Ways of the World pgs 9-47
Muslim Pilgrims on the Way to Mecca
The most enduring legacies of ancient civilizations lie in their religious or cultural traditions.
Islam is among the most recent of those traditions.
The pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the hajj, has long been a central religious ritual in the Muslim world.
It also reflects the cosmopolitan character of Islam, as pilgrims from all over the vast Islamic realm assemble in the city where the faith was born.
This painting, dating to 1237, shows a group of joyful pilgrims, led by a band, on their way to Mecca.
Before 1200: Patterns in World History
Chapter 1 Overview:
From the Paleolithic Era to the Age of Agriculture
Civilizations and the Environment
South Asian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern Cultural Traditions
Interactions and Encounters
Kong Dejun and Confucianism
In September 2009, Kong Dejun returned to China from Great Britain to celebrate the 2,560th birthday of her ancestor Confucius (Kong Fuzi).
The celebration was attended by 10,000 people, including descendants, scholars, government officials, and foreign representatives.
The Communist Party had long discredited Confucius and his teachings but now claims Confucius as a national treasure.
Over 300 Confucian Institutes have been established to study his writings.
Confucius appears in TV shows and movies, and parents offer prayers at Confucian temples for their children taking college entrance exams.
Buddhism and Daoism have also experienced a revival in China, with temples being repaired and reopened.
Christianity has also grown rapidly in China since the 1970s.
Cultural Traditions and Civilizations
Ancient traditions and civilizations provide a link between the world of 1200-1450 and what came before it.
The chapter briefly looks at major turning points in human history before 1200.
Agriculture, Civilizations, and Cultural/Religious Traditions
Major turning points include the transition to agriculture, the rise of civilizations, the making of major cultural or religious traditions, and patterns of interaction.
From the Paleolithic Era to the Age of Agriculture
Homo sapiens emerged around 350,000 to 260,000 years ago in East Africa.
Between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, humans began migrating out of Africa.
By 1200 C.E., humans occupied New Zealand, marking the end of the peopling of almost every inhabitable landmass, except Antarctica.
Paleolithic Era/Old Stone Age: Human history begins with this era, representing over 95% of human occupation on the planet.
Humans sustained themselves by foraging: gathering wild foods, scavenging, hunting, and fishing.
Paleolithic Societies
Paleolithic people created separate and distinct societies, each with its own history, culture, language, identity, stories, and rituals.
Some societies were small, nomadic, and egalitarian, organized as bands of 25-50 people with intense personal relationships.
Others lived in permanent settlements with larger populations, showing differences in wealth and status.
Some gathering and hunting societies practiced slavery or constructed large-scale monuments.
Cultural creativity was evident in technological innovations, sophisticated oral traditions, and cave paintings/sculptures.
Agricultural Revolution
A fundamental transformation in human history occurred with the transition to an agricultural economy.
Between 10,000 and 2000 B.C.E., this process unfolded separately in 15-20 places across Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
It involved deliberate cultivation of plants and taming/breeding of animals.
Agriculture gradually supplemented and replaced gathering and hunting.
Rejection of Agriculture
Some gathering and hunting peoples deliberately rejected farming to maintain their freedom of movement.
Impact of Agriculture
Agriculture provided the foundation for growing populations, settled farming villages, animal-borne diseases, technological innovation, cities, states, empires, civilizations, writing, and literature.
Timescales of History
History traditionally began with writing, but this excludes vast periods of human existence.
Writing emerged about 5,500 years ago and was initially limited to elites.
Scientific techniques like radio-carbon dating and DNA testing have allowed scholars to date artifacts and human movements tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago.
This has broadened the definition of "history" to include peoples without written records.
Big History
Some historians integrate human history into larger frameworks of planetary and cosmic evolution, called "big history."
Advances in astronomy, geology, and evolutionary biology suggest that the cosmos has a history.
Supporters of big history argue that it helps understand the place of Homo sapiens in the universe.
McNeill Quote: "Human beings, it appears, do indeed belong to the universe and share its unstable, evolving character… what happens among human beings and what happens among the stars looks to be part of a grand, evolving story."
Criticisms of Big History
Critics argue that big history's immense timescales leave too little room for the human story and replace document analysis with scientific inquiry.
