The Roman Empire is a wonder of the world! It spread across Europe and Africa. to Asia. It had vast territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates River. This vast empire is still a subject of curiosity for many people. As a subject of history and literature, the Roman Empire has emerged as an inevitable consideration in many ways.
As the story of the rise is written in those texts, so is the account of the fall. As all kingdoms fall, so did this great empire. In the year 476 – about a hundred years before the birth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
The Roman Empire was divided into two parts — the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. But the Roman Empire refers to the Eastern Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire was dissolved in 476 AD and consigned to the dustbin of history. After that, the Eastern Roman Empire retained all the memories and traditions of the Roman Empire. Needless to say, the Eastern Roman Empire is also known as the Byzantine Empire.
This information is not available in the Historian Bin. It was abolished in 1453 AD by the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih. This Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire are called Rome in Islamic history. This is mentioned in the Holy Quran.
Muslims were fighting with the Roman Empire since the dawn of Islam. The historic Battle of Muta—then the Battle of Tabuk—was fought with the Romans during the Prophet’s lifetime. Thus the struggle of Muslims with the Romans continued even during the Khulafay Rashidin, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ottoman caliphates. In other words, all the wars of Islam took place within this Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire.
Because, they have been standing as opponents with power and conspiracy, envy and opposition against the true and beautiful call of Islam worldwide. There were many other adversaries of the Muslims, but these were the main adversaries of the Muslims then—and still today.
Emperor Constantine Before knowing anything about the Roman Empire, it is necessary to know something about Emperor Constantine. Emperor Constantine was the son of the Western Roman Emperor Constantius I.
When Constantius died on a visit to Britain, the soldiers immediately proclaimed Constantine emperor there. He ruled Britain and Gaul for six years. On the other hand, another claimant to the throne, Maxentius, ruled Rome.
Constantine defeated and killed Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. Just before the start of the battle he saw—the sign of the cross on the clouds in the sky; The incident inspired him to convert to Christianity. He then introduced the policy of religious tolerance and stopped the persecution of Christians.
In 324, he defeated Licinius, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and became the ruler of the entire empire. A year later he convened the first conference of the heads of the Christian churches in Nicaea, or present-day Engir, Turkey.
Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from pagan Rome to the new city of Constantinople in 330. The city was built in the countryside of Byzantium, now Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul.
When Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to his new city of Constantinople in 330, he not only changed the center of power—he also paved the way for the continuation or maintenance of the Roman Empire after the fall of Rome in 476.
Constantinople was located next to the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. For administrative convenience, Emperor Diocesan divided Rome into East and West. Although this objective of partition was temporarily successful, the distance between the two states was increasing day by day. Instead of stopping the attack of the foreign enemy at once, they were often in a mess of resources and armies.
Thus the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire continued to build mountains of wealth day by day; On the other hand economic famine began to surround the Latin-speaking West; Even the Eastern Roman Empire pushed the barbarians westward against them.
Constantine and his successors ensured that Eastern Rome was protected as much as possible from enemy attack, But no action was taken regarding the Western Roman Empire. In this way, the political structure of the Western Empire gradually collapsed in the fifth century.
On the other hand, the Byzantine or Eastern Empire survived until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Historians call the Eastern Roman Empire the Byzantine Empire. During the reign of Justinian I between 527 and 565, the empire expanded far and wide. His powerful generals Narses and Belisarius expanded the empire to Anatolia or the peninsula, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, southern Spain, and parts of Italy.
In the years following Justinian’s death, the Byzantine Empire gradually declined. One of Justinian’s successors was Emperor Heraclius. He ruled the Byzantine Empire from 610-641 AD. was then The Age of Prophethood Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave him a letter inviting him to Islam.
It is unknown to us that Heraclius’s position was in a corner in view of the invitation of the Messenger; He had lost the ability to win public opinion in favor of his opinion by handling public pressure. Understandably, Emperor Heraclius was also one of the rulers of the shrinking Byzantine Empire.
However, a clear contraction of the Byzantine Empire appeared in 1071. After the Byzantine Emperor Romanos was defeated by the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arsalan in the historic Battle of Manzikert. Because, this victory established the authority of the Seljuks in Anatolia and the Seljuk’s empire gradually expanded there; By contrast, the Byzantine Empire gradually shrank. This contraction continues to increase day by day; under Seljuk rule. By the time of Ottoman rule, it took the form of a final decline.
