Dbq Essay Christianity And Islam

Islam and Christianity eventually had many similar attitudes towards merchants up to the 1500’s such as they both valued honest trade. Where their attitudes differed, however, was when it came to the status of a merchant due to the fact that the Quran praised it, whereas the Bible started disfavoring merchantry as an occupation. Islam and Christianity rose similarly, as they’re both Abrahamic religions (meaning the two faith’s are centered around Abraham being the first prophet). Because of this fact, we can see many other correlations with how both of these beliefs treat others, such as merchants. Merchants arose with the help of the Mongolian Empire (in the 13th century) which helped to establish the world's first trade infrastructure on

Muslims believed that merchants were just like any other person, but what defined if they’re good people or not was their honesty. Islam is very big on honesty, even more so in merchants as Muhammad (the founder of the religion) was a merchant himself (so he led by example). We know this is true because between 620-650 C.E. When Muhammad first put the words of Allah on parchment, (document 2) he stated that an honest merchant will make it to paradise over one that cheats/steals from his clients. A final piece of evidence that shows Islam valued honesty in trade would be found in document 7, which is about a weaver who buys all of the yarn from his guild rather than having it be distributed amongst the other weavers as well. The other weavers then took the culprit to (an Islamic) court for his wrongs, arguing that keeping all of the yarn to oneself is against old customs. The intention behind writing this document was to target other Muslims and show them an example of how not to engage in mercantilism; It’s giving an example of an unhonest man who took advantage of the limited supply for himself. These connections formed through the friendly attitudes of merchants made it easy for Islamic ideologies to be adopted by big empires such as he Mongolian Empire (as their honesty and friendliness was a favorable quality that the Mongolian leaders would want in their empire), and even

In fact, the Bible (document 1) stated that rich men such as merchants will hardly ever make it to Heaven. Christians, at this point (1st century) , had no feelings of respect, acclaim, or even approval towards merchants. We can even see pious merchants who leave the profession and their gained wealth to serve God instead, such as St. Godric (document 3). This 12th century vendor would rather find happiness in faith than in the wealthy lifestyles of a merchant, for this reason, he formed a relationship with God to help him find his path, and when he found himself again, he charitably gave his possessions and wealth to be distributed among the poor. This document is notable because it was a depiction of St. Godric's life (written by a monk) to give Christian’s an example to look up to, similar to how Muslims have Muhhamad to look up to, Christians now had St. Godric thanks to the work of Reginald of Durham. Reginald used Godric as he came from merchantry and making his wealth through dishonesty, after he found God and his honesty he was greatly rewarded with a place in God’s kingdom which would appeal to the poor/middle