Procrastination Device

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/invading-europe.html

Spies were sent into Poland, Hungary, and Austria for reconnaissance. Having planned their approach, three separate armies invaded Central Europe: into Hungary, Transylvania, and Poland. The column into Poland defeated Henry II the Pious.

The second and third columns crossed the Carpathians and followed the Danube, combining with the Poland column and defeating the Hungarian army under King Béla IV of Hungary on 11 April 1241. They killed half the Hungarian population, then proceeded to German territory. Béla had sent to Pope Innocent IV for a Crusade against the Mongols, but the pope was focused on the Holy Land. (The illustration is from a 14th century history, the Chronicon Pictum, or "Illustrated Chronicle," and shows Béla fleeing.)

Austria, Dalmatia, and Moravia were occupied. While this was going on, a group led by Ögedei's son Güyük was conquering Transylvania.

Further advances in Germany were paused when the Great Khan died in 1241. Batu's thirst to continue was quenched by a reminder of Mongol law, that the chief descendants of Genghis had to return to Mongolia to elect his replacement.

Batu took his time returning, and the election was delayed for several years until Güyük was elected in 1246. Batu became the viceroy over the western empire. Batu returned to the western front and summoned the Grand prince of Vladimir, Yaroslav II. Batu put him in charge of all other Russian princes.

Around this time Batu came into contact with Europeans and their culture. Giovanni of Plano Carpini was sent by Pope Innocent IV to take a letter to Ögedei, protesting the Mongol invasion. Giovanni met with Batu, who gave him permission to continue to the court of the Great Khan. Giovanni described Batu as "kind enough to his own people, but he is greatly feared by them. He is, however, most cruel in fight; he is very shrewd and extremely crafty in warfare, for he has been waging war for a long time."

William of Rubruck also encountered Batu, describing him physically as about the same height as John de Beaumont (which tells those who never met John de Beaumont nothing useful, but other sources put him at 5'7"), and that his face was covered with red spots.

Others whose paths crossed with Batu are Queen Rusudan, who sent her son David to Batu for recognition. Sorghaghtani Beki sent Batu a warning to beware of a summons from Güyük. Before Batu reached Güyük, Güyük died mysteriously; Rubruck wrote it was one of Batu's brothers who did the deed.

The position of Great Khan was again available. What would Batu do about it? Come back tomorrow to find out.

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/mongol-women-and-influence.html

Sorghaghtani was respected enough that she even shamed the Khan, Ögedei (her brother-in-law), to hand over more territory that had been her husband's. Ögedei did, however, absorb some of her territory, and also conscripted much of the military attached to those lands.

Again underscoring the power held by women, upon Ögedei's death in 1241 his widow was regent for the Mongol Empire for the next five years until she got their son Güyük elected khan over other claimants.

Güyük had not been raised to respect women sufficiently, however, and he targeted several women who were holding power that he wanted. The first was his own mother, Töregene Khatun (Khatun = queen), who had worked to get him elected; next was Sorghaghtani. Genghis Khan's third daughter, Alakhai Bekhi, who was regent for areas in China, was another target. Ebuskun, the wife of a grandson of Genghis, had been regent after her husband's death (and son's minority) over the Chagatai Khanate, an enormous region.

During Güyük's attempts to undermine these women, Sorghaghtani allied herself with Batu Khan, Güyük's cousin, ruler of the Golden Horde. In 1248, Güyük started a military campaign to the Middle East, which put him in Batu's direction; it is possible he intended to deal with Batu's opposition. Güyük died suddenly and with no particular cause. (Some insinuate that Sorghaghtani brought it about; she certainly had motive and ability).

Whatever Sorghaghtani's role in Güyük's fate, it was an opportunity for her to propose her eldest son, Möngke, as khan. He had fought alongside Batu, who organized a kurultai (Mongol political and military council) that elected Möngke to be Khan in the late 1240s.

