HIST 105 : THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD I

HIST 105 FINAL REVIEW

2008-01-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

Those of you who want to see your exam papers may do so tomorrow, 24 January Thursday, between 10:00-12:00, and 13:30-16:30, at room TB 507.

MAKEUP RESULTS

2008-01-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

NUMBER	RESULTS
2004102374	26
2003100502	38
2006102299	20
2006103082	19.5
2006103340	31.5
2000100652	36
2005103943	23.5

Final Exam Grades

2008-01-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

FINAL EXAM GRADES	over 50
No	Total
2007480145	0
2007480115	0
2007460137	0
2007460097	33,7
2007300250	23
2007300067	41,3
2007300061	0
2007200112	28
2007104144	41,9
2007103874	34,4
2007103703	40,8
2007103655	44
2007103433	28,2
2007103310	38
2007103226	37,6
2007103031	38,5
2007103004	25
2007102530	36
2007102500	37,1
2007102470	46,5
2007102230	33,7
2007102215	42
2007102080	37,1
2007102047	30,1
2007102038	6,5
2007101942	36
2007101819	34
2007100640	27,5
2007100595	35
2007100583	19,5
2007100439	32,5
2007100421	36,5
2007100397	37
2007100295	29,3
2007100025	28,7
2007100016	43,7
2006200330	11,2
2006200327	37,1
2006200318	16,5
2006200145	22,4
2006200142	0
2006200133	17
2006200121	14
2006105056	26,5
2006105044	32
2006105041	0
2006105017	37,3
2006104999	24,3
2006104996	0
2006104921	30,5
2006104909	25,4
2006104777	27,3
2006104756	36,3
2006104747	0
2006104708	20,4
2006104678	31,3
2006104606	32,5
2006104597	0
2006104591	30,3
2006104585	0
2006104561	16,2
2006104558	23,7
2006104489	15
2006104480	0
2006104441	27,2
2006104432	30,2
2006104426	11,5
2006104363	29,8
2006104327	24,6
2006104312	18
2006104264	35
2006104201	43
2006104156	35,1
2006104141	29
2006104111	36,1
2006104093	27,5
2006104006	34,5
2006103994	28
2006103877	33,5
2006103865	0
2006103859	35,9
2006103790	38,3
2006103739	19,5
2006103694	11,2
2006103667	17,7
2006103655	29,7
2006103628	32,4
2006103625	28,5
2006103616	38,2
2006103583	0
2006103580	10,5
2006103565	36,5
2006103562	16
2006103559	44,4
2006103493	31,5
2006103478	0
2006103436	22,3
2006103430	26,5
2006103406	29,4
2006103391	20,8
2006103382	27,6
2006103340	0
2006103334	33,5
2006103313	30,9
2006103274	26,5
2006103205	12,5
2006103169	35,9
2006103166	36,3
2006103160	0
2006103145	26
2006103118	12,5
2006103115	33
2006103088	29,8
2006103082	0
2006103076	29,2
2006103070	23
2006103034	19,3
2006102998	25,5
2006102989	33
2006102941	19,1
2006102809	23
2006102803	27,1
2006102794	15
2006102785	0
2006102770	30,1
2006102731	0
2006102710	5,8
2006102674	0
2006102671	26,1
2006102596	39,3
2006102524	32,4
2006102521	14,5
2006102482	34,4
2006102455	10,5
2006102446	0
2006102419	23,5
2006102416	0
2006102413	27,6
2006102398	21,5
2006102389	30,5
2006102326	32,3
2006102320	42,4
2006102299	0
2006102284	26,6
2006102236	25,8
2006102230	34
2006102185	34,5
2006102167	7,5
2006102143	0
2006102140	22
2006102128	40,5
2006102122	16,5
2006102119	28,1
2006102107	22,6
2006102071	20,8
2006102062	0
2006102032	30,9
2006102026	40,8
2006102017	36,5
2006102005	36
2006101987	35
2006101978	16,8
2006101957	32,4
2006101945	0
2006101939	42,2
2006101933	27,2
2006101912	41,3
2006101864	25
2006101804	11,5
2006101753	32,5
2006101747	36,9
2006101699	23,2
2006101687	0
2006101675	29,5
2006101672	0
2006101666	26,4
2006101606	28,2
2006101582	38,6
2006101579	13,7
2006101552	39,9
2006101534	0
2006101528	27,1
2006101498	30,2
2006101456	0
2006101447	14
2006101429	13
2006101402	14,2
2006101348	22,1
2006101342	26
2006101327	20,9
2006101264	36,2
2006101252	11,5
2006101246	32
2006101243	0
2006101204	31,9
2006101126	22,9
2006101078	27,1
2006101075	36
2006101027	24,8
2006101015	0
2006100967	35,5
2006100943	27,2
2006100940	0
2006100922	38
2006100919	31,8
2006100913	21,4
2006100898	40
2006100886	38
2006100883	33
2006100880	0
2006100853	30,7
2006100850	36,4
2006100823	0
2006100793	0
2006100790	33
2006100766	5,5
2006100763	21,5
2006100664	0
2006100658	23
2006100640	0
2006100580	39
2006100562	45,5
2006100451	2,5
2006100439	14
2006100430	31,3
2006100346	0
2006100340	39,1
2006100307	0
2006100289	32
2006100265	39,7
2006100223	37,5
2006100211	0
2006100205	26,2
2006100178	34,9
2006100166	31,4
2006100136	17,8
2006100067	0
2006100004	0
2006000127	2
2006000124	0
2006000118	0
2006000106	41
2006000100	18,9
2006000097	0
2006000094	0
2006000088	36,2
2005300287	25
2005200069	0
2005104726	0
2005104444	0
2005104438	23,8
2005104288	28,9
2005104222	26
2005104189	23,1
2005104183	31,9
2005104147	37,2
2005104117	21,3
2005104003	29,3
2005103943	0
2005103919	0
2005103697	0
2005103679	34,5
2005103487	30
2005103286	0
2005103115	31,9
2005103091	27,5
2005102929	24,4
2005102902	23,5
2005102782	24,4
2005102704	31,5
2005102635	32
2005102629	7,5
2005102599	2
2005102572	22,5
2005102431	29
2005102404	19,4
2005102362	14
2005102260	26
2005102233	27,7
2005102188	31,3
2005102158	17
2005102041	24
2005101954	0
2005101873	24
2005101834	23,7
2005101789	28,4
2005101756	41,9
2005101729	36
2005101684	37,1
2005101603	38
2005101564	25
2005101468	13,5
2005101417	22,1
2005101384	8
2005101318	0
2005101276	29,4
2005101228	3,6
2005101153	29
2005101144	27,6
2005101066	0
2005101027	14,1
2005100892	28
2005100721	30,9
2005100697	34,5
2005100349	16,5
2005100229	0
2005100139	0
2005100130	32,8
2005000115	30,5
2005000113	10,5
2004300079	39,8
2004200051	11,5
2004104138	0
2004103547	0
2004103433	37
2004103430	37
2004102374	0
2004102269	0
2004102104	0
2004102002	40,7
2004101924	35,5
2004101474	24
2004100883	16
2004100301	0
2003200197	26,5
2003103427	0
2003102932	0
2003101807	15
2003100619	26,1
2003100502	0
2003000215	0
2002102617	0
2002102572	3,1
2002100307	0
2001103358	14,4
2001102023	0
2000100652	0
9900223	0
Average:	27,6053

HIST 105 MAKE UP ANNOUNCEMENT

2008-01-21T00:32:00.000-08:00

The Make Up will be held on Wednesday (January 23, 2008). Students must bring their student ID cards.

Place: TB 260
Time: 9:00- 11:45 (2h. 45 m.)

FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

2008-01-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

The Final will be held on January 12, 2008. Each student must take the exam in the assigned room. Those students whose names are not on the room list will not be admitted to the exam in that room.

ALİ ABA- DUYGU CANKILIÇ (YD 106)
KORAY CAN CANUT- EMRE EMİN EKİN (YD 116)
HAMİDE ERAVCI-TUĞBA KARASU (YD 206)
FERHAT KARDAŞ- MEHMET KURTOĞLU(YD 302)
ELİF KURTULUŞ-OSMAN ÖZARSLAN(YD 304)
MÜGE ÖZBEK-YASEMİN TAHTALI(YD 306)
DİLARA TAJİK-GÜRKAN ZORER(YD 406)

Students must bring their student ID cards.

THE GENGHISID WORLD EMPIRE / ÇIĞDEM KAFESCIOĞLU

2008-01-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Mongol rule and successor states, 13th, 14th centuries

1.
Mongol tribal confederacy under Genghis (Cengiz), the Great Khan, or Khagan (Hakan), 1206. Capital city: Karakorum

Conquests in China, Central Asia and Iran, Russia and Eastern Europe, Mesopotamia and Syria

Khanates:
* Golden Horde in Russia
* Ilkhans in Iran; Centered in Tabriz and Sultaniyya
(Sack of Baghdad, 1258)
* Mongol Yuan dynasty in China; Kubilai Khan (1260-1294);

Capital of the great khanate: Khanbalik (modern Beijing)
* Chagatai khanate

2.
Connections across Eurasia through the “Pax Mongolica”

Consolidation of global trade network; radical increase in volume of trade across Eurasia

Silk road, controlled and secured by the Mongol rule: creates space for the exchange of luxury goods, for cultural encounters between the Mediterranean and Asia, for the transfer of technology and science

Mongol decline renders land routes dangerous; explorations of sea routes to shape emerging early modern world

Timurid invasions, 1360’s - 1405

3.
Mongol legacy

Cultural eclecticism and inclusivism of Mongol rulers across Asia; east Asian cultural forms travel west. Appropriations of local cultural forms by newly established Mongol polities

Genghisid notions of world rule: to shape notions of world rule in the late medieval and early modern Turco-Persian world, in the Timurid, Ottoman, Mughal empires

MEDIEVAL SOUTH ASIA: SUFIS, SULTANS,RAJAS / MELTEM TOKSÖZ

2008-01-05T17:10:00.001-08:00

GREAT MIGRATIONS

The Aryan Migrations of Indo-Europeans took place between 4000-1000 BC

The Aryans called the indigenous people, DRAVIDIANS

The two groups intermarried, interacted and laid social and cultural foundations that evolved into the complexity of South Asia

Sanskrit into Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and others

HINDUISM

Ritualistic Brahmanism : a rigid structure 1500-1000 BC

THE SECOND PERIOD 1000 - 500 BC

Encyclopedia BRAHMANAS

Epics MAHABARATA and RAMAYANA

800 BC Upanishads : mystical understanding as opposed to caste and ritual : asceticism and personal god

6th century BC- Jainism and Buddhism

SOUTH ASIAN CLASSICAL ERA : MAURYA and GUPTA

326 BC Alexander the Great with his Macedonian army invades the north

This newcomer force pushes for the first dynastic empire: 800 years, One of the RAJ becoming EMPEROR : The first is Maurya Dynasty, Asoka one that recognizes and spreads Buddhism

GUPTA Dynasty 320-540 after which political parcellization again, rise of rajputs as military aristocracies

Jainism and Buddhism

6th century BC - spritual leaders Mahavira and Buddha offered answers

To the rigidity of Brahmanism

To the difficult-to-follow path of asceticism in the Upanishads

To the individualistic nature of devotion to personal gods

Mahavira: everything with a soul, requiring respect

Buddha: Suffering is the essence of life, no afterlife

MEDIEVAL INDIA

6th to 15th centuries, political and religious diversity

Small kingdoms and military aristocracies,

RAJPUTS and autonomous villages

Scholasticism and ritualistic religion

8th century Abbasid invasion from the north

Central Asian Islam penetrates via raids & sufism

1000 afghano-turkic islamic raids

Turks, Afghans, Persians and Mongols entered into India, most prominently from Ghazni (today in Afghanistan)with Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030) making the Punjabi region a gateway to Islam

North Indians, low-caste Hindus and Buddhists converted

THE DELHI SULTANATE

The first Muslim state 1206 in Delhi by Qutb-ud-din Aybak constantly expanding and contracting

Mixing very well with the indidgenous populaces

Divided into 5 dynasties : the Tughluqs were crushed by Timur from Samarkand (1398-99) desolating the entire sultanate but the last dynasty (Lodis) nonetheless survived until 1526

The Delhi Sultanate : saving South Asia from the Empire of Cengiz Khan but establishing a stronger Mongol legacy together with Islam

After the Mongols

The vast Mongol realm dissolved after Cengiz Han : his imperial venture brought the societies of Eurasia into closer contact

Turkic peoples resumed campaigns with Timur (14th and 15th centuries) who built a central asian empire that collapsed after his death but deeply influenced the coming muslim empires (Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman)

