The Similarities between: The Byzantine Empire and Islamic Civilization

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Much of past civilizations have endured many failures and triumphs throughout their existence. In the third century, there were many civilizations that started to flourish. One of these civilizations that started to expand was the Byzantine civilization. The Byzantine civilization, also regarded as Byzantium, was part of the Roman Empire which was divided in 395 AD. Byzantium had shared the same attitude, as the Roman Empire, toward exercising its authority over its citizens and throughout its empire. The Islamic civilization had started thrive in the fifth century. The Islamic civilization was unified together as unison by Islam and it has expanded its civilization throughout parts of Europe through jihad. Because of their expansions throughout parts of Europe, they shared various similarities which include their political system, social structure, and economy. Politics is important to any civilization for the reason that it influences how a civilization governs their people and expands their belief system upon its citizens. Both Byzantine and Islamic civilization had used politics in a manner that provided them the success accomplished during their expansion throughout Europe. The Byzantine Empire was a form of an autocratic government that was governed by one ruler at a time, known as an emperor. The emperor had made most of the decisions that pushed the Byzantine regime forward. The Islamic civilization governed its people under one ruler known as a caliph. The caliph had the position as a leader of an Islamic community. The caliph had used Islam to promote his authority over the community and across wider fields. Muhammad used tribal methods of jihad, referred to “holy war”, to expand its authority of the movement. Both ... ... middle of paper ... ... had control various territories. Many merchants learned the Islamic language and became custom to their traditions. This allowed for its culture to spread and Islam had received converts. The trading industry has a major effect on the economy and allows the spread of one’s culture. These civilizations present many resemblances that were once part of the foundations of their society. Although both of these civilizations were at one point enemies of one another, they had similar correlations that shaped and formed their cultures and societies. The main difference between these two civilizations is religion. Without its differences, each civilization had governed its people in manners that it could not be differentiated among each other. Overall, these civilizations presented different methods of leading a civilization and still had similarities among one another.

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