Answer: Nuruddin Farah

Question: Who is the most well-known modern Somali writer?


Answer: 1998

Context: Somali scholars have for centuries produced many notable examples of Islamic literature ranging from poetry to Hadith. With the adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1972 to transcribe the Somali language, numerous contemporary Somali authors have also released novels, some of which have gone on to receive worldwide acclaim. Of these modern writers, Nuruddin Farah is probably the most celebrated. Books such as From a Crooked Rib and Links are considered important literary achievements, works which have earned Farah, among other accolades, the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Farah Mohamed Jama Awl is another prominent Somali writer who is perhaps best known for his Dervish era novel, Ignorance is the enemy of love. Young upstart Nadifa Mohamed was also awarded the 2010 Betty Trask Prize. Additionally, Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame 'Hadrawi' is considered by many to be the greatest living Somali poet, and several of his works have been translated internationally.

Question: In what year did Nuruddin Farah win the Neustadt International Prize for Literature?


Answer: Farah Mohamed Jama Awl

Question: Who wrote Ignorance is the enemy of love?


Answer: Nadifa Mohamed

Question: Who won the 2010 Betty Trask Prize?


Answer: Xeer

Context: Somalis for centuries have practiced a form of customary law, which they call Xeer. Xeer is a polycentric legal system where there is no monopolistic agent that determines what the law should be or how it should be interpreted.

Question: What is the Somali system of customary law?


Answer: 7th

Context: The Xeer legal system is assumed to have developed exclusively in the Horn of Africa since approximately the 7th century. There is no evidence that it developed elsewhere or was greatly influenced by any foreign legal system. The fact that Somali legal terminology is practically devoid of loan words from foreign languages suggests that Xeer is truly indigenous.

Question: In what century did the Xeer system begin?


Answer: the Horn of Africa

Question: In what region did the Xeer system develop?


Answer: devoid of loan words

Question: What fact about Somali legal terms implies that Xeer developed locally?


Answer: odayal

Context: The Xeer legal system also requires a certain amount of specialization of different functions within the legal framework. Thus, one can find odayal (judges), xeer boggeyaal (jurists), guurtiyaal (detectives), garxajiyaal (attorneys), murkhaatiyal (witnesses) and waranle (police officers) to enforce the law.

Question: In the Xeer system, what are judges called?


Answer: jurists

Question: What does xeer boggeyaal mean in English?


Answer: garxajiyaal

Question: What does the Xeer system call attorneys?


Answer: murkhaatiyal

Question: By what term are witnesses known in the Xeer system?


Answer: waranle

Question: What does the Xeer system call cops?


Answer: Western designs

Context: Somali architecture is a rich and diverse tradition of engineering and designing. It involves multiple different construction types, such as stone cities, castles, citadels, fortresses, mosques, mausoleums, towers, tombs, tumuli, cairns, megaliths, menhirs, stelae, dolmens, stone circles, monuments, temples, enclosures, cisterns, aqueducts, and lighthouses. Spanning the ancient, medieval and early modern periods in Greater Somalia, it also includes the fusion of Somalo-Islamic architecture with Western designs in contemporary times.

Question: Along with Somalo-Islamic architecture, what influences modern Somali architecture?


Answer: medieval

Question: Along with the early modern and ancient, during what period did Somali architecture exist?


Answer: stone

Question: What material was used to make Somali cities?


Answer: taalo

Context: In ancient Somalia, pyramidical structures known in Somali as taalo were a popular burial style, with hundreds of these dry stone monuments scattered around the country today. Houses were built of dressed stone similar to the ones in Ancient Egypt. There are also examples of courtyards and large stone walls enclosing settlements, such as the Wargaade Wall.

Question: What do Somalis call their ancient pyramids?


Answer: burial

Question: What were taalo used for?


Answer: dressed stone

Question: What were ancient Somali houses made out of?


Answer: Egypt

Question: Ancient Somali houses were similar to houses in what country?


Answer: the Wargaade Wall

Question: What is a notable stone wall built in ancient Somalia?


Answer: early medieval

Context: The peaceful introduction of Islam in the early medieval era of Somalia's history brought Islamic architectural influences from Arabia and Persia. This had the effect of stimulating a shift in construction from drystone and other related materials to coral stone, sundried bricks, and the widespread use of limestone in Somali architecture. Many of the new architectural designs, such as mosques, were built on the ruins of older structures. This practice would continue over and over again throughout the following centuries.

Question: During what period was the Muslim faith introduced to Somalia?


Answer: Persia

Question: Along with Arabian influences, where did architectural influences come from in the medieval period?


Answer: mosques

Question: In the medieval period, what buildings were notably built atop older ruins?


Answer: limestone

Question: Along with sundried bricks and coral stone, what construction material was widely used after the introduction of Islam?


Answer: drystone

Question: Before Islam was introduced, what was a common building material in Somalia?


Answer: Somali Studies

Context: The scholarly term for research concerning Somalis and Greater Somalia is known as Somali Studies. It consists of several disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, linguistics, historiography and archaeology. The field draws from old Somali chronicles, records and oral literature, in addition to written accounts and traditions about Somalis from explorers and geographers in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Since 1980, prominent Somalist scholars from around the world have also gathered annually to hold the International Congress of Somali Studies.

Question: What is the academic study of the Somali people called?


Answer: anthropology

Question: Along with sociology, linguistics, historiography and archaeology, what field is part of Somali Studies?


Answer: oral literature

Question: Along with chronicles and records, what indigenous sources are used in Somali Studies?


Answer: the International Congress of Somali Studies

Question: What is the name of the annual gathering of Somali Studies scholars?


Answer: 1980

Question: When did the International Congress of Somali Studies begin?


Answer: 5th

Context: In European history, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: Antiquity, Medieval period, and Modern period. The Medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages.

Question: In what century did the Middle Ages begin?


Answer: 15th

Question: What century saw the end of the Middle Ages?


Answer: the collapse of the Western Roman Empire

Question: What event marked the beginning of the Middle Ages?


Answer: Age of Discovery

Question: Along with the Renaissance, what era occurred at the end of the Middle Ages?


Answer: Antiquity

Question: What is the first period of the three that Western history is traditionally divided into?


Answer: deurbanisation

Context: Depopulation, deurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, which had begun in Late Antiquity, continued in the Early Middle Ages. The barbarian invaders, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Eastern Roman Empire—came under the rule of the Caliphate, an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with Antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th and early 9th century. It covered much of Western Europe, but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions—Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south.

Question: Along with the movement of peoples, invasion and depopulation, what event started in Late Antiquity and continued into the Middle Ages?


Answer: the Western Roman Empire

Question: In what state did barbarian invaders establish kingdoms?


Answer: the Eastern Roman Empire

Question: What empire was North Africa previously a part of?


Answer: 7th

Question: In what century did the Caliphate conquer North Africa?


Answer: 1070

Question: In what year did Italians discover the Code of Justinian?


Answer: 1000

Context: During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and the Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Manorialism, the organisation of peasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to the nobles, and feudalism, the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors, were two of the ways society was organised in the High Middle Ages. The Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. The theology of Thomas Aquinas, the paintings of Giotto, the poetry of Dante and Chaucer, the travels of Marco Polo, and the architecture of Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding achievements toward the end of this period, and into the Late Middle Ages.

Question: What year marked the beginning of the High Middle Ages?


Answer: the Medieval Warm Period

Question: What event led to larger crop yields in the High Middle Ages?


Answer: Manorialism

Question: What was the name of the economic system that organized peasants into villages owing labor and rent to nobles?


Answer: feudalism

Question: What was the name of the political system that gave rents to knights in return for military service?


Answer: 1095

Question: In what year did the Crusades begin?


Answer: 1350

Context: The Late Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which significantly diminished the population of Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy, and schism within the Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period.

Question: When did the Black Death end?


Answer: Late

Question: In what period of the Middle Ages did the Black Death occur?


Answer: a third

Question: What portion of the European population died in the Black Death?


Answer: the early modern period

Question: What era occurred after the Late Middle Ages?


Answer: heresy

Question: Along with controversy and schism, what upset the peace of the Church during the Late Middle Ages?


Answer: the Modern Period

Context: The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history: classical civilisation, or Antiquity; the Middle Ages; and the Modern Period.

Question: Along with Antiquity and the Middle Ages, what is the other major division of European history?


Answer: three

Question: How many major periods is European history divided into?


Answer: classical civilisation

Question: What is another name for Antiquity?


Answer: Four Empires

Context: Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the "Six Ages" or the "Four Empires", and considered their time to be the last before the end of the world. When referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being "modern". In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (or "ancient") and to the Christian period as nova (or "new"). Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People (1442). Bruni and later historians argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarch's time, and therefore added a third period to Petrarch's two. The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or "middle season". In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or "middle age", first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or "middle ages", first recorded in 1625. The alternative term "medieval" (or occasionally "mediaeval") derives from medium aevum. Tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern.

Question: Along with the Six Ages, what other scheme did writers in the Middle Ages use to divide history?


Answer: Petrarch

Question: What writer referred to the Christian period as new?


Answer: Leonardo Bruni

Question: Who wrote the History of the Florentine People?


Answer: 1442

Question: When was the History of the Florentine People published?


Answer: Christoph Cellarius

Question: Who first divided history into the ancient, medieval and modern periods?


Answer: 476

Context: The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, first used by Bruni.[A] For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period. For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King Ferdinand II in 1516, the death of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1504, or the conquest of Granada in 1492. Historians from Romance-speaking countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High", and "Late". In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the "Dark Ages",[B] but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians.

