Charter of Homage and Fealty of Bernard Atton, A. D. 1110.

The theme for this weeks reading is taken place during the middle ages, and it is when the Feudal System comes and takes place. The Feudal System is based on the hold of lands in fief or fee on the resulting relations between the Lord and the Vassal. The concept of this system started when Benard Atton came to St. Marys,Viscount of Carcassonne, he wanted to serve Lord Leo, so in order to do this he came to festival to show his honor and respect with the traditions that were being held there. He wanted to serve Lord Leo and the lands of Carcassone. In order for this to truly happen was when the Feudal System was coming into place, when Lord Leo hands down the lands down to Beanard Atton. During this process Lord Leo starts to promise that he will be good and loyal to the lands. Atton promised that the farms and villages will go to the monastery which is considered to be the house of monks. Even if the monks were part of that certain house they would still get some of the farms and villages. With knowing this Atton wanted to equal out every thing with monks and it seemed it was done through the Feudal System. The Background that I have found on the Carcassone was that it is rich in history, it had involved many different events with different types of settlements being taken place. It is also bound to the middle ages, and it is often called " The City of the Albigenses" which is the name that comes from the city of Albi. In 3500 years B.C. was when the neolithic settled in the region. In 118 B.C. was when the Foundation of the Roman colony called "Colonia Norbo Martius" today which it is known as Narbonne. The Phrase that stood out to me was " I promise to thee and they heirs and successors,viscounts of Carcassonne,under the religion of my order, that I will be good and faithful lord concerning all those things described above." I think that reason I chose this phrase was that in the time period during the middle ages, the words of a lord seemed to be actually true. They seemed to have better understanding on running their kingdom and actually be concerned on what goes on. They seemed to have hope, happiness, freedom, and have equality. I started to think about how times were back then were they getting better? or were they worst then before? it was just something curious that crossed my mind, and I believed it was a time that was growing and learning about what people truly wanted in order to live their lives and be happy. The best part about reading this was when Lord Leo actually said I will be loyal and good, just saying that seems to be true and he wants his kingdom to be happy not only for him and but for others. Again as I said before the time back then seemed to be more fair then it was ever before with the conflicts of religion. This time I believed was a different view sure they had religion, but it seemed more right at this point. Nobody was being forced to really do anything sure there were some slaves and other things, but the religion seemed freely. I think this time was again different and more growing and learning process for the middle ages, but a lot of them wanted to make a difference in a good way that would help every body. Some of the Lords or Kings actually seemed to kept their word, but again you have to think of some other rulers who were not so much loyal and good in ways. I love learning about this time frame it is one of my favorites, just the theme of it seems so interesting in ways that makes you think what it actually was like in those times. What were hard and good times during this period and what kind of conflicts of religion was occurring, so much in this time frame to learn from. It is very interesting learning about the middle ages. Modern parallels would be to compare our world today with the government and all of the political offices, and conflicts being involved today. It seems hectic and confusing nothing can ever be simple, they either to make some issue good then it ends up to be really horrible. It just seemed that they can not keep their own word that something will work out if they do this specific thing a way that can be better. This is when I started to think that middle ages and some of today issues were similar but being solved in different ways. such issues would be picking somebody to rule. I think today there are times when America is lied to when the government or any political office will keep their word, and they seem to not be loyal to us. In the middle ages the ruler made promises did he keep them possibly, but you do not know for sure till you actually study them. I see both middle ages and today similar and different on some levels Relating to the text I think would be in Chapter 8 when Charlemangne wanted be crowned to be king and the pope was giving the coronation. This does not really relate to Feudal system exactly, but I think it can be an issue when with him being crowned people started questioning if he was going to be the right one or not to rule the kingdom or empire of some kind. But I believe that this could relate to the people getting the right to be equal and Atton wanted the monks and to be honest. I believe that the people wanted Charlemangne to be honest and loyal to rule for the right reasons. Even though they did not want him, they just wanted to have a say who should rule. They did not think he was right may be by his actions, but Atton seemed good and honest just like Lord Leo almost.

The Islamic Conquest of Spain

    The theme for this weeks reading is the Muslims advancing more into the European area, with their conquest of Spain taking over the lands and creating their own civilization.

      Some Sources that I have found on my own was that the Muslim general Tariq Ziyad was the one who was able to carry out the Spanish coast in 710. I also found out the the Islamic of Spain had three great monotheistic religions: Muslims, Christianity and Jews. The Muslims central rule or the heartland that was being conquered was Southern Spain or is known as Andulusia.

      Ideas that stood out to me was when Ilyan had sent his one of his daughters to Roderic, and he ended up getting her pregnant and this showed how women were treated. Some of the women were abused and taken advantage of fairly often back then. Women were becoming slaves or hostages to these men and there was no trust any more between men or woman it had become chaos. The chaos of trust over things such as land had turned out to be war along with other terrible things that were beginning to occur. It did not really surprise me about women being treated unequally towards men, because women did not have any rights what so ever over any thing, and it seemed they were just to be taken advantage to be slaves or hostages nothing really special. They have been controlled by men constantly it became something that they could never escape from. Another part of this reading that stood out for was when it mentioned that Muslims were cannibals when they were only to get attention of Tarik and his army it became a counteract. This just showed me how they were go so far to get the attention from them. It also showed me how they were sort of being judge in some kind of way when they pulled that counteract, they just assumed that the Muslims were cannibals instead of just starting to get to know them better as people or as a culture. Another Idea came to mind that Tarik was able to give the treasury and hand it to Musa, and this showed that he was loyal. I was thinking that in this time frame that people were not really easy to trust because of so much land and treasure that was being taken over. 

