Architecture, Culture, and the Arts of Byzantine Empire

Byzantine architecture

Byzantine history spans the period from the late Roman Empire to the beginning of the modern age. Constantine the Great, first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, moved his capital to Byzantion in 330, renaming the city Constantinople. The state he ruled was Byzant, but the citizens called themselves Rhomaioi (Romans).

The Byzantine Empire was heir to the Roman Empire. With the passage of time Byzantine civilization became distinct, as Greek influence increased and it dealt with the cultural impacts of Europe, Asia, and, after the seventh century, Islam.

During the Middle Ages, when the concept of Europe developed, Byzantium was in decline and isolated from the West. Thus Europe came into being without Byzantium, the successor to the Roman Empire. By the time Europe was a full-blown concept, Byzantium was no longer a remnant of the Roman Empire, and Constantinople was part of the Ottoman Empire.


Historical Background

Constantine established Constantinople as Rome’s capital, so the fall of Rome to the Goths did not end the empire, it merely relocated its center. Byzantine culture was a continuation of classical Greece and Rome but was distinctive in the way that it synthesized those influences with European and Islamic ones.

The early Byzantine period saw the replacement of the ancient gods by Christianity and the establishment of Roman law and Greek and Roman culture. The golden age lasted until the Arab and Persian invasions in the seventh century and the iconoclasm of the eighth century. The Byzantine emperors instituted administrative and financial reforms.

Eschewing the western approach of hiring foreign troops and lacking the tax base of the West, the emperors in Constantinople kept a small military. Although the western area lacked an emperor after 476, Byzantine emperors claimed to be rulers of the entire old Roman Empire, even though Byzantium’s military was insufficient for the reconquest of the West.

For most Byzantine emperors the rhetorical commitment to recapturing Rome was sufficient. Justinian I (527–565) undertook expeditions with some success, taking North Africa and Italy, but Justinian’s wars against the Ostrogoths destroyed Italy economically, devastating its urban culture.

His wars were also a great burden on the treasury. Justinian’s successors had to focus on reestablishing Byzantine finances destroyed by Justinian. They also had to deal with Persians in the east and Germans, Slavs, and Mongolians in the west.

Heraclius I (610–641) settled Huns in the Balkans to thwart the western threat. Then he bested the Persians, ending that empire. The year of Heraclius’s ascent to the throne, in Arabia Muhammad first heard the message that would send the forces of Islam across the world. By the end of Heraclius’s reign, the Muslim threat in Syria and Persia would force Byzantine attention away from the west and toward the east and south.

After initial Muslim successes in Syria and Egypt the Muslims took Persia and pressed into Byzantium several times in the seventh and eighth centuries. Leo the Isaurian (717–741) defeated the simpulan Muslim effort to take Byzantium, and the empire stabilized. Taking advantage of unsettled conditions in the Muslim Caliphate the empire retook most of Syria and reestablished itself as dominant until the 11th century.

After besting the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks controlled Byzantium’s eastern territory. Byzantium called on its coreligionists in Europe for help against the Turks, sparking the Crusades, which produced European kingdoms in Syria and Palestine and the taking of Constantinople in 1204. Byzantium continued in Greece and retook Constantinople in 1261, but the reestablished kingdom was a small city-centered entity, and Ottoman Turks absorbed it in 1453, renaming it Istanbul.

The empire was Christian but its Christianity differed from that of the West. The Latin popes won primacy in a Europe with no centralized secular ruler, but in Byzantium the emperor kept a powerful role in the church. The Byzantine retention of the Roman concept that the emperor was nearly divine would generate a split with the West, particularly through the Iconoclastic Controversy.

The Iconoclastic Controversy

During the fourth century in the Roman Empire, classical forms declined and eastern influences became more important. Constantinople became a new center for artists in the eastern part of the empire, especially Christians. Other centers included Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome. When the first two fell to the Arabs and Rome to the Goths, Constantinople was alone and supreme. The first great age came during the reign of Justinian I (483–565).

He established a code of law that imposed his religion on his subjects and set the stage for absolutism. He built the Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople and the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (in Italy). After Justinian the empire declined, with Justinian’s conquests lost and Avars, Slavs, and Arabs threatening. Religious and political conflict also disturbed the capital.

In 730 Leo III the Isaurian came into contact with Islamic beliefs during his successful wars against the Muslims. Accepting the purity of the Muslim rejection of idols and images, he banned images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. The Iconoclastic period lasted until 843. Iconoclastic theologians regarded the worship of icons or images as pagan. Worship was reserved for Christ and God, not for the product of human hands, during the Iconoclastic Controversy.

The Iconoclastic Controversy disoriented the Byzantine Church. Byzantine religious culture and intellectual life, previously known for innovation and speculation, were stagnant from that point. A wholesale destruction of art showing inappropriate figures occurred.

Restrictions on content meant that ornamental designs and symbols such as the cross were about the limit of expression. Without human figures, mosaicists borrowed Persian and Arab designs, such as florals, and the minor arts remained vibrant.

The papacy adamantly rejected iconoclasm as a threat to the authority of the pope. Leo’s son Constantine V (740–775) was more adamantly iconoclastic than Leo. Although Byzantium abandoned iconoclasm in the ninth century, the breach persisted. The end of iconoclasm brought about the Macedonian Renaissance, beginning under Basil I, the Macedonian, in 867.

The ninth and 10th centuries were times of improved military circumstances, and art and architecture rebounded. Byzantine mosaic style became standardized, with revived interest in classical themes and more sophisticated techniques in human figures.

After the Iconoclastic Controversy resolved itself in favor of using icons, the empire flourished from 843 to 1261. During this period the arts prospered, the official language was Greek, and Christianity solidified its hold from the capital through the northern Slavic lands.

Afer the Macedonians came the Komnenian dynasty, starting in 1081 under Alexios I Komnenos. This dynasty reestablished stability after the major dislocations of Manzikert, which cost Byzantium Asia Minor. Between 1081 and 1185 the Komnenoi patronized the arts, and a period of increased humanism and emotion occurred. Examples are the Theotokos of Vladimir and the Murals at Nerezi. As well as painted icons, this period saw mosaic and ceramic examples, and for the first time the iconic form became popular through the empire.

Excellent Byzantine work of this period is also found in Kiev, Venice, Palermo, and other places outside the empire. Venice’s Basilica of St. Mark, begun in 1063, was modeled on the now destroyed Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. The Crusades, specifically the massacre of Constantinople in 1204, ended eight centuries of Byzantine culture. The Frankish crusaders of the Fourth Crusade pillaged Constantinople, generating even more destruction of Byzantine art than did the iconoclastic period.

Palaeologan Mannerism

The state reestablished in 1261 included only the Greek Peninsula and Aegean Islands. After the crusader period (1204–61), Byzantium had a simpulan surge until the Ottoman conquest. The simpulan bloom of Byzantine art, the Palaeologan Mannerism, occurred under the Palaeologan dynasty, founded by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1259.

This periode saw increased exchange between Byzantine and Italian artists, new interest in pastorals and landscapes, and the replacement of masterful mosaic work such as the Chora Church in Constantinope by narrative frescoes. Byzantine culture included women and men alike, unlike practices in classical Greece and Rome or in medieval Europe.

Women could not attend school, but aristocratic females received tutoring in history, literature, philosophy, and composition. The greatest Byzantine writer was the female historian Anna Komnene, whose biography of her father, Emperor Alexios, is among the best of medieval histories.

Byzantine art was underpinned by the art of ancient Greece, and until at least 1453 it remained strongly classical yet unique. One difference was that the ancient Greek humanistic ethic gave way to the Christian ethic. That meant that the classical glorification of man became the glorification of God, particularly Jesus.

