The Relationship between Byzantines and Muslims in History

Recent literature has established an inseparable relationship between the Islamic Empire of the 15th century and the Eastern Roman Empire. The emphasis is less on Islamic forces acting as a separate and direct antagonist against Byzantines to their fall, but rather a series of circumstances that gradually weakened the empire until it fell in 1453. Within the most recent decades scholars have begun to examine at the international negotiations and cultural exchanges between Byzantines and Muslims to establish both empires were much closer than early historians believed.

Research focused on the Byzantine Empire and especially Islamic influences has met a variety of challenges and was slow to emerge as a field of study. Notable historians such as Montesquieu and Gibbon were often credited for the lack of interest in the topic. The fall of the Western Roman Empire remained the dominant interest of European historians. The earliest comments on the Eastern Roman Empire was that it was not worth the effort to study.

While works came out after Edward Gibbon published his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the topic was few and far between. The 20th century saw a revival in the amount of works produced on the Eastern Roman Empire, and by the 21st century a multitude of scholarly research has been done on the topic of the influence of Islam on the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. There are two schools of thought concerning Gibbon’s work on the fall of Rome. The first is a sort of resentment, in which historians write in their preface an inspiring reason for the publication was to right the wrongs of Gibbon. The second is an attitude of admiration. It was common practice within the preface to thank Gibbon for his contributions and not ...

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