 |
| A Catholic cathedral in the Philippines |
A son of a carpenter, Jesus was born at about 4 or 6 BC
during the reign of Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. He assembled twelve
disciples to represent the twelve tribes of Israel and started his ministry at
about the age of 30. He preached about Jewish laws and religion and the eminent
coming of the kingdom of God. His activities were not seen favorably by the Jewish
religious leaders who considered him as a threat to the stability to the community.
His claim as a son of God was deem unacceptable and highly blasphemous. The
high priests plotted against him and succeeded in making Pontius Pilate, the
Roman governor of Judea order Jesus’ crucifixion.
Jewish and Roman authorities thought the death of Jesus would
put an end to his following. But his disciples and his followers even became
more devoted and firmer believer of him after his death. Jesus followers claimed
that they saw him resurrected as he had said and promised. And they were
willing to suffer or die for what they believed in. With their preaching and
healing of the people, the early Christians were able to gain adherents, and
soon they moved into the realm of the Roman Empire amid hardships and persecutions
armed only with their willingness to sacrifice and the strength of their
conviction. The promise of salvation, an eternal life for everyone and the
reported miracles and healing convinced people that the one Christian God is
superior to the pagans’ many gods which drove them to accept the new faith. And
soon Christianity became the wave of belief whose rise in momentum could not be contained by the Roman Empire, the mightiest power on earth at that time.
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who along with his
forces saw a sign in the sky before the battle at Milvian Bridge against Maxentius
on October AD 312 and attributed that vision for his victory in the battle. He
adopted to the new faith and became the first Roman emperor to convert to
Christianity. In AD 313 he issued an edict permitting Christians and people of
other faith to profess their belief without fear of persecution. In AD 380
Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire,
and this made the religion spread massively across the Middle East and much of
Europe.
 |
The extent of the Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor
Trajan. Photo credit: Tataryn at Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0Unported |
In AD 570 in Mecca, in Arabia Muhammad the prophet of Islam was
born. At age 25 he married a wealthy widow named Kadijah. In his retreats in a
cave in Mount Hira he encountered a being who told him to recite words. Afraid and
thinking that he was becoming mad, he told the matter to Kadijah who in turn
took him to Nofil, her Christian cousin. Nofil reassured Muhammad that what he
saw was Angel Gabriel and that what he told him was message from Allah or God. Her
words convinced Muhammad that he was indeed a messenger of Allah and that he
had a mission to spread Allah's words.
Muhammad started to establish his new religion called Islam at
Mecca at first. But locals as well the rulers were not interested, and they
were even hostile to him and his few followers so that they feared for their
safety. Muhammad and his followers fled to Medina in what Muslims called the event
as Hegira. In Medina he was able to convert people to Islam and soon he was
able to gain many followers. From Medina he returned triumphantly to Mecca where
people now accepted Islam as their faith. Muhammad died in AD 632, and at that
time Islam had already widely spread in Arabia. His successors called the caliphs
then took the task of spreading the message of Allah and Islam beyond the
borders of the Arabian Peninsula.
The caliphs propagated Islam by persuasion or by the sword overrunning
Christian territories in most of the Middle East. They also marched toward
northern India, Africa and Anatolia in present day Turkey. Christian Europe
would be a prize target for Islamic conquest.
Muslims under the Umayyad Caliphate composed of Moors,
Berbers and Arabs led by Tariq Ibn Ziyad crossed the strait of Gibraltar at
about AD 711. They then conquered the Visigothic Christian Kingdom of Spain and
in series of military campaigns controlled a vast region which they called Al-Andalus
or Andalusia. To spread Islam farther, the Muslim Moors advanced north but they
were defeated by Charles Martel, the Frankish leader in the Battle of tours in France
on October AD 732. Defeated, the Moors retreated to Spain where they ruled in
large part of that country for almost 800 years.