Question: What date is usually given as the beginning of the Middle Ages?


Answer: Bruni

Question: Who was the first writer to date the Middle Ages from 476?


Answer: 1500

Question: When is the Middle Ages generally considered to have ended?


Answer: 1453

Question: In what year did the Turks conquer Constantinople?


Answer: 1516

Question: When did Ferdinand II die?


Answer: the 2nd century AD

Context: The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories. Economic issues, including inflation, and external pressure on the frontiers combined to make the 3rd century politically unstable, with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers. Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century, mainly in response to the war with Sassanid Persia, which revived in the middle of the 3rd century. The army doubled in size, and cavalry and smaller units replaced the legion as the main tactical unit. The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial, or landowning, class, and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns. More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army, which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax-collectors in the empire than tax-payers.

Question: In what century did the Roman Empire achieve its greatest extent?


Answer: 3rd century

Question: In what century did the revival of Persia occur under the Sassanids?


Answer: doubled

Question: How much did the size of the Roman army increase in the 3rd century?


Answer: taxes

Question: What did the need for increased revenue to pay for the Roman army lead to an increase in?


Answer: curial

Question: What is another term for the Roman landowning class?


Answer: 284

Context: The Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) split the empire into separately administered eastern and western halves in 286; the empire was not considered divided by its inhabitants or rulers, as legal and administrative promulgations in one division were considered valid in the other.[C] In 330, after a period of civil war, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) refounded the city of Byzantium as the newly renamed eastern capital, Constantinople. Diocletian's reforms strengthened the governmental bureaucracy, reformed taxation, and strengthened the army, which bought the empire time but did not resolve the problems it was facing: excessive taxation, a declining birthrate, and pressures on its frontiers, among others. Civil war between rival emperors became common in the middle of the 4th century, diverting soldiers from the empire's frontier forces and allowing invaders to encroach. For much of the 4th century, Roman society stabilised in a new form that differed from the earlier classical period, with a widening gulf between the rich and poor, and a decline in the vitality of the smaller towns. Another change was the Christianisation, or conversion of the empire to Christianity, a gradual process that lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries.

Question: In what year did Diocletian begin his reign?


Answer: 286

Question: When was the Roman Empire split into western and eastern administrative divisions?


Answer: Byzantium

Question: What was the name of the city previously located on the site of Constantinople?


Answer: 5th

Question: During what century was the Roman conversion to Christianity considered complete?


Answer: 337

Question: When did the rule of Constantine end?


Answer: 376

Context: In 376, the Ostrogoths, fleeing from the Huns, received permission from Emperor Valens (r. 364–378) to settle in the Roman province of Thracia in the Balkans. The settlement did not go smoothly, and when Roman officials mishandled the situation, the Ostrogoths began to raid and plunder.[D] Valens, attempting to put down the disorder, was killed fighting the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. As well as the threat from such tribal confederacies from the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems. In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome. In 406 the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed into Gaul; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409 crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into modern-day Spain. The Migration Period began, where various people, initially largely Germanic peoples, moved across Europe. The Franks, Alemanni, and the Burgundians all ended up in northern Gaul while the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes settled in Britain. In the 430s the Huns began invading the empire; their king Attila (r. 434–453) led invasions into the Balkans in 442 and 447, Gaul in 451, and Italy in 452. The Hunnic threat remained until Attila's death in 453, when the Hunnic confederation he led fell apart. These invasions by the tribes completely changed the political and demographic nature of what had been the Western Roman Empire.

Question: In what year did the Ostrogoths settle in the Roman Empire?


Answer: Valens

Question: Who invited the Ostrogoths to settle in the Roman Empire?


Answer: Thracia

Question: In what province did the Ostrogoths settle?


Answer: the Battle of Adrianople

Question: At what battle was the Emperor Valens killed?


Answer: 9 August 378

Question: When did the Battle of Adrianople occur?


Answer: Romulus Augustus

Context: By the end of the 5th century the western section of the empire was divided into smaller political units, ruled by the tribes that had invaded in the early part of the century. The deposition of the last emperor of the west, Romulus Augustus, in 476 has traditionally marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.[E] The Eastern Roman Empire, often referred to as the Byzantine Empire after the fall of its western counterpart, had little ability to assert control over the lost western territories. The Byzantine emperors maintained a claim over the territory, but none of the new kings in the west dared to elevate himself to the position of emperor of the west, Byzantine control of most of the Western Empire could not be sustained; the reconquest of the Italian peninsula and Mediterranean periphery by Justinian (r. 527–565) was the sole, and temporary, exception.

Question: Who was the last Western Roman Emperor?


Answer: 476

Question: When did the reign of the last Western Roman Emperor end?


Answer: Byzantine Empire

Question: What is another name for the Eastern Roman Empire?


Answer: Justinian

Question: What Eastern Roman Emperor reconquered Italy?


Answer: 565

Question: When did Justinian's reign end?


Answer: Aspar

Context: The political structure of Western Europe changed with the end of the united Roman Empire. Although the movements of peoples during this period are usually described as "invasions", they were not just military expeditions but migrations of entire peoples into the empire. Such movements were aided by the refusal of the western Roman elites to support the army or pay the taxes that would have allowed the military to suppress the migration. The emperors of the 5th century were often controlled by military strongmen such as Stilicho (d. 408), Aspar (d. 471), Ricimer (d. 472), or Gundobad (d. 516), who were partly or fully of non-Roman background. When the line of western emperors ceased, many of the kings who replaced them were from the same background. Intermarriage between the new kings and the Roman elites was common. This led to a fusion of Roman culture with the customs of the invading tribes, including the popular assemblies that allowed free male tribal members more say in political matters than was common in the Roman state. Material artefacts left by the Romans and the invaders are often similar, and tribal items were often modelled on Roman objects. Much of the scholarly and written culture of the new kingdoms was also based on Roman intellectual traditions. An important difference was the gradual loss of tax revenue by the new polities. Many of the new political entities no longer supported their armies through taxes, instead relying on granting them land or rents. This meant there was less need for large tax revenues and so the taxation systems decayed. Warfare was common between and within the kingdoms. Slavery declined as the supply weakened, and society became more rural.[F]

Question: When did Aspar die?


Answer: 516

Question: What year saw the death of Gundobad?


Answer: Stilicho

Question: What notable Roman figure died in 408?


Answer: tax revenue

Question: The loss of what led to the differentiation between the Western Roman Empire and the new kingdoms?


Answer: land or rents

Question: Rather than taxes, what did the new kingdoms use to support their armies?


Answer: 5th

Context: Between the 5th and 8th centuries, new peoples and individuals filled the political void left by Roman centralised government. The Ostrogoths settled in Italy in the late 5th century under Theoderic (d. 526) and set up a kingdom marked by its co-operation between the Italians and the Ostrogoths, at least until the last years of Theodoric's reign. The Burgundians settled in Gaul, and after an earlier realm was destroyed by the Huns in 436 formed a new kingdom in the 440s. Between today's Geneva and Lyon, it grew to become the realm of Burgundy in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. In northern Gaul, the Franks and Britons set up small polities. The Frankish Kingdom was centred in north-eastern Gaul, and the first king of whom much is known is Childeric (d. 481).[G] Under Childeric's son Clovis (r. 509–511), the Frankish kingdom expanded and converted to Christianity. Britons, related to the natives of Britannia — modern-day Great Britain — settled in what is now Brittany.[H] Other monarchies were established by the Visigoths in Iberia, the Suevi in north-western Iberia, and the Vandals in North Africa. In the 6th century, the Lombards settled in northern Italy, replacing the Ostrogothic kingdom with a grouping of duchies that occasionally selected a king to rule over them all. By the late 6th century this arrangement had been replaced by a permanent monarchy.

Question: In what century did the Ostrogoths arrive in Italy?


Answer: Theoderic

Question: What Ostrogothic leader led his people into Italy?


Answer: the Huns

Question: Who destroyed the Burgundian kingdom in 436?


Answer: Gaul

Question: In what part of Europe did the Burgundians settle?


Answer: Childeric

Question: Who was the first notable king of the Franks?


Answer: Slavic

Context: The invasions brought new ethnic groups to Europe, although some regions received a larger influx of new peoples than others. In Gaul for instance, the invaders settled much more extensively in the north-east than in the south-west. Slavic peoples settled in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. The settlement of peoples was accompanied by changes in languages. The Latin of the Western Roman Empire was gradually replaced by languages based on, but distinct from, Latin, collectively known as Romance languages. These changes from Latin to the new languages took many centuries. Greek remained the language of the Byzantine Empire, but the migrations of the Slavs added Slavonic languages to Eastern Europe.

Question: People of what ethnicity settled in the Balkan Peninsula?


Answer: north-east

Question: In what geographic region did most of the invaders settle in Gaul?


Answer: Romance languages

Question: What is the collective name for languages derived from Latin?


Answer: Greek

Question: What language was spoken in the Byzantine Empire?


Answer: Slavonic

Question: What languages were spoken by the Slavs?


