miércoles, 21 de abril de 2010
lunes, 19 de abril de 2010
Islamic occupation and Asturian revolt

The kingdom was established by a hispano-visigothic nobleman Pelayo, who had returned to his country after theBattle of Guadalete where like in the similar gothic tradition of Theias he was elected by the other nobles leader of the Astures and founded the Kingdom of Asturias. However, Pelayo's kingdom initially was little more than a rallying banner for the existing guerilla forces.
In the progress of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the main cities and administrative centers fell in the hands of Muslim troops. Control of the central and southern regions, such as the Guadalquivir and Ebro valleys, presented few problems for the newcomers, who used the existing Visigothic administrative structures, of Roman origin. However, in the northern mountains urban centers (such as Gigia) were practically nonexistent and the submission of the country had to be done valley by valley. Muslim troops often resorted to the taking of hostages to ensure the pacification of the newly conquered territory.
From: Ana y Sandra
Islamic learning
In 800, Baghdad was the largest city in the world—and the first to have a population of over 1 million.
Questiones:
How many were there Baghdad 800 years ago?
middle ages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTYPFNs5LP8&feature=related
from:Marta and Miriam
After the Dark Ages, there was the Middle Ages. It is called the middle ages because it was between ancient history and modern history. It can also be called medieval times. It was a time when Europe was Christian, and the Catholic church was very powerful. The Middle Ages ended when the Renaissance started. During the Renaissance people began going to school and university more and learning more things. There was less fighting. The printing press was also made. This was a machine that made books easily and quickly. It made it easier for people to read and learn things.
Main article: Way of St. James
Way of St. James
The legend that St James found his way to the Iberian peninsula, and had preached there is one of a number of early traditions concerning the missionary activities and final resting places of the apostles of Jesus. Although the 1884 Bull of Pope Leo XIII Omnipotens Deus accepted the authenticity of the relics at Compostela, the Vatican remains uncommitted as to whether the relics are those of Saint James the Great, while continuing to promote the more general benefits of pilgrimage to the site. According to a tradition that can be traced before the 12th century, the relics were said to have been discovered in 814 by Theodomir, bishop of Iria Flavia in the west of Galicia. Theodomir was guided to the spot by a star, the legend affirmed, drawing upon a familiar myth-element, hence "Compostela" was given an etymology as a corruption of Campus Stellae, "Field of Stars."
The establishment of the shrine
St. James' shell
As suggested already, it is probably impossible to know whose bones were actually found, and precisely when and how. Perhaps it does not matter. What the history of the pilgrimage requires, but what the meagre sources fail to reveal, is how the local Galician cult associated with the saint was transformed into an international cult drawing pilgrims from distant parts of the world.
The 1000 year old pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is known in English as the Way of St. James and in Spanish as the Camino de Santiago. Over 100,000 pilgrims travel to the city each year from points all over Europe and other parts of the world. The pilgrimage has been the subject of many books and television programmes, notably Brian Sewell's The Naked Pilgrim produced for UK's Five.
[edit] Pre-Christian legends
As the lowest-lying land on that stretch of coast, the city's site took on added significance. Legends supposed of Celtic origin made it the place where the souls of the dead gathered to follow the Sun across the sea. Those unworthy of going to the Land of the Dead haunted Galicia as the Santa Compaña.

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages (c. 1000 - 1300). The period saw a continuation of trends begun during the decline of the Roman Empire, including population decline, especially in urban centres, a decline of trade, and increased barbarian migration. In Western Europe, the period has been labeled the "Dark Ages", a characterization highlighting the paucity of literary and cultural output from this time. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, continued to survive, and in the 7th century the Islamic caliphates conquered swaths of formerly Roman territory.
Many of these trends were reversed later in the period. In 800 the title of emperor was revived by Charlemagne, whose Carolingian Empire greatly affected later European social structure and history. Europe experienced a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the feudal system, which introduced such innovations as three-field planting and the heavy plow. Barbarian migration stabilized in much of Europe, though the north was greatly The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages (c. 1000 - 1300). The period saw a continuation of trends begun during the decline of the Roman Empire, including population decline, especially in urban centres, a decline of trade, and increased barbarian migration. In Western Europe, the period has been labeled the "Dark Ages", a characterization highlighting the paucity of literary and cultural output from this time. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, continued to survive, and in the 7th century the Islamic caliphates conquered swaths of formerly Roman territory.
Many of these trends were reversed later in the period. In 800 the title of emperor was revived by Charlemagne, whose Carolingian Empire greatly affected later European social structure and history. Europe experienced a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the feudal system, which introduced such innovations as three-field planting and the heavy plow. Barbarian migration stabilized in much of Europe, though the north was greatly
What was the another name of the eastern roman empire?

Bishops were central to Middle Age society due to the literacy they possessed. As a result, they often played a significant role in governance. However, beyond the core areas of Western Europe, there remained many peoples with little or no contact with Christianity or with classical Roman culture. Martial societies such as the Avars and the Vikings were still capable of causing major disruption to the newly emerging societies of Western Europe.
The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism within the west. Although the impulse to withdraw from society to focus upon a spiritual life is experienced by people of all cultures, the shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated in the deserts of Egypt and Syria.The style of monasticism that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism, was pioneered by the saint Pachomius in the 4th century. Monastic ideals spread from Egypt to western Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries through hagiographical literature such as the Life of Saint Anthony.
Saint Benedict wrote the definitive Rule for western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot.The style of monasticism based upon the Benedictine Rule spread widely rapidly across Europe, replacing small clusters of cenobites. Monks and monasteries had a deep effect upon the religious and political life of the Early Middle Ages, in various cases acting as land trusts for powerful families, centres of propaganda and royal support in newly conquered regions, bases for mission, and proselytization. They were the main outposts of education and literacy.
lunes, 12 de abril de 2010

Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.
The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole.
Gothic literature is intimately associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era. In a way similar to the gothic revivalists' rejection of the clarity and rationalism of the neoclassical style of the Enlightened Establishment, the literary Gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere. The ruins of gothic buildings gave rise to multiple linked emotions by representing the inevitable decay and collapse of human creations—thus the urge to add fake ruins as eyecatchers in English landscape parks. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, characterized by harsh laws enforced by torture, and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals. In literature such Anti-Catholicism had a European dimension featuring Roman Catholic excesses such as the Inquisition