World History

Chapter#10

The World of Christendom

Asian Christianity

Arabia about 100 years after Muhammad’s death Christianity in Arabia had been decimated

Only a few small groups were left

8th Century Muslims celebrated the end of Christianity by using pillars of a demolished church to build the Grand Mosque of Sana’a in southern Asia

Middle East – Islam took control of Jerusalem in 638 and constructed the Muslim shrine – Dome of the Rock Built on a location sacred to Jews – contained the stone Abraham had offered to sacrifice his son

Site of the 1st 2 Jewish temples

For Christians Jesus had visited when young to talk with learned teachers and later drive out money changers

Umayyad caliph took for Islam what Christian and Jewish legacies - Announced to Jews and Christians “Islam was here to stay”

Syria and Persia

Most Christians and Jews here voluntarily conversion

Christians in Syria, Jerusalem, and Armenia were allowed to practice faith in private but pay special tax

Christians were subject to the moods of the local Muslim authority

Sometimes Churches destroyed, villages plundered, fields burned, and Christians forced to wear certain clothing setting them apart

Syria – Christians were administrators of churches, schools, translations services and even armies

Syria, Iraq, and Persia Muslims defended the Christian religion and people

Here the Church of the East lasted but was shrinking

China635 Nestorian Church took hold in China with permission of Tang rulers

Art and literature gave Christian message using Buddhist and Daoist concepts

Religious text, Jesus Sutras referred to Christianity as “Religion of Light from the West” or “Luminous Religion” Described God as “Cool Wind” and sin as “Bad Karma”

Church holds together and gains some growth later during Mongol conquest

Almost completely vanished by 1368

African ChristianityChristian churches in Africa were declining with the arrival of Islam

Widespread conversions led to the extinction

Egypt – Christianity was the religion of the majority when Islam arrived 640

For the next 500 years large numbers spoke Coptic and practiced their religion

Legally inferior (dhimmis) but protected and paying special tax

13th Century – change as Crusading Christians and Muslims invaded Egypt

Muslims came to distrust Christians living here

14th century – Violence against Christians, churches destroyed and many forced off their lands

This forced many to convert

Small Christian communities continued to exist to present

Nubia 6th century Christianity took hold

Kings sometimes served as priests & Bible translated into Nubian

Nubian armies twice defeated the Muslims

Agreement that Egypt would protect this Christian community

Protection lasted 600 years, but as Muslims in Egypt became more hostile toward Christianity, attacked Christians, by 1500 Christianity had disappeared

Ethiopia – here rulers of Axum had adopted Christianity by 4th century

It became an island in a sea of Islam

Here they tell the story of an Ethiopian queen who was seduced by Solomon and had a child

Solomon was in the line of Jesus and this put Ethiopian rulers in this line

Byzantine Christianity Part of the Roma Empire in the east

4th century Constantine made Constantinople the capital of Eastern half of Roman Empire

Split in ½ causing a lasting division in Christianity

Roman Empire in west collapsed 5th century but eastern half did not

Justinian 527-565 took the Byzantine Empire to its greatest size

Had 200 years of Roman Law rewritten – Justinian Code

Here the Emperor was head of church and state

After 1085 Byzantine Empire shrank – result of Crusades and Turic Muslim invaders

Byzantine Church and Christian DivergenceOrthodox vs Western=n Christian

Western Or Roman Catholic ChurchPope head of church and king or emperor head of kingdom, Icons usedMost sacred holy day is ChristmasLanguage is Latin

East or Orthodox ChristianityRuler head of church and state but can appoint a patriarchEaster most important holy dayGreek the language of the churchIcons (statues) not allowed

Crusades started in 1095 to help Catholic pope against Islam

Forces passing through Byzantine often caused injustices against locals

4th crusades forces looted and controlled Constantinople

Attacked Orthodox Christians

Byzantine viewed Roman Catholics as despoilers - gap in Christianity not able to be repaired

Byzantine and the World

Greek fire – helped defend Byzantine from Muslims

Byzantine became an economic link to Eurasia

Gold coins the bezant (wearing as a pendant was a status symbol)