Sorghaghtani became ill and died in the late winter in 1252, and had a Christian burial. She did not live to see three other sons become khans, nor to see her son Kublai Khan capture her youngest, Ariq Böke, in conflict and imprison him until his death. Perhaps if she were alive a little longer she might have counseled them and avoided the hostility.

What about Batu Khan? He was powerful enough that Sorghaghtani turned to him for help, but was okay with letting someone else become Great Khan. He was far more influential in history than Möngke—and better known to Europe—and we'll see how tomorrow.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/mongol-women-and-influence.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/assyrian-christianity.html

The East Syriac Rite uses the so-called "Liturgy of Addai and Mari" that supposedly was outlined by Saint Addai, a disciple of "Doubting" Thomas of whom legend says he went to India to preach. The East Syriac Rite is also called the Assyrian, Chaldean, or Persian Rite. The West Syriac Rite uses the Liturgy of St. James, James the Just (and sometimes said to be the brother of Jesus) who became patriarch of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

The Roman conquest of the area in 116 - 118 CE created the Roman province of Assyria. Although Rome's occupation of the area waxed and waned, the city of Edessa became the major center of Syriac Christianity by the 3rd century CE. This early adoption of Christianity also made Assyria a stepping stone to spreading Christianity to the Far East, even though the later Muslim conquests made Christians a minority in their homeland.

In 410 there was a Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, located on the Tigris. (It was later destroyed by al-Mansur to reduce its prominence so he could build Baghdad and make it the greatest city.) The Council codified the East Syriac Church. It organized the area into provinces, each presided over by a bishop called a metropolitan. The archbishop in the capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon was called the Grand Metropolitan. Because he held authority over all the provinces, he was later referred to as the Catholicos, from the word for "whole" or "universal."

This council affirmed the decisions of the First Council of Nicaea and adopted the Nicene Creed (thereby avoiding a huge fight over the nature of Jesus).

Assyrian Christians figure in previous posts, such as the wife of Hulagu Khan, Doquz Khatun. A grandson of Genghis Khan, Hulagu thought having a Christian wife would help him negotiate with Western Europe. Genghis Khan's youngest son also married an Assyrian Christian, Sorghaghtani. In fact, Sorghaghtani raised Möngke, Hulagu, Kublai, and Ariq Böke (mentioned in posts but not featured). She must have had an interesting life. Let's talk about some prominent Assyrian Christian women next time.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/assyrian-christianity.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-last-of-gaonim.html

The righteous beat me [in] kindness. And reprove me, My head does not disallow oil of the head,  For my prayer [is] still about their distress. [source]

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Around 220 CE, the Jewish scholar Abba Arikha arrived in Sura city and found no organized religious Jewish community. Arikha ("the Tall") was respected by Gentiles as well as Jews. He began the Sura Academy to support the continuity of Jewish learning and community. He founded the yeshiva in 225, and the word started to spread that Sura was the site of serious Jewish scholarship.

Eventually it had a faculty of 1200 using an impressive campus, some of the remnants of which can still be seen. It had offices for rabbis and deans and classrooms and a garden that grew much of what was consumed by staff and students.

The Pumbedita Academy was founded after the death of Abba Arikha. Judah ben Ezekiel (220 - 299 CE) founded it somewhere in Iraq (the exact location is not known). Judah was so obsessed with learning that he was known to neglect daily prayer in order to study. That discipline for study and a remarkable memory helped him immensely in transmitting teachings to others, and gave Pumbedita a reputation to equal Sura.

While developing the system of learning at Pumbedita, he created Talmudic dialectics, a very critical examination of the subjects in the Talmud. This clinical approach did not please older more traditional students, but younger students embraced it.

