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Speed Acceleraton &“Consider how in our time God has transferred the West into the East. He who was a Roman or a Frank is now an inhabitant of Palestine. We have already forgotten the places of our birth. Some already possess homes and servants here. Some have taken wives not merely of their own people, but Syrians, or Armenians, or even Muslims who have received the grace of baptism. Different languages, now made common, become known to both peoples, and faith unites those whose forefathers were strangers. Our parents and relatives from day to day come to join us, abandoning, even though reluctantly, all that they possess. For those who were poor there, here God makes rich. Those who had few coins, here possess countless riches. Those who did not have a home in the West, by the gift of God, already possess a city in the East. Therefore, why should one who has found the East so favorable return to the West? God does not wish those to suffer poverty who, carrying their crosses, have vowed to follow Him, even unto the end.”

Fulcher of Chartres, French clergyman, chronicle written in Jerusalem, early twelfth century C.E.

MOSAIC IN THE CHURCH OF THE HAGIA SOPHIA IN CONSTANTINOPLE, ELEVENTH CENTURY C.E.

Bridgeman Images

“Brother, you had written to me that you sent roughly 6,300 pounds of block iron to me from India in the ship of the Muslim captain Abu’l-Kata’ib. But when the ship arrived here, it only carried 5,100 pounds and the Muslim shipowner said that that was everything he had received from your Indian agent before setting sail.

To compensate for the difference, I have charged you the Muslim captain’s transportation fee for the above- mentioned iron that was sent to me here in Aden* and for pepper that was sent with it. I am also charging you the transportation fee for items that I am sending to you in India, including twenty-five pounds of copper bars, ten Berbera* mats in a package, cloth, a piece of lead weighing two hundred and forty-five pounds, two large boxes of sugar, and a package of the best Egyptian paper.”

*Aden and Berbera were prominent Indian Ocean port cities.

Letter from Madmun ibn al-Hassan, a Jewish merchant in Aden, to his brother in India, circa 1133 C.E. The letter was written in Judeo-Arabic, a form of the Arabic language written in the Hebrew script.

“Mulan weaves, facing the door. You only hear daughter’s sighs. They ask daughter who’s in her heart, They ask daughter who’s on her mind. ‘No one is in daughter’s heart, No one is on daughter’s mind. Last night I saw the draft posters, The Son of Heaven,* the great Khan,** is calling many troops, The army list is in twelve scrolls, On every scroll there’s father’s name. Father [is too old and] has no grown-up son, I have no elder brother. I want to buy a saddle and horse, And serve in the army in father’s place.’

At dawn she takes leave of the Yellow River, In the evening she arrives at Black Mountain. She doesn’t hear the sound of

father and mother calling, She goes ten thousand miles on the business of war. . . .”

Courtesy of Yale University Press The Ballad of Mulan, a Chinese epic poem, circa 500 C.E.

*a traditional Chinese title given to the emperor

**the title of the emperor of the Turkic Northern Wei dynasty, which ruled northern China from 386 to 534 C.E.

“Scholars have been mesmerized by the huge extent of the present distribution of Bantu languages and could think of only a single process, an equally huge human migration, ‘the Bantu expansion,’ to explain it. . . . [This] scenario is fatally flawed, however, for two reasons. First it fell prey to the illusion that only a migration could fit the evidence. . . . [But] a language can spread without involving the migration of any communities. The second fatal error was to collapse a history which encompassed the developments of one to several millennia into a single migration event. The evidence shows that many different dispersals of single languages succeeded each other at different times, not continuously.”

Jan Vansina, historian, “New Linguistic Evidence and ‘the Bantu Expansion,’” scholarly article, 1995.

The Primordial Beginning

“Heaven is everlasting; Life itself is brief; The world is fleeting, but the Way eternal.

‘Tis the road of meditation that begins the distant journey, While the sea of craving sets adrift the lighter crafts. Before the dust of bondage has been cleared away, How can the plantings of the mind be contemplated? Yet, what need is there to wash away the grime of passion? In the waters of the Truth there is a tranquil flow.”

Wang Jung, Chinese poet, “Songs of Religious Joy,” fifth century C.E. Source: The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 107, No. 1 (Jan.–Mar., 1987), pp. 31–38

The pilots of Oman pass by the channel of Berbera to reach the island of Kanbalu, which is in the Zanj idolaters...The aforesaid Kanabalu is the farthest point of their voyages on the Zanj Sea, and the land of Sofala...The people of Siraf also make the voyage... The land of Zanj produces wild leopard skins. The people wear them as clothes, or export them to Muslim countries... The sea oof Zanj and that of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) lie on the right of the sea of India, and join up. They also export tortoise-shell for making combs, for which ivory is likewise used... They have settled in that area, which stretches as far as Sofala, which is the farthest limit of land and the end of the voyages made from the Oman and Siraf on the sea of Zanj.

Meadows of Gold, Abu’l-hasan Ali al-Mas’udi, a Muslim writer, 943 C.E.

