14.4 Christianity and Islam outside Central Asia

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the evolving relationship between the Western Christian church and the rulers and people of Europe
• Identify the factors that led to the strengthening of Muslim control over the Middle East
• Discuss the limits of Mongol expansion and the states in North Africa and South Asia that remained independent

Largely oblivious to events in the Inner Asian Steppe, the thirteenth-century followers of the teachings of Jesus and Muhammed continued their struggle for control of the once-mighty Roman Empire in Europe and the Middle East. Islamic rule was slowly ending in the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal), as new Christian kingdoms in the region rose and pushed the remaining Islamic states southward to a small strip around Granada. In the East, Christian forces continued their retreat before the successors of Salah al-Din (known in the west as “Saladin”), while Catholics of western Europe dealt near-fatal blows to those who considered themselves to be Rome’s true heirs in Byzantium.