Sura and Pumbedita lasted for hundreds of years. During the years 988 - 990, Pumbedita moved from its original location. Jews were migrating to big cities, and the current dean of Pumbedita decided to relocate the yeshiva to Baghdad, whose grandeur and reputation as a city where knowledge was celebrated was well-known. That dean was Hai Gaon, a Renaissance Man before there was a Renaissance, who crossed the boundaries of religion to interact with those of other faiths. Let's talk about him next time.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/talmudic-academies.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/other-histories.html

The Coptic Calendar (we had recently talked about Coptic Christianity) used a different system. Based on the ancient Egyptian calendar, its start date was 29 August 284 CE. The Ethiopian and Eritrean churches used it, but started its epoch on 29 August, 8 CE. It is currently year 1742. The point of the year 284 was that it was the start of the "Era of Martyrs" that started because Emperor Diocletian started the worst era of persecution of Christians. Dionysius Exiguus specifically created Anno Domini in order to separate the calendar from memories of such a terrible enemy to Christianity.

With the rise of Islam, there was another date used for the "start" of reckoning: 622 CE became AH 1 (Anno Hegirae, "In the year of the Hijrah") when Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established a community. It is currently year 1447.

Although today is 10 October 2025 in the Gregorian calendar, had we retained the Julian calendar with its flaws regarding Leap Years, the date would be 27 September 2025.

The Hebrew calendar was based on the number of days since the creation of the world, calculated by looking at the genealogy presented in the Torah/Old Testament. This date was (in modern reckoning) 3761 BCE. It is currently year 5786.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/other-histories.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/anno-domini.html

At the time, years in Rome were designated by the terms of the Roman consuls. Other methods of keeping track of years included Olympiads or the regnal years of Caesars. In various countries, years were called by the regnal years of the king. When a new king was crowned, his records began with Year 1 of his reign. 

Christians were using the "Diocletian era," which was calculated since the last big persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian. Dionysius did not want to use a calendar based on someone who was hostile to Christians. There had been a previously calculated set of dates by Victorius of Aquitaine c.457 that Dionysius ignored as being "off" and developed his own system, laying down dates for the years 532-626.

Dionysius wrote that the "present year" was the "consulship of Probus Junior," which he also claimed was 525 years since the birth of Christ. (We assume he looked at various historical records and counted them up to determine that year.) 

His solution to keep track of years was the phrase anno Domini, "year of [our] Lord." This divided time into two sections: everything that happened prior to the Incarnation, and then everything that happened starting at the Incarnation.

Problems arose, of course. One question was what defined the "Incarnation": was it birth, or conception? The Diocletian Year began on 1 September, but consulships began on 1 January, so were we adding up years correctly? Lists of consuls were not always complete, nor were the dates of emperors.

We are not sure how Dionysius determined the year of the Incarnation. It may have been based on the Gospel of Luke, where he says Jesus was about 30 shortly after the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

The use of AD was not adopted universally. Tomorrow we'll look at other conventions and the slow rise of AD's popularity. We should also mention "Phantom Time."

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/anno-domini.html

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http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/dionysius-exiguus.html

Born c.470 in Scythia Minor—a Roman province north of Constantinople, between the Danube and the Black Sea—he was a "true Roman" by inclination (according to Cassiodorus).  He was a mathematician and astronomer, a theologian, and was well-versed in canon law. He was fluent in both Greek and Latin. This skill allowed him to translate hundreds of important Greek works into Latin, including the "Life of St. Pachomius." He also translated a history of the discovery of the head of John the Baptist. Some translations attributed to him seem to be the earlier work of Marius Mercator (mentioned previously in a post about forgeries).

He came to Rome when Pope Gelasius I summoned him to organize the papal archives. (Gelasius died 496CE, so Dionysius must have been in Rome by that year.) He translated into Latin 401 ecclesiastical canons, including the apostolic canons and the decrees of the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon, and Sardis, all of which were recorded in Greek, having taken place in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Pope John I in 525 asked him to create a chronology, which he did, using the Julian calendar and tabulating the dates of Easter, that "floating Holy Day" that caused much consternation in the early Church. In the process, Dionysius created a—let's call it a "convention"—that has lasted until today: the use of Anno Domini to describe years since the birth of Christ.

Tomorrow we take a deep dive into those two simple words, what came before, and how they were determined.

http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2025/10/dionysius-exiguus.html