124 Chapter 7
and south into Bohemia, Moravia, and what is now
Hungary. By the middle of the sixth century, they had
penetrated deep into the Balkan Peninsula. The Serbs,
Bulgars, and Vlachs then became involved in a long and
fruitful interaction with the Byzantine Empire. The
northern shores of the Black Sea, long the granary of
Greece and Asia Minor, remained a vital focus of
Byzantine diplomacy as well, and here, too, relations
were quickly established.
Contacts were not always peaceful, but the ties be-
tween Slavs and Byzantines were ultimately those of
economic self-interest. War, trade, and diplomacy
brought the Slavs within the larger orbit of Byzantium.
With their usual indifference to ethnicity, the Byzan-
tines accepted many of these people into the empire.
By the ninth century a number of emperors had been of
slavic origin, and Slavs of many sorts were firmly en-
trenched in the bureaucracy.
The churches, both eastern and western, made
every effort to convert those Slavs who lived outside
imperial territory. A bitter competition broke out be-
tween the Greeks and the Germans over whether the
Greek or Latin rites should triumph. In the end, the
Serbs and Bulgars were converted to the Greek rite by
Sts. Cyril and Methodius in the middle of the ninth
century. The Croats, Slovenes, Poles, and Czechs,
among others, accepted the Latin church. In each case,
the acceptance of Christianity appears to have been
part of a movement toward political consolidation.
During the ninth and tenth centuries Bohemia, Serbia,
and Croatia emerged as independent states, and Bul-
garia, which had existed in rudimentary form since the
seventh century, evolved into an empire that became a
serious threat to Byzantine power until the Byzantines
destroyed it in 1014.
Finally, at the end of the tenth century, Byzantine
missionaries converted Vladimir “the Saint,” ruler of
Kiev. Located on the Dnieper river, Kiev was the center
of a trading network that connected the Baltic and
Black seas and drew furs, amber, and wood from the
forests of central Russia. Scandinavian adventurers had
gained control of the city a century before. By
Vladimir’s time, Kiev was again thoroughly Slavic in
language and culture and the center of the first great
Russian state. The conversion of Kievan Rus ensured
that the eastern Slavs would adopt not only Greek
Christianity, but also the Greek alphabet and many ele-
ments of Byzantine culture. The connections forged in
these centuries between the Byzantine Greeks and the
Serbs, Bulgars, and Russians remain a powerful cultural
bond to this day.
Muhammad the Prophet
and the Origins of Islam
Islam is the other great society whose interaction with
Byzantium was to have profound consequences (see,
map 7.1). Islam is a religion, a civilization, and a way of
life. The word means submission, in this case to the
will of Allah, and the followers of Islam are known as
Muslims. Both the religion and the civilization based
upon it grew from the revelation granted to one man.
Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born about
570 in the Arabian caravan town of Mecca. He married a
wealthy widow named Khadija and became a merchant.
As he entered middle age he formed the habit of going
into the mountains to meditate and pray. There, in about
the year 610, the first of the teachings that make up the
Koran were revealed to him by the angel Gabriel. Three
years later, with his wife’s encouragement, he began to
preach, but Mecca was the center of an important pagan
cult, and the townspeople saw his activities as a threat to
their livelihood. In 622 he and his followers fled to the
nearby city of Medina. This hejira,or immigration, marks
the beginning date of the Muslim calendar. After a series
of battles and negotiations, the Prophet and his follow-
ers returned and Mecca became once again the spiritual
center of the movement.
The Koran is the scriptural basis of Islam, which, to
Muslims, supersedes the earlier revelations found in the
Jewish and Christian Bibles. It is supplemented by the
sunna,or tradition of the prophet, a collection of say-
ings attributed to Muhammad that are not thought to
be divinely revealed. The distinction is important be-
cause Islam is uncompromisingly monotheistic. As the
shahadaor profession of faith says: “There is no God
but God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” That is to
say, Muhammad is not regarded as divine but only as
the man through whom God’s will was revealed. That
revelation, embodied in the Koran, provides the
Muslim with a comprehensive guide to life and
thought that has the force of divine law.
Islam, like every other great world religion, eventu-
ally developed elaborate theologies, heresies, and
schisms, but its essence is simple. Its creed demands be-
lief in the one God, the angels, the revealed books, the
prophets, and the Day of Judgment. The Five Pillars, or
obligatory duties, are to recite the profession of faith;
pray five times daily; pay the zakator purification tax
for the benefit of the poor; fast during the month of
Ramadan, which commemorates the time in which the
Koran was “sent down”; and make a pilgrimage to
Mecca if wealth and family duties permit.