Timescales and Questions
The timescales of human history shape the questions asked and techniques used.
Written records are essential for understanding the ups and downs of civilizations over the past five millennia.
DNA analysis, carbon dating, and linguistics are used to understand how humans occupied almost every environmental niche on earth.
Motives for Cosmic/"Big History"
David Christian: the grand scale offers a "creation myth" for our times, a coherent, scientifically informed explanation of the universe's origins and evolution.
Philosophically/spiritually inclined: raises profound questions about human history's relationship to cosmic and planetary evolution.
Is human consciousness distinctive, representing the cosmos becoming aware of itself?
Human story anchored within the unfolding of the universe, geological transformations, and evolution of life.
Rejection of Farming
Some gathering and hunting peoples who knew about farming from agricultural neighbors rejected it.
They preferred their freedom of movement to the regimentation of growing crops.
Agricultural Revolution
Agriculture triumphed, transforming human life.
It provided the foundation for much that followed: growing populations, settled farming villages, animal-borne diseases, an explosion of technological innovation, cities, states, empires, civilizations, writing, literature, and much more.
Continental Populations
Land Percentage: Eurasia (41%), Africa (22%), Central/South America (18%), North America (13%), Australia/Oceania (6%).
World Population (millions):
400 B.C.E.: Eurasia (127), Africa (17), Central/South America (1), North America (1), Australia/Oceania (1), Total (153).
10 C.E.: Eurasia (213), Africa (26), Central/South America (2), North America (10), Australia/Oceania (1), Total (252).
200 C.E.: Eurasia (215), Africa (30), Central/South America (2), North America (10), Australia/Oceania (1), Total (257).
600 C.E.: Eurasia (167), Africa (24), Central/South America (2), North America (14), Australia/Oceania (1), Total (208).
1000 C.E.: Eurasia (195), Africa (39), Central/South America (2), North America (16), Australia/Oceania (1), Total (253).
1500: Eurasia (329), Africa (113), Central/South America (4.5), North America (3), Australia/Oceania (27), Total (477).
1750: Eurasia (646), Africa (104), Central/South America (3), North America (15), Australia/Oceania (3), Total (771).
2017: Eurasia (5,246), Africa (1,256), Central/South America (361), North America (646), Australia/Oceania (40), Total (7,549).
Agricultural Revolution
Resources generated by the Agricultural Revolution opened up vast new possibilities for the construction of human societies, but they led to no single common outcome.
Various distinct kinds of societies emerged as agriculture took hold, all of which have endured into modern times.
Nomadic Herders
In areas where farming was difficult, people depended on domesticated animals like sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels, or reindeer.
These animals provided meat, fiber, hides, and milk; were useful for transport and warfare; and could walk to market.
Herders, nomads, or pastoral societies emerged in Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara, and parts of eastern and southern Africa.
They moved seasonally, following vegetation patterns.
Except for small pockets of the Andes (llamas and alpacas), no such societies emerged in the Americas.
Nomadic Herders and Their Neighbors
The relationship between nomadic herders and their farming neighbors was frequently one of conflict.
Pastoral peoples, unable to produce their own agricultural products, were attracted to the wealth and sophistication of agrarian societies.
They sought richer grazing lands, food crops, and manufactured products.
More peaceful exchange of technologies, ideas, products, and people between pastoral and agricultural societies also occurred.
Permanently Settled Farming Villages
Retained much of the social and gender equality of gathering and hunting communities.
They continued to live without kings, chiefs, bureaucrats, or aristocracies.
Flourished in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas, organizing themselves in terms of kinship groups or lineages.
Some were linked into larger regional complexes through ties of culture and commerce.
Alternative to Organized Political Power
Agricultural village societies represent an intriguing alternative to states, kingdoms, and empires.
They pioneered the human settlement of vast areas; adapted to a variety of environments; maintained a substantial degree of social and gender equality; created numerous cultural, artistic, and religious traditions; and interacted continuously with their neighbors.
Agricultural Village Societies
Created inherited positions of power and privilege.
They relied on generosity, ritual status, or personal charisma to persuade their followers.
These leaders, called chiefs or "big men," could seldom use force.
