Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition ( 7th – 9th Century )

Helen C. Evans

s the seventh century began, the area of the eastern ( ca. 675 – 749 ), who lived in the southern provinces still claimed by Mediterranean — from Syria through Egypt and across the empire, became leaders in the defense of the religious venera­ A North Africa — was central to the spiritual and political tion of icons ( see Ratliff, p. 32, and cat. no. 80). heart of the Byzantine Empire, which was ruled from The revived Byzantine Empire that emerged in the ninth cen­ Constantinople ( also called New , modern Istanbul ). These tury could no longer claim the southern provinces that reached territories, almost as extensive as they were during the era of the around the eastern Mediterranean and across North Africa. from which emerged, were among Rather, the empire, ruled from Constantinople, looked north­ the richest provinces of the state. In the early sixth century, the ward, successfully expanding into the Balkans and converting the emperor Justinian I ( r. 527 – 65 ) had regained the North African Slavs. Significant contacts, both political and , were estab­ Roman lands and a small portion of southern Spain that had been lished between the capital and Muslim courts. Trade routes to the lost to the Vandals in the fifth century. He rejoined them with east were maintained and even flourished, but they now followed Egypt and the empire’s eastern Mediterranean lands to control all northern, not southern, paths. The southern provinces, though the southern Mediterranean.1 The important cities and towns lost, retained contact with Byzantium through their Christian along the major trade routes reached around the Mediterranean communities and trade connections, but they were ruled by pow­ and along the Red Sea ( fig. 1 ). Their inhabitants, who lived in ers of the Muslim world.3 close proximity to one another, if not always in close collabora­ The critical period of transition and transformation for the tion, included peoples of many faiths and varied ethnic back­ empire and its southern provinces was the span from the seventh grounds. Surviving manuscripts and inscriptions on mosaic floors into the ninth century. At the beginning of that time, the and liturgical objects reveal some of the languages spoken or territories were under the universal law of the Byzantine state written by the populace, including Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, ( the Codex Justinianus ), its governors were appointed from Syriac, and Arabic ( for Greek, cat. nos. 1, 15a, 22, 59, 66b; for Coptic, Constantinople, taxes were paid to the capital, and the church of cat. nos. 15b, 46; for Aramaic, cat. nos. 66a, 70; for Syriac, cat. nos. 39, Constantinople was the official authority in the region ( fig. 2 ) 40; and for Arabic, cat. no. 67 ). Missing from this list is Latin, then ( cat. no. 21 ). The poor of the capital were fed with grain shipped the official language of the Byzantine state; its lack reflects the from Egypt, and the provinces emulated the styles of the preference for Greek in the eastern Mediterranean. capital.4 As military incursions by the Sasanian Persians ( see By the end of the seventh century, with the rise of the Islamic Nagel, p. 27, and cat. nos. 16 – 20 ) and subsequently the Umayyads world, these Byzantine provinces included Arabs from the ( see Ballian, p. 200, and cat. nos. 141 – 151 ) wrested territories Arabian Peninsula. Byzantine forces struggled to regain control from imperial control, however, their role as a major source of of their territories for more than a hundred years. During this grain and taxes for the empire was diverted to their new rulers, period of transition from Byzantine to Islamic power, Constanti­ and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople lost its authority nople was attacked by various , most especially the Avars, over the region.5 Many of the same languages that were in use Slavs, and Persians. In an effort to preserve a secure capital, several during the Byzantine era continued in the first generations of emperors, including Heraclius ( r. 610 – 41 ), considered moving to Muslim rule, with Christian texts increasingly written in Arabic a new site, which Heraclius’s grandson the emperor Constans II ( Greek, cat. no. 42, or Greek / Arabic, cat. no.32; Coptic, cat. ( r. 641 – 68 ) did, when he moved the capital to Syracuse in Sicily nos. 43, 48, 49; Syriac, cat. no. 31; Arabic, cat. nos. 32 – 36, 81, for the last years of his reign.2 From the eighth into the ninth 83a, 188 – 193 ). century, during the Iconoclastic controversy, the church in During the early seventh century, however, the territories Constantinople and the Byzantine state forcefully debated the were still central to the empire’s power. Heraclius, the greatest correct role of religious images. Men like emperor of the seventh century, sailed from the wealthy North

