Why Did Constantinople Get the Works?
That's Nobodies Business but the Turks (The Rise of Islam & the Final Fall of Rome) 3.1 Geography
The people of the Arabian Peninsula were traders. If you look at a map of the area, their location in the world benefits them in this profession. From the peninsula, they have access to the sea and goods from eastern Africa as well as India. Not far too the north of the peninsula, they reach the Levant and it opens the Mediterranean world of southern Europe and North Africa to them. And of course, if they travel to the northeast, they will begin to see the riches coming out of the Far East of Asia. Of course the one thing that hinders their travels overland is the vast amount of desert regions that lie in the middle of the peninsula. Camels became the pack animals of the region due to their ability to travel days without water. |
The desert region of the area also gave rise nomadic herders known as the bedouins. Bedouins are family units (usually a tribe of Bedouins have a common ancestor) that do not settle or create cities, but travel from place to place searching for grazing land and water for their animals. Although difficult in their natural environment, the bedouins were assisted by pockets of fertile land with a water source in the desert known as an oasis. In order to be mobile, they did not build permanent housing structures, but tents. Since bedouins did not settle in one location and lived off the land, they did not produce items that civilizations that built cities would create. They would obtain these goods by trading. In fact, it could be said that the bedouins were the ones that encouraged the development of trade routes in the Arabian peninsula.
The Arab tribes of the peninsula were not unified. The two empires that were attempting to control the Mediterranean and Levant were the Romans and the Persians (modern day Iran). The constant warfare back and forth between these two powers wore them down. As the Persians and Byzantine Romans weakened, the Arabs turned to a leader who united them and gave them a purpose to conquer. |
3.2 Mohammed
Around the year A.D. 570, the Arabian Peninsula was filled with a collection of bedouin tribes and trading cities. From among the Arab people who lived there a man named Mohammed was born in the popular trade city on the Arabian Peninsula called Mecca. His parents died while he was young and he was raised by relatives. Eventually he directed a caravan (a group of traders who travel together) with his wife. Mohammed probably would have been taught the polytheistic religion of the Arab people as well as interacted with traders from the Roman (Byzantine) empire who discussed their monotheistic Christian faith. The Islamic faith teaches that Mohammed, while meditating in a cave, was told by an angel that there was only one God and that his prophets included those people revered in Judaism and Christianity, such as Abraham and Jesus. The teachings that Mohammed received during his lifetime was written into a book for his followers known as the Quran. Islam teachers there is only one God (Allah is the Arabic word for God) and that Mohammed is his prophet. It also teachers that all Muslims are equal. The monotheistic faith that Mohammed was preaching was against the religion of the people of Mecca. Mohammed and his followers fled the city, known as the hijrah, and became both the spiritual and political leader of his people in a city called Medina. Many in the bedouin tribes of the desert came to the Islamic faith and the numbers of Muslims grew.
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Eventually they became large enough to take the city of Mecca. After several years of fighting, the people of Mecca accepted Islam. Mohammed ordered the statues of the old religion destroyed. As time went on, other Arab tribes embraced the Islamic faith. Mecca became the center of the religion, and to day, Muslims pray five times a day facing Mecca and are expected to take a trip to Mecca, called the hajj, once in their lives, if they can afford it.
At the time of Mohammed’s death, the Islamic religion was established in half of the Arabian peninsula. One hundred years later, his followers will have spread the Islamic religion, as well as seized political control, throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
At the time of Mohammed’s death, the Islamic religion was established in half of the Arabian peninsula. One hundred years later, his followers will have spread the Islamic religion, as well as seized political control, throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
3.3 Major Islamic Empires
The Muslims were aided by a common belief and the fact that two powers (the Byzantines and Persians) were exhausted by years of battles. Islam extended from Persia, westward to up into Spain. At the Battle of Qadisiyya in 636, Arab forces defeated the Sassanid Empire that ruled Persia (in part aided by the weakening of the empire by the Byzantines victory against the Perisans at the Battle of Nineveh in 627). With the Arabs now on the doorstep of the Byzantine Roman empires, other forces went across North Africa, and crossed into Europe across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Iberian peninsula. In 732, at the Battle of Tours, the Franks, led by Charles Martel, turned back an Islamic army marking Islam’s farthest advance into western Europe. However, in only about 100 years, Muslim forces had conquered lands up from the Arabian Peninsula, east toward the borders of the subcontinent of India, west along the southern border of the Mediterranean Sea of North Africa and across the Strait of Gibraltar to the European Iberian Peninsula, and north through the Levant to the doorstep of the Byzantine Empire.