Such societies emerged worldwide, with early ones in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley (Iraq) after 6000 B.C.E.
Thrived in the Pacific islands, colonized by agricultural Polynesian peoples.
Role of Chiefs
Chiefs usually derived from a senior lineage, tracing descent to the first son of an imagined ancestor.
They had religious and secular functions.
They led rituals and ceremonies, organized the community for warfare, directed economic life, and resolved internal conflicts.
They collected tribute from commoners (food, goods, materials) and redistributed it to warriors, craftsmen, religious specialists, etc.
North America
Partially agricultural societies emerged between 200 B.C.E. and 1200 C.E. in the eastern woodlands, with large earthen mounds.
Civilizations
Among the most significant outcomes of the Agricultural Revolution was civilization.
The earliest civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia (Iraq), Egypt, and coastal Peru between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E.
Over the next 4,000 years, this way of living spread globally.
By 1200, a considerable majority of humankind lived in one or another of these civilizations.
Shared Qualities
Size and Concentration of Population: Cities numbered initially in the tens of thousands and later in the hundreds of thousands.
Civilization refers to societies based in cities, though most people remained in rural areas.
Cities served as political and administrative capitals, cultural hubs, marketplaces, and manufacturing enterprises.
From the Epic of Gilgamesh, cities were places where the hustle and bustle of urban life meant that "even the great gods are kept from sleeping at night.”
New Degree of Occupational Specialization
Scholars, merchants, priests, officials, scribes, soldiers, servants, entertainers, and artisans all supported by peasant farmers and herders.
Impressive artistic, scientific, and technological innovations.
China: virtually invented bureaucracy and pioneered silk production, papermaking, printing, and gunpowder.
Islamic civilization: major advances in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, metallurgy, water management.
Civilizations generated remarkable works of art and architecture that continue to awe and inspire.
Written literatures expressed distinctive outlooks on the world.
Civilizations and the Environment
Civilizations shaped by environments.
Early civilizations grew in river valleys that offered rich possibilities for productive agriculture.
Mountainous terrain favored the development of rival city-states rather than a unified empire.
Geographic barriers like the Panama bottleneck inhibited contact between civilizations.
Oceans separated the Afro-Eurasian world from the Western Hemisphere.
Environmental Impact of Civilizations
Larger populations and intensive agriculture had a substantial impact on the landscape.
Rigorous irrigation in Mesopotamia generated soils that turned white as salt accumulated, causing wheat to be replaced by barley (more salt-tolerant).
Deforestation and soil erosion accompanied the growth of civilizations.
Plato: the area around Athens had become "a mere relic of the original country. . . . All the rich soil has melted away, leaving a country of skin and bone."
China
As Chinese civilization expanded southward, it caused a vast environmental transformation, marked by the destruction of forests and the retreat of elephants.
Liu Zonyuan lamented the devastation that followed.
Farmers everywhere stamped the landscape with a human imprint as they drained swamps, leveled forests, terraced hillsides.
Europe
Trees were felled at tremendous rates to clear agricultural land and to use as fuel or building material.
By 1300, the forest cover of Europe had been reduced to about .
Maya Civilization
Described as an "almost totally engineered landscape" that supported a flourishing agriculture and rapid population increase.
Rapid population growth pushed total Maya numbers to perhaps 5 million or more and soon outstripped available resources, resulting in deforestation and the erosion of hillsides.
Climate change led to prolonged droughts in the 800s, placing an unbearable strain on Maya society.
Comparing Civilizations
Civilizations shared common features but were not carbon copies.
Some developed written languages and substantial bodies of literature; others did not.
Some showed little sign of sharp class divisions; eventually, almost all civilizations came to embody these features.
Civilizations Structure
China: highest ranking to an elite bureaucracy of government officials, drawn largely from the landlord class and selected by their performance on a set of examinations; supported by a vast mass of peasant farmers who were required to pay taxes to the government and rent to their landlords.
India: Gave priority to religious status and ritual purity, for the priestly caste known as Brahmins held the highest rank, whereas China elevated political officials to the most prominent of elite positions.