4 byzantium and islam: age of transition Fig. 1. Surviving portion of the Madaba Map, Church of , Madaba, Jordan, mid-6th century. The map includes sites from across the eastern and southern provinces of the Byzantine Empire; 157 sites with captions are preserved. Reproduced from Piccirillo 1992, Madaba Map foldout

African Byzantine provinces with their major cities, such as the rest of Constantinople’s history as the capital of the Byzantine Carthage, Tripoli, and Hadrumentum / Justinianopolis ( modern Empire.9 Sousse, Tunisia ), to take the imperium ( see also Evans, p. 14 ).6 Heraclius and his armies would best the Persians by 630, briefly His first wife, Fabia, the daughter of a North African landowner, restoring the eastern Mediterranean to Constantinopolitan control. who probably spoke Latin, took the Greek name Eudokia when Among those who fought along with him were the Ghassanid she became empress, in recognition of the fact that Greek was Arab Christians, who had long helped protect the eastern borders becoming the language of the Byzantine court.7 Coming to the of the empire.10 Soon after the defeat of the Persians, a new, unan­ throne as part of the rebellion against the emperor Phokas ticipated problem arose: raids by Arab armies from Arabia whose ( Focas ) ( r. 602 – 10 ), Heraclius, responding to the internal and threat was initially not adequately recognized by either the external problems that led to the overthrow of his predecessor, Byzantines or the Sasanian Persians.11 The decisive Arab victory focused his attention on the Sasanian Persian threat to the at the battle of Yarmuk in 636 during the last years of Heraclius’s empire and was the first Byzantine ruler since the fourth cen­ reign led to the conquest of all the southern Byzantine provinces tury to lead his armies into battle.8 When he marched toward and those of North Africa in rapid order.12 It can be argued that the Persian threat, he left regents from his family, the patrician Heraclius helped save Constantinople and its surrounding territo­ Bonos and the Sergios, to protect Constantinople. ries for another eight hundred years by preserving Anatolia During the frightening, but failed, joint attack on the city through a border defense along the northern edge of the empire’s by the Avars with Slavic allies and the Persians in 626, the southern provinces that prevented further Arab penetration.13 patriarch carried an icon of the on the capital’s walls. Certainly Byzantine forces under Heraclius’s successors, members Defenders and attackers alike saw a veiled woman, who was of his own dynasty, persisted in attempting to halt the Arab identified as the Virgin, walking its ramparts. Because of this advance. Under Constantine IV ( r. 668 – 85 ), Greek fire, a sub­ event, the Virgin was known as the city’s protector throughout stance with properties similar to those of napalm, was recorded as

byzantium 5 Fig. 2. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey, 532 – 37

being used in a successful naval battle against an Arab fleet, the first mention of its existence. Successful military advances by the Byzantines at the same time forced the first Umayyad caliph, Mu‘awiya ( r. 661 – 80 ), to sue for a thirty-year peace with Byzantium and to provide the empire with substantial annual payments in gold.14 Portions of the population of the southern provinces remained intensely loyal to the empire and its church ( see Hieromonk Justin of Sinai, p. 50, and cat. nos. 26 – 30 ). People from religious communities that had resisted the efforts of Heraclius and the patriarch to unite all the citizens of the empire under one Christian church may have been more receptive to a new ruling elite and thus less hostile to the arrival of the Arabs.15 The imperial provinces along the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean were important for their wealth and their central positions on trade routes to and from the East. From — the second-largest city of the empire, with its famous lighthouse ( fig. 3 ) — merchants traveled along the coast Fig. 3. Detail showing a personification of the Alexandria lighthouse ( pharos ) from the mosaic floor of the Justinianic church at Qasr Libya, of North Africa and down the Red Sea to the riches of India Libya, 6th century and China ( see Thomas, p. 124 ). Christian Byzantine efforts to

