vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Middle Ages
Religious beliefs in the Eastern Empire and Iran were in flux during the late sixth and early seventh centuries . Judaism was an active proselytising faith , and at least one Arab political leader converted to it . Christianity had active missions competing with the Persians ' Zoroastrianism in seeking converts , especially among residents of the Arabian Peninsula . All these strands came together with the emergence of Islam in Arabia during the lifetime of Muhammad ( d . 632 ) . After his death , Islamic forces conquered much of the Eastern Empire and Persia , starting with Syria in 634 -- 635 and reaching Egypt in 640 -- 641 , Persia between 637 and 642 , North Africa in the later seventh century , and the Iberian Peninsula in 711 . By 714 , Islamic forces controlled much of the peninsula in a region they called Al - Andalus .
Byzantine Empire
The Empire of Trebizond , which had split away from the Byzantine Empire just weeks before Constantinople was taken by the Crusaders in 1204 , became the last remnant and last de facto successor state to the Byzantine Empire . Efforts by the Emperor David to recruit European powers for an anti-Ottoman crusade provoked war between the Ottomans and Trebizond in the summer of 1461 . After a month - long siege , David surrendered the city of Trebizond on 14 August 1461 . The Empire of Trebizond 's Crimean principality , the Principality of Theodoro ( part of the Perateia ) , lasted another 14 years , falling to the Ottomans in December 1475 .
History of the Catholic Church
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 , the Catholic faith competed with Arianism for the conversion of the barbarian tribes . The 496 conversion of Clovis I , pagan king of the Franks , saw the beginning of a steady rise of the faith in the West . Saint
History of the Catholic Church
Unlike most religions in the Roman Empire , Christianity required its adherents to renounce all other gods , a practice adopted from Judaism , see Idolatry . Christians ' refusal to join pagan celebrations meant they were unable to participate in much of public life , which caused non-Christians -- including government authorities -- to fear that the Christians were angering the gods and thereby threatening the peace and prosperity of the Empire . In addition , the peculiar intimacy of Christian society and its secrecy about its religious practices spawned rumors that Christians were guilty of incest and cannibalism ; the resulting persecutions , although usually local and sporadic , were a defining feature of Christian self - understanding until Christianity was legalized in the 4th century . A series of more centrally organized persecutions of Christians emerged in the late 3rd century , when emperors decreed that the Empire 's military , political , and economic crises were caused by angry gods . All residents were ordered to give sacrifices or be punished . Jews were exempted as long as they paid the Jewish Tax . Estimates of the number of Christians who were executed ranges from a few hundred to 50,000 . Many fled or renounced their beliefs . Disagreements over what role , if any , these apostates should have in the Church led to the Donatist and Novatianist schisms . Relations between the Church and the Empire were not consistent : `` Tiberius wanted to have Christ placed in the Pantheon and refused first of all to persecute the Christians . Later on his attitude changed . ( - ) How are we to explain the fact that men like Trajan and above all Marcus Aurelius should have so relentlessly persecuted the Christians ? On the other hand Commodus and other villainous emperors rather favoured them . '' In spite of these persecutions , evangelization efforts persisted , leading to the Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity in 313 . By 380 , Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire . Religious philosopher Simone Weil wrote : `` By the time of Constantine , the state of apocalyptic expectation must have worn rather thin . ( The imminent coming of Christ , expectation of the Last Day - constituted ' a very great social danger . ' ) Besides , the spirit of the old law , so widely separated from all mysticism , was not so very different from the Roman spirit itself . Rome could come to terms with the God of Hosts . ''
Pope
The Edict of Milan in 313 granted freedom to all religions in the Roman Empire , beginning the Peace of the Church . In 325 , the First Council of Nicaea condemned Arianism , declaring trinitarianism dogmatic , and in its sixth canon recognized the special role of the sees of Rome , Alexandria , and Antioch . Great defenders of Trinitarian faith included the popes , especially Pope Liberius , who was exiled to Berea by Constantius II for his Trinitarian faith , Damasus I , and several other bishops .
History of the Roman Empire
In 311 Galerius officially put an end to the persecution of Christians , and Constantine legalised Christianity definitively in 313 as evidenced in the so - called Edict of Milan . Constantine defeated his brother - in - law Licinius in 324 , unifying the Empire under his control . He would rule until his death on 22 May 337 .
Byzantine Empire
Manuel 's death on 24 September 1180 left his 11 - year - old son Alexios II Komnenos on the throne . Alexios was highly incompetent at the office , but it was his mother , Maria of Antioch , and her Frankish background that made his regency unpopular . Eventually , Andronikos I Komnenos , a grandson of Alexios I , launched a revolt against his younger relative and managed to overthrow him in a violent coup d'état . Utilizing his good looks and his immense popularity with the army , he marched on to Constantinople in August 1182 and incited a massacre of the Latins . After eliminating his potential rivals , he had himself crowned as co-emperor in September 1183 . He eliminated Alexios II , and took his 12 - year - old wife Agnes of France for himself .
