the Dark Ages into the light of day.The Birth of the West tells the story of a transformation from chaos to order, exploring the alien landscape of Europe in transition. It thoroughly renovates older conceptions of feudalism and what medieval life was actually like. The result is a wholly-new vision of how civilization sprang from the unlikeliest of origins, and proof that our tenth-century ancestors are not as remote as we might think. The Birth of the West is a re-making of what we think we know about the end of the Dark Ages. It is also the gate to the utterly unexpected cosmos of European forebears., The characters who people The Birth of the West are as familiar as relatives,as indeed they are,groping their way to a cohesive Western culture. The Birth of the West is thus the tale of our birth, and Collins tells it with a narrative grace and elegance which will make readers cherish it." , Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark

This book, first published in 1987, looks at the culture of the masses and at the political language and actions of the crowd. It examines the enduring traits of a European demotic culture that was largely non-literate, and it then goes on to show how the political outlook of the lower classes arose from the moral attitudes contained in their culture, a culture that was deeply suffused by Christianity. Unlike upper-class culture, popular culture is resistant to change and has to be studied over a long period - in this case the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Because its themes - popular social values, riot and revolt - are pervasive over both time and space, the book's geographical coverage is extensive, taking in most of western and central Europe.

When Henry VIII died in 1547 he left a church in England that had broken with Rome - but was it Protestant? The English Reformation was quite different in its methods, motivations and results to that taking place on the continent. This book: * examines the influences of continental reform on England * describes the divorce of Henry VIII and the break with Rome * discusses the political and religious consequences of the break with Rome * assesses the success of the Reformation up to 1547 * provides a clear guide to the main strands of historical thought on the topic.

Bertrand du Guesclin was one of the main architects of the recovery of France. From humble beginnings he rose to become one of the great heroic figures of French history. This is the first English translation of Cuvelier's epic poem about him. Bertrand du Guesclin is one of the great French heroes of the Hundred Years War, his story every bit as remarkable as Joan of Arc's. The son of a minor Breton noble, he rose in the 1360s and '70s to become the Constable of France- a supreme military position, outranking even the princes of the blood royal. Through campaigns ranging from Brittany to Castile he achieved not only fame as a pre-eminent leader of Charles V's armies, but a dukedom in Spain, burial among the kings of France in the royal basilica at Saint-Denis, and recognition as nothing less than the "Tenth Worthy", being ranked alongside the nine paragons of chivalry who included Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and King Arthur. His is a truly spectacular story. And the image of Bertrand, and many of the key events in his extraordinary life, are essentially derived from The Song of Bertrand du Guesclin, this epic poem by Cuvelier. Written in the verse-form and manner of a chanson de geste, it is the very last of the Old French epics and an outstanding example of the roman chevaleresque. It is a fascinating and major primary source forhistorians of chivalry and of a critical period in the Hundred Years War. This is its first translation into English. Cuvelier is a fine storyteller: his depictions of battle and siege are vivid and thrilling, offering invaluable insights into medieval warfare. And he is a compelling propagandist, seeking through his story of Bertrand to restore the prestige of French chivalry after the disastrous defeat at Poitiers and the chaos that followed, andseeking, too, to inspire devotion to the kingdom of France and to the fleur-de-lis. NIGEL BRYANT is well known for his lively and accurate versions of medieval French authors. His translations of Chretien de Troyes' Perceval and all its continuations and of the extraordinary late Arthurian romance Perceforest have been major achievements; he has also translated Jean le Bel's history of the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the biography of William Marshal.

Gregory the Great, whose reign spanned the years between 590 and 604 A.D., was one of the most remarkable figures of the early medieval Papacy. Aristocrat, administrator, teacher and scholar, he ascended the throne of St Peter at a time of acute crisis for the Roman Church. Consul of God, first published in 1980, revises the traditional picture of Pope Gregory. It examines how he organised the central administration of the Papacy and his unremitting war on heresy and schism. Gregory also pioneered a new pastoral tradition in learning, promoted monasticism, and trained the episcopate. Jeffrey Richards demonstrates that Gregory was both a conservative and a pioneer, and just as his reign looked forward to the medieval world it also looked back to a vanishing world of imperial unity. He was thus the last representative of those Roman senators whose fortitude and energy he emulated, earning the epitaph 'Consul of God'.

