Since Islam came into being, it has clashed numerously with the already

established Christianity. Their rivalry has never ceased until today. Modern

Examples would be Bosnia and Lebanon. There were not only military clashes

but political as well as economical. Although, the rivalry was incredibly intense,

ironically, Arab or Islamic culture managed to severely influence the Christian

kingdoms. However, Christianity used all the advantages provided by Islam to

their advantage and through that they managed to keep the Arabs at bay.

Islamic civilization and its rise were thanks to one man and that is the last

prophet, Prophet Muhammad. Islam came into being in 622AD and it was the last

of the great civilizations. Islam managed to push the Arabs into a new kind of

community, which at the same time spread far beyond Arabia, Persians, Indians,

North African countries and parts of Europe came under its domination.

The Arabs managed to capture most of the most powerful economic

areas. In the Mediterranean their navy conquered Cyprus and crippled Byzantine

sea power. They first clashed with the Christians when they tried to besiege

Constantinople. In 711 they started their raids into Spain and in 716 they

conquered it. They tried to conquer France but the Franks under the leader

Charles Martel handed the Arabs their first defeat. From the end of the 7th

century till the middle of the 11th, the Mediterranean remained something of a

Muslim lake and western trade with East Asia wasn't cut off during these

centuries, it was significantly diminished and carried on in awareness of Muslim

dominance. ( Craig, Graham, Kagan, Turner, The heritage of western civ.

Pp323)

In the early Middle Ages the main power in Europe was always the Pope

and later in the 700's it was shared with Charlemagne. The combination of these

two managed to keep the Arab invasions at bay. But the Christians did benefit

with their contact with Islamic culture. The aggressiveness of the Arabs forced

western Europeans to rely on their own resources and to develop their own

heritage and culture.

By diverting the focus and energy's of the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs

prevented it from expanding into Western Europe allowing the Franks and the

Lombargs to gain power. And by controlling their Mediterranean Western access

to eastern trade and cultural influence was diminished. There was also a lot of

creative interchange between these two cultures. The Arab civilization taught

western farmers irrigation, the tanning of leather, refinition of silk and educated

their scholars. Down to the 16th century the basic gynecological and childcare

manuals were compilations of the famous Iranian Islamic scholars physician and

philosophers like Razi, Kharazmi and Ibm-Sina were still utilized. These scholars

made some of the greatest discoveries. For example Kharazmi discovered the

significance of alcohol in medications. ( Cargill, Menzont, Interaction of civ. Pp

561)

Relations between the two during those times were not always

antagonistic. In 802 Charlemagne received, from the caliph, Harun-al-Rashid, a

white elephant. In truth the Christians made not only a great amount of wealth of

their contacts with the Arabs with a whole deal of knowledge which led to their

ascendancy of power during the Renaissance years. Civilization in Western

Europe gained much more than it could have ever before.

Another fact about the Islamic civilization was that they were quite a

tolerant and practical race. Their tolerance of certain religions like the Jews

provided more distaste between the Christians and themselves. This was an

antagonism between the two until recently when the Arabs revolted against the

new state of Israel. ( Jacobs, Fisher, Einzholdt, Islamic Heritage, Pp 192)

There were times when Islamic culture actually managed to influence not

only the culture but the religion of the Christians as well. For instance, during the

siege of Constantinople in 730 when Leo III managed to repulse the invaders he

also got ideas to change certain parts of the Christian religion. He forebade the

use of images in Eastern churches and tried to enforce the ban in the West, even

though his efforts insulted the Western churches. ( www. UCLA

/index/essays/Islam/index.com )

In 1071, the Byzantine Empire was handed a major defeat by the Muslim

Seljuq Turks who soon, rapidly, overran the eastern provinces of the Empire.

After twenty years of steady Turkish advances, the Eastern Emperor asked for

Western Aid in 1092. The reply in three years was the launch of the first

Crusades. A century later ( 1204 ) the Crusaders would inflict more damage on

Constantinople and Eastern Christendom than all previous non-Christian

invaders had done.

The first crusade was a risky venture. But the Pope and the nobility, it was

to their advantage to send large amounts of nobles to fight, mainly because of

the small feuds back home between idle and restless noble youths. The nobility

also recognized the vast amounts of fortunes they could make in these wars.

However, in the first crusade, religion was almost the only motive encouraging

the crusaders apart from economics. The Christians thought the first crusade

was an immense success. The second crusade was a disaster. ( Craig, Graham,

Ozment, Turner, Heritage of world civ. Pp 347-350 )

In 1187, Saladin reconquered Jerusalem . The third crusade, in the 12th century,

enlisted the most powerful Western rulers like King Richard the lion heart of

England. But all it lead to was a lot of the people's tax money being wasted

Overall, the crusades were both a political and religious failure. However,

it did stimulate Western trade and interaction with the East.

The Arabs would not have been able to spread their beliefs in the

Mesopotamian areas if it wasn't for the already existing conflicts between the

different types of Christian sects. Even though they were all Semitic as a result,

many Egyptians and Syrian Christians, hoping for deliverance from Byzantine

oppression, may have welcomed the Islamic conquerors. Even though the

Muslims were quite tolerant of other religions, they were quite sensitive and tried

to maintain the purity of their religion and culture, the Arabs forbade mixed

marriages. Special taxes on conquered people encouraged them to convert to

Islam. ( Jacobs, Fisher, Einzholdt, Islamic Heritage, Pp 235-241)

The conclusion, which I have come by, is that Islam and Christianity

had nothing against each other except for economics and power. Although at one

point they fought with each other, mercilessly, their conflict has managed not to

only destroy but to create as well. Trade between the Eastern and Western side

of the world was one of the greatest interactions between the two. The Western

civilizations have managed to not only increase their material wealth but also at

the same time, gained immense knowledge, which helped them to develop at an

incredible pace. Knowledge which has increased their culture and development. I

think that throughout the centuries and millennia's conflict has usually been the

source of not only devastation but also incredible creation.