Source Collection: Collapse and Restructure
Document 1
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Author |
Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430–c. 485 CE) |
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Date and location |
470–474 CE, Roman Empire (present-day France) |
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Source type |
Primary source – letters |
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Description |
Sidonius was a Roman aristocrat and bishop who was born and lived in in what is now France. He is historically famous for the vast collections of letters he sent and received. His positions of power and influence put him in contact with important people across Europe. |
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Citation |
Hooper, Finley, and Matthew Schwartz. Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View. Wayne State University Press, 1991. |
470 CE, Letter to [his brother-in-law] Ecdicius
Your countrymen... suffer equally from... Seronatus’ presence and your own absence... He commands like a despot; no tyrant more exacting than he, no judge more peremptory in sentence, no barbarian falser... He cries the Goths up and the Romans down; he prepares illusions for prefects and collusions with public accountants. He tramples... the [Roman law]... Be quick, then, to unravel the tangle of affairs that makes you linger; cut short whatever causes you delay. Our people are at the last gasp; freedom is almost dead. Whether there is any hope, or whether all is to be despair, they want you in their midst to lead them... [O]ur nobility is determined to follow your lead... Farewell.
474 CE, Letter to the Bishop Mamertus of Vienne
Rumour has it that the Goths have occupied Roman soil... we are the sole obstacle to the fulfillment of their ambition to extend their frontiers to the Rhône [river]. Their menacing power has long pressed us hard... We mean to resist with spirit, though we know our peril and the risks... But our trust is not in our poor walls impaired by fire, or in our rotting palisades, or in our ramparts worn by the breasts of sentries, as they lean on them in continual watch... You saw the city being emptied of its inhabitants, rich and poor taking to flight....
Our ancestors will cease to glory in the name of Rome if they have no longer descendants to bear their memory…
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Glossary Despot: a ruler with absolute power, often ruling harshly |
Document 2
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Author |
Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang (598–649 CE) |
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Date and location |
648 CE, China |
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Source type |
Primary source – political history |
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Description |
After many centuries of short-lived dynasties, the Tang Dynasty strengthened centralized government in China. Taizong, the second Tang emperor, improved administration, led campaigns, and expanded the state. At the end of his life, he wrote down his reflections on Chinese political history for his heir. |
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Citation |
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, ed. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. The Free Press, 1993. |
When a ruler looks as lofty and firm as a mountain peak and as pure, bright, and illuminating as the sun and the moon, the people will admire and respect him. …He cannot expand his territory without majesty and virtue; he cannot soothe and protect his people without compassion and kindness. He comforts his relations with benevolence, treats his officials with courtesy, honors his ancestors with filial respect, and receives his subordinates with thoughtfulness. Having disciplined himself, he practices virtue and righteousness diligently. This is how a ruler should act.
Formerly when the Zhou dynasty was at its height, the empire was divided among the royal clan... In this way, the dynasty was able to survive several centuries. Toward the end of the Qin dynasty [the emperor]... detached himself from his relatives and valued only the wise. With no relatives to rely on, the dynasty fell after two generations... Eager to avoid the Qin’s errors, the Han dynasty, upon stabilizing the land within the passes, enfeoffed the closest relatives generously. Outdoing the ancient system, the largest fiefs were as big as kingdoms... the Six Kings harbored ambitions of overthrowing the throne all because they had gained too much territory, military force, and power...
… A wise emperor, therefore, knows how to choose the right person for the right task... using the wise for their resourcefulness, the ignorant for their strength, the brave for their daring, and the timid for their prudence.
… Government affairs should be departmentalized to make the best use of officials’ abilities... If the right person is given the right task or responsibility, the empire can be governed with ease.
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Glossary Filial: showing respect for parents or ancestors |
Document 3
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Author |
Unknown |
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Date and location |
781 CE, China |
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Source type |
Primary source – poem inscribed on stone tablet |
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Description |
The Nestorian tablet was about nine feet high and carved with dragons and Christian symbols. The inscription on the tablet records the arrival of Christianity in China c. 635 CE. The Tang emperor Taizong allowed the Christians to build churches and practice their faith. In the ninth century, however, the Tang emperor Wuzong forbade the practice of Christianity, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. The tablet, made of limestone, was later found under rubble in the seventeenth century and erected when missionaries came back to China. |
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Citation |
Horne, Charles Francis. The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East: With Historical Surveys of the Chief Writings of Each Nation. Parke, Austin, and Lipscombe, 1917. |
...
