PC+Theme+2

**Development and Interaction of Cultures in the Post-Classical Period: **  **The Affect of Monotheism in the Post-Classical Era **

In the Post-Classical Era, the movement from polytheistic beliefs to monotheistic practices affected the culture, economy and social structures of populations across the globe. The conversion to Islam in Arabia and sub-Saharan Africa had a massive influence on the political structure, gender roles and trade in the area. While Christianity across Eastern and Western Europe changed the relationships between church and state, enhanced literacy and education, and changed the philosophical and theological teachings and practices of the people.

**Islam: ** Pre-Islamic Arabia was populated by nomadic clans known as the Bedouins. These clan’s Pre-Islamic polytheistic views focused on multiple gods and spirits that seemed connected to parts of their lives such as Hubal, the moon god and nature spirits, while the Islamic faith recognizes the god, Allah, as the center and guiding force behind their faith.

The conversion to Islam was both a political and religious transition for the people of Arabia. Islam caused an uprising of political unity known as theocracy, a form of government in which political activity is influenced and structured around religious ideals. Islam’s first leader, the prophet Muham mad, caused the initial movement of political and religious unity in Arabia. After the death of Muhammad in 632 C.E., his successors, caliphs, became the religious and political leaders of the empire.



The political and religious unity that Islam brought to Arabia alleviated the tension and violence between clans that had been seen before it’s presence. The religion held a form of authority over the masses that was previously unseen. An ethical system that served as a moral code was introduced thro ugh Islam, stressing the importance of the egalitarianism of the believers in the eyes of Allah.

The discrimination that had once been present was frowned upon in the eyes of Islam’s singular divinity.

The prophet Muhammad developed the Qur’an, laws that provided regulation for the Muslims. Laws written in the Qur’an and Islamic practices emphasized more equality among men and women. Women in Arabia had more rights like inheriting property, the ability to divorce and engaging in business ventures. The Qur’an also outlawed female infanticide and and provided that dowries go directly to new brides.

Although Islam brought more opportunities for women in society, Islam still enforced Arabia’s traditional patriarchal society. The Qur'an acknowledged patrilineage, and strictly controlled the social and sexual lives of women to ensure the legitimacy of heirs. The Qur'an allowed men to follow Muhammad's example of polygamy and to marry up to four wives, while women could have only one husband.



 Similar to the arrival of Islam to the Arabian Peninsula, Islam spread through trade to sub-Saharan Africa and facilitated the rise of political empires. Islam appealed to African leaders because it strengthened power among African kings. These leaders who converted to Islam acquired more power and authority over their kingdoms, and as a result of this increased power, several Muslim empires emerged.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Unlike in Arabia, the people of sub-Saharan Africa combined their new Islamic practices with their established beliefs of ancestor worship and fetishes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Although women in sub-Saharan Africa had more opportunities that other women in the world, the appearance Islam did not seem to change genders roles in the area substantially.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Islam greatly increased trade in sub-Saharan Africa, including the business of slave trade, and provided a main source of trade contact to Africa until around 1450. Muslims considered the enslavement of people who were unbelievers a step towards their Islamic conversion, and since children born to enslaved people were not automatically considered slaves, the constant demand for new slave purchase and trade was considered economically beneficial.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The arrival of Islam in Arabia and sub-Saharan Africa influenced political activity, gender roles, religious ethics and ideals, and the trade economy in both areas. It combined political and religious authority, which in turn, brought power and a change to the people of these lands.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **Christianity:** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Eastern Orthodox Christianity]was spread throughout Southeast Europe around the Byzantine Empire, and Western Asia. The religion was spread by missionaries who were were sent to Constantinople to convert Balkans to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and they also encouraged the spread of these practices to Russia. Cristianity from Animism for his people, the population of Constantinople.



<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The emperors who reined over the Byzantine Empire were held to be ordained by God and acted as head of church as well as state. These rulers were similar to the Islamic caliphs in the sense that they had both religious and political strength. Church and state were often connected, and political rulings were influenced by religious ideals. Court rituals reflected Christianity by symbolizing the ideals of an all powerful ruler, referring to God.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Eastern Orthodox Christian monks, Cyril and Methodius, invented a Slavonic alphabet known as [|Cyrillic]. These literary advances led to the translation of the Bible, which in turn, aided the spread of literacy and Christianity in Eastern Europe.



<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Over centuries of dispute due to cultural indifferences, the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire split to form the Catholic Church in Western Europe. Catholicism was spread by Catholic monks who carried Christianity to central and Northern Europe.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In Western Europe monastic leaders helped to develop the church into an affluent institution. Clergy attempted to maintain writings deriving from work composed by past church fathers. These attempts in preservation greatly improved Latin writing style in Western Europe. Latin was the principal language used by Western Christians, because people who wrote in Latin had more influence than those who wrote in Greek, Syriac or other Eastern languages.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> There was an emphasis in absolute devotion to God’s word, but there was also a belief in natural order. Christianity help to combine both philosophic and theological ideas. The combination of theological viewpoints to the already existing philosophical thinking in Western Europe was readily accepted. It helped to create intellectually strong universities that provided higher education. It also encouraged the translations and understanding of scholarly work from Italy and the Byzantine Empire that had yet to be present.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Christianity affected Europe and its people by giving them an alternative to Animism, spreading theocracy and literacy across the Eastern parts of Europe, and extending philosophical and theological thinking that led to the creation of universities and the extension of higher education.