World History I

Chapter 10: Islamic Civilization and Byzantium
600-1300 CE

48: Mon, Mar 2, 2026

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

Latin Christianity and Byzantium disagreed on the authority of the papacy in Rome and the patriarchy of Constantinople, as well as specific aspects of doctrine. Sunni and Shi’a Islam disagreed on the rightful descent of not only political authority, but also of the responsibility and prerogative of interpreting the Qu’ran and other cornerstones of Islam.

• How do these religious disagreements affect the relationship of Constantinople with the rest of Europe, and of the different Caliphates across the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain?
• How might you analyze these relationships in terms of the inevitable intersection of imperium and auctoritas?
• What implications do the outcomes of these power struggles have for the institutions of the Church or Mosque and the State in Islam and Eastern Christianity? (We'll look at a similar issue in the Latin West shortly!)

Be sure to consider:

• The place of clerics (priests, bishops, imams) in and as constitutive of the civil order
• The role of political leaders as implicit religious leaders or protectors of the faith and faithful -- emperors and Caliphs
• Where else have you seen similar convergences of secular and sacred power?

Contents of this page © Copyright 2020-2024 by Christe A. McMenomy, Bruce A. McMenomy, Sarah Miller Esposito, and Richard M. Esposito.
Permission to download or print this page is hereby given to members of Scholars Online for purposes of personal study only. All other use constitutes a violation of copyright.