Compare and Contrast Islam & Rome

Compare and Contrast Essay

Imperial Rome and the Islamic Empire have similarities and differences regarding the methods of political control in the empires Classical period. Imperial Rome and the Islamic empire are different in the way religion affected the government and type of government, but were alike in how they were both authoritarian. Imperial Rome and the Islamic Empire were different in how the government and religion was intertwined. The majority religion in Rome was Christianity. Christianity is a monotheistic religion, which did not match with how the Romans perceived their Emperor. The Roman Emperor was viewed as a deity. This caused chaos in Imperial Rome. In the Islamic Empire the government was a Theocracy. In a Theocracy the priests are the highest in the class system. There was no difference in power between the government and religion. They were one in the same. This meant that the religious leaders were the political leaders. Theocracy intertwined government and religion into one. Another difference between the Islamic Empire and Imperial Rome was that Rome was a democracy and the Islamic Empire was a Theocracy. Imperial Rome had The Roman Republic. The Roman Republic was not a democracy. The real center of power in Rome was the Roman Senate. The Roman Senate was an advisory council. Later the Roman Republic failed and Rome became a democracy. The types of control in the two empires during the Classical period were different. Something that Imperial Rome and The Islamic Empire shared was that they were both authoritarian. This means that they favored or enforced strict obedience to authority. An example of how they were authoritarian is that in the Islamic Empire if you weren’t a Muslim but still followed a religion such as Christianity or Judaism you were considered one of the People of the Book. This allowed you to follow your religion with religious tolerance but with a tax paid to the government. In Rome the leader was an Emperor who enforced the laws. In the Islamic Empire they had to obey the Caliph during the
Caliphate. Both governments were strict and had laws that were enforced. The Islamic Empire and Imperial Rome had similarities and differences. They had both similarities and differences in how they kept political control in their empires during the Classical period. They were alike in the fact that they were authoritarian. They differed by how religion affected the government and what type of government they had in their empire.