6 byzantium and islam: age of transition control access to the silks and spices of the East had reached ( once called Nestorian Christians ), until the region became part their greatest success in the sixth century. The emperor Justin I of the expanding Muslim world in 632.18 Syrian Orthodox ( r. 518 – 27 ), who was succeeded by his nephew Justinian I, sup­ Christians were also active as missionaries in the area during ported the conquest of the kingdom of Himyar ( in what is now these centuries ( see Khalek, p. 66, and cat. no. 39 ).19 modern Yemen ) by the Ethiopians of the kingdom of Axum ( in Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast near the northern end modern Ethiopia ). The new Ethiopian rulers, having converted to of the Red Sea, was important not only for its position on the Christianity in the mid-fourth century, built numerous Christian trade routes but also as one of the patriarchal sees of the Christian churches in their new territories and forced the conversion of church.20 Because Alexandria had long been a center of learning, much of the existing Jewish population. As a result, the Red Sea, a many of the issues that drove the early debates within the church critical trade route, was dominated by Christian states closely arose there.21 Christian pilgrims of all persuasions from as far as allied with Constantinople. It is recorded that mosaic specialists Spain and Ireland in the west and Yemen in the east came to the were even brought from the capital to Himyar to work on the city whose first bishop had been Saint . Many great cathedral of Sana‘a.16 in nearby regions, including the Ethiopians, were under the juris­ Kosmas Indikopleustes, a sixth-century merchant from diction of the patriarch of Alexandria. Elegantly carved images of Alexandria, traced the trade route in his Christian Topography, a Saint Mark — taking dictation from in Rome, in work possibly written as a report to the Byzantine court of Alexandria, and converting his successor, Anianos — appear on Justinian ( see Thomas, p. 124, and cat. no. 82 ). In it he noted that ivories of the period ( cat. nos. 23, 24 ). Saint Mark also appears at the coinage of the Byzantine Empire was the finest in the world Coptic sites, since he is considered the founder of the Coptic ( see cat. nos. 86a, 86c ).17 Indeed, the authority of its coinage Church ( see Bolman, p. 69 ). Christian pilgrims flocked to other remained unquestioned into the Early Islamic period ( see Foss, great pilgrimage sites of the empire’s southern provinces as well, p. 136 ). Although Byzantine dominance of the Red Sea trade most especially ( see Ratliff, p. 86, and cat. nos. 54 – 56, route ended with the Persian advance across Arabia to the Red 58 – 60, 72 ). Mosaics like the Armenian-inscribed floor outside Sea in the late sixth century, the importance of the route itself the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem attest to the presence and afflu­ continued. Now, however, the Christians of the region were sub­ ence of communities there, who had arrived from as far as the ject to the Persians, with their Zoroastrian faith and their offi­ northeastern borders of the empire.22 Some pilgrimage centers, cially recognized Christian community, the Church of the East such as Qal‘at Sem‘an, were also known for attracting Arab

Fig. 4. View of Via Antoninianus from the South Tetrapylon, Gerasa ( Jerash ), Jordan, in 1931

