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https://studentshare.org/history/1652018-religious-diffusion-in-the-early-medieval-era.
Religious diffusion in the early medieval eraReligious diffusion is a well-attested phenomenon that is scholarly considered controversial. Baghdad grew speedily into the “world’s navel” when caliph al-Mansur of the Muslims was established as the Abbasid Dynasty’s capital city. The spread of the Islamic religion gives us an excellent example of how both the empire and the religion intertwined to develop the foundation of modern social geography in the world. On the other hand, Chinese Buddhism or Christianity for which most empires acted as the major expansion drive; Islamic itself is the religion, which led to formation of many empires1.
The Islamic ascent from Arabia unified all the territories, which were between the other universal religions (Christianity and Buddhism) and unified the world in unpredictable forms.The only empire that resisted these universalizing faiths was the Tang Empire. Both Christianity and Buddhism resembled one another in important ways. Christianity could emphasize on how things of these earth are not essential, urging people to concentrate on their spiritual destiny as well as focusing on the divinity.
It served as a major cultural revolution in the entire history of the west. Unsurprisingly, Christianity just like Buddhism brought essential monastic movement whereby people especially the holy ones decided to live in a spiritual manner as well as serving their religion2. Christianity is similar to Buddhism, which spread in China while emphasizing that there is a possibility of afterlife and specifying the responsibilities that the holy leaders were to take in order to help them attain the goals and objectives.
However, Christianity had a different favor from that of Buddhism. Unlike the Buddhism and Islamic, Christianity placed a great stress on the structure and organization of the church. Christianity also greatly emphasized on widespread conversions and missionary activities3. The three religions suggested almost a similar work process. In essence, Buddhism teachings exemplarily show cultural diffusion took place in the medieval world history.BibliographyRobert Tignor, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron, Stephen Kotkin, Suzanne Marchad.
Worlds together, worlds apart: From 600 to 1850 (New York; London: W.W. Norton, 2011).
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