WotW Chapter 10: Christian Contraction (pgs 411-415)

Summary

By 1500, Christianity's earlier Asian and African communities had significantly contracted due to the rise of Islam. In Arabia, early Christian communities were largely replaced, and in the Middle East, Islam's spread led to a diminished Christian presence. In Syria and Persia, Christians were often second-class subjects. Nestorian Christians in China faced political challenges, and in Africa, coastal communities declined, though Ethiopia remained a Christian stronghold. Despite Islam's expansion, Ethiopian Christianity thrived, isolated yet distinct with its own unique practices.

Takeaways

• 🌏 By 1500, Christianity had become predominantly European due to the rise of Islam, which led to the contraction of Christian communities in Asia and Africa.
• 🕌 The rapid spread of Islam and the establishment of the Arab Empire significantly contributed to the decline of early Christian and Jewish communities in the Middle East.
• 🏰 In Arabia, early Christian communities were largely replaced within a century after Muhammad's death, with the construction of the Grand Mosque of Sana’a using materials from a destroyed cathedral.
• ⛪️ In Syria and Persia, Christians were generally allowed to practice their faith privately after paying a special tax, but they faced varying treatment depending on local rulers.
• 📜 The Nestorian Church, known as the Church of the East, survived in certain regions but as a shrinking and regulated minority, often abandoning religious art to avoid offending Muslims.
• 🇨🇳 A Nestorian Christian community in China, which had integrated Buddhist and Daoist concepts, declined due to Chinese political shifts against foreign religions, not directly due to Islam.
• 📉 In Africa, coastal Christian communities faced extinction as Islam expanded, although in Egypt, Christians continued to practice their faith as a protected minority for centuries.
• 🏰 Nubian Christianity thrived for a time but eventually succumbed to pressures from Islamized tribes and Arab migrants, leading to its decline by 1500.
• 📚 Ethiopian Christianity remained an exception, surviving as a Christian island in a Muslim sea, with its rulers tracing their lineage to Jesus and developing unique religious practices.
• 🏰 Ethiopian rulers constructed underground churches in the 12th century, attempting to create a New Jerusalem, reflecting their isolation and distinctive religious development.

Q & A

What was the primary factor contributing to the contraction of Christianity in Asia and Africa by 1500?

The primary factor was the rise of Islam, which led to the contraction of Christendom in Asia and Africa, leaving Europe as the principal center of the Christian faith.

How did the birth of Islam affect early Christian communities in Arabia?

The birth of Islam led to the decimation of earlier Christian communities in Arabia, with only a few Christian groups remaining within a century or so after Muhammad’s death in 632.

What was the significance of the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem for Christians and Jews?

The Dome of the Rock was constructed on a site that is sacred to both Christians and Jews. For Christians, it was a place Jesus visited, and for Jews, it contained the stone associated with Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac. The construction was a demonstration of Islam's victory and the establishment of the Islamic state.

What was the general policy towards Christians in Syria and Persia after the Arab conquest?

In Syria and Persia, accommodating policies generally prevailed. Christians were allowed to practice their religion largely in private, in return for payment of a special tax, and their communities were guaranteed the right to practice their religion.

How did the Nestorian Christian communities of Syria, Iraq, and Persia adapt to the rise of Islam?

The Nestorian Christian communities survived as shrinking communities of second-class subjects, regulated minorities forbidden from propagating their message to Muslims. They also abandoned their religious paintings and sculptures to avoid offending Muslims.

What was unique about the Nestorian Church in China and how did it adapt to local culture?

The Nestorian Church in China used Buddhist and Daoist concepts to articulate the Christian message. It referred to Christianity as the 'Religion of Light from the West' and used terms like 'Cool Wind' for God and 'bad karma' for sin.

Why did the Christian community in China decline despite the initial approval from the Tang dynasty rulers?

The contraction of the Christian community in China was due to the mid-ninth century Chinese state's turn against all religions of foreign origin, including Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

How did the expansion of Islam impact African Christianity, particularly in coastal North Africa?

The expansion of Islam led to widespread conversion to Islam in coastal North Africa, reducing Christian communities to virtual extinction over several centuries.

What was the situation of Christianity in Egypt after the Muslim conquest around 640?

