The Four Major Cultural Areas of Eurasia

Identifying how major civilizations viewed themselves can help us understand how history unfolded.

The House of Islam

A shared religious identity bound Islam’s immense diversity into a community of dar al-Islam (the house of Islam). Seventh-century Islamic warriors quickly expanded the territory of Islam. As conquests mounted, however, Islam became more and more diverse. Arab dominance gave way to sharing power with other groups who had joined the ranks. The core of Islam, in Central Asia, included the main religious centers of Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Cairo. Beyond the core, through the energies of merchants and traders, Islam spread to parts of Africa, India, and Indonesia. These looked to the core as particularly holy.

   The Muslim Faith:

Commitment to the teachings of Muhammad (in the Quran), the law of Islam (sharia ), and the sayings of the prophet and early followers (hadith ) unified Muslims across the globe. Common features and commitments to the mosque, the five pillars of faith and behavior, and the Sufi brotherhoods cemented this identity.

   Sunni-Shiite Schism:

Despite its unity, however, conflict and division did arise. Arguments over succession to the Prophet Muhammad divided Islam between the minority Shiite and majority Sunni communities. Another split developed with the rise of popular Sufism, which stressed inner spirituality, feeling, and brotherhood as opposed to hierarchical orders.

   Agriculture and Trade:

Most Muslims farmed in small villages, maintaining rather low status and simple existences. Merchants, on the other hand, enjoyed favored status, both in the Quran and in Islam’s vast opportunities. Trading and transport technology, such as credit organizations, shipping, and camel use, allowed merchants to span great distances and rise to prominence in Islamic society. Trade tied the Islamic world together by linking major trading centers. In the thirteenth century, Cairo emerged as Islam’s preeminent city through its dominance of the Nile trade. With a population of 500,000, it hosted Turkish Mamluks—Arabic speaking commoners—as well as separate Christian, Jewish, and Greek quarters. Enormous markets brought huge varieties of goods into the city

   Family Life:

Islamic society rested on the bedrock of the patriarchal family. Men dominated women, children, and slaves. Poorer men had one wife, who worked in the fields. Wealthier men could have more wives and could afford to keep them veiled from the outside world. Despite its various divisions, the world of Islam remained quite unified, perhaps because differences on the inside could not compare next to those between the Islamic world and Eurasia’s other major cultural worlds.

The Mosaic of India

The most distinctive feature of the Indian subcontinent is its generous mixing of various cultures. As in the case of "Africa," the term "India" was unknown to the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent but came from the outside. Indians were divided into a host of different religions, ethnic groups, dialects, and polities. Hindu beliefs drew from a variety of sources and traditions.

   Hinduism, the Caste System, and Diversity:

Above all, the dominance of the priestly Brahmans and the caste system unified Hinduism. Conceptions of relative purity and pollution divided the castes. Brahmans, the priests, were considered the most pure, while warriors, merchants, and laborers/peasants were seen as increasingly less pure. Outcastes were polluted and not worthy of any caste. The castes later subdivided into jati . Elaborate rituals governed contact between the castes, allowing higher caste members to cleanse themselves after contact with lower caste members. For the higher castes, ideals of purity in women required that they be isolated from the world and restricted to the domestic sphere. Lower-class women, already somewhat impure, could labor outside the home. A patriarchal order dominated. Religious life for the Brahmans involved studying and writing about religious spiritual texts, such as the Upanishads. Lower castes, on the other hand, followed popular cults that promised spiritual attainment for ordinary mortals. Challenged by these cults, Brahmans added forms of devotion to their creed and incorporated locally popular guardian spirits into their pantheon in order to win popular support. This blending and adoption characterized life in India. Politically, India was divided into a host of regional polities. Merchants brought new commodities, craftsmen, and ideas to the mix. Given India’s prime location, it became a vital crossroads within the Indian Ocean trade.

   Turkish Invasions:

In 1206, Muslim Turks invaded the subcontinent and established the Delhi Sultanate. Committed to a single religious idea and one God, the new leaders found India frighteningly chaotic and instituted laws and systems that discriminated against Hindus. Hindu resentment, naturally, rose. With time, however, some Hindu leaders converted to Islam while some Muslims took Hindu wives and adopted local customs. Tolerance eventually replaced prejudice as a fusion of the two cultures ensued. With time, Islam itself became part of the mosaic of India—impacting both India and the broader Islamic world.

The Domain of Christendom

The name "Christendom," a predecessor to the term "Europe," covered a vast territory and population that, like Islam, showed signs of both unity and division.

   Divisions within Christendom:

The Christian world was split between Rome in the west and Constantinople in the east, or between the Western Church and its pope and the Orthodox Church and its patriarch. Although both believed in the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ, doctrinal disagreements kept the two sides at odds. Besides this grand rift, smaller fractures between Christendom’s numerous kingdoms, minority religions (Jews, Muslims, and pagans), and secular authorities kept it divided. Political ambitions, such as those of the Holy Roman Empire, meant popes had to compete in the political realm as well as govern the spiritual well-being of fellow believers.

