Word: byzantium
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When Slavic ambassadors visited Constantinople (formerly Byzantium) in the 10th century, they were so awed by the city that they later wrote that they "knew not whether we were in Heaven or Earth." During their stay, these visitors would have seen mechanical golden songbirds on the boughs of jeweled trees and a hydraulic throne that lifted the Emperor 30 ft. above his subjects. Today, the relics of the Byzantine Empire - which for more than 1,000 years stretched from its capital (now called Istanbul) into the eastern Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East and beyond - continue to dazzle. Running through March...
...Byzantium 330-1453," a display of some 300 artifacts spanning the history of the empire, includes none of the ornate machinery described by ancient writers, or the glorious mosaics that still glitter from the domed ceilings of Eastern Europe's Orthodox churches. On display, instead, are fragments and everyday objects: Psalters, Bibles, chalices, icons, crucifixes, spoons, cups, coins and jewelry. It requires effort to appreciate the significance of such items. But with a bit of imagination, we can use them to help us understand the lives of our enigmatic predecessors...
...should be no surprise that a young style maven like Kocabiyikoglu?who surfs style.com daily and currently has her heart set on a Christopher Kane minidress?is open to fashion forces from the wider world. After all, the city once known as Constantinople has been on trade routes since Byzantium. But Istanbul has experienced years of economic uncertainty, including Turkey's financial collapse in 2001, which analysts equate in severity to the U.S.'s Wall Street Crash of 1929. Fortunately, by 2005, inflation was brought into line and the Turkish currency?the lira?was revalued, offering a new stability...
...then it swelled once more. Pope Benedict seemed to revive it last week, with the help of an old -- make that a very old -- friend. He cited Manuel II Paleologus, the emperor of Byzantium from 1391 to 1425, who in a ?dialog? with ?an educated Persian? said: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.? Benedict then paraphrased Manuel's complaint using the explicit phrase ?forced conversion...
...matter, was Emperor Manuel. He was the political and religious head of a much-shrunken and highly endangered Byzantine Empire, surrounded by the Ottoman Turks, who would swallow it up 53 years after his death. At a very early age he began a career as the public face of Byzantium in the West. ?He was notable for traveling the courts of Europe and arguing the case that Europe needs to come to the aid of the Greeks in the East, to revive, if you will, the crusading spirit," says Charles Barber, an art historian and expert in the Byzantine empire...