History of the Catholic Church
In the early 8th century , Byzantine iconoclasm became a major source of conflict between the Eastern and Western parts of the Church . Byzantine emperors forbade the creation and veneration of religious images , as violations of the Ten Commandments . Other major religions in the East such as Judaism and Islam had similar prohibitions . Pope Gregory III vehemently disagreed . A new Empress Irene siding with the pope , called for an Ecumenical Council . In 787 , the fathers of the Second Council of Nicaea `` warmly received the papal delegates and his message '' . At the conclusion , 300 bishops , who were led by the representatives of Pope Hadrian I `` adopted the Pope 's teaching '' , in favor of icons .
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church ( ROC ; Russian : Ру́сская правосла́вная це́рковь , tr . Rússkaya pravoslávnaya tsérkov ) , alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate ( Russian : Моско́вский патриарха́т , tr . Moskóvskiy patriarkhát ) , is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches , in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates . The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus ' . The ROC , as well as the primate thereof , officially ranks fifth in the Orthodox order of precedence , immediately below the four ancient Patriarchates of the Greek Orthodox Church , those of Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch , and Jerusalem . The official Christianization of Kievan Rus ' widely seen as the birth of the ROC is believed to have occurred in 988 through the baptism of the Kievan prince Vladimir and his people by the clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate whose constituent part the ROC remained for the next six centuries , while the Kievan see remained in the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate until 1686 .
Crusades
The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and had united much of Arabia into a single polity by his death in 632 . Arab power expanded rapidly in the 7th and 8th centuries largely by military conquest . This influence spread to the northwest Indian subcontinent , across Central Asia , the Middle East , North Africa , southern Italy , the Iberian peninsula and the Pyrenees . Jerusalem was taken from the Byzantine Empire after a siege in 637
Byzantine Empire
Georgian monasteries first appear in Constantinople and on Mount Olympos in northwestern Asia Minor in the second half of the ninth century , and from then on Georgians played an increasingly important role in the Empire .
Saudi Arabia
Religions of the people of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam consisted of indigenous polytheistic beliefs , Arabian Christianity , Nestorian Christianity , Judaism and Zoroastrianism . Al
Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Christian culture reached its golden age during the high point of the Byzantine Empire and continued to flourish in Ukraine and Russia , after the fall of Constantinople . Numerous autocephalous churches were established in Europe : Russia , Greece , Georgia and Ukraine , as well as Asia .
Byzantine Empire
Following the accession of Heraclius , the Sassanid advance pushed deep into the Levant , occupying Damascus and Jerusalem and removing the True Cross to Ctesiphon . The counter-attack launched by Heraclius took on the character of a holy war , and an acheiropoietos image of Christ was carried as a military standard ( similarly , when Constantinople was saved from a combined Avar -- Sassanid -- Slavic siege in 626 , the victory was attributed to the icons of the Virgin that were led in procession by Patriarch Sergius about the walls of the city ) . In this very siege of Constantinople of the year 626 , amidst the climactic Byzantine -- Sasanian War of 602 -- 628 , the combined Avar , Sassanid , and Slavic forces unsuccessfully besieged the Byzantine capital between June and July . After this , the Sassanid army was forced to withdraw to Anatolia . The loss came just after news had reached them of yet another Byzantine victory , where Heraclius 's brother Theodore scored well against the Persian general Shahin . Following this , Heraclius led an invasion into Sassanid Mesopotamia once again .
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox believe themselves to be the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church ; that is , the true Church established by Jesus Christ and placed into the care of the apostles . As almost all other Christian groups are in indirect schism with the Orthodox Church , mostly as a result of the Great Schism with the Roman Catholic Church at the turn of the second Christian millennium ( before the schisms of the Protestant Reformation ) , these other groups are viewed as being Christian , but who , to varying degrees , lack full theological orthodoxy and orthopraxy . As such , all groups outside of the Orthodox Church are not seen as being members of the Church proper , but rather separated brethren who have failed to retain the fullness of the Christian faith and theology . These deviations from orthodoxy have traditionally been called heresy , but due to the term 's perceived pejorative connotations , some prefer the more technical designation of the term heterodoxy .
Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodoxy represents the majority of Eastern Christianity . The Orthodox trace their bishops back to the apostles through apostolic succession , and continue the ancient Christian practices of veneration of saints , especially Mary the Mother of God as the Theotokos , prayers for the dead , and monasticism . Orthodoxy does not openly promote statuary , although it is not expressly condemned , instead limiting itself primarily to two - dimensional iconography . Western theological concepts of original sin , substitutionary atonement , predestination , purgatory and particular judgment are generally rejected by traditional Orthodox theologians .
