Islamic Vs. Byzantine Locations
of Importance
There are many important places for both the Islamic religion and the beliefs of the Byzantine citizens. Both of these religions have important sites that are crucial to the beliefs and studies of the followers of religion. Some religious sites are still in their original place and still are visited by devout people all over the world to get a close up view of a particular and spiritual place. A few important places in the Islamic religion are special mosques, some built by the Prophet Muhammed, and shrines to allah, and monasteries and churches are important to the byzantine christian religion.
In Islamic culture, mosques are very important to the muslim’s religion. Muslims visit mosques on certain days of the week every week to pray and worship in their own way. Mosques are viewed as a house of worship to muslims and they should be kept clean and holy in their beliefs. The Bibi - Khanom mosque in the City of Samarkand was a hub to muslims around the world as is the city of Mecca. Samarkand contained more than just muslims and still has many different religious people there today. “Samarkand was a major city along the silk road” (Hutchinson), strategically to the status of Samarkand as a city. Because of the position of Samarkand, it attracted many different religions that people living in the city adopted and started following as their religion. These religions sparked people to build mosques and churches as a place for people to gather and worship. Mosques are just like churches in the fact that people go there to worship, and they allow muslims to have a place where they can worship with people that have the equal views, no matter where in the world, they happen to be.
Shrines to Allah and Muhammad are also of great importance to muslims all around the globe. Shrines are built to commemorate something, or to remember someone that has lived for real, or a deity that is worshipped. There are many shrines in the world dedicated to muslim beliefs. “Most of Islam’s sacred places are in the Middle East, specifically in the Arabian Peninsula” (Islam Sacred Places). To muslims, the most important one in the world is in Mecca, the sacred city of Islam. This shrine is called the Ka’ba and is very close to the center of the city of Mecca. This place is considered to be one of the most, if not the most sacred place in all of the world for muslims in the Islamic religion. For muslims, a core belief is to make a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Every year at a different time, millions of muslims come to mecca to see the city, and to visit the Ka’ba shrine and worship and pray with so many other muslims. Mecca and the shrines there are so important to muslims, because of their religious qualities and how they are portrayed in the Islamic religion, as a sacred place of Allah.
For christians in the Byzantine empire, they believed that there was only one god. They built churches and monasteries as places to go and worship their god. In monasteries, some people went there to spend their lives working and praying for their god. One of the most important Byzantine churches is the Hagia Sofia. It is also still one of the largest churches today, specifically christian churches. The Hagia Sofia is a great achievement in architecture and is a beautiful contribution to religion. The Hagia Sofia is so important to christians because of the church’s prestige. “The Hagia Sophia stands as a monument to the splendor of the Byzantine Empire” (Stockdale). This great church was a maze of towers, and was in very sharp detail to bring out the architecture of the Byzantine empire. Another important feat of architecture in the Byzantine Empire was the Church of Hosios Loukas. This was a monastery built by saints that wanted a place to come together. This monastery was made of almost every resource available including brick, tile, stone, and many others. This monastery was named after a saint that came to the monastery at age fourteen, and stayed there his entire life, doing what he wanted to do, which was worship and pray with other christians. The Byzantine empire had very important places essential to the religion and the followers of its beliefs.
The Islamic and Byzantine religions are very much different in their beliefs and ways of carrying them out, but one thing that they both have in common is the structures built by man to remember and celebrate certain aspects of their religion. These places are all over the world and attract many different people to see what life was like in the Byzantine and Islamic days. These architectural feats are revered by all and bring out the beliefs of religion into physical, real structures to last a lifetime.
Works Cited
Hutchinson, Jennifer. "Samarkand." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO,
2016, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1258767. Accessed 6 Dec. 2016.
“Islamic sacred places.” ReligionFacts.com. 18 Nov. 2016. Web. Accessed 12 Dec.
Rautman, Marcus. "Byzantine Monasteries." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO,
2016, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1509272. Accessed 5 Dec. 2016.
Stockdale, Nancy L. "Hagia Sophia." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras,
ABC-CLIO, 2016, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1037449. Accessed 12 Dec. 2016.
1.i liked how he gave lots of details on the part son articheture.
ReplyDelete2.i learned about the different artichectural differences.
3. I wish he would've talked more about all different types of buildings.
1. I like how he explained how each structure was used and why it was important to the people of the given society.
ReplyDelete2. I learned that there are many different shrines that Muslims go to.
3. I would like to know more about places beyond religion, like maybe important places where leaders lived.