   Religious Traditions and Challenges:

Despite divisions and disagreements, there was still unity among Christians. Paganism was largely defeated by the thirteenth century. Catholic clergy unified culture by teaching a common creed to all and overseeing requisite sacraments. Latin, the language of the church, provided a common means of communication between the elites of the Christian world. Gothic cathedrals identified the servants of the church as possessing higher status than commoners. People were kept in their place. Women had a role in the church hierarchy but remained restricted. Unorthodox activists, who challenged church hierarchy and emphasized spirituality at an individual level, did not have much influence beyond their local areas.

   The Feudal System:

Others also challenged the power of the church. A powerful class of knights could even challenge the power of nobles and kings. Kings rewarded loyal vassals with land, the people on it, and the fruits of their labor. These "lords" then protected the king by fighting for him. Common peasants, or serfs, did all the work in exchange for protection from invaders (like the Vikings). This development of feudalism meant that each landholding had its own lord, laws, and customs, making the unification of large states or the whole of Christendom very difficult. Division also arose among the social classes, which were separated between hereditary landowning elites and common merchants, artisans, or peasants. Upward mobility was extremely rare, leaving a huge gap between elites and commoners.

   Everyday Life:

Peasant life was bleak. Local goods might be traded, but no extensive network of trade cities arose as in Islam. Towns did begin to develop but suffered under prohibitive death rates. Merchants dominated, followed by small businessmen, craftsmen, and unskilled laborers. Women could be found at all levels, but composed more than their share of the underclass. Towns near trading networks, such as those of Italy and Belgium, prospered. Most Europeans, however, saw few luxuries and struggled to clothe, feed, and house themselves and their families.

   Expansion and Conquest:

Divisions did not prevent Europeans from conquering and expanding their influence. Germanic knights conquered parts of eastern Europe while crusaders continued to push into the Holy Land. Contact with Muslims there opened European eyes to the wonders beyond Europe. Nevertheless, general European understanding of the larger world remained quite limited.

The Middle Kingdom

Chinese called their country "the Middle Kingdom," yet in the thirteenth century it was divided into two dynasties: the Jin in the north and the Song in the south. Jurchen "barbarians" had invaded from Manchuria and taken the northern half of the Song away. Mongol invaders, also from the north, crushed the Jin and eventually the Southern Song as well. Despite these traumas, China remained the most developed and wealthy of Eurasia’s cultural communities.

   Everyday Life:

Success rested on the backs of China’s peasant class. Unlike peasants elsewhere, China’s rural laborers could own land and buy or sell as they liked, thus dividing the country into small family producers. Women worked in the fields and in the silk industry by raising silkworms and spinning thread. Agricultural duties were set aside for various religious or community festivals as well as for family celebrations. Family was very important to the Chinese. Viewing marriage as a union of families more than a union of individuals, parents arranged marriages. If they could afford it, poor men generally had one wife, while elites had multiple concubines.

   Commerce and Cities:

Commercial activity in China—the most active and highly developed in the world—linked countryside and cities like nowhere else. Iron and steel production flourished while river and road transportation allowed travel all over the empire. Enormous cities dominated China’s urban sector. Hangzhou had over one million inhabitants and thousands of shops, restaurants, offices, and institutions. As elsewhere, clothing, food, and housing distinguished the wealthy and powerful from the poorer classes of society. Nevertheless, even the poorer portions of Hangzhou’s population enjoyed access to chicken, pork, salted fish, and rice. Elites had access to the finest silks and foods.

   The Bureaucratic Tradition:

Chinese elites gained wealth through commerce or the examination system. Any male of good standing could take the exam, which was based on the Chinese classics. Since success could usher an individual into the ranks of the official class, great efforts were made to prevent cheating. Success brought status, wealth, and a charmed career track—the right to serve in the emperor’s bureaucracy. Since China’s officials all came through the same system, they shared a common identity and commitment to the empire. That cohesion kept China unified.

   Confucian Ideals:

Confucianism shaped the lives of these elites. Based on the teachings of Confucius (sixth century b.c.e.), Confucianism admonished its followers to cultivate virtue through education. According to the master, if society’s most virtuous members ruled with exemplary moral behavior, the common people would follow. Each person had certain social obligations, depending on their social status and role. The emperor employed Confucianism to keep the empire orderly and officials in line. Confucianism also restricted him, however, since behavior deemed nonvirtuous would draw criticism from the Confucian-trained officials. This provided the Chinese system with an important check on the emperor’s power and balance between the court and the bureaucracy. Women were barred from politics. As elsewhere, elite women were expected to remain in the home overseeing domestic concerns. Footbinding and expectations of chastity further restrained them, although they enjoyed more rights than later Chinese women.

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