History of the Catholic Church
Part of a series on the Catholic Church St. Peter 's Basilica , Vatican City Overview Pope : Francis Hierarchy History ( Timeline ) Theology Liturgy Sacraments Mary Background ( show ) Jesus Crucifixion Resurrection Ascension Early Christianity History of the Catholic Church History of the papacy Ecumenical councils Four Marks of the Church One true church Apostolic succession Organisation ( show ) Holy See College of Cardinals Ecumenical councils Episcopal polity Latin Church Eastern Churches Canon law Theology ( show ) Trinity Father Son Holy Spirit Ten Commandments Three States of the Church Purgatory Paschal mystery Passion Crucifixion Harrowing of Hell Resurrection Ascension Mary Mariology Veneration Immaculate Conception Theotokos Perpetual virginity Assumption Titles Morality Body Lectures Sexuality Apologetics Divine grace Salvation Original sin Saints Dogma Catechism Philosophy ( show ) Natural law Catholic ethics Personalism Social teaching Philosophers Worship ( show ) Liturgy Mass Divine Office Liturgical year Sacraments Baptism Penance Eucharist Confirmation Anointing of the Sick Matrimony Holy orders Prayer Devotions Bible Biblical canon Rites ( show ) Latin Roman Ordinary form Tridentine Anglican Use Zaire Use Gallican Ambrosian Braga Mozarabic Eastern Antiochene Maronite West Syriac Syro - Malankara Chaldean East Syriac Syro - Malabar Byzantine Armenian Alexandrian Ethiopic Controversies ( show ) Antipopes Anti-Catholicism Criticism Homosexuality Sex and gender roles Sexual abuse cases Other topics ( show ) Art Ecumenism Evolution Health care Monasticism Music Science Role in civilization Relations with : Islam Judaism Pandeism Links and resources ( show ) Index Outline Glossary Category Media Templates WikiProject Book Pope portal Vatican City portal Catholicism portal
Russian Orthodox Church
The Kievan church was a junior metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan , who usually was a Greek , who governed the Church of Rus ' . The Metropolitan 's residence was originally located in Kiev itself , the capital of the medieval Rus ' state .
Middle Ages
Although the Palaeologi emperors recaptured Constantinople from the Western Europeans in 1261 , they were never able to regain control of much of the former imperial lands . They usually controlled only a small section of the Balkan Peninsula near Constantinople , the city itself , and some coastal lands on the Black Sea and around the Aegean Sea . The former Byzantine lands in the Balkans were divided between the new Kingdom of Serbia , the Second Bulgarian Empire and the city - state of Venice . The power of the Byzantine emperors was threatened by a new Turkish tribe , the Ottomans , who established themselves in Anatolia in the 13th century and steadily expanded throughout the 14th century . The Ottomans expanded into Europe , reducing Bulgaria to a vassal state by 1366 and taking over Serbia after its defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 . Western Europeans rallied to the plight of the Christians in the Balkans and declared a new crusade in 1396 ; a great army was sent to the Balkans , where it was defeated at the Battle of Nicopolis . Constantinople was finally captured by the Ottomans in 1453 .
Eastern Orthodox Church
In the Levant , Christian Orthodox services and identity often combine both the Byzantine Greek and indigenous ( Arabic and Aramaic ) traditions . Other Orthodox communities can identify with two Eastern Orthodox churches simultaneously , for example Caucasus Greeks and Pontic Greeks in Russia often identify with both the Greek Orthodox Church and Russian Orthodox Church , as a result of centuries of assimilation and intermarriage with ethnic Russians and other Christian Orthodox communities in mainly southern Russia .
Afghanistan
The religion Zoroastrianism is believed by some to have originated in what is now Afghanistan between 1800 and 800 BCE , as its founder Zoroaster is thought to have lived and died in Balkh . Ancient Eastern Iranian languages may have been spoken in the region around the time of the rise of Zoroastrianism . By the middle of the 6th century BCE , the Achaemenids overthrew the Medes and incorporated Arachosia , Aria , and Bactria within its eastern boundaries . An inscription on the tombstone of Darius I of Persia mentions the Kabul Valley in a list of the 29 countries that he had conquered .
Byzantine Empire
The accession of Basil I to the throne in 867 marks the beginning of the Macedonian dynasty , which would rule for the next two and a half centuries . This dynasty included some of the most able emperors in Byzantium 's history , and the period is one of revival and resurgence . The Empire moved from defending against external enemies to reconquest of territories formerly lost .
