November 10, 2014
5th Period
Christian and Muslim DBQ
Throughout all of time the Christians and the Muslims have had views that sometimes run parallel and sometimes these views are perpendicular to each other, which make them collide and intersect. Both Christians and Islam are a monotheistic religion; they believe that there is one true god. In addition they also both believe in Jesus, however the Muslims do not view him as the son of God, but rather as the last prophet sent by Allah. Both religions read The Bible, however unlike with Christianity; The Bible is not the main book, or rule, that the Muslims follow. This pattern throughout history did not fade from 70 C.E. to 1500s C.E, where Christians and Muslims once again cross paths on their views towards merchants and trading; Christians have viewed merchants and trading as a non-favored, strongly disliked, and poorly looked upon practice or people, but it was semi-acceptable to some people if the trading was “fair,” even then merchants were consistently looked at with condescension; this is where the Muslims and Christians collide again, in the beginning Muslims respected the truthful merchants, however as time went on, the respect towards the merchants decreased and began to run parallel with the views of the Christians. From the start, written in the book of Mathew, the Christians have believed that being a merchant was not the way one should lead their life. (Document 1) Merchants sold things for more than they were worth, which was wrong and a sin in itself. The logic was that if no man wanted to buy something for more than it’s worth, no man should sell something to another man for more than it’s worth, because of Mathew vii 12 “All things…whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them.” It’s similar, possibly the birth place, of what today is known as the golden rule, “treat others the way you want to be treated.” It was believed that being a