The Development of Mathematics in Medieval Europe complements the previous collection of articles by Menso Folkerts, Essays on Early Medieval Mathematics, and deals with the development of mathematics in Europe from the 12th century to about 1500. In the 12th century European learning was greatly transformed by translations from Arabic into Latin. Such translations in the field of mathematics and their influence are here described and analysed, notably al-Khwarizmi's "Arithmetic" -- through which Europe became acquainted with the Hindu-Arabic numerals -- and Euclid's "Elements". Five articles are dedicated to Johannes Regiomontanus, perhaps the most original mathematician of the 15th century, and to his discoveries in trigonometry, algebra and other fields. The knowledge and application of Euclid's "Elements" in 13th- and 15th-century Italy are discussed in three studies, while the last article treats the development of algebra in South Germany around 1500, where much of the modern symbolism used in algebra was developed.

Conventionally, ``absolutism'' in early-modern Europe has suggested unfettered autocracy and despotism -- the erosion of rights, the centralisation of decision-making, the loss of liberty. Everything, in a word, that was un-British but characteristic of ancien-regime France. Recently historians have questioned such comfortably simplistic views. This lively investigation of ``absolutism'' in action -- continent-wide but centred on a detailed comparison of France and England -- dissolves the traditional picture to reveal a much more complex reality; and in so doing illuminates the varied ways in which early-modern Europe was governed.

Published in 1998, these essays focus on Rome and the curia in the 11th and 12th centuries. Several relate to Cardinal Deusdedit and his canonical collection (1087) and to the pontificate of Paschal II (1099-1118). Both personalities and their ideas are presented within the larger setting of contemporary problems, highlighting divergent currents among ecclesiastical reformers at a time of the investiture controversies. A third common theme is formed by discussions of the organization and archival practices of the curia, which were of fundamental importance for the growth and codification of canon law, not to mention papal control of the Church.

The Last Viking reads like the sagas on which it is based. It's Beowulf on steroids, laced with purple prose...This book is great fun. - Gerard DeGroot, The Times Harald Sigurdsson burst into history as a teenaged youth in a Viking battle from which he escaped with little more than his life and a thirst for vengeance. But from these humble origins, he became one of Norway's most legendary kings. The Last Viking is a fast-moving narrative account of the life of King Harald Hardrada, as he journeyed across the medieval world, from the frozen wastelands of the North to the glittering towers of Byzantium and the passions of the Holy Land, until his warrior death on the battlefield in England. Combining Norse sagas, Byzantine accounts, Anglo-Saxon chronicles, and even King Harald's own verse and prose into a single, compelling story, Don Hollway vividly depicts the violence and spectacle of the late Viking era and delves into the dramatic events that brought an end to almost three centuries of Norse conquest and expansion.

The early Arab conquests pose a considerable challenge to modern-day historians. The earliest historical written tradition emerges only after the second half of the eighth century- over one hundred years removed from the events it contends to describe, and was undoubtedly influenced by the motives and interpretations of its authors. Indeed, when speaking or writing about the past, fact was not the only, nor even the prime, concern of Muslims of old. The Arabic Historic Tradition and the Early Islamic Conquests presents a thorough examination of Arabic narratives on the early Islamic conquests. It uncovers the influence of contemporary ideology, examining recurring fictive motifs and evaluating the reasons behind their use. Folklore and tribal traditions are evident throughout the narratives, which aimed to promote individual, tribal and regional fame through describing military prowess in the battles for the spread of Islam. Common tropes are encountered across the materials, which all serve a central theme; the moral superiority of the Muslims, which destined them to victory in God's plan. Offering a key to the state of mind and agenda of early Muslim writers, this critical reading of Arabic texts would be of great interest to students and scholars of early Arabic History and Literature, as well as a general resource for Middle Eastern History.

In 1517, the usually tranquil friary in the Hungarian town of Koermend found itself at the centre of controversy when its Augustinian friars, charged with drunkenness, sexual abuses and liturgical negligence, were driven out and replaced with observant Franciscans. The agent of change in this conflict, cardinal Thomas Bakocz, claimed to be acting in the name of 'cloister reform' motivated by a religious agenda, while the Augustinians portrayed themselves as the victims of a political game. Based on the surviving interrogations of a papal enquiry into these events, this book illuminates the tensions and potential conflict that lurked within the religious culture of a seemingly unremarkable and remote town. The story of the friary trial of Koermend provides a fascinating window into religion and society of Europe at the dawn of the Reformation, investigating the processes by which ordinary people emerge as historical agents from the written records. By focussing on their experiences as represented in the trial documents the book reveals the spaces and borders of individual and communal action within the dynamic of lay-clerical relations negotiated in a friary reform at the beginning of the 16th century. Furthermore, the moral nature of the accusations levelled at the Augustinians - and whether these were justified or instigated for political reasons - offers further insights into the nature of late-medieval Catholicism and the claims of Protestant reformers.