Byzantine art replaced the classical nude with figures of God the Father, Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth, the Virgin Mary, and the saints and martyrs. Byzantine art emphasized strongly the icon, an image of Christ, Mary, a saint, or Madonna and Child used as an object of veneration either in church or at home.

Byzantine miniatures showed both Hellenistic and Asian influences. Byzantine architecture rested on Roman technical developments. Proximity to the Hellenized East meant that Constantinople’s architecture showed Eastern influences. The Basilica of St. John of the Studion, dating from the fifth century, exemplifies the Byzantine use of Roman models. Some criticize Byzantine art as lacking in realistic depictions of humans.

Byzantine art lacked some of the naturalism of ancient Greek art. Particularly in sculpture, technical expertise declined as emphasis shifted to Christian themes. However, Byzantine art had periodic technical revivals, and it maintained enough of the Greek classical influence to allow the Renaissance to happen.

Rejecting sensual pleasure, pagan idols, and personal vanity, Byzantine artists worked to serve Christianity by showing not the external perfect human form but the internal, spiritual element of the subject. Stylized and simplified representations were appropriate to this purpose.

New techniques and new levels of accomplishment characterized Byzantine silver- and goldsmithing, enamel, jewelry, and textiles. Byzantine mosaics and icons showed high levels of originality. Architecture found its highest expression in the Hagia Sophia, superior in scale and magnificence to anything in the ancient world.

Although skill levels fluctuated over time, in most Byzantine art forms certain usages, patterns, and practices remained constant. Mosaics served as the predominant decorative art for domes, half-domes, and other available surfaces of Byzantine churches.

Byzantine painting concentrated to a great extent on devotional panels. Icons were vital to both religious and secular life. Icons lacked individuality, their effectiveness resting on faithfulness to a prototype. Byzantine painting also included manuscript illumination.

Byzantine art continues in some aspects in the art of Greece, Russia, and the modern Eastern Orthodox countries. Enamel, ivory, and metal reliquaries and devotional panels were highly valued through the Middle Ages in the West. Byzantine silk was a state monopoly and a highly prized luxury.

In Italy Byzantine art was a major contributor to the Romanesque style in the 10th and 11th centuries. In the Holy Roman Empire, Charlemagne had close ties to Byzantium; he and other Frankish and Salic emperors transmitted the Byzantine influence through their domains.

The official end to Byzantium came with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, but in the meantime the culture had diffused with Orthodox Christianity to Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and, most significantly, Russia, which took the mantle from Constantinople after 1453. The Ottomans allowed Byzantine icon painting and small-scale arts to continue.

Byzantium transmitted classical culture to Islam and to the West. More important, Byzantine culture and religion strongly influenced the Slavs, particularly the Russians. Around 988 the Russian Vladimir converted to Byzantine Christianity. When Byzantium collapsed in 1453, Russia’s rulers took the title “caesar” (czar), that of the Byzantine emperors. The Russian czar proclaimed Moscow the “Third Rome,” after Rome and Byzantium.

The Byzantines also preserved culture, pursuing science, philosophy, and classical studies. Byzantine basic education entailed mastery of classical Greek literature, including the works of Homer, largely unknown in the West. Byzantine scholars studied and preserved the works of Plato and Aristotle, making them available to first the Islamic world and then western Europe.

Art and Architecture in the Golden Age of Muslim World

Art and Architecture in the Golden Age of Muslim World

Islamic art and architecture is that of the Muslim peoples, who emerged in the early seventh century from the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslim empire reached its peak during the golden age of Islam from the eighth to the 13th century.

Literary and archaeological evidence reveals that the early architecture of the Muslim communities in Medina and Mecca, presented through the prophet Muhammad’s mosque and residence in Medina and through other smaller mosques, continued the indigenous building style based on a rectangular structure with an open internal courtyard and a covered area. Older structures such as the Ka’aba in Mecca continued the ancient Arab architectural style found among the Nabataeans in Petra, Palmyra, South Arabia, and Hatra in Mesopotamia.

In pre-Islamic times, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and its surrounding regions lived in scattered minority communities of Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian peoples among a majority of pagans or polytheists.


To these people, great legendary architectural palaces, castles, temples, and churches were still-vivid memories signifying power and prestige. They were recorded in poetry and other literary forms and associated with famous cities such as Petra, Palmyra, Hatra, Hira, Madain Salih, Kinda, Najran, Marib, and Sana.

Pre-Islamic records and literary evidence attest to the existence of visual art forms, especially sculpture and painting, which were employed primarily to disseminate copies of icons and sculptural depictions of the many deities and idols worshipped in the region.

For example monumental statues of major deities like Hubal, Allat, Al-Uzza, and others were still standing in public locations and temples on the eve of the advent of Islam prior to 630. Small-scale statues and figurines were abundantly available among the pre-Islamic population, and makers of images were active in such cities as Mecca and Taif.

Wall paintings from the early Islamic secular buildings in Syria, Jordan, and Iraq reveal important examples of a blending of Mesopotamian, Sassanian, Hellenistic, and indigenous Arab styles. Architectural planning of early Muslim mosques in Egypt and North Africa reveals borrowing from ancient Egyptian architecture.

Early Islamic Art and Architecture

Great Mosque of Damascus

The prophet Muhammad died in 632 and within a few years the newly emerged Islamic state expanded quickly and swiftly claimed the realms of both the Sassanian and Byzantine Empires. In less than 100 years the new politicoreligious model reached the steppes of Central Asia and the Pyrenees in Europe.

As the Muslim community expanded, the need for a central place of worship emerged and was realized by the development of the mosque—a French distortion of the word masjid or “place of prostration.” Islam, a nonclerical, nonliturgical faith, does not employ ritualistic surroundings and the first mosque was actually the open courtyard of the house of the prophet Muhammad in Medina. It functioned as a meeting place and community center.

Later this tradition expanded to the establishment of a central mosque called al-Masjid al-Jami'—“the great mosque”—in every major city. With it developed the characteristics of the mosque and its components: an open courtyard (sahn); a roofed area for prayer (musallah) with a dome (qubba); a niche in the wall of the prayer area (mihrab) to indicate the direction of prayer (qiblat) toward the Ka’aba in Mecca; an elevated platform (mimbar), from which the congregational leader delivered the sermon; a tower (minaret), from which the call to prayer (adzhan) was issued; and an ablution place for performing the ritual washing before each prayer (wudhu).

This basic arrangement of functional space found in early mosques in Basra, Kufa, and Wasit in Iraq, and later in the Great Mosque of Damascus and the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and elsewhere, became the prototype of traditional Islamic mosque architecture.

The rapidly growing state demanded a new Islamic architectural style that developed gradually, acquired new forms, and incorporated diverse methods of visual expression. During the golden age of Islamic civilization a blend of architectural designs and motifs from South and North Arabian, Byzantine, Hellenistic, Indian, Chinese, and other origins was employed in a new building kegiatan throughout the Islamic world.

Whatever the variety of its components, the jawaban result always presented a unique Arab Islamic style, especially in the early period, where the architecture and art were unified by strong Arab characteristics that can be detected in the art of the Umayyads in Syria, the Andalus in Spain, the Abbasids in Iraq, and the Fatimids in Egypt.

The Arabic language, derived from the Semitic Aramaic language, played a decisive role in the formation of Islamic culture and art. Arabic was the official and original language of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. Arabic was a powerful cultural and literary vehicle with which to disseminate Arab culture throughout the new and diverse Muslim communities in the recently expanded regions of Central Asia, Anatolia, the Mediterranean coasts, Sicily, and Spain.

Verses of the Qur’an were inscribed in elegant Kufic and Thulth calligraphic styles on the interior and exterior of major mosques in Jerusalem, Damascus, Basra, Fustat, Tunisia, Sicily, and Spain in a variety of techniques such as stucco, wood carving, and ceramic tiles. The mosque thus became a unifying architectural form and symbol of the monotheistic concept of Islam.

