Download or read book The Sultan of Byzantium written by Selcuk Altun and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fighting the Ottoman invaders in Constantinople in 1453, Emperor Constantine XI was killed, his body never found. Legend has it that he escaped in a Genoese ship, cheating certain death at the hands of the Turks and earning himself the title of Immortal Emperor. Five centuries after his disappearance, three mysterious men contact a young professor living in Istanbul. Members of a secret sect, they have guarded the Immortal Emperor's will for generations. They tell him that he is the next Byzantine emperor and that in order to take possession of his fortune he must carry out his ancestor's last wishes. The professor embarks on a dangerous journey, taking him to the heart of a mystery of epic historical significance. The Sultan of Byzantium is a symbiosis of story and history and a homage to Byzantine civilisation.

Download or read book Byzantium written by Sean McLachlan and published by Hippocrene Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long after Rome fell to the Germanic tribes, its culture lived on in Constantinople, the glittering capital of the Byzantine Empire. For more than 1000 yeras (AD 330-1453) Byzantium was one of the most advanced and complex civilisations the world had ever seen. As the Mediterranean outlet for the silk route, its trade networks stretched from Scandinavia to Sri Lanka; its artists created sombre icons and brilliant gold mosaics; its scholarship served as a vital cultural bridge between the Muslim East and the Catholic West; and it fostered the Orthodox Christianity that is the faith of millions today. This book shows the innovative art that inspired French kings and Arab emirs. It includes a gazetteer of historic Byzantine sites and monuments that travellers can visit today in greece, Italty, Turkey and the Middle East. A chronology of Byzantine history and a list of emperors complete this ideal resource for the student, traveller or generally curious reader.

Download or read book Lost to the West written by Lars Brownworth and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. And the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacted a saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anything in recorded history. Lost to the West is replete with stories of assassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming, ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked battlefields with the blood of slain warriors numbering in the tens of thousands.

Download or read book The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261 1453 written by Donald M. Nicol and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-10-14 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Byzantine Empire, fragmented and enfeebled by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, never again recovered its former extent, power and influence. Its greatest revival came when the Byzantines in exile reclaimed their capital city of Constantinople in 1261 and this book narrates the history of this restored empire from 1261 to its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. First published in 1972, the book has been completely revised, amended, and in part rewritten, with its source references and bibliography updated to take account of scholarly research on this last period of Byzantine history carried out over the past twenty years.

Download or read book Manzikert 1071 written by David Nicolle and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 26 August 1071 a large Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV met the Saljuq Turk forces of Sultan Alp Arslan near the town of Manzikert. The battle ended in a decisive defeat for the Byzantine forces, with the Byzantine emperor captured and much of his fabled Varangian guard killed. This battle is seen as the primary trigger of the Crusades, and as the moment when the power of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire was irreparably broken. The Saljuq victory opened up Anatolia to Turkish-Islamic conquest, which was eventually followed by the establishment of the Ottoman state. Nevertheless the battle itself was the culmination of a Christian Byzantine offensive, intended to strengthen the eastern frontiers of the empire and re-establish Byzantine domination over Armenia and northern Mesopotamia. Turkish Saljuq victory was in no sense inevitable and might, in fact, have come as something of a surprise to those who achieved it. It was not only the battle of Manzikert that had such profound and far-reaching consequences, many of these stemmed from the debilitating Byzantine civil war which followed and was a direct consequence of the defeat.

Download or read book The Walls of Byzantium written by James Heneage and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One hell of a fine book' Conn Iggulden IN AN AGE OF CLASHING EMPIRES, DARK FORCES FROM THE EAST ENDANGER THE FIRST LIGHT OF THE WESTERN RENAISSANCE... It is an age of ruthless rulers, divided churches, fractured dynasties and intrepid traders. It is an age of great cities like Venice and Constantinople; an age of conquerors like Tamerlane who will drown the world in blood; an age when only a hero of exceptional gifts can make a difference. Luke Magoris is that hero. A hero who will find himself committed to a long journey to discover - and try to avoid - his destiny. He will travel from battle to trading fortune, from horse dealing to captivity, and to the love of three very different women and the unrelenting enmity of two remarkable men.