Paul Wittek's The Rise of the Ottoman Empire was first published by the Royal Asiatic Society in 1938 and has been out of print for more than a quarter of a century. The present reissue of the text also brings together translations of some of his other studies on Ottoman history; eight closely interconnected writings on the period from the founding of the state to the Fall of Constantinople and the reign of Mehmed II. Most of these pieces reproduces the texts of lectures or conference papers delivered by Wittek between 1936 and 1938 when he was teaching at Universite Libre in Brussels, Belgium. The books or journals in which they were originally published are for the most part inaccessible except in specialist libraries, in a period when Wittek's activities as an Ottoman historian, in particular his formulations regarding the origins and subsequent history of the Ottoman state (the "Ghazi thesis"), are coming under increasing study within the Anglo-Saxon world of scholarship. An introduction by Colin Heywood sets Wittek's work in its historical and historiographical context for the benefit of those students who were not privileged to experience it firsthand. This reissue and recontextualizing of Wittek's pioneering work on early Ottoman history makes a valuable contribution to the field and to the historiography of Asian and Middle Eastern history generally.

The book presents a broad panoramic overview of church architecture in the Russian North between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. While it is inevitably overshadowed by the imperial splendour of the country's capital cities, this unique phenomenon is regarded as the most distinctive national expression of traditional Russian artistic culture and at the same time as a significant part of humanity's worldwide architectural heritage. The chief intention of the book is to present the regionally specific features of the wooden churches of the Russian North, which vary from area to area for local natural or historical reasons. This approach touches upon the very important questions of the typology and classification of the multiplicity of architectural forms. The "regional view" entails giving clear definitions of the ambiguous terms "architectural school" and "tradition", explaining the origins and shaping impulses for the different regional clusters of objects. Structurally the book presents a history of the development of wooden church architecture in the Russian North and then follows the key points of the mediaeval Russian expansion along the waterways from Novgorod into the North - he Svir' River, Lake Onego, the town of Kargopol' and the River Onega, the White Sea, the Rivers Dvina, Pinega and Mezen' - those areas that still retain the most splendid pieces of Russian regional wooden church architecture. The study is based on field research and provides an up-to-date, multi-faceted view of Russian wooden architecture.

First published in 1999, the ideas and practices involved in early medieval royal family politics are the central theme of this collection of papers by Janet L. Nelson. She first examines King Alfred of Wessex (871-99) in the context of Anglo-Saxon conditions and in comparison with his Carolingian contemporaries. When tension and conflict within the royal family are highlighted, she argues that Alfred's talents and political thought emerge the more impressively. A second group of papers deals with the reign of Charles the Bald (840-77): his patronage of learning and his interest in Spanish martyrs are set in political context, while contemporary historiography is considered as a form of counsel and critique. The third section reflects Nelson's growing interest in the political importance and gendered roles of royal women. Consecration rites are analysed as ritual expressions and factors in the shaping of the queenship, while two final papers also examine the making and unmaking of Frankish kings and princes.

The Experience of Neighbourhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe contributes to nascent debates on concepts of neighbourliness and belonging, exploring the operation of the pre-modern neighbourhood in social practice. Formal administrative units, such as the manor and the parish, have been the object of much scholarly attention yet the experience and limits of neighbourhood remain understudied. Building on recent advances in the histories of emotions and material culture, this volume explores a variety of themes on residential proximity, from its social, cultural and religious implications to material and economic perspectives. Contributors also investigate the linguistic categories attached to neighbours and neighbourhood, tracing their meaning and use in a variety of settings to understand the ways that language conditioned the relationships it described. Together they contribute to a more socially and experientially grounded understanding of neighbourly experience in pre-modern Europe.

The early Abbasid Caliphate was an important period for Islam. The dynasty, based in Baghdad, ruled over a vast Empire, stretching from the Indus Valley and Southern Russia to the East to Tunisia in the West; and presided over an age of brilliant cultural achievements. This study, first published in 1981, examines the Abbasid Caliphs from their coming to power in 750 AD, to the death of the Caliph al-Ma'mun in 833 AD, when the period of Turkish domination began. It looks at the political history of the period, and also considers the social and economic factors, showing how they developed and influenced political life. The work is designed as a unique introduction to the period, and will prove invaluable to all students involved with Islamic, Byzantine and Mediterranean history and culture.

