26.3 Europe: a.d. 1101 to 1200  (Page 4/8)

Czechoslovakia

Following the death of Bretislav II the dukedom of Bohemia was obtained for Ladislav I with the help of the German emperor. There were multiple local "kings" all over this area but all were more or less subservient to the German emperor, except in the northern portion which was controlled by the Polish kings. Duke Ottokar I was restored to power in 1197 and strengthened Bohemia, so that it became a real factor in German affairs. (Ref. 222)

Switzerland

This country did not exist independently at this time.

Western europe

"Western Europe had begun its slow climb out of political dislocation and feudal anarchy during the 12th century"

Spain

The militancy of the Catholic Church in this period of the Crusades was especially noticeable in the Christian part of Spain. Alfonso I of Aragon even named the Templars and Hospitallers heirs to his kingdom. It is ironical then, that this particular period ushered in 200 years of anarchy and civil war between rival Christian kingdoms of the northern sectors. Aragon and Navarre separated in 1134 and the former advanced progressively while the latter shrunk and lost still more territory to Castile at the end of the century. Leon seceded from Castile in 1139; Aragon and Barcelona united in 1140.

NOTE: Insert SPAIN IN 1180

Moslem Spain in the south was taken over by the Berber Almohades (Muwahids) as the older Almoravid Dynasty (Murabit) collapsed in 1145. Muslim Spain made silk, particularly in the great industrial city of Almeria, which at one time had five thousand looms. The Alpujarras Mountains were covered with mulberry trees, essential for the silk worm. The mining of mercury and silver continued to be important Spanish industries and there was a paper factory in Moorish Spain at least by the middle of the century, with the Arabs using rags, wood and straw as the source materials. (Ref. 137, 213)

The greatest man in Spain in this century was a Moslem heretic - the great physician and philosopher, Averroes. He was the first to explain the function of the retina and did some work on immunity. Philosophically, he pleaded for a better understanding between religion and philosophy, stating that symbolically interpreted, the doctrines of religion could be harmonized with the findings of science and philosophy. His importance for the history of ideas lay in his stimulating effect upon Latin Christian theologians. From the late Roman period Aristotle had been curiously disguised by a Neo-Platonic garb but Averroes work abstracted Aristotle from this alien dress and permitted the theologians of Paris to start their revolutions of Christian philosophy from a more or less authentic Aristotelian basis. Another great Arabist physician of this century was Avenzoar (Abu-Marwan ibn-Zohr), born in Seville, the son of a Jewish physician. He condemned astrology and mysticism in medicine and disagreed with some of Galen's teachings. His reports on tracheotomy suggest that he may have done some surgery. The most famous Jewish physician of all in Arabic medicine, however, was Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon), born in Cordoba and a student of Averroes. When the Almohade Dynasty began to harass non-believers, he fled to Morocco and finally to Cairo where he became physician to Sultan Saladin. Translations of his writings into Hebrew and Latin were widely read throughout Christian Europe. Other Jewish physicians who fled Spain at the same time ended up in Salerno and Montpellier where they brought Arabic science and medicine to Christian Europe. (Ref. 49, 139, 125)