One of the ruling families were the Ummayads. Under their rule, the Muslims stopped being desert dwelling bedouins, but established themselves in cities. They moved their capital to Damascus and constructed the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The Ummayads were overthrown by the Abassids.
The Abbasids moved the capital city to Baghdad in order to be in a better location for east-west trade. They would usher in the Golden Age of Islam, a time period of cultural & academic achievement in the humanities and sciences. A group from Central Asia known as the Seljuk Turks, converted to Islam and then seized control of Jerusalem and hindered Christian pilgrimages. By the time the Europeans gathered a fighting force to fight the First Crusade in 1099, the Seljuks had lost power back to the Abassids, but it did not stop the fighting. The Abassids were finally forced from power by another group from Central Asia, the Mongols, in 1258.
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3.4 Splits (And not Banana)
Originally Islam was an Arab faith. However, due to their conquests and spreading their religion along the trade routes, the Persians of Iran, the Berbers of Morocco, Turks, Afghans, Albanians and Bosnians are also numbered among people groups that are predominantly Muslim. In fact, Indonesia in southeast Asia homes the largest population of Muslims in the world. After Mohammed’s death, a disagreement over succession arose among the ranks of Muslims. The Sunnis believed that the leader should be selected among a group of pious Muslims and be a political more than a religious leader. The Shia believed a descendant of Mohammed should be the leader and believed the leaders spoke on religious and political matters. The split came to a head when Ali, the son in law of Mohammed (Mohammed did not have any sons) was selected caliph and was then assassinated, creating a split. From this point onward Islam would be politically and ethnically split with several great Islamic empires rising to power. |
The followers of Sunni Islam were mostly Arab ethnically. Shia became popular in the areas where the Persian Empire ruled. Arabs who were Shia Muslim were persecuted by the Sunnis and found a home with Persians who had converted to Islam and felt like second class citizens to the Sunni Arabs who were in control of their lands. Today about 85-90% of all Muslims are Sunni but Shia majorities can be found in Iran and Iraq.
Islam was not the only religion dealing with a split. Christianity had been dealing with differences of thought back to the days of the Council of Nicaea. Even though the Christian doctrine that Jesus is God was held by most, in the Levant and North Africa, people still had concerns with the idea of how he could be both man and God (which aided in the conversion to Islam when Muslim forces came through the area). Justinian’s support of the idea that came out of the Council of Nicaea helped to maintain Christianity in the Northeastern side of the Mediterranean. However, a split was still coming.
Islam was not the only religion dealing with a split. Christianity had been dealing with differences of thought back to the days of the Council of Nicaea. Even though the Christian doctrine that Jesus is God was held by most, in the Levant and North Africa, people still had concerns with the idea of how he could be both man and God (which aided in the conversion to Islam when Muslim forces came through the area). Justinian’s support of the idea that came out of the Council of Nicaea helped to maintain Christianity in the Northeastern side of the Mediterranean. However, a split was still coming.
As time went on, the Bishop of Rome, or the Pope, gained in both spiritual and political power in the West as the Western Roman Empire collapsed. The power of the Pope was demonstrated as he began to declare certain Frankish leaders as the Holy Roman Emperor beginning on Christmas Day, 800 when Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne with that title even though the emperor in Constantinople also claimed to be the Christian emperor of the Romans.