Map of the Mediterranean and Arab world, ca. 600–750 C.E. (with modern countries superimposed)

"After fighting three battles with the Romans, the Muslims conquered them. So when the chief men of the city saw these things, they went to Amr, and received a certificate of security for the city, that it might not be plundered. This kind of treaty which Muhammad, the chief of the Arabs, taught them, they called the Law; and he says with regard to it: "As for the province of Egypt and any city that agrees with its inhabitants to pay the land-tax to you and to submit to your authority, make a treaty with them, and do them no injury. But plunder and take as prisoners those that will not consent to this and resist you." For this reason the Muslims kept their hands off the province and its inhabitants, but destroyed the nation of the Romans, and their general who was named Marianus. And those of the Romans who escaped fled to Alexandria, and shut its gates upon the Arabs, and fortified themselves within the city."

"And in the year 360 of Diocletian [i.e. 644 C.E.], in the month of December, three years after Amr had taken possession of Memphis, the Muslims captured the city of Alexandria, and destroyed its walls, and burnt many churches with fire. And they burnt the church of Saint Mark, which was built by the sea, where his body was laid; and this was

the place to which the father and patriarch, Peter the Martyr, went before his martyrdom, and blessed Saint Mark, and committed to him his reasonable flock, as he had received it. So they burnt this place and the monasteries around it...."

Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa, History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, ca. 1080 C.E.

"Upon their arrival they were honorably and graciously received by the grand Khan, in a full assembly of his principal officers. When they drew nigh to his person, they paid their respects by prostrating themselves on the floor. He immediately commanded them to rise, and to relate to him the circumstances of their travels, with all that had taken place in their negotiation with his holiness the pope. To their narrative, which they gave in the regular order of events, and delivered in perspicuous language, he listened with attentive silence. The letters and the presents from pope Gregory were then laid before him, and, upon hearing the former read, he bestowed much commendation on the fidelity, the zeal, and the diligence of his ambassadors; and receiving with due reverence the oil from the holy sepulchre, he gave directions that it should be preserved with religious care. Upon his observing Marco Polo, and inquiring who he was, Nicolo made answer, This is your servant, and my son; upon which the grand Khan replied, "He is welcome, and it pleases me much," and he caused him to be enrolled amongst his attendants of honor. And on account of their return he made a great feast and rejoicing; and as long as the said brothers and Marco remained in the court of the grand Khan, they were honored even above his own courtiers. Marco was held in high estimation and respect by all belonging to the court. He learnt in a short time and adopted the manners of the Tartars, and acquired a proficiency in four different languages, which he became qualified to read and write."

Marco Polo's Travels, ca. 1300 C.E.

Trade map of Africa, ca. fifteenth century C.E.

"The Romanists have, with great adroitness, drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby all Christendom has fallen terribly.

Firstly, if pressed by the temporal power, they have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the contrary, that the spiritual power is above the temporal.

Secondly, if it were proposed to admonish them with the Scriptures, they objected that no one may interpret the Scriptures but the Pope.

Thirdly, if they are threatened with a council, they pretend that no one may call a council but the Pope...

...The second wall is even more tottering and weak: that they alone pretend to be considered masters of the Scriptures; although they learn nothing of them all their life. They assume authority, and juggle before us with impudent words, saying that the Pope cannot err in matters of faith, whether he be evil or good, albeit they cannot prove it by a single letter. That is why the canon law contains so many heretical and unchristian, nay unnatural, laws; but of these we need not speak now. For whereas they imagine the Holy Ghost never leaves them, however unlearned and wicked they may be, they grow bold enough to decree whatever they like. But were this true, where were the need and use of the Holy Scriptures? Let us burn them, and content ourselves with the unlearned gentlemen at Rome, in whom the Holy Ghost dwells, who, however, can dwell in pious souls only. If I had not read it, I could never have believed that the devil should have put forth such follies at Rome and find a following."

Martin Luther, Address to the Nobility of the German Nation, 1520

"From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears, namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation forsooth which has not directed its heart and has not entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by the sword, pillage and fire; it has led away a part of the captives into its own country, and a part it has destroyed by cruel tortures; it has either entirely destroyed the

churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion....The kingdom of the Greeks is now dismembered by them and deprived of territory so vast in extent that it cannot be traversed in a march of two months. On whom therefore is the labor of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you? You, upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength to humble the hairy scalp of those who resist you.

Let the deeds of your ancestors move you and incite your minds to manly achievements; the glory and greatness of king Charles the Great, and of his son Louis, and of your other kings, who have destroyed the kingdoms of the pagans, and extended in these lands the territory of the holy church. Let the holy sepulchre of the Lord our Savior, which is possessed by unclean nations, especially incite you, and the holy places which are now treated with ignominy and irreverently polluted with their filthiness. Oh, most valiant soldiers and descendants of invincible ancestors, be not degenerate, but recall the valor of your progenitors.

Jerusalem is the navel of the world; the land is fruitful above others, like another paradise of delights. This the Redeemer of the human race has made illustrious by His advent, has beautified by residence, has consecrated by suffering, has redeemed by death, has glorified by burial. This royal city, therefore, situated at the center of the world, is now held captive by His enemies, and is in subjection to those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathens. She seeks therefore and desires to be liberated and does not cease to implore you to come to her aid. From you especially she asks succor, because, as we have already said, God has conferred upon you above all nations great glory in arms. Accordingly undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the kingdom of heaven."

Pope Urban II, Speech at the Council of Clermont as recorded by Robert the Monk, 1095 C.E.

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