1.
David Komnenos
–
David Komnenos was one of the founders of the Empire of Trebizond and its joint ruler together with his brother Alexios until his death. At least two lead seals and an inscription found on a tower in Heraclea Pontica attest that he was the first of his family to use the style Megas Komnenos, Ηe was the son of Manuel Komnenos and grandson of the Emperor Andronikos I. Davids life is not well-documented, our primary historian for the Empire of Trebizond, Michael Panaretos, because he was the brother of Alexios, we can deduct the names of some of his relatives. Their father was Manuel Komnenos, and their grandfather Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I and their relative Tamar was queen of Georgia, exactly how David and Tamar were related is not clear. In April 1204, while Constantinople was occupied with the landing of the Fourth Crusade, David and Alexios occupied the city of Trebizond, immediately that city, Oinaion and Sinope declared for the two brothers. At this point David encountered another rival for control of the stricken Byzantine Empire, Theodore Laskaris, Theodore Laskaris strategically circled around Synadenos, leading his men through a difficult pass, and fell upon his enemys flank with complete surprise. Laskaris was prevented from following up victory and force Davids western frontier to recede further eastwards by the timely action of the Latins under Thierri de Loos of seizing Nicomedia. But a Bulgarian invasion of Thrace forced the Latins to withdraw, for their assistance, David rewarded the Latin Empire with shiploads of corn and hams. In the words of William Miller, It was his interest to prefer a nominal Latin suzerainty to annexation by the Nicaean emperor. Once his position was secured, he crossed the Sangarios River with a body of about 300 Frankish auxiliaries, ravaged the villages subject to Laskaris. In 1208 Laskaris renewed his offensive against David Komnenos at Sangarios River, David responded by sending a messenger to the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders, who begged for help and warned the monarch that if Henry did not help him, David would suffer a serious defeat. Theodores withdraw was costly, for he lost about 1000 men in crossing the Sangarios, henrys army might have seized more land in Bithynia, had not an abominably cold winter swept in preventing his troops from advancing any further. Despite this setback, Theodore did not abandon his attempts on Paphlagonia, following the Seljuk defeat at Antioch on the Meander, he concluded a treaty with the new Seljuk Sultan, Kaykaus I, and together they encroached on the Trapezuntine territory. According to the panegyric of Niketas Choniates, there was no resistance to Theodores incursions, here we lose sight of David, what exactly happened to David over the next few years is unknown. Had Laskaris captured him, it would probably have been recorded in the histories, earlier scholars, beginning with Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, had placed the death of David during the siege of Sinope in 1214. It seems likely that David might have fled to the Latin emperor, as mentioned above, Michael Panaretos never mentions David, so he provides no help answering that question. More recently the truth of his fate was rediscovered, a note written at Mount Athos records David died as a monk of Vatopedi monastery on 13 December 1212. But this knowledge raises more questions than it answers, shukurov looks for the answer in Panaretos silence, which he believes was intentional and therefore significant, David somehow disgraced himself and was confined to Vatopedi by Alexios
David Komnenos
–
Lead seal of David Komnenos (1204-1207).
2.
Helena Kantakouzene, Empress of Trebizond
–
Helena Kantakouzene was the second wife of David of Trebizond. She was the last Empress of Trebizond, donald Nicol has argued that Helena was the sister of George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, and thus the granddaughter of Matthew Kantakouzenos and possibly the daughter of Demetrios I Kantakouzenos. Theodore Spandounes reports that George visited her in Trebizond after 1437, nevertheless, the oldest sons died with their father 1 November 1463, the youngest son, George, who was three years old, and the daughter Anna were spared. Spandounes states they were sent as a present to Sultan Uzun Hassan of the Aq Qoyunlu, where George was converted to Islam, but he eventually escaped and abjured to Christianity. A local tradition connects Anna to a village south of Trabizon called Lady Village, on 15 August 1461, Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire forced Emperor David to surrender his throne in return for a pension. David and his family were settled on estates near Serres in the Struma valley, after two years, his former retainer George Amiroutzes accused David of conspiring against Mehmed, and the former emperor was executed with all but one of his sons. According to Spandounes, Helena survived her husband and sons, the Sultan reportedly had ordered their corpses to be left exposed outside the Walls of Constantinople. When she dug the graves with her own hands and buried them and her retainers raised the money, but Helena dressed in sackcloth and lived out her days in a straw hut near the corpses of her dead family. Thierry Ganchou, Une Kantakouzènè, impératrice de Trébizonde, Théodôra ou Héléna, revue des Etudes byzantines,58, pp. 215-229
Helena Kantakouzene, Empress of Trebizond
–
Helena buries the corpse of her husband, David Megas Komnenos. (From Ludwig Storch, "Die Kaiserin von Trapezunt", Die Gartenlaube, 1855)
3.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
4.
Emperor
–
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the equivalent, may indicate an emperors wife, mother. Emperors are generally recognized to be of an honour and rank than kings. The Emperor of Japan is the currently reigning monarch whose title is translated into English as Emperor. Both kings and emperors are monarchs, but emperor and empress are considered the higher monarchical titles. In as much as there is a definition of emperor, it is that an emperor has no relations implying the superiority of any other ruler. Thus a king might be obliged to pay tribute to another ruler, or be restrained in his actions in some unequal fashion, although initially ruling much of Central Europe and northern Italy, by the 19th century the Emperor exercised little power beyond the German speaking states. In Eastern Europe the rulers of the Russian Empire also used translatio imperii to wield authority as successors to the Eastern Roman Empire. Their title of Emperor was officially recognised by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1514, in practice the Russian Emperors are often known by their Russian-language title Tsar, which may also used to refer to rulers equivalent to a king. Historians have liberally used emperor and empire anachronistically and out of its Roman and European context to any large state from the past or the present. Such pre-Roman titles as Great King or King of Kings, used by the Kings of Persia, however such empires did not need to be headed by an emperor. Empire became identified instead with vast territorial holdings rather than the title of its ruler by the mid-18th century, outside the European context, emperor was the translation given to holders of titles who were accorded the same precedence as European emperors in diplomatic terms. In reciprocity, these rulers might accredit equal titles in their languages to their European peers. Through centuries of international convention, this has become the dominant rule to identifying an emperor in the modern era, also the name of the position split in several branches of Western tradition, see below. Later new symbols of worldly and/or spiritual power, like the orb, rules for indicating successors also varied, there was a tendency towards male inheritance of the supreme office, but as well election by noblemen, as ruling empresses are known. Ruling monarchs could additionally steer the succession by adoption, as occurred in the two first centuries of Imperial Rome. Of course, intrigue, murder and military force could also mingle in for appointing successors, probably the epoch best known for this part of the imperial tradition is Romes third century rule. When Republican Rome turned into a de facto monarchy in the half of the 1st century BC
Emperor
–
A statue of the dictator
Julius Caesar.
Emperor
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
Emperor
–
Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
Emperor
–
Under
Justinian I, reigning in the 6th century, parts of Italy were for a few decades (re)conquered from the
Ostrogoths: thus, this famous
mosaic, featuring the Byzantine emperor in the center, can be admired at
Ravenna.
5.