MEDIEVAL ENCOUNTERS/AHMET ERSOY

2008-01-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

12/10/2007

LECTURE I: The Greco-Roman Legacy in the Medieval World
AHMET ERSOY

The Medieval Euro-Mediterranean world as an undivided cultural space of contact and exchange – an area of “cultural symbiosis”

Uninterrupted Mediterranean trade and lively commercial networks during the expansion of Islam in the region

The Crusades and the Islamic expansion as attempts (of Northern/Western Europe and the Arabic speaking regions) to draw closer to the center of the world – the rise of new contact zones along frontier regions

Rising culture of coexistence (“convivencia”) in Andalusia (Southern Iberian peninsula)

“mozarabs” – Arabized Christians under Islamic rule

The culture of “convivencia” appropriated by Christian Spanish kingdoms through the “reconquest” of Andalusia

“mudejar” – Muslim diaspora living under Christian rule in Spain

Cultural hybridity (coexistence of Arab, Latin, Greek and Germanic elements) in Sicily and Southern Italy under Norman rule (11^th-13^th centuries)

12/12/2007

LECTURE II: Medieval Encounters: Conflict and Coexistence
AHMET ERSOY

Two Medieval Renaissances (with common Graeco-Roman roots) engendered by:

i) The Arabic (Early Abbasid) translation movement (8^th-10^th centuries) - Baghdad

ii) The Latin translation movement (southern/western Europe) (12^th-13^th centuries) – Toledo, Sicily, Naples

The Arabic translation movement initiated by Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-775), supported by Harun ar-Rashid (r. 786-809), and culminating at the time of Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833)

Channels for the transmission of Ancient knowledge in the Abbasid world:

i) Greek/Hellenistic centers of learning: Alexandria, Tarsus, Antioch, Harran (the Sabians)

ii) Sasanian (Zoroastrian) centers of Hellenistic learning in Persia

iii) Syriac-speaking Biblical centers: Edessa (Urfa), Nisibis (Nizip), Mosul

12/14/2007

LECTURE III: Medieval Encounters: Trade and Material Culture
AHMET ERSOY

The full incorporation of the “rationalist school” in Greek philosophy (Platonian idealism, Aristotelian logic and dialectical argument) into Islamic thought by 11^th century – Complex Aristotelian methods of discussion fully absorbed into doctrines of Islamic law and theology

The crucial role played by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (d. 1037) in the integration of Greek philosophy into Islamic theology and kalam (field of theological discussion) – Aristotelian logic and disputation (munazarah) becoming essential to the curricula of the madrasa, the newly instituted centers of learning in the Islamic world (11^th century)

The appropriation of Greek knowledge in Europe through Arabic translations and commentaries during the High Medieval translation movement

New knowledge (derived from Classical works and original scientific/philosophical sources from the Islamic world) disseminated in Europe through new institutions of higher learning in the 12^th century: The university / “universitas” (Bologna, Paris) and college (Sorbonne, Oxford)

The rise of a new practice of learning and systematic method of reasoning: “scholasticism” – highly informed by Aristotelian forms of dialectical argumentation

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1275) as the most prominent representative of scholastic thought – reconciling Greek philosophy and Christian theology

HIST 105 MAKE UP RESULTS

2007-12-31T05:30:00.000-08:00

STUDENT NUMBER	GRADE

2005102041	36.5
2005102233	10.5
2006104432	26
2007100583	28
2005101027	25
2005101873	19.5
2006102299	17
2005104117	24.5
2005102572	21.5
2005000113	20
2001103358	13

FILM

2007-12-23T05:57:00.001-08:00

There will be a film projection this Thursday (December 27, 2007) at 17:00 in the Ibrahim Bodur Auditorium.The movie, The Name of the Rose (dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986), is based on Umberto Eco's well-known novel with the same title.

Please note that the film will be shown in the I. Bodur auditorium, and not the GKM. If you miss this screening, you may also borrow the film from the Mithat Alam Film Center

HIST 105 MIDTERM RESULTS

2007-12-12T14:24:00.001-08:00

HIST 105 MIDTERM RESULTS
STUDENT NUMBER	GRADE
2006102143	2
2005100229	4
2005101318	4
2006104747	5
2004104138	5,25
2006100823	5,25
2006100211	5,5
2006101945	5,5
2006103160	5,5
2002100307	6
2005100139	6,5
2005102599	6,5
2006101243	6,5
2006102785	6,5
2005102431	30
2006000127	7
2006000118	7,5
2006200142	7,5
2005101228	8
2006100793	8
2006103118	8
2006103478	8
2006000100	8,5
2006100766	8,5
2006102710	8,5
2006103391	9
2006000094	9,25
2006102416	9,25
2006101252	9,5
2006102167	9,5
2006103082	9,5
2000100652	10
2006102284	10
2006103562	10
2006101606	10,25
2006000124	10,5
2006101534	10,5
2006102731	10,75
2005101384	11
2005102704	11,5
2006100346	11,5
2006101015	11,5
2006101402	11,5
2006101687	11,5
2006102455	11,75
2003103427	12
2006103580	12
2003102932	12,25
2002102572	12,5
2005102629	11,5
2006102482	13,25
2006100451	13,5
2006101456	13,5
2006103865	13,5
2006104996	13,5
2005102929	14
2005103697	14
2006100922	14
2006101864	14
2006103034	14
2006104426	14
2006104708	14
2006200330	14
2003200197	14,5
2004200051	14,5
2005102362	14,5
2006102794	14,5
2005102260	15
2006100430	15
2006104489	15
2006200145	15
2006100307	15,25
2006104561	15,25
2005101789	15,5
2005100349	16
2005103943	16
2006100763	16
2005103115	16,25
2005101153	19,5
2006100640	16,5
2006101429	16,5
2006103340	16,5
2006200318	16,5
2006103994	16,75
2006100136	17
2006101498	17
2006101978	17
2006102140	17
2006102809	17
2006104312	17
2006104363	17
2006104585	17
2006104777	17
2007103004	17
2005103091	17,5
2006103382	17,5
2005101144	18
2006101327	18
2006101447	18
2006104678	18
2006104921	18
2006102122	18,25
2007102047	18,25
2006100790	18,5
2006101804	16,5
2006102236	18,5
2007200112	18,5
2007300250	18,5
2006100883	18,75
2006101126	18,75
2005101834	19
2005102404	19
2006100004	19
2006101348	19
2006101579	19
2006101933	19
2006102017	19
2006102770	19
2006101699	19,25
2002102617	19,5
2003100619	19,5
2005101468	19,5
2006100919	19,5
2006102521	19,5
2006102671	19,5
2006103694	19,5
2006104597	19,5
2005102902	19,75
2005102158	20
2005104189	20
2006100943	20
2006103088	20
2006103205	20
2005300287	20,25
2004101474	20,5
2004102374	20,5
2005101417	20,5
2006101675	20,5
2006105044	20,5
2006104606	20,75
2006102941	21
2006103655	21
2006104756	21
2006104909	21
2006104999	21
2003101807	21,25
2005103679	21,25
2005104438	21,25
2005100697	21,5
2006100967	21,5
2006103070	21,5
2006104264	21,5
2006100205	22
2006100658	22
2006102803	22
2006103274	22
2006101342	22,5
2007102038	22,5
2006102119	22,75
2004103547	23
2005100130	23
2005103487	23
2006104558	23
2005100892	23,25
2006103667	23,25
2004100883	23,5
2005104222	23,5
2006101204	23,5
2006102413	23,5
2006103436	23,5
2006103739	23,5
2006100439	24
2006101753	24
2006102185	24
2006103430	24
2006103583	24
2007103703	24
2005104003	24,25
2006100223	24,5
2006102398	24,5
2006102989	24,5
2006103076	24,5
2006103877	24,5
2007100025	24,5
2007103226	24,5
2004103433	24,75
2005000115	25
2006100853	25
2006103628	25
2007102230	25
2006102071	25,25
2006103313	25,5
2006103406	25,5
2007102080	25,5
2007102530	25,5
2005102782	26
2006000088	26
2006100178	26
2006100289	26
2006101264	26
2006101666	26
2006102107	26
2006103625	26
2006104441	26
2006105056	26
2007100295	26,25
2006104141	26,75
2006102524	27
2006104156	27
2006200327	27
2007100439	27
2007102500	27
2006100166	27,25
2006104111	27,25
2005100721	27,5
2006100265	27,5
2006101528	27,5
2006104006	27,5
2005102188	28
2006101957	28
2006103565	28
2006200121	28
2007100640	28
2007480115	28
2006104591	28,25
2005101603	28,5
2005104288	28,5
2006100913	28,5
2006102389	28,5
2006102419	28,5
2006103493	28,5
2006104327	28,5
2006200133	28,5
2005101729	29
2005104183	29
2006102026	29
2006103145	25
2006103559	29
2006103616	29
2006104093	29
2006101987	29,25
2006101027	29,5
2006101246	29,5
2005102635	29,75
2006100850	29,75
2006100886	30
2006100898	30
2007103310	26,5
2006103790	30,25
2007100595	30,25
2006101078	30,5
2006104201	30,5
2005101276	31
2006101075	31
2006102032	31
2006102230	31
2006103169	31
2006103334	31
2004102002	31,5
2004300079	31,5
2007101819	31,5
2006000106	32
2006102998	32
2006101747	32,25
2005101564	27
2005101684	32,5
2006102005	32,5
2006102326	32,5
2006100340	32,75
2006103166	33
2007100421	33
2007102215	33
2007103874	33
2006100580	33,5
2006102320	33,5
2006103859	33,5
2007103655	33,5
2007104144	33,5
2006101912	34
2006102128	34
2007100016	34
2007102470	34
2007103433	34
2006101582	34,5
2007100397	34,5
2006102596	35
2005104147	35,5
2007460097	35,75
2006101939	36
2006105017	36,25
2004101924	36,5
2005101756	36,5
2006100562	36,5
2007103031	36,5
2007300067	36,5
2006101552	38
2006103115	38
2004103430	38,5
AVERAGE	21,64

WEEK XII: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-12-12T14:04:00.000-08:00

Your primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.
1. Ibn Batuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354
2. Franks in the Levant, Autobiography of ibn Munkidh
3. a. Coronation mantle of Roger II, Norman king of Sicily, 1133
b. Trilingual inscription, in Latin, Greek, and Arabic, commemorating the hydrolic clock of the palace of Roger II in Palermo, 12th century
c. Images from the muqarnas ceiling of the Capella Palatina in Palermo, mid-12th century

FILM

2007-12-10T16:06:00.001-08:00

There will be a film projection this Thursday (December 27, 2007) at 17:00 in the Ibrahim Bodur Auditorium.
The movie, The Name of the Rose (dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986), is based on Umberto Eco's well-known novel with the same title.

Please note that the film will be shown in the I. Bodur auditorium, and not the GKM. If you miss this screening, you may also borrow the film from the Mithat Alam Film Center

MAKE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-12-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

The Make-up Exam will be held on December 11.
Place: M 2152
Time: 17:00-18:30

Students must bring their student ID cards.