Islam adopted an aniconic style in art that does not promote figurative representation. In the Qur’an, the sunna (manners, ethics, behavior, and social practice of the prophet Muhammad), and hadith (collection of sayings of Muhammad pertaining to a variety of topics, and everyday life situations), depiction of living forms is discouraged and according to certain interpretations is banned altogether, especially in religious environments such as mosques.

Sunni orthodox interpretation of figurative representation characterized it as an act of defying the power of God, who alone was ascribed the ability of creation. Furthermore the depiction of human beings was also thought to be reminiscent of and an encouragement of pre-Islamic idol worship.

These sanctions prompted Muslim artists to create a new form of expression based on the use of Arabic calligraphy—literal meaning and visual composition—and decorative ornamentations. The corroboration of these two powerful visual vocabularies with the already developed conventional Islamic components characterized Islamic art distinctly and continuously.

Umayyads: 661–750 c.e.

Borrowing, blending, and modifying motifs, forms, and techniques from Byzantine and Sassanian sources and incorporating them into the indigenous Arabic style characterize the art and architecture of this formative period. This approach was presented through the architectural planning and iconographic design in major buildings, both religious and secular.

Interior of Umayyad mosque

In the eastern Mediterranean region a new blend of styles and motifs was incorporated in the early Umayyad buildings. Mosaic decoration, a preferred Byzantine medium, is evident in the case of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed in 692; the Great Mosque of Damascus, completed in 715; and the desert palaces in the Syrian regions.

Presentation of power, triumph of the new religion, and the emphasis on Islamic theology in early Islamic art were realized through the use of monumental architectural forms, calligraphy, and the ornamental aniconic patterns as in the case of the Dome of the Rock, or the figurative representations in painting and sculpture at the desert palaces Qusayr Amra, Khirbat al-Mafjar, and Mshatta in the Syrian region, and during the early Abbasid period in palaces in Samarra and Baghdad in Iraq.

Abbasids: 750–1258 c.e.

Beginning around the 10th century the synthesis of Islam and Arab culture was modified by the emergence of decentralized, mostly non-Arab political powers such as the Samanids in Iran and the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan, the Seljuk dynasty in Anatolia, the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and Tunisia, and the Almoravid Empire (al-Murabitun) and Almohads (al-Muwahhidun) in the western areas of Islamic lands.

These dynasties and mini independent states contributed to the spread of Islam and consolidated their political power in the Andalus in Spain and established bases in the heart of India with the Delhi Sultanate in 1206. Traders and merchants carried Islam as a religion and culture deep into Africa and Central Asia, and across the sea routes to Indonesia.

These new political powers with their cultural trends added new riches to the diverse collection of Islamic science, literature, art, and architecture. Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid dynasty, became the center of knowledge and scientific development.

The Islamic Renaissance

The Islamic renaissance, which witnessed tremendous advances in every field, prompted architects, visual artists, calligraphers, and artisans of all sorts to collaborate in the production of a vast body of monuments, masterpieces, and manuscripts.

A great number of these manuscripts were embellished and illustrated with fine visual presentations, such as the 13th century Maqamat al-Hariri illustrated by Mahmoud bin Yehya al-Wasiti, whose style set a standard for what is conventionally known as the Baghdad school of al-Wasiti. The diverse cultural input of new ethnic groups from Iran, Anatolia, Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean region enriched the Islamic art repertoire.

interior of the great mosque of cordoba

Figurative illustrations gradually populated manuscripts, especially those of a literary or scientific nature. Figurative representation was used during the Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuk, Mamluk, and later periods as well. It is important to note that depictions of human figures, although employed by both Shi’i and Sunni artists and patrons, were most common with Shi’i and Sufiart.

In architecture, a blend of new elements from the recently acquired territories was incorporated in the design of mosques, hospitals (maristan), schools (madrasat), Sufi foundations (khanaqah), tombs, shrines, palaces, and gardens. This incorporation furthered and enhanced the defi nition of a distinct Islamic style. Muslim architects developed and employed the pointed arch as early as 776 at the al-Ukhaydhir palace in Iraq and the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 780.

The pointed arch concentrates the thrust of the vault on a narrow vertical line, reducing the lateral thrust on foundation and allowing for higher walls. The double tier arch and the horseshoe arch were developed and used in the Great Mosque of Damascus in 715 and transmitted later to the Andalus in Spain and employed in the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

The square minaret appeared for the first time at the Great Mosque of Damascus and was transmitted later to North Africa and Spain. The pointed arch, horseshoe arch, and the square minaret impacted European architecture and were adopted in Romanesque churches and monasteries and especially in the Gothic cathedral and its towers. Much of the Islamic golden age achievement passed on to Europe through Sicily, Spain, Jerusalem, and other important centers in the Islamic world.

Muqarnas is probably the most distinct and magnificent architectural decorative element developed by Muslim architects around the 10th century, simultaneously in the eastern Islamic world and North Africa. Muqarnas is a three-dimensional architectural decoration composed of nichelike elements arranged in multiple layers. Soon after its appearance, muqarnas became an essential architectural ingredient in major buildings of the Islamic world in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sicily, North Africa, and Spain.

Muqarnas structures, augmented with the elegant Arabic calligraphy, floral design, and geometric patterns typically called arabesque, produced a dazzling visual composition that characterized the beauty of such places as the interior of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or the Masjid al-Jami’ in Isfahan, among other examples.

This composition, accentuated by bands of the Kufic and Thulth styles of Arabic calligraphy, added spiritual and poetic dimensions to the adorned buildings and objects. Qur’anic texts usually cover the exterior and interior of religious buildings with verses and chapters at various locations in the building.

Poetry, proverbs, and celebrated sayings may cover secular buildings and nonreligious objects such as dishes, plates, and jewelry boxes. The continuous patterns and repetition of ornaments covering walls and ceilings, running along naves, arcades, and archways, echo a rhythmic tone that originates from one pattern and multiplies in endless, complex, repeated, and variant patterns.

It defines the unity in multiplicity of Islamic decorative style. This attractive visual system was so impressive that some early Renaissance artists could not resist copying and imitating bands of Kufic inscriptions to decorate the clothing of the figure of the Virgin Mary and other biblical figures and angels in paintings of the period.

The golden age of Islam witnessed the emergence of elegant visual art and magnificent architectural achievements that had a major influence on succeeding periods, with its characteristics echoing throughout the Safavid, Mogul, and Ottoman periods.

Norman Kingdoms of Italy and Sicily

Norman Kingdoms of Italy and Sicily

Described by some sources as bloodthirsty brigands, the first Norman warriors arrived in Italy from Normandy, France, in search of adventure, land, and wealth.

As foreigners to the fragmented lands of Lombard, Italy, and Sicily, the first Normans were able to take advantage of disputes between the pope, the Byzantine Empire, the Lombard lords, and the Muslims of Sicily to forge a united kingdom out of fractious, petty states.

The Normans assured stability with a strong bureaucracy based on Arab, Greek, and Latin models. The largely tolerant and synergetic culture of Norman Sicily was embodied in the fusion of Arab, Berber, Greek, and western traditions in their architecture, art, and literature.


The Normans epitomized Mediterranean culture and trade, knitting a kingdom that, as the Mediterranean itself, connected Africa, Europe, and the East. At its height the civilization of Norman Italy and Sicily was a remarkable combination of Greek, Arab, and Latin cultures.

Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger I were two of the first Norman warriors to attack Byzantine possessions in southern Italy. They even captured Pope Leo IX in 1053. He was not released from captivity until he recognized the authority and legitimacy of the Normans.

The papacy and the Normans were reconciled after Pope Nicholas II gave Guiscard authority over Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily even as these regions were still occupied by Byzantium and the Muslims of Sicily.

