All over the world there are thousands of religions; each with its own history, beliefs and traditions, some similar and some very different and one example of how these religions differ is in how each one represents or pictures the divine. An unmistakable image of Christ, which was created during the Byzantine era, is represented in the Christ as Pantocrator dome mosaic at the Church of the Dormition (Daphni, Greece, ca. 1090-1100). While, the Mihrab, from the Madrasa Imami (Isfahan, Iran, ca. 1354), which was created during the Islamic era, does not appear to make use of any image at all. As different as the mosaics of Christ as Pantocrator and the Mihrab may appear to be, they both have similarities in their representation of the devotion…show more content… Many such images were destroyed towards the end of the Early Byzantine period during a time of Iconoclasm. These images were destroyed for various reasons; one of which is based on Emperor Leo III’s belief that God was punishing the Christian Roman Empire for their idol worship by sending the Arabs, who subscribed to the Islamic Religion and did not believe in God or of images of any living thing in a holy place, who would eventually take over a large majority of the Byzantine Empire’s territory. During the Middle Byzantine period many arguments were made in favor of icons and the art that followed can be seen as a resurrection of the Early Byzantine tradition of the making of images of Christ, the Virgin and child and many others for use in worship, both in private and in…show more content… As you look up into the dome, the first thing that catches your eye is what appears to be the glowing image of Christ. Christ as Pantocrator was a common image used in churches during the Byzantine period and the Pantocrator mosaic at the Church of the Dormition, representing Christ as the “Almighty” or “Judge of humankind” is an imposing figure. The architecture of the tall arches, that lead your eye upward, and the windows that circle the dome, allowing light to bounce off the mosaic’s gold background (which is a traditional Byzantine feature) throughout the day, lends to the otherworldly feeling that links worshipers with Heaven through its conceptual ideal and not a physical reality. The giant icon seems to float in the dome, which symbolizes Heaven, looking down with the stern expression of a Father, as if advising against any sin you may think to commit. Surrounding the image are various signs and symbols that allow no room for mistaking that this is Christ as Pantocrator. In his left hand he holds a book that is decorated with a cross and what would