byzantium 7 scenes, and trees ( see cat. nos. 2, 3, 50 ). Curtains are known to have decorated the streets in Constantinople on state occasions and may well have done so elsewhere. The curtains appearing over the entrance to the palace in a mosaic in Ravenna, the western capital of the empire, are very similar to the design of a curtain found in Egypt.25 Carbon-14 testing has confirmed that the curtain is a product of the first years of Islamic rule there, evidence of the persistent relevance of Byzantine taste to the new rulers of the eastern Mediterranean ( cat. no. 3 ). By the sixth century, the classical form of these cities had begun to change: shops pushed forward into the streets, and fewer large public buildings were being built or used. Smaller public baths were developed that were used into the Islamic period. Towns like Attarouthi ( Taroutia Emperön in modern Syria ) ( cat. no. 22 ) had elaborate buildings, but they were now crowded together, with the great public spaces of the past increasingly filled in with buildings of varied use. Newly built cities followed the classical city plans less and less, a transformation that persisted as the needs of the cities of the empire changed under Islamic rule.26 Elaborate silver treasures, like that of Attarouthi, found in the eastern Mediterranean demonstrate that these changes did not reflect increasing poverty in the region.27 The elaborate houses shown on the mosaic floor of the emperor’s Great Palace in Constantinople ( fig. 5 ) found echoes in the mosaics of the facade of the Umayyad Great Mosque of Damascus ( figs. 101 – 103 ), evidence of the ongoing popularity of building styles. The cityscapes frequently depicted on mosaic church floors under Fig. 5. Fragment of a mosaic pavement showing a villa in a garden, from the Byzantine and Early Islamic rule continue the same traditions northern section of the peristyle courtyard of the Great Palace in Constantinople, 6th century. Istanbul Mosaic Museum, Turkey ( cat. nos. 1, 79 ). Religious sites were built for the various Christian, Jewish, and other communities of the region. While Orthodox churches and pilgrimage centers remained loyal to Constanti­ converts as early as the fifth century ( see Ratliff, p. 94, and cat. nople, other churches rejected its authority, most especially the nos. 62 – 65 ).23 Coptic Church in Egypt and the Syriac Church in the eastern Like Alexandria, most of the cities supporting the trade and Mediterranean ( see Ratliff, p. 32; Hieromonk Justin of Sinai, p. 50; pilgrimage routes were well established before the Byzantine era Khalek, p. 66; Bolman, p. 69; and cat. nos. 25, 27 – 30, 46 – 49, and continued to flourish in the Muslim world. The Romans had 51 – 53 ). Synagogues were also found throughout the empire’s built, or rebuilt, many of these cities in their style with broad lands ( see Fine, p. 102, and cat. nos. 69, 70, 73 ). streets ( cardines ) flanked by tall columns ( fig. 4 and Brody, p. 11 ) Religious and secular buildings were furnished with excep­ and large public monuments, including baths, theaters, forums, tional works of art, both in the capital and throughout the empire’s and hippodromes ( fig. 1 ). In Byzantine Syria, the elaborate southern provinces, even as the political turmoil of the seventh cen­ Roman-style cities of the Decapolis, including Gerasa ( Jerash in tury transformed the ruling elite. Byzantine art of the period modern Jordan ) ( cat. no. 1 ), Philadelphia ( Amman in modern expanded on traditions derived from the classical models popular Jordan ), and Damascus, directed trade goods from the Red Sea among the aristocracy throughout the empire and applied it to north toward Constantinople ( see Thomas, p. 124 ).24 Throughout Christian imagery ( see Evans, p. 18 ).28 Silver vessels with imperial the provinces, elaborate public and private buildings, including control stamps dating from the era of Heraclius into the mid- religious sites, were richly decorated with classically inspired cap­ seventh century offer classical themes in skillfully worked natural­ itals ( see cat. no. 51a ). Their doorways were hung with huge cur­ istic styles ( cat. nos. 8, 9, 11, 12 ). Other silver vessels from the reign tains decorated with images of columns, hunting and Nilotic of Heraclius also display the same exceptional naturalism and

