Willie Manning
UX_DESIGN
UX_DESIGN_105_PAPER
The Byzantines and Sasanians fought with each other a reflection of the rivalry between the
Roman Empire and the Persian Empire seen during the previous five hundred [Link]
Byzantine-Sasanian rivalry was also seen through their respective cultures and
[Link] Byzantines considered themselves champions of Hellenism and
[Link], the Sasanians thought themselves heroes of ancient Iranian
traditions and of the traditional Persian religion, [Link] Arabian peninsula
already played a role in the power struggles of the Byzantines and [Link]
Byzantium allied itself with the Kingdom of Aksum in the horn of Africa, the Sasanian
Empire assisted the Himyarite Kingdom in what is now Yemen (southwest Arabia).Thus the
clash between the kingdoms of Aksum and Himyar in 525 displayed a higher power struggle
between Byzantium and Persia for control of the Red Sea [Link] wars soon
became common, with the Byzantines and Sasanians fighting over upper Mesopotamia and
Armenia and key cities that facilitated trade from Arabia, India, and [Link], as the
continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire, continued control of the latter's territories in
the Middle [Link] 527, this included Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and [Link] in
603 the Sasanians invaded, conquering Damascus and [Link] was Emperor Heraclius who
was able to repel these invasions, and in 628 he replaced the Sasanian Great King with a
more docile [Link] the fighting weakened both states, leaving the stage open to a new
[Link] nomadic Bedouin tribes dominated the Arabian desert, where they worshiped
idols and remained in small clans tied together by [Link] and agriculture was
limited in Arabia, save for a few regions near the [Link] and Medina (then called
Yathrib) were two such cities that were important hubs for trade between Africa and
[Link] commerce was central to city-life, where most inhabitants were
[Link], some Arabs saw it fit to migrate to the northern regions of the
Fertile Crescent, a region so named for its place between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
that offered it fertile [Link] included entire tribal chiefdoms such as the Lakhmids in a
less controlled area of the Sasanian Empire, and the Ghassanids in a similar area inside of
Byzantine territory; these political units of Arab origin offered a surprising stability that
was rare in the region and offered Arabia further connections to the outside [Link]
Lakhmid capital, Hira was a center for Christianity and Jewish craftsmen, merchants, and
farmers were common in western Arabia as were Christian monks in central [Link]
pre-Islamic Arabia was no stranger to Abrahamic religions or monotheism, for that
matter.=== Islamic caliphate ===
While the Byzantine Roman and Sassanid Persian empires were both weakened by warfare
(602–628), a new power in the form of Islam grew in the Middle [Link] a series of rapid
Muslim conquests, Arab armies, led by the Caliphs and skilled military commanders such as
Khalid ibn al-Walid, swept through most of the Middle East, taking more than half of
Byzantine territory and completely engulfing the Persian [Link] Anatolia, they were
stopped in the Siege of Constantinople (717–718) by the Byzantines, who were helped by
the [Link] Byzantine provinces of Roman Syria, North Africa, and Sicily, however,
could not mount such a resistance, and the Muslim conquerors swept through those
[Link] the far west, they crossed the sea taking Visigothic Hispania before being halted
in southern France in the Battle of Tours by the [Link] its greatest extent, the Arab
Empire was the first empire to control the entire Middle East, as well three-quarters of the
Mediterranean region, the only other empire besides the Roman Empire to control most of
the Mediterranean [Link] would be the Arab Caliphates of the Middle Ages that would first
unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and create the dominant ethnic identity that
persists [Link] Seljuq Empire would also later dominate the [Link] of North Africa
became a peripheral area to the main Muslim centres in the Middle East, but Iberia (Al-
Andalus) and Morocco soon broke away from this distant control and founded one of the
world's most advanced societies at the time, along with Baghdad in the eastern
[Link] 831 and 1071, the Emirate of Sicily was one of the major centres of
Islamic culture in the [Link] its conquest by the Normans the island
developed its own distinct culture with the fusion of Arab, Western, and Byzantine
[Link] remained a leading artistic and commercial centre of the Mediterranean
well into the Middle [Link] was reviving, however, as more organized and centralized
states began to form in the later Middle Ages after the Renaissance of the 12th
[Link] by religion and conquest, the kings of Europe launched a number of
Crusades to try to roll back Muslim power and retake the Holy [Link] Crusades were
unsuccessful but were far more effective in weakening the already tottering Byzantine
[Link] also rearranged the balance of power in the Muslim world as Egypt once again
emerged as a major power.=== Islamic culture and science ===
Religion always played a prevalent role in Middle Eastern culture, affecting learning,
architecture, and the ebb and flow of [Link] Muhammad introduced Islam, it jump-
started Middle Eastern culture, inspiring achievements in architecture, the revival of old
advances in science and technology, and the formation of a distinct way of life.
