The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000

by Chris Wickham

  p. 339. The eighth-century economy of Spain: C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), pp. 656-65, 741-59; for cities, see further S. Gutiérrez Lloret, in Marín, Formation, vol. 1, pp. 217-47.

  p. 340. Syrian settlement in Spain: Manzano, Conquistadores, pp. 93-113; an English translation of an earlier version is in Marín, Formation, vol. 1, pp. 85-114.

  p. 340. Chronicle of 754 on tax: published in Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain, trans. K. B. Wolf (Liverpool, 1990), pp. 111-58, cc. 59, 62, 82, 91.

  p. 340. Thugr: Manzano, La frontera.

  p. 340. Tribal groups: P. Guichard, Structures sociales ‘orientales’ et ‘occidentales’ dans l’Espagne musulmane (Paris, 1977) is the classic analysis.

  p. 341. ‘Abd al-Rahman II: see Lévi-Provencal, Histoire, vol. 1, pp. 193 - 278.

  p. 341. Murcia: see A. Carmona González, in Marín, Formation, vol. 1, pp. 205-16.

  p. 341. Ziryab: Manzano, Conquistadores, pp. 307-8.

  p. 342. Christians: R. W. Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), pp. 114-27; his figures have been revised both up and down, but are still a significant point of reference. The most nuanced survey is A. Christys, Christians in al-Andalus (711-1000) (Richmond, 2002); pp. 52-79 for the relative unimportance of the ‘martyrs of Córdoba’; see further K. B. Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain (Cambridge, 1988) and J. A. Coope, The Martyrs of Cordoba (Lincoln, Nebr., 1995).

  p. 342. The fitna: see the debate between M. Acién Almansa, in Entre el feudalismo y el Islam, 2nd edn. (Jaén, 1997) and M. I. Fierro, in Marín, Formation, vol. 1, pp. 291-328; Manzano, Conquistadores, pp. 341-59; and V. Salvatierra Cuenca, La crisis del emirato omeya en el alto Guadalquivir (Jaén, 2001).

  p. 343. ‘Abd al-Rahman III and the caliphate: see M. Fierro, ‘Abd al-Rahman III (Oxford, 2005); Lévi-Provençal, Histoire, vols. 2 and 3, remains basic.

  p. 344. Madinat al-Zahra’: A. Vallejo Triano, Madinat al-Zahra (Seville, 2004); for ceremonial, Vita Iohannis Gorzensis, in MGH, Scriptores, vol. 4 (Hanover, 1841), pp. 337-77, cc. 118-36; M. Barceló, in Marín, Formation, vol. 1, pp. 425-55. For a detailed description of Córdoba, see Ibn Hauqal, Configuration, vol. 1, pp. 110-12.

  p. 344. Ceramics: see Manzano, Conquistadores, pp. 448-51; for al-mulk, M. Barceló, in A. Malpica Cuello (ed.), La cerámica altomedieval en el sur de al-Andalus (Granada, 1993), pp. 293-9.

  p. 345. Ibn al-Qutiya: for a Spanish translation, see J. Ribera, Colección de obras arábigas de historia y geografía, que pública la Real Academia de Historia, vol. 2 (Madrid, 1926), pp. 1-101; for commentary and sizeable quotes in English, Christys, Christians, pp. 158-83; see further M. I. Fierro, in Al-Qantara, 10 (1989), pp. 485-512.

  p. 346. Second fitna and Taifas: Kennedy, Muslim Spain, pp. 122-44, gives a brisk and nuanced analysis; see further P. C. Scales, The Fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba (Leiden, 1994) and D. Wasserstein, The Rise and Fall of the Party-kings (Princeton, 1985).

  p. 347. Governorships: Lévi-Provençal, Histoire, vol. 3, pp. 47-53; Manzano, Conquistad- ores, pp. 425-44.