Christianity had become the religion of the majority in Egypt by the time of the Muslim conquest. For the next 500 years, large numbers continued to practice their religion as dhimmis, legally inferior but protected people paying a special tax under relatively tolerant Muslim rulers.

How did the Ethiopian Christian community maintain its existence despite the pressures from Islamic expansion?

Ethiopian Christianity survived as a Christian island in a Muslim sea, protected by its mountainous geography and distance from major centers of Islamic power. It developed distinctive features, including a fascination with Judaism and Jerusalem, and maintained a presence in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

This paragraph discusses the decline of Christianity in Asia and Africa by 1500, largely due to the rise of Islam. It highlights how Islam's rapid spread and the establishment of the Arab Empire led to the contraction of Christian communities. In Arabia, early Christian communities were decimated, and in other parts of the Middle East, Islam's impact was felt as Muslim forces took control of sacred sites like Jerusalem. Accommodating policies in Syria and Persia allowed Christian communities to survive but as second-class subjects. The Nestorian Church in China, known as the 'Religion of Light from the West,' faced challenges not from Islam but from Chinese politics, leading to its decline. The Mongol conquest offered a brief resurgence, but with the Ming dynasty, Christianity in China almost vanished.

05:00

🌍 African Christianity and Its Challenges

The paragraph explores the defensive stance and decline of African Christianity in the face of expanding Islam. It details how widespread conversion to Islam in North Africa reduced Christian communities. In Egypt, despite initial tolerance, Christians faced suspicion and violence, leading to a significant conversion to Islam and the decline of the Coptic language. However, a Christian minority persisted, especially in urban areas and monasteries. In contrast, Nubia saw the rise of a new Christian center, with the translation of the Bible and the construction of a cathedral. Despite initial victories against Arab incursions, pressures from Islamized tribes and Arab migrants led to the decline of Nubian Christianity by 1500. Ethiopia, however, remained a Christian island, protected by its geography and historical ties with Judaism and Jerusalem. Ethiopian Christianity developed unique features, including a connection to Solomon and the construction of underground churches resembling Jerusalem.

10:00

🏰 Ethiopia's Unique Christian Heritage

This paragraph focuses on the unique development of Christianity in Ethiopia, which became a Christian island surrounded by a Muslim sea. The rulers of Axum adopted Christianity in the fourth century, and it deeply rooted in the population. Despite the spread of Islam, Ethiopia's mountainous geography and distance from Islamic centers allowed it to maintain its Christian identity. Ethiopian Christianity developed distinctive features, including a fascination with Judaism and Jerusalem, as reflected in stories about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. Ethiopian rulers could trace their ancestry to Jesus, legitimizing their rule. Ethiopian monks maintained a presence in Jerusalem, and in the twelfth century, a new Ethiopian dynasty constructed a series of underground churches, attempting to create a New Jerusalem. Today, over 60% of Ethiopia's population remains affiliated with this ancient Christian church.

Keywords

💡Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. In the context of the video, it is discussed as a faith that originated in Asia and Africa but contracted significantly due to the rise of Islam. The video outlines how Christianity became a largely European religion by 1500, with its earlier communities in Asia and Africa diminished or dissolved, which is a central theme of the narrative.

💡Islam

Islam is another monotheistic faith that emerged in the Middle East and spread rapidly across the Afro-Eurasian world. The video emphasizes the impact of Islam's expansion on the contraction of Christianity in Asia and Africa, as it led to the decline or dissolution of many Christian communities, particularly in regions that came under Muslim rule.

💡Arab Empire

The Arab Empire refers to the empire established by the Arab people, which became a powerful entity following the spread of Islam. In the video, the creation of this empire is mentioned as one of the conditions that led to the contraction of Christian communities in the regions it conquered, such as Arabia, Syria, and Persia.

💡Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is a Muslim shrine in Jerusalem, constructed by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik. It is significant in the video as a symbol of Islam's appropriation of a site sacred to both Jews and Christians, marking the arrival of Islam and its impact on the region's religious landscape.

💡Dhimmis

Dhimmis refers to non-Muslim subjects living under Islamic rule who were granted a special status. The video discusses how Christians in Egypt and other regions became dhimmis, allowed to practice their religion but as second-class subjects, often paying a special tax and facing restrictions.