Answer: 7th

Context: As Western Europe witnessed the formation of new kingdoms, the Eastern Roman Empire remained intact and experienced an economic revival that lasted into the early 7th century. There were fewer invasions of the eastern section of the empire; most occurred in the Balkans. Peace with Persia, the traditional enemy of Rome, lasted throughout most of the 5th century. The Eastern Empire was marked by closer relations between the political state and Christian Church, with doctrinal matters assuming an importance in eastern politics that they did not have in Western Europe. Legal developments included the codification of Roman law; the first effort—the Theodosian Code—was completed in 438. Under Emperor Justinian (r. 527–565), another compilation took place—the Corpus Juris Civilis. Justinian also oversaw the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the reconquest of North Africa from the Vandals and Italy from the Ostrogoths, under Belisarius (d. 565). The conquest of Italy was not complete, as a deadly outbreak of plague in 542 led to the rest of Justinian's reign concentrating on defensive measures rather than further conquests. At the emperor's death, the Byzantines had control of most of Italy, North Africa, and a small foothold in southern Spain. Justinian's reconquests have been criticised by historians for overextending his realm and setting the stage for the Muslim conquests, but many of the difficulties faced by Justinian's successors were due not just to over-taxation to pay for his wars but to the essentially civilian nature of the empire, which made raising troops difficult.

Question: In what century did the economic revival in the Eastern Roman Empire end?


Answer: 5th

Question: In what century was there peace with one of Rome's traditional enemies?


Answer: the Balkans

Question: Where did most of the invasion in the Eastern Roman Empire take place?


Answer: 438

Question: What year saw the completion of the Theodosian Code?


Answer: Justinian

Question: Who was Emperor when the Corpus Juris Civilis was compiled?


Answer: Slavic tribes

Context: In the Eastern Empire the slow infiltration of the Balkans by the Slavs added a further difficulty for Justinian's successors. It began gradually, but by the late 540s Slavic tribes were in Thrace and Illyrium, and had defeated an imperial army near Adrianople in 551. In the 560s the Avars began to expand from their base on the north bank of the Danube; by the end of the 6th century they were the dominant power in Central Europe and routinely able to force the eastern emperors to pay tribute. They remained a strong power until 796. An additional problem to face the empire came as a result of the involvement of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) in Persian politics when he intervened in a succession dispute. This led to a period of peace, but when Maurice was overthrown, the Persians invaded and during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) controlled large chunks of the empire, including Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, until Heraclius' successful counterattack. In 628 the empire secured a peace treaty and recovered all of its lost territories.

Question: Who defeated the Eastern Roman Empire near Adrianople in 551?


Answer: the Avars

Question: What tribe received tribute from the Eastern Roman emperors in the 6th century?


Answer: the Danube

Question: Near what river were the Avars originally based?


Answer: Heraclius

Question: During the reign of what Emperor did the Persians occupy Egypt?


Answer: 602

Question: In what year did the reign of Maurice end?


Answer: Cicero

Context: In Western Europe, some of the older Roman elite families died out while others became more involved with Church than secular affairs. Values attached to Latin scholarship and education mostly disappeared, and while literacy remained important, it became a practical skill rather than a sign of elite status. In the 4th century, Jerome (d. 420) dreamed that God rebuked him for spending more time reading Cicero than the Bible. By the 6th century, Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had a similar dream, but instead of being chastised for reading Cicero, he was chastised for learning shorthand. By the late 6th century, the principal means of religious instruction in the Church had become music and art rather than the book. Most intellectual efforts went towards imitating classical scholarship, but some original works were created, along with now-lost oral compositions. The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris (d. 489), Cassiodorus (d. c. 585), and Boethius (d. c. 525) were typical of the age.

Question: What author would Jerome rather read than the Bible?


Answer: 420

Question: In what year did Jerome die?


Answer: 6th

Question: In what century did Gregory of Tours live?


Answer: music

Question: Along with art, how was religious instruction commonly received in the late 6th century?


Answer: 489

Question: When was the death of Sidonius Apollinaris?


Answer: great feasts

Context: Changes also took place among laymen, as aristocratic culture focused on great feasts held in halls rather than on literary pursuits. Clothing for the elites was richly embellished with jewels and gold. Lords and kings supported entourages of fighters who formed the backbone of the military forces.[I] Family ties within the elites were important, as were the virtues of loyalty, courage, and honour. These ties led to the prevalence of the feud in aristocratic society, examples of which included those related by Gregory of Tours that took place in Merovingian Gaul. Most feuds seem to have ended quickly with the payment of some sort of compensation. Women took part in aristocratic society mainly in their roles as wives and mothers of men, with the role of mother of a ruler being especially prominent in Merovingian Gaul. In Anglo-Saxon society the lack of many child rulers meant a lesser role for women as queen mothers, but this was compensated for by the increased role played by abbesses of monasteries. Only in Italy does it appear that women were always considered under the protection and control of a male relative.

Question: What was the focus of aristocratic culture during this period?


Answer: jewels

Question: Along with gold, what luxury was present on the clothes of the elite?


Answer: courage

Question: Along with loyalty and honor, what virtue did the elite value?


Answer: Anglo-Saxon

Question: In what society did women have status as abbesses?


Answer: Merovingian Gaul

Question: In what country did Gregory of Tours live?


Answer: 700

Context: Peasant society is much less documented than the nobility. Most of the surviving information available to historians comes from archaeology; few detailed written records documenting peasant life remain from before the 9th century. Most the descriptions of the lower classes come from either law codes or writers from the upper classes. Landholding patterns in the West were not uniform; some areas had greatly fragmented landholding patterns, but in other areas large contiguous blocks of land were the norm. These differences allowed for a wide variety of peasant societies, some dominated by aristocratic landholders and others having a great deal of autonomy. Land settlement also varied greatly. Some peasants lived in large settlements that numbered as many as 700 inhabitants. Others lived in small groups of a few families and still others lived on isolated farms spread over the countryside. There were also areas where the pattern was a mix of two or more of those systems. Unlike in the late Roman period, there was no sharp break between the legal status of the free peasant and the aristocrat, and it was possible for a free peasant's family to rise into the aristocracy over several generations through military service to a powerful lord.

Question: How many people might live in a large peasant settlement?


Answer: military service

Question: What was a way in which a free peasant might become an aristocrat?


Answer: 9th

Question: In what century did written records of peasant life begin to appear?


Answer: law codes

Question: Along with aristocratic writers, where do contemporary written descriptions of peasants come from?


Answer: archaeology

Question: What field produces most of the finding about peasants from this era?


Answer: 30,000

Context: Roman city life and culture changed greatly in the early Middle Ages. Although Italian cities remained inhabited, they contracted significantly in size. Rome, for instance, shrank from a population of hundreds of thousands to around 30,000 by the end of the 6th century. Roman temples were converted into Christian churches and city walls remained in use. In Northern Europe, cities also shrank, while civic monuments and other public buildings were raided for building materials. The establishment of new kingdoms often meant some growth for the towns chosen as capitals. Although there had been Jewish communities in many Roman cities, the Jews suffered periods of persecution after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Officially they were tolerated, if subject to conversion efforts, and at times were even encouraged to settle in new areas.

Question: About how many people lived in Rome at the end of the 500s?


Answer: Christian churches

Question: What new use was found for Roman temples?


Answer: Jews

Question: What group was notably persecuted after the Roman Empire converted to Christianity?


Answer: Arab

Context: Religious beliefs in the Eastern Empire and Persia were in flux during the late 6th and early 7th centuries. Judaism was an active proselytising faith, and at least one Arab political leader converted to it.[J] Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts, especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula. All these strands came together with the emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad (d. 632). After his death, Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Empire and Persia, starting with Syria in 634–635 and reaching Egypt in 640–641, Persia between 637 and 642, North Africa in the later 7th century, and the Iberian Peninsula in 711. By 714, Islamic forces controlled much of the peninsula in a region they called Al-Andalus.

Question: What was the ethnicity of a leader who converted to Judaism in this era?


Answer: Zoroastrianism

Question: What was the dominant religion of Persia before Islam?


Answer: 632

Question: In what yer did Muhammad die?


Answer: 634–635

Question: In what period did Islamic armies conquer Syria?


Answer: 7th

Question: In what century did Muslims conquer North Africa?


Answer: 732

Context: The Islamic conquests reached their peak in the mid-8th century. The defeat of Muslim forces at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 led to the reconquest of southern France by the Franks, but the main reason for the halt of Islamic growth in Europe was the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty and its replacement by the Abbasid dynasty. The Abbasids moved their capital to Baghdad and were more concerned with the Middle East than Europe, losing control of sections of the Muslim lands. Umayyad descendants took over the Iberian Peninsula, the Aghlabids controlled North Africa, and the Tulunids became rulers of Egypt. By the middle of the 8th century, new trading patterns were emerging in the Mediterranean; trade between the Franks and the Arabs replaced the old Roman patterns of trade. Franks traded timber, furs, swords and slaves in return for silks and other fabrics, spices, and precious metals from the Arabs.

Question: In what year did the Battle of Poitiers take place?


Answer: Abbasid

Question: What Islamic dynasty followed the Umayyad?


Answer: Baghdad

Question: What was the capital of the Abbasid state?


Answer: Tulunids

Question: What dynasty ruled Egypt in this period?


Answer: the Franks

Question: What group conquered southern France from Muslim forces?


Answer: Rome

Context: The migrations and invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries disrupted trade networks around the Mediterranean. African goods stopped being imported into Europe, first disappearing from the interior and by the 7th century found only in a few cities such as Rome or Naples. By the end of the 7th century, under the impact of the Muslim conquests, African products were no longer found in Western Europe. The replacement of goods from long-range trade with local products was a trend throughout the old Roman lands that happened in the Early Middle Ages. This was especially marked in the lands that did not lie on the Mediterranean, such as northern Gaul or Britain. Non-local goods appearing in the archaeological record are usually luxury goods. In the northern parts of Europe, not only were the trade networks local, but the goods carried were simple, with little pottery or other complex products. Around the Mediterranean, pottery remained prevalent and appears to have been traded over medium-range networks, not just produced locally.