  Chapter 15

  The Byzantine economy as a whole is covered in the collective three-volume EHB; the best overviews of the period as a whole are the editor, A. E. Laiou’s own synthetic article, ‘Exchange and Trade, Seventh-Twelfth Centuries’, EHB, vol. 2, pp. 697-770, and the first half of Laiou and C. Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy (Cambridge, 2007). For the early period, see J. F. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century, 2nd edn. (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 92-172, and L. Brubaker and J. F. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era ca.680- ca.850 (Cambridge, 2008), ch. 7; for the later period, see A. Harvey, Economic Expansion in the Byzantine Empire, 900-1200 (Cambridge, 1989). For the economic dimension of the fiscal system, M. F. Hendy, Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy, c.300-1450 (Cambridge 1985) is essential; so, for rural society, is M. Kaplan, Les Hommes et la terre a‘ Byzance du VIe au XIe siècle (Paris, 1992).

  The economy of the Islamic world does not have anything approaching the quality of these overviews. E. Ashtor, A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages (London, 1976), the only competitor, and an essential text, is outdated, moralistic and contains some unconvincing structural assumptions. For the period to 800, I refer to my own Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), which contains a bibliography of monographic work; from then onward, local studies (some of them very important) will be referred to as we proceed.

  p. 348. City regulations: an English translation of the Book of the Eparch by E. H. Freshfield (1938), is in To eparchikon biblion, the Book of the Eparch, le livre du préfet (London, 1970), pp. 223-70; cf. Laiou, ‘Exchange’, pp. 718-36, G. Dagron, in EHB, vol. 2, pp. 405-61, and Hendy, Studies, pp. 561-9.

  p. 349. Constantinople size: the figure is a guess, but fits with the detailed analyses in P. Magdalino, Constantinople médiévale (Paris, 1996).

  p. 349. Liutprand: The Complete Works of Liutprand of Cremona, trans. P. Squatriti (Washington, 2007), pp. 271-3, Embassy, cc. 53-5.

  p. 349. State control in al-Andalus: O. R. Constable, Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 112-37.

  p. 350. State and economy in Egypt: S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 6 vols. (Berkeley, 1967-93), vol. 1, pp. 217-21, 267-72; for grain, Y. Lev, State and Society in Fatimid Egypt (Leiden, 1991), pp. 162-78.

  p. 351. Jeme: T. Wilfong, Women of Jeme (Ann Arbor, 2002); Wickham, Framing, pp. 419-28.

  p. 351. Genza: for an introduction, Goitein, Mediterranean Society (the classic genza study), vol. 1, pp. 1-23.

  p. 352. Byzantium: see for what follows the overviews mentioned earlier, with Wickham, Framing, pp. 124-9, 460-64, 626-35, 780-94.

  p. 352. Theodore and Farmer’s Law: Vie de Théodore de Sykéôn, ed. and trans. A.-J. Festugière (Brussels, 1970); W. Ashburner (ed. and trans.), ‘The Farmer’s Law’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 30 (1910), pp. 85-108; 32 (1912), pp. 68-95.

  p. 353. Post-550 urban dip: see most recently, for a critique, M. Whittow, in L. Lavan (ed.), Recent Research in Late-antique Urbanism (Portsmouth, RI, 2001), pp. 137-53.

  p. 353. Sardis, Ankara, Gortyn: J. S. Crawford, The Byzantine Shops at Sardis (Cambridge, Mass., 1990); C. Foss, ‘Late Antique and Byzantine Ankara’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 31 (1977), pp. 29-87; E. Zanini and E. Giorgi, in Annuario della Scuola archeologica italiana di Atene, 80 (2002), pp. 212-32.

  p. 353. Corinth: G. D. R. Sanders, in EHB, vol. 2, pp. 647-54.

  p. 354. Post-850/900 urban expansion: Harvey, Economic Expansion, pp. 207-24, C. Foss, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis (Cambridge, Mass., 1980), pp. 66-76; P. Arthur, ‘Hierapolis tra BisanzioeiTurchi’, in D. De Bernardi Ferrero, Saggi in onore di Paolo Verzone (Rome, 2002), pp. 219-20.

