Table Of ContentMA.b-ttlpgs. qxp 3/31/04 10:07 AM Page 3
Biographies
2
Volume :
J-Z
JUDSON KNIGHT
Edited by Judy Galens
s Judson Knight
e
i
h Judy Galens, Editor
p
a Staff
r Diane Sawinski, U•X•L Senior Editor
g Carol DeKane Nagel, U•X•L Managing Editor
Thomas L. Romig, U•X•L Publisher
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Marco Di Vita, the Graphix Group, Typesetting
Cover photograph of T’ai Tsung reproduced by permission of the
Granger Collection, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Knight, Judson.
Middle ages. Biographies / Judson Knight ; Judy Galens, editor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7876-4857-4 (set) — ISBN 0-7876-4858-2 (vol. 1) — ISBN
0-7876-4859-0 (vol. 2 : hardcover)
1. Biography—Middle Ages, 500-1500. 2. Civilization, Medieval. 3.
World history. I. Galens, Judy, 1968- II. Title.
CT114 .K65 2000
920’.009’02—dc21
00–064864
This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright
laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and
other applicable laws. The author and editors of this work have added value
to the underlying factual material herein through one or more of the follow-
ing: unique and original selection, coordination, expression, arrangement,
and classification of the information. All rights to the publication will be vig-
orously defended.
Copyright © 2001
U•X•L, An imprint of the Gale Group
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in
any form.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
Reader’s Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Timeline of Events in the Middle Ages. . . . . . . . . . xi
Words to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
Volume 1 (A–I)
Peter Abelard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Li Po (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Ala-ud-din Muhammad Khalji . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Hindu and Buddhist Rulers of India (box) . . . . 10
Muhammad ibn Tughluq (box) . . . . . . . . . 13
Alexander Nevsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Heroes of Catholic Europe (box). . . . . . . . . 18
Augustine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Simeon Stylites the Elder (box) . . . . . . . . . 27
Averroës . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Priscian (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
v
Basil II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
King Alfred the Great (box) . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Sundiata Keita (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Bernard of Clairvaux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov and His Family (box) . . 49
Boethius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Ashikaga Takauji (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Charlemagne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Christine de Pisan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Queen Margaret of Denmark (box) . . . . . . . 71
Clovis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
King Arthur (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
St. Cyril and St. Methodius . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Olga and Vladimir (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Dante Alighieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Omar Khayyám (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
El Cid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Harun al-Rashid (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Eleanor of Aquitaine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
King John (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
English Scholars, Thinkers, and Writers
(Alcuin, St. Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas
à Becket, William of Ockham, and
Geoffrey Chaucer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
St. Francis of Assisi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
St. Dominic (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Genghis Khan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Brian Boru (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Gregory I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Boniface VIII (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Gregory VII and Henry IV . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Matilda of Tuscany (box) . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Henry the Navigator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Cheng Ho (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
vi Middle Ages: Biographies
Historians(The Venerable Bede, Al-Mas’udi,
Ssu-ma Kuang, and Anna Comnena). . . . . . . . 161
Holy Roman Emperors
(Otto the Great, Otto III, Frederick I Barbarossa,
and Frederick II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Innocent III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Benedict of Nursia (box). . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Urban II (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Irene of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Yang Kuei-fei (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Volume 2 (J–Z)
Joan of Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
William Wallace (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Justinian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Theodora (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Kublai Khan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Rabban Bar Sauma (box). . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Leif Eriksson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Other Medieval Explorers and
Geographers (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Moses Maimonides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Avicenna (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Mansa Musa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Harsha (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Mathematicians and Scientists
(Aryabhata, al-Khwarizmi, al-Razi, Alhazen,
and Roger Bacon). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Two Great Byzantines (box) . . . . . . . . . . 236
Mohammad I Askia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Charles the Bold (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Montezuma I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Muhammad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Murasaki Shikibu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Giovanni Boccaccio (box) . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Contents vii
Osman I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Balkan Heroes (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui. . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Jayavarman VII (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
St. Patrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
A Gallery of Saints (box). . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Marco Polo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Ibn Battuta (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Rabia al-Adawiyya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Julian of Norwich (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Joachim of Fiore (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Richard I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Saladin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Leaders of the First Crusade (box) . . . . . . . 324
Shotoku Taishi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Toghril Beg (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
T’ai Tsung. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Two Other Dynasties, Two Other Families (box). 338
Emperor Tenchi and Fujiwara Kamatari (box) . . 341
Tamerlane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Vlad Tepes (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Thomas Aquinas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Some Notable Thinkers and Scholars
of the Middle Ages (box) . . . . . . . . . . 352
Wen Ti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
People Who Took Power from Outside (box) . . 360
William the Conqueror . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Wu Ze-tian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Fredegund (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xli
viii Middle Ages: Biographies
Reader’s Guide
The Middle Ages was an era of great changes in civilization,
a transition between ancient times and the modern
world. Lasting roughly from A.D.500 to 1500, the period saw
the growth of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe
and the spread of the Islamic faith in the Middle East. Around
the world, empires—the Byzantine, Mongol, and Incan—rose
and fell, and the first nation-states emerged in France, Eng-
land, and Spain. Despite the beauty of illuminated manu-
scripts, soaring Gothic cathedrals, and the literary classics of
Augustine and Dante, Europe’s civilization lagged far behind
that of the technologically advanced, administratively orga-
nized, and economically wealthy realms of the Arab world,
West Africa, India, and China.
