Purpelia wrote:An interesting contrast to this are the former Byzantine territories where conversion was largely seen as a political move in order to secure grants and alliances from the Eastern Romans. Which seems to me to be what the mass top down conversion mechanics are representing.
It's specifically based on the mass conversion of the Rus' under Vladimir I.
It is my understanding that they kept flourishing well into the Islamic age largely because of needing to spread somewhere better.
I might be wrong here.
Well, yes and no.
The Church already had a presence as far east as China before the advent of Islam. Christianity was over 600 years old by the time of Muhammad, so it had plenty of time to spread throughout most of the known world as a result. The issue was it couldn't gain as much traction in the east as it did in the west primarily because of the Persian Empire; which acted as a roadblock against eastern expansion since it had little tolerance for Christianity (which was largely seen as a "Roman" thing and they didn't exactly like the Romans). There was also the issue that Christianity was far less appealing to the other organized religions of the age (Taoism, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism) than it was to disorganized pagan religions. The exception was Judaism, as Jews were far more likely to convert to Christianity than the others on account of Jesus (according to us Christians) being the long-awaited messiah whereas the other organized religions lacked a direct connection to Christianity and the One God of Abrahamism. Had Islam never entered the picture, Christianity likely would have eventually taken over Persia as it's monotheism and it's beliefs in general were more in-tune with Zoroastrianism than the other eastern religions. It likely would've involved identifying Jesus as the Saoshyant or some-such.
But anyway, the Persian Bulwark sort of stopped the major spread of Christianity eastward until it was stomped by the Caliphate. Islamic law basically says to treat people who follow other religions as second-class citizens and is essentially designed to ensure these religions remain a continuously dwindling minority that will eventually die off as it's adherents convert to Islam in order to receive better and more equal treatment in Islamic society. This strategy made it more likely for conquered peoples to convert as well as nullify the spread of other religions in the Caliphate. This created a bit of push for the Church of the East, in which many began fleeing from the Caliphate and it's discriminatory laws. Some fled to the West and the safety of Christendom, but others went east to find sanctuary in already established Christian communities that were outside the reach of the Caliphate and thus helping them to grow.
It's not that they fled and founded new communities, but rather that they fled to already existing communities and helped them flourish.
Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 3:03 pm