Empire of Trebizond
–
The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was a monarchy that flourished during the 13th through 15th centuries, consisting of the far northeastern corner of Anatolia and the southern Crimea. The Emperors of Trebizond pressed their claim on the Imperial throne for decades after the Nicaean reconquest of Constantinople in 1261, the Trapezuntine monarchy survived the longest of the Byzantine successor states. The Despotate of Epirus was slowly decimated, and briefly occupied by the restored Byzantine Empire c. 1340, thereafter becoming a Serbian dependency and later inherited by Italians, ultimately falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1479, having long ceased to contest the Byzantine throne. While the Empire of Nicaea had become the resurrected Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Trebizond continued until 1461 when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II conquered it after a month-long siege and took its ruler and his family into captivity. The Crimean Principality of Theodoro, an offshoot of Trebizond, lasted another 14 years and its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after the Ottoman conquest in 1461 and the region retained a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants until 1923. These are usually referred to as Pontic Greeks and their displacement was formalized, and the few still remaining were required to leave, in 1923 with the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Many were resettled in Greek Macedonia and those living in the Crimea and the Russian province of Kars Oblast, much of which lies in modern Georgia, stayed longer, with some Greek speaking villages remaining in both locations today. Anthony Bryer has argued that six of the seven banda of the Byzantine theme of Chaldia were maintained in working order by the rulers of Trebizond until the end of the empire, helped by geography. This territory corresponds to an area comprising all or parts of the modern Turkish provinces of Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Rize, and Artvin. In the 13th century, some believe the empire controlled the Gazarian Perateia. However, after Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople in 1261, in 1282, John II Komnenos stripped off his imperial regalia before the walls of Constantinople before entering to marry Michaels daughter and accept his legal title of despot. However, his successors used a version of his title, Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians, rulers of Trebizond were also known as Prince of Lazes. Its wealth and exotic location endowed a lingering fame on the polity, cervantes described the eponymous hero of his Don Quixote as imagining himself for the valour of his arm already crowned at least Emperor of Trebizond. Rabelais had his character Picrochole, the ruler of Piedmont, declare, other allusions and works set in Trebizond continue into the 20th century. The city of Trebizond was the capital of the theme of Chaldia, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos confirmed him as governor of Chaldia, but kept his son at Constantinople as a hostage for his good conduct. Nevertheless, Gabras proved himself a worthy guardian by repelling a Georgian attack on Trebizond, one of his successors, Gregory Taronites also rebelled with the aid of the Sultan of Cappadocia, but he was defeated and imprisoned, only to be made governor once more. Another successor to Theodore was Constantine Gabras, whom Niketas describes as ruling Trebizond as a tyrant, although that effort came to nothing, this was the last rebel governor known to recorded history prior to the events of 1204. Henceforth, the links between Trebizond and Georgia remained close, but their nature and extent have been disputed, both men were the grandsons of the last Komnenian Byzantine emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos, by his son Manuel Komnenos and Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia
Empire of Trebizond
–
Alexios III, from the
chrysobull he granted to the
Dionysiou monastery on
Mount Athos.
Empire of Trebizond
–
Empire of Trebizond (violet) and surrounding states in 1300
Empire of Trebizond
–
A 14th-century miniature Greek manuscript depicting
Byzantine Greek soldiers from the Empire of Trebizond.
Empire of Trebizond
–
Manuel I Megas Komnenos, "The Great Captain", "The Most Fortunate"
6.
Siege of Trebizond (1461)
–
The Siege of Trebizond was the successful siege of the city of Trebizond, capital of the Empire of Trebizond, by the Ottomans under Sultan Mehmed II, which ended on 15 August 1461. The siege was the culmination of a campaign on the Ottoman side. For the rest of the inhabitants of Trebizond, however, their fates were less favorable, some 800 male children became recruits for his Janissaries, the elite Ottoman military unit, which required them to convert to Islam. Only among the villages of the Maina, in the southeastern Peloponnese. The original sources differ on their explanation of Mehmeds actual motivations for attacking Trebizond, in each area they were ruled by a tekvour, a kind of independent ruler, and they gave him regular taxes and military dues. Sultan Mehmed defeated and expelled some of these tekvours and wanted to do the same with the rest, the goal was to take away from these people all sovereignty. Thus he first destroyed the tekvour of Constantinople, he was considered as the principal tekvour, later on he had subdued successively the tekvours of Enos, Morea, Amasria and annexed their territories to the empire. Finally the Sultans attention was drawn to the tekvour of Trebizond, by the 1450s, the Ottoman Empire either occupied or had established hegemony over much of the territories the Byzantine Empire held before the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204. John had happily related to the diplomat the news of the death of Sultan Murad II. Sphrantzes, however, was taken aback and explained to him that Mehmeds youth and seeming friendship were only ploys, Trebizond could rely on its substantial fortifications to defend itself. Nevertheless, John reached out to make alliances, donald Nicol lists some of them, the emirs of Sinope and Karaman, and the Christian kings of Georgia. But the most powerful and reliable ally of the Emperors of Trebizond was the ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu, in 1456, Ottoman troops under Hizir Pasha assaulted Trebizond. According to Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Hizir raided the countryside, even penetrating into the marketplace of Trebizond and capturing altogether about two thousand people. The city was deserted due to plague and likely to fall, John made his submission, John sent his brother David to ratify the treaty with Mehmed II himself, which he did in 1458, but the Sultan raised the tribute to 3,000 gold pieces. Uzun Hasan agreed to this, and sent envoys to Mehmed II, the sources disagree on exactly how Mehmed II answered, but both versions were ominous. In one version, he told the envoys that it would not be long before they learned what they ought to expect from him. In the other, Mehmeds response was, Go in peace, and next year I will bring these things with me, in the spring of 1461, Mehmed fitted out a fleet comprising 200 galleys, and ten warships. Commanding the army, Mehmed led his troops towards Ankara, stopping on the way to visit the tombs of his father
Siege of Trebizond (1461)
–
The Walls of Trebizond
Siege of Trebizond (1461)
–
An Ottoman galley, circa 17th century
Siege of Trebizond (1461)
–
Trebizond with the Black Sea on the right
7.
Ottoman Empire
–
After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
Ottoman Empire
–
Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Painting from 1523.
Ottoman Empire
–
Flag (1844–1923)
Ottoman Empire
–
Battle of Mohács in 1526
Ottoman Empire
–
Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the
Holy League of
Charles V under the command of
Andrea Doria at the
Battle of Preveza in 1538.
8.
Istanbul
–
Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
Istanbul
–
Clockwise from top: View of
Golden Horn between
Galata and
Seraglio Point including the
historic areas;
Maiden's Tower; a
nostalgic tram on
İstiklal Avenue;
Levent business district with
Dolmabahçe Palace;
Ortaköy Mosque in front of the
Bosphorus Bridge; and
Hagia Sophia.
Istanbul
–
Constantine I
Istanbul
–
Remains of a Byzantine column found at
Byzantium 's
acropolis, located today within the
Topkapı Palace complex
Istanbul
–
Created in 1422 by
Cristoforo Buondelmonti, this is the oldest surviving map of Constantinople.
9.
Patriarchate of Constantinople
–
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, currently Bartholomew I, from that time, the importance of the church there grew, along with the influence of its bishop. With the development of the structure of the Church, the bishop of Constantinople came to be styled as exarch. Constantinople was recognized as the patriarchate at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, after Antioch, Alexandria. The patriarch was usually appointed by Antioch, in turn, the affairs of the Constantinopolitan church were overseen not just by the patriarch, but also by synods held including visiting bishops. This pan-Orthodox synod came to be referred to as the ενδημουσα συνοδος, the resident synod not only governed the business of the patriarchate but also examined questions pertinent to the whole Church as well as the eastern half of the old empire. As the Roman Empire stabilized and grew, so did the influence of the patriarchate at its capital, the council resulted in a schism with the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The cathedral church of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia, was the center of life in the eastern Christian world. In history and in literature, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been granted certain prerogatives which other autocephalous Orthodox churches do not have. Not all of these prerogatives are today universally acknowledged, though all do have precedents in history and canonical references. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of an image of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act which was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. The iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843 during the regency of Empress Theodora and these controversies contributed to the deterioration of relations between the Western and the Eastern Churches. Most of the causes of the Great Schism, however, are far less grandiose than the famous Filioque. The relations between the papacy and the Byzantine court were good in the leading up to 1054. The emperor Constantine IX and the Pope Leo IX were allied through the mediation of the Lombard catepan of Italy, Argyrus, who had spent years in Constantinople, originally as a political prisoner. Patriarch Michael I ordered a letter to be written to the bishop of Trani in which he attacked the Judaistic practices of the West, the letter was to be sent by John to all the bishops of the West, including the Pope. Although he was hot-headed, Michael was convinced to cool the debate, however, Humbert and the pope made no concessions and the former was sent with legatine powers to the imperial capital to solve the questions raised once and for all
Patriarchate of Constantinople
–
The Church of
Hagia Irene, seat of the Patriarchate before Hagia Sophia was completed in 360
Patriarchate of Constantinople
–
Ecumenical Patriarchate
Patriarchate of Constantinople
–
The
Hagia Sophia church in Nicaea
10.
