Editing Middle East (section)

=== Medieval History (500 - 1000) ===
[[image:Bazaar.png|thumb|300px|right|You want it? It's yours sadiq, so long as you have enough gold!]] 
In the 5-6th centuries the Middle East was separated into small, weak states loomed over by two vast empires - the Sasanian Empire of the Persians and the Byzantine Empire in Anatolia plus the Levant. The Byzantines and Sasanians dicked with each other as a neat reflection of the rivalry between the Roman and the Persian empires. The Byzantine-Sasanian rivalry was also seen through their respective cultures and religions. The Byzantines were the champions of Hellenism and Christianity while the Sasanians thought themselves heroes of ancient Iranian traditions and of the traditional Persian religion - Zoroastrianism.

Meanwhile, down south we have the Arabian Peninsula which largely was and continued to be a dustbowl of little importance. The nomadic Bedouin tribes dominated the Arabian deserts where they worshiped idols and were organised into small clans based on mutual kinship. There were scant cities and agriculture in Arabia except for Mecca and Medina (then called Yathrib) which were important hubs for trade between Africa and Eurasia with most citizens there being merchants - this all will become important VERY SOON.

Right around 620-30s there arose a new ofshoot of abrahamic religions - Islam, and it would become big, really big. The details on Islam can be found on the respective [[Mythology|page]] or on the other wiki, but the religion blew up FAST and in some 40 years after it's inception managed to conquer whole of Arabia, Persia and vast swathes of Byzantine empire. An interesting thing about Islam is that it's prophet Mohammad was also a military and political leader and while Jesus or Buddha left us general ethical and metaphysical messages, Mohammad was around for a bit longer and proscribed social and political tenets to the faith which gave rise to the concept of a Caliphate - a theocratic social polity that was to be the way to run things. The conquest stopped in the 750s as the new Caliphate ran out of steam and the usual fracturing between successors began after Muhammad was unalived, but Islam had by this time profiled itself as the pre-eminent socio-political and religious force in the Middle East under the various dynasties of the Caliphates. 

Shortly after Islam became the dominant religion in Arabia, the Muslim conquests expanded ''very'' rapidly east and west, spreading across all of North Africa and even into southern Europe, where they claimed the entirety of Spain for centuries and besieged large parts of Italy and France. The Byzantines and Franks successfully halted further expansion, but Caliphate still claimed enough territory to rival and eventually supersede the Byzantines. The wealth and power that came with it ensured that the formerly backwater state of Arabia would remain a powerhouse for years to come.

The Arabian islamic vanguard would continue to dominate the newly conquered and islamised lands for the next 300 years. When Muhammad introduced Islam it had a the effect of nearly erasing the other various Middle Eastern cultures, although it also inspired advances in architecture, science, technology, and the formation of a distinct way of life giving it overall a mixed heritage(Read: Mostly translating what the chad Greeks have developed for centuries). Islam also created the need for spectacularly built mosques to flex on their Abrahamic siblings which also created a unique form of architecture. Meanwhile, missionaries and warriors worked to [[Slavery|forcibly spread]] the religion from Arabia to North and Sudanic Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Mesopotamia area. This created a potent mix of cultures, especially in Africa, as converted kings and chiefs were a great source of slaves herded in thousands from the inland like Tippu Tip. Lastly, the "People of the Book" (Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians) were allowed to live although in second class conditions. This courtesy wasn't extended to members of polytheist religions or Buddhism, with those folks being given the option of convert or die. This period would be disrupted by two events - the arrival of Seljuks/Turks and the Crusades.