Peoples and Civilizations of Medieval Europe, North Africa, and Southwest Asia

The outlines in the four sections of Division II deal with the civilizations directly descendant from those of the ancient Near East and of Classical antiquity, which are treated in the two sections of Division I.

The general period covered in Division II is the Middle Ages, beginning with the death of Theodosius I in ad 395, conventionally taken as marking the permanent division of the Roman Empire into East and West, and extending to c. 1500, conventionally taken as the starting point of modern history.

The sectional organization of this division and the outlines in its four sections reflect significant cultural and political interaction between the Eastern Christian, Western Christian, and Islamic spheres, and also involve some breaking points in the history of each sphere.

Section 92 1. Western Europe, the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, and Eastern Europe from ad 395 to c. 1050 356 922. The Formative Period in Islamic History, from ad 622 to c. 1055 361 923. Western Christendom in the High and Later Middle Ages (c. 1050-c. 1500) 363 924. The Crusading Movement, the Islamic States of Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Europe, and the States of Eastern Christendom from c. 1050 to c. 1480 372