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The relationship between religion and society
The relationship between religion and society
The relationship between religion and society
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Islam is the world's fastest growing faith. It all began in 610 C.E. when the Prophet Muhammad received revelations of the Quran in Mecca. Islam's reputation of promoting a strict and controlling government, female oppression, civil war, and terrorism is not completely correct. Islam is a rich and complex religion that is often misunderstood in the modern world. There have been many obstacles that have been faced. Islam wouldn't exist today with its leaders, the Crusades, and their empires.
The most important leader was, of course, Muhammad. He basically set up Islam and preached and converted many to this religion. He insisted that it was wrong to build a private fortune but good to share wealth and create a society where the weak and vulnerable were treated with respect (51). Umar, Muhammad's second successor and father-in-law, was very important to Islam's history. He was originally opposed to Islam but converted right after he heard some verses from the Quran. Islam made its largest and fastest expansion under Umar's reign; the Muslim forces conquered Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, and armies of Persia. This period is often thought as the Golden Age of Islam. It was when Muslims were at the top of their regions social order and when Islam was the most pure for it had not yet been corrupted by power or privilege. There have been many other leaders that followed, and all of them have contributed to Islamic history.
The Crusades were a series of wars that were started by Christians to win back their holy lands from the Muslims. It started in July 1099 when the Christian Crusaders from Western Europe attacked Jerusalem, massacred its inhabitants and established states in Palestine, the Lebanon and Anatolia (173). It wasn't until 1187 that Jerusalem was taken back from Crusaders. The crusades would not be over for a long time. The property of the Holy land is crucial to a religion because it gives a sense of a homeland. If the homeland is occupied by someone else, then it's a priority to win it back.
The three Islamic empires, the Safavid Empire, the Moghul Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, were very influential in the development of Islam. These empires covered the entire Islamic world. The Safavid Empire was the shortest-lived empire, but made a major contribution by making Shi'a Islam the official religion. The Moghul Empire seems to be the most disastrous of the three empires but gave rise to influential architecture and poetic and scientific works.
The Muslim Empire began to expand vastly under the Umayyads, with the empire becoming so large many people were converting to Islam religion. The Umayyads were the second of the four major caliphates after the death of Muhammad. The Empire used many different ways to spread the Islamic civilization consisting of war, classes, and appeal. The Islamic civilization spread so strongly because of the way it allured the common man.
Three Muslim empires rose during the spread of Islam. These empires are different, yet also similar. They are the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. They united other Muslims but also conquered other territories to form their own empires.
The Crusades took place in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. They were used to gain a leg up on trading, have more land to show hegemony, and to please the gods. Based upon the documents, the Crusades between 1095 and 1291 were caused primarily by religious devotion rather than by the desire for economic and political gain.
The first crusade was held only in order to fulfill desire of the Christians of the recapturing the center of the Christian faith-Jerusalem, which has been controlled by the Muslim nation for more than 400 years. This military campaign was followed with severe cruelty and harsh actions against Muslims which cannot be justified with anything but religious and material interest.
For example, the spread of Islam to the Byzantines and the Persians. The other caliphs (Umar, Uthman and Ali) expanded the Islamic empire rapidly and grew faster than any other religion. The Muslims conquered a massive amount of land from the Indus River, across North Africa and into Spain. There were many factors that helped Islam succeed; for example, people would rather fight for God and their salvation instead of fighting for a king, the use of military force by the Muslims and how easy it was to convert to Islam.
In 1095 Pope urban II call all Christians to take part in what would become the world’s greatest Holy War in all of history. Urban’s called Christians to take up arms and help fight to take the Holy Land of Jerusalem back from the accursed Muslims. During this time of war the whole world changed. Land boundaries shifted, men gained and lost and gained power again, and bonds were forged and broken. The Crusades had a great impact on the world that will last forever. There were many major social, political, religious and economic changes that occurred during the crusades. But first, a brief history to give backbone to these reasons.
