Important Cities in the Byzantine and Islamic Empires

The Byzantine and Islamic Empires contained some the largest and most advanced cities of their times. These cities held great palaces inside their huge walls, as well as centers for education and religion. These cities were successful for many reasons such as being built on key trade routes or sites crucial to their respective religions. Consequently, these great cities played a very influential role in the expansion of Christianity and Islam. Christianity and Islam spread in different ways based on their location and laws of cities and empires around them. While each city for the various Islamic empires and Byzantines was important and influential in different ways, there are some with very similar patterns.

The Byzantine empire housed many large cities and holy sites very influential to the growth of Christianity. The Byzantine capital of Constantinople obviously played a major role in the empire and was also an important center for Christianity. It’s location on the Bosphorus Strait was strategic for a number of reasons, including trade and defense. The Bosphorus Strait is between Greece and Asia that connected to the Black Sea near Slavic and Russian regions and the Mediterranean. When at its peak this allowed the Byzantines to dictate trade over 3 continents. The “Golden Horn” was easy to protect, with a series of 2 huge walls on the land edge and other fortifications along the coastline (Rautman). Constantinople also served as an early base for Christianity, even more so after the split into the Eastern Orthodox church. Constantinople also was the home of many holy sites such as the Hagia Sophia, the church of Saint Theodore, and many other monasteries (Rautman). The most significant of these being the Hagia Sophia built by the emperor Justinian. After fending off several invasions, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (Haber). Another city of a high religious importance in the Byzantine Empire was Antioch. It’s relative closeness to Israel and the holy land made it an early center of Christianity. The apostle Paul and Saint Peter did much preaching there in the early years of their evangelism, and the Syrian Orthodox Church traces its roots back to their preaching in Antioch (Stockdale). Paul even writes about Antioch in Acts, “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (KJV Bible Acts 11:26).  Antioch played a significant role in the development of Christianity being the first place they were called Christians. Antioch continued as a thriving city until 1268 when Baybars I, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt conquered it from crusaders (Stockdale). These two cities are just some of the key sites for Christianity in the vast Byzantine Empire.

The Islamic world changed hands from dynasty to dynasty over time as various muslim empires grew. Power shifted from the Umayyads to the Abbasids to the Ottomans and many others in other regions. These new dynasty’s established different cities to be their capital which added up to many different cultural centers for Islam. One such capital of the Abbasid dynasty stills lasts to day in Iraq, the city of Baghdad. Established on the Tigris River in 762 by the second Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, Baghdad became a huge city and cultural icon of the medieval world (Stanley). The location on the Tigris gave the Abbasids the advantage of trade, the fertile Mesopotamian soil, and communication in the area (Stanley). The city had 4 gates leading all directions, and came to be known as “the Round City” for its large circular walls around it (Stanley). The city outgrew its walls and even had a whole other city as its port in Basra. At it’s peak, Baghdad became a cultural center for the Abbasids and also a center for scientific and mathematical achievement. The House of Wisdom was created in Baghdad and was said to hold thousands of books. Of particular importance was translation to different languages, as well as science (Ghazanfar). Having roads connecting to all directions, Baghdad was a central spot for spreading of Islam. Another city of particular importance was the Egyptian city of Cairo. Cairo served an important center for the Shi’a Fatimids, as a base for expansion across North Africa (Davis). The city was soon claimed by Saladin who founded the Ayyubid Dynasty after the destruction of nearby cities during the Crusades (Davis). Saladin built great mosques, palaces, colleges, and a fort named the Citadel (Davis). Under the Mamluks Cairo grew to a booming metropolis and center of education. The al-Azhar University was an extremely influential center of Islamic education (Davis). Cairo’s location on the Nile river also gave it a key role, and eventually a monopoly on the spice trade industry (Davis). The Islamic empires benefitted heavily off of trade, something in which both of these cities were able to do effectively. With the constant shifting of powers of various dynasties, these cities were able to stand the test of time and become major centers of Islam in the process.

Byzantine and Islamic cities alike contributed the growth of their religions through different routes. Christian cities in the Byzantine empire often grew Christianity through missionaries into northern Slavic and Russian regions. One city, Thessalonica, was the home for two of the most well known missionaries, Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius known for creating the Cyrillic alphabet that is used as the foundation for Slavic language. Mount Athos contained many great monasteries and Churches that played large roles in relations between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church (Fulton). On the contrary, Muslim empires often conquered land and then converted the conquered people to Islam. One example of this is Jerusalem, a city mostly Jewish and Christian that then became a cultural center for Muslims. Constantinople is another example being the center of the the Christian world, then after falling to the Islamic Ottoman Empire it became Istanbul, a primarily Muslim city. These differences in expansion stemming from their doctrines, Christians believing that they should spread the gospel to all, and Muslims were unable to spread Islam into the unconquered Christian Byzantine Empire. Both were able to grow from strategic locations, whether on rivers where Arabians lived in the dry climate, or on trade routes along the Mediterranean. While they grew in different ways, both proved effective to expand their religion far beyond the empire.

While the Byzantines may have spread Christianity much differently than Muslims spread Islam, both empires have cities that were important for many of the same reasons. Both empires rose to importance through trade, as they were founded along trade routes and rivers. Several cities in both empires prided themselves on scholarship and science, building great universities. Others were of great religious important, claiming early roots to Christianity and Islam, and playing prominent roles in expansion of their religions. Islamic cities converted to Islam after they were founded and conquered by Muslim armies, while Christianity often grew by Byzantine missionaries. The greatest cities of their time period called the Byzantine Empire and Islamic Empires home. Both empires grew great cities that had significant parts in expanding Christianity and Islam in areas even outside their reach.

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