During the sixth century the Christian Byzantine Empire was at its peak of ruling. Shortly later in the seventh century a new religion, Islam, emerged and expanded in the same region. Due to the short amount of distance between these opposing societies conflicts arose due to their religious differences, conquest of same lands, and cultural views. Islam greatly differs from Christianity through its foundations and beliefs. Islam has a holy city, Mecca, one must travel to at least once in their life as it states in the Quran and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam that the followers of this belief system must follow (doc A, B). Many travelers passed through Christian lands especially Jerusalem on their way to Mecca and interacted with them seeing how they practice their religion (doc. B, E). One major religious difference is that the pilgrimage to Mecca is like a cleansing journey (doc. B). As Ibn Jubayr refers to his pilgrimage in this document, he shows the importance of the journey and what effects it has on him as a Muslim. Muslims never felt welcome when they visited their second holy land, Jerusalem, because the ruling Christians refused to let them continue their Islamic practices in the city (doc. E). Usmah describes his time while trying to pray in a mosque in Jerusalem and how a Christian man disrupts him and makes him pray eastward instead of facing Mecca, which is where a Muslim is suppose to face during prayer; he is bias in that he doesn’t necessarily know the aspects of the Christian religion and assumes that Christians are rude and disrespectful people. The reason for this is because the views of Christianity are different as the resurrection of Jesus is associated with the sun rising and the sun rises in the east, however; for Muslims that is not the belief; it is to face Mecca as that is what Allah is telling the people (doc E). A useful addition document would be one that describes the Christian religion and its basic practices that could help further contrast the two religions. Not only do these two religions grow in the same region but they also conquer the same lands, although one conquers the other. The Byzantine Empire at its height controlled the Mediterranean Sea resembling that of the old Roman Empire (doc. I). Due to the focus of gaining the western part of the Mediterranean, the empire did not protect its eastern border which was confronted with the Islamic society (doc. I). Due to the rising Islamic society, all of North Africa, Spain and the Middle East was taken over and conquered from the Christian Byzantines (doc. C). Because of this expansion the two religions came directly into contact and the
