Western Civilization I / Unit 9 WC1 0838 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Byzantium and the Caliphate Compared: Ruler, Law, Learning, Trade
The idea
The exam sets Byzantium against the caliphate and asks which statement fits which. The method is four features with paired answers: the ruler, the law, learning, and trade. Learn the pairs and the statements sort themselves.
In practice
The ruler: the Byzantine emperor absolute over church and state, beloved of Christ; the caliph the Prophet's successor over religion and state, until the Buyids made him a figurehead. The law: the Corpus Juris Civilis, Roman law purged of contradiction; Sharia, built from Koran and Hadith with commercial law inside it. Learning: Greek texts kept by a small elite with innovation suspect; the House of Wisdom translating and advancing them. Trade: a guild-regulated silk monopoly and trusted coin; a currency economy from Spain to China with cheques and merchant scholars. Apply: a statement about a scholar-merchant is the caliphate; a statement about a law code inherited from the ancient world is Byzantium; a statement about a ruler who became a religious figurehead while soldiers held power is the caliphate after nine forty-five; a statement about an emperor closing a philosophical school is Byzantium.
Where people slip
Both were heirs of Rome and both traded with each other in wartime. The anchor's judgment that the caliphate did more with Greek learning is attributed, and its figures for city size are its own.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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