The Heirs of Rome: Islam, Byzantium, And Europe

600–750

The seventh and eighth centuries marked the beginning of a new era in Western civilization—the Middle Ages. By this time, the Roman Empire had fragmented into three different worlds: Muslim, Byzantine, and western European. Even so, these worlds were all rooted in Hellenistic and Roman traditions, which each region adapted to its own interests and circumstances. The sources in this chapter reveal different dimensions of this process, beginning with Islam. The first document illuminates some of the fundamental beliefs uniting the Islamic community as recorded in the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an. Islamic warriors rapidly expanded the boundaries of the Muslim world, which brought both change and continuity to everyday life in their newly conquered lands, as the second document reveals. The third document describes facets of religious and social life in the provinces of the Byzantine Empire on the eve of the Muslim invasion. Although the western kingdoms shared a common Roman heritage with Byzantium, their development followed a different course as various barbarian peoples built new societies and cultures. The fourth and fifth documents bring this development to life while illustrating the importance of women in the westward spread of Christianity and the personal values that were increasingly seen as desirable.