Climbing STEEP...................(social culture, technology, economy, environment, and political)

Climbing STEEP
The Differences and Similarities of Rome and Islam

Venture on your journey throughout Arabian peninsula, a harsh climate with dry wind stinging against your skin. Islamic culture is what you feel in the Arabian air.

Peacefully continue on the paved roads of Rome, and care to feel the Roman atmosphere, cool and collected.....

Visit the study of Rome and you will find it differing from the study of Islam. But surprisingly, there are as many similarities as there are to differences in the Roman and Islamic lands. They are similar in the area of technology, but different in the areas of social culture and the environment.

Rome was similar to Islam technologically. It is stated in the book that Rome constructed many buildings with domes, arches, vaults, and columns (pg 69). Islam had many mosques, which were places that Muslims came to worship, that had domes and columns, too (sacred-destinations.com). These facts show that Rome and Islam were alike in architecture since they both used domes and columns. Their comparison in technology is important because it shows that although Rome was on the Italian Peninsula and Islam grew from the Arabian Peninsula, they shared architectural structures. Rome and Islam may be two different matters, but they are similar in many ways, technology being only one of the few.

Even though some aspects of Roman and Islamic lands are similar, they are different in a wide range. One of the contrasting subjects is the social culture. The Romans worshipped many Roman gods and persecuted those of Christianity, who believed in only God (pg 51), while Islam was a belief in one God and disagreed on the belief of many gods (pg 88). This expresses the fact that Rome was an empire who believed in polytheism, a belief in many gods, which was unlike monotheism, Islam’s belief. The Roman and Islamic lands’ difference of religion made a change in the world of beliefs because some people, after believing in many gods, converted to the belief in one God when Islam emerged. Roman religion and Islamic beliefs show that their social culture contrasted with each other.

Another difference in the Roman and Islamic cultures is the environment. The Latins, or the first Romans, settled on land that "experienced cool, rainy winters" (pg 47). This was very different from where Islam grew, because Islam started on the Arabian peninsula, which was practically all desert and lacked rain(pg 85). The Muslims had to adapt to the harsh climate while the Romans went along in life with mild and satisfying weather. This shows the importance of environmental differences because it affected Roman and Islamic life. For example, the Romans were so active and social everywhere in the cool and Muslims were only active near an oasis, where water was available. The dissimilarities of environment changed many things about Roman and Islamic styles, and helped to make them both distinctive and prosperous.

Just like how many countries and cities are similar and different today, Roman and Islamic lands were alike and unlike in history. But one thing is concrete; the alterations and comparisons in technology, social culture, and environment influenced the lives of Romans and Muslims. These facts shaped history to become what the world is today.