Question: Along with Naples, what city still traded African goods in the 7th century?


Answer: Muslim conquests

Question: What event led to African goods no longer being traded in Western Europe by the end of the 7th century?


Answer: luxury goods

Question: What non-local goods have archaeologists typically found in Britain of this era?


Answer: 7th

Context: The various Germanic states in the west all had coinages that imitated existing Roman and Byzantine forms. Gold continued to be minted until the end of the 7th century, when it was replaced by silver coins. The basic Frankish silver coin was the denarius or denier, while the Anglo-Saxon version was called a penny. From these areas, the denier or penny spread throughout Europe during the centuries from 700 to 1000. Copper or bronze coins were not struck, nor were gold except in Southern Europe. No silver coins denominated in multiple units were minted.

Question: During what century did gold coinage cease?


Answer: silver

Question: Coinage from what metal replaced gold coinage?


Answer: penny

Question: What was the Anglo-Saxon silver coin called?


Answer: denier

Question: What was another name for the denarius?


Answer: Southern Europe

Question: In what part of Europe were gold coins still minted?


Answer: Greek

Context: Christianity was a major unifying factor between Eastern and Western Europe before the Arab conquests, but the conquest of North Africa sundered maritime connections between those areas. Increasingly the Byzantine Church differed in language, practices, and liturgy from the western Church. The eastern church used Greek instead of the western Latin. Theological and political differences emerged, and by the early and middle 8th century issues such as iconoclasm, clerical marriage, and state control of the church had widened to the extent that the cultural and religious differences were greater than the similarities. The formal break came in 1054, when the papacy and the patriarchy of Constantinople clashed over papal supremacy and excommunicated each other, which led to the division of Christianity into two churches—the western branch became the Roman Catholic Church and the eastern branch the Orthodox Church.

Question: What language was used by the eastern church?


Answer: Latin

Question: What language did the western church use?


Answer: 1054

Question: When did the eastern and western churches split?


Answer: papal supremacy

Question: Over what issue did the eastern and western churches split?


Answer: the Orthodox Church

Question: What was the eastern church subsequently known as?


Answer: 590

Context: The ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Empire survived the movements and invasions in the west mostly intact, but the papacy was little regarded, and few of the western bishops looked to the bishop of Rome for religious or political leadership. Many of the popes prior to 750 were more concerned with Byzantine affairs and eastern theological controversies. The register, or archived copies of the letters, of Pope Gregory the Great (pope 590–604) survived, and of those more than 850 letters, the vast majority were concerned with affairs in Italy or Constantinople. The only part of Western Europe where the papacy had influence was Britain, where Gregory had sent the Gregorian mission in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Irish missionaries were most active in Western Europe between the 5th and the 7th centuries, going first to England and Scotland and then on to the continent. Under such monks as Columba (d. 597) and Columbanus (d. 615), they founded monasteries, taught in Latin and Greek, and authored secular and religious works.

Question: When did Gregory the Great become pope?


Answer: 850

Question: About how many of Gregory's letters were concerned with Constantinople or Italy?


Answer: Britain

Question: In what region of Western Europe did the pope have influence?


Answer: 597

Question: When did the Gregorian mission travel to Britain?


Answer: 615

Question: When did Columbanus die?


Answer: monasticism

Context: The Early Middle Ages witnessed the rise of monasticism in the West. The shape of European monasticism was determined by traditions and ideas that originated with the Desert Fathers of Egypt and Syria. Most European monasteries were of the type that focuses on community experience of the spiritual life, called cenobitism, which was pioneered by Pachomius (d. 348) 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 Anthony. Benedict of Nursia (d. 547) wrote the Benedictine Rule for Western monasticism during the 6th century, detailing the administrative and spiritual responsibilities of a community of monks led by an abbot. Monks and monasteries had a deep effect on 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, and bases for missions and proselytisation. They were the main and sometimes only outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many of the surviving manuscripts of the Latin classics were copied in monasteries in the Early Middle Ages. Monks were also the authors of new works, including history, theology, and other subjects, written by authors such as Bede (d. 735), a native of northern England who wrote in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.

Question: What religious lifestyle arose in the Early Middle Ages?


Answer: Pachomius

Question: Who was the pioneer of cenobitism?


Answer: Benedict of Nursia

Question: Who composed the Benedictine Rule?


Answer: northern

Question: From what part of England did Bede come?


Answer: abbot

Question: What was the title of the leader of a monastery?


Answer: Burgundy

Context: The Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul split into kingdoms called Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy during the 6th and 7th centuries, all of them ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, who were descended from Clovis. The 7th century was a tumultuous period of wars between Austrasia and Neustria. Such warfare was exploited by Pippin (d. 640), the Mayor of the Palace for Austrasia who became the power behind the Austrasian throne. Later members of his family inherited the office, acting as advisers and regents. One of his descendants, Charles Martel (d. 741), won the Battle of Poitiers in 732, halting the advance of Muslim armies across the Pyrenees.[K] Great Britain was divided into small states dominated by the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, and East Anglia, which were descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders. Smaller kingdoms in present-day Wales and Scotland were still under the control of the native Britons and Picts. Ireland was divided into even smaller political units, usually known as tribal kingdoms, under the control of kings. There were perhaps as many as 150 local kings in Ireland, of varying importance.

Question: Along with Austrasia and Neustria, what kingdom was originally part of the Frankish kingdom?


Answer: Merovingian

Question: What dynasty ruled Neustria?


Answer: Clovis

Question: From whom did the rulers of the Merovingian dynasty trace their ancestry?


Answer: Mayor of the Palace

Question: What was the title of Pippin?


Answer: Charles Martel

Question: What leader was victorious at the Battle of Poitiers?


Answer: Carolingian

Context: The Carolingian dynasty, as the successors to Charles Martel are known, officially took control of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria in a coup of 753 led by Pippin III (r. 752–768). A contemporary chronicle claims that Pippin sought, and gained, authority for this coup from Pope Stephen II (pope 752–757). Pippin's takeover was reinforced with propaganda that portrayed the Merovingians as inept or cruel rulers, exalted the accomplishments of Charles Martel, and circulated stories of the family's great piety. At the time of his death in 768, Pippin left his kingdom in the hands of his two sons, Charles (r. 768–814) and Carloman (r. 768–771). When Carloman died of natural causes, Charles blocked the succession of Carloman's young son and installed himself as the king of the united Austrasia and Neustria. Charles, more often known as Charles the Great or Charlemagne, embarked upon a programme of systematic expansion in 774 that unified a large portion of Europe, eventually controlling modern-day France, northern Italy, and Saxony. In the wars that lasted beyond 800, he rewarded allies with war booty and command over parcels of land. In 774, Charlemagne conquered the Lombards, which freed the papacy from the fear of Lombard conquest and marked the beginnings of the Papal States.[L]

Question: What dynasty consisted of descendants of Charles Martel?


Answer: 753

Question: In what year did the Carolingians take over Neustria?


Answer: Pippin III

Question: Who led the coup that gained control over Austrasia?


Answer: 752

Question: When did Stephen II become pope?


Answer: Carloman

Question: Along with Charles, who was the son of Pippin?


Answer: Christmas Day 800

Context: The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor on Christmas Day 800 is regarded as a turning point in medieval history, marking a return of the Western Roman Empire, since the new emperor ruled over much of the area previously controlled by the western emperors. It also marks a change in Charlemagne's relationship with the Byzantine Empire, as the assumption of the imperial title by the Carolingians asserted their equivalence to the Byzantine state. There were several differences between the newly established Carolingian Empire and both the older Western Roman Empire and the concurrent Byzantine Empire. The Frankish lands were rural in character, with only a few small cities. Most of the people were peasants settled on small farms. Little trade existed and much of that was with the British Isles and Scandinavia, in contrast to the older Roman Empire with its trading networks centred on the Mediterranean. The empire was administered by an itinerant court that travelled with the emperor, as well as approximately 300 imperial officials called counts, who administered the counties the empire had been divided into. Clergy and local bishops served as officials, as well as the imperial officials called missi dominici, who served as roving inspectors and troubleshooters.

Question: On what date did Charlemagne assume the imperial title?


Answer: peasants

Question: Of what class were most inhabitants of the Carolingian Empire?


Answer: 300

Question: About how many counts existed in the Carolingian Empire?


Answer: small farms

Question: In what settlements did most inhabitants of the Carolingian Empire live?


Answer: Scandinavia

Question: Along with the British Isles, with what land did the Carolingians trade?


Answer: Aachen

Context: Charlemagne's court in Aachen was the centre of the cultural revival sometimes referred to as the "Carolingian Renaissance". Literacy increased, as did development in the arts, architecture and jurisprudence, as well as liturgical and scriptural studies. The English monk Alcuin (d. 804) was invited to Aachen and brought the education available in the monasteries of Northumbria. Charlemagne's chancery—or writing office—made use of a new script today known as Carolingian minuscule,[M] allowing a common writing style that advanced communication across much of Europe. Charlemagne sponsored changes in church liturgy, imposing the Roman form of church service on his domains, as well as the Gregorian chant in liturgical music for the churches. An important activity for scholars during this period was the copying, correcting, and dissemination of basic works on religious and secular topics, with the aim of encouraging learning. New works on religious topics and schoolbooks were also produced. Grammarians of the period modified the Latin language, changing it from the Classical Latin of the Roman Empire into a more flexible form to fit the needs of the church and government. By the reign of Charlemagne, the language had so diverged from the classical that it was later called Medieval Latin.

