8. Alexandria, Occident and Orient in the Year 0
Time in the ancient world – Babylonian astronomy – reconciling lunar time and solar time – shabbatum – Greek aion or sacred time – clepsydras in Rome – Latin months and Roman time – Alexandria as a ‘centre of calculation’ – its great library – Eratosthenes – Euclid – Apollonius – Archimedes – Ptolemy – Orphic mysteries – Platonism and Christianity – Clement – Philo – Neoplatonism – empiricism – time in India – Buddhism and Christianity – Judas Thomas in India – the Maurya era – Chandragupta – the Rock Edicts – Ashoka – Mahabharata and Ramayana – rock-cut temples – yoga – The Lotus of the Good Law – Buddhism in China – time in China – Imperial Confucianism – ‘correspondence and resonance’ – the imperial academy and the five classics – Mahayana/Hinayana Buddhism – Asvaghosa – paradise/Amitabha – ‘ostentatious generosity’ – the water-mill – the wheelbarrow – the rudder – the invention of paper
9. Law, Latin, Literacy and the Liberal Arts
Utilitas and power in ancient Rome – republicanism – magistracy replaces kingship – imperium – the Senate – law and the Twelve Tables – iudices – status, dignitas and patria potestas – paterfamilias – manus – types of Roman marriage – education and the core curriculum – Latin, its history and effects – the golden and silver ages of Latin – rhetoric – literacy – public libraries – papyrus, parchment and early techniques of scholarship – epitomes and compendia – scrolls and codices – Cicero and humanitas – Virgil – Galen – concrete – the idea of the classics
10. Pagans and Christians, Mediterranean and Germanic Traditions
Decline of the Roman empire – Christians in Rome – problems with the gospel of St Mark – Paul – Jewish Christianity – paganism in Rome – early Christian martyrs – Constantine – observation of Sunday – pagan/Christian synthesis – ‘gift of the spirit’ – the idea of bishop – the rise of Rome – monasticism – predecessors of the Bible – Paul’s epistles – Clement of Alexandria – Jerome – Augustine – Gregory the Great – the Easter controversy – BC/AD – ‘barbaros’, early ideas of barbarians – the idea of the Middle Ages – Celtic and Germanic tribes – barbarian gods – the Huns – the division between Latin and Germanic peoples
11. The Near-Death of the Book, the Birth of Christian Art
The effects of barbarian depredations – Christians reject science – Christian view of rhetoric – ‘the closing of the Western mind’ – suspicion of books – atrophy of debate – Rome’s libraries closed – Justinian closes the philosophical school in Athens – Alexandria isolated – decline of translation – preservation of the classics in Byzantium – Themistius – the ‘transmitters’ – Martianus Capella – Boethius – Cassiodorus – Isidore – paper in the West – a new script: cursive miniscule – the Stoudios monastery – beginnings of punctuation – imperial university revived in Constantinople – Photius and his list of lost books – the birth of Christian art – the first churches – catacombs of Rome – Dura-Europos – Ravenna – icons – the iconoclast controversy – new rules for Christian art
12. Falsafah and al-Jabr in Baghdad and Toledo
Pre-eminence of poetry – the Golden Odes – ‘the time of ignorance’ – Mecca and the tribe of Quraysh – Muhammad – the Night of Power – the Qurʾan – five pillars of Islam – origins of Arabic – the caliphate – Shiʾas and Sunnis – hadith – Islamic aesthetics – Dome of the Rock – al-Mansur – Baghdad – Gondeshapur – al-Ma ʿmun – al-Farabi – House of Wisdom – the great translators – hospitals and madrasas – the first pharmacy – early doctors: al-Razi and Ibn Sina – al-Khwarizmi and Hindu-Arabic numerals – al-Jabr – early chemistry – falsafah – al-Kindi – Nizamiyah – Muʿtazilites – al-Ghazali – the foreign sciences v. the Qurʾanic sciences – Cordova and Toledo – Ali ibn-Hazm – Ibn Khaldun – advances in botany – ibn Rushd-Averroës – the Toledo school of translators – Gundisalvi and Gerard of Cremona – the Almagest
13. Hindu Numerals, Sanskrit, Vedanta
Gupta classicism – land charters (sasanas) as a literary form – the Allahabad inscription – Sanskrit and Prakrit – the Astadhyayi – Panini’s Grammar – Kalidasa and Shakuntala – Hindu drama – Hindu iconography – the rock temples of Sanchi, Nalanda, Ellora and Orissa – Harsha Vardhana – Tantrism – the six schools of philosophy – Vedanta – Shankara – Advaita – Sulvasutras, Siddhantas and other forms of Hindu mathematics – Aryabhata and trigonometry – Brahmi characters – gelosia multiplication
14. China’s Scholar-Elite, Lixue and the Culture of the Brush
The Song renaissance – bone books – bamboo books – silk books – paper – ‘whirling books’ and ‘butterfly books’ – woodblock printing – movable type in Korea – the etymology of the Chinese language – writing with a brush – printing and ‘flying money’ – coal mining – saddle and stirrup – gunpowder – porcelain – sailing junks and rudders – the compass – the competitive written examination – Chinese Buddhism – translations of the Buddhist classics – Zen Buddhism – the Neo-Confucian revival and the revolt against Buddhism – Zhu Xi and the five philosophers – lixue and the Great Learning – the Painting Academy and the imperial university – designed gardens – forensic medicine – archaeology – critical history – the novel
PART THREE: THE GREAT HINGE OF HISTORY
European Acceleration
15. The Idea of Europe
Muslim views of European backwardness in the Middle Ages – theories as to why Europe drew ahead – Braudel (geography) – McCormick’s medieval Europe – Abu-Lughod (the plague, politics, the East dropped behind) – Needham (China’s class structure) – Western and Eastern Scholarship compared – North and Thomas (changes in agriculture, economics, market structure) – Southern (changes in Christianity) – Gratian’s changes in law – Grosseteste promotes the experimental approach – Aquinas imagines the secular – Morris (the discovery of the individual)
PART FOUR: AQUINAS TO JEFFERSON
The Attack on Authority, the Idea of the Secular and the Birth of Modern Individualism
16. ‘Halfway Between God and Man’: the Techniques of Papal Thought-Control
Henry IV at Canossa – Henry v. Gregory VII – the Investiture Struggle – medieval ideas of kingship – feudalism – the Benedictine order – monks as intercessors – Cluny – Gregorian reform – the cult of the Virgin – Franciscans and Dominicans – Christianitas – Peter Damian – Humbert of Silva Candida – Gregory VII – Dictatus papae – excommunication – the idea of the crusades – indulgences – the new piety – heretics – Waldensians – Joachim of Fiore – the Antichrist – Cathari, the Albigensian religion and crusade – Innocent III – inquisition – the Fourth Lateran Council and confession – the sacrament of marriage – the Curia and the College of Cardinals – Philip IV v. Boniface VIII – the Great Schism