Empire

From its earliest beginnings, the Islamic Empire established itself as a rival to the Byzantine Empire, capturing a large portion of Byzantine-controlled territory within the first few decades of its inception. In three or four paragraphs, compare and contrast the societies of the Byzantines and the Muslims in ONE of the following areas: politics, economics/trade, social structure/culture, religion. Why were the Muslims initially so successful in capturing territory from the Byzantine Empire? Why were they unable to destroy it until eight centuries after their initial conquests? Why do you think that neither the Byzantines nor the Muslims viewed Western Europe as a serious threat during the postclassical era?

The Byzantium empire “was an economic powerhouse”. (BZ, P337) They were able to produce more than enough food from crops to support large amounts of people. It was enough to create more work. The Byzantiums began to give those peasants who served in the army allotments of land. This peasants cultivated their lands in hopes of growing rich. The Byzantium where know for manufacturing glassware, linen and woolen textiles and jewelry. They added to their list silk. The manufacture different silk textiles which helped expand the empires wealth. The Byzantiums did lots of heavy trading along the coast with the Persians,Syrians and Palestinians.

In the Islam society agriculture was still a big part of their economy and peasants where still the ones who tended the crops. Agricultural was growing as they began travel and pick up on others tricks of the trade. The “new food frops led to a richer and more varied diet”. (BZ, P268) One of their most important crops was the cotton that was produce in mass quantities. The increase in their agricultural caused a growth of cities for them. They did the majority of their trade overland but were beginning to increase there trades over seas.