Question: Where was Charlemagne's court based?


Answer: Carolingian Renaissance

Question: What is the name of the cultural revival associated with Charlemagne?


Answer: English

Question: Of what ethnicity was Alcuin?


Answer: 804

Question: In what year did Alcuin die?


Answer: Medieval Latin

Question: What was the Latin of Charlemagne's era later known as?


Answer: Louis the Pious

Context: Charlemagne planned to continue the Frankish tradition of dividing his kingdom between all his heirs, but was unable to do so as only one son, Louis the Pious (r. 814–840), was still alive by 813. Just before Charlemagne died in 814, he crowned Louis as his successor. Louis's reign of 26 years was marked by numerous divisions of the empire among his sons and, after 829, civil wars between various alliances of father and sons over the control of various parts of the empire. Eventually, Louis recognised his eldest son Lothair I (d. 855) as emperor and gave him Italy. Louis divided the rest of the empire between Lothair and Charles the Bald (d. 877), his youngest son. Lothair took East Francia, comprising both banks of the Rhine and eastwards, leaving Charles West Francia with the empire to the west of the Rhineland and the Alps. Louis the German (d. 876), the middle child, who had been rebellious to the last, was allowed to keep Bavaria under the suzerainty of his elder brother. The division was disputed. Pepin II of Aquitaine (d. after 864), the emperor's grandson, rebelled in a contest for Aquitaine, while Louis the German tried to annex all of East Francia. Louis the Pious died in 840, with the empire still in chaos.

Question: Who was Charlemagne's only living son in 813?


Answer: 26 years

Question: How long did Louis the Pious reign?


Answer: 840

Question: When did the reign of Louis the Pious end?


Answer: Lothair I

Question: Who ruled Italy after Louis the Pious?


Answer: Louis the German

Question: Who was the middle son of Louis the Pious?


Answer: three

Context: A three-year civil war followed his death. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), a kingdom between the Rhine and Rhone rivers was created for Lothair to go with his lands in Italy, and his imperial title was recognised. Louis the German was in control of Bavaria and the eastern lands in modern-day Germany. Charles the Bald received the western Frankish lands, comprising most of modern-day France. Charlemagne's grandsons and great-grandsons divided their kingdoms between their descendants, eventually causing all internal cohesion to be lost.[N] In 987 the Carolingian dynasty was replaced in the western lands, with the crowning of Hugh Capet (r. 987–996) as king.[O][P] In the eastern lands the dynasty had died out earlier, in 911, with the death of Louis the Child, and the selection of the unrelated Conrad I (r. 911–918) as king.

Question: How many years did the civil war after the death of Louis the Pious last?


Answer: the Rhine and Rhone

Question: Between what two rivers did Lothair receive a kingdom?


Answer: Germany

Question: In what modern country were Louis the German's lands?


Answer: France

Question: In what modern country were Charles the Bald's lands?


Answer: 911

Question: When did Louis the Child die?


Answer: the Vikings

Context: The breakup of the Carolingian Empire was accompanied by invasions, migrations, and raids by external foes. The Atlantic and northern shores were harassed by the Vikings, who also raided the British Isles and settled there as well as in Iceland. In 911, the Viking chieftain Rollo (d. c. 931) received permission from the Frankish King Charles the Simple (r. 898–922) to settle in what became Normandy.[Q] The eastern parts of the Frankish kingdoms, especially Germany and Italy, were under continual Magyar assault until the invader's defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. The breakup of the Abbasid dynasty meant that the Islamic world fragmented into smaller political states, some of which began expanding into Italy and Sicily, as well as over the Pyrenees into the southern parts of the Frankish kingdoms.

Question: What group settled in Iceland during this period?


Answer: Charles the Simple

Question: Who was king of the Franks in 899?


Answer: Normandy

Question: In what region of modern-day France did the Vikings settle?


Answer: Magyar

Question: What group was defeated at the Battle of Lechfeld?


Answer: 955

Question: In what year did the Battle of Lechfeld occur?


Answer: 871

Context: Efforts by local kings to fight the invaders led to the formation of new political entities. In Anglo-Saxon England, King Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) came to an agreement with the Viking invaders in the late 9th century, resulting in Danish settlements in Northumbria, Mercia, and parts of East Anglia. By the middle of the 10th century, Alfred's successors had conquered Northumbria, and restored English control over most of the southern part of Great Britain. In northern Britain, Kenneth MacAlpin (d. c. 860) united the Picts and the Scots into the Kingdom of Alba. In the early 10th century, the Ottonian dynasty had established itself in Germany, and was engaged in driving back the Magyars. Its efforts culminated in the coronation in 962 of Otto I (r. 936–973) as Holy Roman Emperor. In 972, he secured recognition of his title by the Byzantine Empire, which he sealed with the marriage of his son Otto II (r. 967–983) to Theophanu (d. 991), daughter of an earlier Byzantine Emperor Romanos II (r. 959–963). By the late 10th century Italy had been drawn into the Ottonian sphere after a period of instability; Otto III (r. 996–1002) spent much of his later reign in the kingdom. The western Frankish kingdom was more fragmented, and although kings remained nominally in charge, much of the political power devolved to the local lords.

Question: When did Alfred the Great begin his reign?


Answer: the Kingdom of Alba

Question: What was the kingdom of Kenneth MacAlpin?


Answer: Ottonian dynasty

Question: Of what dynasty was Otto I a member?


Answer: Magyars

Question: What group did Otto I defeat?


Answer: 962

Question: In what year did Otto I become Holy Roman Emperor?


Answer: Denmark

Context: Missionary efforts to Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries helped strengthen the growth of kingdoms such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which gained power and territory. Some kings converted to Christianity, although not all by 1000. Scandinavians also expanded and colonised throughout Europe. Besides the settlements in Ireland, England, and Normandy, further settlement took place in what became Russia and in Iceland. Swedish traders and raiders ranged down the rivers of the Russian steppe, and even attempted to seize Constantinople in 860 and 907. Christian Spain, initially driven into a small section of the peninsula in the north, expanded slowly south during the 9th and 10th centuries, establishing the kingdoms of Asturias and León.

Question: Along with Sweden and Norway, what country saw missionary activity in the 9th and 10th centuries?


Answer: 907

Question: Along with 860, in what year did Swedish raiders attempt to conquer Constantinople?


Answer: Asturias

Question: Along with the kingdom of León, what Spanish kingdom was established during this period?


Answer: Russia

Question: Along with Iceland, Normandy, Ireland and England, what other area did Scandinavians colonize during this period?


Answer: Macedonian

Context: In Eastern Europe, Byzantium revived its fortunes under Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) and his successors Leo VI (r. 886–912) and Constantine VII (r. 913–959), members of the Macedonian dynasty. Commerce revived and the emperors oversaw the extension of a uniform administration to all the provinces. The military was reorganised, which allowed the emperors John I (r. 969–976) and Basil II (r. 976–1025) to expand the frontiers of the empire on all fronts. The imperial court was the centre of a revival of classical learning, a process known as the Macedonian Renaissance. Writers such as John Geometres (fl. early 10th century) composed new hymns, poems, and other works. Missionary efforts by both eastern and western clergy resulted in the conversion of the Moravians, Bulgars, Bohemians, Poles, Magyars, and Slavic inhabitants of the Kievan Rus'. These conversions contributed to the founding of political states in the lands of those peoples—the states of Moravia, Bulgaria, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and the Kievan Rus'. Bulgaria, which was founded around 680, at its height reached from Budapest to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River in modern Ukraine to the Adriatic Sea. By 1018, the last Bulgarian nobles had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire.

Question: Of what dynasty was Leo VI a member?


Answer: 913–959

Question: During what period did Constantine VII reign?


Answer: 867

Question: When did Basil I's rule begin?


Answer: 10th

Question: During what century did John Geometres flourish?


Answer: 680

Question: In approximately what year was Bulgaria founded?


Answer: 4th century

Context: Few large stone buildings were constructed between the Constantinian basilicas of the 4th century and the 8th century, although many smaller ones were built during the 6th and 7th centuries. By the beginning of the 8th century, the Carolingian Empire revived the basilica form of architecture. One feature of the basilica is the use of a transept, or the "arms" of a cross-shaped building that are perpendicular to the long nave. Other new features of religious architecture include the crossing tower and a monumental entrance to the church, usually at the west end of the building.

Question: When were the Constantinian basilicas built?


Answer: the west end

Question: In what part of the church was the monumental entrance typically placed?


Answer: the basilica

Question: What type of architecture did the Carolingian Empire bring back into use?


Answer: transept

Question: What is a notable architectural feature of the basilica?


Answer: perpendicular

Question: How is the transept positioned in relation to the nave?


Answer: infantry

Context: During the later Roman Empire, the principal military developments were attempts to create an effective cavalry force as well as the continued development of highly specialised types of troops. The creation of heavily armoured cataphract-type soldiers as cavalry was an important feature of the 5th-century Roman military. The various invading tribes had differing emphasis on types of soldiers—ranging from the primarily infantry Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain to the Vandals and Visigoths, who had a high proportion of cavalry in their armies. During the early invasion period, the stirrup had not been introduced into warfare, which limited the usefulness of cavalry as shock troops because it was not possible to put the full force of the horse and rider behind blows struck by the rider. The greatest change in military affairs during the invasion period was the adoption of the Hunnic composite bow in place of the earlier, and weaker, Scythian composite bow. Another development was the increasing use of longswords and the progressive replacement of scale armour by mail armour and lamellar armour.