  p. 355. Naval law: Nomos rodi nautikos: The Rhodian Sea-law, ed. and trans. W. Ash- burner (Oxford, 1909).

  p. 356. Corinth coins: Sanders, in EHB, vol. 2, p. 649.

  p. 356. Ceramics after 800: J. imbuleva, in Nessèbre, vol. 2 (Sofia, 1980), pp. 202-15; P. Armstrong, in W. Cavanagh et al., The Laconia Survey, vol. 1 (London, 2002), pp. 353-5; eadem, ‘Byzantine Thebes’, Annual of the British School at Athens, 88 (1993), pp. 304-6; T. Totev, ‘L’Atelier de céramique peinte du monastère royal de Preslav’, Cahiers archéologiques, 35 (1987), pp. 65-80; C. H. Morgan, Excavations at Corinth XI (Cambridge, Mass., 1942), pp. 14, 36-53, 72-5; N. Günsenin, in Eupsychia, vol. 1 (Paris, 1998), pp. 281-7; F. M. Hocker, in S. Kingsley (ed.), Barbarian Seas: Late Rome to Islam (London, 2004), pp. 61-3, for the wreck.

  p. 356. Linen and glass: Book of the Eparch, c. 9; Laiou, ‘Exchange’, p. 726; Laiou and Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy, p. 77, and see pp. 70-89 for an overview of this economic revival.

  p. 356. Danelis: Kaplan, Les Hommes, pp. 333-4; Basil: E. McGeer, The Land Legislation of the Macedonian Emperors (Toronto, 2000), Novel O, 7.

  p. 357. Byzantines in Egypt: Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 44-6; D. Jacoby, in Thesauris
mata, 30 (2000), pp. 25-77.

  p. 357. Eleventh-century agricultural specializations: Harvey, Economic Expansion, passim; Laiou and Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy, pp. 90-115.

  p. 357. Syria: see, before 800, A. Walmsley, Early Islamic Syria (London, 2007).

  p. 358. Madaba: M. Piccirillo, The Mosaics of Jordan (‘Amman, 1992), pp. 49-256; see in general for rural settlement, J. Magness, The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine (Winona Lake, Ind., 2003).

  p. 358. Bet She’an: Y. Tsafrir and G. Foerster, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 51 (1997), pp. 85-146.

  p. 358. Athanasios: The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles, trans. A. Palmer (Liverpool, 1993), pp. 202-4.

  p. 359. Changing forms of cities: the classic is H. Kennedy, ‘From polis to madina’, Past and Present, 106 (1985), pp. 3-27. For Iran, see R. W. Bulliet, The Patricians of Nishapur (Cambridge, Mass., 1972).

  p. 360. Syro-Palestinian exchange under the early ‘Abbasids: A. Walmsley in I. L. Hansen and C. Wickham (eds.), The Long Eighth Century (Leiden, 2000), pp. 265-343; A. Northedge and A. Walmsley, in E. Villeneuve and P. Watson (eds.), La Céramique byzan- tine et proto-islamique en Syrie-Jordanie (Beirut, 2001), pp. 207-14, 305-13.

  p. 361. Nahrawan canal: R. McC. Adams, Land behind Baghdad (Chicago, 1965), esp. pp. 69-106, 115 (and 97-8 for dating); for a critique, M. Morony, in G. R. D. King and A. Cameron (eds.), The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, vol. 2 (Princeton, 1994), pp. 221-9.

  p. 361. Raqqa: K. Bartl, Frühislamische Besiedlung im Balh-tal/Nordsyrien (Berlin, 1994).

  p. 361. Sharecropping, etc.: M. ‘Abdul Jabbar, in M. G. Morony (ed.), Manufacturing and Labour (Aldershot, 2003), pp. 235-51; cf. Ashtor, Social and Economic History, pp. 87-90, 97-9, 109-14, 143-58 for the economic networks focused on Baghdad; and for Arab-period agricultural diversification in general, A. M. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge, 1983).

