August 24, 2018 Friday
Bedtime Story
The Reason Behind Byzantine Iconoclasm
As we saw last night, Byzantine Iconoclasm
came in two waves, the first one known as the “First Iconoclasm” from 726 to
787 and the second one known as the “Second Iconoclasm” started in 814 and
ended in 842.
As to why there was a sudden surge in iconoclasm
in the Byzantine Empire of the seventh and eighth century is a question that is
of great interest to historians.
There are no definite answers but
interesting suggestions and conjectures.
One theory proposed by the British
historian Toynbee is that in the early seventh century saw stunning Islamic
success in the area that is now the Arabian peninsula.
It started from the Islamic prophet
Muhammad (who incidentally, according to Islamic doctrine, was sent to preach,
spread and confirm the monotheistic teachings preached previously by Adam,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets who followed them) who turned out to
be an extremely competent warrior.
Starting from small raids with a band of
300 bandits in 624 on merchant caravans, he graduated to waging major battles
starting with the Battle of Badr on the 13th of March of the same
year.
This was the beginning of series of war
expeditions that was led by Muhammad which started the expansion of an Empire
that would one day stretch from the borders of the modern China and Indian
subcontinent and stretch across Central Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa
and even Parts of Southern Europe.
This expansion came at the cost of both the
Sassanid Empire and the Byzantine Empire; whereas the former totally collapsed
under the Islamic conquests the later ended up with massive territorial lost.
Having lost, the emperors of the losing
side must have wondered what was wrong they did in the wars that turned the
tide against them.
The Islamic warriors were sure why they
were winning the wars – It was the Divine Intervention.
So if that was the case, then Emperor Leo
III the Syrian must have thought that they must be doing something to displease
their gods; and the greatest wrong must be the worshipping of “graven images” –
a direct violation of one of the Ten Commandments written in the Book of
Deuteronomy.
And thus followed the first wave of
iconoclasm which led to an enormous destruction of images and icons of
Byzantine Art.
I, as you are fully aware, a hardened
atheist and am no fan of religious imagery, yet even I would not go the extent
of extensive vulgar iconoclasm that these Byzantine religious zealots went to.
All that in an attempt to unsuccessfully
thwart the growing Islamic Empire which as history showed was not very
rewarding.
On May 29, 1453 the capital of Byzantine
Empire Constantinople (or Istanbul if you are a Turk) did fall to the invading
Ottoman army and marked the end of the Byzantine Empire.
Icons or no icons.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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