The glorious and resplendent, accomplished Emperor, Whose
principles embraced those of preceding monarchs, Taking
advantage of the occasion, suppressed turbulence; Heaven was
spread out and the earth was enlarged.
When the pure, bright Illustrious Religion
Was introduced to our Tang Dynasty,
The Scriptures were translated, and churches built,
And the vessel set in motion for the living and the dead; Every
kind of blessing was then obtained,
And all the kingdoms enjoyed a state of peace.
When Kau-tsung succeeded to his ancestral estate, He
rebuilt the edifices of purity;
Palaces of concord, large and light, Covered
the length and breadth of the land.
The true doctrine was clearly announced,
Overseers of the church were appointed in due form; The
people enjoyed happiness and peace,
While all creatures were exempt from calamity and distress.
...
The imperial domain was rich and luxuriant,
While the whole land rendered exalted homage;
Every business was flourishing throughout, And
the people all enjoyed prosperity.
...
Tai-tsung the filial and just
Combined in virtue with heaven and earth;
By his liberal bequests the living were satisfied,
And property formed the channel of imparting succor.
By fragrant mementoes he rewarded the meritorious, With benevolence he dispensed his donations; The solar concave appeared in dignity, And the lunar retreat was decorated to extreme. ...
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Glossary Scriptures: sacred religious writings |
Document 4
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Author |
Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, Pope Leo IX (1002– 1054 CE) |
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Date and location |
1053 CE, Rome or Benevento (present-day Italy) |
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Source type |
Primary source – letter |
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Description |
Just because two churches share the same religion, doesn’t mean they get along. Tensions ran high between the leaders of the Catholic churches based in Rome and Constantinople. The disputes between Leo IX, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, and Michael I Cerularius, head of the Catholic Church in Constantinople—escalated over the years. These disputes led to a “Great Schism”. The letter excerpted below was written in 1053, one year before the Papal Bull of Excommunication. Scholars debate whether this letter was sent to Constantinople, pointing instead to the Scripta tuae letter of 1054 as the letter that made its way east. |
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Citation |
Bettenson, Henry, and Chris Maunder. Documents of the Christian Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. |
... You are said to have publicly condemned the Apostolic and Latin Church, without either a hearing or a conviction. And the chief reason for this condemnation, which displays an unexampled presumption and an unbelievable effrontery, is that the Latin Church dares to celebrate the commemoration of the Lord’s passion with unleavened bread. What an unguarded accusation is this of yours, what an evil piece of arrogance! You ‘place your mouth in heaven, while your tongue, going through the world’, strives with human arguments and conjectures to undermine and subvert the ancient faith...
... In prejudging the case of the highest See, the see on which no judgment may be passed by any man, you have received the anathema from all the Fathers of all the venerable Councils.
... As a hinge, remaining unmoved, opens and shuts a door, so Peter and his successors have an unfettered jurisdiction over the whole Church, since no one ought to interfere with their position, because the highest See is judged by none...
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Glossary Effrontery: disrespectful behavior |
Document 5
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Author |
Muhammad al-Idrīsī (1100–c. 1165 CE) |
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Date and location |
c. 1100s CE, Sicily |
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Source type |
Primary source – geographic history |
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Description |
Muhammad al-Idrīsī was a Muslim Arab geographer and cartographer. He served in the court of King Roger II of Sicily, who commissioned al-Idrīsī to create a world map, the Tabula Rogeriana. He also compiled the writings and observations of travelers in order to write a comprehensive geographical survey to accompany this map. Below are selections on trade in East Africa. |
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Citation |
Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P, ed. The East African Coast; Select Documents from the First to the Earlier Nineteenth Century. Clarendon Press, 1962. |
The Zanj of the East African coast have no ships to voyage in, but use vessels from Oman and other countries which sail to the islands of Zanj which depend on the Indies. These foreigners sell their goods there, and buy the produce of the country. The people of the Djawaga islands go to Zanzibar in large and small ships, and use them for trading their goods, for they understand each others’ language. Opposite the Zanj coasts are the Djawaga islands; they are numerous and vast; their inhabitants are very dark in color, and everything that is cultivated there, fruit, sorghum, sugar-cane and camphor trees, is black in color... pearl fisheries and various kinds of aromatic plants and perfumes are to be found there, which attract merchants.
Among the islands of Djawaga included in the present section is Andjuba [Anjouan].... whose people... are actually mostly Muslims.... bananas are the chief food.... The island is very populous; there are many villages and cattle. They grow rice. There is a great trade in it, and each year various products and goods are brought for exchange and consumption.