The emperor of the Byzantine Emperor was upset with Turks encroaching on his empire. He went to the Pope Urban II and complained. He made up atrocities about the Turks. In 1096, The Pope Urban II promoted the Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the barbaric Turks. These crusades lasted till the 13th century. In the process, Jews were persecuted and lots of looting took place. Many countries took interest in the Crusades because they were ready for travel and adventure. They wanted to expand trade with the Middle and Far East and so the Crusades gave them a chance to open up trade routes with those countries. They used Christianity to justify the Crusades. In reality, they wanted to expand trade and gain more territorial land.
The eminent historian Jonathan Riley-Smith defines ‘crusade’ as “holy war fought against those perceived to be the external or internal foes of Christendom for the recovery of Christian property”. This would suggest that the Crusades were primarily an endeavour intended to promote Christian expansionism through the acquisition of both territory and religious converts. However the Crusades can also be interpreted as a means for independent Christian rulers to demonstrate their piety, amass wealth through loot and enhance their prestige; all of which would be beneficial to the rule of their own territories. In addition to this, the Crusades were intended as a defensive measure in
The Crusades were one of the most prominent events in Western European history; they were not discrete and unimportant pilgrimages, but a continuous stream of marching Western armies (Crusaders) into the Muslim world, terminating in the creation and eventually the fall of the Islamic Kingdoms. The Crusades were a Holy War of Roman Christianity against Islam, but was it really a “holy war” or was it Western Europe fighting for more land and power? Through Pope Urban II and the Roman Catholic Church’s actions, their proposed motivations seem unclear, and even unchristian. Prior to the Crusades, Urban encouraged that Western Europe fight for their religion but throughout the crusades the real motivations shone though; the Crusaders were power hungry, land coveting people who fought with non Christian ideals and Morales.
The emphasis of the Catholic religion during the Crusades resulted in the spreading of Christianity across many regions in Europe, and also resulted in an increase in trade. The Crusades were fought in order to take back the land of Jerusalem from the Muslims, and also to protect the Catholic Church. The Crusades began when Pope Urban II stated that “.an accursed race utterly alienated from God. has invaded the lands of the Christians and depopulated them by the sword, plundering, and fire. Tear that land from the wicked race and subject it to yourselves,” in which he blames the Muslims for the loss of their holy land.
The Crusades were an outlet for the intense religious tension between the Muslims and the church which rose up in the late 11th century. This all started because the church and the Catholics wanted the Holy Lands back from the Muslims. Around this time the church was the biggest institute and people were god-fearing. Pope Gregory VII wanted to control more lands and wanted to get back the lands that they had lost to the Muslims (Medieval Europe). So in order to get back these lands he launched The Crusades which he insisted to the peasants was a holy war instead.
Which was started in 1095 by Pope Claremont. The Crusades were a series of Holy Wars against the Saracens.The reason for the crusades was fought over the ownership of The Holy Land and Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem had a holy significance to the Christian Religion. There there a total of nine crusades. The first one lasted until 1095-1099. It established the Latin Kingdom that provided land for the crusading knights. These crusades had great impacted the wealth and power of the Catholic Church. It also affected political matters, feudalism, and intellectual
The book Muhammad, by Michael Cook, describes the impact Muhammad has had on the world as we know it. It explains why Muhammad chose the paths he did, and how certain laws came about. Cook offers a very objective view of the laws and policies Muhammad outlined in the Koran, and the traditions that are carried on that supplement his written law.
While the events of September 11, 2001, cast the Islam religion in an unfavorable light, this has not dampened the enthusiasm of the Muslim members, nor has it stopped the Islam religion from growing. Obviously, with over one billion members worldwide, Islam is one of the largest religions in the world today.
The Crusades were great military missions embarked on by the Christian nations of Europe for the purpose of rescuing the Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the hands of the Moslems. The Crusades were considered Holy Wars (1). Their main target was the Moslems not the Jews, although campaigns were also waged against pagan Slavs, Jews, Russian and Greek orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians Old Prussians, and political enemies of the popes (2). There were many Crusades some more significant than others, but in general the Crusades was an important event in the history of Medieval Europe.