John IV of Trebizond
–
John IV Megas Komnenos was Emperor of Trebizond from 1429 until his death. He was a son of Emperor Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene, John had been designated despotes, or heir apparent, by his father as early as 1417, but had come into conflict with his parents. As a result, his brother Alexander was designated despotes in his place, while in Georgia John married Bagrationi, a daughter of King Alexander I, but he could not obtain sufficient support to establish himself in Trebizond. A Genoese document dated November 8,1427 orders the consul at Caffa in the Crimea to keep on good terms with the Emperor of Trebizond for news of John arriving at Caffa had reached Genoa. Here he found a large vessel full of arms, and in exchange for appointing its owner his protostrator the vessel, landing at Saint Phokas, John and his supporters made their base in the monastery. His father Alexios rode out with his retinue and camped nearby, according to Pseudo-Chalkokondyles, John had instructed them to only bring his father to him, but the men thought John would be more grateful if they killed his father the Emperor, and did so. They learned they had misunderstood Johns wishes, he had the eyes of one man put out, pero Tafur provides a detail at variance with the account of Pseudo-Chalkokondyles, for he reports that John became emperor with help of the Turkish Sultan. John was recognized as emperor in Trebizond some time before 28 October 1429 and his brother Alexander was afterwards exiled to Constantinople, where the Spanish Ambassador Tafur met him eight years later. John IV began his reign by punishing the physical murderers of his father and his reign was dominated by ongoing attempts to defend Trebizond from its Turkmen neighbors and the increasingly aggressive Ottoman Empire to the west. In 1442 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II sent out a fleet to plunder the shores and this expedition did not seriously affect Trebizond itself, but attacked Trebizonds dependencies in the Crimea and was partly destroyed by a storm on its return journey. The Ottomans did not make another attack on the Empire of Trebizond until the reign of the next Sultan, in February 1451 the Byzantine diplomat George Sphrantzes arrived in Trebizond seeking a bride for his emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. His conversation with Sphrantzes should have warned John IV the new peril which had come forth, after the Fall of Constantinople to Mehmed II in 1453, Trebizond and the Morea were left as the last remnants of the Byzantine imperial tradition. Mehmed II immediately summoned John to pay tribute in Constantinople and imposed tolls on Trapezuntine. John apparently failed to cooperate, and in 1456 the Sultan dispatched his governor of Amasya Hizir Bey to attack Trebizond by both land and sea, according to Chalkokondyles, Hizir raided the countryside, even penetrating into the marketplace of Trebizond, capturing altogether about two thousand people. The city was deserted due to plague and likely to fall, John made his submission, John sent his brother David to ratify the treaty before Mehmed II himself, which he did in 1458, but the tribute was raised to 3,000 gold pieces. He also pursued Western support through effecting a union with the Roman Catholic Church, as early as 1434 he had responded to the letters of Pope Eugenius IV, in marked contrast to earlier emperors of Trebizond, who had ignored papal missives. The Metropolitan of Trebizond joined the Byzantine clergy at the Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence, however, these approaches to the Papacy were not marked by harmonious relations with the most important Western power concerned with Trebizond, the Republic of Genoa. Further diplomatic initiatives by Genoa failed in 1443, and in 1447 the Genoese of Caffa advanced on Trebizond with their fleet, the disputes were never fully settled and seriously injured commerce in the Black Sea
John IV of Trebizond
–
Asper of John IV
11.
Despotes
–
Despot was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent. From Byzantium it spread throughout the late medieval Balkans, and was granted in the states under Byzantine influence, such as the Latin Empire, Bulgaria, Serbia. In English, the form of the title is despotess, which denoted the spouse of a despot. The term must not be confused with its usage, which refers to despotism. In colloquial Modern Greek, the word is used to refer to a bishop. The original Greek term δεσπότης meant simply lord and was synonymous with κύριος, as the Greek equivalent to the Latin dominus, despotēs was initially used as a form of address indicating respect. According to the contemporary Byzantine historian John Kinnamos, the title of despot was analogous to Belas Hungarian title of urum, or heir-apparent. From this time and until the end of the Byzantine Empire, the title of despot became the highest Byzantine dignity, in a similar manner, the holders of the two immediately junior titles of sebastokrator and Caesar could be addressed as despota. The despot shared with the Caesar another appelatory epithet, eutychestatos or paneutychestatos, during the last centuries of Byzantiums existence, the title was awarded to the younger sons of emperors as well as to the emperors sons-in-law. Like the junior titles of sebastokrator and Caesar however, the title of despot was strictly a courtly dignity, women could not hold a noble title, but bore the titles of their husbands. Thus the spouse of a despot, the despotissa, had the right to bear the insignia as he. Among the women of the court, the despotissai likewise took the first place after the empress, the use of the title spread also to the other countries of the Balkans. The Latin Empire used it to honour the Doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo, after ca.1219 it was regularly borne by the Venetian podestàs in Constantinople, as the Venetian support became crucial to the Empires survival. In 1279/80, it was introduced in Bulgaria to placate the powerful magnate George Terter in 1279/80, in the 15th century, the Venetian governors of Corfu were also styled as despots. Only John II of Trebizond and his son Alexios II, however, accepted the title, with the death of the last Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI on May 29,1453, the creation of a despot became irregular. The title was granted by Pope Paul II to Andreas Palaiologos, heir to the Byzantine throne in 1465, and by the king of Hungary to the heirs of the Serbian Despotate. It is important to stress that the term despotate is technically inaccurate, even in the so-called despotates, a son of a despot might succeed to his fathers territory but could not hold the title unless it was conferred anew by the emperor. In normal Byzantine usage, a distinction was drawn between the personal dignity of despot and any other offices or attributes of its holder
Despotes
–
Emperor
Manuel II Palaiologos with his family: empress
Helena Dragaš (right), and three of their sons, the co-emperor
John VIII and the despotes
Andronikos and
Theodore
12.
Republic of Genoa
–
It began when Genoa became a self-governing commune within the Regnum Italicum, and ended when it was conquered by the French First Republic under Napoleon and replaced with the Ligurian Republic. Corsica was ceded to France in the Treaty of Versailles of 1768, before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian city-states during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop of Genoa was president of the city, however, actual power was wielded by a number of consuls annually elected by popular assembly. The Adorno, Campofregoso, and other merchant families all fought for power in this Republic, as the power of the consuls allowed each family faction to gain wealth. The Republic of Genoa extended over modern Liguria and Piedmont, Sardinia, Corsica, through Genoese participation on the Crusades, Genoese colonies were established in the Middle East, in the Aegean, in Sicily and Northern Africa. The collapse of the Crusader States was offset by Genoa’s alliance with the Byzantine Empire, as Venices relations with the Byzantine Empire were temporarily disrupted by the Fourth Crusade and its aftermath, Genoa was able to improve its position. Genoa took advantage of opportunity to expand into the Black Sea and Crimea. Internal feuds between the families, the Grimaldi and Fieschi, the Doria, Spinola, and others caused much disruption. However, this prosperity did not last, the Black Death was imported into Europe in 1347 from the Genoese trading post at Caffa in Crimea, on the Black Sea. Following the economic and population collapse, Genoa adopted the Venetian model of government, the wars with Venice continued, and the War of Chioggia -- where Genoa almost managed to decisively subdue Venice—ended with Venices recovery of dominance in the Adriatic. In 1390 Genoa initiated a crusade against the Barbary pirates with help from the French, though it has not been well-studied, the fifteenth century seems to have been a tumultuous time for Genoa. After a period of French domination from 1394–1409, Genoa came under rule by the Visconti of Milan, Genoa lost Sardinia to Aragon, Corsica to internal revolt and its Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Asia Minor colonies to the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Under the ensuing economic recovery, many aristocratic Genoese families, such as the Balbi, Doria, Grimaldi, Pallavicini, according to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and others, the practices Genoa developed in the Mediterranean were crucial in the exploration and exploitation of the New World. At the time of Genoa’s peak in the 16th century, the city attracted many artists, including Rubens, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. The architect Galeazzo Alessi designed many of the city’s splendid palazzi, as did in the decades that followed by fifty years Bartolomeo Bianco, a number of Genoese Baroque and Rococo artists settled elsewhere and a number of local artists became prominent. At the time of its founding in the early 11th century the Republic of Genoa consisted of the city of Genoa, as the commerce of the city increased, so did the territory of the Republic. By 1015 all of Liguria fell under the Republic of Genoa, after the First Crusade in 1098 Genoa gained settlements in Syria. In 1261 the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor became Genoese territory, in 1255 Genoa established the colony of Caffa in Crimea
Republic of Genoa
–
View of Genoa and its fleet by Christoforo de Grassi (1597 copy, after a drawing of 1481); Galata Museo del Mare, Genoa.
