Byzantium is the name for both the state and the culture of the Eastern Roman Empire during the middle ages. The Byzantium Empire's capital city was Constantinople. The Byzantine civilization did once constitute a major world culture. Constantinople, had been founded as the capital of Rome by the Emperor Constantine.
Almost all of Byzantine energy would be focused on Islam during the next few centuries to come. The Muslims very quickly conquered Byzantine territory in Syria and Egypt mainly because of disaffected populations of Christians and Jews who had been persecuted for such a long time. They easily conquered all the Persian territories, but they could never all together conquer the heart of Byzantium itself. In 670, the Muslims attempted this conquest with a huge fleet, but failed. Then in 717, they tried again with a land and sea operation against the city.
By the end of Muhammad's time, the Muslims were raiding into Byzantine territory in Syria and were beginning to conquer the Persian territories. The first conquests took place under the caliph Abu Bakr. The very first conquest took place in 633-634. The general Yazid defeated the Byzantine commander Sergios at Gaza and from here on the Muslims took over places within the Byzantine Empire. It is important to know that when we speak about the fall of the Byzantine Empire, that we understand that the western side fell not the eastern. The 2nd great civilization was that of the rise of Islam and the Islamic civilization which was religious and had developed from the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. The Muslims quite quickly then moved to Egypt and defeated the Egyptians there and took it over.
The spread of Islam began to grow after the death of Muhammad in 632. The Islamic conquest of Persia led to the end of the Sassanid Empire and the later led to the decline of the Zoroastrian religion. The achievements of the Persian civilizations were not completely lost, but were absorbed basically by the new Islamic religion. Islam was a religion that spread like a wildfire through out the known world. The new growing religion began to pull in many followers who then became very dedicated to their new faith. The religion Islam spread into one of the world's greatest empires, which was the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium was known was a Roman city that was basically made up of Christians and Jews. I believe why Byzantium fell was because the Islamic religion was so powerful and the fact that the empire had already began to weaken, made it easier for any outside force to attack it. ( Movie/ Discussion notes)
Syria was conquered by Muslim forces. Jerusalem falls to invading Muslim forces. And later in Egypt, Islam also spread. This goes to show us that Islam was a very dangerous religion. Since it was such a new growing religion it catch people eye. The Muslims when they moved in to attack a different area would give the people like the Christians or jews a choice to convert or pay a tax. Many chose to just pay a tax, but as the money roled in, new problems arose. The problems were that everybody wanted their own share of the money and this led to more problems. Finally in 714, the French stopped The muslims . (Online book)
Movie/ Discussion)
Online source: http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/christian/blchron_xian_crusades01.htm
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