1. The Nomadic Frontiers: The Islamic World, Byzantium,
Chapter 12
The Nomadic Frontiers:
The Islamic World, Byzantium,
and China ca

2. Review Questions
HOW DID the Islamic world deal with its steppeland neighbors?
WHAT STRENGTHS did the Turks bring to the Islamic world?
HOW DID Byzantine civilization combine religious and secular values?
HOW DID Byzantium survive? How far can it be said to have “declined”?
HOW DID the crusades affect the Islamic world and Byzantium?
HOW DID Song China deal with the northern barbarians?
WHY DO nomads and settled peoples tend to be enemies?

3. How did the Islamic world deal with its steppeland (nomadic) neighbors?
A widely dispersed civilization, many resource centers: Egypt, Baghdad, Cordoba, Damascus, Mecca, etc.
Islam, a universal religion
Jihad appealing to warrior cultures
Empire as a melting pot of cultures
Arabs a minority from the beginning of empire
Tolerance for new converts
The threat from Seljuk Turks:
Seize Baghdad in 1055
Yet their military abilities needed by the Abbasid caliphs
Turks converted, religiously and culturally adopting urban lifestyles
Wars against other factions within the empire: conquering Anatolia, Armenia from Christians; Syria, Palestine from Shiites
Why is Islam different from Europe/China in dealing with nomadic neighbors?

4. Reaction of Byzantines to Nomadic Invaders
Military defeat: Bulgars by Basil II
Colonization of the Balkans by Slavs
Interaction of the Slavs & Byzantines: Christianity as a middle ground--missionaries invent alphabet for Slav languages
Christianity legitimizing rulers: Slavs, Russians
Religious diplomacy & “gifts” (bribes) from Byzantine rulers = commonwealth of Christian states surrounding Byzantine empire
Military defeat Basil II defeats Bulgars, 1018, makes peace with Arabs
After Basil II, political and military fortunes of the empire failed, Turkish migrations and invasions overcome Byzantium from the east

5. Reaction of Europe to Nomadic Threat
Long isolated from Eurasia, Western Europe develops a siege mentality
Crusade as important turning point for Europeans involvement in Mideast, Islamic/Byzantine regipms
Europe incorporates two groups of nomadic raiders by 1000: Magyars and Vikings.
Pope Urban II and declaring war on heathens (see online reading)
A route to wealth for the church
Capture of Jerusalem, 1099
Creation of Crusader states
Role of Knights Templar

6. Reaction of Song China to Nomadic Threat
China, like Byzantium, considers others to be “barbarians.”
Unlike Byzantium, there was a long history of Chinese culture being adopted by foreign invaders.
Tang Dynasty: ends in 9th century, political disintegration
Uighur invasions of Yellow river region, increase in banditry
Dissolution of Tang in 907, shift to Ten Kingdoms (warlordism reasserts itself
Rise of Song Dynasty, 960--lasts until 1279
Sharing territory with steppeland nomadic invaders
Khitan state of Liao in Mongolia/Manchuria
Xia state develops between Tibet and Gobi desert
Jurchen gradually intrude on Liao territory. Assimilate Chinese culture

7. Reaction to Nomads: Success and Failure
The most insular (Byzantines) were the biggest failures.
Song China, though not Chinese culture and civilization, succumbs to foreign invaders.
Western Europe is nearly defeated by Vikings, Slavs
The Islamic Empire is a great melting pot of cultures
Islamic religion is simple and flexible enough to incorporate new peoples with little difficulty.

8. Today’s Question What will China do?
Consider
The precocious economic development of Song China
The historical weight China has always had in world history
The illusion created by the last two centuries, during which bad government and Western industrialization eclipsed China’s traditional place
That China still has a preponderance in the most basic commodity of global influence, numbers of people who share a homogenous culture
Have the last two centuries been an aberration?
Will China again reemerge as the global superpower, as it has time and again, sometime in this century?
What would be the implications of such a development ?