[BRIEF NOTE] 552 years ago today
May. 29th, 2005 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldIt's appropriate that I've finished Roger Crowley's 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West recently, since today is the anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks and the end of the Eastern Roman Empire.
I highly recommend Crowley's book, a well-written, detailed, and sensitive study of the men and armies and wider forces gathered outside of "the City" at the end of one period of its existence and the beginning of another. One can't help but wonder what would have happened to Constantinople and its vast hinterland had Byzantium somehow survived the Fourth Crusade and Manzikert, or had its post-1453 history followed a different course, somehow remaining a Greek and a Christian city, instead of becoming Turkish and Muslim as it is now.
I highly recommend Crowley's book, a well-written, detailed, and sensitive study of the men and armies and wider forces gathered outside of "the City" at the end of one period of its existence and the beginning of another. One can't help but wonder what would have happened to Constantinople and its vast hinterland had Byzantium somehow survived the Fourth Crusade and Manzikert, or had its post-1453 history followed a different course, somehow remaining a Greek and a Christian city, instead of becoming Turkish and Muslim as it is now.