This pioneering collection of fifteen essays proposes to change the way we think about fourteenth-century Japan and what preceded and followed it. Most notable is the search for Japan's medieval beginnings, which are found not in the developments flowing from the establishment of the first shogunate in the 1180's, but rather in the shogunate's collapse 150 years later. In this admittedly controversial interpretation, the Kamakura age becomes the final episode in Japan's late classical period, with the courtier and warrior regimes of that era together seeking to maintain the traditional order. But under the leadership of Japan's first truly "medieval men" (the emperor Go-Daigo and Ashikaga Takauji), the old order was dramatically transformed. In the editor's words, "the rules changed, new behavior was everywhere, the past was only one of several competing influences. After the better part of a millennium, the spell cast by courtiers was finally broken." Among the topics treated are the strange new partnerships within the social hierarchy, the impact of sustained warfare on societal values, the new subservience of women in the post-Kamakura environment, the unprecedented emergence of warriors as the moralists and spokesmen of a new age, and the appearance of a new, more sharply partisan religious sectarianism. In addition, we are shown the fragility of a history now dependent on battlefield success, the assumption of control of imperial poetic anthologies by warriors, the condition of the old and new Buddhist establishments, the paradox of warrior flamboyance and warrior stolidity, and the imposition of enduring village names.

This collection pits the 'walk' (what happened in practice) against the 'talk' (the theories, preferences, and biases of thinkers and commentators) which gives students and researchers the full picture of where these case studies sit within the broader framework of 'others'. Deviance and difference are a growing field and this collection draws the latest work being done from across the premodern world. Providing students and researchers with the state of the field and new examples to inform their own work. The case studies in this collection are archivally-based, not issues-driven. They have been consciously collected as 'aspect' case studies to increase the readers understanding of difference in the premodern world.

Guillaume Caoursin, the Vice-chancellor of the Order of the Hospital, wrote the Obsidionis Rhodiae urbis descriptio (Description of the Siege of Rhodes) as the official record of the Ottoman siege of the Knights in Rhodes in 1480. The Descriptio was the first authorized account of the Order's activities to appear in printed form, and it became one of the best sellers of the 15th century. The publication of the Descriptio not only fed Western Europe's hunger for news about an important Christian victory in the ongoing war with the Turks, it also served to shape public perceptions of the Hospitallers. Caoursin wrote in a humanistic style, sacrificing military terminology to appeal to an educated audience; within a few years, however, his Latin text became the basis for vernacular versions, which also circulated widely. Modern historians recognize the contributions that the Ottoman siege of Rhodes in 1480 made in the development of military technology, particularly the science of fortifications. This book is the first complete modern Latin edition with an English translation of the Descriptio obsidionis Rhodiae. Two other published eyewitness accounts, Pierre D'Aubusson's Relatio obsidionis Rhodie and Jacomo Curte's De urbis Rhodiae obsidione a. 1480 a Turcis tentata, also appear in modern Latin edition and English translation. This book also includes John Kay's Description of the Siege of Rhodes and an English translation of Ademar Dupuis' Le siege de Rhodes. The lengthy introductory chapters by Theresa Vann place the Ottoman siege of Rhodes in 1480 within the context of Mehmed II's expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean after he captured Constantinople in 1453. They then examine the development of an official message, or propaganda, as an essential tool for the Hospitallers to raise money in Europe to defend Rhodes, a process that is traced through the chancery's official communications describing the aftermath of Constantinople and the Ottoman

Medieval Persia 1040-1797 charts the remarkable history of Persia from its conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the seventh century AD to the modern period at the end of the eighteenth century, when the impact of the west became pervasive. David Morgan argues that understanding this complex period of Persia's history is integral to understanding modern Iran and its significant role on the international scene. The book begins with a geographical introduction and briefly summarises Persian history during the early Islamic centuries to place the country's Middle Ages in their historical context. It then charts the arrival of the Saljuq Turks in the eleventh century and discusses in turn the major political powers of the period: Mongols, Timurids, Turkmen and Safawids. The chronological narrative enables students to identify change and consistencies under each ruling dynasty, while Persia's rich social, cultural, religious and economic history is also woven throughout to present a complete picture of life in Medieval Persia. Despite the turbulent backdrop, which saw Persia ruled by a succession of groups who had seized power by military force, arts, painting, poetry, literature and architecture all flourished in the period. This new edition contains a new epilogue which discusses the significant literature of the last 28 years to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the latest historiographical trends in Persian history. Concise and clear, this book is the perfect introduction for students of medieval Persia and the medieval Middle East.