To protect pilgrims in the holy lands, to stop Muslim
incursions into Christian territories and to recover places conquered by the
Muslims in the Middle East, Christian kingdoms in Europe with the blessing of the
pope launched military expeditions or crusades to execute those missions. The
crusades were conducted from 1095 until 1291. However, the effort failed and
the Holy Land and the Middle East remained firmly under Muslim control.
Over time, in Spain the Christian kingdoms slowly regained much
of their lost territories from the Muslims in a crusade known as Reconquista.
The last straw for the Moors came with the marriage of King Ferdinand II of
Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castille. Their combined forces defeated Boabdil
or Sultan Muhammad XII of Granada on January 2, 1492. In the aftermath, the Moorish Sultan was sent
back to Morocco and all Muslims and Jews who would not convert to Catholicism were
expelled from Spain.
On May 29, 1453, Constantinople, Christendom’s second most
important city after Rome and the seat of the eastern Roman Empire which was also
known as the Byzantine Empire fell into the hands of the Muslim Ottoman Turks
under the leadership of the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II.
.jpg) |
A picture of the Hagia Sophia, a Christian Cathedral turned
into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. A photo by Dennis Jarvis
at Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 20 Generic. |
The event had a far-reaching impact to the world since Constantinople is situated strategically in the southeastern tip of Europe and beyond its coast
not far away is the northern tip of Anatolia or Asia Minor. Both places are
separated only by the narrow Strait of Bosporus which made that city an ideal transport
point for goods and people coming from Europe to Asia or vice versa for military,
commercial or other purposes. Muslim control of lands in the Middle East and
the fall of Constantinople made it difficult for goods such as silks, porcelains
and spices from India, China and the Far East to be transported to Europe via
the traditional silk route. And those that made their way into Europe became expensive.
European kingdoms particularly Spain and Portugal looked for
ways to get around the traditional but perilous routes to procure those desired
goods coming from the east. And they came up with the idea of sea travels as the alternative.
The execution of that concept ushered into the Age of Exploration or Age of
Discovery.
 |
Victoria, Ferdinand Magellan’s ship from a map of Ortelius (a public domain image) |
 |
An Age of Exploration era ship from a public domain image
titled “Half Moon in Hudson” |
The Age of Exploration which began in the 1400’s paved the way for the transport of goods and people from erstwhile unexplored lands to Europe and vice versa. This interaction also brought with it the exchange of ideas and technology as well as the transmission of communicable diseases. The Portuguese and the Spanish also discovered vast tracts of lands that they colonized. They brought people from Europe and had them settle in discovered new lands, and also profited from the slave trade which forcibly brought people from Africa to work as slave labor in the new world. This situation displaced the indigenous people and in some cases they were decimated by diseases carried by the Europeans. The movement of peoples from one place to another changed the demographic landscape of a place. The Age of Exploration was an era when European maritime powers spread their language, culture and the religion of Christianity to many parts of the world. Other European countries such as England, France and Netherland later participated in the exploration of uncharted or undeveloped land in continents such as the Americas, Australia and South East Asia. The exploration made by the Europeans gave rise to the birth of new countries in the New World and some of these countries such as the United States and others have even become stronger than their former mother countries.
 |
Slave Trade by Auguste Francois
Biard (a public domain image) |
Jesus is one of the greatest and most adored historical figures who ever lived. His teachings and deeds have profound influence in the lives and culture of billions of people. Christians believe that he is God’s fulfillment of the promised messiah in the Bible and the Son of God. On the contrary the Jews claim that he is not because he did not satisfy the criteria of being the Messiah. Muslims say that he is just a mere prophet. Others say that he is just a man like the rest of us. Divine or not, Jesus Christ is undeniably a figure who we can draw inspiration and emulation. He was a pacifist par excellence. His teaching of loving God, your neighbor including your enemies; the forgiveness of people who wronged us, not judging others for their fault and other teachings are acts of kindness that will bring good even to people with the hardest of heart. These teachings will always remain relevant and will stand to the test of time for many generations.