Middle Ages: Biographies (two volumes) presents the
life stories of fifty people who lived during the Middle Ages.
Included are such major rulers as Charlemagne, Genghis
Khan, and Eleanor of Aquitaine; thinkers and writers Augus-
tine and Thomas Aquinas; religious leaders Muhammad and
Francis of Assisi; and great explorers Marco Polo and Leif
Eriksson. Also featured are lesser-known figures from the era,
ix
including Wu Ze-tian and Irene of Athens, the only female
rulers in the history of China and Byzantium, respectively;
Mansa Musa, leader of the great empire of Mali in Africa;
Japanese woman author Murasaki Shikibu, who penned the
world’s first novel; and Pachacutec, Inca emperor recognized
as among the greatest rulers in history.
Additional features
Over one hundred illustrations and dozens of sidebar
boxes exploring high-interest people and topics bring the text
to life. Definitions of unfamiliar terms and a list of books and
Web sites to consult for more information are included in
each entry. The volume also contains a timeline of events, a
general glossary, and an index offering easy access to the peo-
ple, places, and subjects discussed throughout Middle Ages: Bi-
ographies.
Dedication
To Margaret, my mother; to Deidre, my wife; and to
Tyler, my daughter.
Comments and suggestions
We welcome your comments on this work as well as
your suggestions for topics to be featured in future editions of
Middle Ages: Biographies.Please write: Editors, Middle Ages: Bi-
ographies, U•X•L, 27500 Drake Rd., Farmington Hills, MI
48331-3535; call toll-free: 1-800-877-4253; fax: 248-699-8097;
or send e-mail via www.galegroup.com.
x Middle Ages: Biographies
Timeline of Events
in the Middle Ages
180 The death of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius marks
the end of the “Pax Romana,” or Roman peace. Years
of instability follow, and although Rome recovers nu-
merous times, this is the beginning of Rome’s three-
century decline.
312 Roman emperor Constantine converts to Christianity.
As a result, the empire that once persecuted Chris-
tians will embrace their religion and eventually will
begin to persecute other religions.
325 Constantine calls the Council of Nicaea, first of many
ecumenical councils at which gatherings of bishops
determine official church policy.
330 Constantine establishes Byzantium as eastern capital
of the Roman Empire.
395 After the death of Emperor Theodosius, the Roman
Empire is permanently divided in half. As time pass-
es, the Eastern Roman Empire (later known as the
Byzantine Empire) distances itself from the declining
Western Roman Empire.
xi
410 Led by Alaric, the Visigoths sack Rome, dealing the
Western Roman Empire a blow from which it will
never recover.
413–425 Deeply affected—as are most Roman citizens—by
the Visigoths’ attack on Rome, Augustine writes City
of God, one of the most important books of the Mid-
dle Ages.
455 The Vandals sack Rome.
c. 459 Death of St. Patrick, missionary who converted Ire-
land to Christianity.
476 The German leader Odoacer removes Emperor Romu-
lus Augustulus and crowns himself “king of Italy.”
This incident marks the end of the Western Roman
Empire.
481 The Merovingian Age, named for the only powerful
dynasty in Western Europe during the period, begins
when Clovistakes the throne in France.
496 Clovisconverts to Christianity. By establishing strong
ties with the pope, he forges a strong church-state re-
lationship that will continue throughout the me-
dieval period.
500 Date commonly cited as beginning of Middle Ages.
500–1000 Era in European history often referred to as the
Dark Ages, or Early Middle Ages.
524 The philosopher Boethius, from the last generation
of classically educated Romans, dies in jail, probably
at the orders of the Ostrogoth chieftain Theodoric.
529 Benedict of Nursia and his followers establish the
monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy. This marks the be-
ginning of the monastic tradition in Europe.
532 Thanks in large part to the counsel of his wife
Theodora, Justinian—greatest of Byzantine emper-
ors—takes a strong stand in the Nika Revolt, ensuring
his continued power.
534–563 Belisarius and other generals under orders from Jus-
tinianrecapture much of the Western Roman Empire,
including parts of Italy, Spain, and North Africa. The
victories are costly, however, and soon after Justin-
xii Middle Ages: Biographies
