STATE AND RELIGION IN AFRO-EURASIA

• How are the states and religion in the Islamic world described?

  the relationship is often described as strong
• • sulfis and shias disagreed about who should govern and how to interpret religious texts, so they provided different sources of religious authorities for rulers to align themselves with
• muslim intellectuals and scholars provided as judges in the services of sultans and other rulers. in return, the rulers funded islamic schools and temples
• the sufism movement was against islam beliefs so the shias and sunnis became united in their persecution of sulfis in their territories
• How were Buddhism and Hinduism different?

  1. Buddhism emphasized personal pathways to enlightenment, rather than gods and the authority of a priestly class
• Why did Buddhism and Daoism often prove troublesome for the Chinese state? What did the Song dynasty promote instead and why?

  • neither religion/belief emphasized obedience to the state
  • the song dynasty promoted confucianism, which emphasized the importance of social hierarchies and loyalties, including relationships between ruler and subject
• Rulers

  Political leaders
• Religious leaders

  Popes, priests
• Popes

  Were the essence of religious leaders and political figures, and they often competed with higher nobility
• Popes

  • Had almost the same powers as powerful kings did, and maybe even more control and influence
  • Could remove someone from a christian group and turn the christans against a person, which is what Pope Innocent IV did to Emperor Frederick II
  • But the emperors also had the power to expel any priests they wanted out of their country
• Christianity was too important to the population, and priests were too useful to the rulers, for a permanent break to occur
• The Catholic Chuches, who managed the many different powers in Western and Central Europe, were the glue of holding the cultural world together
• The Mongol Empire conquered people of many different religions across Eurasia. How did the Mongol state treat these conquered peoples?


  The Mongols generally embraced religious pluralism and tolerated it. They defended religious minorities, invited debate and exchange in their courts, and sponsored temples and churches of many different faiths
• How did belief systems impact society and the state from c. 1200 to 1450 CE?

  belief systems profoundly shaped societal structures and governance, as it influenced laws, cultural practices, and political authority. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, among others, provided moral frameworks and legitimized rulers' authority. They also sparked conflicts, such as the Crusades and religious wars, while fostering cultural exchanges through trade and conquest.
• During the medieval period, tensions between religious and secular authorities often led to conflicts over power and influence
• the medival struggles contributed to the development of ideas such as religious tolerance, the importance of individual conscience, and the need for separation between religious institutions and government
• These are fundamental principles in many modern societies
• two forms of christianity

  eastern orthodox and roman catholicism
• the byzantine empire practiced eastern orthodox
• roman catholicism

  • west

  • linked every states together
• decentralization and political fragmentation was the political flavor in europe. what were some systems they used?

  fuedalism and manorialism
• what is fuedalism?

  it is a system of allegiances between powerful lords, monarchs, knights

  • vassals received land from their lords in exchange for military service
• what is manorialism?

  • manor: piece of land owned by a lord which was then rented out to peasants who worked the land
  • peasants were bound to land and worked in exchange for protection from the lord and military forces (serfs)
• center of political and economie power was in hands of landowning lords (nobility)