Question: What was the primary military arm of Anglo-Saxon armies?


Answer: cavalry

Question: What military arm did the Visigoths have a large amount of?


Answer: composite bow

Question: What Scythian weapon was used during this era?


Answer: Hunnic composite bow

Question: What weapon replaced the Scythian composite bow?


Answer: mail

Question: Along with lamellar armor, what armor replaced scale armor?


Answer: illuminated manuscripts

Context: Carolingian art was produced for a small group of figures around the court, and the monasteries and churches they supported. It was dominated by efforts to regain the dignity and classicism of imperial Roman and Byzantine art, but was also influenced by the Insular art of the British Isles. Insular art integrated the energy of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Germanic styles of ornament with Mediterranean forms such as the book, and established many characteristics of art for the rest of the medieval period. Surviving religious works from the Early Middle Ages are mostly illuminated manuscripts and carved ivories, originally made for metalwork that has since been melted down. Objects in precious metals were the most prestigious form of art, but almost all are lost except for a few crosses such as the Cross of Lothair, several reliquaries, and finds such as the Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo and the hoards of Gourdon from Merovingian France, Guarrazar from Visigothic Spain and Nagyszentmiklós near Byzantine territory. There are survivals from the large brooches in fibula or penannular form that were a key piece of personal adornment for elites, including the Irish Tara Brooch. Highly decorated books were mostly Gospel Books and these have survived in larger numbers, including the Insular Book of Kells, the Book of Lindisfarne, and the imperial Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, which is one of the few to retain its "treasure binding" of gold encrusted with jewels. Charlemagne's court seems to have been responsible for the acceptance of figurative monumental sculpture in Christian art, and by the end of the period near life-sized figures such as the Gero Cross were common in important churches.

Question: Along with carved ivories, what religious works of the Early Middle Ages were common?


Answer: the Cross of Lothair

Question: What is a notable cross made during this era?


Answer: Nagyszentmiklós

Question: Where was a notable hoard found near the former lands of the Byzantine Empire?


Answer: Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram

Question: What is a notable decorated book with a binding of jewel-encrusted gold?


Answer: Guarrazar

Question: Where was a hoard from Visigothic Spain found?


Answer: heavy cavalry

Context: The importance of infantry and light cavalry began to decline during the early Carolingian period, with a growing dominance of elite heavy cavalry. The use of militia-type levies of the free population declined over the Carolingian period. Although much of the Carolingian armies were mounted, a large proportion during the early period appear to have been mounted infantry, rather than true cavalry. One exception was Anglo-Saxon England, where the armies were still composed of regional levies, known as the fyrd, which were led by the local elites. In military technology, one of the main changes was the return of the crossbow, which had been known in Roman times and reappeared as a military weapon during the last part of the Early Middle Ages. Another change was the introduction of the stirrup, which increased the effectiveness of cavalry as shock troops. A technological advance that had implications beyond the military was the horseshoe, which allowed horses to be used in rocky terrain.

Question: The importance of what military arm increased during the Carolingian era?


Answer: Anglo-Saxon England

Question: What region raised a militia army called the fyrd?


Answer: the crossbow

Question: What Roman weapon began to be used again in the Early Middle Ages?


Answer: the stirrup

Question: Along with the horseshoe, what invention important for cavalry emerged in this period?


Answer: infantry

Question: Along with light cavalry, what military arm declined in importance during the Early Middle Ages?


Answer: 80 million

Context: The High Middle Ages was a period of tremendous expansion of population. The estimated population of Europe grew from 35 to 80 million between 1000 and 1347, although the exact causes remain unclear: improved agricultural techniques, the decline of slaveholding, a more clement climate and the lack of invasion have all been suggested. As much as 90 per cent of the European population remained rural peasants. Many were no longer settled in isolated farms but had gathered into small communities, usually known as manors or villages. These peasants were often subject to noble overlords and owed them rents and other services, in a system known as manorialism. There remained a few free peasants throughout this period and beyond, with more of them in the regions of Southern Europe than in the north. The practice of assarting, or bringing new lands into production by offering incentives to the peasants who settled them, also contributed to the expansion of population.

Question: What was the approximate population of Europe in 1347?


Answer: 35

Question: About how many millions of people lived in Europe in the year 1000?


Answer: 90

Question: During the High Middle Ages, what percentage of the European population consisted of rural peasants?


Answer: villages

Question: Along with manors, where did peasants in the High Middle Ages often live?


Answer: assarting

Question: What was the term for the practice of giving incentives to peasants to cultivate new lands?


Answer: 11th and 12th

Context: Other sections of society included the nobility, clergy, and townsmen. Nobles, both the titled nobility and simple knights, exploited the manors and the peasants, although they did not own lands outright but were granted rights to the income from a manor or other lands by an overlord through the system of feudalism. During the 11th and 12th centuries, these lands, or fiefs, came to be considered hereditary, and in most areas they were no longer divisible between all the heirs as had been the case in the early medieval period. Instead, most fiefs and lands went to the eldest son.[R] The dominance of the nobility was built upon its control of the land, its military service as heavy cavalry, control of castles, and various immunities from taxes or other impositions.[S] Castles, initially in wood but later in stone, began to be constructed in the 9th and 10th centuries in response to the disorder of the time, and provided protection from invaders as well as allowing lords defence from rivals. Control of castles allowed the nobles to defy kings or other overlords. Nobles were stratified; kings and the highest-ranking nobility controlled large numbers of commoners and large tracts of land, as well as other nobles. Beneath them, lesser nobles had authority over smaller areas of land and fewer people. Knights were the lowest level of nobility; they controlled but did not own land, and had to serve other nobles.[T]

Question: In what centuries did fiefs become hereditary?


Answer: the eldest son

Question: In this period, who usually inherited fiefs?


Answer: wood

Question: What were castles originally built out of?


Answer: Knights

Question: What group constituted the lowest nobility?


Answer: 9th

Question: In what century were castles first built?


Answer: the secular clergy

Context: The clergy was divided into two types: the secular clergy, who lived out in the world, and the regular clergy, who lived under a religious rule and were usually monks. Throughout the period monks remained a very small proportion of the population, usually less than one per cent. Most of the regular clergy were drawn from the nobility, the same social class that served as the recruiting ground for the upper levels of the secular clergy. The local parish priests were often drawn from the peasant class. Townsmen were in a somewhat unusual position, as they did not fit into the traditional three-fold division of society into nobles, clergy, and peasants. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the ranks of the townsmen expanded greatly as existing towns grew and new population centres were founded. But throughout the Middle Ages the population of the towns probably never exceeded 10 per cent of the total population.

Question: What group constituted the clergy along with the regular clergy?


Answer: regular clergy

Question: What type of clergy were monks?


Answer: less than one per cent

Question: What percentage of the European population consisted of monks?


Answer: the nobility

Question: What social class did many members of the regular clergy come from?


Answer: the peasant class

Question: From what class were many parish priests?


Answer: cities

Context: Jews also spread across Europe during the period. Communities were established in Germany and England in the 11th and 12th centuries, but Spanish Jews, long settled in Spain under the Muslims, came under Christian rule and increasing pressure to convert to Christianity. Most Jews were confined to the cities, as they were not allowed to own land or be peasants.[U] Besides the Jews, there were other non-Christians on the edges of Europe—pagan Slavs in Eastern Europe and Muslims in Southern Europe.

Question: In what type of settlement did most Jews live?


Answer: the 11th and 12th

Question: In what centuries did a Jewish community develop in England?


Answer: Christianity

Question: What religion were Spanish Jews pressured into converting to?


Answer: Eastern

Question: In what part of Europe did the Slavs live?


Answer: pagan

Question: What was the religion of the Slavs?


Answer: taking care of the household

Context: Women in the Middle Ages were officially required to be subordinate to some male, whether their father, husband, or other kinsman. Widows, who were often allowed much control over their own lives, were still restricted legally. Women's work generally consisted of household or other domestically inclined tasks. Peasant women were usually responsible for taking care of the household, child-care, as well as gardening and animal husbandry near the house. They could supplement the household income by spinning or brewing at home. At harvest-time, they were also expected to help with field-work. Townswomen, like peasant women, were responsible for the household, and could also engage in trade. What trades were open to women varied by country and period. Noblewomen were responsible for running a household, and could occasionally be expected to handle estates in the absence of male relatives, but they were usually restricted from participation in military or government affairs. The only role open to women in the Church was that of nuns, as they were unable to become priests.

Question: Along with gardening, animal husbandry and child-care, what work did medieval peasant women do?


Answer: brewing

Question: Along with spinning, what income-producing work did peasant women engage in?


Answer: help with field-work

Question: What did peasant women do when it was time for the harvest?


Answer: nuns

Question: What role did women fill in the Church?


Answer: Baltic

Context: In central and northern Italy and in Flanders, the rise of towns that were to a degree self-governing stimulated economic growth and created an environment for new types of trade associations. Commercial cities on the shores of the Baltic entered into agreements known as the Hanseatic League, and the Italian Maritime republics such as Venice, Genoa, and Pisa expanded their trade throughout the Mediterranean.[V] Great trading fairs were established and flourished in northern France during the period, allowing Italian and German merchants to trade with each other as well as local merchants. In the late 13th century new land and sea routes to the Far East were pioneered, famously described in The Travels of Marco Polo written by one of the traders, Marco Polo (d. 1324). Besides new trading opportunities, agricultural and technological improvements enabled an increase in crop yields, which in turn allowed the trade networks to expand. Rising trade brought new methods of dealing with money, and gold coinage was again minted in Europe, first in Italy and later in France and other countries. New forms of commercial contracts emerged, allowing risk to be shared among merchants. Accounting methods improved, partly through the use of double-entry bookkeeping; letters of credit also appeared, allowing easy transmission of money.

