Religions in West Asia

-Begins ministry in 29 CE in Galilee
-Enters Jerusalem on a donkey and “cleanses the temple” in 31 CE
-To many signifies his entrance on a donkey signifies his humility
-Sentenced to death and crucified later that year

-St. Paul, who at a young age (12) went to Jerusalem and was educated by Rabbi Gamaliel (Sanhedrin), takes a ship to Cyprus (48 CE) and begins converting people into the Christian faith, then to goes Greece (50 CE)

-Was one of the many Christians executed by Nero somewhere between 60 CE and 70 CE

-Early Christian council
-Decided that Gentile converts to Christianity were not obligated to keep most of the Mosaic law, including the rules concerning circumcision of males
-Retain the prohibitions on eating blood, meat containing blood, and meat of animals not properly slain, and on fornication and idolatry

-Mark is typically said to be written first in 55 CE
-Matthew also recorded around this time
-Luke in 63 CE
-John (year unknown)

Armenian Catholic Church (1742)

-Council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea (present-day Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I.
-This first ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom.
-Fixes Easter date, confirms primacy of the sees of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, and grants the See of Jerusalem a position of honor.

-Constantine (Roman emperor) founds the new capital of the Roman Empire on the existing site of the ancient Greek city Byzantium
-Byzantium was renamed Constantinople and it would become the capital of the Byzantine Empire
-Modern day Turkey

-Hagia Sophia was completed (Istanbul, Turkey) under the rule of Emperor Constanius
-532 Destroyed in the Nika riots
-537 Second church completed
-1453 Sultan Mehmed took control over the area because he wanted to convert the region to Islam. Change the Hagia Sophia to a mosque

-Reaffirms/revises the Nicene Creed repudiating Arianism (Egypt) and Macedonianism

-St Jerome, in Bethlehem, completes the Latin translation of the Bible, which later becomes known as the Vulgate
-Commissioned by Pope Damasus I
-The definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church

Lebanon

Held as a result of the controversial teachings of Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople.
-Repudiates Nestorianism, proclaims the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos ("Birth-giver to God", "God-bearer", "Mother of God"), repudiates Pelagianism, and again reaffirmes the Nicene Creed.

-Rejects the Eutychian doctrine of monophysitism
-Adopts the Chalcedonian Creed
-Elevates of the bishoprics of Constantinople and Jerusalem to the status of patriarchates

Independence - 431
Recognition - 478

-Repudiates the Three Chapters (Orthodox Church of Syria/Egypt) as Nestorian and condemns Origen of Alexandria.

-Rejects Monothelitism and Monoenergism in Armenia/Syria

-Restores the veneration of icons and denounces iconoclasm.

1098 Crusaders take Antioch from Turks
1099 Crusaders recapture Jerusalem from Turks

The Maronites were re-discovered in the mountains near Tripoli, Lebanon. Raymond later returned to besiege Tripoli after his conquest of Jerusalem and relations between the Maronites and European Christianity were re-established.

Siege of Constantinople

Council of Florence attempts to reunite East and West

Independence of Russian Orthodox Church from the Church of Constantinople.

-1453 Sultan Mehmed II took control over the area because he wanted to convert the region to Islam. Change the Hagia Sophia to a mosque

-The Maronites started returning to southern Mount Lebanon, where they had lived before they were almost exterminated by the Mamelukes in 1307. Thus, the historic Keserwan and all the Druze mountains were repopulated. It was this love and affection between the Maronites and Druze that helped establish the Lebanese identity.

-Farmers of the predominantly Maronite Keserwan District staged an uprising against their Sheikhs and landlords, the Khazen family, the Maronite Patriarch, conscious of Karam's influence and his loyalty to the Church, appealed to Karam to save the Sheikhs and restore peace to the area

Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras I nullified the anathemas of 1054, although this nullification of measures taken against a few individuals was essentially a goodwill gesture and did not constitute any sort of reunion between churches

-Pope John Paul II visited Lebanon to give hope to Lebanese Catholics.

-Muhammad was born in Mecca (Saudi Arabia)

-Muhammad travels to Yathrib (Medina) and builds the first Muslim community and gradually gathers more and more people to his side

-Mecca becomes the holy city of Islam and soon all Arabia accepts the new religion

-Brings Arab conquest of Persia, Egypt, Iraq, bringing Islam into those regions.

-Caliph Uthman has the standard copy of the Qur’an written down

-Ali (Rashidun Caliphate) is assassinated and Mu’awiya becomes the fifth Muslim caliph, establishing the Umayyad dynasty
-The emergence of the Shi’a party creates a major schism within Islam

-Capital is moved to Damascus (Syria)

-Creates major schism within Islam

-After death of Muawiya I (first caliph of Umayyad Caliphate)

-The Dome of the Rock is completed as a Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

-Great Mosque of Damascus (Syria)
-It is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. It is considered by some Muslims to be the fourth-holiest place in Islam.

-Umayyad Caliphate is defeated at the Battle of Zab (Turkey/Iraq)
-Spelled the end of the Umayyad Caliphate and the rise of the Abbasids

-The Ismailis become a separate Shi’a sect when they dispute the succession after the death of the sixth imam
-Followers of Shia Islam believe the caliph should be an imam chosen by God from the Ahl al-Bayt (Muhammad’s purified progeny)

Isma'il was a Twelver Shi'ite. They believe that there are 12 imams, and that God hid an imam who is the savior of mankind. Isma'il claimed to be this imam and made Persia's official religion Twelver Shi'ism