Republic of Genoa
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Flag
Republic of Genoa
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Siege of
Antioch, 1098
Republic of Genoa
–
Galata Tower (1348) in
Galata,
Istanbul.
13.
Mehmed II
–
Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was an Ottoman sultan who ruled first for a short time from August 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to May 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Eastern Roman Empire, Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia. Mehmed is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world, among other things, Istanbuls Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him. Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne and his father was Sultan Murad II and his mother Hüma Valide Hatun, born in the town of Devrekani, Kastamonu. When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya to govern and thus gain experience, Sultan Murad II also sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had an impact in molding Mehmeds mindset. He was influenced in his practice of Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science - particularly by his mentor, Molla Gürani -, after Murad II made peace with the Karamanids in Anatolia in August 1444, he abdicated the throne to his 12-year-old son Mehmed II. In Mehmed IIs first reign, he defeated the crusade led by János Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce Peace of Szeged. Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the representative of the pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal, at this time Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. Angry at his father, who had long retired to a contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia, Mehmed II wrote, If you are the Sultan, come. If I am the Sultan I hereby order you to come and it was only after receiving this letter that Murad II led the Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna in 1444. When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451 he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy, having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople, as Mehmed IIs army approached Constantinople, Mehmeds sheikh Akshamsaddin discovered the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world, in early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmeds army used the new bombard designed by Orban. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain, thus the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, after this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim, the claim was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, but not by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe
Mehmed II
–
Sultan Mehmed II smelling a rose, from the Sarayı Albums, c. 1480 CE
Mehmed II
–
Accession of Mehmed II in
Edirne, 1451
Mehmed II
–
Sultan Mehmed II's entry into
Constantinople, painting by
Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929)
Mehmed II
–
Roumeli Hissar Castle built by the Sultan Mehmed II between 1451 and 1452, before the
conquered Constantinople
14.
Adrianople
–
Edirne served as the third capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1363 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empires fourth and final capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of Edirne Province in Turkish Thrace, the citys estimated population in 2014 was 165,979. The city was founded as Hadrianopolis, named for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and this name is still used in the Modern Greek. The name Adrianople was used in English, until the Turkish adoption of Latin alphabet in 1928 made Edirne the internationally recognized name. The Turkish, Edirne, Bulgarian, Одрин, Albanian, Edrêne, Slovene, Одрин and Serbian, Једрене / Jedrene are adapted forms of the name Hadrianopolis or of its Turkish version, see also its other names. The area around Edirne has been the site of no fewer than 16 major battles or sieges, military historian John Keegan identifies it as the most contested spot on the globe and attributes this to its geographical location. According to Greek mythology, Orestes, son of king Agamemnon, built this city as Orestias, at the confluence of the Tonsus and the Ardiscus with the Hebrus. The city was founded eponymously by the Roman Emperor Hadrian on the site of a previous Thracian settlement known as Uskadama, Uskudama, Uskodama or Uscudama and it was the capital of the Bessi, or of the Odrysians. Hadrian developed it, adorned it with monuments, changed its name to Hadrianopolis after himself, licinius was defeated there by Constantine I in 323, and Emperor Valens was killed by the Goths in 378 during the Battle of Adrianople. In 813, the city was seized by Khan Krum of Bulgaria who moved its inhabitants to the Bulgarian lands towards the north of the Danube. During the existence of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were decisively defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan in the Battle of Adrianople. Later Theodore Komnenos, Despot of Epirus, took possession of it in 1227, in 1369, the city was conquered by the Ottoman sultan Murad I. The city remained the Ottoman capital for 90 years until 1453, Edirne is famed for its many mosques, domes, minarets, and palaces from the Ottoman period. Under Ottoman rule, Edirne was the city of the administrative unit, the eponymous Eyalet of Edirne, and after land reforms in 1867. Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, was born in Edirne, Sultan Mehmed IV left the palace in Constantinople and died in Edirne in 1693. During his exile in the Ottoman Empire, the Swedish king Charles XII stayed in the city during most of 1713, baháulláh, the founder of the Baháí Faith, lived in Edirne from 1863 to 1868. He was exiled there by the Ottoman Empire before being banished further to the Ottoman penal colony in Akka and he referred to Edirne in his writings as the Land of Mystery. Edirne was briefly occupied by imperial Russian troops in 1829 during the Greek War of Independence, the city suffered a fire in 1905
Adrianople
Adrianople
Adrianople
Adrianople
15.
Uzun Hassan
–
Uzun Hasan or Hassan was the 9th sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty, also known as the White Sheep Turkomans, and generally considered to be its strongest ruler. Hassan ruled between 1453 and 1478, and would preside over the territorial apex, when it included parts or all of present-day Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran. Timur appointed his great-grandfather, Kara Yülük Osman, as a governor of Diyarbakır, with the cities of Erzincan, Mardin, Ruha, later, Persia was divided between two Timurid rulers, Jahan Shah of Kara Koyunlu and Uzun Hasan. After twenty years of fighting, Uzun Hasan eventually defeated Jahan Shah in a battle near the sanjak of Çapakçur in present-day eastern Turkey on October 30,1467. Uzun Hasan then ambushed and captured Abu Said at the Battle of Qarabagh, whereupon he was executed by Yadgar Muhammad Mirza, a rival. In 1463, the Venetian Senate, seeking allies in its war against the Ottomans, sent Lazzaro Querini as its first ambassador to Tabriz, Hassan sent his own envoys to Venice in return. In 1471, Querini returned to Venice with Hazzans ambassador Murad, the Venetian Senate voted to send another to Persia, choosing Caterino Zeno after two other men declined. Zeno, whose wife was the niece of Uzun Hassans wife, was able to persuade Hassan to attack the Turks, Hassan was successful at first, but there were no simultaneous attack by any of the western powers. Uzun Hassan met the Ottomans in battle near Erzincan in 1471 and he was defeated by Mehmed II at Battle of Otlukbeli in the late summer of 1473. In 1473, Giosafat Barbaro was selected as another Venetian ambassador to Persia, due to his experience in the Crimean, Muscovy, although Barbaro got on well with Uzun Hassan, he was unable to persuade the ruler to attack the Ottomans again. Shortly afterwards, Hassans son Ogurlu Mohamed, rose in rebellion, after yet another Venetian ambassador, Ambrogio Contarini, arrived in Persia, Uzun Hassan decided that Contarini would return to Venice with a report, while Giosafat Barbaro would stay. Barbaro was the last Venetian ambassador to leave Persia, after Uzun Hassan died in 1478, while Hassans sons fought each other for the throne, Barbaro hired an Armenian guide and escaped. According to Contarini, ambassador to Uzun Hassans court from 1473 to 1476, The king is of a size, with a thin visage and agreeable countenance. His manners were very affable, and he conversed familiarly with every one around him and his name means tall and Contarini reported that he was also very lean. Contarini also wrote, The empire of Uzun-Hassan is very extensive, and is bounded by Turkey and Caramania, belonging to the Sultan, Uzun-Hassan took the kingdom of Persia from Causa, whom he put to death. The city of Ecbatana, or Tauris, is the residence of Uzun-Hassan. On the other side is the country of Media, which is under subjection to Sivansa and it is said that he has likewise some provinces on the other side of the Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of the Turks. The whole country, all the way to Ispahan. is exceedingly arid, having very few trees and little water, yet it is fertile in grain and other provisions
Uzun Hassan
–
Uzun Hassan as depicted in this European illustration.