The bishops (leaders in the Christian church) of the East still had the emperor in Constantinople who was also a Christian. Questions of authority came up in the church. One was “If the emperor is a Christian, is he the final authority for both political and spiritual questions?”. All the other major bishops were in areas that the emperor in Constantinople controlled, except the Bishop of Rome. The bishops in the East believed that decisions about Christianity should be made by all of them in a council with the Bishop of Rome or Pope being the first among equals. They also needed to make decision with the approval of the emperor. In the West, without the emperor, the Pope gained a lot of power and those in the West believed he spoke for all of Christianity. The issue of leadership as well as other issues finally led to a splitting of the Christian church into two in 1054. This was known as the Great Schism. The western churches under the authority of the Pope became known as the Roman Catholic Church while the eastern churches became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and today look to the Patriarch of Constantinople as their spiritual leader. |
3.4 The Crusades
About 500 years later, attacks by Slavic tribes on the Balkan Peninsula, Germanic tribes in the west, and Muslim Arab and Turk empires in the Middle East and North Africa decreased the size of the Byzantine empire. Of the three, the empires they needed to fear the most were the Muslim forces. By 1098, the emperor Alexius was feeling pressure from the Seljuq Turks. The Turks had seized control of most of the area of Asia Minor (Turkey) due to their victory at the Battle of Manzikert (1071). In that battle, the Byzantine emperor Romanos was captured thanks in part to the retreat of one section of the army that was supposed to protect the rear. The Byzantine defeat led to a series of civil wars within the empire and it also took away land that Constantinople depended upon for food. Out of these civil wars came a new emperor, Alexius Commenus, who in order to solidify his claim to the throne, married a member of the Ducas family, who had previously held the throne. |
The Turks, now in control of most of what lay east of Constantinople, blocked access for Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Not only did this anger Christians because it prevented them from visiting holy shrines, but along with the loss of land in the Middle East to Muslim Arab and now Seljuk Turkish forces, Byzantium was being hurt financially. The Seljuk Turks were now in control of major sources of wheat for Constantinople and were disrupting trade routes. Alexis turned to fellow Christians in the former western part of the Roman empire to supply men to fight the Muslim forces.
Calling out to the Christian kings and princes in the west to fight in a holy war with the Byzantine Empire in the east was made more difficult by the Great Schism of 1054. Alexius did appeal to his fellow Christians in the west for help, and in 1091, Pope Urban II called on the kings and princes who followed Roman Catholicism to help the Byzantium empire in driving out the Muslims from Jerusalem. The series of wars that followed over the next few centuries were known as the Crusades. The common people on both sides were encouraged to fight for their religion, being promised rewards in the next life. Some of the leaders fought for their God as well, however some of the men leading the forces saw it as a way to expand their power and/or wealth. Some who were not the first born of royalty saw it as a way to carve out a kingdom in the Levant for themselves. |
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At first, the Arab/Muslim forces saw the Crusade as an attempt at territorial (land) expansion by the Byzantines, however, over time, they too realized that fighting for their religion was a powerful motivator. These wars between Christian European forces and Muslim Arab forces for control of the Middle East would help shape both cultures, helped encourage trade (especially in the areas of the old Western Roman Empire), but has also been a sore subject even today to the inhabitants of the Middle East.
The most tragic of the crusades for Byzantium was the Fourth Crusade of 1204. Forces from western Europe attacked Constantinople. They killed citizens, destroyed buildings, and looted from the cities wealth and placed their own emperor on the throne. Four large bronze horses were taken in the raid and hauled backed to Venice in Italy, where they still stand today. At first the Pope was angered by the mob, but then turned the other way as they brought Byzantium back under the religious authority of the Pope. The coerced reunification did not last long and only served to increase the divide between the two branches of Christianity. The city of Constantinople never fully recovered from that attacks by the Christian forces of western Europe in the Fourth Crusade. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks, who came from the steppes region of Central Asia, under Mehmed II had taken over the Middle East, the Balkan Peninsula, and most of Anatolia, isolating the Byzantine empire to the city of Constantinople. Forces numbering about 300,000 attacked the three walled city. The 7000 or so defenders fought valiantly, but after about two months the final wall was breached, the emperor deposed, and the Roman empire was vanquished. Mehmed II then declared himself Kaiser al Rum, Emperor of the Romans. The fall of the Byzantine Empire effected Europe in many ways. One is that many scholars fled the Ottomans and made their ways to Western Europe, carrying books and knowledge of the pre-Christian Roman and Greek eras. The influx helped to spark the era in Western Europe known as the Renaissance. Another effect was on Russia, who had finished shaking off Mongol rule. They took the mantle of defender of the Orthodox Christian Church and their ruler, Ivan III, married the daughter of an heir to the Byzantine throne, helping his claim that he was the “Czar” the head of the “Third Rome”. And to make his point, he borrowed the Roman seal of the two headed eagle for his own. |
Above: The Seal of Russia which is their take of the seal of the Byzantine Romans.