THE WORLD OF ISLAM / DERIN TERZIOGLU

2007-12-06T02:56:00.002-08:00

November 30

RELIGION IN THE IRANO-MEDITERRANEAN WORLD AND THE RISE OF ISLAM /DERIN TERZIOGLU
1. General remarks on the “world of Islam”
World of Islam/Dar al-Islam
The Irano-Mediterranean world and its legacy

2. The Irano-Mediterranean world circa 600

A. Universalistic empires and religions
Byzantine Empire – imperial center in Constantinople
Official religion: Orthodox Christianity
But also: Monophysites- Armenian, Syrian and Coptic Churches
Sassanian Empire – imperial center in Ctesiphon
Official religion: Zoroastrianism
But also: Mazdakeanism, Manicheanism, Judaism and Nestorian Christianity

B.Arabia before the rise of Islam
Beduin society: nomadic pastoralism and tribal mode of organization
Towns: agricultural settlements, market towns, sanctuaries (haram)
The tribal value system and religion
The cult of Allah and hanifs

3. The rise of Islam
The problem of sources on early Islamic history
The Prophet Muhammad and his early revelations
Troubles with the Meccan establishment and the Hijra/Migration
The “Constitution of Medina” and the formation of the umma
The umma at the end of Muhammad’s life

December 3

THE CALIPHATE: FROM MEDINA TO DAMASCUS AND BAGHDAD / DERIN TERZIOGLU

The Formation of the Caliphate

1.Succession to the Prophet and the office of the caliph
Meaning of the term caliph
Caliphal titles: Khalifa, khalifatullah, khalifat rasulullah (later)
Amir al-mu’minin
Election through consultation (shura)
The “rightly-guided caliphs” (khulefa-i rashidun) – a later historical construct

Abu Bakr (632-634)
‘Umar (634-644) – center moves from Mecca to Medina
'Uthman (644-656)
‘Ali (656-661)

The Umayyad caliphs (661-750)
The Abbasid caliphs (750-1258)

2.Warfare and expansion
Political conditions in the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires on the eve of the Arab-Muslim expansion
Motivations – political, economic, religious
The conversion of local people was neither an aim nor an immediate consequence of the Arab-Muslim expansion; the spread of Islam was slow and came later.
Non-Muslim populations accommodated through the categories of Ahl al-kitab/People of the Book and Ahl al-dhimma or dhimmi, Protected People
Discriminatory measures against non-Arab converts; status of mawla (pl. mawali)

3.After the conquests: the caliphate reconfigured
Settlement of Arab tribes
Tribalism reconfigured and sometimes intensified
Conflicts over the distribution of land and benefits
Umar and the institution of the diwan system
Contention during the office of Uthman and Ali
Umayyad caliphate
Center of caliphate moves to Damascus
Continuance of Byzantine and Sassanian administrative and bureaucratic institutions, practices and personnel
Realignment under Abd al-Malik (692-705) – Arabic adopted as language of administration, new coins issued, construction of Dome of the Rock.
Creative dialogue with pre-Islamic royal traditions along with increasing emphasis on Arab and Muslim identity

December 5

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL FRAGMENTATION IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD / DERIN TERZIOGLU

Religious and political fragmentation in the lands of Islam: sectarianism and the break-up of caliphal unity

1. Formation of sectarian differences

Main points:
a. While sectarian differences among the Muslims originated in the disagreements over the question of leadership of the umma that took place right after the death of the Prophet, it took centuries for the differences between Muslims to crystallize into sectarian formations.
b.Different sects were crystallized at different times. The dissenting minorities - Kharijis and Shiis - before the majority that remained, i.e., the Sunnis
c.No church to impose a definition of orthodoxy; caliphal attempts to do so meet opposition from piety-minded/proto-ulema

Kharijis – Those who “went out”
Egalitarian, anti-authoritarian, puritanical
Shiis (Shia Ali) – The Party of Ali
Support the rights of Ali and his descendants to the imamate (preferred term rather than caliphate)
Regard them as divinely elected
Esp. early Shii beliefs have a strong messianic component – the figure of the Mahdi
Sunnis (Ahl al-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a) – The People of Tradition and Community
Privilege “community”
Historical realists on the subject of caliphal authority – consider all who held effective power as legitimate but have greater esteem for the first four “rightly guided” caliphs
Define caliphal authority more narrowly

2. The Abbasid mission and its transformation
A.Religious realignments
Cf. Later Sunni image of Umayyads and Abbasids
Early Abbasids and Shiism
Experimentation with Mu‘tazilism – rational school of Islamic theology – effective resistance by traditionists/ahl al-hadith (nucleus of ahl al-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a)

B.Administration
Center shifts from Syria to Iraq (new capitals: Baghdad, Samarra)
Reliance on Persian-speaking bureaucracy
Adoption of Sassanian institutions (ex. office of the vizier)
Attempts to impose orthodoxy: also inspired by Sassanian models

C.Military
Abbasids come to power with the help of the Khorasanian army, but by early 9th century, the Khorasanian army becomes a problem.
The Abbasid response is to build a new “slave army” staffed by Turks from C. Asia; institution known as ghulam.

3. The Dissolution of Abbasid power
Revolts in the center (revolts by Turkish slave soldiers, Khariji-inspired revolts of African slaves, etc.) enables dissent in outlying provinces to come to the fore, and more and more provinces break loose from the center.
Fiscal crisis and the Abbasid response in the form of a new institution: iqta
936: Abbasid caliph delegates all effective authority to a Turkish commander and grants him the title of amir al-umera
945: Shiite Buyids come to Baghdad and strike deal with Abbasid caliphs

4. Post-Abbasid period
Post-Abbasid states replicate Abbasid institutions such as the office of the vizier, the ghulam institution and the iqta.
Many of them recognize the Abbasid caliphs as symbolic heads of Islamic community and are recognized in turn as legitimate rulers.
Fatimid Caliphate – represents a direct challenge to Abbasids; claim the caliphate and make propaganda for Ismaili Shiism throughout the Islamic world.
10th century – known as the “Shiite Interlude” because of the dominance of Shiite states like Buyids and Fatimids. Very rich period in terms of intellectual activity. Plurality of political courts with a wide variety of sectarian affiliations sustains a wide array of scholars, philosophers, etc.
11th and 12th centuries – called the period of “Sunni revival”; more properly called the period of Sunni consolidation.
The rise of new regimes with a strong Sunni orientation.
Key event: The arrival of Seljuk Turks in Baghdad in 1055. They claim to restore the Sunna and strike a deal with the Abbasid caliph, who recognizes the Seljuk ruler as “sultan.”
[Crusades and Ayyubid response]
End to the Fatimid caliphate in 1171

December 7

Medieval Near Eastern Societies
The Sunni Revival Revisited
Newcomers to the Islamic heartlands: Seljuks and the Crusaders
Rise of new political regimes with a strong Sunni identity (e.g. Ayyubids)
Alliance between religious scholars and military ruling elites
Consolidation of Sunnism

I.Religious communities

Slow Islamization
Religious plurality

II.Ethnic and linguistic groups

Spread of Arabic
Revival of Persian as a written language
Medieval Islamic ethnography

III.Social groups

The countryside vs. the towns
The importance of urban life
Urban elites

1.Military ruling elites
2.Ulema
3.Sufis
4.“Urban bourgeoisie”

Terms and names

Crusader states
Salah al-Din
Ayyubids
Genizah documents
Umera (s. amir)
Ulema
Waqf
Madrasa
Sufi, dervish
Marifa (gnosis) vs. ilm (knowledge)
Dervish lodge (khanqah, ribat, zawiya)
Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali

WEEK XI: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-12-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

Your primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.
1.Mawardi, The Ordinances of Government (a Juridical Theory on the Caliphate)
2.Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddima: An Introduction to History
3.Umayyad and Abbasid Coinage

MAKE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-12-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

The Make-up Exam will be held on December 11.
Place: M 2152
Time: 17:00-18:30

Students must bring their student ID cards.

WEEK X: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-11-28T13:56:00.001-08:00

Primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.

1.Letter of Funbert of Chartres on the Obligation of Vassals
2.Manorial Life
3.Dictatus Papae
4.Ipswich Town Charter (1200)

MEDIEVAL EUROPE: SOCIETY, ECONOMY, POLITICS / SELIM DERINGIL

2007-11-26T12:50:00.000-08:00

19 November 2007

MEDIEVAL EUROPE: RURAL SOCIETY AND FEUDALISM

“Europe” as a misnomer: The word “Europe” would have meant nothing in the Middle Ages.People talked about “The Roman Empire” or “Christianity” but never “Europe”. We will nonetheless use the word for the sake of convenience.

Feudalism: A system of social and economic control where the ruling classes (monarchy,aristocracy, clergy) maintained control over and extracted suplus product from the producers (peasants, artisans, guilds) through a system of extra-economic force which was legitimated by religion.

Feudal Rent:
The forms of the extracted surplus product.
i) rent in produce (food products, animals etc)
ii) labour rent (given number of days a week of labour on the lord’s land.
iii) Labour dues. Tasks serfs were obliged to perform free of charge for the lord.
iv) Money rent.

Serfdom: The basic form of labour relations in feudalism. A serf was a peasant who was attached to the land. They could not leave the land of the lord and freely offer their labour elsewhere.

Manor: The name given to the lords’ landholdings. A lord could hold more than one manor.

Allodial holdings: land held free and clear of any feudal obligation.

Vassalage: the relationship of superiority or inferiority in the highly fragmented political structure of feudalism. Each lord was the vassal or inferior of a superior lord.

Patronage: material and moral protection of an inferior by a superior. Artists and intellectuals were able to survive and produce as the result of the patronage of powerful men.

Völkerwanderung: The “wandering of the peoples” . The invasion of the Roman Empire by the Germanic tribes which began on 31 December 495 A.D . This was to be the process which would lead to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

Feudal Synthesis: The gradual mutual influencing of the Germanic tribal traditions of the tribes with Roman practices and traditions. The inevitable outcome of the fact that the Germanic tribes were of a lower level of sophistication than the Roman Empire.

The “barbarian states”: The loose structure of Germano/Roman states that sprang up on the remains of the West Roman Empire. 4-7 century AD.

The Carolingian Empire: The empire began after Charles Martel’s defeat of the Arabs in Poitiers in France in AD 753, thus confining the Arabs to the Iberian Peninsula. It reached its height with the crowning of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor in AD 800. Charlemagne died in 814 and his empire fell apart. The Carolingian Empire represented the high point of feudalism. After the collapse of the Carolingian Empire at the end of the 9th century the land of western Europe became more and more fragmented as each individual lord increased his power.

Parcellization of Sovereignty: the fragmentation and breakdowm of political power in a context where there was little or no centralized power. Each lord would control his own private army and extract surplus product from serfs under his jurisdiction. This led to the formation of a ruling class which could exist more or less independent of the centralized monarchy. This is the main difference between East and West Rome. Although there were powerful aristocrats in the Byzantine Empire there was never the fragmentation that was seen in the west.

Widespread invasions: the collapse of the Carolingian Empire was followed by a “re-barbarisation” of Western Europe. Europe was to be under constant threat from the Arabs in the south, the Magyars (ancestors of present day Hungarians) in the east and the Vikings from the north. Particularly the Vikings were extremely effective raiders . Great sailors, they ranged all the way from America to Constantinople. Gradually, after the 10th century, the danger from the invaders decreased. The Magyars and Vikings converted to Christianity and the Arab invasions were confined to the Iberian Peninsula.

Insecurity leading to feudalism: The condition of constant insecurity that the peasantry and towns lived under meant that they had to turn to the only close source of defense: the feudal lord. This meant that that manors or villages became fortified enclaves and the peasantry was increasingly dependent on the lords. This led to the enserfment of more and more peasantry.

Different historical development of East and West Roman Empire
The traces of the different historical development survives and continues to influence present day Europe. Some form o centralized rule survived in the east under the Byzantine Empire.The Ottomans were to inhert may of the traditions and methods of rule from Byzantium. Fatih Sultan Mehmed actually took as one of his titles: “Sultan al Rum”, meaning Roman Emperor. Latin remained the language of power in the west whereas Greek continued to rule in the east, even after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Most importantly, the division of the European world into the Catholic West and the Orthodox East remained permanent.

21 November 2007

LECTURE II: MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN POLITICS: KINGS and VASSALS / SELIM DERINGIL

Reading material: Perry Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism pg 147-153.

1. Parcellization of Sovereignty. Political power as a private posession.
“Political power never focused on a single centre. The functions of the state were disintegrated in a vertical allocation downwards , at each level of which political and economic relations were ...integrated”.

2. Combination of jurisdiction with economic exploitation. The peasants inhabited a world of overlapping claims and powers which enabled a measure of resistance. The “weapons of the weak”. Also the parcellization of sovereignty allowed for pockets of resistance such as the forest. Symbolized by romantic figures such as Robin Hood.

3. Vassalage. The holding of fiefs (agricultural land, manors, right to extract surplus) in return for military service and loyalty.

4. Nature of the relationshiop of the producers to the means of production.
Immediate producer unted with the soil in a specific social relationship, serfdom.

5. Feudalism was the first mode of production to allow the autonomous development of commodity production. The sale of objects as commodities. The idea of production for profit rather than subsistance. Had existed even in antiquity but in the feudal mode of production came to acquire a physical shape in the form of the autonomous medieval towns. Later to become the birthplaces of capitalism. It is no accdent that the Renaissance occured in the economically most developed zone in Europe, north central Italy.

6. Dynamic opposition of town and country. Alone possible in the feudal mode of production. Opposition between the urban economy of commodity exchange (capitalism or proto-capitalism) , a system regulated by merchants, bankers, and guilds, and a rural economy of natural exchange (agricultural production), dominated by the manorial economy, lords and vassals.

7. Contradiction at the very summit of the feudal chain. The monarch was the feudal suzerain of his vassals but he was also baound to them by reciprocal ties of fealty. He was not the supreme sovereign. His position was more like a first among equals primus inter pares.

8. The potential for centralizaiton and decentralization.
The feudal mode of production in the West was thus the only one in which the original structure specified a sdynamic tension between the centralizing power and de-centralist forces.

