Tierney and Painter note that increased Viking raids following the death of Charlemagne in CE 814 may have contributed to the military aspects of the system in order to emphasize “locally improvised protection.” The granting of land (a fief or benefice) entailed service to the lord. At the top was the king while the knight or chevalier was found at the bottom. Some historians note that the feudal system was like a pyramid. By the 9th and into the 10th Century, those relationships governed detailed obligations, often over-lapping between various lords, and defined by property, law, and inheritance. Historian Steven Ozment states that, “As large numbers populated the countryside, there evolved that peculiar fusion of Germanic, Roman, and Christian practices that we speak of today as “feudal society.’” Feudalism represented the relationship between lord and vassal. But historical research demonstrated that the presuppositions governing the use of the term dark ages were false: Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages did experience a degree of learning trade had not ceased and law prevailed – albeit a legal system influenced by the Church, the barbarians, and scraps of Roman law. In rudimentary form, feudalism was a part of those dark ages. Hence, feudalism cannot be properly understood simply as a generalization or through the prism of independent historiography focusing solely on one aspect of the system.Ī partially relevant example might be the discarded use of the term “Dark Ages” to label the period of the Early Middle Ages. Attempting to Define the Feudal “System”įeudalism in France was different from feudalism in England, and this, according to medieval historians, may account for the eventual emergence of societies tied to different concepts of law, social relationships, and royal power. The notion of a feudal lord and his vassals, for example, is part of that overall system, although the specifics beyond generalizing must account for geographic differences as well as other factors. The so-called “feudal society,” however, can refer to various elements of that transformation period, including social relationships, the economic and legal systems, and the impact of Christian influences. In the following excerpts from that book, Leo Africanus describes several of the major kingdoms and cities of West African civilization.Feudalism, as a generalization, describes those forces in Western Europe during a period of transformation following the dissolution of the Roman Empire. Later published in many languages, it became a major source of European knowledge of the African Islamic world, much as Marco Polo's writings introduced Europeans to China. It was during his stay in Italy that he completed in 1526 1526 1526 the book for which he is most clearly remembered, The History and Description of Africa, based on observations and knowledge picked up during his travels. There he was apparently converted to Christianity, at least for a time, though he later chose to live in Muslim North Africa and likely returned to his original Muslim faith. On one of these journeys, he was captured by pirates, winding up in Rome, where he came to the attention of Pope Leo X. Later, he served the sultan of Morocco as a diplomat and commercial agent, traveling widely in North Africa, the Middle East, Italy, and West Africa. His family moved to Fez in Morocco, where he was educated in Islamic law. Known to the world by his European-derived nickname of Leo Africanus, this widely traveled Arabic-speaking Muslim of Berber background was actually born as al-Hassan Ibn Muhammad al Wazzan in Granada, Spain, during the late fifteenth century, just as Islam was being pushed out of that country.
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