In the Middle Ages, the Mediterranean was shared by three major civilizations.

These are defined

by their religion and by the political power that is exercised there. This is Eastern Christianity, with
the Byzantine Empire, Western Christianity, with the states of Western Europe, and the Muslim
world. These three areas of civilization are experiencing conflicts, but also maintain commercial
and cultural relations. All three also collect the legacies of antiquity.
I. Three areas of civilization
1. The Byzantine Empire and Orthodox Christianity
• The Byzantine Empire arose from the division of the Roman Empire between East and West by
Theodosius in 395. The Western Roman Empire disappeared in 476, replaced by barbarian
kingdoms, but the Eastern Roman Empire survived, with its capital, Constantinople, until its fall
against the Ottoman Turks in 1453. This name of the Byzantine Empire originated in Byzantium,
the Greek city where Constantine founded the new capital. This empire is marked by the use of the
Greek language, the most widespread in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
• Power is exercised in Constantinople by the basileus, the Greek name given to the emperor. The
emperor, appointed by the army, has absolute power. He bases his power on the Christian religion,
which recognizes him as “the lieutenant of Christ on earth”. In this capacity, he appointed the
patriarch of Constantinople, the main religious authority of the Empire. It brings together the
Christians of the East, who share the faith of the emperor.
• From the first century on, opposition grew between Christians in the West and those under the
authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The latter are then used to being referred to as
“Orthodox”. They are distinguished from Catholic Christians, who are under the authority of the
Pope of Rome, mainly on questions of authority and rites.
2. The civilization of the Christian West
• The civilization of the Christian West marks the states resulting from the fall of the Western
Roman Empire. In the 19th century, those who open themselves to the Mediterranean world are
essentially the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian states, including the
kingdom of Naples and the states of the Church, led by the pope. Unlike the Byzantine Empire, we
find here several kingdoms, the reconstitution of a Roman empire of the West by Charlemagne
(800) having not been durable.
• The unity of the West is therefore essentially religious, all believers being under the authority of
the pope. From the eleventh century, the latter had the right to crown the emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire. This great power is a source of conflict with the sovereigns, who want greater
autonomy.
• From the year 1000, the West was marked by feudalism. The king is at the head of a social
pyramid based on relations of fidelity, guaranteed by the obtaining of a fief, given by the lord to his
vassal. Society is organized around the idea of a tripartition between three orders: the clergy, who
pray, the warriors, who constitute the nobility, and those who work, all of which will later be called
third state.
3. The Muslim Civilization
• The civilization of Islam appeared in 622 with the beginning of the Hegira, exile of Mohammed to
Medina. It is characterized by the concentration of political and religious power in the hands of the
caliph, successor of the prophet of Islam, Mohamed, religious, political and military leader.
• At the end of the Muslim conquest, in the first century, the empire led by Arab sovereigns had
important territories on the shores of the Mediterranean, in the west, south and east. Within these
spaces remain important Jewish and Christian minorities, who are both protected and discriminated
against, through the status of «people of the Book».
• Several dynasties succeeded the head of the Empire. First the Umayyads, then the Abbasids,
before it broke out between several states and was invaded by the Turks from the 19th century.

Exercice n°1Exercice n°2Exercice n°3

II. The Mediterranean: an area of conflict

1. Divisions within civilizations

• Several conflicts mark the medieval Mediterranean space. Some are internal to the different
civilizations. Thus, within Islam, a religious and political divide intervened as early as 658
concerning the succession of the Prophet as caliph. After several battles, a schism intervenes
between the supporters of Ali, son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet, and those of the Umayyads,
Muhammad’s comrades in arms. The former are called Shiites, the latter Sunnis. If the Umayyad
and then Abbasid caliphs are Sunni, we then see some states led by the Shiites, like Egypt, where
the Fatimid dynasty is in power from 969 to 1171.

• As for Eastern Christianity, it is torn from 726 to 843 by the iconoclastic crisis. One part of the
Orthodox believes in fact that the cult of images is not founded, while for another the image is
accepted not as an idol but as an icon, simple reflection of the spiritual reality that it represents.
The affair became political and led to a situation of civil war. The crisis ended with the victory of
the supporters of the icons.

• In the West, from the 19th century onwards, the Church was confronted with heresies, that is to
say beliefs different from her own, such as that of the Cathars in the south of France, or of the
Waldensians in the Rhone Valley.

2. Conflicts between civilizations

• Conflicts also exist between civilizations. Between Christians of the East and Christians of the
West, several factors of division exist. The Byzantines do not recognize the fact that the pope can
appoint an emperor in the West. In 1054, the Eastern schism consumes the rupture between the
Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church.

