The early Middle Ages, 500-1000.

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."