Saturday, 23 October 2010

How did religion influence the policies of the Byzantine Empire, Islamic Empire, and the Tang Dynasty?


In each Empire/Dynasty, religion was used to justify political rule and
control the people. The Byzantine Emperors used Christianity, the Islamic Empires (Umayyad and
Abbasids) used Islam, and the Tang Dynasty used both Buddhism and Confucianism.
The Byzantine
Empire
was created when Rome split in half in the late 200s and again in the 300s
CE. Understanding the Empire was too large to control, emperors Diocletian and Theodosius split
the Empire in half, relying on Rome to rule the West and a new center in Byzantium to rule the
East. Emperor Constantine renamed Byzantium to Constantinople and it remained the heart of the
Eastern Roman Empire. When the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 to Odoacer and the Visigoths
(although it had been sacked previously by Goths and Vandals), the Eastern Roman Empire
continued with its heart at Constantinople. This empire, the Byzantine Empire, lasted until 1453
with the fall of Constantinople by Mehmed II's Turkish forces.

The Byzantines, like their Roman...




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