Byzantine Empire Religion Essay

Through the chaos and anarchy from the destruction of Rome emerged a powerful empire. It all began in 323CE when a young general named Constantine became the Emperor of Rome. He was quick to make some changes, including moving the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium, but he renamed it Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire was separated from the Roman Empire’s collapse so it managed to survive and maintain order in the east.

John Julius Norwich states that the Byzantines “ saved western civiliation.” and which their victory in defeating the Arabs “ all Europe - and America - might be Muslim today. “ (Document A) Without their fight against the Arabs Christianity would of never existed today. The chart compiled from The World Fact Book demonstrates the eastern portion of the orthodox christianity around the world and it’s split of the rome and christian church because of “ spiritual interpretations of the bible “ and “ the refusal… to accept the supreme authority of the pope.”

n empire that saved western civilization and lasted more than a thousand years only remains in memory. The Byzantine empire, known in books but not always in minds. The empire came to be in 330 CE when a young emperor named Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which is modern day Istanbul. It’s just as well that he did that considering that shortly after Rome fell, and this new city became the heart of the new empire. He built the city extravagantly and named it after himself; Constantinople. The city would become the holy city of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine empire is something that should be studied because it’s one of the most important eras in European history. Some reasons are that they created

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II in response to a call for aid by the Byzantines. The resulting army swept through Asia Minor and into the Near East conquering several cities along the way. Upon the successful conquering of the region, the crusaders divide the land among themselves forming four crusader states: County of Edessa, Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This takeover and dividing of territory is incredibly similar to what occurs in the fourth crusade. Upon conquering Constantinople in April of 1204, the crusaders proceed to divide the land among themselves much like they did earlier. They divided the land

The Crusades were the first tactical mission by Western Christianity in order to recapture the Muslim conquered Holy Lands. Several people have been accredited with the launch of the crusades including Peter the Hermit however it is now understood that this responsibility rested primarily with Pope Urban II . The main goal of the Crusades was the results of an appeal from Alexius II, who had pleaded for Western Volunteers help with the prevention of any further invasions. The Pope’s actions are viewed as him answering the pleas of help of another in need, fulfilling his Christian right. However, from reading the documents it is apparent that Pope Urban had ulterior motives for encouraging engagement in the war against the Turks. The

follow. That was the first goal of icons. The second goal was to form an

I’m sure everyone knew about how islam one of the most popular religions, but most people never realized how quickly it spread. Islam is a religion that was created in the time 610 C.E. by a judge named Muhammad who lived in Mecca. He went to pray at mt. Hira as he usually does, but then an archangel appeared. The angel then grabbed Muhammad and shared information about Allah or God and and called the religion Islam. This brings you to the question, how did Islam spread so quickly. I believe the main ways Islam spread so quickly was because of the protection they give you in the empire, conquering land, and through trade.

During the postclassical era many great empires arose. Two of the most powerful and influential groups of the time were the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. Both the Abbasids and the Byzantines were places where important cultural hubs existed and where trade flourished throughout the whole empire. Even though culture was present in each area, the cultures were not the same and there were separate religious beliefs and practices; for example the Byzantine Empire was mainly Orthodox Christian while the Abbasid Caliphate was Sunni Muslim. Use of religion throughout the empire, methods of rule, and eventual ways of declining all caused the Byzantines and Abbasids to have a distinctive and lasting

The Byzantine Empire and Western Europe originally were part of the Roman Empire, but by the middle Ages(medieval times), they were very different, even though they did share some common traits, but by the 300's, the Byzantine Empire had far surpassed Western Europe in trade and economics and political unity, while both empires were having arguments over religion.

Military conquest also played a big role in Islam’s growth. “In the year 636 the Byzantine Emperor… gathered an army… to resist the expansion of Islam. The people… are the… Syrians…

Before 1450 The Byzantine and Islamic Empires both had their similarities and differences in the way they governed. Islamic caliphates and the Byzantine Empire both appointed their political leaders as religious leaders why? Because they both have more power over their people. They would control the areas laws and duties but also their religion. The big difference of the two empires was their religious practices, The Islamic caliphates consisted of Islam and Muslims but the byzantine empire believed in orthodox Christians.

Last but not least, the crusades led to the decline of the Byzantine Empire by demolishing their economy. The Annales Herbipolenses demonstrates the Christians were so desperate for help, they took any and every person to fight, they did not require any person to be skilled. The crusades weakened the economy making people want to fight due to how poor they lived their lives especially those who held low social status such as serfs or peasants. The need for monetary support in the West left them vulnerable and ultimately led to the sacking of Constantinople (Doc 3.) This writer is anonymous but by the location of the writer, the writer must have had a Germanic nature, therefore the information must be valid because Germany was a Catholic nation,

In 323 a young roman military officer born in Moesia successfully defeated three other generals to become the Emperor of Rome. The young Romanroan officer was named Constantine he quickly made two decisions that would change European and Middle Eastern history. First, he gave Cchristianity legal standing and moved the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium a small seaside trade town in modern day Turkey. Constantine relocated the government for two reasons: for one he wanted to be able to pay closer attention to challenges from Persia. He also wanted to be near the spiritual and cultural richness of cities like Jerusalem, Nicomedia, and Ancient Troy. Constantinople lavishly built up Byzantium and renamed it after himself Constantinople.

During the 17th to 18th century, The Roman Empire had gone through a cultural and religious metamorphous. Throughout this time, the roles of religion in the Islamic, Byzantine and Western European worlds altered the period of 600-750 with their similarities adhering to monotheism for one, and differences in regards to perspectives. These three cultures were all pretty diverse but they also shared some of the same roots and became heritors of the Roman Empire, built on different ideologies. The different ideologies of the Islamic, Byzantine and Western European worlds, consisted of different founders, places, and elements of worship, thus portraying how religion was indeed prominently central to governmental and social structures because of the large impact towards political laws.

By the start of the 1000's Christians were being persecuted by Islamic leaders and this increased when the owner of the holy land switched from the Egyptians to the Seljuk Turks. Late in the 11th century the Byzantine Emperor by the name of Alexius Comenus asked for help from Western Europe. In 1095, since Christians were being persecuted Pope Urban II publicly called for a crusade to help the Eastern Christians recover the holy land. The first crusade was the only the only crusade that the Christians beat the Muslims.