chapter 10

Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

A. Islam’s spread was a driving force in the contraction of Christianity.

B. Asian Christianity

1. within a century or so of Muhammad’s death, Christianity almost disappeared from Arabia
2. Islamic forces seized Jerusalem and its holy sites
3. in Syria and Persia many Christians
4. converted voluntarily
• those that didn’t were granted the right
• to practice their religion for payment of a special tax
• experiences of individual communities varied
5. Nestorian Christians or the Church of the East survived but shrank in size in Syria, Iraq, and Persia
• Nestorians had some success in Tang China, before ultimately withering
• brief revival under Mongols

C. African Christianity

1. coastal North African Christians largely converted to Islam
2. in Egypt Coptic Church survived
• tolerated by Muslim rulers
• until the Crusades and Mongol threat when repressed
• most rural Coptic Christians convert, survived in urban areas and remote monasteries

Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

A. The Byzantine Empire has no clear starting point.

1. continuation of the Roman Empire

2. some scholars date it's beginning to 330 C.E., with founding of Constantinople

3. western empire collapsed in fifth century; eastern half survived another 1,000 years

4. eastern empire contained ancient civilizations: Egypt, Greece, Syria, and Anatolia

5. Byzantine advantages over western empire

• wealthier and more urbanized
• more defensible capital (Constantinople)
• shorter frontier
• access to the Black Sea; command of eastern Mediterranean
• stronger army, navy, and merchant marine
• continuation of late Roman infrastructure
• conscious effort to preserve Roman ways

B. The Byzantine State

1. Arab/Islamic expansion reduced size of Byzantine state

2. politics centralized around emperor in Constantinople

3. territory shrank after 1085, as western Europeans and Turks attacked

       a. fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks