Problems of maintaining the empire arose however from then on as effective rule over the vast area became impossible and aggressive Germanic, invasions by gothic tribes destabilzed many areas. The Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 with the abdication of emperor Romanenus. However the importance of the eastern Byzantine civilization, based around the renamed city of Constantinople, maintained a strong geographical prescence for secular and holy Christian powers druing the next six hundred years. Situated on the coastal tip of present day eastern Europe along the Bosperous Strait, below the Black Sea, the city was modern for it's time in serving as a hub for many travelers jourenying into Asia for trade. Byzantine had been used as an early location to conduct their mercantile exchage that would sustain this reputation for a long time . It's coastal geography was vital in proclaiming it's prominance as a trading center as merchants from various other locations like the Greek Isles, Syria and Egypt would arrive to conduct early forms of commerce. But predominately, the concentration of trade among the various groups of people within the surronding Penninsula of the Balkan Mountains for which the city of Byzantine(Constantinople) marked a key proximatey, certainly played into Constantine's decision to relocate the capital there.

At this time the popular acceptance of Christianity by large numbers of the population and it's adoption as a national religion despite tolerance for other beliefs had become a central component of what the empire was basing itself upon. It had aquired the name Holy Roman Empire and the ecclesiastical powers were just beginning to assert it's position as a governing body in national affairs that would play a major part in civilization's future.

Greece, given it's proximatey and early prominance as a great early established civilization offered strong influence to this region of the Mediterranean. It would arguably offer the most in the ways of academic and linguistic development as Greek quickly replaced Latin as the official state language.

The migration patterns of the various groups of people who came to settle into this region along the Mediterranean and farther inland around the Balkan mountains included myriad groups. Centuruies of influx from surronding areas as well as the local population who had existed around the Balkan Penninsula for centuries all converged in and around the area of Byzantine after the fall of the unified Roman Empire. As with any dramatic assimilation of differing people throughout history, the integration under the Byzantine Empire contributed signficantly to it's future character.

The ethnographic evolution in addition to it's strong Greek heritage, consisted of the Albanian tribes, the Rumanians, invading Finnic-Ugrilan Bulgars and expansion of the Slavs who had arrived from lands farther north near Slovakia. By the fifth century these groups had spread across much of the area consisting of the Balkan, Pindus(Greek) mountains and Peloponessus. Migratory sheepherders customarily comprised part of the society with their summers spent in the mountains and winters among the plains. The old Roman roads provided adequate transport of the merchant's tradable goods which often consisted of delicate weavings such as carpets, embroidered clothing, precious stones, metals, limited supplies of food and spices which would primarily make their way to western Europe.
The ecclesiastical sector in society understandably emanated from the Church whose power in the early to late fifth century was absolute accross the withering collection of the HRE terrirotry. What some refer to as a shism was a mutual occurrence along the division of the east/west sections of the empire as the church also separate accordingly.

The Orthodox Church came to rule the eastern region of Europe and central Asia while the Catholic Church supplanted it's importance further in the west. Christianity would largely go unquestioned until the late seventh century when Islam was introduced in the Arab region around 622. Thus prior to the Muslim movement, the conditions around Constantinople atoned for a substanital period of broader development among a manageable southeastern region of territory which was setting a course for forming itself into a predominate society.
Having developed a currency to complement the inkind bartering of goods signficantly increased the wealth of Constanitinople by utilizing the gold solidus and a means of exchange . Various other secular activites associated with the components of commerce and intellectual happenings were mostly were strongly attributed to the prevailing importance set by the Greeks. Street lights, entertaining sport and equestrian games held a cultural appeal that helped make the area unique.

The church's prescence certainly played a large part too in signifying the importance of governing councils who adhered to relgious influence but were most interested in issues of the state including the military and preservation of power. Much of the nobility had gained great importance from the prospering conditions of trade and their familial lineage of power was the standard for determining the Byzantine emperor during the first millenia.

Meanwhile as the locally empowered rulers in Constantinople were promoting a Christian religious doctrine along with the commercial interests of an immersing Balkan people, the eastern side of the Bosporus was under a less orderly fashion of rule. This stretch of land below the Black Sea to the Caspian was under control by Turkish tribes from many centuries during the Byzantine era. Some participation from the church and political offices spanned over this rugged, plain and mountainous terrain effecting such groups as the Christian Armenians who were loyal practitioners to the powers along the Eastern Mediterranean. This north central stretch of Asia though would often encounter struggles for power against the formidable Persian Empire who occupied the majority of territory from the Arab Peninsula to India.