  p. 362. Siraf and the Indian Ocean: R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe (London, 1983), pp. 133-49; M. Tampoe, Maritime Trade between China and the West (Oxford, 1989); K. M. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean (Cambridge, 1985); Buzurg, The Book of the Wonders of India, Mainland, Sea and Islands, trans. G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville (London, 1981).

  p. 362. Egypt to 800: Wickham, Framing, pp. 133-44, 609-12, 759-69. For the urban-dwelling percentage in Roman Egypt, see R. S. Bagnall and B. W. Freer, The Demography of Roman Egypt (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 53-6.

  p. 363. Rise of large landowning: K. Morimoto, in Orient, 11 (1975), pp. 109-53; G. Frantz-Murphy, Arabic Agricultural Leases and Tax Receipts from Egypt 148-427 A. H./ 765-1035 AD. (Vienna, 2001) - crucial on tax-farming; cf. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 117-18 for day’a in the eleventh century.

  p. 364. Fayyum papyri: Y. Rgib, Marchands d’étoffes du Fayyoum au IIIe/IXe siècle, 4 vols. so far (Cairo, 1982-96); for Qus, 1.3, 8, 10, 2.14; for Alexandria and Tinnis, 3.33.

  p. 365. Linen: Y. Lev, ‘Tinns’, in M. Barrucand (ed.), L’Égypte fatimide, son art et son histoire (Paris, 1999), pp. 83 - 96; G. Frantz-Murphy, in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 24 (1981), pp. 274-97; Ibn Hauqal, Configuration de la terre, vol. 1, trans. J. H. Kramers and G. Wiet (Beirut and Paris, 1964) p. 150, for sale to Iraq.

  p. 365. Exports: Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 153-6, 209-17, and passim.

  p. 365. Ibn ‘Awkal: N. A. Stillman, in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 16 (1973), pp. 15-88 (his sons were adults in 1008 - cf. p. 17 - so he was probably around forty by then); M. Gil, ibid., 46 (2003), pp. 273-319; Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 6, p. 56, indexes the numerous references to him there; S. D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton, 1973), nn. 1 (Samhun), 13, 14, 70.

  p. 368. Exports from al-Andalus: Constable, Trade and Traders, pp. 169-208; cf. 79-92 for merchants.

  p. 368. Rome-Constantinople route: M. McCormick, Origins of the European Economy (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 502-8. Small-scale network of boats: P. Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea (Oxford, 2000), pp. 123-72.

  p. 369. Venice: McCormick, Origins, pp. 238-40 (St Mark), 523-31, 733-77.

  p. 369. Amalfi: McCormick, Origins, pp. 511-15, 627-30; B. M. Kreutz, Before the Normans (Philadelphia, 1991), pp. 75-93.

  p. 369. Olive oil in 880, Arab wrecks off France: McCormick, Origins, pp. 955-6, 599 (cf. 674-8).

  p. 369. Byzantine exports: Laiou, ‘Exchange’, pp. 725-8; D. Jacoby, in Thesaurismata, 30 (2000), pp. 25-77; Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, p. 46.

  p. 370. Almería: Constable, Trade and Traders, pp. 18-19; Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 1, pp. 61, 64, 210, etc.

  p. 370. Tunisian ceramics: G. Berti and L. Tongiorgi, I bacini ceramici medievali delle chiese di Pisa (Rome, 1981), pp. 162-75; for Tunisian prosperity, see in general G. Vanacker, in Annales ESC, 28 (1973), pp. 659-80.

  p. 371. Egypt as hub: see J. L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony (New York, 1989), pp. 213-47, and passim for the medieval trade cycle as a whole.

