During the period before 1450, new empires rise such as the Byzantine and Islamic Caliphate. Christianity is the main religion in the Byzantine Empire, whereas Islam is the main religion in the Islamic Caliphate. In both empires, they use religion as a tool to govern. For example, the empires use Christianity and Islam to unify the people and to justify expansion. However, these laws are different in that Islamic laws were based on the Quran while Christian laws were based upon the Church. Although Byzantine and Islamic Caliphate are similar in some ways, they have different views in using religion as a tool to govern. Christianity and Islam unify people under one. Under Christianity, the Church is the head religious leader. The Church assigned laws and everyone followed them even during Feudalism. Religion was the bonding force. Christians are Christians as long as they believe Jesus is their god. This identity unifies them together. Islam also unified Muslims through Allah and the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was the “messenger.” Everyone believed in him. He created the “umma” which is a community consists of all Muslims. “If you are Muslims, then we are brothers of Muhammad.” Even though there were splits in religion such as the Great Schism and the Sunni-Shia split, they are still …show more content…
The Byzantine Empire declared war in the name of Christianity to expand after the fall of Western Rome. He sent out militaries to fight the barbarians who had control of the West. At the end, Justinian gained African lands. Furthermore, the Islamic Caliphate uses Islam to expand towards Africa and the Middle East. Before Islam spread through trade, it was an unknown religion. Thus, after the death of Muhammad, Muslims used the idea of Jihad to spread their faith and religion. They convert non-Muslims to Islam through a process of Islamization. Both empires use their religion to start expansion and conquest to spread their