In the first part of this lecture, Professor Freedman discusses the emergence of the  Vikings from Scandinavia in the ninth and tenth centuries.  The Vikings were highly adaptive, raiding (the Carolingian Empire), trading (Byzantium and the Caliphate) or settling (Greenland and Iceland) depending on local conditions. Through their wide-ranging travels, the Vikings created networks bringing into contact parts of the world that were previously either not connected or minimally so.

In this lecture, Professor Freedman discusses the Carolingian Renaissance, the revival of learning sponsored by Charlemagne and his successors. The period before the Carolingians saw a decline in learning, evidenced in part by the loss of lay literacy. As literacy became the purview of clerics, monasteries set up scriptoria in order to copy manuscripts on a larger scale. In this context, the Carolingians sponsored a revival of learning both for the sake of bringing educated people into the government and in order to encourage the piety of the people.

In this lecture, Professor Freedman surveys major trends in Byzantine history from the sixth to eleventh century, dividing the era into four periods.   In the sixth century, under Justinian’s rule, the Byzantine Empire experienced a period of expansion (532-565).  However, the Empire was unable to hold on to Justinian’s hard won territories and so contracted for over a century of crisis that threatened its survival (565-717).  In the next period, (717-843), the Byzantine army was reorganized and the Empire was able to regain some lost territory.  At the same time, the empir

In this lecture, Professor Freedman discusses the Abbasid dynasty, which ruled the Islamic Caliphate beginning in 750. The Abbasids moved the capitol of the Caliphate to the newly-built city of Baghdad and created a state characterized by a strong administration and well-organized tax system. The state sponsored a cultural flowering, based in part on the translation of classical Greek and Roman texts. Professor Freedman ends the lecture by focusing on developments in mathematics and astronomy.

In this lecture, Professor Freedman introduces Islam. He begins with a discussion of its geographical context: the dry desert lands of the Arabian peninsula. The Bedouins, or nomadic Arabs of the region, lived in a tribal society somewhat similar to the Germanic tribes discussed earlier in the course.  Their raids against the Byzantine and the Persian Empire, for lack of strong opposition, would lead to the Arab conquests. The second half of the lecture focuses on the life of Mohammed (570/580 – 632) and the early years of Islam.