Films with: Jolivet, Jean

Empire surgi des sables. An empire rises from the sands.

"The victory of the Abbisids over the Umayyads signified much more than the replacement of one dynasty with another. With it, Islam saw the birth of a multiethnic concept of power, in which both Arab and non-Arab Muslims could share authority. This program presents the Abbasid Caliphate at its peak, enthroned in its prestigious capital city: Baghdad. The defining project of Caliph al-Ma'amun, the translation by an army of clerks of all the ancient writings his emissaries could procure, is spotlighted--an achievement that set the stage for an eventual showdown between religious and secular scholars."--Container.

DVD 2863

Éveil de l'Europe. Europe awakes.

As dissension mounted between the rival Arab dynasties in Baghdad, Cordoba, and Cairo, Christendom rallied to oppose the Muslims in Spain and Jerusalem. This program plots out the decline of the Caliphate and the acquisition of Arab knowledge by Europeans starved for Islam's intellectual riches. The rise of feudalism and papal authority, the gradual defeat of the Muslim rulers in Spain, the Seljuk usurpation of Abbisid power in the Near East, and the Crudades are explained, along with the concerted efforts of Catholic authorities to translate the vast libraries of Arab scientific and philosophical texts.

DVD 2872