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Byzantine Empire

& Rise of Islam

Chapter 8

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Constantinople Ruled an Eastern Empire

• Emperor heads church and state

• Justinian recovers Roman lands

• Justinian orders a code of laws

• The church splits into two branches

• Byzantium’s many enemies

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Emperor Rules Church & State

• Absolute rule

• Religion & politics are closely linked

– Eastern Church rejected Petrine Doctrine

• Emperors claim to rule in Jesus’ name

– Divine inspiration

• Rightful heirs to all Roman lands

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Two Views of Justinian

• He (Justinian) never paused for a thorough investigation before

reaching a decision, but straightway upon hearing what the

slanderer said, he would make his decision and order it published.

And he did not hesitate to write orders that called for the capture

of towns and the burning of cities and the enslavement of whole

peoples, for no reason whatever …Such then was Justinian. As for

Theodora, she had a mind fixed firmly and persistently upon

cruelty.

• As for those who plotted against him (Justinian) of his own volition

dismissed the charges against them, and causing those were in

want to have a surfeit of wealth, and crushing the spiteful fortune

that oppressed them, he wedded the whole State to a life of

prosperity. Furthermore he strengthened the Roman domain,

which everywhere lay exposed to the barbarians, by a multitude of

soldieries, and by constructing strongholds he built a wall along

all its remote frontiers.

Justinian recovers Roman lands

• Justinian’s biographer Procopius flatters him in public, criticizes him privately

– “Deceitful, devious, false, hypocritical, two-faced, cruel, skilled in dissembling his thought, never moved to tears by either joy or pain…a liar always.”

• 3 major projects

– Recover land to the west

– Compile & simplify laws

– Building program

Justinian (and Belisarius)

• Wins back the Vandal Kingdom of N. Africa

• Defeats the Ostrogoths in Italy, recaptures Rome

• Driven out by Ostrogoths

• Rome changes hands 6 times

• Rome lies in ruins

• Spain

• After Justinian dies, all the recovered territory falls back into barbarian hands

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Justinian’s Code

• Codification of all Roman laws since Hadrian (400 years earlier)

• Corpus Juris Civilis– Codex Justinian – 5,000

Roman laws arranged by topic

– Digest – 50 volumes of legal opinions

– Institutes – textbook for law students

– Novellae – laws made after 534

• Foundation for 900 years of Byzantine law

• Guide for France and other European countries

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The Church Divides

• Icons became a source of conflict

• Roman Pope and the Eastern Emperors clash

• Excommunication of the iconoclasts (and the Emperor)

• Heresy• Priests allowed marriage

in the East, not in the West

• Patriarch heads Eastern Orthodox Church

Byzantium’s Enemies

• Internal conflicts

– Riots, religious quarrels, palace intrigues

• External conflicts

– Lombards in Italy

– Avars in the Balkans

– Persians

– Arabs & Islam

Rise of Islam

• Arab culture arises in the desert

• Muhammed teaches monotheism

• Hegira marks a turning point

• Koran – Islam’s Holy Book

• Islam’s rules regulate life

• Islam expands

• The caliphs

• Islam divides

• Art & science flourish

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The Rise of Arab Culture

Majlis al Jinn Oman’s Cave of the Spirits

Muhammed

• Orphaned at age 6• Illiterate• Became a trader and

businessman

• Married Khadijah, traveled as her business agent

• Contact with Jews & Christians

• Visions in the desert –Angel Gabriel

• Began to preach in Mecca

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Hegira

• Persecuted in Mecca, Mohammed flees to Medina

• Year of the Hegira (622) becomes Year 1 of the Islamic calendar

• Raids against Mecca

• The Prophet returns, destroys all the idols in the Kaaba except for 1

• 10 years later, almost all Bedouins accept Islam

Grand Mosque of Mecca

Kaaba

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Black Stone of Mecca

• Embedded within

the wall of the Kaaba

Judaism

2000 B.C.

Christianity

33 A.D.

Islam

632 A.D.

God God God

Abraham, Moses

Abraham, Moses, Jesus

Abraham, Moses, Jesus,

Mohammad

Torah: Old Testament

Bible: Old and New

Testaments

Koran (Qur’an):

Bible and book of Mohammad

Synagogue

No after –life

Church

Heaven

Mosque

Paradise

Judaism, Christianity, Islam

all Monotheistic

TheKoran – Islam’s Holy Book

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Five Pillars of Islam

• Faith

• Prayer

• Alms

• Fasting

• Pilgrimage

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Islam’s Expansion

• Jihad

• Limited resources on the Arabian

Peninsula

• Overpopulation

• Weak Resistance

Tolerance & Choice?

• Convert to Islam

• Pay a tax

• Die

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The Rule of the Caliphs

• Successors to the Prophet• Orthodox – 4 Caliphs

– Abu-Bakr, Omar, Uthman, Ali

• Umayyad Caliphs– Rose to power after killing Husayn (Mohammed’s

grandson)– Attacked Constantinople– North Africa & Spain, on to France

• Abbasid Caliphs– Descendants of Mohammed– Base of support in Persia

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2007/feb/shia_history/slideshow/gallery.html

Arts & Science

• Algebra

• Astronomy

• Medicine

• Alchemy

• Literature

• Architecture

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Al-Khwarizmi

• Al-jabr

Astrolabe

• Celestial Model –

How does the sky look at a particular

place at a particular

time?

• Marine versions

used for locating latitude

Alī Sīnā Balkhi

• Avicenna – Canon

of Medicine

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Alchemy

Rubaiyat

• “A book of Verses underneath the Bough

• A jug of wine, a loaf of bread – and Thou

• Beside me singing in the wilderness

• Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”

Alhambra

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The Empires influenced the

Slavs & Turks• Byzantine culture influenced the Slavic

peoples

• Turks struck from the East

• Ottomans posed a new threat

• Fall of Constantinople

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Cyril (Kyril) and Methodius

• Greek brothers, citizens of the

Byzantine Empire

• Missionaries to the

Slavs

• Cyril invented the Slavic “alphabet”

(Cyrillic)

Vladimir & Olga

Expansion of Islam

1 - Expansion under the Prophet Mohammad, 612-6322 - Expansion during the First three caliphs, 632-655

3 - Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750

1

2

3

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Abbasid Caliphate

750-1258

Seljuk Turks

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