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine culture Aristocracy and bureaucracy Army Art Architecture Calendar Coinage Cuisine Dance Diplomacy Dress Economy Gardens Law Literature Medicine Music Navy People Science
History of the Roman Empire
After an initial period of tolerance , Diocletian , who was a fervent pagan and was worried about the ever - increasing numbers of Christians in the Empire , persecuted them with zeal unknown since the time of Nero ; this was to be one of the greatest persecutions the Christians endured in history . Not all of Diocletian 's plans were successful : the Edict on Maximum Prices ( 301 ) , his attempt to curb inflation via price controls , was counterproductive and quickly ignored . Although effective while he ruled , Diocletian 's tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of Maxentius and Constantine , sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively . The Diocletianic Persecution ( 303 -- 11 ) , the empire 's last , largest , and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity , did not destroy the empire 's Christian community ; indeed , after 324 Christianity became the empire 's preferred religion under its first Christian emperor , Constantine .
Russian Orthodox Church
The Soviet Union , formally created in December 1922 , was the first state to have elimination of religion as an ideological objective espoused by the country ′ s ruling political party . Toward that end , the Communist regime confiscated church property , ridiculed religion , harassed believers , and propagated materialism and atheism in schools . Actions toward particular religions , however , were determined by State interests , and most organized religions were never outlawed .
Lebanon
Following the fall of Roman Anatolia to the Muslim Turks , the Byzantines put out a call to the Pope in Rome for assistance in the 11th century . The result was a series of wars known as the Crusades launched by the Franks in Western Europe to reclaim the former Byzantine Christian territories in the Eastern Mediterranean , especially Syria and Palestine ( the Levant ) . The First Crusade succeeded in temporarily establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the County of Tripoli as Roman Catholic Christian states along the coast . These crusader states made a lasting impact on the region , though their control was limited , and the region returned to full Muslim control after two centuries following the conquest by the Mamluks .
Balkans
The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity , Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity . Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan peninsula and the Balkan region . A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced , with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church . A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious . Approximate
Russian culture
Christianity , Islam , Buddhism , and Judaism are Russia 's traditional religions , deemed part of Russia 's `` historical heritage '' in a law passed in 1997 . Estimates of believers widely fluctuate among sources , and some reports put the number of non-believers in Russia as high as 16 -- 48 % of the population . Russian Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in Russia . 95 % of the registered Orthodox parishes belong to the Russian Orthodox Church while there are a number of smaller Orthodox Churches . However , the vast majority of Orthodox believers do not attend church on a regular basis . Nonetheless , the church is widely respected by both believers and nonbelievers , who see it as a symbol of Russian heritage and culture . Smaller Christian denominations such as Roman Catholics , Armenian Gregorians , and various Protestants exist .
History of the Roman Empire
Maximus was a firm believer of the Nicene Creed and introduced state persecution on charges of heresy , which brought him into conflict with Pope Siricius who argued that the Augustus had no authority over church matters . But he was an Emperor with popular support , as is attested in Romano - British tradition , where he gained a place in the Mabinogion , compiled about a thousand years after his death .
Israel
Nevertheless , there was a continuous small Jewish presence and Galilee became its religious center . The Mishnah and part of the Talmud , central Jewish texts , were composed during the 2nd to 4th centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem . The region came to be populated predominantly by Greco - Romans on the coast and Samaritans in the hill - country . Christianity was gradually evolving over Roman paganism , when the area stood under Byzantine rule . Through the 5th and 6th centuries , the dramatic events of the repeated Samaritan revolts reshaped the land , with massive destruction to Byzantine Christian and Samaritan societies and a resulting decrease of the population . After the Persian conquest and the installation of a short - lived Jewish Commonwealth in 614 CE , the Byzantine Empire reconquered the country in 628 .
Byzantine Empire
After Maurice 's murder by Phocas , Khosrau used the pretext to reconquer the Roman province of Mesopotamia . Phocas , an unpopular ruler invariably described in Byzantine sources as a `` tyrant '' , was the target of a number of Senate - led plots . He was eventually deposed in 610 by Heraclius , who sailed to Constantinople from Carthage with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship .
Christianity in Africa
The conventional historical view is that the conquest of North Africa by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate between AD 647 -- 709 effectively ended Catholicism in Africa for several centuries . The prevailing view is that the Church at that time lacked the backbone of a monastic tradition and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so - called Donatist heresy , and this contributed to the earlier obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb . Some historians contrast this with the strong monastic tradition in Coptic Egypt , which is credited as a factor that allowed the Coptic Church to remain the majority faith in that country until around or after the 14th century ( the existence and threat of Christian Nubian kingdoms helped the survival of Egyptian Christianity especially in the south of the country ) .
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period . The most commonly known Crusades were the campaigns in the Eastern Mediterranean aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Muslim rule , but the term `` Crusades '' is also applied to other church - sanctioned campaigns . These were fought for a variety of reasons including the suppression of paganism and heresy , the resolution of conflict among rival Roman Catholic groups , or for political and territorial advantage . At the time of the early Crusades the word did not exist , only becoming the leading descriptive term around 1760 .