      Some ideas that I generated was the exchanging of women and how they were actually being treated between the men. They did not have any rights for themselves and they were constantly being controlled by their fathers, husbands or even their slave owners. It also mentioned the Muslims counteracting about cannibalism I thought it was weird and awkward, it just seemed to me that there are some religions who do awkward things to people who are unfamiliar with their religion or how they treat people within their own religion. Another idea that I generated was that majority of this conquering was over land, how much was being taken over and who was owning the most land it seemed like to me. The land was an issue it was becoming something that everyone wanted to have.

    Parallels that I was able to see was able to see was that women were being controlled in this period and that it still carries on today by arrange marriages in some countries such as India. I believe it is something that has always been around and it is something that has never changed. The second thing was again the cannibalism and that it shows how some cultures tend to awkward disturbing things to people whether it is in their culture or not. Today what I have learned is that there are cultures who torture women if they disobey some how towards their men or their laws that they have to follow. Even with men they are torture if they disobeyed the laws that were given to them. After learning this both men and women get treated unequally if they tortured in some horrible drastic way, some of this takes place in the country such as Iraq. I believe this kind of torture and controlling has been carried on for the longest time in history and it is still carried on today.I believe that it is some what worst today then when it was back in that time period of the Islamic.

      One thing that is related to the text book is that Spain was one of the greatest civilizations that was created by the Muslims, and it was carried on into the tenth century by Umayyad Caliphate.

   

The Early History of Hellenes

The theme that I believed of this would be the Hellenes were really trying to live their own lives. They never stayed in one place they were always moving trying to find a descent place to actually live. While they were trying to live peacefully they actually ended up in the middle of a war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. The Athenians came to build an army and starting to control, so in a way the Hellenes were in war between them. They seemed to be one of the civilizations to actual struggle through their life. Something that I have researched while reading this is that Thucydides was an Athenian who was a Greek Historian, he was known as the father of "Scientific History". Because he had strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis with the terms of cause and effect without having the references of mentioning Gods, unlike how Homer believed the references of Gods. While reading this I have realized that there was more conflict and war between the different civilizations. When the Hellenes the Hellenes were having trouble to just survive they were in a place where they were between war, and they seemed to be able not to escape what so ever from the war,and it seemed that there were armies taking over them. They seemed lost and became controlled in a lot of ways by the Athenians and the Peloponnesians. I was thinking a lot about the Hellenes about what they went through just to live their own lives and you start to really think about all of the other civilizations that were forming and their own struggles. You never realize how far they have come to survive from war and other conflicts involved back in Greece rather it is good or bad. At the end of reading this it made think about all of civilizations in the world, and this what came to mind for me. What were some other civilizations struggles? what conflicts did they go through? I had a lot questions about this, but after reading about the Hellenes it was sort of an eye opener for me in many ways. History has a lot to offer to us, but I believe it is up to us to understand it and just learn about the past. With the Hellenes going through their struggles with their life, it made me think about out our own struggles today in life. We have war going on today in Iraq, we had terrorism occur, and other conflicts in life. Think about it we live in a world of conflicts, so we could actually be a civilization trying to live a peaceful life just like how the Hellenes were in Greece. Knowing this we do have conflicts, but there are times we could escape them and there are others we can not. The Hellenes for that matter could not escape, so they were being controlled in a lot of ways. For us today we do have freedom, government, and we have more power then the Hellenes ever did for there own lives. Civilizations went through war to have peace, just like America has to do today in Iraq. The ideas relate to the Hellenes with their conflicts that they had went through to live as a civilization, they were between a war and being controlled. They could not escape from the conflicts, so they had to just go with whatever that was coming at them. This became harder for them to just live a life to survive through, and when the war was going on with them in the middle it became harder for them to be free.

Reading One

The Theme of reading " The Babylonian Epic of Creation" is considered to be the creation of the Earth. It went through a process of creating life on Earth, and the different understandings of creating Earth and life existing before today ever existed. It was something that took a long time to understand of what Earth was going to be like. what I have researched about this creation is that the Enum Elish was officially recited every April on the fourth day of the Babylonian New year festival and it went on for eleven days. When I was reading through this the one thing that sort of stood out to me was that Aspu wanted to kill his own children. That was something that surprised me, and it was a thought to me that, why would any body want to kill their own children? I thought about that when I have finished and it was something that became shocking to me. Ideas that came to mind to me was knowing that when this creation was taking place never did I think that killing or any kind of violence would be taking place. When reading that Aspu wanted to kill his own children you actually think about that God loved his children, and you would think that parents cherished their own children until you start to read about what Aspu wanted. Parallels that I could take from this to our own worlds would be the child abuse that is occurring today and from " The Babylonian epic Creation". It seemed that both of them were similar in some ways, and today you see or hear of how children are being treated by parents. You see this on the news so many times and knowing that this child abuse occurred in the Creation. This was something so surprising to me that this abuse could have lasted since the beginning to now. This relates to text by when Aspu wanting to kill his own children for punishment in some way. He wanted them to have discipline and the only way that he thought could be possible was to kill them. It seemed that he did not really cherish his own children such as his wife did, but again he thought to kill them was the only way possible.