Malindi... is a large town, whose people engage in hunting and fishing. On land they hunt the tiger and other wild beasts. They obtain various kinds of fish from the sea, which they cure and sell. They own and exploit iron mines; for them iron is an article of trade and the source of their largest profits....
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Glossary Camphor: a kind of good-smelling wood |
Document 6
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Author |
Ibn Kathīr (c. 1300–1373 CE) |
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Date and location |
1300s CE, Mamluk Sultanate (modern-day Syria) |
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Source type |
Primary source – historical work |
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Description |
Ibn Kathīr was an Arab historian and Sunni Islamic scholar who lived during the Mamluk era, and was the author of several works. In the excerpt below, taken from his fourteen-volume history, The Beginning and the End, he describes the fall of the Abbasid Empire. |
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Citation |
Lewis, Bernard, ed. Islam, from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople. Walker, 1974. |
... Hülegü Khan [arrived] at Baghdad with all his troops... and invaded...
... When heavy fighting took place between the Sunnis and the Shia, Karkh and the Shi’ite quarter were looted, and even the houses of the vizier’s kinsmen were looted. He was filled with spite because of this, and this was what spurred him to bring down on Islam and its people the most appalling calamity [on Baghdad]... That is why he was the first to go out to the Tatars.
He went... and met Sultan Hülegü Khan... and then returned and advised the Caliph to go out to him and be received by him in audience and to make peace on the basis of half the land tax of Iraq for them and half for the Caliph. The Caliph had to go with 700 riders... . When they came near a camp of Sultan Hülegü Khan, all but seventeen of them removed from the sight of the Caliph; they were taken off their horses and robbed and killed... The Caliph and the others were saved... . But this clique of Shiites and other hypocrites advised Hülegü not to make peace with the Caliph... . so that when the Caliph returned to Sultan Hülegü he gave orders to kill him....
They [the Tatars] came down upon the city and killed all they could....
... And Baghdad, which had been the most civilized of all cities, became a ruin with only a few inhabitants, and they were in fear and hunger and wretchedness and insignificance.
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Glossary Vizier: high-ranking government official |
Document 7
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Author |
Al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi (c. 1494–c. 1554 CE) |
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Date and location |
1526 CE, Rome |
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Source type |
Primary source – geographic history |
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Description |
Al-Hasan Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi Ibn Kathīr, also known as Johannes Leo Africanus, was born in the Emirate of Granada and grew up in Morocco. He became a diplomat and traveled to Timbuktu, Constantinople, and Cairo. As a young man, he was captured by Christian pirates and enslaved. His captors freed him and al-Fasi moved to Rome where he was baptized and presented to Pope Leo X. He was converted to Christianity (though he later reverted to Islam) and given a pension by Pope Leo X, who asked al-Fasi to write a detailed survey about Africa. In the excerpt below, he writes about the Islamic city of Timbuktu and its wealthy king, Mansa Musa. |
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Citation |
Africanus, Leo. “Description of Timbuktu.” In Reading About the World, Volume 2. Translated by Paul Brians. Harcourt Brace Custom Books, 1999. https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/11/04/leo-africanus-description-of-timbuktu-from-the-description-of-africa-1526/ |
The shops of the artisans, the merchants, and especially weavers of cotton cloth are very numerous. Fabrics are also imported from Europe to Timbuktu, borne by Berber merchants.
The women of the city maintain the custom of veiling their faces, except for the slaves who sell all the foodstuffs. The inhabitants are very rich, especially the strangers who have settled in the country...
There are many wells containing sweet water in Timbuktu; and in addition, when the Niger is in flood, canals deliver the water to the city. Grain and animals are abundant, so that the consumption of milk and butter is considerable. But salt is in very short supply because it is carried here from... some 500 miles from Timbuktu... The king has a rich treasure of coins and gold ingots.
The royal court is magnificent and very well organized. When the king goes from one city to another with the people of his court, he rides a camel and the horses are led by hand by servants... . The king has about 3,000 horsemen and an infinity of foot-soldiers armed with bows... This king makes war only upon neighboring enemies and upon those who do not want to pay him tribute....
There are in Timbuktu numerous judges, teachers and priests, all properly appointed by the king. He greatly honors learning. Many hand-written books imported from Barbary are also sold. There is more profit made from this commerce than from all other merchandise.
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Glossary Veiling: covering the face with a veil |