16.
Ak Koyunlu
–
The Ağ Qoyunlu Turkomans first acquired land in 1402, when Timur granted them all of Diyar Bakr in present-day Turkey. For a long time, the Ağ Qoyunlu were unable to expand their territory, however, this changed with the rule of Uzun Hassan, who defeated the Black Sheep Turkoman leader Jahān Shāh in 1467. After the defeat of a Timurid leader, Abu Said, Uzun Hassan was able to take Baghdad along with territories around the Persian Gulf and he expanded into Iran as far east as Khorasan. However, around this time, the Ottoman Empire sought to expand eastwards, as early as 1464, Uzun Hassan had requested military aid from one of the Ottoman Empires strongest enemies, Venice. Despite Venetian promises, this aid never arrived and, as a result, Uzun Hassan was defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473, though this did not destroy the Ağ Qoyunlu. When Uzun Hassan died early in 1478, he was succeeded by his son Khalil Mirza, Yaqub, who reigned from 1478 to 1490, sustained the dynasty for a while longer. However, during the first four years of his there were seven pretenders to the throne who had to be put down. Following Yaqubs death, civil war erupted, the Ağ Qoyunlus destroyed themselves from within. The early Safavids, who were followers of the Safaviyya religious order, the Safavids and the Ağ Qoyunlu met in battle in the city of Nakhchivan in 1501 and the Safavid leader Ismail I forced the Ağ Qoyunlu to withdraw. In his retreat from the Safavids, the Ağ Qoyunlu leader Alwand destroyed an autonomous state of the Ağ Qoyunlu in Mardin, the last Ağ Qoyunlu leader, Murad, brother of Alwand, was also defeated by the same Safavid leader. Though Murād briefly established himself in Baghdad in 1501, he withdrew back to Diyar Bakr. The leaders of Ağ Qoyunlu were from the Begundur or Bayandur clan of the Oghuz Turks and were considered descendants of the founding father of the Oghuz, Oghuz Khan. The Bayandurs behaved like statesmen rather than warlords and gained the support of the merchant, with the conquest of Iran, not only did the Ağ Qoyunlu center of power shift eastward, but Iranian influences were soon brought to bear on their method of government and their culture. Uzun Hassan also held the title Padishah-i Irān Padishah of Iran, amidst the struggle for power between Uzun Hassans grandsons Baysungur and Rustam, their cousin Ahmed Bey appeared on the stage. Beyazid agreed to this idea, and by May 1497 Ahmad Bey faced Rustam near Araxes, list of rulers of Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen invasions of Georgia Diarbakriya, the most important primary source about the dynasty. The Aqquyunlu, Clan, Confederation, Empire University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, ISBN 0-87480-565-1
Ak Koyunlu
Ak Koyunlu
–
Flag of the Ağ Qoyunlu
Ak Koyunlu
–
Historical
Hasankeyf in Ak Koyunlu territory.
Ak Koyunlu
–
Ak Koyunlu
Castle in
Diyâr-ı Bekir.
17.
Laonikos Chalkokondyles
–
Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Latinized as Laonicus Chalcondyles, was a Byzantine Greek historian from Athens. He is known for his Histories in ten books, which record the last 150 years of the Byzantine Empire, Chalkokondyles was a member of a prominent family of Athens, which was ruled by the Acciaioli. His father George was a kinsman of Maria Melissene, the wife of Duke Antonio I Acciaioli, however, during his absence, the Duchess was enticed out of the Acropolis and a young scion of the Acciaiuoli family, Nerio II, was proclaimed Duke of Athens. Meanwhile, George Chalkokondyles had his proposal rejected, despite offering the Sultan 30,000 gold pieces, George with Laonikos and the rest of the family relocated to the Peloponnese. The one glimpse we have of Laonikos himself is in the summer of 1447, Cyriacus describes him as a youth egregie latinis atque grecis litteris eruditum. It was at Mistra where Laonikos was taught by George Gemistos Plethon,70.6, written in 1318, with corrections by Plethon, and later used by Bessarion in 1436 to make another copy, contains a subscription written by Laonikos. Laonikos movements and actions after 1447 are not known with certainty, internal evidence has led Anthony Kaldellis to put the date Laonikos stopped writing his Histories as 1464. Other speculations about Laonikos Chalkokondyles life are not as widely accepted, after Skanderbeg leaves the Ottoman army and becomes leader of Albania on his own right, Chalkokondyles is brought as a hostage to his court to witness the First Siege of Krujë. After the destruction of Constantinople, Chalkokondyles wrote his most important historical work and this historical work comprises one of the most important sources for the students of the final 150 years of Byzantine history, despite being defective in its chronology. The capture of Constantinople he rightly regarded as an event of far-reaching importance. The work also sketches other manners and civilization of England, France and Germany, for his account of earlier events he was able to obtain information from his father. His model is Thucydides, his language is pure and correct. The text, however, is in a corrupt state. The archaic language he used made his texts hard to read in parts, while the antiquarian names, with which he named people of his time. The extended use of the name Hellenes, which Laonikos used to describe the Byzantines contributed to the connection made between the ancient Greek civilization and the modern one. Chalkokondyles History was first published in a Latin translation by Conrad Clauser at Basel in 1556, a French translation was published by Blaise de Vigenère in 1577 with a later edition by Artus Thomas, with valuable illustrations on Turkish matters. The editio princeps of the Greek text had to wait until 1615 for J. B, the two best editions are, Historiarum Libri Decem, ed. I. Bekker, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae and Historiae Demonstrationes,2 vols, the text can also be found in J. -P
Laonikos Chalkokondyles
–
Early modern painting of Laonikos Chalkokondyles.
18.
Archon
–
Archon is a Greek word that means ruler, frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, meaning to rule, derived from the same root as monarch. In the early period of ancient Greece the chief magistrates of various Greek city states were called Archon. The term was used throughout Greek history in a more general sense. In Roman terms, archontes ruled by imperium, whereas Basileis had auctoritas, in Athens a system of three concurrent Archons evolved, the three office holders being known as the Archon Eponymos, the Polemarch, and the Archon Basileus. Originally these offices were filled from the aristocracy by elections every ten years, during this period the Eponymos Archon was the chief magistrate, the Polemarch was the head of the armed forces, and the Archon Basileus was responsible for the civic religious arrangements. After 683 BC the offices were held for only a year. The Archon Eponymos remained the head of state under democracy. The Archons were assisted by junior Archons, called Thesmothetes, after 457 BC ex-archons were automatically enrolled as life members of the Areopagus, though that assembly was no longer extremely important politically at that time. Under the Athenian constitution, Archons were also in charge of organizing festivals by bringing together poets, playwrights, actors, the Archon would begin this process months in advance of a festival by selecting a chorus of three playwrights based on descriptions of the projected plays. Each playwright would be assigned a choregos, also selected by the Archon, from among the citizens who would pay all the expenses of costumes, masks. The Archon also assigned each playwright a principal actor, as well as a second and third actor. The City Dionysia, an ancient dramatic festival held in March in which tragedy, comedy, and satyric drama originated, was under the direction of one of the principal magistrates, the archon eponymos remained the titular head of state under democracy, though of much reduced political importance. Byzantine historians usually described foreign rulers as archontes, the rulers of the Bulgars themselves, along with their own titles, often bear the title archon placed by God in inscriptions in Greek. Inside Byzantium, the term could be used to refer to any powerful noble or magnate, in the 8th and 9th centuries, these were the governors of some of the more peripheral provinces, inferior in status to the themata, Dalmatia, Cephalonia, Crete and Cyprus. Archontes were also placed in charge of naval bases and trade stations. In the 10th–12th centuries, archontes are also mentioned as the governors of specific cities, the area of an archons jurisdiction was called an archontia. The title was used for the holders of several financial posts, such as the head of the mint, as well as directors of the imperial workshops, arsenals
Archon
–
Depiction from the east frieze of the
Parthenon, of an assumed Archon Basileus, a remnant title of the Greek monarchy
19.
