HUM 2230 Mrs. Alberta Harris

Group ProjectDecember 5, 2010

Medieval Life in the West

By:Adriana Escobar

Adrian MooKristen Koby

The Middle Ages The Middle Ages, a period of 1,000 years

(AD 500 - AD 1500), began after the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476. It is the period also known as the Medieval ages and as the dark period in history. The Middle ages was an era dominated by religion through the rise and spread of its three most influential religions of its time: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. As a result of the religious fervor, new architectural styles characterized the vast places for worships.

Christianity

Background to Christianity

• Emerged out of three cultural traditions: Hebraic, Greco-Roman, and Near Eastern

• Popular Near Eastern cults promised redemption from sins and personal immorality.

• The three Hebrew sects, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, placed emphasis on the special covenant between God and the Chosen People.

Growth of Christianity

• Jesus, young charismatic Jewish rabbi from the city of Nazareth

• Promised redemption of sin, personal immorality, and a life without material possessions

• Gospels, the Christian writings authored by four Evangelist, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, describes the teaching and life of Jesus

• Paul, known as the co-founder of Christianity, universalized and systematically explained Jesus’ message.

The Spread of Christianity• The Christian church

strengthens as the Roman Empire decline

• Migration of Germanic Tribes

• Refused to worship the emperor, existence of Roman gods and to serve the Roman army

• The message of Jesus was easy to understand, free of complex rules and pricey practices

• Constantine’s, the Edict of Milan, liberated Christians from physical and political oppression

Influences of Christianity• Saint Jerome (ca. 347-420)

translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek to Latin

• Ambrose (339-397) became bishop of Milan and wrote some of the earliest Christians hymns for congregational use

• Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604), elected to the papacy in 590, established the administrative machinery

• Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo, most profound and influential, greatest philosopher of Christian antiquity

Christian Art and Architecture

• In the west, the Early Christian church building was modeled on the Roman basilica.

• With the sacred temples of antiquity, the Christian church consisted of a hierarchy of spaces that ushered the devotee from the chaos of the everyday world to the serenity of the sacred chamber, and ultimately, to the ritual of deliverance.

• Some of the earliest basilicas contain an unroofed atrium, an ambulatory, narthex, a nave and the gallery/clerestory.

Medieval Architecture

• The new Christian Church patterned its order after Rome

• Romanesque pilgrimage churches was constructed in great numbers and characterized by lively linearity and vivid imagination

• The Gothic cathedral used form infused with symbolism in soaring cathedrals; mostly dedicated to the Virgin.

Medieval Life• Germanic tribes contributed to the

decline of the Roman Empire• Charlemagne solidifies relationship

with church and crowned head of the new Holy Roman Empire

• Carolingian Renaissance preserved Roman writings in easier to read Carolingian script

• Feudalism enhances the growth of political and military organization

• Manorialism offered the lower classes physical protection

• The Crusades established freedom and new mobility

Buddhism

Background to Buddhism

The Rise of Buddhism

The Spread of Buddhism

Islam

“Lo Allah never changeth the grace He hath bestowed on any people until they first change that which is in their hearts . . ." Qur'an 8:53

Background to Islam• Islam was a religion founded in the 7th

Century AD by Mohammed, an Arabian merchant from the city of Mecca.

• Around A.D 610 (age of 41) according to Muslim teachings, the Angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad and commanded him to receive the revelation of the one and only Allah(the Arabic word for “God”)

• The Islamic scriptures, known as the “Qur'an” are Muhammad's “reciting” of the revelations he claimed to receive for the next 22 years of his life.

• In 622, Muhammad traveled to Yathrib, (Medina). This event called the “Hejira,” is viewed as the turning point of Islam. From then on, Islam was no longer just a religion but a respected political power. In Medina, the community of believers became a state with Muhammad as its religious and political leader.

• The Qur’an, writt

en in

Arabic with ink and gold

leaf on vellum, 81/2 by

21in. Qur’ans li

ke holy

books of Ju

daism and

early Christianity, w

ere

usually handwritten on

sheepskin (parchment)

and calfskin(vellum)

and hand decorated.

Arabic script is

read

from right to

left. Kufic

calligraphy is

notable

for its a

ngularity and its

horizontal extensio

ns.

• Islam became the unifying force in the rise of the first global civilization to flourish following the fall Rome.

• Bridging Europe and East Asia, Islam forged the historical link between Classical and early modern civilization.

• Islam embraced the cultures of Arabia, the Near East and Persia.

• Cultivated arts, the sciences, technology, Muslim scholars in the cities of Baghdad (present day Iraq) and Córdoba( Southern Spain) copied Greek manuscripts, creating classical literature.

The Rise of Islam

• Islam's success in becoming a world faith is because of religious, political, economic and military goals that were allied.

• New faith offered rules of conduct and ritual practices that were easy to follow.

• The militant expansion of Islam was the evangelical counterpart of jihad, fervent religious struggle or “holy war”, which signifies all aspects Muslim drive towards moral and religious perfection.

• Unlike Christianity and Buddhism, Islam neither renounced nor condemned material wealth. Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands were taxed but not prosecuted. Coverts from Islam were exempt from paying a poll-tax levied on all non- Muslim subjects.

• Muslims brought expertise in navigation, trade, and commercial exchange.

The Spread of Islam

Islamic Architecture & Art

• In Islamic art differs from Christian art in its self- conscious avoidance of symbols.

• Geometric, floral and calligraphic were the three types of motifs that dominated the Islamic decorative repertory.

• These designs distinguishes Islamic frescoes, carpets, ivories, manuscripts, textiles, and ceramics.

• Bold use of colors is a key feature of Islamic art and architecture. Complex surface designs executed in mosaics and polychrome patterned glazed tiles transform the exteriors of mosques and palaces into shimmering veils of light and color.

• The mosque, an official place of worship, is a large, columned hall whose square or rectangular shape derives from the simple urban house made of sun-dried bricks.