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Abbasids
Dynasty overthrowing the Ummayads in 749-751. Ruling from Baghdad, power dissipated from 900s.
Ansar
Medinian Muslims and helpers of Meccan émigrés (muhajirun).
Arianism
Christian heresy from 320s, holding that instead of a human-divine nature in Christ, the divine, being more powerful, pushed out and superseded the human in Christ. Blasted as heresy in the West and later in the East, it was the form of Christianity first adopted by Goths, Vandals, Alans.
Austrasia
Ancient Frankish lands straddling the Rhine.
Blues and Greens
From 480s, Constantinople urban masses increasingly began to divide into two factions, based originally on charioteer teams in the capital. Blues were allied with Greco-Roman landholding aristocrats and supported Chalcedon. The Greens found support among urban traders and the civil service and contained Monophysites. From the mid-490s they began to riot against each other, often entangling the emperor. In 532, they united at Nika, almost costing Justinian the throne.
Caliph
Secular-spiritual leader of Islamic state, 632-900s. The word means “successor,” to Muhammad.
Capitularies
Decrees sent out by Charlemagne to regions, meant to apply to all subjects equally.
Cenobitic
Solitary monastics, mostly in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria from the 250s.
Corpus Juris Civilis
A codification of Roman law going back to second century, accomplished under Justinian in mid 500s. Consisted of a digest, a handbook, and a case law section, was relevant and of guidance to lawyers for the next millennium.
Cluny
In Burgundy, earnest monastics convinced William the Pious of Aquitaine to found the Cluny monastery around 910. It was endowed generously from the start, so that it would not be dependent on secular rulers. Additional gifts of land or provisions would not be in return for feudal services but would be recompensed by the monks' prayers. The monks received the right to elect their own abbot, putting the position beyond lay interference. Cluny’s founders tried to eliminate any potentially idle time by instituting heavy schedules of communal liturgical prayer services, in addition to fieldwork and manuscript reproduction. Cluniac monks attained a high level of sustainable piety and discipline throughout the 10th century and into the 11th century.
The Danelaw
Areas in Britain allotted to Vikings.
Ealdorman
Elder serving on court in Wessex.
Exarchates
Military outposts set up by Maurice in 580s in Italy and Carthage to protect remains of Justinian’s conquests.
Fatimid Dynasty
State set up in Tunisia, reaching Egypt by 969. Based on a sub-sect of Shi'ism venerating descendents of Fatima, Muhammad's daughter.
Foederati
Agreement between Roman government and tribes on other side of border to work as auxiliaries in army, in return for payments. From 390s CE, began applying to tribes, Goths, etc., migrating to the Roman side of border, and living in internal territories.
Ghaznavids under Mahmud
First Islamic state of Turkish ethnicity, in Eastern Iran, from 940s.
Hospitalitas
Originally Roman legal measure allowing Roman troops to be quartered on civilian countryside farms during the winter. From the 420s, was applied to Barbarian federates allowing them to access a certain proportion—one-third to two-thirds—of the agricultural produce of Romans. Allows creeping annexation and basis for barbarian kingdoms.
Imam
Muslim prayer leader; in Shi’ism it refers to the male descendants of Ali, the only ones fit to rule.
Kingdom of Asturias
Small Christian state in Iberia from 850s; holds on in north from Oveido.
Lesser Jihad/Greater Jihad
A lesser jihad is an armed Holy War. A greater jihad is contemplation and spiritual improvement.
Major Domo
Mayor of the palace, chief officer of the king's royal household, will supplant Merovingians in 670s onwards.
Master of Soldiers
Chief of Staff of all Roman forces; there was one in East and West, or a supreme one when the empire was united.
Margraves
March lords on Carolingian borders.
Merovingian
Dynasty of kings that ruled the Franks, a Germanic tribe, from 481 to 751. The kings were descendants of the chief of the Salian Franks, Merovech or Merowig, who ruled from 448 to 458, and took their name from him. The first Merovingian ruler was Clovis I, grandson of Merovech. Clovis expanded the kingdom to include most of what is now France and part of Germany; when he died in 511 his four sons divided the kingdom, and the four parts united, divided, and reunited in subsequent years. The last strong Merovingian monarch was the son of Clotaire II, Dagobert I, who ruled from 629 to 639; after his reign, the kingdom became decentralized as noble families took control of the land, ruling it under a feudal system. Of these families, the Carolingians became the most powerful, and in 751 one of them overthrew the Merovingian king Childeric III, putting himself in power as Pepin the Short (Pepin III), and bringing an end to the dynasty.
Missi Dominici
Royal agents sent from Charlemagne's palace. A lay noble and a prelate, they would check on status of royal estates, and see that counts were in line. They would also convey the king's desire.
Monophysitism
Heresy in Church, dating from 430s. Held that the human and divine in Christ were inseparable and totally intermingled. The idea was One Nature in One Person. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, first articulated the belief in opposition to Nestorianism; more extreme followers were branded heretical.
Monotheletism
Compromise theology in response to Monophysitism, proposed by Heraclius through Patriarch Sergius. It stated that Christ was of two natures, and did not have a single energy, but possessed a single will. All Eastern Patriarchs agreed, but Western Pope John IV condemned it in 641.
Muhajirun
Name for emigrants with Muhammad to Mecca in 622.
Nestorians
Christian sect believing there were two natures and two persons in Christ, and no mingling.
Neustria
“New lands” conquered after Clovis’s ascent, in Northern, Western Gaul.
People of the Book
Term applied by Islam to Jews, Christians, and those receiving revealed scriptures. Zoroastrians were included in the classification for pragmatic reasons.
Regium Francium
Term for Frankish lands, encapsulating modern France, Belgium, and Germany.
Sassanian
Persian dynasty coming to power in third century, reviving designs on Rome’s Eastern possessions. Began on and off war from 200s up to 630s. Defeated by Heraclius in 628.
Sherriff (shire-revee)
Royal official in counties (shires) in Saxon England.
Shi’ite
Party of Ali, those who felt he should have been first Caliph, and that only his descendants are fit to rule Islamic state. View all others as illegitimate. Becomes religious sect in Islam.
Simony
The sale of church offices to the highest bidder. Poor quality churchmen resulted.
Strategos
Military commander of a theme and the army of a theme.
Stylites
Monastics in Syria, Palestine, practiced isolation though dwelling on high pillars.
Sunni
Mainstream, orthodox Muslims recognizing legitimacy of all four first caliphs and the Ummayads.
Themes
Regions demarcated first in Anatolia, then in Thrace, to provide for military defense. Governors were generals with wide civil-military powers, and their armies were made up of land-granted small-holding peasants, often Balkan Slav transplants.
Ummayads
Islamic dynasty ruling from Damascus, founded by Muawiya in 661. Continued until 751.
Umma
Word for “Islamic world;” all Muslims, and area of Muslim control.
Youngerfill
In the period of 550-650, rains eroded the terrace system of agricultural cultivation in Italy, Balkans and Thrace, as peasants had fled and did not maintain them. Alluvial deposits that washed into these areas were called youngerfill.
