Deck 12: The Nomadic Frontiers: The Islamic World, Byzantium, and China ca. 1000–1200

Question 1

Which of the following did NOT characterize the phenomenon of the early crusades?

A) The church in Rome bore the primary financial burden for individual crusaders.
B) Muslims viewed the crusades as a pattern of conquest extending from North to South and West to East across and around the Mediterranean.
C) Rich crusaders went on pilgrimages to acquire wealth and territory.
D) Italian merchant-communities supported the early crusaders, even though some of them disrupted the delicate tolerance that had existed between Christians and Muslims in crusader states.

Answer 1

The church in Rome bore the primary financial burden for individual crusaders.

Question 2

The kingdom of Ghana before the invasion of the Almoravids was a region that was

A) already largely Muslim.
B) Christian because of its trade connections with Ethiopia in East Africa.
C) largely pagan with some Muslim traders.
D) a mix of Muslim and Christians.

Answer 2

largely pagan with some Muslim traders.

Question 3

One of the key reasons for the success of the First Crusade was

A) the technological superiority of the crusaders over the Islamic armies of the time.
B) the size of the crusading army outnumbered the Islamic armies of the time.
C) the divisions that existed in the Islamic world at the time.
D) the crusaders promoted religious tolerance that was supported by the native population.

Answer 3

the divisions that existed in the Islamic world at the time.

Question 4

When Muslims first called the Turks "the army of God," they meant that

A) they believed the Turks were ferocious pagans sent to punish the sins of Muslims.
B) they believed the Turks were sent to punish Christian sins.
C) they believed the Turks were holy warriors who fought for the Muslim cause.
D) the Turks believed themselves to be missionaries for Islam.

Question 5

What elements from the elite became a severe threat to imperial rule during the late Tang dynasty?

A) failed merchants and businessmen
B) monks and unemployed soldiers
C) failed students and monks
D) merchants and unemployed eunuchs

Question 6

What were the basic movements that lay behind the development of the crusades in Western Christendom?

A) commerce and pilgrimage
B) pilgrimage and holy war
C) exploration of new lands and chivalry
D) chivalry and commerce

Question 7

The role that Turkic peoples played within the Islamic Empire was that of

A) a people mostly concerned with commerce and trade.
B) a military force that fought for Sunni Islam.
C) a people completely integrated into the Arabic world.
D) a military force that fought for Shia Islam.

Question 8

In what manner did the Islamic Empire integrate the Turkic peoples into its world?

A) It converted them and turned their military values to its service.
B) It either fought or bought them off.
C) It seduced them into their culture and convinced them to give up their language and traditions.
D) It allowed them to maintain their traditional ways and beliefs as long as they fought in the service of Islam.

Question 9

In order to provide new territory for a growing population,the Song rulers

A) colonized underpopulated areas to the southwest.
B) conquered territories by military force.
C) sent people to unpopulated regions to the north.
D) purchased lands from neighboring peoples.

Question 10

The ruins of the early Turkish city at Konya reveal that

A) the Turks during this period established cities mainly to protect permanent garrisons.
B) even early Turkish cities were entirely concerned with markets and an abandonment of their earlier warrior culture.
C) the Turks entirely forgot their pastoral past rapidly.
D) markets and shops played an important role in the life of the city.

Question 11

The Dede Korkut portrays the Turkic peoples in

A) an epic story of love and peaceful achievements.
B) a series of hymns devoted to their gods.
C) an historic account of the early Turks' integration into the Islamic world.
D) an epic that celebrates their virility and violence.

Question 12

The famous Muslim leader Saladin was important because of his leadership in

A) the reconquest of Jerusalem and the defeat of Shi'ites.
B) completely driving out the crusaders.
C) establishing the power of Shia Islam in Iran.
D) driving all Christian and Jewish communities out of the Islamic world.

Question 13

The majority of the wealth of the Byzantine Empire was based on

A) tribute from neighboring states.
B) military conquest of new territories.
C) agriculture and trade.
D) private commercial ventures.

Question 14

The most successful manner in which the Byzantines spread Christianity was through

A) military conquest.
B) bribing states into accepting the faith.
C) threats of military and commercial punishment.
D) diplomacy and missionary activity.

Question 15

The Sufi writer al-Ghazali was important as a bridge in Islamic thinking and teaching because he

A) explained so clearly why Sunni orthodoxy was correct.
B) valued the faith of the poor as much as the learning of scholars in the mosques.
C) said that all points of view should be treated as equal.
D) was such a clear writer that he could make even the most complex issues crystal clear.

Question 16

In 1054,a schism broke out between the Eastern and Western Christian churches partly because of

A) military conflict between the major states of Eastern and Western Christendom.
B) differences over the nature of Christ.
C) slight differences in the Nicene Creed.
D) a dispute over the supremacy of Patriarch of Constantinople.

Question 17

In order to maintain peaceful relations with the neighboring Liao Empire,the Song Empire

A) maintained only a small army so as not to appear threatening.
B) paid tribute to the Liao.
C) had its children educated in schools in Liao territory.
D) kept common religious shrines and practices that emphasized a unity between the two powers.

Question 18

The first Turkic people to convert to Islam were the Karkhanids,who became Muslims in

A) 720 C.E.
B) 845 C.E.
C) 960 C.E.
D) 1072 C.E.