The caste system divided Indian society into vast numbers of distinct social groups based on occupation and perceived ritual purity
Slavery
At the bottom of the social hierarchy in all civilizations were enslaved people, often debtors or prisoners of war.
The extent of slavery varied considerably.
It was central to Greek and Roman civilizations.
Patriarchy
Patriarchy, or male dominance, was common to the social life of all civilizations, but it too varied from place to place and changed over time.
Range and Extent of Influence
Roman civilization dominated the Mediterranean basin.
Chinese civilization has directly shaped the cultural history of much of eastern Asia.
Islamic civilization represented the most expansive, influential, and pervasive presence throughout the entire Afro-Eurasian world between roughly 650 and 1450.
Patriarchy: Then and Now
Civilization and patriarchy have long gone hand in hand.
Patriarchy means the "rule of the father," suggesting male dominance and female subordination in private and public life.
Ancient cultures all over the world had strict concepts and expectations of women, including many cultures assigning women little or no rights at all.
Ancient patriarchies
Urged men to behave kindly toward women and to offer protection to the "weaker sex."
Few women rose to prominence in political or cultural life.
Few critiques or direct challenges to patriarchy arose.
Challenges to patriarchy
In the past several centuries, fundamental challenges to male dominance have arisen.
European Enlightenment: Condorcet looked forward to the "complete destruction of the prejudices which have established an inequality of rights between the two sexes."
Feminist movement in Europe and North America
Focused on securing the right to vote.
Communist regimes in Russia and China rejected many patriarchal traditions.Feminism has globalized and radicalized, attacking patriarchy on a wide range of issues.
Patriarchy Today Overview
Politically, women have gained the right to vote in every country and have achieved the highest office in some countries.
Educationally, the gender gap in literacy rates has decreased sharply, and women outnumber men in university enrollment globally.
Economically, women have entered the paid workforce in large numbers.
Saudi Arabia became the last country in the world to allow women to drive in 2018.
Persistent challenges to patriarchy
Gains have varied widely around the world.
Child marriages remain prevalent, particularly in South Asia.
Islamic "fundamentalism" has been associated with a reassertion of male control over women.
The Catholic Church remains an all-male hierarchy.
Erosion of patriarchy has spurred a backlash against feminism.
Civilizations and Cultural Traditions
Civilizations differed in their cultural or religious traditions.
These traditions provided a common identity, made inequalities legitimate, and stimulated movements that challenged those in power.
They enabled ordinary people to endure sufferings, shaping their meanings and providing moral guidance.
Afro-Eurasian World by 1200
Major cultural traditions of the Afro-Eurasian world had long been established.
Hinduism and Buddhism; Confucianism and Daoism; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-all of them had taken shape in the centuries between 600 B.C.E. and 700 C.E.
South Asian Cultural Traditions: Hinduism
Few cultures were as fundamentally religious as that of India.
Hinduism is the oldest, largest, and most prominent religious tradition in India.
It had no historical founder and grew over many centuries as an integral part of Indian civilization.
Although it later spread into Southeast Asia, Hinduism was not a missionary religion.
Hinduism was never a single tradition, but rather contained a vast diversity of gods, spirits, beliefs, practices, rituals, and philosophies.
Emerging Hindu religious tradition
Emphatically polytheistic, embracing a vast diversity of gods and goddesses.
A priestly caste known as Brahmins presided over the sacrifices, offerings, and rituals that these deities required.
Indian thinkers argued for a unified understanding of reality.
Upanishads: a collection of sacred texts composed by largely anonymous thinkers between 800 and 400 B.C.E.
Essential ideas of the Upanishads
These texts elaborated the idea of Brahman, the World Soul, the final and ultimate reality, infusing all things.
The immense diversity of existence that human beings perceived with their senses was but an illusion.
Fundamental assertion: the individual human soul, or atman, was in fact a part of Brahman.
Hinduism Goal of Humankind
To achieve union with Brahman, putting an end to our illusory perception of a separate existence.
This was moksha, or liberation.
Achieving this state involved many lifetimes and the notion of samsara, or rebirth or reincarnation, became a central feature of Hindu thinking.
Law of Karma
Human souls migrated from body to body over many lifetimes, depending on the actions of individuals.