Ibn al Thumma, an Arab from Sicily, offered the entire island to Roger I if he agreed to help establish stability on the island. By 1072 the Normans had conquered Palermo. Despite their thirst for booty, the Normans guaranteed the protection of religion and local laws.

In 1091 Roger I had effectively conquered the entire island, respecting the local laws and beliefs as promised. His feudal system simply copied the Muslim military districts, Muslims were a large part of his army, and Muslim eunuchs took over many bureaucratic tasks.

Roger II, son of Roger I, was probably the most famous Norman ruler. His reign of more than four decades (1111–54) saw the birth of a great trading empire. Recognizing the importance of North African trade, he conquered several cities on the coastline of modern-day Tunisia and challenged the naval supremacy of the North African, Muslim states in the Mediterranean.

Roger I conquered Palermo

This opened the rich African gold and Oriental spice market to European traders, creating an economic boon for the Normans, the new masters of the Mediterranean. As a statesman Roger II reformed the judicial system and maintained order among the different religious and ethnic communities of the region.

In addition to Greek scholars and ministers, his court included a harem, and a cohort of Muslim slaves, eunuchs, and administrators. Some Muslim scholars were so impressed by his tolerance and kindness that they claimed he was a Muslim in disguise.

The Palatine Chapel in Palermo, considered the finest example of Norman medieval architecture, exemplified the Norman use of the best Byzantine mosaics, Arab plaster decoration, and Latin painting, creating a magnificent jewel of medieval and intercultural unity even as the rest of Europe was rocked by war and conflict.

Greek, Latin, and Arabic were all official languages of the Norman court. A cadre of religious scholars and poets from the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt, Byzantium, North Africa, Italy, and Spain engaged in free and open debates about the nature of God, faith, and fate, answering difficult theological questions asked by Roger II.

Al-Idrisi, the Arab Sicilian geographer, called his carefully constructed map and description of the world the Book of Roger. A book used by European explorers, the Book of Roger drastically increased western and Latin knowledge of world geography.

Faced with the reconquest of North Africa by the Almohads and other threats to his power, Roger II gradually became less tolerant to the Muslims of Sicily. Norman power began to wane under William, Roger’s successor. He did not have the same energy for statecraft as his father.

Even as the first stage of Norman rule went into decline, a new leader soon emerged from a marriage between a Sicilian and the ruler of Germany, a leader who would bring Sicily and Italy back into an age of cultural brilliance.

Norman Pallace nowdays

Frederick II (1194–1250) ushered in the next great abad of southern Italian history. As son of Constance of Sicily, he had Norman blood. He was also son of Henry IV, a German king and Roman emperor. As the Normans before him, he had a difficult relationship with the church.

Despite his strong crusading spirit, he was excommunicated by a papacy concerned about the unification of Italy and threats to the Papal States. He was crowned emperor of Jerusalem in 1229, establishing a state that was largely tolerant of different religious faiths.

Inspired by the multireligious culture of Sicily, he created a rare and brilliant abad of peace in Jerusalem. Like his Norman predecessors Frederick was very much a man of the Mediterranean.

Far from a provincial German ruler, or a Norman barbarian, he was steeped in the international cultures of Islam, Judaism, and the Greek church as well as the Roman church. It could easily be argued that the cultural patronage and openness of the Norman kings and their defiance of papal authority helped build the foundations of the Italian Renaissance and the birth of humanism.

Berbers

Tariq ibn al-Ziyad, a berber commander

The Berbers are the earliest known inhabitants of northwestern Africa’s Mediterranean coast, plains, and mountain ranges. Living as nomadic herders or farmers in Morocco’s Atlas and Rif mountain ranges, Algeria, the Sahara Desert, east into Libya and Egypt, the exact ethnic and cultural origins of the Berbers is unknown, though their languages, called Tamazight, belongs to a family of Afro-Asiatic languages. In ancient times, Berber religions were polytheistic.

Although ancient Berber history is sketchy because of the fact that there was no written form of their langu ages, references to them do exist in chronicles from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Beginning around 600 b.c.e. some Berber regions of North Africa came under foreign occupation, first by the mighty city-state of Carthage, and then by the Roman republic. Under Carthaginian and Roman rule, Berber merchants linked the Mediterranean coastal settlements with West Africa, trading in slaves, gold, and ivory.

Under the Roman Empire, some Berbers residing on the Mediterranean coast became imperial citizens, though Berber communities living in the North African interior mountain ranges and other rural areas remained largely independent. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, large sections of North Africa’s seacoast remained under the control of the Byzantine Empire of Asia Minor.


After the rise of Islam in the first half of the seventh century c.e. Arab Muslim expansion into North Africa began in earnest, beginning in 642 during the reign of the second al-Rashidun caliph, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. The new religion slowly spread among segments of the Berber tribes, replacing Byzantine Christianity, which many Berbers practiced in some form, and Judaism.

Although many Berbers accepted the basic tenets of Islam, their method of practice generally remained unorthodox. This led to a growing level of tension between them and the Arab Umayyad Caliphate of Syria by the middle of the eighth century.

A large number of Berbers joined the fundamentalist movement of the Kharijites, who opposed the Umayyads and preached that any qualified Muslim could lead the community. Berber opposition to the centralized power of the caliphate continued after the collapse of the Umayyads in 750 by the Abbasid Revolution.

The Fatimids, an Isma’ili Shi’i movement that arose in 969, received substantial Berber support in their takeover of Egypt and parts of North Africa from the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, Iraq. During the Fatimid dynasty, there is evidence that there was an attempt to instill Arab culture within Berber societies, which had largely retained their own cultural practices and languages.

Berber warriors

In 711 during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik, the first Muslim expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula were launched under the command of a Berber, Tariq ibn al-Ziyad, and other Berber Muslims. A mixed party of Arabs and Berbers under the Umayyad commander Musa ibn Nusayr followed al-Ziyad’s landing the next year and Berber soldiers continued to play a major role in Muslim expansion throughout Iberia and southern France for centuries.

The first major Berber political-military state to emerge was the Almoravid Empire, which was founded in Mauritania and the Sahara around 1050 and practiced a more orthodox form of Sunni Islam. With the founding of their capital city, Marrakesh, in Morocco in 1062, Almoravid expansion continued under the joint rule of Yusuf ibn Tashfin and his cousin, Abu Bakr.

In 1086 Almoravid armies landed in Iberia, where Yusuf defeated Alfonso VI, the Christian king of Castile, which allowed the Berber empire to establish a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim state with control over much of southern Iberia, all of Morocco, and parts of West Africa.

By 1150 another Berber movement, the Almohads, under ‘Abd al-Mu’min overthrew the Almoravids, taking over Morocco and southern Spain while expanding east across North Africa. Like their predecessors, the Almohads founded a fundamentalist and militaristic Sunni Muslim state.

Unlike the Almoravids the Almohad Empire slowly broke apart into smaller states, and the last Almohad caliph, Idris II, ruled only the city of Marrakesh before his murder in 1269. Under the Almoravid and Almohad periods, the majority of the Berber tribes converted to Sunni Islam, following the Maliki School of Islamic jurisprudence.

Although the Berbers continued to hold onto aspects of their culture and continued to speak Berber languages, many also adopted some Arab cultural practices. Berbers continue to live throughout present-day North Africa and form a large segment of the populations in Morocco and Algeria, with some tribes continuing to reside in Mauritania, Tunisia, and Mali.

Political History of Byzantine Empire

Roman empire in 460 AD

The city of Constantinople, or Byzantium, was founded, according to legend, in 667 b.c.e., by Greeks from Megara and gradually rose in importance during the Roman Empire. Its initial importance was its position on the trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean, especially its close access to the land routes to Persia, Central Asia, India, and China, as well as guarding the entrance to the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea).

