Table of Contents Table of Contents Foreword Introduction 3 Note on Coinage, Weights, and Other Technical Terms 10Pt. 1 At the Origins of the Commercial Revolution I Commerce in the Byzantine Empire, the Muslim East, and the Catholic West 19Pt. 2 Markets, Merchants, Merchandise, and Means of Exchange Durgaing the Commercial Revolution II The Development of Markets 51III The Growth of the Merchant Class 87IV The Diversification of Merchandise 108V The Evolution of the Means of Exchange 143Pt. 3 Commercial Contracts and Commercial Investments VI Loans and the Problem of Interest 157VII The Contract of Exchange and Its Double Function 162VIII The Sea Loan and the Sea Exchange 168IX The Commenda Contract 174X Partnerships and Other Contracts Used in Land Trade 185XI Depositors, Factors, and Commission Agents 212XII Some Other Forms of Agreement 221XIII Informal Commercial Papers 229Pt. 4 The Route and the Thorns Along it XIV Transportation by Sea 239XV Transportation by Land 248XVI The Development of Insurance Contracts 255XVII Commercial Litigation and Sharp Business Practices 266XVIII Business Failures and their Settlement 290XIX International Disputes over Trade 303XX Legal Restrictions of Trade 327Pt. 5 Tools and Ideas XXI Manuals 341XXII The Progress of Accounting Methods 359XXIII Commercial Correspondence 378XXIV Moral Standards and Practical Advice 408 List of Works Cited 427 Bibliography 447 Index 461.

Originally published in 1967, these lectures delivered at The Johns Hopkins University focus attention on the historically and politically crucial distinction between the individual as a mere subject of higher authority and the individual as an autonomous and independent citizen. The author’s command of the source material enables him to show why the conception of the individual as a subject predominated in the earlier Middle Ages. He throws into clear relief the multifarious factors which brought about the emergence of the citizen as an individual taking full part in public government. Ullman’s studies demonstrated the constructive role which feudalism played in the transformation of the subject into a citizen, and in doing so throw much light on the development of English common law and set the problem of modern constitutionalism in its historical context. The book opens up entirely new perspectives in the history of political and social ideas.

This book considers the concepts that lay at the heart of natural philosophy and physics from the time of Aristotle until the fourteenth century. The first part presents Aristotelian ideas and the second part presents the interpretation of these ideas by Philoponus, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, John Buridan, and Duns Scotus. Across the eight chapters, the problems and texts from Aristotle that set the stage for European natural philosophy as it was practiced from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries are considered first as they appear in Aristotle and then as they are reconsidered in the context of later interests. The study concludes with an anticipation of Newton and the sense in which Aristotle's physics had been transformed.

This series reprints the best of the titles in Islamic Studies that were published by Brill before 1970. Titltes that have been out of print for a long time, but are still important for libraries and scholars will become easily available to a wider audience. The best of two centuries of scholarship, newly typeset and with new introductions by some of the foremost scholars in Islamic Studies make the Brill Classics in Islam an indispensable part of any islamic studies collection. In Knowledge Triumphant, Franz Rosenthal observes that the Islamic civilization is one that is essentially characterized by knowledge ('ilm), for "ilm is one of those concepts that have dominated Islam and given Muslim civilization its distinctive shape and complexion." With an introduction by Dimitri Gutas. FRANZ ROSENTHAL (1914-2003) was Sterling Professor of Arabicand Semitic Studies at Yale University until his retirement in 1985.

Without the complex military machine that his forebears had built up over the course of the eighth century, it would have been impossible for Charlemagne to revive the Roman empire in the West. Early Carolingian Warfare is the first book-length study of how the Frankish dynasty, beginning with Pippin II, established its power and cultivated its military expertise in order to reestablish the regnum Francorum , a geographical area of the late Roman period that includes much of present-day France and western Germany. Bernard Bachrach has thoroughly examined contemporary sources, including court chronicles, military handbooks, and late Roman histories and manuals, to establish how the early Carolingians used their legacy of political and military techniques and strategies forged in imperial Rome to regain control in the West. Pippin II and his successors were not diverted by opportunities for financial enrichment in the short term through raids and campaigns outside of the regnum Francorum; they focused on conquest with sagacious sensibilities, preferring bloodless diplomatic solutions to unnecessarily destructive warfare, and disdained military glory for its own sake. But when they had to deploy their military forces, their operations were brutal and efficient. Their training was exceptionally well developed, and their techniques included hand-to-hand combat, regimented troop movements, fighting on horseback with specialized mounted soldiers, and the execution of lengthy sieges employing artillery. In order to sustain their long-term strategy, the early Carolingians relied on a late Roman model whereby soldiers were recruited from among the militarized population who were required by law to serve outside their immediate communities. The ability to mass and train large armies from among farmers and urban-dwellers gave the Carolingians the necessary power to lay siege to the old Roman fortress cities that dominated the military topography of the West. Bachrach includes fresh accounts of Charles Martel's defeat of the Muslims at Poitiers in 732, and Pippin's successful siege of Bourges in 762, demonstrating that in the matter of warfare there never was a western European Dark Age that ultimately was enlightened by some later Renaissance. The early Carolingians built upon surviving military institutions, adopted late antique technology, and effectively utilized their classical intellectual inheritance to prepare the way militarily for Charlemagne's empire.

Professor Postan's work on the social and economic history of the Middle Ages has had an enormous influence upon the study of the subject. His essays represent his major contribution and are an invaluable addition to the literature. Twenty-two essays are gathered together into two volumes. Previously published elsewhere, many in obscure places, over a period from 1928 to 1972, they are still greatly used and referred to today; their appearance in this more accessible form will be warmly welcomed by a wide range of students and scholars in all branches of medieval and economic history as well as by social scientists and economists generally. This volume contains such seminal pieces as The economic foundations of medieval society, The rise of a money economy, The chronology of labour services and The charters of the villeins.

The social realities of old age have undergone profound changes since the middle ages. This study shows, however, that the images, attitudes and expectations of old people have changed for less. Shulamith Shahar shows how the status and social participation of the elderly varied according to gender, social stratum, economic resources, position, level of functioning, and personality, as well as according to regional custom. The book offers a broad cultural history of old age in medieval western Europe. Shahar examines the images, attitudes and advocated norms used in relation to the elderly and looks at the elderly in various social strata: churchmen and nuns, rulers, small office holders and soldiers, town dwellers and peasants. A valuable insight into life and society in the Middle Ages, this will prove an invaluable addition to history reading lists.

The India trade in Oriental spices, pharmaceutical, dyeing and other materials was the backbone of medieval economy, especially in the Islamic world. A unique source of documentation is now available in 11th-12th century Geniza letters, written in Judeo-Arabic (Middle Arabic in Hebrew characters), by participants in this activity. The documents are presented in translation with an introduction and notes. They deal with economic history and material, social, and spiritual civilization. Besides illuminating the activities of the traders of the Jewish Indian Ocean and their families in the territories from the Far East to southern Arabia and Egypt, the letters contain valuable information on Jewish and Islamic culture, relations between Jews and Arabs, Mediterranean culture, and Judeo-Arabic.

"Illich discusses reading as a major part of life. His belief is that reading and studying are synonymous with a religious lifestyle, either that of a Christian monk, or those who follow Judaism. He tells of those who continue to read the scriptures when they return from the synagogue. Illich shows us how a meditative state of mind is conducive to world peace and harmony, and how this can come about if we listen to those who follow a 'bookish' lifestyle."