Byzantine and Islamic civilizations: historical interactions and cultural exchange

¶ … Byzantine and the Islamic Empires

The decline of the Roman Empire gave birth to new political formations that had a tremendous impact upon the world at large. Out of this disintegration emerged three new political formations, such as the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic empires. These different regimes had steady economic and intellectual contact with one another and both the Byzantine and Islamic empires impacted the west and western culture.

The Byzantine Empire bore its name from the surviving eastern half of the Roman Empire and the people among it considered themselves Roman. However, Greek remained an incredibly strong influence on the Byzantine Empire as did Christianity. Christianity continued to wage a massive influence on this empire, one which was readily apparent in the artwork of the period (Cunningham & Reich, 166). Religion had a massive influence on Byzantine life as all Byzantine holidays were religious festivals, many races began with the singing of hymns and all trade contracts could be marked with the sign of the cross (Cunningham & Reich, 166). Religious questions were often burning and pondered by all parts of society, not just the educated and the elite but also by the poor. Leaders in the church in the Byzantine empire were not distant figures but were friends and protectors to whom people confidently turned for help, demonstrating that Christianity really did have a massive influence on this empire (Cunningham & Reich, 188).. Thus, Christianity wasn't the only tradition which influenced this empire, but it was a major one which had a strong influence on the oriental culture of this essentially Persian Empire.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there are both similarities and differences between Coptic Christianity, Orthodox Christianity and Syriac Christinaity. Coptic Christianity is a form of Egyptian Christianity and is different from all other forms of Christianity in that it rejects that Christ had two natures, embracing instead the notion that Christ's humanity and divinity were connected in a single nature. This arena of Christianity also accepted monasticism, which had an influence on both their liturgy and their visual culture.

On the other hand, Christians who identified themselves as Syriac were ones who traced their heritage back to Saint Peter. The Syriac bible is based on the Hebrew Bible, and this particular Church decided to more closely follow the teachings of Saint Cyril rather than the notion put forth by the council of Calcedon that Christ had two natures, one human and the other divine: thus, as a result, the Syriac Church became more and more autonomous from the authority of the Church of Constantinople (metmuseum.org).

While the official religion on the Byzantine Empire was Christianity, efforts to push a higher level of loyalty to the Orthodox faith was met with fierce debates: central to these debates was the issue of the "…acceptance or the rejection of the official definition of the person of Christ as having two natures -- human and divine -- as formulated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451" (metmuseum.org). All efforts to promote compromise only furthered these debates, making them more aggravated. Thus, one can see that among these various forms of Christianity, while there were some areas of overlap, there were also great differences in how the Christ figure was viewed and that this was a tremendous source of contention.

According to the Metropolitan Museum, one of the aspects which were notable about Judaism is the fact that the jewish communities were some of the religious groups which were actually indigenous to the Byzantine Empire. This was a religion that had a more diverse following, as the "Inscriptions from these sites and texts written for Jewish use in Latin, Greek, Jewish Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic provide evidence of the diversity of the region and its Jewish and Samaritan (another Abrahamic community) populations" (metmuseum.org). When Judaism was alive and well under Islamic authority there were less restrictions placed on Jewish communities, which made their lives more livable and flexible (metmuseum.org).

During this time, pilgrimage was not something that was taken lightly, but was seen as the belief that the power of a holy person, relic or location could actually be transferred through contact, was one of the major motivation in why people of this era made pilgrimages. People who went to these holy sites would make physical contact with the area, often sometimes collecting soil from the ground or oil from the lamps used there: these relics would be brought home so that the owners would be protected by them and so that miracles would be made (metmuseum.org). Thus, at this time, making a pilgrimage was something that represented a powerful step forward in one's spiritual journey.

As stated on the official website of the Metropolitan Museum, the iconoclastic controversy is one which heralded the beginning of a long debated that spanned just about a hundred years and which focused on the rightness of whether or not religious imagery in the empire was appropriate. This debate focused on the rightness of the use of figural imagery in churches and synagogues. Islam's position regarding the use of images of religious devotion were that it was staunchly against them and was very adept about prohibiting their use. Thus, in this vein, Islam did not use images of the Prophet Muhammad when decorating the Qur'an or any mosques: it all goes back to a strict abhorrence of using an idolatrous images which thus encompasses all figurative art. Portraying the prophet Mohammed in any way is considered extremely offensive. These incredibly holy figures are not ascribed an earthly likeness and are not believed to be relegated as items for decoration.

A less informed individual might not be aware of any overlap among Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but the reality is that these seemingly drastically different religions actually have strong areas of overlap. All religions have some internal divisions: for instance, Christianity has three main groups, Islam has two main groups, and Judaism has several divisions. All three religions essentially believe in one single God, with some differing details surrounding that belief. Each religion has a single holy text which is often relied upon. All religions have a notion of sin, hell and salvation which guide their practices and belief systems.