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THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION (tm) Ver. 4.84: The Age of Faith Durant, Will---------------------------------------------------------THE STORY OF CIVILIZATIONVOLUME FOURTHE AGE OF FAITH1950A History of Medieval Civilization-Christian, Islamic, and Judaic-from Constantine to Dante: A.D. 325-1300by Will DurantCopyright (C) 1950 by Will DurantCopyright renewed (C) 1978Exclusive electronic rights granted to World Library, Inc.by The Ethel B. Durant Trust, William James Durant Easton,and Monica Ariel Mihell.Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1994 World Library, Inc.DEDICATION-TO ETHEL, GORDON, AND JIMTo the Reader-THIS book aims to give as full and fair an account of medievalcivilization from A.D. 325 to 1300, as space and prejudice willpermit. Its method is integral history- the presentation of all phasesof a culture or an age in one total picture and narrative. Theobligation to cover the economic, political, legal, military, moral,social, religious, educational, scientific, medical, philosophic,literary, and artistic aspects of four distinct civilizations-
 
Byzantine, Islamic, Judaic, and West European- has made unificationand brevity difficult. The meeting and conflict of the four culturesin the Crusades provides a measure of unity; and the tired reader,appalled by the length of the book, may find some consolation inlearning that the original manuscript was half again longer than thepresent text. *04000 Nothing has been retained except what seemednecessary to the proper understanding of the period, or to the lifeand color of the tale. Nevertheless certain recondite passages,indicated by reduced type, may be omitted by the general readerwithout mortal injury.These two volumes constitute Part IV of a history of civilization.Part I, Our Oriental Heritage *04001 (1935), reviewed the history of Egypt and the Near East to their conquest by Alexander about 330 B.C.,and of India, China, and Japan to the present century. Part II, TheLife of Greece (1939), recorded the career and culture of Hellasand the Near East to the Roman Conquest of Greece in 146 B.C. PartIII, Caesar and Christ (1944), surveyed the history of Rome andChristianity from their beginnings, and of the Near East from 146B.C., to the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. This book continues thestudy of the white man's life to the death of Dante in 1321. Part V,The Renaissance and the Reformation, covering the period from 1321to 1648, should appear in 1955; and Part VI, The Age of Reason,carrying the story to our own time, should be ready by 1960. This willbring the author so close to senility that he must forgo the privilegeof applying the integral method to the two Americas.Each of these volumes is designed as an independent unit, butreaders familiar with Caesar and Christ will find it easier topick up the threads of the present narrative. Chronology compels us tobegin with those facets of the quadripartite medieval civilizationwhich are most remote from our normal interest- the Byzantine andthe Islamic. The Christian reader will be surprised by the space givento the Moslem culture, and the Moslem scholar will mourn the brevitywith which the brilliant civilization of medieval Islam has herebeen summarized. A persistent effort has been made to be impartial, tosee each faith and culture from its own point of view. But prejudicehas survived, if only in the selection of material and the allotmentof space. The mind, like the body, is imprisoned in its skin.
 
The manuscript has been written three times, and each rewritinghas discovered errors. Many must still remain; the improvement of the part is sacrificed to the completion of the whole. Thecorrection of errors will be welcomed.Grateful acknowledgment is due to Dr. Ilse Lichtenstadter, of theAsia Institute of New York, for reading the pages on Islamiccivilization; to Dr. Bernard Mandelbaum, of the Jewish TheologicalSeminary of America, for reviewing the pages on medieval Jewry; toProfessor Lynn Thorndike, of Columbia University, for the use of histranslation of a passage from Alexander Neckham; to the CambridgeUniversity Press for permission to quote translations from Edward G.Browne's A Literary History of Persia; to the Public Library of Los Angeles, and specifically to its Hollywood Branch, and to theLibrary of Congress, for the loan of books; to Miss Rose MaryDeWitte for typing 50,000 notes; to Dr. James L. Whitehead, Dr. C.Edward Hopkin, and Mrs. Will Durant for their learned aid inclassifying the material; to Misses Mary and Flora Kaufman forvaried assistance; and to Mrs. Edith Digate for her high competence intyping the manuscript.This book, like all its predecessors, should have been dedicatedto my wife, who for thirty-seven years has given me a patienttoleration, protection, guidance, and inspiration that not all thesevolumes could repay. It is at her prompting that these two volumes arededicated to our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.WILLDURANTNovember 22, 1949-All photographs, with the exception of those otherwise marked,were secured through Bettmann Archive.BOOK I: THE BYZANTINE ZENITH: 325-565CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE-Dates of rulers and popes are of their reigns. All dates are A.D.-
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