8 byzantium and islam: age of transition artistry being applied to the narrative of the life of the biblical throughout the empire ( cat. no. 73 ). As the ruling elite of the King ( fig. 6 ) ( cat. no. 6 ). These unique works of the capi­ region changed, the populace carried on with most aspects of its tal — ​featuring realistic detail, anatomical accuracy, naturalistically daily life. Inscriptions on Byzantine metalwork are argued to have fluttering draperies, and notable craftsmanship — embrace antique influenced the use of inscriptions on Islamic metalwork, a rela­ concepts as shown by a classical personification of a river god, tionship that can easily be seen on chalices, jugs, and often bilin­ who appears at the top center of the largest plate between David gual clay lamps ( cat. nos. 22, 126, 128, 129 ).29 Arab authors wrote and Goliath ( cat. no. 6f ). Less elegantly wrought classicizing of their admiration for the Byzantine artisans within their newly motifs were produced in the southern provinces on less expen­ occupied territories as well as within the continuing empire.30 sive bone carvings meant to decorate furniture and boxes ( cat. In addition to classical motifs, classical literature was valued no. 10 ) and as motifs in textiles ( cat. no. 13 ). Figures associated into the seventh century ( see Evans, p. 18, and cat. no. 14 ). As far with the realm of Dionysos, god of wine, are found in various south in Egypt as the Monastery of Epiphanios, someone prac­ media ( cat. no. 122 ). Many Early Islamic works continued the ticed his Greek by repeatedly copying the first line of the Iliad.31 tradition of displaying his grapevines growing from pots or alone, Ostraka from there record classical literary texts ( cat. no. 15a ). probably to represent a general sense of prosperity and plenty Interest in scientific learning continued, as scholars of all faiths ( see Mietke, p. 175, and cat. nos. 120b, 120c, 121 ). When shown in pursued their inquiries into the Islamic era. Christian, Jewish, and a specifically Christian context, the vines refer to Christ’s state­ Muslim scholars explored various means of divination.32 A pro­ ment “I am the true vine” ( John 15:1 ) and the Christian Eucharist vincial Dioscorides manuscript and an ostrakon with medical ( cat. nos. 1, 120a ). recipes prove that investigative learning was not restricted to the The naturalistic style found on the silver of Constantinople capital ( cat. nos. 14, 15b ). The gracefully realistic plants depicted also appears on the most elite silks ( see Thomas, p. 148, and cat. on a fragment of a dish from a synagogue demonstrate that the no. 101). Hunting scenes and mounted warriors that reflect the careful observation apparent in the illustrations in the Dioscorides common pastimes of the aristocracy throughout the Byzantine manuscript was a tradition not uniquely reserved for scholars world were also very popular in the Early Islamic period ( cat. ( fig. 7 and cat. no. 14 ). no. 103 ). One Byzantine silk depicting a man fighting a lion Regional religious figures remained active in Orthodox closely resembles the image of David fighting the lion on the debates; the influence of their opinions reached far beyond the David Plates ( see cat. nos. 6, 102 ). Linen textiles copying the more empire’s southern provinces. Saint John Klimax, abbot of the detailed styles that were possible on finely woven silks display other David scenes in a more stylized manner, since the threads depicting the narrative could not be as closely woven ( cat. no. 7 ). Carbon-14 dating of decorated tunics found in burial sites in Egypt proves that clothing styles of the region continued without significant changes into at least the ninth century ( cat. nos. 111 – 114 ). Silver and textiles meant for liturgical use among all the churches of the region attempted the elegance of Constanti­ nopolitan images with greater and lesser success. Christ, the Virgin, the , and the worked in relief on the Attarouthi Treasure ( cat. no. 22 ) include figures closely related in style to the classical tradition ( see cat. no. 22, detail, for the image of the military saint in full armor ), while other images are worked in a far less sophisticated, schematic manner. Many of the ivories of the so-called Grado chair are exquisitely carved, whereas others display simpler, more angular images ( cat. no. 24 ). Certain narra­ tive poses, such as those on the David Plates, are echoed in some of the illuminations for the Rabbula Gospels, a work of the Syrian Church ( cat. no. 39 ). Coptic churches are covered with vibrant frescoes ( see Bolman, p. 75, and figs. 27 – 30 ). Jewish synagogues Fig. 6. Detail of one of the Plates with Scenes from the Life of David ( cat. had floor mosaics decorated with creatures found on works no. 6E ) showing a silver stamp from the reign of Emperor Heraclius ( 610 – 41 )

