Describe the changing relationship between the Arab peoples and the Byzantine and Sasanid Empires before Muhammad
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER:
Students should understand that the relationship between the Sasanid and Byzantine Empires and the Arab peoples set the stage for the rise of Islam. The Sasanids were an urbane and sophisticated kingdom in southwestern Iran. On their western frontier was the Byzantine kingdom, and along the desert frontier were the Arab groups. The Sasanids brought the Arabs into their political orbit by hiring them for protection from invasion. The relationship between the Byzantines and the Sasanids was characterized by frequent warfare but also by cultural and economic exchange through the Silk Road, on which the Arabs also excelled as merchants, supplying a trade in camels and guides. The Sasanids were Zoroastrians, and the Byzantines proclaimed Christianity as their official religion. These proclamations marked a fresh emergence of religion as an instrument of politics, setting a precedent for the subsequent rise of Islam as the focus of a political empire. The Arabs were also exposed to Christian beliefs as a result of religious conflict with the two kingdoms.
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