Monthly Archives: October 2012

tiles and tombs

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

The Turks may have destroyed Byzantium, but to replace the mosaics they brought ceramics.  This is the Topkapi, palace of the Ottoman sultans. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves… Those were for the living, but they did it for … Continue reading →

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churches into mosques

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

Aya Sofia is the most obvious example, but there are a few less famous ones around Istanbul: the Turks came, took the churches and converted them into mosques. One that still is a mosque is the small ex-church that was … Continue reading →

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the Justinian underground

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

as above so below: right across the street from Aya Sofia, Justinian’s people built something else – an underground cistern to store the drinking water that was brought into Constantinople from nearby forest springs, by means of aqueducts and pipes. … Continue reading →

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surpassing Solomon

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

“Solomon, I have surpassed you”; that is what the 6th century Byzantine emperor Justinian is supposed to have said when he first entered the church he had commissioned, Aya Sofia, the shrine of the Holy Wisdom. In this mosaic he, … Continue reading →

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back to Byzantium

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

Once again in Istanbul: Asia to the left, Europe to the right, with the Sea of Marmara in the background and the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia on the hill: By the Marmara shore, this is all that remains of … Continue reading →

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when baghdad ruled the muslim world

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

In January I read Hugh Kennedy’s book about the great Arab conquests, which burst rough-necked upon the world at the very moment when  the heavyweight, overweight Sassanid and Byzantine empires were punch-drunk from 30 years of grueling mutual warfare, destroying … Continue reading →

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new city of hype

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry: Dubai is back. After years of stalled cranes and worthy road projects inching forward under a burden of debt, we are back in the land of underwater hotels and ski slopes in … Continue reading →

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The First Dynasty of Islam

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

This history by G R Hawting (School of Oriental and African Studies, London) of the Umayyad Dynasty, who seized power in 661 after Ali, the last of the Rashidun (“rightly-guided” caliphs, the immediate successors to the Prophet), was murdered, and … Continue reading →

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