Madeline McKelvy

December 5, 2016

History 111-24

Dr. Kim Richardson

Compare and Contrast

Christendom and Islamic Civilization

When looking into when looking into the history of a people group or place you can

learn a great deal of infomation regarding their life style.You will soon discover that all

civilizations from the past around the world have one thing in common. It's that they all have

developed differently from one another. When looking into the similarities and differences of the

civilizations you will find that each civilization has a characteristic that another did not develop

or was developed differently than other civilizations around it. For example, Christendom and

Islamic civilizations During the middle ages. These civilizations had a plethora of similarities

and differences in their religion, values in life, as well as differences in educational

advancements.

The religions of these two civilizations are Christianity and Muslim. similar and different

in many ways between Christendom and the Islamic civilizations. Christendom may be a title

that is unrecognizable to most, although, it is another name for Europe. The Christendom

nickname was set in place due to the manifold of christians in Europe. Another reason the name

was branded upon Europe was due to the great influence Christianity had on Europe.

Christendom has a Spiritual leader called the Pope. The Christian religion is a syncretic faith;

meaning it includes beliefs derived from previously existing religions. Christianity pulls its core
beliefs from Judaism, Orphism, as well as Hellenistic thought. The concept monotheism and the

Old Testament is derived from Judaism. Orphism is the belief that the body is the prison to the

soul. Finally, Hellenistic thought is the notion of superiority of the spirit over matter. These are

the three essential values of Christianity. The Muslim faith was a monotheistic faith based on the

teachings of Muhammad. The spiritual leader of the Muslim faith was called the caliph.

Muhammad was the first caliph and became an important spiritual leader to this religion.

Muhammad was said to be a prophet that was given the task to complete the work that was

started by the other prophets that came before him. A prophet is someone who speaks for a god

or other deity by divine inspiration.This faith rests on the principle of absolute unity and

omnipotence of Allah or God. While the Christian faith has the bible written by the disciples of

Jesus and others to aid them in their worship of God. The Muslim faith has what's known as the

Quran; a collection of Muhammad's revelations written by his followers. In following the faith

they were told to pray five times a day and participate in the fast & pray during Ramadan. Also, a

faithful follower of this practice must never eat pork, consume alcohol, or participate in

gambling. While these two religion where diverse in their way of thinking they also alike in the

way that they had certain practices and one god.

The values in the life of the people Christendom and the Islamic civilizations were very

diverse from one another. The Islamic Civilizations can be discovered in the Arabian Peninsula.

Europe was built on the culture legacy of greece and rome, the customs and traditions of the

germanic people, and also the Christian faith. These characteristics are the reason Europe is the

way it is today. Europe was split into two main parts, the holy roman empire in the west and the

byzantine empire in the east. The holy roman empire had adapted a lot of germanic traits. While

the byzantine empire stuck to the traditions of the greek and roman. Their goal was to preserve
the knowledge of their ancestors. These two empires in Christendom were ruled by two people

the king ruled the government and the pope governed the churches and the Religious faith. The

Islamic civilizations were made up of a few types of people, for example, the nomads and the

settlement. Nomads migrated, herding sheep, goats, and camels. The settlement was a group of

people that settled all across Arabia, although, the values of said people varied depending on

geographic location. In the north and central part of Arabia you would find tribes that were

mainly dominated by warriors and were dependent on fighting skills more than anything else.

While in the south, this region of tribes were proven to be more dependent on religion and

economic powers.Through religion Muhammad had created a common ground between all

peoples of Arabia. These two Civilizations are very distinctive in where they live and how they

have built their societies. Although they are also similar in the regard that even though they were

split into two internally based on different views that they believed in.

Christendom and The Islamic Civilizations also shared many particular findings in their

advancement in education during this time period. The islamic civilizations were said to be the

heir to the Ancient greek science. For example the Islamics adapted the greek geometry system

but add to the Arabic Numerals to the system. An important man named Muhammad Ibn Musa

al-Khwarizmi developed decimal fractions, raising numbers to higher powers,extracting roots

from larger numbers and many other things. While with the European nation they were

rediscovering knowledge that was lost to them during the dark ages and finding the importance

of reading and writing as they were learning and discovering new things creating universities and

grammar school so that they could better themselves

While Christendom and The Islamic civilizations had distinctive contrasting

Characteristics. In how their religion was practiced, how diverse their values in life were, and
what they accomplished in furthering their education. They also had many resembling

Characteristics for example Inside each civilization, they both did not have one but two different

values in life they thought society should use.

Citation Page

Sivers, Peter Von, Charles Desnoyers, and George B. Stow. Patterns of World History. 2nd ed. Vol.

1. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.