Post on 06-Feb-2018
11/16/2011
2
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
11/16/2011
3
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
11/16/2011
4
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
11/16/2011
5
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
11/16/2011
6
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
11/16/2011
7
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
11/16/2011
8
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
11/16/2011
9
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
11/16/2011
11
Islam’s Expansion
• Jihad
• Limited resources on the Arabian
Peninsula
• Overpopulation
• Weak Resistance
Tolerance & Choice?
• Convert to Islam
• Pay a tax
• Die
11/16/2011
12
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
11/16/2011
13
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
11/16/2011
14
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
11/16/2011
15
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
11/16/2011
16
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