Abi Madrid

Emami

Humanities I

Due: 2/27/19

2/26/19

The Impact of Beliefs

The impact of beliefs is an enduring issue because when people have different believe in different things than others, problems can break out, but sometimes instead of problems different things can occur such as unity in an empire looking to just conquer land and expand their empire, one religion protecting another as long as the rules are followed, and more religious power when switching the government from a monarchy to a theocracy. The impact of beliefs took place in the fall of the Roman Empire, during Mongol rule, and

A prime example of unity of religions in an empire looking to expand and conquer is the Mongol Empire. According to “Life in China under Mongol Rule: Religion” from the Asia for Educators, Columbia University, “Asian Topics in World History: The Mongols in China.”, an important legacy of the Mongols’ reign in China was their support of many religions. One religion that was supported by the Mongols was Islam. The Mongols built many mosques in China, recruited and employed Islamic financial administrators which led to good relations with the Islamic world beyond China, particularly in Persia and West Asia. Another religion the Mongols were captivated by was Buddhism. Mongols recruited a large number of Tibetan monks to help them rule China and promote the interests of Buddhism which led to an extreme increase in the number of Buddhist monasteries in China and the translation of Buddhist texts. The Mongols even supported and promoted Christianity, mainly because Khubilai Khan’s mother was an adherent to the religion. Although the Mongols did support many different religions, there was one religion that the Mongols refused to support which was Daoism. Daoists at the time were in a constant struggle with Buddhists which often led to actual pitched battles between the monks of the two religions which could have lead to fighting in the empire which would result in losing power, control, and causing unwanted chaos.

Just like supporting different religions an excerpt from “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” by Edward Gibbons in 1789 shows that in the mid-600s CE Islamic armies conquered vast regions in the Middle East, north Africa, and Europe which were not home to people who were Muslims. After conquering vast regions in the Middle East, north Africa, and Europe, Islamic Caliphates often made agreements with non-Muslims based on a document that originated in 637 and was the first of these agreements which was between one of the first and most powerful caliphs, Umar I, and the Christians of Syria. The agreements stated that Christians asked the Muslims for protection for themselves, their posterity, their possessions, and their co-religionists and in return for Muslim protection the Christians would obey rules such as, giving passengers and travellers a place to stay, not boast their religion and try to make other people have the same beliefs as them, and not striking any Muslims. If the Christian broke those rules, or any other rule that applied, then Muslims had the right to strip the Christian that broke the rules of their protection and treat them as an enemy and rebels. This led to a sort of peace in the empire and made it possible for the Islamic Caliphates to expand into Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia.