Influence of Christianity and Islam on Medieval Europe

CHIJIOKE MADUEWESI ID:9315 CHRISTIANITY In medieval Europe, major impacts from the fall of the roman empire still exists today. One of these religion is Christianity, which has made a staunch effect on medieval Europe. Christianity has been a major practice in Europe since the first century. It accounted for more than 76. 2% of the Europeans. Christianity introduced catholic churches in medieval Europe. These churches laid down meaningful influences, which has and is still aiding European countries till date.

These churches in medieval Europe somewhat lectured people, that their souls were conceived in sin, and also, these sinful souls could be saved if only they repented. This applied evenly to everyone with no exception, including the kings and queens. These churches taught the European to be charitable, a good example can be seen in the “Story of lady Godiva”, where she was honored by the population for her charity. The church also started schools in the west, a perfect example is the kings school in Canterbury, that is still operating today despite its Age (founded in 596).

The church, also Supplied hospitals for the sick, lame and injured to be catered for. These group of people, had their needs attended to by the nuns and monks of the church. Again, the church made available sanctuary for the oppressed and fugitives. ISLAM Islam, a religion with a strong pursuit for excellence wherever it finds its self. They served “Allah”, they took prayers very serious, praying five times daily, showing their zeal for righteousness and respect to “Allah”. Islam significantly were effective in different areas in the early ages of medieval Europe .

They gave major influences in various aspect of Europe, as in, Art, architecture, technology, language and many others. First, many words used in Europe were derived from islam. These words are based in major sciences such as mathematics, medicine, physics etc. Some of these words include; Algorithm derived from “Al-khwarizmis”, Algebra from “Al-jabr” etc . These words are still viable today, helping the mathematicians formulate equations in Europe. Furthermore, Arabic schools were created in Europe, in order to support the muslims in Europe to read and write in Arabic.

It also functioned to teach its language to people who are willing to transform to a different religion. Several Arabic books, written by great Islamic authors, aided major developments in medicine and physics. Avicenna, a renowned muslim author, famous for his book by the name “The canon of medicine” which influenced European Medicine and is still a standard medical text book in Europe. In this book, he brought up the idea of infectious/contagious diseases, that spread easily from person to person through air-borne. This has helped doctors today to completely eradicate or vaccinate specific carriers in Europe.

Also, Muhammad ibu Zakariye Razi, famous for writing books (encyclopedias), realeased his book by name “The comprehensive Book of Medicine”, which has carefully explained the distinctions between certain diseases such as measles from chicken pox, thereby, enabling the doctors to vividly discover the symptoms that cause them, also, prevents these doctors from mixing both. In physics, another popular author, Alhazer, wrote the “Book of Optics” (Ibu al-ttaytham) it was highly notable for its development and influence on the theory of vision and light, which has made major changes in the optic world of physics in medieval Europe.

In medieval Europe, Islamic arts were highly rated and decorative, thus, its high importation into Europe. Its designs featured man hunting and carvings, which indicate ancient renaissance art, which has been greatly acknowledged in Europe. However, it is fascinating to know that, home materials such as carpets and flower vase were introduced to Europe by islam. These carpets indicated wealth in Europe. They are still traded today, mainly by the aristocrats. Moreover, medieval Europe adopted their ideas of technology from the Islamic world.

These technologies include, astronomical devices, developed and refined by the Islamic world, which Europe admired and obtained. Other examples include; gearing in water clocks and crops. ROME Rome, one of the greatest empires known, respected for its violence, army and rule. They influenced the medieval. They brought about the advent of advanced weaponry in Europe. Most of the European weapons were collected from the world of rome and transformed into mass destruction devices. The Europeans took advantage of this, and used them in wars.

Today, Europe still has a standard class of weapons, used for protection in battles. Moreover, Roman civilization had an effect on the culture, language, architecture and the European government. In terms of language, the Romans spoke latin and latin is popularly spoken in Europe. They were also a major influence of classical architecture. In terms of religion, Constantine the great made Christianity a popular religion by restricting the killing of Christians. Now, Christianity is a major aspect in Europe.

Many of the cities presently in Europe were founded by the romans and also water system works such as plumbing was introduced by the romans in Europe. Many artistic works were gotten from rome, also, symbols and logos such as; eagle wings, coat of arms normally on flags were gotten from Rome which European flags still bear nowadays. Finally, European parents now name their children with latin names such as; Paulus, Julius, maria and Julia etc. This was a major contribution from in European countries today.