During the second century the Roman Empire had grown so substantially that there were moves to split it into an eastern and a western empire. This concept was introduced by Diocletian, who looked to the past for ideas to resolve the problems facing the Roman Empire.

His idea was that two emperors (each known as an augustus) would rule the two halves of the Roman Empire. Each augustus would then nominate a younger man, known as a caesar, to share the ruling of the empire and succeed to the post of augustus. This reduced the Roman emperors to the equivalent of chief executive officers who nominated their successors.

Diocletian then moved his capital to Nicomedia in modern-day Turkey. The idea did work briefly, but there were enormous problems, and it was left to Emperor Constantine the Great to rework the system. In 330 Constantine established the eastern capital at Byzantium, which he called Constantinople. He also reintroduced a hereditary succession to try to stop the strife caused by contending caesars.

Although his successors ruled over what became known as the Byzantine Empire, those living in Constantinople never saw themselves as Byzantines, the name coming from the Thracian-Greek name for the city. Instead they regarded themselves as Romans (or Romaioi), and direct lineal descendants of the power, traditions, and prestige of the Roman Empire.

Origins of the Byzantine Empire

Essentially the Byzantine Empire owes its origins to Constantine the Great who ruled from 324 to 337. The emperor drew up plans for enlarging his city with the building of a large palace, a forum, a hippodrome, and government departments. To protect the city from attack, Constantine also supervised the building of large walls across the isthmus.

constantinople

Constantine died at Ancyrona, near Nicomedia, and his body was brought back to Constantinople, where it was buried. He was then succeeded by his eldest son, Constantius (or Constantine II), who reigned from 337 to 340. He was succeeded by his brother Constantius II, who ruled until his death in 361 and as sole emperor from 353 to 361. He died of fever near Tarsus in modern-day Turkey.

The next emperor was Julian the Apostate, (r. 361–363). He was the son of Julius Constantius, half brother of Constantius II. The last pagan emperor, he tried to restore religious traditions of Rome in an effort to try to restore his empire to its former glory.

When Julian died in a battle against the Sassanid Persians, a prominent Roman general, Flavius Iovianus, was elected Roman emperor, becoming the emperor Jovian. He was a Christian and is best remembered for being outmaneuvered in a peace agreement with the Sassanids. He died on February 17, 364, after a reign of only eight months.

Byzantine flag

His successors were Valentinian I, another successful general, and his younger brother Valens, Valens becoming emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Valens reigned for 14 years, and his first task was to withdraw from Mesopotamia and parts of Armenia, which Jovian had ceded to the Sassanids. However, Valens also had to deal with a revolt by Procopius, a maternal cousin of Julian.

Procopius managed to raise two army legions to support his proclamation as emperor, and Valens considered abdicating to prevent a civil war. When Valens sent two legions against Procopius, both mutinied and joined the rebellion. However, by the middle of 366 Valens had managed to raise a large enough army to defeat the forces of Procopius at the Battle of Thyatira. Procopius was captured soon afterwards and executed.

Battle of Adrianople

The revolt of Procopius encouraged the Goths to attack the Eastern Roman Empire. This meant that Valens had to lead his successful army north, and after defeating a Goth army, he concluded a peace treaty that allowed Roman traders access to the lands controlled by the Goths. War with Sassanid Persia broke out, forcing him to lead his armies back toward Persia.

His campaign was cut short when the Visigoths threatened the northern frontier. They had lost lands to the Huns and were anxious to compensate themselves with Roman lands. Eventually the Visigoths allied with the Huns, and along with the Ostrogoths, attacked the Romans. A massive Byzantine army moved against them, leading to the Battle of Adrianople, August 9, 378.

The Goths and their allies destroyed the Roman army, and Valens was killed during the battle. It left the Byzantines exposed, and with Gratian, the 19-year-old nephew of Valens, as the emperor of the Western Roman Empire, there was the need for a strong ruler to save the empires.

Theodosius I

Theodosius I, born in Galicia, in modern-day Spain, was the son of a senior military officer who was executed after being involved in political intrigues. Theodosius was made commander of Moesia, on the Danube (in modern-day Serbia and Bulgaria). After Adrianople, Gratian appointed him as the co-augustus for the East, and he co-ruled with Gratian and Valentinian II.

Emperor Theodosius I

On a political level, Theodosius was a Christian and made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire. In 381 he helped convene the second general council of the Christian Church, held at Constantinople, where some of the decisions of the Council of Nicaea in 325 were confirmed.

The main task of Theodosius was to ensure the military survival of the Roman Empire, and he immediately went to war in the Balkans with the Sarmatians. He had defeated them six years earlier, and another victory led to his being proclaimed as co-emperor on January 19, 379.

He was given the provinces of Dacia (modern-day Romania) and Macedonia, both areas having been attacked many times in the previous decades. Living at Thessalonica, Theodosius built up his army. To raise more soldiers, he allowed for Teutons to be recruited, rewarding many of them with senior administrative positions.

Theodosius also sought a compromise with the Visigoths and assigned lands to the Goths in the Balkans in return for peace. It was the first time that an entire people were settled on Roman soil and able to maintain their autonomy. It avoided war with the Goths, many of whom converted to Christianity.

These moves were unpopular with some in Rome, and later historians have blamed these positions on making Rome vulnerable to attack. However, Theodosius was able to use this newfound military force to great effect. When a usurper, Maximus the Confessor, gained support in the Western Roman Empire and invaded Italy, Theodosius was the only commander with enough soldiers to check his advances.

In 378 he defeated Maximus and, later, the forces of another usurper, Eugenius. Theodosius crushed his rebellion at the Battle of Frigidus on September 5–6, 394. By this time Theodosius was sole emperor. He was subsequently known to history as Theodosius the Great.

When Theodosius I died, his younger son, Honorius, succeeded him in the West, and his eldest son, Arcadius, succeeded him in the East. Arcadius appears to have been a weak ruler, and for much of his reign, a minister, Flavius Rufinus, a politician of Gaulish ancestry, made the decisions.

With Honorius being dominated by his minister Flavius Stilicho, the position of emperor was in danger of becoming symbolic. According to some accounts, it was rivalry between the ministers that led to Stilicho having Rufinus assassinated by Goths.

However, a new minister, Eutropius, took over for Rufinus until, in 399, the wife of Arcadius persuaded her husband to remove Eutropius, who was later executed. The Praetorian commander, Anthemius, took over, with Arcadius retreating from the political scene until his death on May 1, 408. His son Flavius Theodosius, who became Theodosius II, succeeded him.

Theodosius II was only seven when he became emperor, but on the reputation of the military builtup by his grandfather, the boy had a trouble-free minority, and the empire remained safe from attack through his long reign, which ended with his death on July 28, 450.

His older sister, Pulcheria, whose interpretation of Christianity was anti-Jewish, heavily influenced Theodosius. Under Pulcheria’s influence, the Christian Church condemned the Nestorian viewpoint of the dual nature of Christ as heretical, and Nestorius, its proponent, was exiled to Egypt.

In 425 the University of Constantinople was founded as a center for Christian learning. Theodosius II is best remembered for his codification of the laws of the Roman Empire. In 429 he ordered that copies of all laws be brought to Constantinople, and nine years later the Codex Theodosianus was published.

Although the Eastern Roman Empire was safe, the Western Roman Empire crumbled during this period, resulting in much power reverting to Constantinople. During the last years of the reign of Theodosius II, the Byzantine Empire came under attack from Attila the Hun, and the Byzantines responded by paying large tribute to the Huns to stop the attacks.

On the death of Theodosius II in 450, Pulcerhia chose as her brother’s successor Flavius Marcianus, her husband, who became Emperor Marcian. Marcian stopped the payments to the Huns, who, by this time, were more concerned with attacking Gaul and Italy. Marcian also fortified Syria and Egypt to prevent attacks and was thought to have distanced himself from events in the Western Roman Empire.