Preserved ancient Greek knowledge and shared it with Islamic world

Conversion of Russia

Kievan Rus – named after most prominent city Kiev

Built along Dnieper River linking Scandinavia and Byzantine by trade

Land of slaves and freemen, polytheistic and small Jewish and Christian population

Prince Vladimir of Kiev adopted Eastern Orthodox as the state religion 10th century / rejecting Islam for its ban on alcohol

Married the sister o a Byzantine Emperor and acquired many Byzantine priests and advisors

Eastern Orthodox became the religion of the Russian people

Russia borrowed from Byzantine, architecture, science etc.

3rd Rome – Moscow / 1st Rome abandoned its true faith, 2nd Rome lost to Islam

Moscow the 3rd and final protector of Christianity

Western Christendom

476 German general Odoacer overthrew the last Roman Emperor

Western Europe fell into dark ages

Disease and warfare reduced population by 25%

Germanic tribes had invaded and set up kingdoms

Visigoths Spain, Franks in France, Lombard’s in Italy, and Angles and Saxons in England – replaced Roman authority

The leaders of these groups adopted laws and brought order and justice

Clovis King of the Franks 481-511 Conquered most of Gaul

Became Christian (significance?)

Charlemagne 678-814 controlled France, Belgium, Netherlands and parts of Germany and Italy

Christmas day 800, Given the title by the pope and Emperor of everything that is Christian.

1st Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I of Saxony 936-973 took most of Germany under his control also given title

Society and church

Feudalism developed – lords give protection to lessor lords for military service and promised fiefs, peasants given protection but farm the lords land - Local estates and manors

Roman Catholic Church, modeled after the Roman Empire took over some political, administrative and educational and warfare functions

Church became very wealthy and often competed with state authority for control

Wide spread conversions and most of the population quickly became Christian

Christianity became the thread that held most societies together

Accelerating Change in the West

Muslim invasions into western Europe stopped by 1000

Gave kingdoms stability and security

High middle Ages 1000-1300

Population grew from 35 million in 1000 to 80 million by 1340

Agriculture revolution compared to China’s at the same time

1300 the forest covering Europe had been reduced to 20% of land area

Stimulated long distance trade & Italy (Florence, Genoa, and Venice) would be trading centers & Trading with Islam and Byzantine

Many cities population grew very rapidly

London 40,000, Paris 80,000, and Venice 150,000

In Contrast Constantinople 400,000, Cordoba in Muslim Spain 200,000

Gave rise to Lawyers, doctors, scholars merchants

Nation states emerged ruled by kings who would gain more and more power and eventually absolute authority

Women given opportunities, weaving, brewing retailing, laundering, spinning, prostitution and others

England – new weaving machines were worked by men

Women also offered a life in the church / nuns

Men and women in churches provided education and from this would rise universities

Beguines – laywomen who practiced celibacy and devoted themselves to weaving, caring for the sick and old

Europe Outward Bound

After 1000 western Europe was growing as the Byzantine was in decline

Crusade or Holy Wars to free the Holy LandsCrusades by God’s command

Pope ordered them as God would remove any sin

Started in 1095 wave after wave of Christian soldiers attacked Muslim controlled territory

Jerusalem seized in 1099 accompanied by slaughter of Jews, Muslims and Christians

Little lasting impact religiously or politically

Crusades did impact the people of Europe who liked the spices, clothing and foods from these Muslim lands

This will stimulate European trade with Asia

Catching Up

Muslim empires were more advanced than the of the Europeans

13th and 14th centuries as trade routes opened with the east many Europeans would make the long trip

Marco Polo and Italian merchant went to China, served the Great Khan Kublai Khan

The contact and trade items led Europeans to seek new water routs to Asia

Agriculture

New wheeled plow, used horses to pull it

3 field system used – crop rotation

Windmills built all over Europe and by 13th and 14th century

Water driven Mills allowed a revolution in production methods

Thomas Aquinas 13th century, gave logic to Christian doctrine – a new emphasis on human rational will give rise to the Scientific Revolution

The End