Posted on 09/08/2009 7:58:51 AM PDT by Nikas777
The text of the film “The fall of an empire—the Lesson of Byzantium”
Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)
Russian winter landscape. A church. A snowstorm.
Narrator. Hello. In 1453, the Byzantine Empire fell. Let us now take a look at how this happened.
Islamic chant weaves into the gusts of freezing wind.
Instanbul. The muezzin continues his prayer, amplified by a loudspeaker. The noise of a market place in a Middle Eastern city. Turkish conversation.
Narrator. This city was once called Constantinople; six centuries ago it was the capital city of what was without exaggeration one of the greatest civilizations in world history—the Byzantine Empire.
A rule by law, something we now take for granted, was created here, based upon the Roman codes, in Byzantium, 1500 years ago. A legal system which was to become the basic foundation of all types of laws in most modern governments was the monumental creation of Byzantine jurisprudence during the reign of Emperor Justinian. The system of elementary and higher education first developed in Byzantium; it was here, in the fifth century, that the first university appeared. The most stable financial system in the history of mankind was created in Byzantium, and existed in a nearly unaltered form for over one thousand years. Modern diplomacy with its basic principles, rules of conduct, and etiquette was created and refined here, in Byzantium. Byzantine engineering and architectural arts were unrivalled. Even today, such famous works by Byzantine masters as the domes of the Hagia Sophia amaze the world with their technological perfection.
No other empire in human history lasted as long as Byzantium. It existed for 1,123 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at vizantia.info ...
Some conquerors are more parasitic than others. The Greeks and Romans brought dynamic cultures that, in the end, tended to elevate many of the peoples they conquered. The Arabs and Turks overran many nations that were more advanced and so ended up becoming more Persian or even Hellenized as time went on - at least outwardly. But Islam’s god is both transcendant and omnipotent and this results in a kind a fatalism that is deadly to temporal developement. If things go wrong it is “god’s will” and what can you do? So things don’t change much and when they do it is usually seen as change for the worse and resisted.
Islam seems to have not moderated barbarian behavior for say the Turks - in fact it justified their way of life - raiding and pillaging - as long as it was against infidels so that culture/people did not change for the better.
The problem with trying to build a manufacturing base in the arab world is literacy. Those (few) that can read don't want to do manual labor and you need to be literate to operate and maintain a factory/assembly plant.
Also Putin wants Russia to recover some glory again.
Since slavery was legal in the Arab world until the 1960s another factor telling against industrialization is that manual labor is looked down upon. The Emirates have to import workers from even poorer nations (and pay them crap as well).
If you haven’t read “Against the Fall of Night”, by Michael Arnold I highly recommend it. It’s about the Comneni dynasty of emperors.
From the 1953 historical novel “The Dark Angel” by Mika Waltari about the last days of Constantinople during the siege.
{7 February 1453}
…………………….”No, Manuel,” I admitted; “’it’s true. The cannon is on its way. Spring is in the air; soon doves will be cooing and flocks of birds will fly northward over the city. When spring is in full blossom the Sultan will be at the gates of Con stantinople; no power in the world can prevent it.”
“And how long,” he asked, “how long shall we last after that?”
Why should I lie to him? He is old. He is a Greek. I am no physician, but a human being— his fellow.
“A month, perhaps,” I told him. “Or it may he two, Giustiniani is a brilliant soldier. Three months if he matures with his task, as I believe he will. But hardly longer. Hardly longer than that, at best.”
Manuel was no longer trembling. He looked me straight in the eye.
“And the countries of the west?” he asked.
“The Union?”
“With Constantinople even the western nations will be swallowed up in night. Constantinople is the last lamp, the last hope of Christendom. If they allow it to be quenched they will have deserved their fate.”
“And what will be their fate?” he asked. “For give me, master, but I am curious to know, so that my heart may prepare itself.”
“Flesh without spirit,” I said. “Life without hope, the slavery of mankind —a bondage so hopeless that slaves will no longer know they are slaves. Wealth without happiness, abundance without the power to enjoy it. The death of the spirit.”
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Thanks Nikas777. |
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