Karma: Pure actions, appropriate to one's station in life, resulted in rebirth in a higher social position or caste.
Caste became a measure of spiritual progress.
Paths to Final Release
Knowledge/study, doing ordinary work without regard to consequences, devotion to a deity, or extended meditation practice.
Brahmin priests and wandering ascetics or holy men, who had withdrawn from ordinary life to pursue their spiritual development spread these ideas.
South Asian Cultural Traditions: Buddhism
A philosophical Hinduism was emerging; another movement took shape in South Asia that soon became a distinct and separate religious tradition-Buddhism.
Unlike Hinduism, this new faith had a historical founder, Siddhartha Gautama.
Siddhartha Gautama
(ca. 566-ca. 486 B.C.E.), a prince from a small kingdom in north India or southern Nepal.
Enjoyed a sheltered and delightful youth until he encountered human suffering.
Determined to find the cause of such sufferings and a remedy for them.
Left his luxurious life at 29, shed his royal jewels, cut off his hair, and set off on a quest for enlightenment.
He then became the Buddha, the man who had awakened.
Much of the Buddha's teaching reflected the Hindu traditions from which it sprang.
Buddha's teachings
Suffering or sorrow was derived from desire or craving for individual fulfillment, from attachment to that which inevitably changes, particularly to the notion of a core self or ego that is uniquely and solidly “me.”
In the "eightfold path," emphasized a modest and moral lifestyle, mental concentration practices (meditation), and wisdom/understanding of reality as it is.
Nirvana
Enlightenment, or nirvana, an almost indescribable state in which individual identity would be “extinguished" along with all greed, hatred, and delusion.
The enlightened person would experience serenity, even in the midst of difficulty, as well as compassion for all beings.
Simplified Hinduism
The idea that ordinary life is an illusion.
Concepts of karma and rebirth.
The goal of overcoming the incessant demands of the ego.
The practice of meditation.
The hope for final release from the cycle of rebirth.
Challenges to prevailing Hindu thinking
Rejecting the religious authority of the Brahmins, the Buddha ridiculed their rituals and sacrifices, stating they were irrelevant to the hard work of dealing with one's suffering.
Nor was he much interested in abstract speculation about the creation of the world or the existence of God.
Individuals had to take responsibility for their own spiritual development with no help from human authorities or supernatural beings.
Early Version of Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism (Teaching of the Elders) portrayed the Buddha as immensely wise teacher and model, but certainly not divine.
The gods, though never completely denied, played little role in assisting believers in achieving enlightenment.
Mahayana Buddhism
Enlightenment (or becoming a Buddha) was available to everyone within the context of ordinary life.
It might occur within a single lifetime rather than over the course of many lives.
Emphasis on compassion-the ability to feel the sorrows of other people as if they were one's own.
Enlightenment Through Compassion
Compassionate religious ideal found expression in the notion of bodhisattvas, fully enlightened beings who postponed their own final liberation in order to assist a suffering humanity.
The historical Buddha himself became something of a god, and earlier and future Buddhas were available to offer help.
Buddhism became the first major tradition to spread widely outside its homeland.
Tibetan Buddhism
Began to take shape during the seventh century C.E.
It gave special authority to learned teachers, known as Lamas, and emphasized awareness of and preparation for death
A section of these texts became famous in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which vividly describes the various stages of transition from life to death to rebirth.
Decline of Buddhism in India
Growing wealth of monasteries.
Economic interests of leading Buddhist figures separated them from ordinary people.
Hostility of the Brahmin priests.
Competition from Islam after 1000 C.E.
Bhakti Movement
Devotion to one or another of India's many gods and goddesses.
Moving northward between 600 and 1300 c.E., it featured the intense adoration of and identification with a particular deity through songs, prayers, and rituals.
It invited all to an adoration of the Divine, pushing against gender hierarchies of Indian society.
Bhakti practice vs intellectuals
Through good deeds, simple living, and emotionally fulfilling rituals of devotion, individuals could find salvation without a complex institutional structure, orthodox doctrine, or prescribed meditation practices.
Had a rich poetic tradition that flourished especially in the centuries after 1200.
*I left shame behind, took as an ornament the mockery of local folk."
