rome was a civilization that conquered many lands...

Justin Wu
period 2

Rome was a civilization that conquered many lands and had many harsh leaders while Islam was a religion that spread throughout the Arabian peninsula. although they are very far apart, the roman and the Islamic world can be compared and contrasted in many ways. Some of these aspects include how they worshipped their god, their technology, and the environmental about the two worlds. Rome and the Islamic world were different in the technological and environmental and the political ways but similar in the religious ways.


First of all, in the technological ways they were different and similar in many ways. They were different in the ways they got their water. The Romans built aqueducts, an aqueduct is a man made structure that brought freshwater to the city. (pg. 69) the Islamic peoples used a device that draws water from a river using two buckets. After the two buckets were filled up, they would have to bring the water back to Saudi Arabia, where they lived. This water lifting device is called a shadoof (shaduf, dhenkli, picottah or counterpoise-lift). (video) This shows that Romans and Muslims thought that it was a good idea to invent an object to lift water or bring the water to the civilization directly. Overall, Rome and the Islamic world both invented many wonderful and useful technological devices.


Next, they were similar and different ways in the social cultural ways. Both Rome and the Islamic world had a religion that believed in only one god. Romans believed in roman gods but then later on, they switched over to Christianity due to the fact that the prophet Jesus came and taught them to believe in only one god, god, and Muhammad the prophet taught that there should only be one god, Allah. If it weren't for Constantine, Christianity would not have spread throughout the roman empire, Constantine was the one who stopped the persecution of all Christians. (pg.54) Islam never changed over to any god, because they always stayed the same, they didn't have as many persecutions as Rome. Rome worshipped there gods in roman churches, on the other hand, Muslims worshipped their god in a mosque. this shows that both Romans and Muslims were really into religion if they actually spent the time to build the churches.if they weren't into religion they would just build a little worship tower in the middle of the city and let the people that want the religion to go to the center of the city and pray. in conclusion, Rome clearly had many differences int the area of religion


in the environmental area, the Rome and Islamic world had many differences because they were located in a different area. the roman empire was located on the Italian peninsula near the Mediterranean sea. so they had a good area for growing crops and good for irrigation. on the other hand, the Muslims were located on the Arabian peninsula which was in the desert so they had a hard time to get to the supply of water because the only water source was an oasis. (pg. 86) they probably had many fights between other places around the Arabian peninsula because the people would sometimes want more water than others so they would get into a fight because the other person wants water and there is not enough of it. all in all, the environmental differences are very obvious.


in conclusion, the roman and Islamic world both have many similarities and differences. Rome had many things in common with Islam but also many differences.





JUSTIN WU