It appears that Marcian may have been involved in the death of Attila in 452, even though he did not send aid to Rome, which was sacked by the Vandals in 455. Marcian and his wife are both recognized as saints by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Marcian died in 457, and Flavius Valerius Leo Augustus (Leo the Thracian) became the new emperor. He was a successful general who had led campaigns in the Balkans and against the Goths. Leo I sent a large army against the Vandals, under the command of his brother-in-law Basilicus, but it was decisively defeated in 468.

He died in 474 and was succeeded by his seven-year-old grandson, Leo II, who died 10 months later. Leo II’s father, Zeno, became emperor. Initially he had success leading his armies against the Vandals and the Huns in the Balkans.

In January 475 he was deposed by Basilicus, who took control of Constantinople for his reign, which lasted 19 months. In August 476 Zeno took over again, exiling Basilicus and his wife and son to Cappadocia, where they died from exposure. Zeno managed to build up the Byzantine finances. When he died in April 491, his widow, Ariadne, chose an important courtier, Anastasius, to succeed him.

Anastasius was involved in the Isaurian War from 492 to 496, where forces loyal to Longinus of Cardala, a brother of Zeno, revolted. Many rebels were defeated at the battle of Cotyaeum, and although guerrilla war continued for some years, Anastasius was never in serious danger from them again. From 502 to 505 he was involved in a war with the Sassanid Empire of Persia.

Initially the Sassanids were victorious, but the war ended in a stalemate. Anastasius then spent much of the rest of his reign building defenses. These included the Anastasian Wall, which stretched from Propontis to the Euxine, protecting the western approaches to Constantinople. Anastasius died on July 9, 518, the last Roman or Byzantine emperor to be deified.

Justin I was nearly 70 when he became emperor. He was illiterate but was a successful career soldier. The last years of his reign saw attacks by Ostrogoths and Persians. In 526 he formally named Justinian, his nephew, as co-emperor and his successor.

Justinian I

Justinian I was one of the most famous Byzantine rulers and is best remembered for his legal reforms that saw the establishment of a new legal code. He gained a reputation for working hard, being affable but unscrupulous when necessary. His early military moves were to try to regain the lost lands of Theodosius I. He failed in this but quickly gained a reputation for surrounding himself with advisers who achieved their status through merit.

One of these was Tribonian, who had the task of codifying the law—the first time all of Roman law was written down in one code. At the same time Justinian’s general Belisarius decided to launch an attack on the Sassanid Persians and against the Vandals in North Africa, recapturing Carthage. In what became known as the Gothic War, Belisarius retook Rome in 536, and four years later he took the Ostrogoth’s capital, Ravenna. The 540s saw parts of the Byzantine Empire ravaged by bubonic plague.

In 565 Justinian I died and his nephew Flavius Iustinius became Emperor Justin II. The Byzantines lost land to the Sassanids in a disastrous war with Persia. Justin II became troubled by mental problems and may have been going senile. He appointed a general named Tiberius as his successor.

Tiberius II Constantine was the first truly Greek emperor, and he continued the war with the Persians in Armenia. He was succeeded in 582 by a prominent general, Mauricius, who subsequently married the daughter of his predecessor.

The Emperor Maurice reigned from 582 to 602, a time when the empire was constantly attacked. When the Romans intervened in a dynastic war in Persia, they were amply rewarded by the return of eastern Mesopotamia and Armenia. However, while the Byzantines were involved in Persia, the Slavs took control of much of the Balkans. In 602 a mutiny by troops led to a general called Phokas (Phocas) entering Constantinople and killing Maurice, after forcing the deposed emperor to watch the execution of five of his sons.

Phokas was from Thrace and was a successful general of obscure origins before he seized the throne. The seizing of power by Phokas was the first bloody coup d’état since Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Phokas was initially popular because he lowered taxes and introduced reforms that benefited the Christian Church. However, on a military front, the Eastern Roman Empire faced invasion, especially in the northern Balkans, and raiders did reach as far as Athens.

In addition, King Khosrow II of Persia, installed by Maurice, started to conspire against the man who overthrew him. The Persians championed a young man whom they claimed was a son of Maurice, taking over some of Anatolia. In addition, trouble brewed in Egypt and Syria. In 610 Heraclius, the exarch (proconsul) of Africa, staged a rebellion that ended with Phocas being put to death.

Heraclius I was emperor from 610 to 641 and tried to reunite the empire that was still under attack in the Balkans and from the Persians. The latter managed to capture Damascus in 613, Jerusalem in the following year, and in 616 invaded Egypt. Their raids deep into Anatolia caused Heraclius to consider moving the capital from Constantinople to Carthage, but his reorganization of the military allowed him to stop the invading forces.

Much of this centered on land grants to families in return for having them serve in the military when the empire was in danger. In 626 Constantinople itself was attacked, but in the following year at the Battle of Nineveh, the Byzantines defeated the Persians, leading to the deposing of Khosrow II of Persia and the Byzantines gaining all the land they had lost.

Heraclius started to use the Persian title king of kings, and no longer used the term augustus, preferring basileus, Greek for “monarch.” During the 630s the Arabs proved to be a major threat to the Byzantines, who were decisively defeated in the Battle of Yarmuk in 636. Heraklonas’s two sons succeeded him, Heraklonas Constantine (Constantine III) and Constantine Heraklonas (Heraclius).

The former ruled for only four months before succumbing to tuberculosis. His younger half brother became the sole emperor; however, there were rumors that Constantine III had been poisoned, and a rebellion led to the deposing of Heraklonas four months later, and the son of Constantine III became Emperor Constans II.

Under Constans II, the Byzantines were on the retreat, having to withdraw from Egypt with the Arabs quickly capturing parts of North Africa. The Arabs also destroyed much of the Byzantine fleet off Lycia. Later the Arabs split into what became the Sunni and Shiite factions, and were unable to carry out their plan of attacking Constantinople.

Constans II was assassinated by his palace chamberlain in 668, and a usurper, Mezezius, was emperor for a year until Constans II’s son became Constantine IV and reigned until 685. By now the Arabs attacked Carthage, Sicily, and captured Smyrna and other ports in Anatolia. The Slavs also used the opportunity to attack Thessalonica. The Byzantines were able to successfully use Greek Fire against the Arabs at the sea battle of Syllaeum.

Constantine was worried that his two brothers, crowned with him as coemperors, would pose a threat to him, and he had them both mutilated. This allowed his son Justinian II to succeed to the throne (r. 685–695 and 705–711). In the interval two successful generals, Leontios and Tiberios III, were briefly emperors.

Justinian became increasingly unpopular and was killed by rebels, with Philippikos becoming emperor 711–713. He managed to stabilize the political situation and was succeeded by his secretary Artemios, who became Emperor Anastasius II. After two years a rebel leader and former tax collector deposed him, capturing Constantinople and proclaiming himself Emperor Theodosius III. He only lasted two years; a rebel commander took control of Constantinople and forced Theodosius to abdicate. He later become bishop of Ephesus.

Leo III

The new emperor, Leo III, was able to stabilize the Byzantine Empire, and he remained emperor from 717 until his death in 741. He immediately set about a reorganization of the empire’s administration. Much of this centered on the elevation of serfs to become tenant farmers.

Making alliances with the Khazars and the Georgians, he was able to defeat the Arabs. Leo III, however, is best known for his iconoclasm when, from 726 to 729 he ordered the destruction of the worshipping of images. His son, who became Emperor Constantine V, succeeded him at his death.

He reigned until 775, managing to continue with the reforms and iconoclasm of his father and also defeat the Arabs and the Bulgars. He died while campaigning against the latter and was succeeded by a son who became Emperor Leo IV. Although Leo IV only reigned for five years, he managed to send his soldiers on several campaigns against the Arabs. When he died, his son, aged only nine, became Emperor Constantine VI.