Hindu tolerance
The proliferation of gods and goddesses, and of their bhakti followers, occasioned very little friction or serious religious conflict.
Hinduism could more readily assimilate other religions instead of rigidly excluding them
Chinese Cultural Traditions: Confucianism
At the far eastern end of the Eurasian continent, Chinese civilization gave birth to two major cultural traditions that have persisted into the modern era, Confucianism and Daoism.
These Chinese outlooks were less overtly religious, were more philosophical, and were oriented toward life in this world.
Confucianism
Based on the thinking of Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.).
Confucianism became the official ideology of the Chinese state and remained so into the early twentieth century.
Rooted not in force, law, and punishment, but in the power of moral behavior for dealing with a country's disorder
Chinese Society Relationships
Consisted of unequal relationships:
Father and son.
Husband and wife.
Older brother and younger brother.
*Ruler and subject.
If the superior party behaved with sincerity and genuine concern, the inferior party would respond with deference and obedience.
The family became a model for political life.
Filial piety, the honoring of one's ancestors and parents, was valuable and a training ground for the reverence due to the emperor and state officials.
Key to Nurturing Morality
Education, particularly immersion in language, literature, history, philosophy, and ethics, all applied to the practical problems of government.
Ritual and ceremonies conveyed the rules of appropriate behavior.
Serious personal reflection and a willingness to strive continuously to perfect his moral character were essential for the "superior person."
*As China's bureaucracy took shape during and after the Han dynasty, Confucianism became the central element of the educational system, which prepared students for the examinations required to gain official positions.
Confucian importance on history
The ideal good society lay in the past.
Those ideas also injected a certain meritocratic element into Chinese elite culture.
Chinese examination systems helped create a more fluid social structure.
Mandate of Heaven
Emperors should keep taxes low, administer justice, and provide for the material needs of the people.
Those who failed forfeited the Mandate of Heaven, which granted legitimacy to the ruler.
Under such conditions, natural disaster, famine, or rebellion followed.
Confucian character
Marked Chinese elite culture by its secular or nonreligious character.
Confucius taught about human relationships, effective government, and social harmony.
Secular perspective on religion
Members of the Chinese elite generally acknowledged that magic, the gods, and spirits were perhaps necessary for the lower orders of society, but educated people would find them of little help.
China embraced Confucianism in other parts of East Asia, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.
Chinese Cultural Traditions: Daoism
A quite different school of thought also took shape, known as Daoism.
It was associated with the legendary figure Laozi, who penned a short poetic volume, the Daodejing (The Way and Its Power).
Thinking goes counter to Confucian, who had emphasized the importance of education and earnest striving for moral improvement and good government
Daoist Thinking in the Face of Chaos
Daoists urged withdrawal into the world of nature.
Daoist Concept of "dao"
Dao is elusive and refers to the way of nature, the underlying and unchanging principle that governs the endless transformation of all things.
Invited people to withdraw from the world of political and social activism and align themselves with the way of nature.
Daoism focused more so on nature and its mystical ways, whereas Confucianism focused on relationships and morality.
Simple living, limited government, and the abandonment of education and active efforts at self-improvement.
Elite Opinion of Daoism
Widely regarded by elite Chinese as complementing rather than contradicting Confucian values.
Thus a scholar-official might pursue the Confucian project of "government by goodness" during the day, but behave in a more Daoist fashion upon returning home.
Chinese concept of yin and yang 2119018706
Expressed a belief in the unity or complementarity of opposites.
Daoism, Confucianism, and Legalism were all Chinese philosophies on what to do in the ever-changing world.
Became a part of Chinese popular religion.
Sought to tap the power of the dao for practical uses.
Came to include magic, fortune-telling, and the search for immortality.
Yellow Turban Rebellion
Imagined a utopian society without the oppression of governments and landlords.
Middle Eastern Cultural Traditions: Judaism and Christianity
From the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, emerged three religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
All revered key Abrahamic biblical character called Abraham. Known as Abrahamic faiths as result.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims affirmed a distinctly monotheistic faith in spite Middle East religious diversity. This was a radical region innovation.
Began with Judaism and Jews, while its Christian and Muslim expressions created the possibility of a universal religion, open to all of humankind.
