[Baron Munchausen]

Imperator Fyron wrote:

The Chinese invented gunpowder, and used it mostly for fireworks. They made some odd things like gunpowder crossbows, but it was Europeans that invented cannons, and then firearms (muskets, rifles, that sort of thing), from the gunpowder they got from the Chinese.

The Byzantines were not Muslims, actually. Later on, the city was taken over by... the Ottomans? Or was it the Sarecans? I forget which, actually. But the Byzantines were Christians just like Rome in the later days before the Roman Empire fell. I forget the exact chain of events, but the (insert correct Muslim group) renamed the city when they took it over, and it was no longer Byzantine.

Actually, the events you are disccussing are connected. In 1453 Constantinople, which had been the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire since the 3rd century, was attacked and taken by the Ottoman Turks. The Last Caesar, Constantine XI, was killed in the fighting and so the Empire essentially was destroyed with its capital. The Ottoman Empire would Last until early in the 20th century, btw. It finally collapsed in WW I.

But anyway... the Ottoman ruler was a type we know well today. I don't know if they had a word like 'Fundamentalist' in that era but that is certainly what we would call him. When he took over Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul, he decided to burn all the 'heathen' books the city was so well stocked with. His reasoning was wonderfully concise. "If the books contain information not in the Koran then they must be wrong, if they contain information already in the Koran then they are superfluous." So anyway, the various Byzantine scholars had to run away to preserve their learning and often their own lives. Since the Ottoman Empire had been encroaching from the East for centuries, they went WEST to Italy.

Look at the date: 1453. This is not only the final end of the Roman Empire, it is also generally recognized as the beginning of the Renaissance. The Ottomans cut their own throats, as it were, by kicking off the Renaissance that would result in the rise of the Western European powers.

[ February 28, 2003, 01:42: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]