Question: What sea were the Hanseatic cities located on?


Answer: Genoa

Question: Along with Venice and Pisa, what was a notable Italian maritime republic?


Answer: Marco Polo

Question: Who wrote The Travels of Marco Polo?


Answer: double-entry bookkeeping

Question: What accounting method was utilized in this period?


Answer: Italy

Question: In what region was gold coinage first reintroduced?


Answer: Hungary

Context: The High Middle Ages was the formative period in the history of the modern Western state. Kings in France, England, and Spain consolidated their power, and set up lasting governing institutions. New kingdoms such as Hungary and Poland, after their conversion to Christianity, became Central European powers. The Magyars settled Hungary around 900 under King Árpád (d. c. 907) after a series of invasions in the 9th century. The papacy, long attached to an ideology of independence from secular kings, first asserted its claim to temporal authority over the entire Christian world; the Papal Monarchy reached its apogee in the early 13th century under the pontificate of Innocent III (pope 1198–1216). Northern Crusades and the advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic and Finnic north-east brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples into European culture.

Question: Along with Poland, what Central European kingdom was formed during the High Middle Ages?


Answer: Árpád

Question: Who was king when the Magyars settled in Hungary?


Answer: 1198

Question: When did the papacy of Innocent III begin?


Answer: England

Question: Along with France and Spain, the kings of what country consolidated power in the High Middle Ages?


Answer: 900

Question: In approximately what year did the Magyars settle in Hungary?


Answer: Ottonian

Context: During the early High Middle Ages, Germany was ruled by the Ottonian dynasty, which struggled to control the powerful dukes ruling over territorial duchies tracing back to the Migration period. In 1024, they were replaced by the Salian dynasty, who famously clashed with the papacy under Emperor Henry IV (r. 1084–1105) over church appointments as part of the Investiture Controversy. His successors continued to struggle against the papacy as well as the German nobility. A period of instability followed the death of Emperor Henry V (r. 1111–25), who died without heirs, until Frederick I Barbarossa (r. 1155–90) took the imperial throne. Although he ruled effectively, the basic problems remained, and his successors continued to struggle into the 13th century. Barbarossa's grandson Frederick II (r. 1220–1250), who was also heir to the throne of Sicily through his mother, clashed repeatedly with the papacy. His court was famous for its scholars and he was often accused of heresy. He and his successors faced many difficulties, including the invasion of the Mongols into Europe in the mid-13th century. Mongols first shattered the Kievan Rus' principalities and then invaded Eastern Europe in 1241, 1259, and 1287.

Question: What dynasty controlled Germany in the early High Middle Ages?


Answer: Salian

Question: What dynasty ruled Germany starting in 1024?


Answer: 1084

Question: When did Henry IV's reign begin?


Answer: Investiture Controversy

Question: The clash between Henry IV and the pope was part of what greater conflict?


Answer: Frederick II

Question: What was the regnal name of Frederick I Barbarossa's grandson?


Answer: William the Conqueror

Context: Under the Capetian dynasty France slowly began to expand its authority over the nobility, growing out of the Île-de-France to exert control over more of the country in the 11th and 12th centuries. They faced a powerful rival in the Dukes of Normandy, who in 1066 under William the Conqueror (duke 1035–1087), conquered England (r. 1066–87) and created a cross-channel empire that lasted, in various forms, throughout the rest of the Middle Ages. Normans also settled in Sicily and southern Italy, when Robert Guiscard (d. 1085) landed there in 1059 and established a duchy that later became the Kingdom of Sicily. Under the Angevin dynasty of Henry II (r. 1154–89) and his son Richard I (r. 1189–99), the kings of England ruled over England and large areas of France,[W] brought to the family by Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine (d. 1204), heiress to much of southern France.[X] Richard's younger brother John (r. 1199–1216) lost Normandy and the rest of the northern French possessions in 1204 to the French King Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223). This led to dissension among the English nobility, while John's financial exactions to pay for his unsuccessful attempts to regain Normandy led in 1215 to Magna Carta, a charter that confirmed the rights and privileges of free men in England. Under Henry III (r. 1216–72), John's son, further concessions were made to the nobility, and royal power was diminished. The French monarchy continued to make gains against the nobility during the late 12th and 13th centuries, bringing more territories within the kingdom under their personal rule and centralising the royal administration. Under Louis IX (r. 1226–70), royal prestige rose to new heights as Louis served as a mediator for most of Europe.[Y]

Question: Who was Duke of Normandy in 1066?


Answer: 1066–87

Question: During what period did William reign over England?


Answer: 1085

Question: When did Robert Guiscard die?


Answer: Kingdom of Sicily

Question: What kingdom grew out of the duchy founded by Robert Guiscard?


Answer: Angevin

Question: To what dynasty did Henry II belong?


Answer: the Reconquista

Context: In Iberia, the Christian states, which had been confined to the north-western part of the peninsula, began to push back against the Islamic states in the south, a period known as the Reconquista. By about 1150, the Christian north had coalesced into the five major kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal. Southern Iberia remained under control of Islamic states, initially under the Caliphate of Córdoba, which broke up in 1031 into a shifting number of petty states known as taifas, who fought with the Christians until the Almohad Caliphate re-established centralised rule over Southern Iberia in the 1170s. Christian forces advanced again in the early 13th century, culminating in the capture of Seville in 1248.

Question: What was the name of the Christian reconquest of Iberia from the Muslims?


Answer: five

Question: How many major Christian kingdoms existed in Iberia around 1150?


Answer: Navarre

Question: Along with León, Portugal, Aragon and Castile, what major Christian kingdom existed in Iberia around 1150?


Answer: the Caliphate of Córdoba

Question: What Islamic state controlled southern Iberia until 1031?


Answer: the Almohad Caliphate

Question: What Islamic state controlled southern Iberia in the 1170s?


Answer: 1060s

Context: In the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks took over much of the Middle East, occupying Persia during the 1040s, Armenia in the 1060s, and Jerusalem in 1070. In 1071, the Turkish army defeated the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert and captured the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV (r. 1068–71). The Turks were then free to invade Asia Minor, which dealt a dangerous blow to the Byzantine Empire by seizing a large part of its population and its economic heartland. Although the Byzantines regrouped and recovered somewhat, they never fully regained Asia Minor and were often on the defensive. The Turks also had difficulties, losing control of Jerusalem to the Fatimids of Egypt and suffering from a series of internal civil wars. The Byzantines also faced a revived Bulgaria, which in the late 12th and 13th centuries spread throughout the Balkans.

Question: During what decade did the Seljuk Turks occupy Armenia?


Answer: 1071

Question: In what yer was the Battle of Manzikert fought?


Answer: Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV

Question: Who was taken prisoner at the Battle of Manzikert?


Answer: the Fatimids of Egypt

Question: Who conquered Jerusalem from the Turks?


Answer: 11th

Question: During what century did the Seljuk Turks occupy Persia?


Answer: Urban II

Context: The crusades were intended to seize Jerusalem from Muslim control. The First Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Urban II (pope 1088–99) at the Council of Clermont in 1095 in response to a request from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) for aid against further Muslim advances. Urban promised indulgence to anyone who took part. Tens of thousands of people from all levels of society mobilised across Europe and captured Jerusalem in 1099. One feature of the crusades was the pogroms against local Jews that often took place as the crusaders left their countries for the East. These were especially brutal during the First Crusade, when the Jewish communities in Cologne, Mainz, and Worms were destroyed, and other communities in cities between the rivers Seine and Rhine suffered destruction. Another outgrowth of the crusades was the foundation of a new type of monastic order, the military orders of the Templars and Hospitallers, which fused monastic life with military service.

Question: What pope launched the First crusade?


Answer: the Council of Clermont

Question: At what gathering was the First Crusade preached?


Answer: 1095

Question: In what year was the First Crusade proclaimed?


Answer: Alexios I Komnenos

Question: What Byzantine Emperor's request for assistance led to the First Crusade?


Answer: 1099

Question: In what year did the First Crusade take Jerusalem?


Answer: to regain Jerusalem

Context: The crusaders consolidated their conquests into crusader states. During the 12th and 13th centuries, there were a series of conflicts between those states and the surrounding Islamic states. Appeals from those states to the papacy led to further crusades, such as the Third Crusade, called to try to regain Jerusalem, which had been captured by Saladin (d. 1193) in 1187.[Z] In 1203, the Fourth Crusade was diverted from the Holy Land to Constantinople, and captured the city in 1204, setting up a Latin Empire of Constantinople and greatly weakening the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines recaptured the city in 1261, but never regained their former strength. By 1291 all the crusader states had been captured or forced from the mainland, although a titular Kingdom of Jerusalem survived on the island of Cyprus for several years afterwards.

Question: What was the purpose of the Third Crusade?


Answer: Saladin

Question: Who took Jerusalem in 1187?


Answer: 1203

Question: In what year did the Fourth Crusade occur?


Answer: Latin Empire of Constantinople

Question: What state was founded following the Fourth Crusade?


Answer: Cyprus

Question: After 1291, where did the titular King of Jerusalem reside?