💡Nestorian Christianity

Nestorian Christianity is an early Christian tradition that was particularly strong in the Middle East and Asia. The video describes how Nestorian communities survived in areas like Syria, Iraq, and Persia, but as shrinking and regulated minorities, and also how a Nestorian Church was established in China, illustrating the far-reaching influence of this Christian tradition before its contraction.

💡Mongol Conquest

The Mongol Conquest refers to the period when the Mongol Empire, known for its religious tolerance, conquered parts of Asia, including China. The video notes that this period offered a brief opportunity for the renewal of Christianity in China, as Mongol rulers welcomed Christians alongside followers of other faiths.

💡Coptic Christianity

Coptic Christianity is the Christian tradition of Egypt, named after the Copts, who are the native Christian population of the country. The video discusses how Coptic Christians faced challenges under Islamic rule, including periods of persecution and forced conversion, leading to a significant decline in their numbers.

💡Nubian Christianity

Nubian Christianity refers to the Christian communities in the kingdoms of Nubia, south of Egypt. The video highlights how Nubian Christianity flourished for a time, with its own distinctive culture and practices, but eventually contracted due to pressures from Islamic expansion and changing political dynamics in the region.

💡Ethiopian Christianity

Ethiopian Christianity is the Christian tradition of Ethiopia, which has a long and continuous history dating back to the fourth century. The video describes Ethiopia as a Christian island in a Muslim sea, protected by its geography and political circumstances. It also discusses the unique features of Ethiopian Christianity, such as its connection to Judaism and the construction of underground churches resembling Jerusalem.

Highlights

Christianity by 1500 had become largely a European faith due to the rise of Islam.

Islam's rapid spread across Afro-Eurasian world led to the contraction of Christianity in Asia and Africa.

In Arabia, early Christian communities were largely decimated within a century after Muhammad's death.

The construction of the Grand Mosque of Sana’a marked the replacement of Christianity with Islam in southern Arabia.

The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was built on a site sacred to both Jews and Christians.

In Syria and Persia, Christians were generally allowed to practice their religion in private after paying a special tax.

Christian communities in Syria sometimes saw positive relations with Muslim rulers, with churches being built and Christians recruited into various roles.

Nestorian Christian communities survived in Syria, Iraq, and Persia but as shrinking, regulated minorities.

A Nestorian Church in China, using Buddhist and Daoist concepts, was approved by the Tang dynasty.

The 'Jesus Sutras' refer to Christianity as the 'Religion of Light from the West' and used Buddhist terms to articulate Christian beliefs.

Chinese politics, not Islam, led to the decline of Christianity in China during the mid-ninth century.

The Mongol conquest of China in the thirteenth century briefly offered a chance for Christianity's renewal.

In Africa, coastal North African Christian communities were largely reduced by widespread conversion to Islam.

In Egypt, Christianity was the majority religion until the Muslim conquest, after which Christians became a protected but legally inferior minority.

Violent anti-Christian pogroms in the mid-fourteenth century in Egypt led to a significant conversion to Islam.

Nubian Christianity in southern Egypt thrived for centuries but declined under pressures from Islamized tribes and Arab migrants.

Ethiopia remained a Christian island in a Muslim sea, protected by its geography and early adoption of Christianity.

Ethiopian Christianity developed unique features, including a fascination with Judaism and a claim of descent from Jesus through Solomon.

Twelfth-century Ethiopian rulers constructed a series of underground churches to create a 'New Jerusalem'.

Over 60 percent of modern Ethiopia's population remains affiliated with the ancient Christian church.

Transcripts

Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa How had Christianity become by 1500 a largely

European faith, with its earlier and promising Asian and African communities diminished,

defeated, or dissolved?

The answer, in large measure, was Islam.

The wholly unforeseen birth of yet another monotheistic faith in the Middle East, its

rapid spread across much of the Afro- Eurasian world, the simultaneous creation of a large

and powerful Arab Empire, the emergence of a cosmopolitan and transcontinental Islamic

civilization — these were the conditions, described more fully in Chapter 9, that led

to the contraction of Christendom in Asia and Africa, leaving Europe as the principal

center of the Christian faith.