23 November 2007

LECTURE III: MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN POLITICS: POPES AND BISHOPS / SELIM DERINGIL

1. Definition of “Pope”
Meaning “father” in Greek. “Papa”. Head of the Catholic Church. One of the oldest institutions on earth. Extant for over 2000 years. Also ruler of the independent mini-state of the Vatican. Also one of the richest men the world.

2. Apostolic Succession
Vicar of St. Peter. Vicar of Christ. Roman Pontiff. First used in AD 495. Claim that the Popes are the direct descendants to the office of St. Peter, the most beloved of the apostles of Christ.

3. Election
Carried out by secret ballot by a full vote of the Sacred College of Cardinals.Election takes place in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Cardinals meet in a “conclave” (cum clavi) when they are theoretically locked in until they elect a new Pope.(recently popularized by Dan Brown the author of the Da Vinci Code in his novel Demons and Angels) . For many years the Papacy was dominated by Italians. Before the election of the Pole, Karol Wojta as Pope John Paul II in 1978 (itself a political decision Wojta was well known for his anti-communist views) the last non-Italian Pope was a Dutch pope elected in 1522. John Paul was now followed by a German , the current Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger). It is now beleived by some that the days of the election of a Third World Pope are not far away. (Philipino candidate particularly strong)

4. Political Power of Papacy
The office of the Pope has always had great political significance.Although ever since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in A.D 495 the Papacy has no army it was still very powerful because Popes could “excommunicate”. Anybody who openly opposed a Papal ruling was made anathema , thrown out of the Church. The statements of the Popes therefore became dogma ,meaning absolute truth. (Hence the sayings like “Don’t be so dogmatic” or “He is very dogmatic in his attitude”.

5. Pentarchy
Originally there were five great patriarchates. These were Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. This was recoginzed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Constantinople was declared “The New Rome” and rose to the most important position. This was helped by the Arab invasions of Jerusalem, and Alexandria.

6. The Great Schism (1054)
After the collapse of Rome the eastern an western parts of the empire drifted apart. There were many linguistic and cultural diferences. Latin and Greek. The “New Rome” became a serious threat to the supremacy of the Old Rome. In the year A:D 395 after the death of the Roman Emperor, Theodosius the Great, the empire was divided.
Reasons for the drifting apart of the two halves of the empire.

i)Disputes in the Balkans, Southern Italy, and Sicily over whether the Western or eastern Church had jurisdiction.

ii) The designation of the Patriarch of Constantinople as ecumenical patriarch (which was understood by Rome as universal patriarch and therefore disputed)

iii) Following the rise of Islam, the relative weakening of the influence of the patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, leading to internal church politics being seen as Rome vs. Constatinople.

Finally on July 16th three ambassadors from the Pope entered the Hagia Sophia during mass on a Saturday afternoon and placed a Bull of Excommunication on the altar. Even after this relations between the two churhes were not completely broken. What caused the most severe rupture was the Fourth Crusade 1204. It continues because each church sees the other as wrong and demands that it is the true chruch.

7. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
After Constantine the Great declared that Constantinople was the “New Rome” in A.D 330 the bishop of Constantinople became the second most important patriarch after the patriach of Rome. For many years Roman popes opposed this decision until in 381 the First Council of Constantinople declared that “The Bishop of Constantinople shall have primacy of honour after the Bishop of Rome, because it is the New Rome”.The Archbishop of Constatinople-the New Rome- ranking as primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Eastern Orthodox faith which is seen by followers as the One, Holy and Apostolic Church. His title is not recognized by the Turkish state which only recognizes him as the spirtual leader of the Greek minority in Turkey and refers to him as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Phanar, Fener Rum Patriği . yet his poistion is recognized world wide as the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. The Ecumenical Patriarch has a unique role among Orthodox bishops, he bears the title primus inter pares which indicates his seniority among all Orthodox bishops. This primacy grants to the patriarch of Istanbul the power to decide in cases of religious disputes in the Church. For example in 2006 the patriarch was invited to assist in declaring the Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus incompetent due to his having Alzeimer’s disease. All this shows that the Papal visit of Benedict XVI.

8. Papal Infallibility
There is the popular misconception that the Pope is infallible, that he cannot be wrong. This is closely connected with the last Pope’s statement that “Islam is incapable of reform”. There is however a concept of Papal Infallibility.The definition of Papal infallibility was made by the First Vatican Council in 1870. In this council it was declared that in order for a Papal ruling to become dogma , an unchanging rule of the Catholic Church the Pope must be speaking ex cathedra , that is from the chair, meaning from the Papal throne. This is a symbollic statement meaning that the Pope must be speaking officially, otherwise his statement is purely a private opinion. For a Papal statement to be infallible it must confirm to the following rules:

i) The Pope must be speaking as the Roman Pontiff that is the heir of St.Peter.

ii) He must be speaking ex cathedra “that is in the discharge of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, and by the virtue of his apostolic authority...”

iii) He must clearly state that whoever opposes this ruling “will become anathema” will be excommunicated.

iv) He must be speaking of a matter of faith or morals.

v) His declaration must be made for the whole church.

MIDTERM ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-11-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

The Midterm will be held on November 26, from 17:00 to 18:30 pm. Each student must take the exam in the assigned room. Those students whose names are not on the room list will not be admitted to the exam in that room.

ALİ ABA - ZERRİN CENGİZ (YD 106)
DİLEKNUR CEYLAN-GÖRKEM GÖMEÇ (YD 206)
ELİF GÜLTEKİN- NURDAN KOÇ (YD 306)
DERYA KONDUMER - ÖZGE SEKMEN (YD 406)
ŞULE SELÇUK-CEREN TOSUN (YD 116)
TUGCE NAZ TUGTEKİN-DOĞAÇ YAVUZ (YD 302)
HÜLYA YAVUZ-GÜRKAN ZORER (YD 304)

Students must bring their student ID cards.

FILM

2007-11-19T00:49:00.000-08:00

There will be a documentary film projection this Friday (November 23, 2007) at 17:00 in Garanti Kultur Merkezi.
The title of the movie is: Crusades: Terry Jones Tells the Dramatic Story of Battle for Holy Land (dir. Alan Ereira and David Wallace, 1995)
If you miss this screening, you may also borrow the film from the Mithat Alam Film Center

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE (330-1453) / NEVRA NECİPOĞLU

2007-11-15T02:20:00.000-08:00

9.11.2007

Outline (Lecture 1)
The Byzantine Empire: from Constantine the Great to the Age of Justinian

1-Preliminary remarks about the Byzantine Empire, a bridge between Antiquity and the Middle Ages

2-Terminology: “Byzantine Empire” is a later term introduced by German humanists in the 16th cent. The Byzantines considered themselves “Romans” and called their state the “Empire of the Romans”

3-The age of Constantine the Great (r. 306/324-337):
- The foundation of Constantinople
- Nature and meaning of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity

4-Transformation of Christianity from a tolerated, legitimate religion into the official state religion between the reigns of Constantine I and Theodosius I – Co-existence of Christianity and paganism in the early Empire

5-Different balance of state-church relations in Byzantium and in medieval Europe

Vocabulary & Dates (Lecture 1)
Byzantine Empire (330-1453)
Byzantion
Konstantinoupolis = “Constantine’s city” = Constantinople
Emperor Constantine I (r. 306/324-337)
Foundation and dedication of Constantinople (330)
Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305)
Nikomedeia (mod. İzmit)
Edict of Milan (313)
Hagia Sophia / Hagia Eirene / church of the Holy Apostles
Acropolis / pagan temples dedicated to Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite etc.
Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-395)
Emperor Julian the Apostate (r. 361-363)
sol invictus (“the invincible sun”, title used for the sun-god Apollo)
polytheism / monotheism
Patriarch of Constantinople
First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea (325)

12.11.2007

Outline (Lecture 2)
Byzantine Society from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages

1-Byzantine imperial ideology & concept of imperial authority

2-The age of Justinian I (r. 527-565):
- Wars of reconquest in the West
- Codification of Roman law
- Hagia Sophia and other building projects
- Nika riot (532)
- Justinianic plague (542)

3-Consequences and aftermath of Justinian’s reign

4-The 7th-century transformation of Byzantium from a late antique into a medieval society

Vocabulary & Dates (Lecture 2)
Charlemagne
Justinian I (r. 527-565) / Theodora (Justinian’s wife)
Empress Irene (r. 797-802) / Empress Zoe (11th c.)
Tribonian
Corpus Juris Civilis (“Body of Civil Law”)=Justinian’s Code
Nika riot (532)
basilica vs. domed church
Sassanids of Persia
Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641)
polis (“city”)
theme system (thema / pl. themata)

14.11.2007

Outline (Lecture 3)
From the Iconoclastic Controversy to the Great Schism: Christianity Divides

1-Period of Iconoclasm (726-843)

2-Conflicts with the Papacy:
- Pope’s coronation of Charlemagne as “Roman Emperor” (800)
- The Great Schism (1054)

3-The Macedonian dynasty (867-1059):
- Military victories (esp. against Arabs & Bulgars)
- Conversion of Russia and Serbia to Orthodox Christianity
- Growing power of the landowning military aristocracy, etc.

Vocabulary & Dates (Lecture 3)
Iconoclasm (726-843)
Emperor Leo III (r. 717-741)
icon / idolatry / iconoclast vs. iconodule (=iconophile)
Franks
Coronation of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III (800)
Great Schism (1054)
Macedonian dynasty (867-1059)
Emperor Basil II Bulgaroktonos (“Bulgar-slayer”)(r. 976-1025)
Baptism of Prince Vladimir of Kiev (988)
Cyril and Methodius

16.11.2007

Outline (Lecture 4)
1.New external challenges in the mid-11th century: Normans and Seljuks
2.Rise of the crusading movement
3.The Fourth Crusade and the Latin capture of Constantinople (1203/4)
4.Restoration of Constantinople to Byzantine rule (1261)
5.Byzantium as an Ottoman vassal (ca. 1371/2)
6.The fall of Constantinople (1453)
7.Concluding remarks

Vocabulary and Dates (Lecture 4)
Venice / Pisa / Genoa
kommerkion / commercium
Komnenian dynasty (1081-1185)
pronoia
Norman capture of Bari (1071)
Battle of Manzikert/Malazgirt (1071)
Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118)
First Crusade (1095-1098) / Pope Urban II
Anna Komnena’s Alexiad
Fourth Crusade (1203/4)
Latin Empire of Constantinople (1204-1261)
Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1261-1282)
Palaiologan dynasty (1261-1453)
Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425)
Monastery of Chora (Kariye) / Theodore Metochites
Gennadios Scholarios, Greek Orthodox Patriarch under Mehmed II

FAITH IN THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD AND THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY / VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS

2007-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2007

Lecture Outline

1. Two main religions in the Mediterranean before the apparition of Christianity: the Greco-Roman religion and the Jewish religion.
2. “Oriental” influences in Greco-Roman religion. Mithraism (Mithraea, decorated by frescoes from 2nd-3rd c.). Tendency towards mysticism.
3. Neo-Platonism: a metaphysical problematic (3rd c.).
4. Christ. Teaching of love, abolishment of social privileges, justice. Consideration to the poor and the helpless.
5. Texts: Old and New Testament (The Gospels, the Apocalypse of John, the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles).
6. The contribution of Paul to the spreading of the new religion out of the Jewish communities. Foundation of churches.
7. Numerous persecutions of the Christians, esp. during the emperors Nero, Decius, Diocletian. Martyrs – heroes.
8. By the 4th c. A.D., about 10% of the population of the Roman Empire was Christian.
9. Religious policies of Constantine and Theodosian I.
10. 3rd-4th c.: the monasticism, born in Egypt, starts to develop in Syria and then in Palestine and Anatolia (see Peter Brown). The holy man.

Vocabulary, names and dates

ca. 30 A.D.: crucifixion of Christ.
ca. 35 A.D.: conversion of Paul.
65 A.D.: decapitation of Paul, during Nero
Preaching of an eternal life, peace, love, equity, justice.
Catacombs, Eucharist
Plotinus, Augustine, Boethius
Symeon Stylites (+ 459)
Monasticism, holy man,
Late Antiquity

Constantine (306-337).
313: the edict of Milan.
325: 1st General Council (Nicaea I), in Isnik.
330: Inauguration of Constantinople.
337: Constantine’s baptism.

Theodosius I (378-395)
381: 2nd General Council (Constantinople)
391: Edicts against paganism
392: destruction of the gigantic Serapeum of Alexandria (the biggest temple of its time) and of its library.
393: last Olympic Games

WEEK VIII: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-11-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

Primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.
1. Anna Comnena, Alexiad
2. Manuel Palaiologos, Letters

WEEK VII: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-11-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

Primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.

1. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History
2. Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine
3. Constantine’s Coins, Statues and the Arch of Constantine in Rome

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

2007-11-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC / NEVRA NECIPOGLU

OUTLINE:

1.Beginnings: The Emergence of Rome – The Regal Period (753-509 B.C.)

Etruscan and Greek Influences on Rome

Early Social Organization

2.The Early Republic (509-360B.C.)

3.From City-State to Domination of Italy (360-264 B.C.)

4.Rome Dominates the Mediterranean (264-133 B.C.)

5.Changing Times: Economic, Social, Political, Cultural Changes (264-133 B.C.)

6.From the Gracchi to the Triumvirate (133-60 B.C.)

7.Failure of the Oligarchy: The Rise of Julius Caesar

8.Social Change in the Late Republic

VOCABULARY:

Tiber River

Latium

Etruria

Romulus and Remus

Vergil’s Aeneid – Aeneas – Anchises (Aeneas’ father)

Magna Graecia

Rex = king

Consul

Comitia centuriata

Senate

Dictator

Struggle of the “Orders” (494-287 B.C.): patricians vs. plebeianstribunes of the plebs

XII Tables (ca. 450 B.C.)

Consilium plebis (Plebeian Assembly) – plebiscite

Equestrians

Jupiter / Zeus

Minerva / Athena

Carthage

Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.)

Hannibal

Scipio Africanus

Macedonian wars

Philip V of Macedon

Corinth

Revolt of Spartacus (73-71 B.C.)

Gracchi brothers: Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus

Marius

Sulla

First Triumvirate

Pompey (106-48 B.C.)

Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.)

Rubicon River

Ides of March (44 B.C.)

Stoicism

Cicero

Latifundia

November 2, 2007

ROMAN EMPIRE / VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS

1- Octavian, Marcus Antonius, Lepidus will take revenge from Brutus, Cassius, Cicero for Julius Ceasar’s death
2- The first confrontation between East-West, Octavian’s victory in Actium 31.
3- The titles used by Octavian: emperor, augustus, princeps
4- Three periods: Principate 27 BC-180 AD, 3rd c. crisis 180-284, Dominiate -610
5- Octavian’s rule retained both the senate and the status of citizen.
6- Reforms in public services, new coinage, tax-farming, colonisation of provinces.
7- From Augustus to Trajan, who conquered Dacia, the expansion of the Empire
8- Hadrian, who founded Adrianople, will preserve territories and organize defense
9- For two centuries period of stability, efficient bureaucracy, no external ennemies
10- Pax Romana, peak at 96-180, five good Emperors, last one being Marcus Aurelius
11- Citizenship extended and conquered populations were integrated. Hadrian, Trajan
12- Frontiers fluid, areas of both cultural interaction and violence.
13- Philosophy: Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius
14- Literature: Golden Age, 1st -2nd c., Virgil, Aeneid, Horace, Odes, Ovid, Metamorphoses
15- Silver Age, 3rd c. Tacitus, Germania, he praises the qualities of Romans’ enemies
16- Architecture, Hellenistic motifs are appropriated.
17- Museum culture, out of the objects imported from conquered lands.
18- Public architecture: Dome, baths, race courses, Pantheon, Colosseum
19- Wall painting, mosaic, the original Roman art
20- Engineering, bridges, aqueducts, roads will mark Roman heritage
21- Women’s role improved, they can be involved in literary or political life
22- Gladiator culture
23- Salvationist religions offering hope for the afterlife.
24- International trade flourishes, despise for manual labor, meager industry.
25- Roman law, pretors’ instructions to judges, decisions that create precedent
26- Civil law, law of the peoples, natural law
27- Decline starting with Commodus and the hereditary right of succession
28- Several dynasty, Septemius Severus, military leader who intervenes and introduces military intervention
29- Eventually civil wars 235-284, where authority was given to the general who could mobilize the greater army
30- Heavy taxation, debasing of coin leads to farmers’ devastation, hunger, disease
31- External enemies, Persians, Germans
32- Neoplatonic Philosophy, Plotinus, matter and the body are the prisons of the soul.
33- Emanationism, mysticism
34- Reasons for collapse i) poisoned by lead in kitchen utensils ii) moral degeneration iii) Germanic attacks iv) Political failures (succession right) v) Economic failures
35- Rome’s achievements: It survived until 476 in the West, until 1453 in the East. large geography politically united for long, communication, trade, travel, stable currency, citizenship to all, thus creating political participation.

November 5, 2007

FALL OF ROME AND THE ROMAN LEGACY / VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS

1. What does the phrase “Fall of Rome” mean? Which event illustrates better this end, or change, of a situation? End of a state or end of a civilization?

2. The possible reasons for that change and for the installation of a new situation (Christianity, decline of morals and values, public health – lead, political corruption, unemployment, inflation, urban decay, military spending).

3. The Roman Empire and the Romans after the “Fall of Rome”.

4. The legacies of the Roman civilization to the modern world.

Vocabulary and dates

From 235 to 284 A.D. political instability in the Empire took the form of a civil war. During these 50 years 26 emperors succeeded one another. Only one of them escaped a violent death.

In 313 an Edict of religious Toleration is signed in Milan, by Constantine and Licinius. The Christian religion can be professed in freedom.

In 324 Constantine defeats Licinius and becomes unique emperor of the Roman state. He founds Constantinople; it is also called the New Rome.

330: Constantinople is inaugurated. The imperial court is installed in the new Roman capital.

337: Constantine becomes the first Roman emperor to be baptized and become Christian, just before to die.

In 391 Theodosius signs an Edict forbidding paganism.

In 410 the Visigoth army, lead by Alaric, sack the city of Rome.

In 476 A. D. the Germanic general Odacer or Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman Emperors, Augustulus Romulus. From then on the western part of the Empire was ruled by Germanic chieftain.

Administration

Engineering, technology, transports, communication

Via EgnatiaRoman legal system

Justinian (emperor: 527-565), summation of all Roman laws.

Corpus Juris Civilis (529), in Latin, 3 parts: Digesta (or Pandectae), Institutiones, Codex.

Later supplement, a collection of new laws issued during Justinian’s reign: the Authenticum or Novellae Constitutiones, in Greek.

Constantinople grew out of the Greco-Roman World (planning, urban environment, display of Greek sculptures in public space). “Universal capital”.

Example: display of two statues of Aphrodite in the bath of Hesychios, in Milet (6th century). Conclusion: as long as life in the Roman cities was maintained, and the economic prosperity of the upper class was assured, and that the educational system was preserved, the antique Roman culture was kept alive in the eastern part of the Empire. It was the big military, demographic and economic catastrophe of the 7th – 8th c. that progressively put an end to the antique culture in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

WEEK VI: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-10-27T04:04:00.001-07:00

Primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.

1. Seneca, The Apocolocynthosis, "The Apocolocythonsis of the Divine Claudius"
2. Plutarch, Moralia,"The education of Children"
3. Plotinus, The Enneads, “Happiness”

FILM

2007-10-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

There will be a film projection next Friday, 2 November 2007, at 17:00 in Garanti Kultur Merkezi.
The title of the movie is: Gladiator (dir. Ridley Scott, 2000)
If you miss this screening, you may also borrow the film from the Mithat Alam Film Center.

RICE AGRICULTURE, COMMUNAL LIFE AND THE CONFUCIAN STATE IN CHINA - SELÇUK ESENBEL

2007-10-24T15:55:00.002-07:00

October 24, 2007

Lecture Outline

l. Geography and Climate
2. Rice Agriculture
3. Communal Life
4. Chinese Imperial State and World View
5. Age of Philosophy and Confucius
6. The Two Handles of Government
7. The Solution or Non Solution of Tao
8 The Dynastic Cycle of the Mandate of Heaven

Vocabulary and Dates

Rice Agriculture and Communal Life in Asian History

Huang Ho, Yellow River
Yangtze River
Intensive Labor Agriculture
Irrigation
Communal Life
Mutual Responsibility and Social Harmony

Chinese Imperial State and World View

QIN DYNASTY

Shih Huangdi The First Emperor known as the Tiger of Qin
256 b. C. Founding of the Qin (Chin) Dynasty 221-207 B. C. Short lived due to harsh rule.
The Great Wall, The Steppe Nomads (Hsiung Nu/Xiungnu)
Bureaucracy Principle, anti-aristocratic.
Xian, the first imperial capital of the Qin
The Army of the First Emperor, The Mausoleum of the First Emperor
The Terra Cotta Statues of the Army

HAN DYNASTY

Han Dynasty 3rd century B. C.-3rd Century A. D. (202 B. C. 220 A. D. ) Comparable to the Roman Empire. Tradition of Imperium. Middle Kingdom. Diplomacy: China as Older Brother to rest of nations who are Younger Brothers.
Confucian Philosophy softens Imperial State Practice.
Ssu Ma Chien, the first Historian of China, Shih chih, The Record of the Grand Historian

Age of Philosophy 6th Century B. C. in China, Greece, and Age of Religious Ferment India the Buddha at the same time!
Confucius, Kongze, 551-479 B. C.
Cultivated Gentleman
11 Main Dynasties follow Chinese Imperial State Tradition of Confucian Philosophy from the Qin all the way to 1911 Chinese Nationalist Revolution that destroyed the dynastic tradition.
Rites and Ceremonies
State Examinations
Forbidden City
The Tomb of Mao Zedong along the Temple of Heaven Axis attests to Dynastic tradition symbolism.

Two Handles of Government: Rewards and Punishments
Legalism, Han Fei ze

Taoism, Lao ze
No government is the best government. Non Being as ideal. Nature as source of Harmony.

Mandate of Heaven
Mencius
Heaven as power based on principle of Nature and Humanity.

The Forbidden City and the Tomb of Mao Zedong

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE AND THE ALEXANDRIAN LEGACY IN ASIA: THE GOLDEN AGE OF GRECO-INDIAN BUDDHIST CIVILIZATION

October 26, 2007

Lecture Outline

l. The Birth of the Buddhist Message of Enlightenment
2. Alexander the Great’s Conquest of the Persian Empire
3. The Seleucids of South Anatolia and the Mauryan Empire of India
4. Bactria the Land of the Synthesis
5. The Golden Age of Buddhist Kushan Nobles

Vocabulary and Dates

Siddharta Gautama of the Sakyamuni clan in Nepal, Buddha
Bodhi Tree
Nirvana
Sanskrit
4 Noble Thruths
8 Fold Path
Hinduism, Caste, Brahmin
Buddhism

Alexander the Great 338-323 B. C.
Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes of the Persian Empire
Founding of Persian Empire 550 B. C. in Anatolia and Thrace
Persian Wars 500-449 B. C. Greek Victory, Athenian Democracy
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Historia
Hindu Kush, Hyber Pass, Punjabi warriors, Indus Valley

Hyber Pass

Alexander’s Conquest of Persia 333 B. C.
Post Alexander local kingdoms: Orientalized Greeks of the Hellenistic Age
Seleucid, Anatolia, Mesopotamia
Antinogid, Greece, Macedonia
Ptolemy, Egypt, Cleopatra, Anthony, Julius Caesar, she commits suicide 31 B. C.
Bactria, Central Asia, Pakistan and Afganistan today.

Seleucus of Anatolia and Chandara Gupta of Maurya Dynasty in India

305 B. D. Seleucus defeated by Chandara’s army of elephants in the jungles of the Ganges valley.

Peace Treaty cedes Central Asia east of Kabul to India

Megasthenes, ambassador of Seleucos to court of Chandara Gupta in Pataliputra (Patna).
Wrote the Indica, the first book on India in a European language
Women warriors, secret service spying organization, wooden city walls.
Kautilya, political advisor wrote Arthashastra, Mirror of Princes, genre picked up by Persians and transmitted to the Near East and Europe.

Bindusara, son of Chandara, requests figs, wine, and philosopher from the Seleucid king. Obliged but Greeks reply they do not trade in philosophers!

Ashoka, Grandson of Chandara, 268-232 B. D. converted to Buddhism religion of the masses.
Ashoka pillars have Sanskrit and Greek writings declaring faith.

Bactria the land of the synthesis between East and West
Demetrius (originally Seleucid too) crosses Hindu Kush, conquers north Punjab (Pakistan) and establishes Bactrian Kingdom, capital, Taxila, Gandara region, 182 B. C.
Ruled Afganistan, Pakistan of today.

Bactrian Coins

Prince Menander, brother of Demetrius, mother is Indian!, represents synthesis.
Converts to Buddhism, name changes to Milinda, in Sanskrit.
Discussions of religious enlightenment with Indian monk Nagasara
Becomes sacred canonical text of Buddhism to this day
Milindapandra (Dialoque of Milinda) written in Greek genre of Dialogue but in Sanskrit.
Translated later to Chinese and Japanese.