Scheming led to him being taken prisoner and blinded by his mother, who succeeded as Empress Irene, the widow of Leo IV. Her finance minister deposed her in 802. He became Emperor Nikephoros I and continued the wars against the Bulgars and the Arabs until he was killed in Bulgaria in 811.

The son of Nikephoros I became Emperor Staurakios, but he reigned only for just over two months until he was forced to abdicate. He went to live in a monastery, where he died soon afterwards. His brother-in-law then became Emperor Michael I. Eager to become popular, Michael reduced the high levels of taxation imposed by Nikephoros I. He also sought a compromise with Charlemagne.

Abdicating, he retired to a monastery, and Leo V, an Armenian, became the next emperor. He was assassinated in 820, leading to the Phrygian dynasty of Michael II coming to power. Michael II was emperor from 820 to 829, and his son Theophilos succeeded him, ruling until 842. His wife then ruled, and then his son Michael III “The Drunkard,” who was assassinated in 867, ushering in Basil I and the Macedonian dynasty.

Basil I was believed to have been of Armenian ancestry, and he lived in Bulgaria, leading an expedition against the Arabs in 866. He helped in the assassination of his predecessor and became one of the greatest Byzantine rulers. Apart from codifying the laws, he also built the Byzantines into a major military power.

His reign also coincided with the Great Schism, in which Basil determined that Constantinople should remain the center of Christianity, not Rome. Basil allied the Byzantines to the forces of Louis II, the Holy Roman Emperor.

Their combined fleets were able to defeat the Arabs, and although the Byzantines lost much of Sicily, the eastern frontier was heavily reinforced, and Arab attacks against the Byzantines were unsuccessful. When Basil died in 886, his son Leo VI succeeded him, although some accounts identify Leo VI as a son of Michael III.

Leo VI, who was the son of a mistress of Michael III and later mistress of Basil I, ended up at war with the Bulgarians, although his tactical alliance to the Magyars was successful for a period. The Byzantine defeat in 896 was a reverse that was followed by the Arabs capturing the last Byzantine-held bases on Sicily.

A Byzantine expedition tried to recapture Crete but failed, and Leo VI died in 912, succeeded by his younger brother Alexander. Emperor Alexander was extremely unpopular, and his death after a polo match ended his reign of 13 months. Leo VI’s illegitimate son then succeeded as Constantine VII in 913, inheriting a war with Bulgaria.

Constantine was deposed in 920 by Romanos I, the son of a member of the Imperial Guard who was deposed in 944, leading to Constantine VII returning as emperor. He then reigned for 14 years, and when he died, his son Romanos II became the next emperor.

As soon as Romanos II took over, he purged the court of his father’s friends, and allegations were made that he had poisoned his father to gain the throne. Although Romanos II was indolent and lazy, he left the army in the command of capable generals. He died after a reign of four years, succeeded initially by his five-year-old son, Basil II.

Nikephoros II quickly deposed Basil, reigning for six years until he was assassinated. It was during his reign, in 961, that the famous monastery complex on Mount Athos was founded. The next emperor was John I, who reigned for six years, until he died. During his reign he trained ex-emperor Basil to rule, and Basil II became emperor again, reigning for 49 years.

Basil II formed a strong alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev, and together they managed to stabilize the northern borders of the Byzantine Empire. Basil II also took back large parts of Syria, although he did not manage to retake Jerusalem. War in Thrace against the Bulgarians saw the Byzantines destroy their opponents at the battle of Kleidion on July 29, 1014. Basil II was succeeded by his younger brother, Constantine VIII, who reigned for only three years, being succeeded by Romanos III, a great-grandson of the usurper Romanos I.

As the first in a new dynasty Romanos III tried to change many aspects of Byzantine rule. He financed many new buildings, including monasteries. He abandoned plans by Constantine VII to curtail the privileges of the nobles but faced many conspiracies, which led to his overthrow after a reign of fewer than six years. Michael IV, a friend of the daughter of Constantine VIII, ascended the throne. Military reforms were pressing, with the Byzantines under attack from Serbs, Bulgarians, and, more menacingly, the Arabs.

It was also a period when the Normans were a rising military power. Michael IV defeated the Bulgarians and died in 1041, succeeded by his nephew Michael V, who only ruled for four months. Deposed, blinded, and castrated, Michael V was succeeded by Zoe, his adoptive mother.

Constantine IX, the son of a senior civil servant, ruled from 1042 until 1055. A patron of the arts, he was subject to scheming and internal revolts. He was succeeded briefly by Michael VI and then by Isaac I Komnenos. In 1059 Constantine X became emperor and inaugurated the Doukid dynasty. After his reign of eight years, his son Michael VII ruled for 11 years.

For three of those years, Romanos IV, the second husband of Constantine X’s widow, was also emperor. In 1081 Alexios Komnenos, nephew of Isaac I, restored the Komnenid dynasty. Alexios was worried about the Turks controlling the Holy Land and decided to ask Pope Urban II for some military help from western Europe, resulting in the launching of the First Crusade.

Over the next two centuries, as battles with Turks continued over Asia Minor, the empire’s relationship to the West deteriorated. During the Crusades the empire’s lands were meant to be used as a staging ground for the war to “reclaim” the Christian holy lands, but bored, undisciplined crusaders frequently wound up sacking and pillaging Byzantine cities when they were too impatient to wait for their arrival in Muslim territories.

The Byzantine renaissance of the 12th century was an artistic and economic one—an inward-facing revival rather than a return to the sort of diplomatic fervor that had marked the empire’s earlier centuries. At the turn of the very next century, the soldiers of the failed Fourth Crusade were hired by Alexios IV, the son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II, to restore his father’s throne. Constantinople fell to the crusaders in 1204, and the Latin Empire was established to govern formerly Byzantine lands, with many territories apportioned to Venice.

The Byzantine Empire was officially dissolved, though its culture remained much the same for the next 200 years—through shifting governments, as the Latin Empire never stabilized and was followed by brief-lived successors—until 1453, when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and all its lands.

Muslim Spain

Inside Alhambra, Granada, Spain

In 711 the Muslims had conquered the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula. By 714 following the decline of the Visigoths, the Muslims had gained a strong grip on virtually the entire Iberian Peninsula. The parts in southern Spain that were under Muslim rule were called al-Andalus.

The vast region was divided into five administrative provinces—Lusitania, and the Ebro region. The administrative system was subject to change as the Christians regained more power over parts of Muslim Spain in the following centuries.

However Muslim Spain was not restricted to the region named al-Andalus. The Muslims also controlled parts of Aragon-Catalonia and Navarre. Parts of southern France fell briefly under Muslim rule but a strong French military force under Charles Martel managed to drive them away in 756.


Although Córdoba was not the capital city of previous rulers such as the Byzantines and the Romans, it lay at the crossroads of important trade routes. Moreover the city possessed rich agricultural resources. From there the caliphs ruled parts of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.

The Muslims had, in fact, amassed a vast empire stretching from Spain to India and ruled diverse groups of people, who contributed to the later development of a sophisticated culture in a cosmopolitan setting found in Muslim capitals such as Córdoba. By 757 al-Andalus had been clearly established as a Muslim polity with a mainly Arab and Berber population, but also with many converts.

Within Muslim Spain, the Umayyad dynasty ruled over Arabs from various locations as well as Berbers, Jews, Christians. The lingua franca used by diverse groups of people within al-Andalus was Arabic.

Umayyad Dynasty

In 750 after a series of rival wars between various Muslim factions, the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman Mu’awiya, also known as Abd al-Rahman I, refused to acknowledge the Abbasid Sunni Caliphate based in Baghdad.