Asian Christianity It was in Arabia, the homeland of Islam, that

the decimation of earlier Chris tian communities occurred most completely and most quickly,

for within a century or so of Muhammad’s death in 632, only a few Chris tian groups

remained.

During the eighth century, triumphant Muslims marked the replacement of the old religion

by using pillars of a demolished Chris tian cathedral to construct the Grand Mosque of

Sana’a in southern Arabia.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, other Jewish and Chris tian communities soon felt the impact

of Islam.

When expanding Muslim forces took control of Jerusalem in 638 and subsequently constructed

the Muslim shrine known as the Dome of the Rock, that precise location had long been

regarded as sacred.

To Jews, it contained the stone on which Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice

to God, and it was the site of the first two Jewish temples.

To Chris tians, it was a place that Jesus had visited as a youngster to converse with

learned teachers and later to drive out the money changers.

Thus, when the Umayyad caliph (successor to the Prophet) Abd al-Malik ordered a new construction

on that site, he was appropriating for Islam both Jewish and Christian legacies.

But he was also demonstrating the victorious arrival of a new faith and announcing to Chris

tians and Jews that “the Islamic state was here to stay.”

In Syria and Persia, with more concentrated populations of Chris tians, accommodating

policies generally prevailed.

Certainly, Arab conquest of these adjacent areas involved warfare, largely against the

military forces of existing Byzantine and Persian authorities, but not to enforce conversion.

In both areas, however, the majority of people turned to Islam voluntarily, attracted perhaps

by its aura of success.

A number of Christian leaders in Syria, Jerusalem, Armenia, and elsewhere negotiated agreements

with Muslim authorities whereby remaining Christian communities were guaranteed the

right to practice their religion, largely in private, in return for payment of a special

tax.

Much depended on the attitudes of local Muslim rulers.

On occasion, churches were destroyed, villages plundered, fields burned, and Chris tians

forced to wear distinctive clothing.

By contrast, a wave of church building took place in Syria under Muslim rule, and Christians

were recruited into the administration, schools, translation services, and even the armed forces

of the Arab Empire.

In 649, only fifteen years after Damascus had been conquered by Arab forces, a Nestorian

bishop wrote: “These Arabs fight not against our Chris tian religion; nay rather they defend

our faith, they revere our priests and Saints, and they make gifts to our churches and monasteries.”

Thus the Nestorian Chris tian communities of Syria, Iraq, and Persia, sometimes called

the Church of the East, survived the assault of Islam, but they did so as shrinking communities

of second-class subjects, regulated minorities forbidden from propagating their message to

Muslims.

They also abandoned their religious paintings and sculptures, fearing to offend Muslims,

who generally objected to any artistic representation of the Divine.

But further east, a small and highly creative Nestorian Church, initiated in 635 by a Persian

missionary monk, had taken root in China with the approval of the country’s Tang dynasty

rulers.

Both its art and literature articulated the Christian message using Buddhist and Daoist

concepts.

The written texts themselves, known as the Jesus Sutras, refer to Christianity as the

“Religion of Light from the West” or the “Luminous Religion.”

They describe God as the “Cool Wind,” sin as “bad karma,” and a good life as

one of “no desire” and “no action.”

“ People can live only by dwelling in the living breath of God,” the Jesus Sutras

declare.

“All the Buddhas are moved by this wind, which blows everywhere in the world.”

The contraction of this remarkable experiment owed little to Islam, but derived rather from

the vagaries of Chinese politics.

In the mid-ninth century, the Chinese state turned against all religions of foreign origin,

Islam and Buddhism as well as Christianity.

Wholly dependent on the goodwill of Chinese authorities, this small outpost of Christianity

withered.

Later the Mongol conquest of China in the thirteenth century offered a brief opportunity

for Christianity’s renewal, as the religiously tolerant Mongols welcomed Nestorian Chris

tians as well as people of various other faiths.

A number of prominent Mongols became Chris tians, including one of the wives of Chinggis

Khan.

Considering Jesus a powerful shaman, Mongols also appreciated that Chris tians, unlike

Buddhists, could eat meat and, unlike Muslims, could drink alcohol, even including it in

their worship.

But Mongol rule was short, ending in 1368, and the small number of Chinese Christians

ensured that the faith almost completely vanished with the advent of the vigorously Confucian

Ming dynasty.

