Christianity, according to Strayer, "contracted sharply in Asia and Africa even as it expanded in Western Europe and Russia" (410). Christianity became a largely European faith with its Asian and African communities diminished, defeated, and dissolved as a result of Islam (411). There were variations in the experience both the Asian and African Christian community had. Some examples of this have to do with Arabia, the Near East, and Coastal North Africa - when Islam took full force and spread widely, the voluntary conversion of Christians to Islamic faith followed. "In Egypt, however, Christianity had become the religion of the majority" (414). But by the 13th century, things ended up changing dramatically "as Christian Crusaders from Europe and Mongol invaders from the east threatened Egypt" (414). In result, those who were Christian experienced oppression. Strayer also writes about Byzantine Christendom and how the Byzantium continued the patterns of the classical Roman Empire. They continued in the patterns of "late Roman" with its roads, taxation system, military structures, imperial court, and laws. Toward the latter part of the chapter, Strayer states that the "western half of the European Christian world followed a rather different path than that of the Byzantine Empire" (424). Even after the Roman empire had collapsed, the "prestige" of things Roman still remained high. With new kingdoms rising, feudalism also emerged as a warrior elite of landowning lords exercised many forms of power. As for gender roles, women were required to weave cloth and make clothing for the lord while men worked in the lord's fields. But by 1300, a lot of independence was absent as there were more restrictions on women. "Restrictions on women hearing confessions, preaching and chanting the Gospel were now more strictly enforced" (432-433). This part of the chapter also mentioned how new universities emerged where only men could study and teach. It was interesting to read about how the factors of gender inequality resulted in single-sex education, reminding me (again) of my research project from last year. I studied the life of Sophie Germain and how she used a male name to learn mathematics.
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