By this time the Abbasid dynasty was considered corrupt and weak. This led Abd al-Rahman to set up his own dynasty of emirs of Córdoba, first by ousting the previous ruler, Yusuf al-Fihri.

Abd al-Rahman proclaimed himself the first emir of Córdoba in the mosque of Córdoba on May 14, 756. The powerful Fatimid dynasty, based in Egypt, opposed the installation of the Umayyad Caliphate on Córdoba. The Fatimid dynasty had a strong hold over North Africa.

inside Cordoba (former) Mosque

Abd al-Rahman thus enlisted the help of the Zanata Berber tribe enemies of the Sinhaja tribe, allies of the Fatimids. Pro-Umayyad rebellions against the Fatimids were quashed and Abd al-Rahman was unable to advance into North Africa, as he was preoccupied with skirmishes with the Christians.

He ruled independently of the Abbasid Caliphate for 33 years, consolidating sufficient support for Umayyad authority to ensure the longevity of his dynasty. Abd al-Rahman succeeded in fending off Yusuf al-Fihri’s allies as well as the supporters of the Abbasid Caliphate within al-Andalus.

Later on the emirate became known as the Umayyad Caliphate, which was in fact modeled upon the older Abbasid Caliphate. The Umayyads, who were members of the prophet Muhammad’s tribe Qureish, claimed to be descendants from the prophet Muhammad.

Prior to conquering parts of the Iberian Peninsula the Umayyads had already ruled a huge part of the Muslim world including the important city of Samarkand at the eastern edge of their kingdom. Their conquests stretched to al-Andalus in the west with its capital in Córdoba.

By the time of Abd al-Rahman I’s death in 852, al-Andalus was already a major diplomatic power in the Mediterranean with emirates established over North Africa. Links had also been established with the Byzantine emperor, another major player in Mediterranean politics.

Visigoth Resistance

Visigoth Resistance

Initially the Muslim power that was responsible for the great wave of Muslim expansion was based in their distant capital city of Damascus. In Muslim Spain, however, Córdoba was made the capital, where the Muslim invaders settled down as property owners soon after their victory over the Visigoths.

One way land was acquired in Córdoba was through marriage with important members of the Visigothic aristocracy. This had the added advantage of staving off potential opposition from the Visigoths, who had been the ruling class in Córdoba before their defeat at the hands of the Muslims.

Despite the Visigoths’ apparent truce with the Muslims within Spain, members of the Visigothic aristocracy who had fled up north of the Iberian Peninsula continued to resist Muslim rule in the south.

This was an impetus for the Muslims to invade the northern mountainous region of the peninsula, as well as France. The Muslim invaders were especially looking to gain resources in France rather than the inaccessible regions in northern Spain. This expansion came to an end when the three major military expeditions to France during the eighth century ended in disastrous defeats.

Umayyad caliphs in al-Andalus had a policy of tolerance toward the non-Muslims under their rule. Non-Muslim residents had to pay a poll tax (jizya) and a land tax. Thus the greatest source of tax revenue, was the non-Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus. This contributed to the policy of tolerance of the Christian and Jewish population. Conversion to Islam escalated under the reign of the Umayyad Caliphate.

During the ninth century mass conversions took place. The benefits of conversion included employment opportunities in government. Not only did Muslims pay significantly less tax than non-Muslims, they could also gain better positions in the bureaucracy.
In fact the unifying bonds between the various groups of people were culture and literature, rather than religion, which created a harmonious setting. There was a large Christian group within Muslim Spain known as the Seville.

They adopted a Muslim lifestyle, in terms of fashion, architecture, and literature, without converting to Islam. These Mozarabs suffered religious persecution in 1139 by fellow Christians after the raids of King Afonso I (Henriques) of Portugal on Seville, as they were not considered true Christians.

Umayyad Dynasty of Cordoba

Umayyad Dynasty of Cordoba

The caliph of Córdoba, formerly known as the emir of Córdoba, ruled Spain for slightly more than a century, from the year 929 to 1031, beginning with the reign of the most powerful Muslim ruler, Abd ar-Rahman III, who claimed the caliphate in 929.

The caliph was especially skilled at projecting his image as a powerful Arab leader. Abd ar-Rahman III made sure he was visible to his people in the many ceremonies and processions organized for him. The caliph presented himself as an effective leader of his own military troops. In his image campaign, newsletters and poems were glowingly written of his military prowess and piety.

During this period, in addition to having a reputation as an illustrious commercial center, al-Andalus also became an eminent center of knowledge and learning. Al-Andalus was a great civilization, compared with the rest of Europe at that time. Many Islamic works of art were produced during this kala of Muslim rule.

Umayyad caliph Abd Al-Rahman III had a keen interest in the arts, as well as the religious and secular sciences. He amassed many books from other intellectual centers such as Baghdad, which were then stored in the library. Scholars were also hired to supplement further the amount of written knowledge imported.

Drawn to the bastion of knowledge and culture, many philosophers and scientists began to migrate to al-Andalus, making it a renowned center of learning. Intellectual life in Córdoba peaked during the reign of Al-Hakam II, who was in power from 961 to 967.

He was responsible for establishing a massive library filled with hundreds of thousands of volumes, a useful repository of knowledge in the Mediterranean world. During this period several intellectuals achieved prominence in Muslim Spain.

Spanish Muslim intellectuals excelled in the fields of mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. The most famous example is Ibn Rushd, otherwise called Averroës, who was a philosopher, theologian, physician, and sometime royal consultant, born and educated in Córdoba.

Christian Reconquest

Simultaneously the territories owned by the caliph of Córdoba decreased just as aspects of commerce and culture thrived. Internal dissension among different Arab factions weakened the Umayyad power base in Córdoba as they disintegrated into warring divisions.

The lack of Muslim unity proved crucial to Christian success. During the reign of Hisham II, the Umayyad Caliphate disintegrated into party-kingdoms in 1009. He was executed in 1013, only to be succeeded by another weak ruler, Hisham III, the last caliph of Córdoba.

Hisham III was exiled to Lerida. Nominal rule continued under the short-lived Hasanid dynasty until 1054. The further remaining territories dwindled into mere Muslim principalities, better known as independent taifas, ruled by mainly Berber rulers, though there were also non-Berber rulers.

With their defenses weakened because of lack of unity, these taifas often had to hire mercenaries from North Africa or Christian mercenaries to protect their principalities, which were constantly at war with each other. This chaotic situation in the Muslim states was conducive to Christian reconquest.

Christians in the northern parts of the Iberian Peninsula had already begun to consolidate their military and political power as early as the eighth century, and into the latter half of the ninth century.

Under the reign of Alfonso II (791–842), the Christians in the northern region had stabilized themselves. He was able to install Visigothic institutions in his kingdom with his capital in Oviedo.

The Christians viewed the reconquest of southern Spain (al-Andalus) as justified, since they were reclaiming what rightfully belonged to the Visigoths. Further impetus was provided by the discovery of the tomb of St. James the apostle, a patron saint around whom the Christians could rally.

From the eighth to the 10th century the Christian north had possessed an inferior economic system and cultural milieu compared to al-Andalus in the south. However they were already clearly formed political entities with military forces that were able to stave off attacks from their enemies from the south. This enabled them to reconquer Muslim Spain upon its disintegration during the 10th and 11th centuries.

In 1056 the Almoravid Empire took over as the rulers of Muslim Spain. They were replaced by the dynasty of Almohads in 1130. The decline of the Almohads in 1269 enabled the Christians to conquer parts of Muslim Spain with more ease.

The important cities of Córdoba and Seville had already fallen into Christian hands in 1236 and 1248, respectively, leaving only Granada as the last Muslim stronghold. In 1469 through the union of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, much of Spain was united. By 1492 a stronger Christian Spain finally took over Granada.