This reading is from the great Voices of the Past channel. The excerpt is from the medieval Book of Tang, but I'm not sure if this is the old book or the new:
English captions available. Should be on automatically.
"The historic Byzantine Chora church is returning to its role as a functioning mosque, having served as a museum for seven decades. Last month a similar reconversion was completed with Hagia Sophia, triggering backlash from Greece." Source: RT.
"On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered to transfer a historic church in Istanbul into the care of the Religious Affairs Directorate and opening its doors to Muslim worshipers. A similar reconversion happened a month ago, when Hagia Sophia, which also had originated as an Orthodox house of prayer, was turned from a museum into a mosque."
Video from 2013 when the church was still a museum.
"The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora traces its history back to a fourth century monastery complex just outside of the wall of Constantinople, which was incorporated into the city as it expanded. The walls of the current building have survived since a major reconstruction in the 11th century. The interior features gorgeous Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, which were created sometime between 1315 and 1321 and depict scenes from the New Testament." (RT)
Comment: I guess we're lucky that the Muslims didn't destroy the church outright, but I have to wonder how long it will be before they demolish or remove the Christian mosaics and frescoes. Next video (July 25, 2020) shows Muslims praying at Hagia Sofia for the first time in 86 years.
"After ten centuries of wars, defeats, and victories, the Byzantine Empire came to an end when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in May 1453. The city’s fall sent shock waves throughout Christendom. It is widely quoted as the event that marked the end of the European Middle Ages." Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.
The Byzantine Empire had been in decline for a long time before Constantinople was finally captured by Mehmed II (The Conqueror).
"The fall of Constantinople was a huge blow for the Christian world but, although Pope Nicholas V called for a crusade to regain the city for Christendom, no concerted military response was made. Now styled 'the Conqueror,' Mehmed declared the city his new capital and claimed to be the rightful successor to the Roman Empire." (Encyclopedia Britannica)
As corrupt and crazy as its rulers were, the fall of the Byzantine Empire was a calamity for the western world and Constantinople, at one point the largest and wealthiest city in Christian Europe, has remained in the hands of the Muslims ever since.
"The modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin (εἰς τὴν πόλιν), meaning 'into the city' or 'to the city'. This name was used in Turkish alongside Kostantiniyye, the more formal adaptation of the original Constantinople, during the period of Ottoman rule, while western languages mostly continued to refer to the city as Constantinople until the early 20th century. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script. After that, as part of the 1920s Turkification movement, Turkey started to urge other countries to use Turkish names for Turkish cities, instead of other transliterations to Latin script that had been used in the Ottoman times. In time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages." Source: Wikipedia.
The Greek Orthodox Church still refers to the city as Constantinople, a stubborn and commendable tribute to the past. If the Islamization of Europe continues at its present pace, we may soon reach a point where all European cities have been given new names.
One of the greatest legacies of the Byzantine empire, a symbol both of its religious mysticism and its secular wealth, the magnificent Hagia Sofia was turned into a mosque after the conquest, later transformed into a museum and recently reconverted back into a mosque.
Comment: Was Attila a monster? I guess that depends on your point of view. He probably wouldn't make Esquire's Best People In The World List, but I think calling him a "monster" is inaccurate because the word implies that there was something inhuman about him, that he was unusually cruel and wicked. Attila may have been a thug, extortionist and mass-murderer, but he had plenty of company then and now. Piling up corpses in the pursuit of glory, plunder and conquest isn't exactly unusual in the pages of history. If anything, it could be called all too human.
The Huns were very successful for a while, but like so many warrior cultures who carved out empires for themselves in a bloody, ultraviolent world, they couldn't hang on to what they had conquered. Despite all the mayhem they caused, their lasting contribution was probably the role they played in the collapse of the western Roman empire.
Ironically, the Germanic tribes might not have overrun the Roman frontier the way they did (or at least when they did) if the Romans hadn't been so successful at keeping the barbarians out in earlier times. Frustrated in their search for new land to the west, the Ostrogoths, in particular, started to expand to the east where they collided with the Huns in the region north of the Caspian and Black seas.