Download or read book Songs My Mother Never Taught Me written by Selcuk Altun and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2012-01-16 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the death of his overbearing mother, the privileged Arda reclines in his wealth, reflecting on his young life, and on the life of his father, the famous mathematician Mürsel Ergenekon, who was murdered on Arda's fourteenth birthday. While on the other side of the city 'your humble servant' Bedirhan has decided to pack in his ten-year career as an assassin. Their two lives become intrinsically bound in this remarkable thriller that takes us through the streets of Istanbul. We learn that Bedirhan in fact killed Arda's father, and that they share more in common than he or we could begin to imagine. Meanwhile, Selçuk Altun, a former family friend, is playing a deadly game, providing Arda with clues to track down his father's killer ...

Download or read book The End of Byzantium written by Jonathan Harris and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-25 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1400, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire stood on the verge of destruction. Most of its territories had been lost to the Ottoman Turks, and Constantinople was under close blockade. Against all odds, Byzantium lingered on for another fifty years until 1453, when the Ottomans dramatically toppled the capital's walls. During this bleak and uncertain time, ordinary Byzantines faced difficult decisions to protect their livelihoods and families against the death throes of their homeland. In this evocative and moving book, Jonathan Harris explores individual stories of diplomatic maneuverings, covert defiance, and sheer luck against a backdrop of major historical currents and offers a new perspective on the real reasons behind the fall of this extraordinarily fascinating empire.

Download or read book Unrivalled Influence written by Judith Herrin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-11 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, this title focuses on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters.

Download or read book Many and Many a Year Ago written by Selcuk Altun and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2012-01-16 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kemal Kuray is lucky to escape with his life after his beloved F-16 hurtles to the ground in a test flight. Convalescence comes in the form of a comfortable monthly allowance and an opulent apartment in a mysterious neighborhood of Istanbul, inexplicably left to him by an acquaintance in the Air Force. But there's a price to pay. His Edgar Allen Poe-obsessed benefactor sets him on a wild goose chase from the back streets of Istanbul to the broad avenues of Buenos Aires, and finally to Poe's grave in Baltimore. But what exactly is Kemal searching for? Missing persons, yes, but there's more--he is looking for the embodiment of Poe's most famous poem, "Annabel Lee", "to love and be loved."

Download or read book A Short History of Byzantium written by John Julius Norwich and published by Viking. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constantine the Great moved the seat of Roman power to Constantinople in AD 330 and for eleven brutal, bloody centuries, the Byzantine Empire became a beacon of grand magnificence and depraved decadence. In this book, the author provides the definitive introduction to the savage, scintillating world of Byzantium.

Download or read book The Grand Turk written by John Freely and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historian and author of Strolling Through Istanbul presents a detailed portrait of the fifteenth century Ottoman sultan, revealing the man behind the myths. Sultan Mehmet II—known to his countrymen as The Conqueror, and to much of Europe as The Terror of the World—was once Europe's most feared and powerful ruler. Now John Freely, the noted scholar of Turkish history, brings this charismatic hero to life in evocative and authoritative biography. Mehmet was barely twenty-one when he conquered Byzantine Constantinople, which became Istanbul and the capital of his mighty empire. He reigned for thirty years, during which time his armies extended the borders of his empire halfway across Asia Minor and as far into Europe as Hungary and Italy. Three popes called for crusades against him as Christian Europe came face to face with a new Muslim empire. Revered by the Turks and seen as a brutal tyrant by the West, Mehmet was a brilliant military leader as well as a renaissance prince. His court housed Persian and Turkish poets, Arab and Greek astronomers, and Italian scholars and artists. In The Grand Turk, Freely sheds vital new light on this enigmatic ruler.

