How Does the Arab World View the Roman Empire?

We journey into the Arabic media in search of portrayals of the Roman Empire. I also give some historical background on the events that are depicted in the shows and films.

Footage:
The Message (1976)
The Imam (2017)
Faris Bany Marawan (2003)
Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Clemency of Titus
Andreas Waldetoft - Fate of Iberia Sountrack Track2
Andreas Waldetoft - Fate of Iberia Sountrack Track3
Andreas Waldetoft - Fate of Iberia Sountrack War Theme
Faris Bany Marawan Title Theme
Andreas Waldetoft - Saladin Besieges Jerusalem
Andreas Waldetoft - The Byzantine Empire

00:00 Intro
00:55 Heraclius
07:39 Nikephoros I
11:29 Leo III
18:00 Outro

[RomabooRamblings]

The links to "The Message" (Eng. or Arabic with Eng. sub), "The Imam" (Eng. subs) and "Faris Bany Marawan" (sadly, no subs yet) are in the description

[marvelfannumber]

Actually, the Patriarch of Alexandria's throne and staff being decorated with Ankhs in 'The Message' would be historically authentic.
The Ankh was obviously a symbol from Ancient Egyptian mythology. But it was later co-opted by the Coptic Christians because it coincidentally looks a lot like a cross. This stylized Ankh Cross became a very common local feature of Egyptian churches at the time and adorns many frescoes.

[DrivItLikeUStoleIt]

Just a correction. The story about Abu Sufian and Heracles is not "Hadith" as it's not the Prophet saying it, merely a narration of an event

[Nishirim]

Italian here so I obviously belong to the "Roman" side of the barricade .

While the history books up to high school ones rarely face the topic ( universitary ones obviously going very in depth but here are talking about "popular, common" knowledge ) the general vibe is one of mutual respect between both worlds . While during war time political games and the difference between religions and culture would play a major role...during peace times it was not uncommon for the two sides to interact with one another in a much more friendly manner than one'd normally think ; for example, Frederick II's teachers were arab and he used to be fluent in the language . Arab and "Roman" scholars would occasionally get to meet with one another to study and discuss about the most recent findings in regard to their disciplines such as medicine, philosophy, astronomy and so on . Fibonacci would start to implement the arabian's numeric system over the roman one, knights and merchants themselves would sometimes get to meet with their arab counterparts and end up feeling somewhat fascinated and curious towards the other one's culture, developing friendly relationships with one another, even ending up admiring some elements of their civilization ( for example, arabian medicine was considered to be better than european one for quite a long while during the middle ages ) .

It was a complicated and complex relationship for sure but not an entirely negative one as some people might think .

[ahmedshaharyarejaz]

I am not an Arab but here in Pakistan we depict the Eastern Romans at the Time of Islamic Conquests as the Cultured and Mighty Superpower of their Age against whom the Grit and Courage of the outnumbered and poorly equipped Arabian armies truly does shine.
The Sassanids are regarded as Mighty and more Brutal yet we also acknowledge the debt to Persian culture and learning that much of the Muslim world owes.

[Zhohan-]

This is the highest quality Roman history channel on the entire website. Well done.

[reburn]

Fun fact: one of the Roman emperors was Arab (Philip the Arab)

[Dragoon]

I watch basically all the major YT History channels, partly because I'm interested in (more or less) all of history and partly because I like seeing interesting and differing takes on various historical topics. This video is probably the most interesting history video I've ever seen, because you offered some fascinating insight into what non-europeans think of Rome. Great job!

[amirkhonyusupov]

There is actually a mention of Roman Emperor Decius in the Quran. This is in Surah 18, “The Cave”. The story of the people in the cave is that they were 7 young men in Syria, circa 3rd century, and they were followers of the Abrahamic faith. The Surah mentions a Roman official named “Daqyanus”, who is persecuting non-pagans. These men retreat and hide in a nearby cave, to avoid being slaughtered, in which they will sleep for 300 years. When they wake up, it is already the 6th Century. The Surah details that these men exited the cave, and found that the paganism had been replaced by Abrahamic religion (Christianity). Then the men go to a market to buy provisions, but they find that the currency had changed from 300 years ago, and that their old Roman coins had been replaced. Unfortunately, there isn’t any Television or film on this, but as I recall, this is the earliest Roman Emperor that was documented in Arab writings.

[stannisbaratheon]

فيديو جميل صراحه
حلو ان الواحد يسمع وجهات نظر متعدده عن وقائع تاريخيه، استفدت اشياء كثيره منك استمر ياصاحبي

[TetsuShima]

Arabian productions: *Depict the Eastern Roman Empire*
Hollywood: "WAIT. THAT'S ILLEGAL"

[legateelizabeth]

“Instead of historical Theodora, we have Thedora the sexy scheming lady, who is responsible for all the trouble and betrays like half of the Emperors”
I’m glad to see that we’re keeping up with the Roman tradition of making all the women near power into evil seductresses in our media. All she’s missing is wicked eastern magicks. :p

It’s always really cool seeing how other cultures view people. I remember reading about Alexander the Great and how that history is taught in the Persian regions of the world. Needless to say he’s not ‘the great’, though still seen as a very competent military leader. Seeing things from a truly alternate perspective is fascinating, even if we can never capture a lifetime of education, media and cultural vibes.

[miketacos]

I would love other episodes like this. Seeing more from Arab and Persian perspectives would be so cool!

[luciusjuniustavianus]

I am not an arab but Im turkish and here we dont really have any strong opinions on romans on either way but some people like myself really do admire what the romans(including byzantines) have accomplished and their legacy is still continuing in a sense with our lifestyles

[manetho]

There is also an Egyptian TV series called "Rogol Al Akdar" "رجل الأقدار" which covers the story of the conquest of Egypt by Amr ibn Al-As and his governorship period of Egypt, it shows interactions with the Romans who ruled Egypt at the time

And a movie called أصحاب الكهف (The people of the cave) which speak about the sleepers of Ephesus and is set in Roman anatolia in the dawn of Christianity era

[baraalayan]

5:35
the word Sahih in Sahih al-Bukhari means truth, because al-Bukhari put so much effort investigating the truth of every word he wrote and all muslims agreed that nothing he wrote was wrong after investigating his writing and his ways of verifying
The verbal transmission of events among Muslims has 4 basic degrees of validity: Sahih "true", Hasan "good", Dae'f "weak" and Mawdoo’ "wrong or lie"
The story of the son in law of Abu Sufyan’s conversion to Christianity is Dae'f in terms of transmission and also contradicts what was stated in Sahih Al-Bukhari, so it is wrong

[SemiLobster]

I don't speak Arabic or anything but I think by focusing on the Eastern Roman Empire so much you missed out on media depictions of other Roman-Arab interactions. There was a Syrian television series from the 90s about Queen Zenobia of Palmyra and Emperor Aurelian and Levantines (and most historians) consider the Palmyrenes as their direct ancestors.

[christurner]

Leo III did a little trolling.

Btw, I really wanna do a 'historical fiction' book on Justinian II., as in, have all the history stay, but expand on the things we don't know about him, flesh him out as a person. He wasn't a good emperor by any means, but his 'concept' is interesting. His story just sounds like a fanmade CK3 character. And while I'm there, I think Leo III deserves one of his own. The dude is legendary and highly underrated.

[Mulambdaline]

This is a great topic, one I’ve never thought of before. Thank you for opening my eyes to a non western pov of the eastern Roman Empire!

[yaldabraxas]

Wow. I thought most of the romaboos channels on YouTube are quite one-dimensional, but you are something else with each video having something original.