Early Middle Ages, 500-1000

Book excerpt: Spanning the years 500 to 1000 A.D., this volume illustrates the conflict between brutality and civilization that seemed to characterize the period so often called—not improperly—the "Dark Ages." Islam and Byzantium, as much as Western Europe, figure in the twenty-two chapters of documents offered in this book, part of the ten-volume series, "Sources of Western Civilization."