Answer: southern France

Context: Popes called for crusades to take place elsewhere besides the Holy Land: in Spain, southern France, and along the Baltic. The Spanish crusades became fused with the Reconquista of Spain from the Muslims. Although the Templars and Hospitallers took part in the Spanish crusades, similar Spanish military religious orders were founded, most of which had become part of the two main orders of Calatrava and Santiago by the beginning of the 12th century. Northern Europe also remained outside Christian influence until the 11th century or later, and became a crusading venue as part of the Northern Crusades of the 12th to 14th centuries. These crusades also spawned a military order, the Order of the Sword Brothers. Another order, the Teutonic Knights, although originally founded in the crusader states, focused much of its activity in the Baltic after 1225, and in 1309 moved its headquarters to Marienburg in Prussia.

Question: Along with the Baltic and Spain, in what area were crusades called?


Answer: Marienburg

Question: Where was the Teutonic Order headquartered in 1309?


Answer: the Order of the Sword Brothers

Question: What military order was founded as a result of the Northern Crusades?


Answer: 12th

Question: In what century did the Northern Crusades begin?


Answer: 14th

Question: What century saw the end of the Northern Crusades?


Answer: realists

Context: During the 11th century, developments in philosophy and theology led to increased intellectual activity. There was debate between the realists and the nominalists over the concept of "universals". Philosophical discourse was stimulated by the rediscovery of Aristotle and his emphasis on empiricism and rationalism. Scholars such as Peter Abelard (d. 1142) and Peter Lombard (d. 1164) introduced Aristotelian logic into theology. In the late 11th and early 12th centuries cathedral schools spread throughout Western Europe, signalling the shift of learning from monasteries to cathedrals and towns. Cathedral schools were in turn replaced by the universities established in major European cities. Philosophy and theology fused in scholasticism, an attempt by 12th- and 13th-century scholars to reconcile authoritative texts, most notably Aristotle and the Bible. This movement tried to employ a systemic approach to truth and reason and culminated in the thought of Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), who wrote the Summa Theologica, or Summary of Theology.

Question: What group opposed the nominalists on the subject of universals?


Answer: Aristotle

Question: What ancient philosopher was rediscovered, leading to a revival of philosophy?


Answer: 1164

Question: When did Peter Lombard die?


Answer: scholasticism

Question: What was the name of the school of thought that combined theology and philosophy?


Answer: Thomas Aquinas

Question: Who authored the Summa Theologica?


Answer: songs of great deeds

Context: Chivalry and the ethos of courtly love developed in royal and noble courts. This culture was expressed in the vernacular languages rather than Latin, and comprised poems, stories, legends, and popular songs spread by troubadours, or wandering minstrels. Often the stories were written down in the chansons de geste, or "songs of great deeds", such as The Song of Roland or The Song of Hildebrand. Secular and religious histories were also produced. Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. c. 1155) composed his Historia Regum Britanniae, a collection of stories and legends about Arthur. Other works were more clearly history, such as Otto von Freising's (d. 1158) Gesta Friderici Imperatoris detailing the deeds of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, or William of Malmesbury's (d. c. 1143) Gesta Regum on the kings of England.

Question: What does chansons de geste mean in English?


Answer: The Song of Hildebrand

Question: Along with The Song of Ronald, what is a notable chanson de geste?


Answer: Geoffrey of Monmouth

Question: Who wrote Historia Regum Britanniae?


Answer: Arthur

Question: What legendary figure was featured in the Historia Regum Britanniae?


Answer: Emperor Frederick Barbarossa

Question: Who was the subject of Gesta Friderici Imperatoris?


Answer: ecclesiastical law

Context: Legal studies advanced during the 12th century. Both secular law and canon law, or ecclesiastical law, were studied in the High Middle Ages. Secular law, or Roman law, was advanced greatly by the discovery of the Corpus Juris Civilis in the 11th century, and by 1100 Roman law was being taught at Bologna. This led to the recording and standardisation of legal codes throughout Western Europe. Canon law was also studied, and around 1140 a monk named Gratian (fl. 12th century), a teacher at Bologna, wrote what became the standard text of canon law—the Decretum.

Question: What is another name for canon law?


Answer: Secular law

Question: What is another name for Roman law?


Answer: Bologna

Question: Where could one study Roman law in 1100?


Answer: 11th

Question: In what century was the Corpus Juris Civilis rediscovered?


Answer: Gratian

Question: Who wrote the Decretum?


Answer: algebra

Context: Among the results of the Greek and Islamic influence on this period in European history was the replacement of Roman numerals with the decimal positional number system and the invention of algebra, which allowed more advanced mathematics. Astronomy advanced following the translation of Ptolemy's Almagest from Greek into Latin in the late 12th century. Medicine was also studied, especially in southern Italy, where Islamic medicine influenced the school at Salerno.

Question: What invention led to advances in mathematics?


Answer: Almagest

Question: What influential astronomy text did Ptomely author?


Answer: Greek

Question: In what language was Almagest originally written?


Answer: Salerno

Question: In what city was a medical school located that was notably influenced by Islamic medicine?


Answer: Latin

Question: Into what language was Almagest translated in the 12th century?


Answer: mechanical clocks

Context: In the 12th and 13th centuries, Europe produced economic growth and innovations in methods of production. Major technological advances included the invention of the windmill, the first mechanical clocks, the manufacture of distilled spirits, and the use of the astrolabe. Concave spectacles were invented around 1286 by an unknown Italian artisan, probably working in or near Pisa.

Question: Along with the astrolabe, windmill and distilled spirits, what was a notable technological advancement of the 12th and 13th centuries?


Answer: Concave spectacles

Question: What was invented in approximately 1286?


Answer: Pisa

Question: Near what city were concave spectacles invented?


Answer: one half

Context: The development of a three-field rotation system for planting crops[AA] increased the usage of land from one half in use each year under the old two-field system to two-thirds under the new system, with a consequent increase in production. The development of the heavy plough allowed heavier soils to be farmed more efficiently, aided by the spread of the horse collar, which led to the use of draught horses in place of oxen. Horses are faster than oxen and require less pasture, factors that aided the implementation of the three-field system.

Question: What fraction of land was under cultivation using the two-field system?


Answer: two-thirds

Question: What fraction of land was under cultivate using the three-field system?


Answer: the horse collar

Question: What invention allowed horses rather than oxen to be used to plow?


Answer: the heavy plough

Question: What invention led to an increase in efficiency in the farming of heavy soils?


Answer: faster

Question: In addition to requiring less pasture, what distinguishes horses from oxen?


Answer: houses

Context: The construction of cathedrals and castles advanced building technology, leading to the development of large stone buildings. Ancillary structures included new town halls, houses, bridges, and tithe barns. Shipbuilding improved with the use of the rib and plank method rather than the old Roman system of mortise and tenon. Other improvements to ships included the use of lateen sails and the stern-post rudder, both of which increased the speed at which ships could be sailed.

Question: Along with bridges, tithe barns and town halls, what notable new structures were built during this period?


Answer: mortise and tenon

Question: What method, derived from the Romans, was traditionally used to build ships?


Answer: rib and plank

Question: What new shipbuilding method was invented in this period?


Answer: stern-post

Question: What type of rudder was introduced during this period?


Answer: lateen

Question: What type of sails were first used during this era?


Answer: 13th

Context: In military affairs, the use of infantry with specialised roles increased. Along with the still-dominant heavy cavalry, armies often included mounted and infantry crossbowmen, as well as sappers and engineers. Crossbows, which had been known in Late Antiquity, increased in use partly because of the increase in siege warfare in the 10th and 11th centuries.[AB] The increasing use of crossbows during the 12th and 13th centuries led to the use of closed-face helmets, heavy body armour, as well as horse armour. Gunpowder was known in Europe by the mid-13th century with a recorded use in European warfare by the English against the Scots in 1304, although it was merely used as an explosive and not as a weapon. Cannon were being used for sieges in the 1320s, and hand-held guns were in use by the 1360s.

Question: In what century did Europeans become aware of gunpowder?


Answer: the English

Question: Who was recorded as using gunpowder in 1304?


Answer: the Scots

Question: Against whom was gunpowder used in 1304?


Answer: 1320s

Question: In what decade were siege cannon known to have been used?


Answer: The increasing use of crossbows

Question: What led to the increased use of armor in the 12th century?


Answer: 10th

Context: In the 10th century the establishment of churches and monasteries led to the development of stone architecture that elaborated vernacular Roman forms, from which the term "Romanesque" is derived. Where available, Roman brick and stone buildings were recycled for their materials. From the tentative beginnings known as the First Romanesque, the style flourished and spread across Europe in a remarkably homogeneous form. Just before 1000 there was a great wave of building stone churches all over Europe. Romanesque buildings have massive stone walls, openings topped by semi-circular arches, small windows, and, particularly in France, arched stone vaults. The large portal with coloured sculpture in high relief became a central feature of façades, especially in France, and the capitals of columns were often carved with narrative scenes of imaginative monsters and animals. According to art historian C. R. Dodwell, "virtually all the churches in the West were decorated with wall-paintings", of which few survive. Simultaneous with the development in church architecture, the distinctive European form of the castle was developed, and became crucial to politics and warfare.

Question: In what century was Romanesque architecture first used?


Answer: arched stone vaults

Question: What feature of Romanesque architecture was especially prevalent in France?


Answer: C. R. Dodwell

Question: Who noted the prevalence of wall-paintings in Western churches of this era?


Answer: the castle

Question: What non-church architectural structure developed in the 10th century?


Answer: 1000

Question: Around what year did the great wave of church-building in stone occur?