Question 19

In order to cope with declining agriculture within the Byzantine Empire,twelfth-century emperors began

A) to try to revive revenues by granting lands to great lords and to monasteries.
B) to reduce taxes on peasant-held lands and on commercial ventures.
C) to break up large estates and give them to peasants.
D) to seek new lands through conquest.

Question 20

The Almoravid religious zealots seized much of the Iberian Peninsula from

A) Christian rulers in support of Muslim rulers already there.
B) Muslim rulers in support of Christians.
C) Muslim and Christian rulers in order to found an empire of their own.
D) the Almohad rulers who had conquered the peninsula before them.

Question 21

What were relations like between the Byzantine Empire and its neighbors? How did the Byzantines deal with conflicts that arose between themselves and those on its frontiers?

Question 22

Did the crusades and the Iberian wars between Christians and Muslims lead to greater understanding between the two civilizations? Why or why not?

Question 23

The Song bureaucrat Wang Anshi believed in

A) a Daoist government that did little and left things to individuals.
B) a socially responsible government that gave cheap loans to farmers and used progressive taxation.
C) idealizing ancient Confucian ethics and philosophy.
D) making sure that potential government workers excelled in calligraphy and poetry.

Question 24

How was China like Western Europe during the ninth to tenth centuries C.E.?

A) They were enjoying a period of tremendous economic development.
B) They were winning battles against nomadic invaders.
C) Bribery and aggressive diplomacy were meeting with success in keeping nomadic invaders out.
D) They were striving to maintain an ancient sense of unity in times of political dissolution.

Question 25

What were the similarities and differences between Byzantine and Islamic relations with steppe nomadic peoples such as the Turks? What were the costs and benefits of each approach? Who threatened their territory?

Question 26

The Chinese and Muslim states were often successful in dealing with nomadic peoples by

A) assimilating them.
B) defeating them in battle.
C) fending them off through diplomacy.
D) converting them to Buddhism.

Question 27

The great Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun saw history as a story of struggle between

A) merchants and farmers.
B) rich and poor.
C) nomads and settled people.
D) different religious groups.

Question 28

How were the Central Asian Turks integrated into the Islamic Empire,and what role did they play?

Question 29

Unlike those in many urban populations,pastoralist diets often include

A) meat.
B) dairy foods.
C) grain.
D) fruits and vegetables.

Question 30

What was the nature of art and learning in the Byzantine Empire? What sort of art and learning was valued by its artists and scholars?

Question 31

Compare the Chinese and Islamic relationships with steppelanders.What were the costs and benefits of each policy?

Question 32

Why were Turkic warriors not more fully integrated into mainstream Islamic civilization? What costs or dangers did they pose to the Islamic world,despite their zealous military service?

Question 33

What was the early relationship between the Islamic world and the Turks of Central Asia? How did they interrelate with one another?

Question 34

What were the key social and economic developments that occurred during the period of the Song dynasty in China?

Question 35

During the Song dynasty,women's place in society

A) became more open because of women's shared roles in the managing of herds.
B) were improved because of favorable legislation.
C) were harder because of new religious restrictions.
D) became more restricted, as evidenced by the practice of foot-binding.

Question 36

Byzantine culture maintained connections with the past and remained vibrant in the face of new challenges by

A) developing radical, new types of images and art that challenged past ideas and artistic notions.
B) only focusing on the Christian elements of the ancient past.
C) copying and analyzing texts and art from the ancient Greek past.
D) adding elements of neighboring traditions to the ancient Greek ones to create a new artistic form.

Question 37

The most effective way that China accommodated itself to nomadic invaders was through

A) bribery of their leaders.
B) military defeat.
C) their cultural assimilation.
D) diplomatic intimidation.

Question 38

What were the reasons behind the crusading movement that arose in Western Christendom?

Question 39

One nomadic people of the steppe that were successfully integrated into Europe was the

A) Magyars.
B) Mongols.
C) Turks.
D) Uighurs.

Question 40

What was the appeal of Sufism for many Muslims? Why was it rejected by much of the elite in the Islamic Empire?

Question 41

Why does the hostility between pastoralists and sedentary peoples have less to do with conflicts of interest than with a clash of cultures?

Question 42

Discuss how the Song dynasty responded to the arrival of "barbarian" steppeland invaders in northern China.How did the solutions promoted by the Song dynasty result in economic and cultural growth as well as the expansion of Chinese territory? What important legacy did this leave for the peoples of southeast Asia?

Question 43

Assess which society felt the most significant impact from the Crusades: the Byzantine Empire or the Islamic world? Your answer should discuss the motives of the crusaders,the needs of the Byzantine empire,and the response of Islamic kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean.

Question 44

What factors created the revulsion that many settled peoples had for the lifestyles of the steppelanders?

Question 45

What role did steppelanders play in connecting different sedentary areas with each other? Were different civilizations' responses to the steppe challenge part of a larger Eurasian system of interactions?
In Perspective

Question 46

Compare one civilization that seemed particularly successful at coping with external invaders from the steppe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries with one that was less successful.What elements contributed to or prevented success?

Question 47

Why were steppelanders often successful in their conflicts with the settled populations of Eurasia? What are two examples of this?