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3.6 The Ottomans
Like the Seljuk Turks, the Ottoman Turks (named after their leader) were another tribe from Central Asia who converted to Islam, and fled westward to escape the rule of the Mongols. They came west and eventually began taking land in Anatolia, expanded their rule into the Levant, and then landed on the Peloponnesus, eventually threatening Constantinople. When Mehmet II led his 300,000 men to Constantinople, the city was all that remained in control of the Byzantine Empire. He laid siege to the three walls, and in 44 days finally defeated and ended the Roman Empire for good.
Like the Seljuk Turks, the Ottoman Turks (named after their leader) were another tribe from Central Asia who converted to Islam, and fled westward to escape the rule of the Mongols. They came west and eventually began taking land in Anatolia, expanded their rule into the Levant, and then landed on the Peloponnesus, eventually threatening Constantinople. When Mehmet II led his 300,000 men to Constantinople, the city was all that remained in control of the Byzantine Empire. He laid siege to the three walls, and in 44 days finally defeated and ended the Roman Empire for good.
The greatest of the Ottoman leaders was Sulieman the Magnificent. He led Ottoman troops up the Balkan peninsula conquering modern day Bosnia, Serbia, and a part of Romania known as Transylvania. After conquering the Hungarians, he was finally stopped short at Vienna, the home of the European Hapsburg Empire that controlled at one time most of Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain and were the current Holy Roman Emperors.
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The Ottoman seized control of the overland trade routes to the East for Europe. They began to make vast sums of money by taxing the trade that came through the empire. However, when it came to shipping the goods acquired throughout the Mediterranean, the Ottomans turned to the same city their predecessors in Constantinople turned to, the city of Venice in northeast Italy. The Venetians were experts in both shipbuilding and sailing, and the relationship benefited their economy and the Ottomans.
As with all empires, the Ottomans advance came to an end. They failed in another bid to take Vienna in 1638 (thanks in part to the quick thinking of pretzel bakers who heard people tunneling underneath the walls), and lost attempt to gain dominance of the Mediterranean Sea in the Battle at Lepanto, a naval battle they lost to a coalition led by the Hapsburg Empire and Venice. It was not over for the Ottomans. With land they held on the Balkan Peninsula, they continued to be actively involved in matters of Europe for centuries. The 1800’s brought loss after loss of their holdings in Europe, as people groups like the Greeks and Bulgarians won their independence. The empire met its end in as it joined Germany and Austria on the losing side of World War I in 1919. The British and French divided up its holdings in the Middle East, and eventually the new Republic of Turkey was born. |
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3.7 The Golden Age of Islam
During the reign of the Abbasid’s, Islam experienced a growth in intellectual pursuits known as it’s “Golden Age”. By the beginning of the second millennium, Islamic medicine was more advanced than European. A physician named al-Razi was the first to describe the symptoms and treatment of measles and small pox, while Avicenna created an encyclopedia of medical knowledge. If you love math class, you can thank Muslim mathematicians for their work. The Arabs simplified numbers using the symbols 1-9 and are credited for introducing the zero (this is why our numbers are called Arabic numerals). Many credit a book written by Al-Khwarizmi for the development of algebra (which comes from an Arabic word for reunion of broken parts). He demonstrated how to solve formulas. He also wrote on geography, and corrected mistakes he discovered in ancient Greek work of Ptolemy. Geography and astronomy were important to the Muslim people. The improved on the astrolabe, a device that uses the positions of the sun and stars to know your position on the world and navigate it. An Islamic mathematician, Omar Khayyam, helped create quadratic and cubic formulas. Khayyam is also noted for a collection of about 1000 poems called the Rubayiat. Another famous literary work produced during this time is the collection of stories known as 1,001 Arabian Nights. The many short stories include Aladdin and the Lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, and Sin-bad A Moroccan man named Ibn Battuta is considered one of the greatest travelers of all time. He described his travels in a book called Rhila. His travels took him across North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, Western Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe, India, China, and as far the islands of Indonesia. In all, his travels took him about 25 years. |
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