The Middle East has been the source of numerous pagan religions, and the birthplace of four monothesistic religions.
From the time before Alexander the Great marched out of Macedonia with his army, the land on the eastern side of the Mediterranean was known as “Anatolia,” to the Greeks Anatolia means “sunrise. Later the Romans used the word “oriens” which means “the rising.” The word “Levant” is Italian and means the same.
In the ancient Western mind, the land to the east was where the sun rose.
There was Mesopotamia, part of which moved from Roman to Persian and back to Roman rule, Sham (Syria), the land of Israel, Phoenicia, Philistia, and, of course, Persia.
Culturally, most of the people who inhabited the area spoke some variation of Semitic languages. But the area’s religions were possibly the most complex and diverse of any area in the ancient world.
The Greek culture that had swept through the area with the advent of Alexandria brought with it many pagan gods. Roman conquest brought more.
Add to this mixture, already existing pagan gods in the area - Isis, Adonis and others.
In addition to the pagan religions, there already existed in the Middle East several monotheistic religions.
Ancient monotheism in Asia
The most well-known monotheists were the Hebrews, although the Persians and the Medes had also developed a monotheism, based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster.
In the first century CE, the rise Christianity, which spread throughout the Middle East, became the most dominating religious (and political) factor in the region. In 312 CE, under the edict of Milan, Christianity was legalized and in 325, at the Council of Nicea, it was legitimized.
In 330 CE, Constantinople was founded.
Some 60 years later, the death of Emperor Theodosius split the Roman Empire in two, with one emperor in Rome, and another in Constantinople.
For the next three hundred years, Christian monks, hermits, and monastic preachers of the Eastern Roman Empire, whom we call Byzantines today (but who called themselves Romans), built monasteries and hermitages throughout most of the Middle East.
Several hundred years of wars occurred between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, interrupted sporadically by several years of peace.
The Arrival of the Fourth Monothesistic Religion: Islam
In 622 CE, everything changed. In that year, Muhammad made his journey (hijra) from Mecca to Medina. This historical moment records the beginning of the fourth monotheistic religion in the Middle East and the coming of the Islamic era to the world.