Golden Age of Buddhist Kushan Nomads 1-300 A. D.
Han dynasty defeats nomads the Yueh chi nomad tribe migrates to West. Conquers Bactria in 150 B. D. devastates Greek rule forever.
Kushan dynasty emerges 150 years later with cultural synthesis.

Kushan King Kanishka mints coins Bactrian style 75 A. Ac.

Begram, Hadde, Gandara, Surh Kotal villages in Afganistan have Kushan monasteries with Greek Buddhist sculptors who make first generation of Buddha statues!
Ay Hanim site in North Afganistan, Alexandria city, Demeter/Kibele scene in Copper plate,

1. Greek Athlete
2.Heracles and the Buddha
3.Buddhist Sea Nymphs

1.Gandara Buddha
2.Kushan Monk
3. Kushan Prince

Cultural Legacy : Ishtemi Kagan settles Turks of 6th century in same area out of which the Seljuks of Oguz emerge and convert to Islam.

ANCIENT SOUTH ASIA: THE INDUS VALLEY AND HARAPPAN CIVILIZATIONS (MELTEM TOKSÖZ)

2007-10-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Indus Valley Civilization was one of the world's first great urban civilizations that flourished in the vast river plains of what are now Pakistan and western India

Urban Civilization of two cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa with grid-plans and alleys connecting to major streets and both public and private drainage.

These cities of the period 2500-1500 BC, approximately the same time as the early city-states of Egypt and Mesopotamia, are referred to as Harappan Culture or Indus Civilization.

Spreading over a vast geography from high mountains to coastal regions, large cities and smaller towns grew up along the major trade routes as administrative and ritual center.

Major excavations were begun at the larger sites, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, in the 1920s and numerous excavations at smaller sites have broadened our understanding of this unique culture.

Some characteristics:

Well planned cities and towns built on massive mud brick platforms

Grid plan of streets and lanes oriented north-south and east-west

No community temple but fire altars in private homes and neighborhood centers

Terra cota figurines of women

No evidence of military ability and/or weaponry

Two storied housing complete with bath facilities and a drainage system

Granaries and industrial complexes that suggest some level of state control of economic resources and production.

Seals made of stone and engraved with symbols and animal motifs. The most common animal on the seals is a mythical unicorn. Seals of animals with inscription used for administrative purposes.

No burial ground and no temple

The use of elaborate ornaments, sculpture and terra cotta figurines

Seals and writing, decorated pottery and new ritual objects are unifying cultural symbols of the Harappan phase.

Great Bath and Granary

A distinctive form of writing Undeciphered pictography of 400 signs

Some kind of centralized state, extensive town planning

Same period with the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations

Recent excavations and reexamination

revealing another possible site for a temple. Tree temple
revealing fire altars as public ritual sites, indicating precursors to Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.
revealing personal icons, indicating precursors to personal devotion and meditation as in Hinduism and Buddhism
a particular icon that indicates “priest king” and thus clan structure

UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS

Why did this sophisticated civilization not spread beyond the Indus valley?
Why did the cities undergo decline?

WEEK V: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-10-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

Primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.

1. Lao Tzu, The Classic of the Way and of Virtue
2. Confucius, K’ung fu-tzu, (469-399 B. C. ) Analect

WEEK IV: PRIMARY SOURCES

2007-10-15T14:56:00.001-07:00

Primary sources are available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site.

1-Homer, the Odyssey, "The King Nestor Remembers",
2- Thucidydes, The Peloponessian War, Book II, Chapter VI, "Funeral Oration of Pericles",
3- Aristotle, "Virtues and Vices"

MONOTHEISM AND THE JUDAIC TRADITION IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST (VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS)

2007-10-11T16:13:00.001-07:00

October 10, 2007

The Babylonian Empire:

Amorite King Hamurabi in 1792 BC turned Babylon from a fragile town to a powerful kingdom. He was the first to recognize that power need not rely on brut force.

Diplomacy and cunningness.

He created the Old Babylonian Empire that stretched from Persian Gulf into Assyria.

Sumerian traditions were maintained.

Babylonian scientists extended the Sumerian work in astronomy and maths.

The Babylonians expanded commerce and a common cultural zone based on the growing use of writing and a shared language.

A new government strength expressed in the legal system and public buildings.

Roots of monotheism:

Hamurabi elevated the local deity Marduk to the dominant god of the Empire even if old deities were not eliminated. Thus he united diverse populations under one god.

A god that through order (as opposed to the Sumerian God of chaos) helped the predict and control the environment. Hamurabi’s legacy kept the kingdom alive for two more centuries and its influence was immense in forming kingship in the Near East.

HAMURABİ

The Hebrews

A Semitic people influenced by Babylonian civilization settled about 1600 BCE migrating from Mesopotamia.

Some moved into Egypt where they lived as a subject people. Moses, on the 13th c. led them to Palestine to a promised land.

First clear record in the 11th c. when they emerge with a self-conscious culture.

The Hebrew religion:

In Hebrew history, the passage to monotheism was limited at first as only one group believed in Yahweh.

Even if it is attributed to Moses, monotheism most probably is connected with the Levites, a tribe with unique claims in priestly authority and enjoyed higher literacy among the Hebrews.

The House of David politically united all Hebrews in Jerusalem in the 10th c.

Early leaders emphasized a strong creator God as most powerful among other divinities for prayer and loyalty.

This divinity through the prophets urged Jews to abandon the worship of other gods and receive the Torah (a holy law).

Keeping the law would ensure divine protection and guidance. Hence the Jews regarded themselves the chosen people. Until the 10th c. they worshiped gods even of the neighbors Cannaites such as god El. Even Solomon, son of David, included altars of Astar in his temple.

Prophets were messengers, both political and religious figures who helped the Hebrews survive as a people.

It was against the threat of the Assyrian god Assur that prophets professed monotheism.

Even prophet Jeremaih who taught in the 7th c, preached against foreign cults.

Already from 8th c. Hebrew monotheism contributed to Western religious thought.

i)Yehwah was not part of nature or humanlike, thus he could be conceived in abstract terms,
ii) Yehwah had appointed humans to be the rulers of nature by divine mandate,
iii) Yehwah implemented universalizing ethical rules and moral behavior as in the case of Noah and the ten commandments and,
iv) Yehwah put forth ritualistic demands such as abstaining from labor on the 7th day.
v) Yehwah had a power far different from the traditional Gods of the Middle East and Egypt. A divinity orderly and just and people knew what to expect.

For the Hebrews, religion was a system of life, not simply rituals and ceremonies.

Divine law was spelled out in the Torah and other writings from 9th to 2nd c. BCE.

Moral duty did not bind Hebrews in their relations with foreigners though.
After Solomon’s death the ten northern tribes abstained from the cultic activities in Jerusalem and they were eventually eliminated by the Assyrians, 20.000 of them captured, the famous lost ten tribes.

The southern kingdom of Judah survived as an Assyrian vassal state.

Hebrew prophets:

Amos and Hosea, before the fall to the Assyrians in 722, Isaiah and Jeremiah before Judah’s fall in 522 to Chaldeans, Ezekiel and second Isaiah who prophesized by the waters of Babylon.

Three doctrines: i) absolute monotheism, ii) Yehwah is a god of righteousness ii) Yehwah demands ethical behavior from his Hebrew people above all, not ritual and sacrifice.

The Hebrew religion:

The Hebrews saw God’s guidance on all of human history. Eventually all peoples would be led by God.

But God’s special pact was with the Hebrews and there was no attempt on converting others.

Thus, moral duty did not bind Hebrews in their relations with foreigners.

Due to this limitation the people and their faith survived but it remained a minority.

Influence on Christianity and Islam.

The Persian Empire:

In the sixth c. B.C., the Persians emerge into history under prince Cyrus, who became the king of all Persians in 549.

Cyrus took Babylon without a fight in 539. The Chaldean Empire was dissolved. The Hebrews were free to return to Palestine.

Darius ruled in 521-486. He divided the Empire into satrapies that enjoyed certain autonomy. He allowed subject peoples their local institutions while imposing a common currency.

Zoroastrianism:

Buddhism, Judaism and Zoroastrianism were the known religions.

Zaratustra or Zoroaster, the first really theologian in history, developing a full religious system. A universal religion.

One supreme god in the universe, Ahura-Mazda, the ‘wise lord’, who embodied light, truth and righteousness. Ahriman was the counter-deity, treacherous, malignant, leading the forces of evil. The struggle between good and evil.

It was a personal religion as opposed to public religions related to politics. However, it was made important for the Persian rule and its tolerance, since it advocated that individuals are free to chose to sin or not. Those who lived honestly would be rewarded in afterlife, the others would be punished.

Similarities to Judaism and Christianity.

Besides influence on Judaism and Christianity, it also affected Greeks encouraging them to think of religion in more universalistic and personal terms.

ANCIENT GREEK CIVILIZATION - VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS

2007-10-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Greek City and Democracy (15 Oct. Monday)

Economy and Material Culture in the Greek City (17 Oct. Wednesday)

Ancient Greek cities

The emergence of the city-state

Greek achievements would be impossible without the eastern cultures.

Human dignity, individual liberty, participatory government, artistic innovation, scientific investigation, constitutional experimentation, confidence in the creative powers of human mind.

Today’s democracy, equality, justice, freedom are not what the Greeks meant.

Dark ages, 1150-800, decline, 90% depopulation

Many of the inhabitants of the mainland fled to the highland of southern Greece or across the sea to Cyprus and the coast of Asia Minor.

All this had been connected to the arrival of Dorians from the north, a population with military competence. It is now claimed though that the system had already collapsed before.

Tension between Dorian speaking and Attic-speaking populations would always pertain.

Initially, rare contacts with other communities. Equality between the heads of the households.

Homeric epics, 800, after the introduction of the phoenician alphabet.

Until 8th c., aristocrats, ’the best men’, their authority relying on their superior qualities.

Wealth was not enough, singer of songs, doer of deeds, winner of battles, favored by Gods.

Description of heroic ideals, competition between elites, the population is absent.

Greeks already in 1000 had started again trading long-distance. Pottery more sophisticated.

Starting from 9th c. more contact with Near East traditions, sea-faring as described in Odyssey.

Social stratification became more pronounced. Successful traders could use their wealth to increase their political and social standing.

Dramatic population growth, rivalry, need for resources, 8th-7th colonialism.

Archaic Greece, prelude to the classical period, but not so inferior to that.

Colony is independent with ties to its mother city, but no political obligations.

Several hundreds of them from the Black Sea to western Mediterranean. Magna Graecia in Italy. By the end of 4th c. more Greeks lived there than in Greece proper.

The motivation was to establish commercial bonds with a broader network.

It intensified their contacts with other cultures, which sharpened their awareness of a common Hellenic identity.

This did not result to political cooperation.

Greeks had little esteem for political associations adding to linguistic differences. Ionian-Dorian.

Yet pan-Hellenic cult sites were recognized.

Oracle at Delphi. Unintelligible answers of legendary Pythia, translated by the priests.

Pan-Hellenic festivals, Olympic Games, major athletic competitions, 776 BCE. Only Greeks participated. Victory entailed social and political power in the polis.

The creation of polis. Blend of state and local practice. Asty, surrounded by chora (land). which might support several villages, even towns. The vast majority of the citizens were farmers, who came to participate in asty affairs.

Synoikismos was the first form of polis, accomplished through cooperation or conquest.

Was polis the outcome of the urban development around a temple (pheonician tradition) or temples were created afterwards? Athens- Athena.

Changes in warfare. In the dark ages, military power lay with the elite, common foot soldier played a secondary role.

The introduction of hoplite tactics brought aristocratic monopoly to an end. Soldiers armed with sword or spear and protected by a round shield. A breast-plate, a helmet, wrist guards and leg guards. They stood shoulder to shoulder forming a phallanx. Impenetrable wall of armor.

The ability to stay together. It is introduced firstly in the early 7th using as a model the tactics of the Assyrians.

The result was a social and political revolution. Those farmers who could afford an armor became a new ‘hoplite class’. They claimed political participation, equality and justice.

But disgruntled aristocrats might have equally contributed. 7th and 6th aristocrats dominated the polis. Conflicts between aristocratic families, new laws and dispatching of colonial expeditions part of these conflicts. Serving as a magistrate in a polis was a non-salaried duty that only the rich could afford.

The aristocrats claimed a distinct lifestyle, symposiums became a feature of aristocratic male life in the polis.

Respectable women were excluded from them as by any other aspect of political life.