African Christianity The churches of Africa, like those of the

Middle East and Asia, also found themselves on the defensive and declining in the face

of an expanding Islam.

Across coastal North Africa, widespread conversion to Islam over several centuries reduced to

virtual extinction Chris tian communities that had earlier provided many of the martyrs

and intellectuals of the early Church.

In Egypt, however, Christianity had become the religion of the majority by the time of

the Muslim conquest around 640, and for the next 500 years or so, large numbers continued

to speak Coptic and practice their religion as dhimmis, legally inferior but protected

people paying a special tax, under relatively tolerant Muslim rulers.

Many found Arab government less oppressive than that of their former Byzantine overlords,

who considered Egyptian Christians heretics.

By the thirteenth century, things changed dramatically as Chris tian Crusaders from

Europe and Mongol invaders from the east threatened Egypt.

In these circumstances, the country’s Muslim rulers came to suspect the political loyalty

of their Chris tian subjects.

The mid-fourteenth century witnessed violent anti-Chris tian pogroms, destruction of churches,

and the forced removal of Chris tians from the best land.

Many felt like “exiles in their own country.”

As a result, most rural Egyptians converted to Islam and moved toward the use of Arabic

rather than Coptic, which largely died out.

Although Egypt was becoming an Arab and Muslim country, a substantial Christian minority

persisted among the literate in urban areas and in monasteries located in remote regions.

In the early twenty-first century, Egyptian Chris tians still numbered about 10 percent

of the population.

Even as Egyptian Christianity was contracting, a new center of African Christianity was taking

shape during the fifth and sixth centuries in the several kingdoms of Nubia to the south

of Egypt, where the faith had been introduced by Egyptian traders and missionaries.

Parts of the Bible were translated into the Nubian language, while other writings appeared

in Greek, Arabic, and the Ethiopian language of Ge’ez.

A great cathedral in the Nubian city of Faras was decorated with magnificent murals, and

the earlier practice of burying servants to provide for rulers in the afterlife stopped

abruptly.

At times, kings served as priests, and Christian bishops held state offices.

By the mid-seventh century, both the ruling class and many commoners had become Christian.

At the same time, Nubian armies twice defeated Arab incursions, and following these defeats

an agreement with Muslim Egypt protected this outpost of Christianity for some 600 years.

But pressures mounted in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as Egypt adopted a more

hostile stance toward Chris tians, while Islamized tribes from the desert and Arab migrants pushed

against Nubia.

By 1500, Nubian Christianity, like its counterparts in coastal North Africa, had largely disappeared.

An important exception to these various contractions of Asian and African Christianity lay in Ethiopia.

There the rulers of Axum had adopted Christianity in the fourth century, and it subsequently

took root among the general population as well.

Over the centuries of Islamic expansion, Ethiopia became a Chris tian island in a Muslim sea,

protected by its mountainous geography and its distance from major centers of Islamic

power.

Many Muslims also remembered gratefully that Christian Ethiopia had sheltered some of the

beleaguered and persecuted followers of Muhammad in Islam’s early years.

Nonetheless, the spread of Islam largely cut Ethiopia off from other parts of Christendom

and rendered its position in northeast Africa precarious.

In its isolated location, Ethiopian Christianity developed some of its most distinctive features.

One of these was a fascination with Judaism and Jerusalem, reflected in a much-told story

about the visit of an Ethiopian Queen of Sheba to King Solomon.

The story includes an episode in which Solomon seduces the queen, producing a child who becomes

the founding monarch of the Ethiopian state.

Since Solomon figures in the line of descent to Jesus, it meant that Ethiopia’s Chris

tian rulers could legitimate their position by tracing their ancestry to Jesus himself.

Furthermore, Ethiopian monks long maintained a presence in Jerusalem’s Church of the

Holy Sepulcher, said to mark the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.

Then, in the twelfth century, the rulers of a new Ethiopian dynasty constructed a remarkable

series of twelve linked underground churches, apparently attempting to create a New Jerusalem

on Christian Ethiopian soil, as the original city lay under Muslim control.

Those churches are in use to this day in modern Ethiopia, where over 60 percent of the country’s

population retains an affiliation with this ancient Christian church.