Dbq on Islam vs Christianity

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Attitudes of Muslims and Christians Towards Merchants and Commerce From their origins to around 1500 CE, the attitudes of both Christians and Muslims towards trade and merchants shifted as conditions in the Christian and Islamic worlds changed. In the beginning of the religion, Christian attitudes were more negative while Muslims tended to encourage and respect trade and merchants. Over time, Muslims became more like the early Christians in that they were suspicious of traders whereas the Christians became more like the early Muslims, equating merchants with doing God’s word, thus reflecting the changed importance of trade in the late Middle Ages in Europe. At the start of both religions, Christianity and Islam had very different views on merchants and traders. In the New Testament of the Bible, hatred is shown towards wealth and merchants (Doc 1). In the book of Matthew, it is stated that a camel could fit through the eye of a sewing needle easier than a wealthy main could attain a position in heaven. This is very bluntly stating that being a rich man is not something that a Christian should be proud of and in fact it is seen almost as a sin in Christianity because a man with wealth may only be taken to Hell in the afterlife. Because of this, a merchant around 70- 80 C.E. was very poorly regarded. On the other hand, during the formation of Islam, the Qur’an in around 620-650 C.E. explains an opposing view on merchants. Unlike the Book of Matthew, it states that if a merchant is honest in his trade, he will rank with the martyrs of faith (Doc. 2). Through the eyes of a Muslim, a merchant has a much higher rank than that of a Christian. Both Muslims and Christians felt either strong hatred or respect for merchants because that is what their religions taught them and their religion is their sole belief. Therefore, they took opposing views on the merchant class
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