As it was for the large Persian population, life during the Middle Ages was difficult for most Turks. Contrary to Christian indoctrination from the west, the Muslim Arabization movement swept through most of the land around where the Turkish tribes existed. The leading Turkish tribal societies of the day particularly the Ghaznavid and Seljuk’s managed to contain their regional holdings uncontested from the powers just to the west. Adoption of Islam during this wave of contagion in the 8th century counted for some new societal dynamics that primarily resulted in a diminished ability for the Byzantine powers of Constantinople to convert Asia to Christianity. However, a mildness of Islamic belief among the Turks was likely due to it’s richly established identity which showed specifically a rugged characteristic while carrying a slight European connection from those along the Northeastern Mediterranean.

The fervent acceptance of Muslim after Prophet Mohammad predominately took place south of the Turkish region within the majority of the Arab Peninsula and North Africa. Devout acceptance to Islam throughout the eighth to the eleventh centuries also was standard in the lands east of the Tigris and Euphrates where the borders of Persia effectively began. Due to the religious beliefs practiced by the Magian priests common to the Persians at the time, they didn’t quickly convert to Muslim either. As years passed however the assimilation of the Muslim religion became more common both within Persian as well as in the Turkic land that by the tenth century had acquired the name Anatolia.

The early eleventh century witnessed a splendid era of courtly occasion with the spread of poetry, music, and entertainment that was made possible by the commissioning of Persian kings. The spread of this cultural identity took place with dervishes of talent that would travel by caravan across the continent demonstrating such secular rituals. Many of these occurrences made their way into the Turkic tribal lands and actually resulted in one of the most revered of the Sufi poets named Ferdowsi, who was actually born of Seljuk descent and would go on to leave an important mystical impact among the society that was often victimized by savagery.

The balance of power in the area to the southwest of the Caspian Sea, around Armenia, had served as an occasional battle ground between Turks and Persians. During the high leadership of Persian forces such as in the tenth and eleventh centuries, members of Turkish tribes were hired as mercenaries or taken prisoner to be made to fight for the Persian Army often to suppress inter-rival uprisings.

Strong Turkic military forces during the twelfth century comprised of heavy ground forces under the command of horse mounted warriors pursued several campaigns against Persian land farther east . The Turks mostly were successful with winning control of the northern stretch of land into Khorasan of present day Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan . The Turkish despots who oversaw rule of these conquered lands and the army were given the title of Sultans. As the Seljuk Turks had gained a significant claim of land, there nonetheless occurred a split of it’s most eastern territory due to the rise of a suspect tribe known as the Khwarezm. Rather as a blessing in disguise, the Seljuk’s were forced to relinquish some their eastern land, enabling them in large part to avoid the most brutal of invasions that would confront central Asia in the early to mid thirteenth centuries, that of the ruthless Genghis Khan’s Mongol forces. Their destructive path laid havoc across all of central Asia inflicting millions of deaths yet failed to make a meaningful assault on the Turks of Western Asia.

Another of the other idealized poets of the thirteenth century named Jalal al Din Molavi Rumi had fled into the Turkish land of Anatolia fearing the Mongol invasion. Still today as with Fedowsi, in Iran, the collections of Rumi‘s works are part of the curriculum in Turkish schools. The message in much of his work was an identification of our souls with God and scholarship in many areas of thought such as astronomy.

As the Arab lands were attending to civilization from Muslim teachings under governance of the local Mullahs and the Persian territory underwent decades of reasserting itself from the aftermath of atrocious defeat by the Mongols, Anatolia and Armenian territory sufficiently governed itself into a formidable existence unhindered by European or other authorities. The Crusaders had instigated a brutality against many of the non Christian members of society in an ongoing display of forced conversion since around the middle of the eleventh century.

In 1071, the Seljuk’s ventured west and defeated the Byzantines permitting them to settle into Eastern Europe during which time, the Turks had managed to encroach further upon the Arab and Persian borders as well. The Ottoman claim to power along the Mediterranean boundary of western Asia asserted the beginnings of what would be a long establishment of control there.