"In 372, the eastward expansion of the Ostrogoths provoked an explosive reaction from the Huns of the Volga steppe," according to The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History, p. 12. "The Ostrogothic cavalry was humiliated by the faster-moving Huns, whose mounted archers destroyed every force ... sent against them." The Huns then advanced all the way to the Danube, driving the Germanic tribes before them. Fleeing from the terrifying barbarian hordes, many of the Germans ended up flooding across the frontier into Roman Gaul. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Attila came along later, a charismatic killer who united the Huns and raised hell with the Byzantine Empire. His forces spread terror and destruction wherever they went, but his record in battle wasn't all that great when you look at the big picture. He invaded Italy, causing a lot of damage, but he couldn't take Rome. His campaign against Persia failed. He was defeated when he tried to conquer Gaul. He never gave up, though, and might have had more success if he hadn't died in 453 AD.
The Huns' role in the fall of the western Roman empire was indirect. They would probably have expanded into the West in any case, but as it turned out it was the Ostrogoths who stirred them up by intruding into their territory and pulling the trigger on the Romans in the process. The Huns were savage barbarians who slaughtered a huge number of people, but they were too wild to stay unified for long in the absence of warlords strong enough to hold them all together. Led by killers like Attila, the so-called "Empire of the Huns" rose to great heights, only to fall apart soon after his death, leaving behind a legacy of smouldering cities, rotting corpses and the ruins of ancient civilizations.
"Israeli archaeologists have published a 360-degree analysis of a rural, affluent Christian town in the Galilee that was most likely destroyed by Persian invaders in 613 CE." Source: Times of Israel.
"Unearthed in 2007 in a salvage excavation before roadworks near Shlomi and Kibbutz Hanita, the remains of the Byzantine settlement at Pi Mazuva are located in modern Israel’s northwest corner on the border with Lebanon. The finds include Christian iconography, a large house and a colorful, high-quality, partially preserved mosaic floor."
Note: "According to the researchers, there were about 140 Christian settlements in the region during this era, including 63 churches or monasteries. Another 13 settlements had a mixed population. Many of these Christian sites in the Galilee were destroyed in the Persian invasion."
Next video shows the remains of a 5th-century Byzantine church discovered near Jerusalem (in 2015?).
"The Nika riots ... Nika revolt or Nika sedition took place against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople over the course of a week in 532 CE. They were the most violent riots in the city's history, with nearly half of Constantinople being burned or destroyed and tens of thousands of people killed." Source: Wikipedia.
The Nika revolt was set off by the Greens and Blues, two factions who supported different chariot-racing teams, but the outbreak of rabid violence that almost overthrew Justinian was a lot more than a simple sports brawl like the soccer riots we have today.
The Greens and Blues were loose political, social and religious associations vaguely similar to today's political parties. And chariot-racing itself was more than just a sports spectacle. According to Wikipedia, "The chariot races were important in the Byzantine Empire, as in the Roman Empire, as a way to reinforce social class and political power, including the might of the Byzantine emperor, and were often put on for political or religious reasons."
Justinian's government wasn't exactly popular with the rabble. The riots were a protest over political corruption, high taxes, budget cuts, legalized brutality, the slow pace of reforms, and a variety of other reasons too complex to go into here. His legitimacy as a ruler had also been called into question by military setbacks such as the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Callinicum in 531 AD (one year before the riots broke out).
Tension had been growing in Constantinople for a long time and the lowborn emperor and his wife, Theodora, weren't just unpopular with the masses. Some of the legal reforms the emperor managed to push through "made him unpopular with the aristocracy from the start, as they made it impossible to use obscure laws and jurisprudence to avoid unfavorable verdicts, further angering the aristocracy." (Wikipedia)
I'm skipping over a lot of history here -- a detailed description would require an entire book -- but the tensions finally boiled over into what can only be described as a massive insurrection against an emperor the historian Procopius described as a demon in human form.
The Secret History by Procopius is one of the most vicious and entertaining political hit pieces ever written.
The bad feeling against Justinian came to a head in the crowded Hippodrome of Constantinople when the rival Greens and Blues united against him:
"On 13 January 532, as the Emperor took his place in the Hippodrome and gave the signal for the games to begin, his appearance was greeted by an uproar. Suddenly, he realized that, for the first time, the Greens and Blues were united; and that their clamour was directed not at each other but at him. 'Nika! Nika!' they cried, using the normal word of encouragement -- 'Win! Win!' -- by which they cheered on the charioteers. In the past, however, each side had tried to shout down the other. Now, they were speaking with one voice; and that voice was not pleasant to hear." -- A Short History of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich, p. 63. (Highly recommended.)