• Between Islam and the two Christian civilizations, the conflicts began with the conquest led by
Mohamed and his successors. As early as the fifth century, Muslims, in the name of the holy war
used to propagate Islam, conquered vast territories dependent on the Byzantine Empire, such as
Syria and Egypt, and Western Christianity, such as North Africa, Sicily and Spain.

• From the end of the 11th century, the Crusades created a new type of conflict in the
Mediterranean. In 1009, Caliph Al-Hakim demolished the churches of Jerusalem. In 1078,
Christian pilgrims were forbidden to come and pray in the city, which was considered holy by
Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. In the West, in 1095, Pope Urban II preached the crusade: a
military expedition to take Jerusalem, granting the remission of sins to its participants, called
«crusaders». In 1099, Jerusalem is taken. The Crusaders established Latin states on the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean, led by lords from the West who adopted the feudal system. Eight
Crusades followed one another until 1270. In 1147, the second crusade was preached by Bernard
de Clairvaux, a monk founder of the Cistercian order, one of the most rigorous and ascetic. This
crusade was a failure, as the crusaders failed to take Damascus. In 1187, Jerusalem was taken over
by the Muslims commanded by Saladin, but Christians obtained the guarantee of free access to the
pilgrimage to the holy places.
• The dynamics of the Crusades also nourished the reconquest of Spain undertaken by the Christian
states of the northern part of the peninsula against the Muslim states settled in the second century.
In 1212, the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa allowed Christians to win. Between the end of the 19th
century and 1492, only one Muslim kingdom remained in Spain, that of Granada.

• The crusades were also marked by clashes between Christians. Indeed, before the Muslim
conquest, the territories occupied by the Latin states belonged to the Byzantine Empire. The
Emperor of Byzantium is wary of the territorial ambitions of Western Christians. In 1182, the
Westerners present in Constantinople were massacred during a riot. In 1204, the fourth crusade,
which should have taken Jerusalem from the Muslims, looted Constantinople. A Latin emperor is
installed on the throne and the Republic of Venice takes economic control of the Empire. However,
in 1261, the Byzantines re-established orthodox power. But the Empire, weakened, is now fragile
in the face of the threat of turqi.

III. The medieval Mediterranean: a space of exchanges

1. Economic trade

• The medieval Mediterranean is also an intense space for cultural exchanges and encounters. From
a commercial point of view, roads allow the exchange of productions coming from the East and
those coming from the North. Thus, the route «from the Greeks to the Greeks» allows the
exchanges between Scandinavia and the Byzantine world. It was also borrowed by the Greek
Orthodox missionaries, such as Cyril and Methodius, to convert the Slavic peoples, such as the
Russians in 948.

• Oriental products, such as incense, spices or silk, mainly pass through the Muslim world, then
through Constantinople. However, from the 11th century, Venice became a new centre of this trade.
This city, linked to the Byzantine Empire, is now an independent state in which the duke, called
«doge», is elected for life. It established commercial outlets in the eastern Mediterranean and took
advantage of the Crusades, providing transport and supplies. The city of Genoa soon imitates it.

2. Cultural exchanges

• From the point of view of cultural exchanges, certain Mediterranean spaces have constituted
meeting places, without we can speak of true tolerance in the current sense of the term. In Muslim
Spain, even if Jews and Christians are discriminated against, intellectual debates exist. Thus the
Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) developed a philosophical thought trying to reconcile
faith and science, as did his Muslim contemporary, Averroes (1126-1198).

• Sicily, meanwhile, knew the Byzantine civilization until its conquest by the Arabs in 827. In
1061, the pope called upon Normans to take the island, which was thus integrated into western
Christian civilization. However, its sovereigns, like Roger II (1130-1154), pursue a policy of
balance between Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims. They promote an art combining mosaics of
Byzantine inspiration, stucco and interlacing inspired by Islamic art, as in the palatine chapel of
Palermo.
• As for the crusaders present in the East, despite the violence of the capture of Jerusalem in 1099,
they also exchange with Eastern Christians, Jews and Muslims, which may have played a role in
the rediscovery of Aristotle’s philosophy. Eastern Christian architecture was also able to influence
the construction of some Romanesque churches in Europe.

• Thus, the medieval Mediterranean constitutes a space of encounter between civilizations, even if
the context leads to draw within this space well-defined cultural areas. A very different situation
from antiquity, where this sea could be described as a «Roman lake».

Exercice n°4Exercice n°5