The elements of belief among many of the Turkic people in Anatolia during the middle ages can be said to incorporate Sufism, milleniallerism, Shi’a, saint worship and Christianity particularly in the Armenian region. In eastern Anatolia and present day northern Iran, a formidable Turkic group had gained an order of power similar to it‘s emerging Ottoman brethren to the west. This second group of people were the Safavids. Under formidable military command, the Safavids allied themselves with a group referred to as the White Turks and were able to exert a strong territorial clam among Muslim tribal groups and some of the Christian Georgian territory.

In the mid fifteenth century the people of whom this band of Turkish fighters infiltrated came under rule of Sultanate rule whose fighters were referred to as the Qezelbash meaning “red heads’ because of the red hats that they were known to wear. A broad conversion of these segregated Turks into Islam occurred by the early sixteenth century with an influence extending upon a once deeply immersed Persian society possessing it’s own traditional blend of Muslim with Mazdaen belief. The Qezelbash however influenced western Persian that drew Islamic guidance from the fundamental Arab religious centers around Bagdad. The religious importance that this groups grew to personify amassed greater regional control to the point that a Safavid leader named Ismail became the group’s effective leader and the establishment of their rule helped name Tabriz, the old Seljuk town as the new Safavid capital.

A fierce animosity with the Safavids, began early on for the Ottoman Turks of Western Anatolia who most all disagreed over their accepted form of Islamic belief as the Ottomans were notoriously Sunni. The military capability of the Ottomans to a large degree was able to prove superior through the use of firepower in 1514 when the Safavid capital of Tabriz was blown away by canon assaults. Wars between the Sunni Ottomans and the Shia Safavids continued for many years. Shiites were persecuted and killed within the Ottoman territories particularly in eastern Anatolia where they were regarded as traitors. Alternatively, the Safavids turned Iran into the predominately Shia state that it is today while exercising little tolerance for other religions despite a once respected tolerance for “religions of the book “ which included Christianity, and Judaism as described by the Koranic texts.

In a resurgence of aggression over the Ottomans, the Safavids were able to install greater military force by acquiring soldiers from around Georgia an Armenia either as paid mercenaries of captive slaves. Thus this region’s boundary of Eastern Anatolia further developed into a split allegiance for power with a forced bastion of loyalty for the Qezelbash as a number of the Georgian and Armenian involuntarily were put to fight. A recurrence of battles ensued against the Uzbeks and Ottomans which the Shia Qezelbash were able to reclaim some of the previous losses that they had encountered against these groups in the early seventeenth century. The Safavid influence carried some importance even in Ottoman Anatolia in matters of language and poetic expression however the contrary Shia belief fueled serious hatred among the two groups.

The Turkish Ottomans had in their own right gained a position of regional supremacy that was fashioned through the various allegiances, defeats and successes militarily and politically in the 12th to 15th centuries. By the sixteenth century, the present territory of Turkey was securely it's own while having also gained the small coastal tip of Constantinople from it's invasion of the Peninsula in the 12th century.

It's fomented power grew determined to exert control over the loosely governed areas in the Arab Peninsula to match that of the Europeans and as preeminent rival against the Persians to the east. The tribal Arab societies weren't unified whereby consisting of such distinct groups such as the Wahhabi, Bedouins, Hashemites of pockets of Christians and Jews. Little governing authority held sway over matters of regional importance or diplomatic relation with other parts of the world. The Ottoman Turks realized the opportunity then to seize influence upon this area for themselves. It would come to be devastating for nearly all of the afflicted Arabian people.

Viciously harsh conditions by the appointed local representatives would oversee the land ownership of the Ottoman nobility who ruled from their capital city in Ankara. The local Arab population were subject to a repressive system of feudalism where the peasant dwellers would often be forced to forfeit significant taxes and/or the fruits of their labor. Those who enforced the egregious collection and frequent violence were once influential Arab families who saw cooperation as the best alternative to surrendering to the Turkish Sultans.

Their was little reprieve from the harsh conditions as traveling members of aggressive tribes would demand forms of payment from the local population as well. Nothing went back into improving the Arab territory to replenish the harvest or civic development. Some groups like the Yemeni in the south had success in defeating the Ottomans and Saudi Arabia under it's royal kingdom averted the same sad fate that much of the other Arab lands had to confront. It would be in the mid nineteenth century when the French and British became a substantial force in the region that some abatement of the harsh standards would prevail.