Justinian managed to escape from the Hippodrome, but the city descended into chaos. According to Norwich, "the mob poured out of the great circus, hell-bent on destruction" and "for five days and nights the smoke lay thick over the city." The fires destroyed the Hagia Sophia, the most important church in Constantinople.
The violence made the riots we're seeing today look like child's play. To make a long story short, the situation got so bad that it almost brought Justinian's rule to an end. He was on the verge of giving up his throne and fleeing the city when Theodora convinced him to stay and fight, and once he made up his mind he didn't screw around:
"Fortunately, two of the Empire's best generals were present in the palace. The first, a Romanized Thracian named Belisarius, was still in his twenties. The second, Mundus, was an Illyrian who happened to have with him a sizeable force of Scandinavian mercenaries. Secretly the two slipped out of the palace, rallied their soldiers and, by separate routes, marched on the Hippodrome." (Norwich, p. 64).
The rioters had gathered in the Hippodrome to crown a new emperor, one of Justinian's relatives named Hypatius, and the two generals caught them by surprise:
"...they burst in simultaneously on the mob, taking it completely by surprise. No quarter was given; Greens and Blues were slaughtered indiscriminately. Meanwhile the commander of the imperial bodyguard ... had stationed his men at the principal exits with orders to cut down all who tried to escape. Within a few minutes, the angry shouts in the great amphitheatre had given place to the cries and groans of wounded and dying men; soon these too grew quiet. (Norwich, p. 64).
"A section of the famous Theodosian Walls (Tower 69) of Constantinople (modern Istanbul), located on Sulukule Street in the Topkapi neighbourhood, has collapsed 'due to an unknown reason', Turkish news sources have reported." Source: Archaeology News Network.
Comment: The reasons for the collapse are obvious: age, neglect and sloppy restoration work. The walls of Constantinople have been in sketchy condition for a long time. Next video, for instance, shows the Theodosian Wall as it appeared in 2011. Some sections are in relatively decent condition while others are little more than ruins.
Note:"The Theodosian Walls are the fortifications of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, which were first built during the reign of Theodosius II (408-450 CE). Sometimes known as the Theodosian Long Walls, they built upon and extended earlier fortifications so that the city became impregnable to enemy sieges for 800 years. The fortifications were the largest and strongest ever built in either the ancient or medieval worlds." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.
"Many sections [of the walls] were 'restored' during the 1980s, with financial support from UNESCO, but the restoration program has been criticized for destroying historical evidence, focusing on superficial restoration, the use of inappropriate materials and poor quality of work." (Archaeology News Network)
"The Byzantine Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire [see comment] in the Greek-speaking, eastern part of the Mediterranean. Christian in nature, it was perennially at war with the Muslims, Flourishing during the reign of the Macedonian emperors, its demise was the consequence of attacks by Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Comment: The Byzantine Empire is usually referred to as the "Roman empire in the East," but I've never thought there was anything particularly Roman about the Byzantines. Romans weren't Greek-speaking Christians; they were pagans who spoke Latin. If you ask me, the real Roman empire had already ceased to exist as a distinct social organism by the time Constantinople was founded by Constantine in 324 - 337. After Italy and the western provinces of the old empire were overrun by Germanic tribes in the fifth century AD the Byzantines retained Roman institutions, but they were essentially an Oriental kingdom, a hybrid of western and eastern traditions.
According to this view the Roman Empire collapsed as a culture long before it was conquered militarily. When Rome fell in the West, that was the end of it. Parts of its territory still remained, however, most of it in the East, but it's hard to see these surviving territories as Roman.
The picture is very complicated, naturally. There were similarities and differences between the Roman and Byzantine empires. It would be surprising if nothing had carried over from the old world. As a general rule, civilizations aren't suddenly obliterated, leaving no trace behind. Collapse doesn't work that way. Kingdoms and empires rise and fall and evolve into new political systems, usually after a period of chaos and warfare. Zombie civilizations are common in history -- nations that still exist long after their cultures have died or changed out of all recognition. Christian Rome and the Roman Byzantine Empire are both good examples, I think, of zombie empires.
