The inception of Christianity and Islam in the Roman and Byzantine empires, the African kingdoms, and the Arabian Peninsula influenced each civilization's daily life, set of beliefs, government, and the Christians and Muslims who practiced. The two religions are similar in many aspects. Both religions are monotheistic, which means followers worship one all-powerful god. Both religions believe in the same god, but each have a different given name. The name of the Islamic god is Allah while the name of the Christian god is simply God, and sometimes is referred to as Yahweh. Christianity and Islam have religious laws that all righteous and devout followers obey. Muslims obey the Five Pillars of Islam and Christians obey the Ten Commandments. Both of these sets of laws are found in the religion's holy book: the Islamic Koran and the Christian Bible. Each religion has a holy city. The Muslims regard Mecca, located on the Arabian Peninsula, as their holy city because it was the city where their prophet, Mohammad, was born. The Christians regard Jerusalem as their holy city because it was where their messiah, Jesus Christ, was crucified and resurrected. Jerusalem also is seen as God's own city. The Muslims believe that the existing teachings Mohammad are the purest words from God and that Jesus Christ is wrongfully worshipped as a "second God". These differences in belief about Mohammad and Jesus Christ are reflected in the teachings of the Koran and the Bible and affect the teachings of each religion. The two religions, despite a big difference in belief, are able to co-exist and respect one another. .
The Koran consists of 114 chapters called surahs, which all begin with the words, "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful". Each surah consists of verses called ayahs and is ordered according to length, longest to shortest verses. The longest surah is 206 verses long while the shortest surah is only three verses long.