Aristocratic homosexuality was regulated by social custom. Commonly a man in his thirties would have a teenager as a lover, forming an intimate bond of friendship and political support.

Plato claimed that this was the only true love.

Disenchanted aristocrats used the hoplites.

The tension between aristocrats gave rise to tyranny. A word borrowed from the Lydians means someone who seizes power by force.

Would be tyrant appealed to the hoplite class and satisfied their demands to retain power, broadening the right of political participation, and giving them judicial guarantees.

Once these guarantees provided, the continuation of tyranny became an obstacle to the demos, the power of the people.

Athens

Considered themselves indigenous people. It emerges from the Dark Ages initially as an agricultural economy, but soon due to its location turned to trade.

Landed aristocracy was in power until the 6th c. and monopolized the office of the archon. Nine of theme presided over civil, military, judicial, religious functions. They served a term of one year, after which they became lifetime members of Areus Pagus Council, a kind of ‘high court’. In the course of 7th c. social divisions emerged as many fell into debt slavery.

In 621 the aristocrat Drakon set new laws. His attempt fails and both aristocrats and hoplites assigned the task in 594 to Solon who had made a fortune as a merchant.

Solon forbade debt slavery; he spurred crash-crop economy and the urban industries necessary to make Athens a commercial power.

He set up courts where citizens served as jury. A new political system based on property, a non-aristocrat could also achieve prominence.

He established vouli where the population was represented. Eventually, the citizen’s assembly, the ekklesia where all free men participated.

After a brief aristocratic counterrevolution, the aristocrat Cleisthenis was supported by demos as an archon in 508-507.

He reorganized the countryside population into 10 voting tribes which eliminated economic tension.

He introduced ostracism, for the demos to protect itself from tyrants.

1.Akropolis
2.Drawing reproducing the golden-ivory statue of Athena standing within Parthenon
3.The complex of Karyatis maidens from the temple of victorious Athena 421-405 BCE.
4.Horsemen from the Panathenea procession, the most glorious celebration in Athens. Part of the frieze on the western side of the Parthenon. 432 BC.

SPARTA

It represented everything that Athens was not, simple, earthly, traditional.

A synoikismos of five villages created the polis. Probably because of that it had a dual monarchy, with two lines of succession.

Neither of the kings was technically superior, something which led to political intrigue.

Spartans believed that Lycurgus, a legendary figure from the heroic Age gave them their laws, Great Rhetra a set of laws that remained unwritten when most other cities had their laws written down.

These reforms militarized Sparta.

Their army was so superior that the Spartans left their city unfortified.

Every full citizen, a Spartan or an equal was a professional soldier of the phalanx.

Whereas Athenian government was democratized to reflect the interests of the people, in Sparta the citizenship was aristocratised.

Sparta consolidated its power when in the early 7th c. conquered Messinia, a wealthy region in the west. Its population was enslaved and became helotes, assigned to worked the land. Thus, Spartans could devote themselves to war.

A society organized for war. At birth every child was examined by the five ephors, the guardians of Great Rhetra. The healthy ones at the age of seven were introduced to the state-run educational system.

Girls and boys together until 12 years old when girls would continue education in letters and boys real military training. At the age of 18 the young man would become full citizen. He could then remain at the barracks until 30. A Spartan could remain in active duty until he saw 60.

The homoerotic culture of the Spartans and the little time they had for a family partly accounts for the population decrease in the 5th c.

All males were member of the assembly, the Apella, that voted for important issues.

Upper government included two kings and the council of elders, where upon completing 60 years any Spartan could apply to be elected for life.

The ephors elected for a year had tremendous powers and controlled the kryptia, secret services.

They lived under constant threat of revolt by the helots whom they took always with them in campaigns and tried not to leave their hometown for long.

Spartans could not engage in commerce and Lycurgus had prohibited coinage, instead heavy metal which were worthless outside Sparta.

These functions were taken up by the perioiki who were dwelling around the city and were in-between citizens and helots. The grew wealth but were excluded from any political right.

The Persian Wars

This experience changed the Greek world immeasurably.

Herodotus the first Greek historian born in Alicarnassus. His account starts with the revolt in Miletos against the Persians in 499-494. The rebels with Athenian and Eretrian help were overwhelmed by the Persians.

Darius realized that mainland Greece would be a threat for his kingdom. He was defeated in Marathon. Themistocles convinced Athenians to build a two hundred warships (trieremes) fleet.

When Xerxes campaigned in 480, Athens, Sparta and others formed the Hellenic League. Defeat at Thermopylae, victory at Salamis. Athenians abandoned their city but used their fleet.

Classical Athens

In the next fifty years, heyday of Athens.

Athens unified the polis who wished to continue the fight against the Persians under the Delian League. Each member would contribute ships or money. However gradually Athens imposed its authority over its allies leading to resentment.

Only one office remained open to traditional voting: strategos. The same person could be elected year after year.

Politics in Athens had changed though, as it was the huge fleet that counted, not the infantry. The 40000 rowers came from those too poor to afford hoplite equipment, the thetes.

Pericles

Pericles dominated as a strategos for thirty years. He moved legislative power from Areus Pagus and Bouli to the Ecclesia.

He made it easier for any citizen to participate by paying a day’s wage for attendance. He launched an ambitious project of public buildings and lavish festivals to honor gods. He became a patron of arts.

Art and Architecture

Black figure’ vases and jugs with cheerful sensuality and vulgar wit.

1. Black-figured pottery, representing a symposium 520 BCE
2. Early classical period, Black figured pottery, The Homeric hero Achilles as he prepares for the campaign.560 BCE

Marble statuaries and sculptured surfaces. Sculptors took human greatness as their theme, most important being the appearance of well-proportioned naturalistic nude.

1.Marble Statuary of ‘Athena in veils’ 470 BCE
2.Detail from a marble statuary where Asklipios and his sons are represented 360 BCE.

It appears between 490-480 for the first time and we can assume that the triumph of Greek ideals of human dignity was related to that.

The ‘classic’ Greek temple emerged gradually but reached its peak with Parthenon, a celebration of power and confidence.

Drama

An innovation that developed out of the chorus that chanted odes to god Dionysus.

Great Dionysia part of religious and political life.

Aeschylos introduced more than one characters. Well-known legends but it could also have contemporary themes. Sophocles and Euripides

Comedy, Aristophanes, direct political commentary, parody, full of vulgarity and sexual references. Repeatedly dragged into court.

History. Thucydides wrote the history of the Peloponnesian war.

Social relations

Slavery was widespread. While free Athenians debated politics and arts, slaves were in the fields and mines.

But still it was small in scale. Slaves were distributed among families and thus they seldom suffered cruelty since they created bonds with their master. Yet, they were not considered to be entirely human.

For the free citizens, Athens was an exciting place, center of commerce and culture. Some were richer but they were obliged to donate for public festivals.

Gender Relations

The growth of Greek democracy did not lead to greater equality among the sexes.

In the aristocratic world women were greatly estimated but in the democratic one women lived in the shadows.

Legally, wives were the property of their husbands, weddings were arranged, women would stay home and would be involved in presumably inferior occupations at home.

Men apart from homosexuality were allowed to seek for pleasure to household slaves.

The Peloponnesian War

Athenians could have never achieved their projects without the wealth from the allied cities.

The revolts increased until the 440s when eventually the Athenians signed a treaty with the Persians and the Delian League collapsed.

The Peloponnesian League was established by the Spartans and their allies.

The war 431-404 was eventually won by the Spartans with the Persian help. The role of the demagogues who stirred hostility.

By 401, after an interval of tyrannical rule, Athens was again a democracy but a feeble one.

Sparta’s hegemony:

Spartans’s hegemony soon became unpopular. They were not accustomed to that role.

The war demonstrated the limitations of the polis system. The competitive ethos between different Greek polis had proved to be their flaw. It brought a questioning of old certainties; even gods seemed to be challenged.

Philosophical schools:

After the Persian conquest of Asia Minor, Pythagoras and his circle due to distress over loss of freedom, believed that the essence of things were not matter but numbers thus focused on mathematics.

After the Greek victories the increasing power motivated inquiry into how the individual might best act in here and now. The sophists as professional instructors.

Protagoras: ‘man is the measure of all things’.

Socrates argued that absolute standards exist. Reexamination, ‘Socratic questioning’, opposed sophists for employing false reasoning, focused on ethics not on the physical world.

He believed in polis as a positive framework of truth.

Socrates

Greek contribution:

Despite the religious criticism of some intellectuals, the Greeks were neither secularists nor rationalists. Democracy was limited, slavery existent, patriarchy prevalent. Statecraft was based on imperial aggressiveness.

And yet, contrast to the Near East Empires the culture of polis was based on concepts of human dignity, individual achievement and freedom.

Several terms on politics originate there but most importantly paideia which later was replaced by the Roman humanitas.

The Hellenic World: From City State to Empire

October 19, 2007

Vangelis Kechriotis

Hellenistic period

Dissolution of the polis system

Every time a polis was on the brink of establishing a hegemony, a coalition of old enemies would defeat it. Civil wars resulted to social and economic problems.

The Spartans were harsher than the Athenians against their allies and were eventually supported by the Persians, a support which led to a continuous Persian intervention in the Greek affairs until 340.

The old ideas of equality declined since the number of free citizens declined as many poverty-stricken descended into slavery.

Strife between oligarchs and democrats continued throughout the Greek world.

Economy was devastated. Many towns had been repeatedly looted. Agriculture suffered. Many people turned to mercenary service in south Italy or Persia. When these people did not find a job, they terrorized the local population.

Culture in the 4th c. forms a response to the social crisis. In sculpture, instead of the idealized forms of the classical period, realism was promoted, attention to life and movement.

In the drama at that period, there is no social and political commentary any more. The audience looked for entertainment and escape.

Heyday of philosophy

Plato. Socrates’ experience made him reject direct political involvement. Plato’s academy, writing of dialogues. Symposium.

His experience from the Sophists and the decline of his era led to the search of absolute truths. Our world changes, but there is a realm of eternal forms or ideas that only the mind can grasp. Highest is the idea of God. Through our senses we perceive only imperfect copies.

In his Republic, the farmers, artisans, traders would be ruled by an intellectually superior elite the guardians. Those wise among them would be educated and become the philosopher kings. Not property or hereditary title but intelligence.

Plato

Aristotle, a Plato’s student. Human mind can perceive the universe though the rationality of sense experience.

Objective reality of material objects. A compromise between Platonism and materialism. The universe is teleological.

In his Politics, true happiness can be found in the harmonious relation between individual human mind and the body, using reason. The philosophers were the happiest people.

Plato conceived politics as a means to the pursuit of a supernatural God, Aristotle conceived it as an end in itself. Inferior individuals would be slaves. Women were excluded from polis.

These thinkers saw that something was wrong with the polis and opted for a ‘utopia’.

Aristotle

Macedonian hegemony:

Initially, the royal house was challenged by its own nobility and surrounded by barbaric tribes. Greeks saw the Macedonians as equally barbarians as the Persians.

Philip II by 356 achieved full authority, stabilized northern borders and then defeated the Greek cities.

He developed superior warfare techniques. Mineral resources allowed him to create professional army.

While politicians like Isokrates found in Philip an answer to the Greek fragmenation, others like Demosthenes considered him a ruthless barbarian.

His dream was to reconciliate and ally all Greeks, in order to attack Persia. The Athenians resisted and in Chaeronea in 338 they were defeated. The League of Corinth was founded, where Greek cities would participate in a state of autonomy.

Alexander III or the Great succeeded Philip when the latter was murdered in 336.

A series of battles would lead him dissolve the Persian Empire. In 331, at Gaugamela, today’s northern Iraq, Alexander destroys the Persian army. He proceeded to Bactria, today’s Afghanistan and reached up to the Indus River.

A visionary, a genius and a butcher who wished to transform the world by turning Greek culture from its parochial homeland to a world culture.

He systematically founded Greek style polis along his route. He also forced his officers to get married to local noblewomen. A desire to eliminate ethnic distinctions in the empire, or an attempt to breed a new nobility loyal to himself.

Alexander’s Conquests

Alexander’s Legacy:

Marble Head of Alexander, (Roman Copy)

After Alexander’s death two generations were involved in endless wars to claim the heritage.

Eventually, by 275 three military and political powers had emerged. The style of rule indicates return to the past, especially in the Near East and Egypt, where the successors of Alexander established new cities and revived the concept of divine king.

Ptolemaic Egypt proved to be the most durable and the dynasty used the wealth of the country to patronize sciences and arts. Alexandria, with its museum and library became the center of scholarship, displacing Athens. Cleopatra.

