Part I:
THREE CULTURES FROM ONE
The Emergence of Sibling Cultures (c.600 - c.750)
Two astonishing facts of the 7th and 8th centuries:
- The rise of Islam in the Arabic world and its triumph over territories for centuries dominated
by Rome or Persia.
- The persistence of the Roman Empire both politically (Byzantine Empire) and culturally (Islamic
world and Europe).
By 750 three distinct and nearly separate civilizations formed in and around the
territory of the old Roman Empire → they were sibling heirs of Rome:
- European
- Byzantine Empire
- Islamic World
Saving Byzantium
In the 7th century, the eastern Roman Empire was so transformed that became known as the
Byzantine Empire.14
By 700 Byzantium had lost all its territories in N-Africa and in Spain. It became a medium-sized
state(⅔ modern-day Turkey) and pieces of Greece and Italy. Small but tough as it would prove.
Source of Resiliency
- Byzantium survived the assault of his enemy by protecting its capital city.
- The emperor continued to collect the traditional Roman land taxes → the state could pay a
salary to his soldiers, sailors and court officials.
- The army of the Empire, formerly posted as frontier guards, were pulled back because of the
Arab invaders and set up as large regional defensive unit within the Empire (strategai) → led
by strategoi (generals) appointed by the emperors.
Invazions and Their Consequences
- The Sasanid Empire of Persia was as venerable (and ambitious) as the Roman Empire: King
Chosroes II dreamed of recreating past glories (the ancient empire of Xerxes and Darius)
- When Byzantine Emperor Maurice was deposed in 602, Chosroes took advantage of it
and invaded the Byzantine territory.
- By mid-621 Egypt was his.
- When Emperor Heraclius went on the offensice, the Persians, with Avars and Slavs,
attacked Constantinople
- With the use of diplomacy and his army, Heraclius saved the city → by 630 all
territories took by the Persian were back in Byzantine hands.
- In 670 the Bulgars15 began moving into what is today Bulgaria → by 700 very little of the
Balkan Peninsula was Byzantine.
14
From the old Greek name for Constantinople: Byzantium
15
Turkic-speaking nomadic group.
,Decline of Urban Centers
The city-based Greco-Roman culture on which the Byzantine Empire was based it was going away,
especially thanks to invasions and raids
16
- Many urban centres disappeared or reinvented themselves:
- Some became fortresses.
- Others were abandoned.
- Others remained as skeletal administration centres.
Ruralization
With the decline of cities came the rise of the countryside.
- Agriculture was the backbone of the Byzantine economy
- Large landowners (state, church and few rich individuals).
- Most Byzantines were free or semi-free peasant farmers
17
- In Anatolia peasants often had to abandon their farms because of Arab
raiders.
- Elsewhere peasants worked small plots, herding animals, cultivating grains and
tending orchards.
- With the disappearance of the town councillors (curiales), cities and their inland were
controlled by the reigning imperial governor and the local ‚notable‛18.
19
- The state, more close to the commoners now, adopted an agenda of ‚family values‛
- Narrowing grounds for divorce.
- New punishments for marital infidelity.
- Mothers had more powers over their children.
- Widows were now the legal guardians of their minor children.
Iconoclasm
Everywhere Saints’ relics were housed in precious containers, some were kept in churches while others
were preserved at home by pious Christians. Many reliquary were decorated with images of saints,
Christ and his mother.
- Around 680 these images took on new importance in the Byzantine world: the cult of images
began as important as the cult of saints → images became containers of the holy.
- In the late 7th century Byzantium was confronted by plagues, earthquakes and wars, ‚How
could this happen to God’s Chosen People?‛ God was angry with them for their sins →
Emperor Leo III the Isaurian thought that their main sin was idolatry.
- Leo erected a cross in front of the imperial palace → taken as the beginning of the
‚iconoclastic‛ period.
- In 730 Leo required the pope at Rome to remove sacred images or at least to
marginalize them, if they inspired the wrong kind of devotion.
20
- At the Synod of 754 held in Constantinople, sacred images were banned outright - material
representations threatened to befoul the purity of the divine.
- During the iconoclastic period images were cut out and replaced with crosses and new
churches were decorated with crosses from the start.
16
Ephebus is an example: p. 44 of the book.
17
Great plane that extends from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
18
Bishop and big landowners.
19
Thet coexisted with old community practices.
20
Iconoclastic churchmen were mainly worried about losing control over the sacred: images could be reproduced infinitely
and without authorisation.
, - 8th century: icons come back: the idea that Icons held the ‚real presence‛ of the divine
marked a watershed between the early Christian and medieval Byzantine states → Iconophiles
won the battle and called the iconoclastic emperors impious and unholy.
The Rise of the “Best Community”: Islam
Like the Byzantines, the Muslims thought of themselves as God’s people. In their holy book the Qur’an
Muslims are ‚the best community ever raised up for mankind ... having faith in God.‛ The common
purpose is ‚submission to God‛.21
The Shaping of Islam
Pre-Islamic Arabia lay in between the two great empires of the day: Byzantine and Persia:
- Its land supported Bedouins (Nomads), semi-nomads and sedentary people (majority of the
population).
- In the Southwest the rain was adequate to support agriculture, while elsewhere people settled
in oases.
22
- Both the Nomads and settled population were organized as tribes.
Islam started as a religion of the sedentary, but soon found support and military strength amongst the
Nomads.
- The movement began in Mecca, a commercial centre and holy place, where war and violence
were prohibited.
- Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca around 570 in a powerful family that
controlled access to the Ka’ba
- Sometimes he went to a nearby mountain to pray and there, from 610, Mohammed
got words and visions, where the key word was God (One God!) and the key command
was to ‘recite’ → Muhammad obeyed and these recitations were written down and
arranged into the Qur’an:
- For Muslims the Qur’an is the legal and moral code by which men and women
should live.
- It gave Girls and Women new dignity by:
- Banning infanticide
- Mandating dowries and female inheritance rights.
- More importance to the nuclear family
- At Mecca Muhammad’s message was unwelcome, but was greeted with enthusiasm at
Medina23
- In 622 Muhammad made the Hijra (flight) to Medina → he became a
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religious and secular leader there.
- Muhammad consolidated his leadership by asserting hegemony over three
important groups: Jews, the Meccans, and the nomads.
- He fought the Meccans in several battles and took Mecca in 630 → most of the
population converted to Islam.
- Warfare was integrated into the new religion as part of the Muslims’ duty to
strive in the ways of god (Jihad).
21
Literal meaning of Islam → Muslim= one who submits.
22
Members considered themselves related through common ancestors.
23
An oasis Northeast of Mecca.
24
After Muhammad death marked as the first year of the Islamic Calendar.
