During the years 600-750, three powerful cultures started to form; Islamic, Eastern European (or better known as Byzantine) and Western European. Because of the teachings of Mouhammad, a holy man from the city of Mecca, Arab and Muslim started to form and eventually became one of the three important cultures that took place of the Roman Empire. In the sixth century, all three of these cultures went their separate ways and became very diverse, but at the end of the day when looked closely, each culture shared many similar roots. Throughout the 150 years, the Roman Empire transformed and created new values and conditions for their cultures. Islamic, Byzantine and Western European cultures and their religions each played a big role in Roman traditions …show more content…
For example, “Adherents of Islam, the Arab world’s religion, believed in the same God as the Jews and Christians. They understood Jesus, however, as God’s prophet rather than his son” (The Making of the West, 244). While Western Europe and Byzantine prayed in church, Muslims prayed in a Mosque. And each culture had its own materials to help them interpret their religion; Islam had the Qur’an, which contains “the foundations of history, prophecy, and legal and moral code by which men and women should live by” (The Making of the West, 246), Western Europe had relics and the Byzantine had icons. A major difference in how religion played a role in Islam and Byzantine is the way in which those who were in charge controlled the society. Mohammad used religion of Islam as a way to unite the society and make it a stronger one. He wanted everyone to convert to Muslim and the way he did this was by enforcing laws to those who went against him and he encouraged his followers to spread the word of conversion too. The Byzantine culture on the other hand, had emperors who used the pope and churchman as a way to spread chirsitanity as a way to have a strong