Week Nine Blog Post

A major religion came into play during the Classical Era: Islam. Islam's homeland was located in the Arabian peninsula. A major city around this area was Mecca because it was the site of the Kaaba, a religious shrine. A man named Muhammad Ibn Abdullah was tired of the corruption of Mecca, so he took to the mountains and had a religious experience. Allah, or God, told Muhammad to be his prophet. The revelations Muhammad had could be found in the Quran. Islam is a monotheistic religion, with Muhammad being the latest prophet. It requires complete submission to Allah and denounced Mecca's social practices. It sought to return to older values of Arab life. There were 5 major pillars people were to follow: there is no god but Allah and Muhammad was his messenger, ritual prayer, giving to the poor, fasting for Ramadan, and a pilgrimage to Mecca or a "hajj". Some say there is a sixth pillar which is a struggle for Allah or "jihad". Muhammad was able to transform Arabia into an Islamic state. Unlike other religions' prophets, Muhammad was a political and military leader too. Islam doesn't have any type of clergy and there was also Sharia law.

Muhammad conquered many lands, mainly for trade routes and agriculture. He didn't force Islam on conquered peoples. When conversion occurred, it was usually among slaves and war prisoners. Conversion was not easy. There was a huge division about who the successor should be after Muhammad died. This created the Sunni and Shia Muslims. The Sunnis believed that caliphs should rule and Shias believed that the leaders should come from the line of Muhammad. Shia Muslims were the minority. Another group was created, the Sufis, who focused on Islam's mystical dimension. Although the Quran stressed that men and women were equal, women were still treated as inferiors.

Islam spread to many places, like India, Anatolia, West Africa, and Spain. In India, Islam especially appealed to outcasts and those transitioning into agriculture. Islam didn't spread too much in India because Hinduism had such a strong hold on the Indian people. In Anatolia, there was a more thorough Islamization than in India because it was smaller and left leaderless and dispirited. Also, monotheism was already common there. The biggest difference was that instead of Arabic language and writings, Turkish language and writings were more widespread. In West Africa, the spread of Islam was peaceful and voluntary and was spread by Muslim traders and not armies. This created major centers for Islam that attracted many people. In Spain, there was a tolerant time between Muslims and Christians, but it didn't last very long. A Muslim leader started encouraging the persecution of Christians. When the Christian reconquest happened in 1200, Christians fought back and many Muslims were kicked out of Spain.

As for Christianity, it didn't spread very far into Asia and Africa due to the rapid spread of Islam. The Byzantine Empire did not have a specific starting point, as it was just built on the Roman Empire. It might have started around 330 C.E. when the Christian ruler Constantine made Byzantium the new capital. Byzantine was considered the Eastern Roman Empire. Their government was centralized, but mostly concerned with taxes, maintaining order, and suppressing revolts rather than personal freedoms. The church and the state were tied closely together. There was a deep religious division in the Byzantine Empire: Orthodox Christianity vs. Catholicism. The Byzantine Empire had a tense relationship with Western Europe and Persia, but long distance trade was great between the empire and the rest of Eurasia. The Byzantine Empire really preserved the ancient Greek culture. The empire spread Christianity to Russia and Balkan Slavic people to the North of them.

As for Western Europe, the Germans took over the Roman Empire. Western Europeans branched out and created different rulers and kingdoms. Feudalism was a very popular system and it created a noticeable social hierarchy. The Roman Catholic Church was very popular, too. It was mainly in Latin and the church was pretty wealthy. The church had a tight relationship with influential politicians. The population in Western Europe grew a lot overtime. A general global warming trend created favorable conditions for agriculture. Land was widely available as trees and marshes were cleared. All of this made it possible for long-distance trade. A key feature of Western European governments was that they started demanding loyalty from their subjects. Women had many new opportunities because of this economic growth and urbanization, but it gradually declined because of men. The church offered an alternative for women to become nuns and create another kind of life for themselves. Western Europeans wanted to expand their reach to different places, mostly to spread their religion. This marked the beginning of the Crusades, a series of religious wars. The Middle East felt little impact from the Crusades, but Spain, Sicily, and the Baltic region were permanently influenced since they were brought into Western Europe. The Crusades created deeper cultural divisions between different people.

Western Europe, in general, was less developed than other civilizations at the time. Yet, they were willing to borrow ideas from the East. They made remarkable technological advances like the plow, three-way crop rotation, a different kind of windmill, and a way to harness energy through the environment. Competing states within Western Europe created different kinds of political systems. Western Europe also had weaker rulers than those in the East, since the rulers had to compete with warrior aristocrats and church leaders. A major philosophical question was raised also during this time in Christianity: reason vs. faith?