Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bohemund in Glory and Shame, 1104-1111

Posted on May 7, 2017 by Ruth

Bohemund, son of the Norman who conquered Sicily, was described as a tiger by Anna Comnena, Alexios’s daughter. His ferocious assault on Albania in past years had advertised Norman strength, and when he set out as a leader in 1097, … Continue reading →

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Mt. Pilgrim and the Legacy of Raymond, 1101-5

Posted on May 6, 2017 by Ruth

Raymond of Toulouse had taken a vow not to return home. He had missed out on the prizes of Antioch and Jerusalem, but his army had taken some towns and forts in the vicinity of Tripoli. Among these early captures … Continue reading →

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Egyptian Days: magical science

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Ruth

Anything handed down from the distant past had extra authority, and when it came from the East, even more so. Until well into the early modern period, one of the firmest universal beliefs was in the unlucky Egyptian Days. The … Continue reading →

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Medieval merchants and regional fairs

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Ruth

Medieval traveling salesmen, 2 of 3: The middle range of traveling salesmen were merchants who worked within one region or nation, moving things farther than ordinary people could easily travel. They were not as limited by roads, since they could … Continue reading →

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Measuring weight in the market

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Ruth

During the Middle Ages, European measurement standards went from diverse, local and confusing, to something like “national though still confusing.” Originally, each trade in each city policed measurements, so not only did the sizes vary from place to place, but … Continue reading →

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Cooking containers

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Ruth

Containing liquids presents a set of problems; but when the liquids are heated to cooking temperatures, often to boiling, there’s another set of problems. Wooden buckets and barrels don’t work for cooking, even if a Girl Scout can boil an … Continue reading →

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Arabic numerals

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Ruth

Our digital numeral system came first from India, but spent a long time as the dominant system in the Arabic kingdoms before entering Latin and Europe. The numbers aren’t really Arabic in the way a keffiyeh is; but they became … Continue reading →

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Pottery in Spain

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Ruth

If you traveled in 10th or 11th century Spain, you’d see a sharp contrast in its regional pottery. During this high-water point in Muslim Andalusia’s power, the map had stabilized into a large southern Muslim nation and a strip of … Continue reading →

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10th century Pottery

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Ruth

Having never been a potter myself, I could never understand why archeologists seemed to assume that some tribe or region made the same kind of pottery over and over. They name prehistoric cultures that way: the Grey Ware culture, the … Continue reading →

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Baghdad of legend

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Ruth

The Abbasid dynasty endowed a scholars’ center in Baghdad; its first work was to collect and translate the Iranian books sitting in local libraries. We don’t know at what point they began to translate the Persian storybook that became the … Continue reading →

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