  Chapter 16

  There are many books on the Carolingians, more than on any topic in our period after the end of the western empire. The best single-author survey remains R. McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987 (Harlow, 1983); crucial article collections, also aiming for completeness, are NCMH, vol. 2, and R. Le Jan (ed.), La Royauté et les elites dans l’Europe carolingienne (Lille, 1998), much of which is in English. As one would expect, French and particularly German historiography are also very strong; these books and others cite it at length. Charlemagne has many personalized accounts, of which the most recent (and best) are J. Story (ed.), Charlemagne (Manchester, 2005), and R. McKitterick, Charlemagne (Cambridge 2008); Louis the Pious has fewer, but see P. Godman and R. Collins (eds.), Charlemagne’s Heir (Oxford, 1990), a rather severe set of articles; for his son Charles, see above all J. L. Nelson, Charles the Bald (Harlow, 1992). For Carolingian culture, see the next chapter. Other key points of reference are J. L. Nelson’s article collections, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (London, 1986), The Frankish World, 750-900 (London, 1996), and Courts, Elites and the Workings of Power in the Early Medieval World (Aldershot, 2007); M. Innes, State and Society in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2000); and an innovative rereading of Carolingian political rhetoric, P. E. Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (Lincoln, Nebr., 1994). Many primary sources are in translation, in particular in P. D. King, Charlemagne (Kendal, 1987) and P. E. Dutton, Carolingian Civilization (Peterborough, Ont., 1993). This outpouring of recent work largely replaces its English-language predecessors, but see, still, H. Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire (Oxford, 1963), F. L. Ganshof, Frankish Institutions under Charlemagne (Providence, RI, 1968), and D. Bullough, The Age of Charlemagne (London, 1965).

  p. 375. Fastrada letter: trans. King, Charlemagne, pp. 309-10.

  p. 375. Charlemagne’s age: M. Becher, ‘Neue Uberlieferungen zum Geburtsdatum Karls des Grossen’, Francia, 19 (1992), pp. 37-60.

  p. 376. Charlemagne’s tastes: Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, trans. P. E. Dutton, Charlemagne’s Courtier (Peterborough, Ont., 1998), cc. 18, 22-4, 29.

  p. 376. Charles Martel: P. Fouracre, The Age of Charles Martel (Harlow, 2000).

  p. 376. Coup: Royal Frankish Annals, trans. B. W. Scholz, Carolingian Chronicles (Ann Arbor, 1970), s.a. 751 (with modifications); R. McKitterick, History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 133-55; P. E. Dutton, Charlemagne’s Mustache (New York, 2004), pp. 3-42 for hairstyles.

  p. 377. Church councils: M. A. Claussen, The Reform of the Frankish Church (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 24-57; J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), pp. 162-80; for tithes, Cap., vol. 1, n. 17.

  p. 379. Duke Tassilo: see S. Airlie, in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6 ser, 9 (1999), pp. 93-119; for death/imprisonment, J. Busch, in Historisc
he Zeitschrift, 263 (1996), pp. 561-88; for blinding, G. Buhrer-Thierry, in B. H. Rosenwein (ed.), Anger’s Past (Ithaca, NY, 1998), pp. 75-91.

  p. 380. Bavarian aristocracies: see K. L. R. Pearson, Conflicting Loyalties in Early Medieval Bavaria (Aldershot, 1999); W. Brown, Unjust Seizure (Ithaca, NY, 2001).

  p. 380. Einhard on the Avars: Life of Charlemagne, c. 13.

  p. 380. End of expansion: T. Reuter, Medieval Polities and Modern Mentalities, ed. J. L. Nelson (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 251-67.

  p. 381. Carolingian control of monasteries: S. Wood, The Proprietary Church in the Medieval West (Oxford, 2006), pp. 247-69.

  p. 381. Chosen people: M. Garrison, ‘The Franks as the New Israel?’, in Y. Hen and M. Innes (eds.), The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 114-61, nuancing earlier views. Jews: see B. S. Bachrach, Early Medieval Jewish Policy in Western Europe (Minneapolis, 1977), pp. 66-131.

  p. 381. Einhard in Greek: Life of Charlemagne, c. 16.

  p. 382. Aachen: J. L. Nelson, in M. de Jong and F. Theuws (eds.), Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages (Leiden, 2001), pp. 217-41.