Seleucid Asia. Like the Ptolemaics, the Seleucids merged the Near Eastern tradition of the Mesopotamian subjects and the Greek one of the Hellenized populations of the coast. They built cities that grew to commercial centers such as Antioch.

Antogonid Macedonia and Greece. Macedonian general Antigonus established a rule influenced by Stoic philosophy. Kingship as a servitude rather than a privilege. He did not compete with the other kingdoms, since his resources were limited.

The Greeks were restless and two Leagues were formed, the Aetolian League and the Achean League, calling for freedom from the barbarian Macedonians. They represented a real political unification, with some centralization of governmental function.

Social conditions

The Hellenistic world prosperous through long-distance trade in a network of rapidly growing cities. Money circulation instigated investment.

Greek rulers imported Greek officials and soldiers to control over non-Greek population.

Urban settlements were created from nothing. Alexander founded 70 cities. Alexandria 500.000 population. Before Rome no other city surpassed it. Splendid public buildings but the masses had no share in that brilliant life.

Agriculture still remained the main occupation. However, social instability led to sudden poverty.

Hellenistic Religion

Escapism from political and collective commitments. The new philosophical schools Stoicism, Epicurianism, Skepticism partly replaced worship of local deities.

Ordinary people though embraced a variety of local religions with elaborate rituals. In the Greek-speaking communities ecstatic mysticism attracted even more.

Zoroastrianism (in an extreme form that claimed that everything material is evil) returned in the form of an off-shoot called Mithraism.

Mithras was believed to have lived as human, performed miracles, proclaimed Sunday as sacred day and the 25th December, the birthday of the sun. One of the most popular religions in the Roman world and had influence on Christianity.

(All of the images are taken from "Judith G.Coffin, Robert Stacey, Robert E.Lerner, Standish Meacham, Western Civilizations, New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002")

FILM

2007-10-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

There will be a documentary film projection this Friday, 5 October 2007, at 17:00 in Garanti Kultur Merkezi, on the excavation and preservation of the late-Hittite site of Aslantas, highly important for the visual and epigraphic material that was discovered there. The title of the movie is:
Toroslarda Bir Efsane: Karatepe-Aslantas (dir. Aylin Eren, 2003)

If you miss this screening, you may also borrow the film from the Mithat Alam Film Center.

AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENTS - ASLI ÖZYAR

2007-10-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

26 September 2007

YARIMBURGAZ

Time frame:

hominid existence on planet ca. 2.5 million years (Africa)

humans leave Africa ca. 1 million years ago and begin to populate Europe and Asia

earliest (ca. 400 000 BP) hominid (homo erectus) traces in Anatolia for example in Yarimburgaz Cave near Lake Küçükçekmece, ho

Traditional terminology for periods of human existence based on developments in tool technology

Palaeolithic(Neograecizing term= invented Greek term=Old stone age), Neolithic (New Stone Age), Chalcolithic (Copper/Stone Age), Bronze Age, Iron Age etc.

Problems of this traditional terminology: change in tool technology not necessarily indicative of social/cultural/organizational changes; temporal definition of Bronze Age will differ regionally, European Bronze Age lasts longer than the Anatolian

Alternative terminology based on World Wide Climate Change:

Quaternary Period (4^th Period in the history of the planet)

Pleistocene (1.6 million – 10.000 BP)

Holocene (10.000 BP- present)

Often both terms are used juxtapposed.

Importance of the Ancient Near East:

Provides evidence for the earliest development of pristine civilization

‘Current archaeological evidence indicates that there is no region where either agriculture or urbanism developed earlier than in the Near East.’

[Redman, C. L. The Rise of Civilization (1978) 6]

Two developments in history of human record that proved irreversible:

agriculture and urbanism

How can we define these developments:

Permanent settlement precedes reliance on agriculture. Transition to sedentary lifestyle leads to the development of architecture and to permanent settlements. Earliest villages of the Neolithic period rely on hunting and gathering and experiment with agriculture on a small scale. Agricultural transformation and complete reliance on agriculture develops slowly in the course of the Neolithic period, between 10 000 - 6000 B.C.

Agriculture refers to the domestication of selected plant and animal species in answe to human needs.

Specialists who analyse prehistoric data pertaining to this period, develop theories and frame new questions are:

Paleogeographers, Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Palaeobotanists, Palaeozoologists,

Biochemists (DNA studies)

Examples for permanent settlements with remains of gathered species of grain and hunted bones of animals in conjunction to slowly developing agriculture in Turkey:

Çayönü (Diyarbakir): first multi-disciplinary joint project in Turkey to investigate the origin of the development of agriculture and early village life in the Fertile Crescent, the Hilly Flanks of the Taurus and Zagros Mountain. The site consists of consecutive levels of Neolithic period habitation allowing to trace gradual change in the reliance on agriculture and the development of architecture [Project of the Prehistory Department of Istanbul University and the Oriental Institute of Chicago University, co-directed by Profs. Halet Çambel and Robert Braidwood]

Nevali Çori (Urfa): village of Pre-pottery Neolithic community consisting of several free-standing, rectangular buildings with communal sacred building [Project of the German Archaeological Institute, directed by Prof. Harald Hauptmann]

Göbeklitepe (Urfa): sacred site for hunters and gatherers perhaps of regional scale, most recent site to be investigated [Project of the German Archaeological Institute, directed by Dr. Klaus Schmidt]

28 September 2007

LECTURE II: THE RISE OF CIVILIZATION: EARLY URBAN CENTERS OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST- ASLI ÖZYAR

Earliest villages are to be found in a topographically circumscribed area: the Fertile Crescent= the hilly flanks and intermontane valleys of the great mountain chains in the Near East, especially the Taurus and the Zagros ranges.

In contrast to popular belief the Mesopotamian landscape was not able to support earliest villages because it remains outside of the minimum required rainfall zone; permanent settlements in Mesopotamia only start after irrigation allows agriculture. Anatolia, on the other hand, is host to a number of earliest villages in the world, see Lecture 1.

How do we differentiate between a village and an urban site?

We have to identify criteria for urbanism which can be recognized in the preserved remains of an ancient site in the Near East. Eminent British scholar Gordon Childe formulated in the mid 20th c. a list of criteria to serve this purpose. Many later approaches have found his work to be useful as a starting point. These are some selected criteria derived from his primary and secondary characteristics to delineate and recognize early forms of urbanism:

Size of settlements: the great enlargement of an organized population will lead to new ways of social integration. Large numbers of people living in close proximity need mechanisms to regulate social stress: urban civilization is the answer to cope with that stress. This involves the regulation of cultural norms and behaviour beyond the context of gender, age and merit.

Full-time specialization of labor: specialized production and a demand for such products indicate an urban scale of operation

Economic surplus: presence of sufficient amounts of agricultural (also artisanal) surplus, as well as the means to collect, store and redistribute this surplus

Monumental public works: need for monumental public space signals urban size. It also requires organized labor force and the means to coerce laborers to participate in large-scale projects.

Long-distance trade: institutional organization of trade, large-scale transactions and an increase in the variety of traded goods

Institutionalization of religion and the emergence of writing as a system of recording are also symptomatic of an urban level of society. The combined occurrence of all the above will indicate that a level of urban complexity has developed.

FROM ACCOUNTING TO WRITING: EARLY SCRIPTS AND ANCIENT LANGUAGES - ASLI ÖZYAR

2007-10-04T03:07:00.000-07:00

1 October 2007

GILGAMESH TABLET

Writing in this part of the world (=Eastern Mediterranean/Southwestern Asia/Middle East) is derived from the development of recording language in the Ancient Near East.

Writing is one of the defining aspects of urban civilization that we depend on in the modern era.

Writing in the sense of recording began as a method to remember- a method to support memory, as a mnemonic device. What was being remembered? Transactions. Early writing develops to facilitate accounting.

The medium of this early system of recording was clay tokens: counting your herd animals, vessels of grain, vessels of oil etc. by producing that amount or representative amounts of clay tokens i.e. one conical shaped tokens for every ten sheep. These tokens were enclosed in round hollow balls, envelopes, which were then impressed with a seal of the owner to ensure that nobody adds or subtracts further tokens.

Information conveyed in this way was very limited: amount of transaction (for ex. 15 tokens=150 animals), type of commodity (for ex. Conical shape for sheep) and owner (seal impression)

Next step was to record all aspects of activity. The need for this was purely bureaucratic/administrative, no great intellectual desire involved:

pictographs [=symbols=simple pictures] to represent objects

signs for numbers=dots for 10, strokes for 6 etc. (sexigasimal system)

Both of these were recorded on clay tablets. Earliest tablets contain only information on accounting, concern for time saving and accelaration (similar development happened in the modern era when computers were invented for number crunching)

With pictographs as logograms i.e. one sign representing one word, all you can write are strings of words, and absract concepts remain difficult.

Next breakthrough was when the sound value of words was recognized and signs were used not only to represent the meaning of the word but the sound. Writing was developed by Sumerian speaking people, their language was syllabic. Abstract concepts could now be written using principles of homophony and polyphony.

REBUS system: you want to record belief, you draw the sign for a bee (the insect) and the sign for a leaf ( of a tree), the combination of these sounds, when pronounced create the word you actually try to express, bee-leaf=belief.

The impetus to record grammar seems to have come from people speaking semitic languages trying to record their language which is based on consonant roots in this script developed for a syllabic language.

This syllabic system of incising signs on clay tablets in the Ancient Near East is referred to as cuneiform writing, a nickname. In the beginning sign lists consisted of thousands of signs, lateron the number of signs decreased somewhat.

The next step of development is alphabetic writing, where one sign represents the smallest sound unit of a consonant or vowel. This type of recording radically lowers the number of signs necessary to record language.

Cuneiform writing was invented about 3000 B.C. in southern Mesopotamia. The act of writing (=recording) consists of making impressions with a reed stylus into a damp piece of flatened clay. Most of the earliest clay tablets with information on transactions come from the city of Uruk.

Alphabetic writing was invented in the course of the second millennium B.C. in Canaan lands by semitic speaking people, earliest samples of alphabetic inscriptions were found in the Sinai peninsula. The alphabet was adopted by semitic speaking Phoenecians and then spread rapidly in the Eastern Mediterranean during the first half of the first millennium.

3 October 2007

LECTURE IV: SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND HISTORICAL RECORDS: ANATOLIA IN THE BRONZE AGE - ASLI ÖZYAR

Palaeolithic and Neolithic developments present in Anatolia.

3000-2000 B. C. Early Bronze Age; no literacy discovered in Anatolia, prehistoric period.

Increase in number of villages, and in social stratification, some villages develop into larger centers during this period.

Metallurgy develops a new economic dimension: in addition to agriculture now mining, metal processing and production of finished products as well as metals trade define economic activities in a settlement, hence Bronze Age. Metallurgical technology develops.

2000-1650 B.C. Middle Bronze Age, first written records appear in Anatolia, merchants record economic activities, but also jurisdiction and private affaires reflected in merchants archives. Script imported from Mesopotamia (cuneiform), language of writing also imported (Assyrian). Both foreign and Anatolian merchants record their transactions in this way. Politically, Anatolia is fragmented into many city-states, each with its own domain of economic and political interest and power, in competition. The largest one of these is Kanesh (modern Kültepe) with the Karum of merchants located near Kayseri.

1650-1200 B.C. Late Bronze Age, several city-states united into a single political unit, the Hittite state(=kingdom), later larger regions were annexed to this state forming the Hittite Empire. The Hittites are an Indo-european speaking people. The language is referred to as Neshili. They utilize cuneiform script to record their language.

The Hittites participate in the international trade and diplomacy of the period, shared by a ‘Balance of Powers’ of contemporary states around the Eastern Mediterranean. The archives of the capital city Hattusha at Bogazköy reveal a sophisticated people with traditions of learning, record keeping, law, engineering, historical awareness, literature and institutionalized religion. Their legacy undoubtedly had an impact on the later Graeco-Roman phase of the Eastern Mediterranean.

1200-600 B.C. Iron Age, after 1200 B.C. Anatolia witnesses together with the Aegean, Syria, Levant, Cyprus and Egypt a period of turmoil, disruption and destruction. The Hittite state as such dissappears, the cuneiform tablet archives come to an end. A string of new states develop more or less simultaneously from East to West, including the Urartian, several Neo-Hittite, the Phrygian and the Lydian kingdoms. The use of Irons predates the so-called Iron Age; however the widespread use of iron for tools and weapons is only attested after 1200 B.C.

2007-09-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

All readings will be available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site (go to Catalogue Search; Search Course Reserves).

Stearns, Adas, Schwartz, and Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience is also available in the Boğaziçi University Bookstore. Lecture outlines and course announcements will be posted on the course website.