Despite these fundamental differences, the Byzantine and Islamic empires not only had similar cultural moments but also were viewed in similar ways by the people of Western Europe, who saw them both as outsiders. Coming back to the earlier statement about imagery, the Islamic Empire bans all icons and images of religious figures to avoid idol worship, and Byzantium followed this way of thinking in the eighth century when Emperor Leo III ordered for the destruction of all religious icons. Western Europe was more for religious icons and disagreed with the lack of any religious icons. The Western Church in Rome viewed Byzantium’s eradication of religious icons as unwarranted Islamic influence on the Byzantines, and thus their sudden destruction of religious icons supplied evidence to their view of the Byzantines and Muslims as equally
Despite these fundamental differences, the Byzantine and Islamic empires not only had similar cultural moments but also were viewed in similar ways by the people of Western Europe, who saw them both as outsiders. Coming back to the earlier statement about imagery, the Islamic Empire bans all icons and images of religious figures to avoid idol worship, and Byzantium followed this way of thinking in the eighth century when Emperor Leo III ordered for the destruction of all religious icons. Western Europe was more for religious icons and disagreed with the lack of any religious icons. The Western Church in Rome viewed Byzantium’s eradication of religious icons as unwarranted Islamic influence on the Byzantines, and thus their sudden destruction of religious icons supplied evidence to their view of the Byzantines and Muslims as equally