Judaism Uniqueness
From Judaism's early days among less significant region residents- Hebreews, later known as Jews; came concept of God demanding excusive loyalty, setting the stage for monotheistic beliefs.
Over time, God evolved into a lofty, transcendent deity but the Jews also experienced their God as a divine person and available.
Transformed from a god of war to a god of social justice and compassion.
Became a singular, transcendent, personal concept
Of world historical thought, the contribution from Jewish religion influence on the later Abrahamic faith Christians and Islamic thoughts.
Christianity
Began in a distinctly Jewish cultural setting.
Jesus of Nazareth, a young Jewish craftsman (ca. 4 B.C.E.-29 C.E.) teaching brief before authorities executed him.
Transformed form one of the world's most obscures into widely practiced religion
Challenged conventional values of the time, urging the renunciation of wealth and self-seeking.
Emphasized the supreme importance of love/compassion as basis for moral life.
Jesus' teachings galvanized many of his followers into a social movement that so antagonized and threatened both Jewish and Roman authorities that he was crucified as a political rebel.
Distinct Faith
Christianity soon emerged as a separate faith through Saint Paul conversion.
New message of Jesus,was for everyone, as Paul argued to both jews and non-Jews to listen.
Christianity spread gradually within the Roman Empire, strangest and most offensive feature to the Romans was Christians exclusive, offensive monotheism and antagonism to all other supernatural powers.
Conversion from Roman Empire
Caused tag to Christians, or atheisis to happen. Led Roman goverments to intermittent persecution of Christians during the first three centuries of the Common Era.
*Perpetua, Christian Martyr
Emperor Constantine conversion in the early fourth century C.E and proclamation of Christianity as the state religion in 380 C.E. was a great deal to its further existense
Further Christian Expansion
About the same time the new faith also gained official status in Armenia, located in the south Caucasus region east of Turkey, and in Axum, an African state in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In fact, during the first six centuries of the Christian era, most followers of Jesus lived in the Middle East and in northern and northeastern Africa.
*Developed an elaborate hierarchical organization, with patriarchs, bishops, and priests-all men-replacing the house churches; immense geo-graphic reach for churches.*Division contrib-uted to the later split between the Latin, or Roman Catholic, and the Greek, or Eastern Orthodox, branches of Christendom, a division that continues to the pres-ent. Thus by 1200 geographically extensive but also politically and theologically very diverse and highly fragmented
Zooming in on Perpetua
Born in 181 C.E. in the North African city of Carthage, Perpetua hailed from an upper-class Roman fam-ily and was quite well educated
By embracing Christina faith and then imprisonment, she had become the key for future generations on the importance of what it means to follow what you believed, and the impact those faith had upon others.
For her beliefs to this world and this moment would give much to the christian population a reason to believe that there fight was worth it no matter how dangerous things had become.
Role Model for Christians
Despite personal family relations and distraught. Eventually lead her to be killed, and then made a role models who had been forever honored in that aspect
.
Middle Eastern Cultural Traditions: Islam
The world historical significance of Islam, the religion in the three Abrahamic faith was enormous. Islam push what to become central in world and Arabic history to language
The religion of Islam reached to Africa, India, Asia and other places to seek a huge impact of Islam. Within arabia was the drew civilization, Persians, turkey and others.
Islam was known known as the Dar al-Islam, the house or the abode of Islam the Arabian Peninsula from which Islam emerged was a land of pastoral people, but it also contained some regions, many Christians lived among the Arabs, and their monotheistic ideas became widely known.
Founding of Islam
The catalyst for the emergence of Islam was a single individual, Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (570-632 C.E.) a trader from Mecca. Muhammad had had an overwhelming experience that led him to spread god scriptures that even Muslim believe to be holy and worth following.
*
Quran
*It was a revolutionary message that Muhammad conveyed, the Quran, became the sacred scriptures of Islam, which to this day most Muslims regard as the very word of God and the core of their faith, traditions from traditions influenced form what we know today.
*Over and over again the Quran denounced the prevailing social practices of an increasingly prosperous Mecca the exploitation of the poor, the charging of high rates of interest on loans for corrupt business deals, the abuse