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BYZANTINE EMPIRE: * Government: BASILEUS (Byzantine emperor:sacred, all the powers and helped by civil servants).* Administration: provinces, with a political+military head.cavalry, navy.ECONOMY:  Agriculture: based on LATIFUNDIA. Crafts: luxury ítems (silk fabrics, carpets, jewelry, enamels).Commerce: silk (China), spice+ivory (India) or skins+wheat (Europe), benefitted from strategic position (Europe-Asia, Mediterranean-Black Seas).SOCIETY:upper level: aristocracy and high clergy (latifundia and positions). middle level: rest of clergy, civil servants, businessmen, free farmers. lower level: serfs and slaves.

VISIGOTHS * Political organisation:elective monarchy (led to fights for succesion). King was advised by AULA REGIA, organisation composed by nobles and high clergy. * Economy: centred on agriculture (grains, grapevines and olive trees), cultivated in latifundia of nobility and Church.* Society: headed by rich minority (nobles, bishops and abbots), over peasants (small landowners, settlers or serfs), crafstmen and merchants. * Culture: hands of Church. S. Isidoro of Sevilla, Etimologías (6th century, summary of knowledge of his time).    

CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE* Political organisation: emperor + counties (run by count) and MARCHES (borderland provinces run by marquis).* Economy: agrarian activities (grains+livestock), in latifundia of aristocracy and Church. Urban activities declined (crafts+commerce).* Society: high position (nobles+clergy=land and positions), middle level (free farmers+craftsmen+merchants) and lower group (serfs=tied to land).* Culture and art: Carolingian renaissance (Palace School of Aachen= administrative residence and Palatine Chapel, 8th-10th centuries). Architecture (palaces, churches, monasteries). Sculpture (Charlemagne on horseback). Smaller works (reliquaries and chests in ivory+enamel+metal, and MINIATURES= small painting on parchment that illustrated Gospels).

1. THE BIRTH OF ISLAM .arabia before and after muhammad: Arabian Peninsula: desert territory, Red Sea and Persian Gulf, rival tribes: inland (nomadic, livestock farming and fetishes) and coastal (sedentary, farmers and traders and polytheists). Common: language and worship in Kaaba. Main cities: Mecca and Medina. * Muhammad: born 570, Mecca, worked as merchant. meditated in Mount Hira, revelation of archangel Gabriel. He began to preach a new religion (single god Allah) (ISLAM) Arabs would be united under it after his death (632).ISLAMIC RELIGION: * MUSLIMS (those who practise Islam, with Allah as single god and Muhammad as prophet) and  KORAN (sacred book of Muslims containing verses of Allah’s teachings recited by Muhammad, made up of 114 suras). Sunnah (traditions based on what prophet said or did). Holy places (Kaaba in Mecca, mosque of prophet in Medina and Dome of Rock in Jerusalem). * Religious precepts (pillars of Islam): testament of faith (Allah and Muhammad), prayer five times a day (facing Mecca, on Fridays at mosque), alms (for those in need), fasting during Ramadan (from sunrise to sunset) and pilgrimage to Mecca (once in a lifetime). * Rules on behaviour: polygamy and not drinking alcohol, eating pork and gambling. Principles of equality, tolerance, brotherhood and unity. 

2. THE EXPANSION OF ISLAM – BEGINNINGS: * 622: escaped from Mecca to Medina = Hegira (starting Muslim calendar). Political and religious leader. * 632: died + almost all of Arabia was Muslim. CREATION OF GREAT EMPIRE: * Muslim expansion (7th-8th centuries): desire to spread faith (“yihad”), organisation of army, urge to obtain booty and weakness of enemies. * Orthodox Caliphate (632-661).successors were relatives, lived in Medina + annexed Syria, Egypt, N Africa, Mesopotamia and Persia. * Umayyad Caliphate (661-750). Muslim empire was ruled by this familiy from Damascus and extended from Iberian Peninsula to Indus Valley.* Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258). New dinasty moved capital to Baghdad, being taken by Mongolians in 1258. Muslim expansion stopped. 

ORGANISATION OF CONQUERED LAND: * Government: CALIPH (religious leader, political and military maximum authority in Islam) and VIZIER (prime minister who directed administration).* Administration: EMIR (governor controlled a province) and KADI (judge administered justice). Taxes: territorial (land) and personal (religion). 

3. ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES. NEW FARMING PRACTICES:* Agriculture was basis of Muslim economy (nomadic farming in desert).* Variety of crops: wheat, rice, cotton, sugar-cane, mulberry, citruses (orange and lemon) and vegetables (spinach or aubergine). * Farming techniques: irrigation systems (waterwheels for extraction, ditches for distribution, wells and cisterns for storing water) and terraces (for cultivating slopes of mountains). * Property of land: in hands of original owners in exchange for taxes, but conquered estates were shared between caliph (1/5) and aristocracy. CRAFTS AND TRADE (cities): * Crafts: in small wokshops, made items as cotton and linen fabrics, carpets, leather goods, ceramics, metal, perfumes and paper. * Commerce: benefitted due to strategic position between West and East, using camel convoys and sailboats. Main routes: connected Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, inland Africa, Far East (China+India) and Nothern Europe. Products: luxury ítems (metals, hides, silks, fabrics, spices, slaves). Methods of payment: gold coins (dinar) and bill of exchange.

4. SOCIETY AND THE MUSLIM CITY social organisation (characteristics and levels): * Diversity: different ethnics (Arabs, Berbers and Slaves) and religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), but three basic groups. * Aristocracy: small group of Arab origin held property and high positions in government. * Masses: included peasants, crafstmen and traders. MAWALI (those who had converted to Islam) and DHIMMIS (Christians and Jews converted their religion and customes, but paid more taxes). * Slaves: prisoners of war or from trade. 

MUSLIM CITY (features and parts): * Political (government), economic (crafts+commerce), religious and cultural centres. They were walled, with irregular layout and narrow streets. * MEDINA (central nucleus): within walls, included citadel (fortified area on highest point) and districts (with doors). Main buildings and spaces: mosque (religious place for communal prayer on Fridays, also office of kadi and Koran school), marketplace (public area where crafstmen sold their goods, with variety of shops), public baths (consisted of halls with warm, hot and cold water, for men and women) and granaries (large constructions where merchandise was stored and merchants stayed).   * SUBURBS (outer): neighbourhoods outside walled area for people with a lower income. Beyond them, recreational estates for wealthier citizens