Constantinople
–
Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
Constantinople
–
Constantinople in the Byzantine era
Constantinople
–
Map of Byzantine Constantinople
Constantinople
–
Emperor
Constantine I presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.
Hagia Sophia, c. 1000
Constantinople
–
Coin struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople
20.
Ottoman Turks
–
After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
Ottoman Turks
–
Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Painting from 1523.
Ottoman Turks
–
Flag (1844–1923)
Ottoman Turks
–
Battle of Mohács in 1526
Ottoman Turks
–
Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the
Holy League of
Charles V under the command of
Andrea Doria at the
Battle of Preveza in 1538.
21.
Kingdom of Georgia
–
The Kingdom of Georgia, also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval monarchy which emerged in circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV, a predominantly Christian, Georgian-speaking realm, it was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia. Lasting for several centuries, the fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. The Kingdoms geopolitical situation further worsened after the Fall of Constantinople, as a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into an isolated, fractured Christian enclave, surrounded by hostile Turco-Iranic neighbors. The ascendancy of the Bagrationi dynasty can be traced to the 8th century, the restoration of the Georgian kingship begins in AD888, when Adarnase IV of Iberia took the title of King of Georgians. The United Kingdom of Georgia was established in 1008, in this year, Bagrat III, son of Gurgen II, became the ruler of the Kingdom of Western Georgia, including the Principalities of Imereti, Samegrelo, Abkhazeti, Guria and Svaneti. Bagrats mother was Queen Gurandukht, a daughter of George II of Abkhazia, the first decades of the 9th century saw the rise of a new Georgian state in Tao-Klarjeti. Ashot Courapalate of the family of Bagrationi liberated from the Arabs the territories of former southern Iberia. In practice, however, the region functioned as an independent country with its capital in Artanuji. The hereditary title of Curopalates was kept by the Bagrationi family, the first united Georgian monarchy was formed at the end of the 10th century when Curopalate David invaded the Earldom of Kartli-Iberia. Three years later, after the death of his uncle Theodosius the Blind, King of Egrisi-Abkhazia, in 1001 Bagrat added Tao-Klarjeti to his domain as a result of Davids death. In 1008–1010, Bagrat annexed Kakheti and Hereti, thus becoming the first king of a united Georgia in both the east and west, in 1071, the Seljuq army destroyed the united Byzantine-Armenian and Georgian forces in the Battle of Manzikert. By 1081, all of Armenia, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syria, in Georgia, only the mountainous areas of Abkhazia, Svaneti, Racha, and Khevi–Khevsureti remained out of Seljuq control and served as a relatively safe havens for numerous refugees. The rest of the country was dominated by the conquerors who destroyed the cities and fortresses, looted the villages, in fact, by the end of the 1080s, Georgians were outnumbered in the region by the invaders. The Golden Age began with the reign of David IV, the son of George II and Queen Helena, in 1121, he decisively defeated much larger Turkish armies during the Battle of Didgori, with fleeing Seljuq Turks being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days. A huge amount of booty and prisoners were captured by Davids army, David IV made particular emphasis on removing the vestiges of unwanted eastern influences, which the Georgians considered forced, in favor of the traditional Christian and Byzantine overtones. As part of this effort he founded the Gelati Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, David also played a personal role in reviving Georgian religious hymnography, composing the Hymns of Repentance, a sequence of eight free-verse psalms. In this emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself as reincarnating the Biblical David, with a relationship to God
Kingdom of Georgia
–
Queen Tamar and her father King
George III (restored fresco from the
Betania monastery)
Kingdom of Georgia
–
Flag
Kingdom of Georgia
–
Detail from the
Nautical chart by
Pietro Vesconte, depicting Georgian
Black Sea coast, 1321
Kingdom of Georgia
–
Detail from the
Nautical chart by
Angelino Dulcert, depicting Georgian Black Sea coast and
Tiflis, 1339
22.
Sinop, Turkey
–
The city serves as the capital of Sinop Province. Long used as a Hittite port, which appears in Hittite sources as Sinuwa, Sinope flourished as the Black Sea port of a caravan route that led from the upper Euphrates valley. It issued its own coinage, founded colonies, and gave its name to a red pigment called sinopia. Sinope escaped Persian domination until the early 4th century BC and it was ruled by Scydrothemis from 301 to 280 BC. In 183 BC it was captured by Pharnaces I and became capital of the Kingdom of Pontus, the Roman general Lucullus conquered Sinope in 70 BC, and Julius Caesar established a Roman colony there, Colonia Julia Felix, in 47 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Sinope remained with the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. After the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, it was captured for the Empire of Trebizond by David Komnenos, the city returned briefly to Trapezuntine rule in 1254, but returned to Turkish control in 1265, where it has remained since. After 1265, Sinop became home to two successive independent emirates following the fall of the Seljuks, the Pervâne and the Jandarids. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II overawed Ismail, the emir of Sinope on his march on Trebizond, the emir was exiled to Philippopolis in northern Thrace. In 1614 Sinop was targeted by Cossack raiders and extensively looted and burned in an event which shocked Ottoman contemporaries, in the late 19th and early 20th century, Sinop was part of the Kastamonu Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. As of 1920, Sinop was described as populated mainly by Greeks with a population of 8,000. It was also considered the safest port between Bosphorus and Batum, at the time, during this period, the port was exporting wheat, tobacco, seeds, timber and hides. They imported produce, coal and hardware, Sinop hosted a US military base and radar that was important for intelligence during the cold war era. The US base was closed in 1992, explorer Bob Ballard discovered an ancient ship wreck north west of Sinop in the Black Sea and was shown on National Geographic. Sinop has warm and humid summers with a daytime high of 26 °C however temperatures rarely exceed 30 °C. The highest recorded temperature for Sinop was 34.4 °C on 6 July 2000, the winters are cool and wet. The average for winter ranging around 5 °C, the lowest recorded temperature for Sinop was -7.5 °C on 21 February 1985. Snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, as of 1920, Sinop was producing embroidered cotton cloth
Sinop, Turkey
–
A collage of Sinop,
Turkey. Top left: view of Sinop North Wall, nearby Demirci and Bezirci area; top right: Sinop Fortress and Port of Sinop; middle right: View of Plaj Yolu, nearby Sinop Anadolu Imam Hatip College from Baris Manco Park; bottom left: Panorama view of downtown Sinop, from Hippodrome Hill; bottom right: Hamsilos resort area
Sinop, Turkey
–
Sinop old city, Ottoman era postcard
Sinop, Turkey
–
Black Sea and Sinop port.
Sinop, Turkey
–
Sinop museum
23.
Karaman
–
Karaman is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about 100 km south of Konya. It is the district of the Karaman Province. According to 2000 census, the population of the province is 231,872 of which 132,064 live in the town of Karaman, the district covers an area of 3,686 km2, and the town lies at an average elevation of 1,039 m. The Karaman Museum is one of the major sights, the town owes its name to Karaman Bey who was one of the rulers of the Karamanid dynasty. The former name Laranda which in turn comes from the Luwian language Larawanda, literally sandy, in ancient times Karaman was known as Laranda. In the 6th century BC it came under Achaemenid rule until 322 BC, when it was destroyed by Perdiccas and it later became a seat of Isaurian pirates. It belonged to the Roman and later Byzantine Empire until it was captured by the Seljuks in the early 12th century, Karaman was occupied by Frederick Barbarossa in 1190 and by Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia between 1211 and 1216. In 1256, the town was taken by Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey and was renamed Karaman in his honour, from 1275, Karaman was the capital of the Karamanid beylik. In 1468 the Karamanids were conquered by the Ottomans and in 1483 the capital of the province was moved to Konya, Karaman has retained ruins of a Karamanid castle and some walls, two mosques and a Koran school from that age. An exquisite mihrab from a mosque from Karaman can now be found in the Çinili Pavilion near the Archeology Museum in Istanbul, there was a Roman Catholic titular see for the city. The poet Yunus Emre resided in Karaman during his years and is believed to lie buried beside the Yunus Emre Mosque. A small adjacent park is adorned with quotations from his verse, in 1222, the Sufi preacher Bahaeddin Veled arrived in town with his family, and the Karamanoğlu emir built a medrese to accommodate them. Veleds son was the famous Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, who married his wife, Gevher Hatun and it was here, too, that Rumis mother died in 1224. She was buried, along with family members, in the Aktekke Mosque. Karaman has a cold semi-arid climate under Köppen climate classification, with hot and dry summers and cold, Karaman is a very sunny city all year long
Karaman
–
Karaman
fortification
24.