Fall footsteps Christianity had its own characteristics in the Byzantine Empire; Its guardian was the Eastern Orthodox Church. This empire was a developed center of knowledge, science and art, and culture. It spread to southern Europe. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, was the guardian of the Latin-speaking countries of Western Europe under the defunct Western Roman Empire. As a result, even in this regard, a hostile mentality of Western European countries was working with the Byzantine Empire.
Pope Innocent III called for the Fourth Crusade in 1198. The Western European nations called on him to rescue Jerusalem, but the power struggle between Western Europe and the Byzantines led the Crusaders to replace the Byzantine Emperor Alexander III with his nephew, and they succeeded. The time was 1203 AD. In turn, the new emperor Alexius IV met with strong resistance when he attempted to subjugate the Byzantine Church to Rome. He was killed in a palace coup in 1204.
The western crusaders did not want to miss the opportunity. They attack Constantinople instead of Jerusalem. This Constantinople was then the divine city of the world; The huge and beautiful capital of the Byzantine Empire. The city was captured and completely sacked by the Latin Crusaders. Many of the buildings of the Eastern Orthodox Church, a rival of the Western Roman Church, were set on fire and destroyed. The priests and nuns of the church were subjected to unspeakable torture. Thus ended the Fourth Crusade.
The Fourth Crusade of 1204 was the epitome of a blow to the waist of the Byzantine Empire. Since then this empire began to collapse. They struggled to deal with a small empire like Seljuk-e Rome, founded on the land of the Byzantine Empire. In 1961, under Emperor Michael VIII, the economy of the Byzantine Empire began to collapse, and it never regained that status.
The Ottoman Empire was established in 1299 after the dissolution of the Seljuk Empire. Gradually began to expand the kingdom in Anatolia or Asia Minor. In 1345, the Ottomans crossed Asia to Europe to aid the Byzantine Emperor John Cantakuzen. The civil war was going on at that time.
The Ottomans began to strengthen their position quickly by setting foot in Europe. By 1400, after a series of campaigns, they conquered Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. To shrink the Byzantine Empire, they brought it to the outskirts of Byzantium or Constantinople. Its area then was equal to the area of present-day Turkey.
In 1369 Emperor V even sought financial aid from Latin-speaking western Europe to counter the growing Ottoman threat, But he failed. The rise of the Ottoman sultan Murad II in 1421 marked the end of the Byzantine Empire’s final retreat, although Byzantium was briefly defended by the Mongol warrior Timur Long. He was a descendant of Chodan Man. In 1402 he destroyed most of the Ottoman Empire. give Even after his death, civil war continued in the Ottoman Empire.
The sun went down Muhammad II, the privileged son of Sultan Murad II, was tutored by Shaykh Aq Shamsuddin, a famous elder of that time, from childhood. “Soon you will conquer Constantinople; How good is the conquering army, and how great is its commander” – he used to recite this hadith repeatedly to the young Muhammad. Thus the Shaykh sowed the seeds of conquering Constantinople in Muhammad’s heart at an early age; And that’s what happened.
In 1451, the adamant and amiable Sultan Muhammad II emerged victorious and ascended the throne of the Ottoman Empire. In 1453 he besieged Constantinople with 150,000 soldiers. His large artillery bombarded the city for 6 weeks and attacked the Turkish army on land and Turkish ships from three sides.
According to European sources, the last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI had eight thousand soldiers. Nevertheless, they put up an impregnable resistance and were able to hold out for fifty-four days before the Ottomans finally attacked. Emperor Constantine was already killed.
The Ottomans conquered the city and made it the capital of their empire and named the city Islambul, later Istanbul, meaning the city of Islam. He was awarded the title of ‘Al-Fatih’ in history after wearing this victory garland. The Byzantine Empire fell with the conquest of Constantinople. With this fall, the sun of the great Roman Empire, which had lasted for about eleven hundred years, set forever.
It should be noted that all the countries that were included in the Byzantine Empire at that time are: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria; Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Georgia, Greece; Syria, Iran, Libya; Lebanon, Palestine, Israel; Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia; Spain, Tunisia, Turkey; Ukraine and Vatican City. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, most of these countries later came under the Ottoman Empire.
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