1. The right to pursue legal action
The Justinian code was very beneficial for the women in Byzantium, and the main reason why lots of laws about the women were implemented was the influence of Justinian's wife. Summarized, the multiple laws of the Justinian code were protective toward the women and they equalized them with the men in many ways. With the protection of the law, the women were able to pursue legal actions if someone was mistreating them or abusing them.
2. Wealthy families competing for power with the emperor weakened the emperor's ability to rule
During the last stages of its existence Byzantium was in a terrible situation. Instead of being united politically and economically as it always was, and which was the prime reason why it survived for so long, it was the total opposite. Multiple wealthy individuals were trying to become more powerful in certain areas of the empire, thus diverging from the central authority, the emperor. This started gradually to cause big problems, weakened the country, and distracted it from the dangers lurking out of its borders. This was used by the foreign forces, so little by little they were conquering parts of the empire until at the end Constantinople was conquered and Byzantium seized to exist.
3. Missionaries and sultans
Merchants and conquerors
The Islam started to spread in India very early after its rise, but the process was very small and on local level. The initial spread of Islam in India was conducted by merchants and missionaries that were constantly coming on the western coast of India. Some of them settled and created small communities, managing to influence few other people to convert. The bigger influence was done by the conquerors and sultans that managed to conquer pretty much all of the northern half of the sub-continent, and while they ruled they converted lot of people, big portion of which forcefully.
4. Islamic architecture
Greek architecture
The crescent moon is symbol that has been widely used in the Islam and the Islamic architecture for more than five centuries now. This symbol though has been used by other civilizations much earlier than the existence of any Islamic state, such as the ancient Greeks and by Byzantine which used it as a symbol for the goddess Diana. The Greek architecture has spread around large region so lots of other civilizations have incorporated elements of it in their architecture. The Taj Mahal is a nice example of this, where the crescent moon on the top of the finial can be seen as influence of both the Islamic and the ancient Greek architectures.
5. Theodora
Justinian was an emperor that didn’t trusted lot of people, and his wife was also his best friend and his primary advisor. Theodora was a woman with very strong personality and she was an excellent diplomat, so no wonder Justinian used the qualities of his wife in order to be a better ruler. Theodora’s influence can be easily seen in the famous Justinian code, where she advised and persuaded her husband to make the women more equal to men, to give them the rights that the men have, and to stop the discrimination and abuse over them. She can be seen as a proper role model for a feminist.
6. Once Constantine accepted Christianity, the Roman Empire became the center of the new faith’s growth
The Roma Empire had two very contracting relations with the Christianity. First, the Roman Empire was the biggest enemy of the new faith, with the Christians being persecuted and killed. But then Emperor Constantine decided to convert and become a Christian. Once he converted he made the Christianity the official religion of the empire, so now the pagans were persecuted and killed. The Roman Empire from being the biggest enemy became the bastion of the new faith from where it grew further and spread around Europe.
7. Abu Bakr’s empire controlled the three most sacred cities in Islam
Abu Bakr was a caliph that had his reign after the death of the prophet Muhammad. He managed to expand the empire over all of the Arabian Peninsula as well as Levant and Israel. By having this territory in the empire, Abu Bakr actually managed to have control over all of the three sacred cities in the Islam. These three cities are Mecca and Medina on the Arabian Peninsula, and Jerusalem in Israel. This gave the empire much greater political power, especially with the incorporation of Jerusalem in it, but it also was a reason for major conflicts with the Christians from Europe in the years to come.
