A DETAILED HISTORY
The Impact of Islam on Christianity in the Middle Ages
A History of the Islamic Golden Age
The Rise of Islam
The time period of 5th - 15th Centuries is considered the Middle Ages, it was started with the fall of Roman Empire and ended with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.
During this time period, Islam was revealed in the 7th Century. Islam emerged as a new powerful yet a very strong opponent of Christianity. A series of events took place in the Middle Ages, which changed the future, which impacted generations to generations.
The Golden Age
The Middle Ages are considered a golden age for the Muslims. During this period Islamic societies achieved, remarkable progress in lands like Syria, Persia, Jerusalem and Egypt (under the rule of Caliph Umar R.A)
In 611 Umayyad rule were established and then further conquered Spain in 711 AD. Moving forward 750 Abbasid took over Baghdad, which later became the center of learning.
In 1229, the Ottoman Empire was established by Otman the First. At the end prediction of Prophet MUHAMMAS (S.A.W) was accomplished and Muslims (Ottoman Empire) under the rule of Sultan Muhammad-II conquered Constantinople. This conquest is considered the end of the Middle Ages in the history of Europe.
Muslim progress in science and mathematics
During Middle Ages, Muslims came forward with the knowledge of science, mathematics and medicine. New doorways were opened in the field of Research.
Advancements in the research had started with the help of Caliph Al mam’un he established Bayt-UL-hikmah (house of wisdom) in Baghdad. The Caliph encouraged the scholars to translate other books in Arabic.
Works of doctors, philosophers were translated into Arabic from Persian, Latin and Greek. Baghdad became the center of learning, People from all over the world started to gather here for learning and research.
Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi worked in the house of wisdom he explained how algebraic expressions can be used to solve daily problems and he also invented the term “zero.” Omar Khayyam found a method of solving cubic expressions.
Trigonometry was also invented by Muslim scientist al-Battani Al-Majriti rectified astronomical tables and calculations. Muslim sailor Muhammad al-Idris designed a world map which was very detailed and accurate in the middle ages.
Muhammad Ibn Zakriya al-Razi, one of the greatest Muslim doctors wrote the book “The Virtuous Life” which was foundation in advance medicine and had been used in Europe for a long time. Ibn sina described the connection between mental and physical health.
Ibn al-Nafs described the blood circulation. In 751 AD Muslims also learned paper making through which all the information was stored properly. All these Muslim discoveries and researches helped to revolutionize the middle age.
THe Fall of Christianity
The Middle Ages were not prosperous for the Christianity. Before the 5th Century, Christianity was the stable religion having hold in different areas and growing rapidly,.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire things began to change, life in Europe becomes laborious there was a terror of the Barbarians like a sword on the neck. Then there was the arrival of Islam, which became their strongest opponent.
During the reign of Caliph Umar, Christians lost most of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire also. For European Christians the second challenge was the pagan Vikings. The Vikings terrorized, looted, and conquered large areas of France and England.
When it comes to science there were few remarkable discoveries of Christians, which impacted the Middle Ages. They were using the books written by Muslim scientists, used their surgical techniques even they were not having great institutes of learning like Muslims.
If the European wanted to be well educated, they will travel to AL-ANDALUS to accompany the great Muslim scholars and students. They didn’t have any huge libraries with bulk of books like Muslims in Cordoba, Spain. SO, in the field of knowledge Christians were not able to play a great role.
The Muslim-Christian relationship in the Middle Ages was highly destructive. Both sides wanted to vanquish each other on the basis of religious differences.
Christians and Muslims fought a number of wars, betrayed each other, broke the agreements and they slaughtered millions of people. The major reasons for the quarrel included the disputes over the Holy Land, Jerusalem, and Constantinople.
When Christian Crusaders captured Jerusalem they killed all the Muslims in the city. Throughout the Middle Ages, Christians also made attempts to convert Muslims into Christians with gifts, gold and other valuables but It is strange to say after collecting all the gifts those converts were soon found again in mosques worshipping and reading Quran.
Muslims often treated Christians better by giving them rights. In 1229 when the Muslims were again victorious in the holy land of Jerusalem, they didn’t harm any Christian citizens. They allowed them to follow their religion, but they have to pay higher taxes (Jaziya) than Muslims.
CONCLUSION
At the end, I Would like to say Middle Ages was the time for Muslims, they contributed and impacted in different ways at this time Islam was in Power.
But after the Middle Ages Muslim began to fall and Christianity rises now we can see Christians are holding more power than Muslims, but still the great Muslims and the impact of Islam in middle age can never be forgotten.