The Byzantine empire was a "continuation" of the Roman Empire in the sense that it was once part of the Roman empire with all of its legal and political institutions, but it was Roman in name only. The main difference, I think, was religious. Paganism had been outlawed and driven underground, replaced by Christianity, an essentially Oriental religion.
Here's a modern analogy. Let's say that the United States becomes a Muslim caliphate, but keeps all of its current institutions in place. There's a White House, a Congress, a Supreme Court, and so on. People still vote, but all the candidates are Muslims. The county courthouse still looks the same, but Christianity is illegal and the courts enforce Shariah Law. Then the western half of the country is invaded and overrun by savage barbarians who settle down and take over the existing legislative machinery. The eastern half of the country still survives as an independent nation, but is it American? The answer is obvious.
"New research from Adelphi University has revealed the first forensically-assessed archeological discovery of remains of a group of domineering mounted archer-lancers and their kin of the Eastern Roman Empire from the turbulent ProtoByzantine period, which spanned the fourth to seventh centuries [AD]." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"Ten skeletal remains -- four women and six men likely of high social standing -- were discovered in the Paliokastro site on Thasos island in Greece. Their bones illuminated their physical activities, traumas, and even a complex form of brain surgery."
The trauma cases analyzed by this new research "had been treated surgically or orthopedically by a very experienced physician/surgeon with great training in trauma care. We believe it to have been a military physician."
It's not surprising to find evidence of complex brain surgery in the Eastern Roman Empire. For instance, the Greco-Roman doctor, surgeon and philosopher Galen, a major forerunner of modern medicine, was influenced by more ancient eastern practices:
"Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then-current theory of humorism (also known as the theory of the four humors: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm), as advanced by ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates." (Wikipedia)
Surgery was already relatively advanced in the Mediterranean world centuries before the period covered by this research. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, "Greek surgeons were active in Rome by the end of the 3rd cent. BC."
Note: "Neurosurgery, or the premeditated incision into the head for pain relief, has been around for thousands of years, but notable advancements in neurosurgery have only come within the last hundred years." (Wikipedia) "The Incas appear to have practiced a procedure known as trepanation since the late Stone age. During the Middle Ages in Al-Andalus from 936 to 1013 AD, Al-Zahrawi performed surgical treatments of head injuries, skull fractures, spinal injuries, hydrocephalus, subdural effusions and headache."
"Researchers have compared medieval and modern plague pathogens. In a comparison of more than 300 contemporary strains of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, with ancient bacterial DNA isolated from victims of the Black Death (1347 -- 1351), a team led by researchers at University of Tuebingen obtained evidence suggestive of a bubonic plague outbreak in the late antique period (8th to 10th centuries AD). The study raises strong suspicions that the plague of Justinian, a massive pandemic that is thought to be in part responsible for the collapse of the East Roman Empire, may have been caused by the same bacterium implicated in the Black Death." Source: Science Daily (2012).
Comment: History is a lot more contingent than we like to believe. For instance, Justinian might have been able to complete his reconquest of the western Roman empire if the east hadn't been ravaged by the plague that "devastated and depopulated the Roman Empire [Byzantine Empire]," (Wikipedia). There were other factors involved -- the outbreak of the so-called Roman-Persian War and the incompetence and infighting of various generals in Italy -- but the plague put an end to Justinian's ambitions in the west and probably played a large role in the eventual collapse of the Byzantine Empire and its conquest by the Ottoman Turks.
Constantinople, once the eastern capital of the Roman Empire and later the capital of the Byzantine Empire, is now Istanbul, a primarily Muslim city. If Justinian had been able to reconquer the west, a reunited Roman Empire would have changed the course of European history in unpredictable ways. Ironically, the plague later intervened again when the Black Death devastated Europe, but this time its net effect was beneficial, leading to the collapse of the feudal system, weakening the grip of the church, and playing a large role in the birth of the Renaissance. It's unnerving, to say the least, that all these major historical events were influenced by a bacterium invisible to the naked eye which no one even knew existed at the time.