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Frederick III, called the Peaceful or the Fat, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1452 until his death, the first emperor of the House of Habsburg. He was the emperor to be crowned by the Pope. Prior to his coronation, he was duke of the Inner Austrian lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1424. He was elected and crowned King of Germany in 1440 and he was the longest-reigning German monarch when in 1493, after ruling his domains for more than 53 years, he was succeeded by his son Maximilian I. During his reign, Frederick concentrated on re-uniting the Habsburg hereditary lands of Austria, nevertheless, by his dynastic entitlement to Hungary as well as by the Burgundian inheritance, he laid the foundations for the later Habsburg Empire. Mocked as Arch-Sleepyhead of the Holy Roman Empire during his lifetime, according to the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, the Leopoldinian branch ruled over the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, or what was referred to as Inner Austria. Only three of Fredericks eight siblings survived childhood, his younger brother Albert, and his sisters Margaret and Catherine. In 1424, nine-year-old Fredericks father died, making Frederick the duke of Inner Austria, as Frederick V, with his uncle, Duke Frederick IV of Tyrol, from 1431, Frederick tried to obtain majority but for several years was denied by his relatives. Finally, in 1435, Albert V, duke of Austria, almost from the beginning, Fredericks younger brother Albert asserted his rights as a co-ruler, as the beginning of a long rivalry. Already in these years, Frederick had begun to use the symbolic A. E. I. O. U, signature as a kind of motto with various meanings. In 1436 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, accompanied by numerous nobles knighted by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, upon the death of his uncle Duke Frederick IV in 1439, Frederick took over the regency of Tyrol and Further Austria for the dukes heir Sigismund. Again he had to ward off the claims raised by his brother Albert VI, likewise he acted as regent for his nephew Ladislaus the Posthumous, son of late King Albert II and his consort Elizabeth of Luxembourg, in the duchy of Austria. Frederick was now the head of the Habsburg dynasty, though his regency in the lands of the Albertinian Line was still viewed with suspicion. In 1442, Frederick allied himself with Rudolf Stüssi, burgomaster of Zurich, against the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Old Zurich War but lost. In 1448, he entered into the Concordat of Vienna with the Holy See, as a cousin of late King Albert II, Frederick became a candidate for the imperial election. In 1452, at the age of 37, Frederick III travelled to Italy to receive his bride and his fiancée, the 18-year-old infanta Eleanor, daughter of King Edward of Portugal, landed at Livorno after a 104-day trip. Her dowry would help Frederick alleviate his debts and cement his power, the couple met at Siena on 24 February and proceeded together to Rome. As per tradition, they spent a night outside the walls of Rome before entering the city on 9 March, where Frederick and Pope Nicholas V exchanged friendly greetings
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Portrait by
Hans Burgkmair, about 1500 (Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna)
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Detail of "Aeneas Piccolomini Introduces Eleonora of Portugal to Frederick III" by
Pinturicchio (1454–1513)
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Frederick III meeting with Charles the Bold
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal.
25.
George VIII of Georgia
–
It can also refer to George VIII of Imereti. George VIII was the last king of the united Georgia, though his kingdom was already fragmentised and dragged into a civil war. Defeated by his rivals, he was left with an eastern province Kakheti alone and he was the third son of Alexander I of Georgia by his second wife Tamar. Though Demetre, Alexander’s second son, seems to have been a successor to his elder brother Vakhtang IV. The process of the disintegration of the Georgian kingdom had begun and was close to reach its climax. The most troublesome were revolts by the western Georgian nobles and the atabegs of Samtskhe, yet, Georgia was considered as a possible participant of a large anti-Ottoman crusade planned by the Pope Pius II and Western European powers. For this purpose, Ludovicus Bologninus was sent to hold talks in Georgia, georgians hoped to mobilise in total 120,000 soldiers to fight sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and proposed even to continue the Crusade on Jerusalem. The coalition was never formed, however, and the struggles within Georgia were soon resumed. In 1462, George took Samokalako from its owner, a kinsman, Bagrat for his support to the rebel prince Qvarqvare II Jakeli. In 1463, Bagrat allied himself with other oppositionist royal subjects, dukes of Mingrelia, Guria, Svaneti, the rebels met and defeated the king at the Battle of Chikhori. Subsequently, the king lost all western provinces and Bagrat was crowned king of Imereti, in 1465, George attempted to subdue Qvarqvare II of Samtskhe, only to be attacked and taken prisoner at Lake Paravani. The situation was exploited by Bagrat of Imereti, who seized control of Tbilisi. Atabeg Qvarqvare, who now considered Bagrat as his major rival, the latter, unsuccessful in his attempt to recover his crown, was only able to establish himself as a separate king in the easternmost province of Kakheti. There, he reorganised the administration, subdividing the kingdom into much smaller. Unlike to other Georgian polities, he put ecclesiastic lords, generally loyal to the crown than secular nobles, in charge of special military districts. He died in 1476 to be succeeded by Alexander I as king of Kakheti, George VIIIs royal charters make mention of two names of his consort, Tamar and Nestan-Darejan. Two explanations exist to account for this, such polyonymy was not infrequent in Georgia, Toumanoff explains, reflecting the twofold cultural background of the country, Hellenistic-Christian on the one hand, and Caucasio-Iranoid, on the other. She is last mentioned in 1510,1445 and, secondly to Nestan-Darejan, of unknown origin, whom the king took as his wife sometime before 1456
George VIII of Georgia
–
George VIII გიორგი VIII
George VIII of Georgia
–
Royal charter of George VIII.
26.
Samtskhe
–
Meskheti, also known as Samtskhe, is in a mountainous area of Moschia in southwestern Georgia. Ancient tribes known as the Mushki and Mosiniks were the first known inhabitants of the area of the modern Samtskhe-Javakheti region, some scholars credit the Mosiniks with the invention of iron metallurgy. Between the 2nd millennium BCE and the 4th century BCE, Meskheti was part of the kingdom of Diaokhi and it was subsequently, until the 6th century, part of the Kingdom of Iberia. During the 10th-15th centuries, this region was a part of the united Georgian Kingdom, in the 16th century it was the independent Principality of Meskheti until it was occupied and annexed by the Ottoman Empire. In 1829-1917 the region was a part of Tbilisi Governorate, between 1921-1990 it was a part of the Soviet Union, as the Georgian SSR. Meskheti is now part of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, together with Javakheti, meskhetians or Meskhs are a subgroup of Georgians, the indigenous population of Meskheti. Meskhetians speak the Meskhetian dialect and are mainly Georgian Orthodox Christians in religion, Meskhetian Turks are the former Georgian inhabitants of the Meskheti region of Georgia along the border with Turkey. They were deported to Central Asia during November 15–25,1944 by Joseph Stalin and settled within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, of the 120,000 forcibly deported in cattle-trucks a total of 10,000 perished. Today they are dispersed over a number of countries of the former Soviet Union. There are 500,000 to 700,000 Meskhetian Turks in exile in Azerbaijan, most Meskhetian Turks are Sunni Hanafi Muslims and a minority Twelver Shiite Muslims. Shota Rustaveli History of Georgia Culture of Georgia Georgians Meskhetian Turks Meshech Pavle Ingorokva, არქეოლოგიური ექსპედიცია კოლა-ოლთისში და ჩანგლში, ტფ. საქართველოს აღდგენისათვის ბრძოლა მესხეთის გამო, თბილისი,1989
Samtskhe
–
Map highlighting the historical region of Meskheti in Georgia
27.
