Introduction |
Byzantium was the eastern part of the roman empire after the western part was conquered and occupied by the germanic tribes. While the western counterpart was experiencing demographic decline and decreasing agricultural productivity and wars, byzantium was enjoying its time. It was a highly urbanized empire with cosmopolitan cities like alexandria filled with libraries and other institutional organizations. It was also a very significant start point of christianity because during the reins of justinian, the sleepless emperor, he converted to christianity and carried out a grand construction project of a christian church called hagia sofia, which was turned into a mosque by the ottoman conquerors. because of this, christianity was widely accepted in the eastern side as the only official religion, which laid the foundation of its popularity in the future. However, when the conflicts among doctrines and power of control arose between the western and the eastern churches, they gradually went asunder and eventually separated from each other in 1054, forming the eastern orthodox church and the western catholic church. It is to be noticed that byzantium provided christianity with political stability and thriving economy to give it abundant support.