byzantium 9 Fig. 7. The Naples Dioscorides ( cat. no. 14 ), fols. 41v – 42r

Monastery of Saint Catherine at Sinai ( before 579 – ca. 650 ), for defaced at some date ( cat. no. 51c ), portable icons survived ( cat. instance, wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent. His instructions on nos. 52, 53 ). At those Christian churches and Jewish synagogues the path to salvation for those in monasteries near his site became where images of living creatures on mosaic floors were deliberately a standard text in the Orthodox world and were translated into distorted by rearranging the tesserae, the figures so transformed many languages, including Arabic ( see Hieromonk Justin of were not emblems of faith. The alteration of the mosaics is attrib­ Sinai, p. 50, and cat. no. 25 ).33 Saint John of Damascus, from the uted to the beginning of the ninth century; this suggests an increas­ Monastery of Mar Saba in Jerusalem, another Orthodox site, was ing effort by certain early Abbasid rulers to respect the hadith the great defender of icons. His writings were of primary impor­ forbidding the depiction of living creatures — a practice arising tance within the empire in the successful reinstatement of the use from Muhammad’s lifetime — rather than a focus on signifiers of a of icons during the Iconoclastic controversy of the eighth and non-Muslim faith ( see Fine, p. 102; Flood, p. 117; and cat. no. 79 ).37 early ninth centuries ( see Ratliff, p. 32, and cat. no. 80 ). The transformation of the Byzantine Empire’s southern prov­ During that time, the controversy only indirectly affected the inces into territories of the Muslim world resulted in the con­ Christians in the empire’s southern provinces. Men like Saint John tinuation of many traditions. It can be argued that neither victory of Damascus were integral to the new Islamic order. A member nor defeat was inevitable during the first centuries of the pro­ of the Arab Christian Mansur family, he had, like his father, served cess.38 Governments functioned as before until about 700, when in the financial administration of the court of the Umayyad rul­ Arabic became the official language of the state.39 Along the ers of Damascus before entering the monastery.34 There is no North African shore, however, the situation was different. The evidence that the early Muslim rulers participated in the extended lands from which Heraclius sailed to gain the once-lost imperial destruction of images in the region.35 In fact, the Monastery of throne would increasingly lose contact with Constantinople.40 Saint Catherine at Sinai retains a copy of the Achtiname, a promise From Egypt north, by contrast, the interest in the classical tradi­ of protection in the name of the Prophet, given the site in the tions that extended back in time to before Alexander the Great first years of the Muslim advance across the Sinai Peninsula remained influential. Existing Christian and Jewish communities ( cat. no. 37 ). The monumental sixth-century icon of the Trans­ continued to produce works for their own use and for the new figuration still fills the apse of the church within the monastery’s elite who ruled their world, the Umayyads ( the first generation walls, despite objections to images on the part of both Muslims of Muslim rulers ) and their successors. The results would be not and Christians.36 Religious icons of the period also survive there an end but a beginning for the new powers of the former south­ ( cat. nos. 27 – 29 ). Even at the Coptic monastery of Bawit, where ern provinces of Byzantium and for Byzantium itself. The arts a carved stone image of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes was of the state and of the religions that existed in the region in the

10 byzantium and islam: age of transition age of Heraclius reflected a complicated culture, at a time when Sasanian Empire ( 762 ), Sasanian taste, long present in the region, loyalty to the political structure and the official church of would increasingly spread beyond it. This aesthetic is evident, Constantinople vied with local ambitions and religious con- for instance, in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun at al-Qitai’, completed cepts.41 With the advance of Islam, the culture of Byzantium’s in 879 for the founder of the Tulunid dynasty in Egypt, Ahmad southern provinces became integral to the development of ibn Tulun, an Abbasid appointee who governed as an indepen- Umayyad rule from Damascus. The new order was both a change dent power ( r. 868 – 84 ) ( cat. no. 181 and figs. 107, 108 ). By the from and a continuum with the immediate past, not, as once end of the ninth century, the Byzantine influence, while never argued, a new order reviving much earlier traditions of the clas- lost, was less important. The transition was complete. Islamic rule sical past ( see Ballian, p. 200, and Flood, p. 244 ).42 continued in what had been Byzantium’s southern provinces. With the rise to power of the Abbasids ( 750 ) and their estab- Over the next centuries, the Byzantine Empire would success- lishment of their capital, Baghdad, in the newly conquered fully direct its power elsewhere from its capital, Constantinople.

byzantium 11