It was a period marked in the first place by the conquests of the Saracens, who began.
Hasty writers who Their forget the existence of the eastern Rome are apt to claim for the Saracens of Bagdad, or more commonly for those of Cordova, a monopoly of science and art at some time not very clearly defined by dates.
In so doing they slur over the real position and the real merit of the Saracens with regard to science and art.
Against the heathen Hungarians and the Saracens, 3 and incidentally providing a detailed picture of the everyday life of people of high condition.
Under Byzantium it remained nominally until the 10th century, when we find the chief magistrate still bearing the title of apXow.3 In the 8th century 4 (720) the period of Saracen invasion began; but the Saracens never secured a firm footing in the island.
In 815 Sardinia submitted to Louis the Pious, begging for his protection; 5 but the Saracens were not entirely driven out, and about A.D.
Constructed in 830 a fortified enceinte, called Gregoriopolis, in the eastern portion of the ancient city, and the Saracens were signally defeated here under Leo IV.
656, when Rhodes was conquered by the Saracens, who sold the remains for old metal to a dealer, who employed nine hundred camels to carry them away.
Its history under the Byzantine rule is uneventful,but for some temporary occupations by the Saracens (653 -658, 717-718), and the gradual encroachment of Venetian traders since 1082.
The principal features of his reign were a struggle against his brother general, Thomas, who aimed at the throne (822-824); the conquest of Crete by the Saracens in 823; and the beginning of their attacks upon Sicily (827).
Francis himself set out, probably in 1212, for the Holy Land to preach the Gospel to the Saracens, but he was shipwrecked and had to return.
The cities, exposed to pillage by Huns in the north and Saracens in the south, and ravaged on the coast by Norse pirates, asserted their right to enclose themselves with walls, and taught their burghers the use of arms. Within the circuit of their ramparts, the bishops already began to exercise authority in rivalry with the counts, to whom, since the days of Theodoric, had been entrusted the government of the Italian burghs.
Employed the Pisans in 980 against the Greeks in Lower Italy, and the Pisans and Genoese together attacked the Saracens of Sardinia in 1017.
After a prolonged struggle of thirty years, they wrested the whole island from tile Saracens; and Reger, dying in 1101, bequeathed to his son Roger a kingdom in Calabria and Sicily second to none in Europe for wealth and magnificence.
Odo was also obliged to fight the Saracens who invaded the southern part of his kingdom, and inflicted a severe defeat upon them at Toulouse in 721.
When, however, he was again attacked by Charles Martel, the Saracens renewed their ravages, and Odo was defeated near Bordeaux; he was compelled to crave protection from Charles, who took up this struggle and gained his momentous victory at Poitiers in 732.
He saw Jews, Saracens, heretics and apostates roaming through Spain unmolested; and in this lax toleration of religious differences he thought he saw the main obstacle to the political union of the Spains, which was the necessity of the hour.
Norman warriors had long before helped the Christians of Spain in their warfare with the Saracens of the Peninsula, and in Sicily it was from the same enemy that they won the great Mediterranean island.
They were almost as little entitled to be called pure Scandinavians as the Saracens whom they found in the island were entitled to be called pure Arabs.
The relations between the two differed widely in different parts of the island, according to the way in which the Saracens had become possessed of different towns and districts.
Of the various "Siciliae populi," we hear of Greeks, Saracens, Lombards, sometimes of Franci, for by that time there were many French-speaking settlers in Sicily who were not of Norman descent.
There is a distinction between Christians and Saracens; among Christians there seems to be again a distinction between Greeks and Latins, though perhaps without any distinct use of the Latin name; there is again a further distinction between "Lombardi" and "Franci"; but Normans, as a separate class, do not appear.
Out of these elements the Saracens of Sicily had formed a noble and beautiful style, grand and simple in its construction, rich and graceful in its characteristic detail.
There were no Greeks or Saracens in England; there was no Greek or Saracen skill.
Ockley's book on the Saracens " first opened his eyes " to the striking career of Mahomet and his hordes; and with his characteristic ardour of literary research, after exhausting all that could be learned in English of the Arabs and Persians, the Tatars and Turks, he forthwith plunged into the French of D'Herbelot, and the Latin of Pocock's version of Abulfaragius, sometimes understanding them, but oftener only guessing their meaning.
He gathered a large army consisting partly of Germans and Saracens, but was totally defeated by Charles at Tagliacozzo (23rd of August 1268); taken prisoner, he was tried as a rebel and executed at Naples.
It continued to form part of the Byzantine empire till the 9th century, when it fell into the hands of the Saracens (823).
Under the Venetian government Candia, a fortress originally built by the Saracens, and called by them " Khandax," became the seat of government, and not only rose to be the capital and chief city of the island, but actually gave name to it, so that it was called in the official language of Venice " the island of Candia," a designation which from thence passed into modern maps.
Apt was at one time the chief town of the Vulgientes, a Gallic tribe; it was destroyed by the Romans about 125 B.C. and restored by Julius Caesar, who conferred upon it the title Apta Julia; it was much injured by the Lombards and the Saracens, but its fortifications were rebuilt by the counts of Provence.
The Saracens devastated it in the 8th century, but were driven out, and the island returned to the rule of kings, until they fell in the 10th century, their place being taken by four "judges" of the four provinces, Cagliari, Torres, Arborea and Gallura.
In Spain its revival was due to the Saracens, and by them, and their successors the Moors, agriculture was carried to a high pitch of excellence.
He was next required to punish inroads of the Saracens on the Italian mainland, and in September 981 he marched into Apulia, where he met at first with considerable success; but an alliance between the Arabs and the Eastern Empire, whose hostility had been provoked by the invasion of Apulia, resulted in a severe defeat on Otto's troops near Stilo in July 982.
At a later period the conquering Saracens obtained a mastery over the trade, and by them it was spread both east and west - the textures becoming meantime impressed with the patterns and colours peculiar to that people.
It was occupied by the Visigoths in 477, in the succeeding century was repeatedly plundered by the Franks and Lombards, and was occupied by the Saracens in 731.
Baiae was devastated by the Saracens in the 8th century and entirely deserted on account of malaria in 1500.
During his minority the empire was governed by his mother Theodora, who in spite of several defeats inflicted upon her generals maintained the frontiers against the Saracens of Bagdad and Crete.
During a conflict with the Saracens of the Euphrates (856-63), the emperor sustained a personal defeat (860), which was retrieved by a great victory on the part of his uncle Petronas in Asia Minor.
Till 732, Auch stood on the right bank of the Gers, but in that year the ravages of the Saracens drove the inhabitants to take refuge on the left bank of the river, where a new city was formed.
Charlemagne's wars in Italy, Spain and Saxony formed part of the common epic material, and there are references to his wars against the Sla y s; but especially he remained in the popular mind as the great champion of Christianity against the creed of Mahomet, and even his Norman and Saxon enemies became Saracens in current legend.
The lists of them are very various, but all include the names of Roland and 1 A remnant of the popular poetry contemporary with Charlemagne and written in the vernacular has been thought to be discernible under its Latin translation in the description of a siege during Charlemagne's war against the Saracens, known as the " Fragment from the Hague " (Pertz, Script.
He delivered Rome from the besieging Saracens, and returned to France in triumph.
After the conquest of the Saracens and the Saxons, the defeat of the Northmen, and the suppression of the feudal revolts, the emperor abdicated in favour of his son Louis (Le Couronnement Looys, 12th century).