Download or read book Porphyry and Ash written by Peter Sandham and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-05 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Porphyry Novels: Book One "Gripping and powerful right from the first page." Peter Tonkin, author of Caesar's Spies 1453. After a thousand years, the sun is setting on the Eastern Roman Empire... As a great Ottoman army prepares to strike Constantinople, John Grant is among the mercenaries flocking to the city's defence. Scottish, world-weary and repentant, Grant hopes holy war can bring absolution for a dark past. He soon finds that the cannons and scimitars of the invaders beyond the crumbling walls might prove less lethal than the dangers lurking within them: a Genoese general with a hidden agenda, a firebrand monk with the mob in his thrall, a murderer with a taste for the theatrical. And although Grant has the requisite strength and skills to overcome all of these, in Anna Notaras, the beautiful but monstrously ambitious daughter of Byzantium's richest family, he might have met his match. As the siege reaches its bloody culmination, what can be salvaged, what must be sacrificed to the cataclysmic fires? Recommended for fans of Dorothy Dunnett, Bernard Cornwell and Ben Kane. Porphyry and Ash is the first in a new series set during the Ottoman conquests of the 15th century. Peter Sandham is the author of a series of historical novels set in the second half of the 15th century charting the fall of Constantinople and subsequent geopolitical turmoil through the eyes of Byzantine Greek, Venetian and Ottoman protagonists. Praise for Peter Sandham: "Porphyry and Ash is an accomplished and intelligent feat of historical storytelling. In charting the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, Sandham has created a rich, immersive and gripping reading experience. His pov character, world weary and repentant Scottish mercenary, John Grant, provides the perfect pair of eyes through which to view the richly built and well researched world of 15th C Constantinople." J. A. Ironside, author of The King's Knight. "Plunges the reader into the Byzantine snake-pit that is politics in Constantinople during the months before and during the Turkish siege and conquest of the city. Scottish mercenary John Grant, wrestling with his nightmare memories of burning Joan of Arc at the stake, must balance love and war as the enemy army gathers and the daughter of the doomed city's most powerful citizen becomes dangerously infatuated with him... Gripping and powerful right from the first page, building to an enthralling climax, Porphyry and Ash, based on the biographical records of actual characters, has all the historical weight of Harry Sidebottom's Fire in the East combined with the narrative power of Graham Shelby's Knights of Dark Renown or Alfred Duggan's Count Bohemond." Peter Tonkin, author of Caesar's Spies.

Download or read book The Byzantine Empire written by Charles Oman and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-09-17 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Byzantine Empire" by Charles Oman. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Download or read book Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim Turkish Anatolia ca 1040 1130 written by Alexander Daniel Beihammer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The arrival of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia forms an indispensable part of modern Turkish discourse on national identity, but Western scholars, by contrast, have rarely included the Anatolian Turks in their discussions about the formation of European nations or the transformation of the Near East. The Turkish penetration of Byzantine Asia Minor is primarily conceived of as a conflict between empires, sedentary and nomadic groups, or religious and ethnic entities. This book proposes a new narrative, which begins with the waning influence of Constantinople and Cairo over large parts of Anatolia and the Byzantine-Muslim borderlands, as well as the failure of the nascent Seljuk sultanate to supplant them as a leading supra-regional force. In both Byzantine Anatolia and regions of the Muslim heartlands, local elites and regional powers came to the fore as holders of political authority and rivals in incessant power struggles. Turkish warrior groups quickly assumed a leading role in this process, not because of their raids and conquests, but because of their intrusion into pre-existing social networks. They exploited administrative tools and local resources and thus gained the acceptance of local rulers and their subjects. Nuclei of lordships came into being, which could evolve into larger territorial units. There was no Byzantine decline nor Turkish triumph but, rather, the driving force of change was the successful interaction between these two spheres.

Download or read book God s City written by Nic Fields and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes Constantinople, Capital of the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire from its Foundation to its Fall, Explains How Constantinople Came to Be the Greatest City of Europe, Discusses the Byzantine Identity (They Still Considered Themselves 'Romans'), Religion, Culture and Politics, Describs how the emperors sustained their Eastern Part of the Roman Empire Against Numerous Enemies Through Political and Diplomatic Astuteness Backed by Armed Vigilance and Military Action, Particular Mention Is Made of the Varangian Guard, Viking Mercenaries in Imperial Pay, as Well as the Normans of Southern Italy Who Fought Both for and Against the Empire

Download or read book Byzantium Between the Ottomans and the Latins written by Nevra Necipoğlu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-19 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Byzantine political attitudes towards the Ottomans and western Europeans during the critical last century of Byzantium. It explores the political orientations of aristocrats, merchants, the urban populace, peasants, and members of ecclesiastical and monastic circles in three major areas of the Byzantine Empire in their social and economic context.