Ben Tatom
12/12/2016
D block
There were many empires and religions founded in the early CE times. Two of those with some unexpected similarities between the political leaders are the Byzantine empire and the early years of Islam. The main leaders of Islam are the caliph, but there will also be mention of the founder of Islam, as well as the found of the Byzantine empire, and several emperors of the Byzantine as well. The similarities begin with the role of the leaders in each of the given groups.
In the Islamic side of the spectrum, there is the caliph, who’s the person that executes all the religious activity, and is usually called in to make a decision on an argument that spans across a certain amount of people under the Islamic religious group. Muhammad was the founder of the Islam, and founded it at the start of the 7th century. He wrote the Koran, and once he felt he was no longer fit to rule, he would assign a caliph to whomever he desired. The first five caliphs were considered to be “Rightly Guided,” as they were taught by Muhammad himself. The sixth was what caused the split between the Shi’a and Sunni. The Shi’a believe the descendants of Muhammad only should be caliphs, but the Sunni support any caliphs that are chosen. By the Umayyad Dynasty, beginning in 661, the split was so vast that they had physical conflicts betwixt themselves. Based all on whether or not someone was qualified if they were or weren’t taught by someone who had already been deceased.
The Byzantine Empire was somewhat similar, in a way. Being an emperor gives whoever leads the country the majority of political power, without going to the level of being a dictator. The emperor is the most important figure in any empire. Then there’s the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He hold precedent over any other bishop of the church. He is tasked with making the decisions for the church and being the final say on whatever issue he’s presented with. Constantinople was the founder of the empire, and renamed the city it was founded in from Byzantium to Constantinople, but kept the name Byzantium for the empire as a whole. Another important figure is Justinian, who created the Justinian code, which is still being used today, particularly as Louisiana's state constitution. He not only politically advanced the Byzantine empire, he also changed the national religion to Christianity, and became the first head of the Orthodox Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church caused issues with the Catholic church, after not doing so for many years, by calling the use of icons religiously unethical, thinking they were like idols, and called the Pope an icon. The Pope then got frustrated and caused many miscommunications, causing almost a rivalry between the two churches.
As you can see, there are many similarities between the Byzantine and Islamic empire, including the role of the head of religion in each respective religious house, between the Caliph and the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The split was somewhat similar as well, with a certain group of people believing that someone who is in power does not belong in the position that said leader holds. For Islam, it was the Shi’a believing that any caliph should be a descendant of Muhammad, whereas for the Byzantine empire, the orthodox church believed that the Pope was an icon, and icons are unreligious, being a lesser version of an idol, and worshipping idols is forbidden. There are some differences, however, one of which being that one was a group of people living in a certain area, and the other was a religion spanning the entire civilized world. Another difference is that the Byzantine had several different leaders within one empire, as opposed to there being one major leader who is the final say in everything, as is the case with Islam, but that’s more of a direct result of one being a religion and the other an empire.
Citations:
Papayianni, Aphrodite. "Byzantine Empire." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2016, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1349403. Accessed 13 Dec. 2016.
Roberts, Walter E. “Valentinian | Emperor of Rome.” Family Card- Person Sheet. Emory University, 2012, http://homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps15/ps15_238.htm Accessed 13 Dec. 2016
"Government and Society." Great Empires of the Past Online. Infobase Publishing. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <http://online.factsonfile.com/RecURL.aspx?did=63502>
Young, Mitchell. Islam. Religions and Religious Movements. Greenhaven Press. 2006.
Evans, James. The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire. Greenwood guides to historic events of the ancient world. Greenwood Press, 2005.
Philip Porter
ReplyDelete1. I liked how you talked about the different branches of Islam.
2. I learned more about the views of the caliphs in the Islamic religion.
3. I would have liked to have learned more about how the Pope was chosen and more about the Eastern Orthodox Church.
fantastic work
ReplyDeleteI learned how much power the Emperor had over all of politics.
I like the font change at the end.
Id like to know more about how it varied in different caliphates.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNalin Dang:
ReplyDelete1. I like how he mentioned the specifics about how leaders are supposed to rule.
2. I learned that the Caliph was often a brutal leader, and would often try to execute religious customs.
3. I want to know more about each leader, in specific, Prophet Muhammed, and what inspired him to write the Qur'an.
1. I liked how he compared and contrasted the two.
ReplyDelete2. I learned that Islam and Byzantine have many similarities and differences, especially considering their rulers and how they ruled.
3. I would like to know about other comparisons like perhaps in daily life.
1. I liked how you named the important caliphs and leaders and explained the purposes and abilities of each position.
ReplyDelete2. I didn’t know that Constantinople was named after the founder of the Byzantine Empire, that’s interesting.
3. I want to know more about the individual leaders of both empires and how they affected their empires.
1. I liked how you explained the similarities between the Islam and Byzantine empires. I thought that they were completely different initially, but you convinced me otherwise.
ReplyDelete2. I learned that the caliphs are the main leaders of Islam.
3. I would like to know the name of the caliphs that were mentioned. It would help clarify ad specify.
1. I like how direct the comparison is between the religious leaders.
ReplyDelete2. I learned that religions even in ancient times went against what the religions said was right.
3. Why the land disputes led to misconceptions?
1. I like your focus on the leaders and their roles of the religions.
ReplyDelete2. I learned more about the role of caliphs.
3. I wanted to know more on the individual leaders of the religions.