Venice
–
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
Venice
–
A collage of Venice: at the top left is the
Piazza San Marco, followed by a view of the city, then the
Grand Canal, and (smaller) the interior of
La Fenice and, finally, the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
Venice
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Venice
–
Photography of Venice at dusk
Venice
–
The Grand Canal seen from the bridge at
Ponte di Rialto
28.
Dante Alighieri
–
Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante, was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. In the late Middle Ages, the majority of poetry was written in Latin. In De vulgari eloquentia, however, Dante defended use of the vernacular in literature, as a result, Dante played an instrumental role in establishing the national language of Italy. In addition, the first use of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, Dante has been called the Father of the Italian language and one of the greatest poets of world literature. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta and il Poeta, he, Petrarch, Dante was born in Florence, Republic of Florence, present-day Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic allusions in the Divine Comedy, in 1265, the sun was in Gemini between approximately May 11 and June 11. Dante claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans, but the earliest relative he could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei, born no earlier than about 1100. Dantes father, Alaghiero or Alighiero di Bellincione, was a White Guelph who suffered no reprisals after the Ghibellines won the Battle of Montaperti in the middle of the 13th century. Dantes family had loyalties to the Guelphs, an alliance that supported the Papacy and which was involved in complex opposition to the Ghibellines. The poets mother was Bella, likely a member of the Abati family and she died when Dante was not yet ten years old, and Alighiero soon married again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. When Dante was 12, he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, daughter of Manetto Donati, contracting marriages at this early age was quite common and involved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary. But by this time Dante had fallen in love with another, Beatrice Portinari, years after his marriage to Gemma he claims to have met Beatrice again, he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. The exact date of his marriage is not known, the certain information is that, before his exile in 1301. Dante fought with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino and this victory brought about a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take any part in life, one had to enroll in one of the citys many commercial or artisan guilds, so Dante entered the Physicians. In the following years, his name is recorded as speaking or voting in the various councils of the republic. A substantial portion of minutes from meetings in the years 1298–1300 was lost, however
Dante Alighieri
–
Profile portrait of Dante, by
Sandro Botticelli
Dante Alighieri
–
Portrait of Dante, from a fresco in the Palazzo dei Giudici, Florence
Dante Alighieri
–
Dante in Verona, by Antonio Cotti
Dante Alighieri
–
Statue of Dante at the
Uffizi, Florence
29.
Baron Corvo
–
Frederick William Rolfe, better known as Baron Corvo, and also calling himself Frederick William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe, was an English writer, artist, photographer and eccentric. Rolfe was born in Cheapside, London, the son of a piano manufacturer and he left school at the age of fourteen and became a teacher. He taught briefly at The Kings School, Grantham, where the headmaster, Ernest Hardy, later principal of Jesus College, Oxford. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1886 and was confirmed by Cardinal Manning, with his conversion came a strongly-felt vocation to the priesthood, which persisted throughout his life despite being constantly frustrated and never realised. At this stage he entered the circle of the Duchess Sforza Cesarini and this became his best-known pseudonym, he also called himself Frank English, Frederick Austin and A. Crab Maid, among others. More often he abbreviated his own name to Fr, Rolfe spent most of his life as a freelance writer, mainly in England but eventually in Venice. He lived in the era before the state, and relied on benefactors for support. But he had a nature and had a tendency to fall out spectacularly with most of the people who tried to help him and offer him room. Eventually, out of money and out of luck, he died in Venice from a stroke on 25 October 1913 and he was buried on the Isola di San Michele, Venice. Rolfes life provided the basis for The Quest for Corvo by A. J. A, Symons, an experiment in biography regarded as a minor classic in the field. This same work reveals that Rolfe had an unlikely enthusiast in the person of Maundy Gregory, Rolfe was entirely comfortable with his homosexuality and associated and corresponded with a number of other gay Englishmen. Early in his life he wrote a fair amount of idealistic but mawkish poetry about boy martyrs, as he himself matured, Rolfes settled sexual preference was for late adolescents. The idealised young men in his fiction were of a similar age, in 1904, soon after his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest, the convert Robert Hugh Benson formed a chaste but passionate friendship with Rolfe. For two years this relationship involved letters not only weekly, but at times daily, and of an intimate character, there was a falling out in 1906, and Benson satirised Rolfe in his novel The Sentimentalists. Rolfe returned the favor a few later, putting a caricature of Benson named Bobugo Bonsen in a book named Nicholas Crabbe. Their letters were destroyed, probably by Bensons brother. The youths’ leader, the sixteen-year-old Toto, recounts tales of saints behaving like pagan gods, Hadrian the Seventh, with an original and compelling plot, is Rolfes most famous novel. Rose takes the name Hadrian VII and embarks upon a programme of ecclesiastical and geopolitical reform, the only English pope was Hadrian IV, and the last non-Italian pope had been Hadrian VI
Baron Corvo
–
Frederick William Rolfe
Baron Corvo
–
Rolfe's grave on
San Michele, Venice
Baron Corvo
–
Rolfe's design for Don Tarquinio
Baron Corvo
–
Tito Biondi at Lake Nemi (photograph by Rolfe, ca. 1890–92)
30.
Philip the Good
–
Philip the Good was Duke of Burgundy as Philip III from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a line of the Valois dynasty. During his reign, Burgundy reached the apex of its prosperity and prestige, Philip is known in history for his administrative reforms, his patronage of Flemish artists such as Jan van Eyck and Franco-Flemish composers such as Gilles Binchois, and the capture of Joan of Arc. In political affairs, he alternated between alliances with the English and the French in an attempt to improve his dynastys position. As ruler of Flanders, Brabant, Limburg, Artois, Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland and Namur, born in 1396 in Dijon, Philip was the son of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria-Straubing. His father succeeded Philips grandfather Philip the Bold as Duke of Burgundy in 1404 and they were married in June 1409. Bonne of Artois lived only a year after Philip married her, Philip was married for a third time to Isabella of Portugal, a daughter of John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, in Bruges on 7 January 1430. Corneille and Anthony were his favorite bastard sons and successively bore the title Grand bâtard de Bourgogne, Philip became duke of Burgundy and count of Flanders, Artois and Franche-Comté upon the assassination of his father in 1419. Philip accused Charles, the Dauphin of France and Philips brother-in-law, of planning the murder of his father, because of this, he continued to prosecute the civil war between the Burgundians and Armagnacs. In 1420, Philip allied himself with Henry V of England under the Treaty of Troyes, in 1423, the marriage of Philips sister Anne to John, Duke of Bedford, regent for Henry VI of England, strengthened the English alliance. In 1430, Philips troops captured Joan of Arc at Compiègne and later handed her over to the English, Philip signed the treaty for a variety of reasons, one of which may have been a desire to be recognised as the preeminent duke in France. He then attacked Calais, a possession of the English, Philip supported the revolt of the French nobles the following year and offered shelter to the Dauphin Louis, who had rebelled against his father Charles VII. In 1456, Philip also managed to ensure his illegitimate son David was elected Bishop of Utrecht and it is not surprising that in 1435 Philip began to style himself the Grand Duke of the West. In 1463, Philip gave up some of his territory to King Louis XI of France and that year he also created an Estates-General for the Netherlands based on the French model. The first meeting of the Estates-General was to obtain a loan for a war against France, in 1465 and 1467, Philip crushed two rebellions in Liège. Philip died in Bruges in 1467, Philips court can only be described as extravagant. He declined membership in the English Order of the Garter in 1422, instead, he created his own Order of the Golden Fleece, based on the Knights of the Round Table and the myth of Jason, in 1430. Philip had no fixed capital and moved the court between various palaces, the urban ones being Brussels, Bruges, and Lille
Philip the Good
–
Philip the Good, wearing the
collar of
firesteels of the
Order of the Golden Fleece he instituted, copy of a
Rogier van der Weyden of c.1450
Philip the Good
–
Engraving of Philip the Good
Philip the Good
–
Statue of Philip the Good, in the Ducal Palace at
Dijon
Philip the Good
–
Rogier van der Weyden miniature 1447-8. Philip dresses his best, in an extravagant
chaperon, to be presented with a History of Hainault by the author, flanked by his son
Charles and his chancellor
Nicolas Rolin.
