Texto da Questão:
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They couldn’t even tell the time — this uncountable army
of believers.
The warriors of God pushed on to the gates of the imperial
city of Constantinople, their arrival heralded by a plague of
locusts that destroyed the vines but left the wheat untouched.
Their leader, an implacable cleric who had appeared from
nowhere to great popular acclaim, exhorted his charges to holy
war against the infidel with promises of a home in paradise.
Disease and malnutrition were rife. Medical care often involved
exorcism of the amputation of injured limbs. Torture and other
ordeals settled criminal cases.
Few had any learning at all. What education there was
back home consisted of memorizing outdated texts under the
watchful eyes of hidebound doctors of religion. They had no
understanding of basic technology, science, or mathematics.
They could not date their most important holy days, nor chart the
regular movements of the sun, the moon, and the planets. They
knew nothing of papermaking or the use of lenses and mirrors,
and they had no inkling of the prince of contemporary scientific
instruments — the astrolabe. Natural phenomena, such as an
eclipse of the moon or a sudden change in weather, terrified
them. They though it was black magic.
The arrival of this fanatical army horrified the locals. Who
were these pale-skinned, blue-eyed barbarians, marching under
the sign of the cross, and what did they want on Arab shores at
the dawn of the twelfth Christian century?
Jonathan Lyons. The House of Wisdom. How the Arabs Transformed
Western Civilization. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. p. 9 (adapted).
Based on the preceding text, judge the following item.
The author of the text presents the characteristics of the warriors that contrasted with the life of those who inhabited the “Arab shores”, mentioned in the last paragraph.
