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Title: The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (Canto S.) by Steven Runciman ISBN: 0-521-39832-0 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.63 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Grim, inexorable, heroic, glorious.
Comment: Sir Steven Runciman was one of the English language's (if not the world's) leading scholars of the Crusades and the Eastern Roman Empire, and this brief but powerful book shows why. Norwich and his popular-history volumes of Byzantine history may be a more contemporary, personality-driven look at the story, but nobody can match, in my opinion, Runciman for both breadth of scholarship and elegant, intelligent, and highly readable prose.
Runciman shows that the fall of Constantinople to the Turks on May 29, 1453 (550 years ago today!) was both inevitable and of mostly marginal historical significance (except, of course, to the people of the city itself). It had always seemed to me an event of epochal importance -- the final slamming shut of history's pages on the Roman Empire. But literally in the book's first sentence, Sir Steven disabuses us of this notion, or that the fall marked the close of the Middle Ages. Indeed, "only the Papacy and a few scholars and romanticists had been genuinely shocked at the thought of the great historic Christian city passing into the hands of the infidel" (p. 179). For the most part, it was part of the rising tide of Turkish conquest, alarming in a general way, but not immediately catastrophic to the dying empire's fickle co-religionists in the West.
Runciman's narrative is engrossing, full of political tension, military conflict, and the religious disputes that always colored Byzantine history. His characterizations are insightful, his descriptions colorful, his writing elegiac -- at times even poetic -- well-sourced (both Christian and Muslim authorities are consulted), and frequently entertaining, even when discussing a sad and even horrific topic. His larger works may not be to everyone's taste (for topic more than style), but a short work like this one, on an interesting and oft-neglected theme, is a worthwhile read for any student of history. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Tragic but Noble End
Comment: Runciman's account of the Fall of Constantinople is an excellent book to read. Beginning with the Ottoman advance into Europe in the later 14th century, and ultimately ending with the City's capture in 1453, he weaves a story that is both historically accurate as well as emotionally moving.
We read about the desperate attempts by the last Byzantine Emperors to look for help from an increasingly indifferent West. We note the internal strife between the Chrisitian kingdoms of the Balkans, both Latin and Orthodox, that created disunity and allowed the Ottoman sultans to conquer territories one by one until Constantinople was completely surrounded and isolated. We also hear of the sad accounts of the conditions within this once great City that was hailed as the Eye of all the World. By the time of the City's capture, it was a hollow shell of its former glory.
It is the last chapter in the thousand year history of Byzantium, and all its characters appear to face a noble and heroic end defending their capital. Yet, the Ottomans, Runciman says, brought a new breath of vitality to Constantinople and its conquered territories. The City was rebuilt, and the Greeks survived as best they could, up until the early 20th century. Runciman also suggests the Ottoman Turks were the better conquererors than the Latins might have been since the Greeks and Slavs were allowed to keep their Orthodox faith and culture, something that might have been forcibly lost under the Papal West.
With superb writing, excellent narration, and great historical analysis, Runciman has written a fantastic book, and one that has been the standard for decades now. Highly recommended
Rating: 5
Summary: The tragic end of a proud civilization beautifully told
Comment: Even after his death, Steven Runciman's works on the medieval Greeks and the Orthodox Church remain the standard for student seeking general information and for non-scholars seeking knowledge.
As with all his works, The Fall of Constantinople is both well researched, but more importantly, well written. He provides enough background on the decline of the Eastern Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Turks to place the fall in proper perspective. The Eastern Empire in 1453 was a mere shadow of its once glorious self. The conspiracies and plots between Emperors, Patriarchs, Popes and Kings, ultimately, between Eastern and Western Christendom doomed the heir to the Caesars.
Runciman's wonderful writing makes this come alive. He does not, like many historians, feel that a dry recitation of the facts alone is enough. Rather, his history reads almost like a novel. The characters have depth and emotion. The last Emperor is shown as a shrewd many trying desperately to save his people, even to the point of entering into an unpopular union with the Roman Church. The Sultan is no mere cartoon villain as often portrayed in medieval Europe or a politically correct Third World leader (as might be portrayed today) but rather a ruthless, though driven young man, determined to fulfill the goal of 8 centuries of Moslem leaders - the capture of "The City."
And as the story winds toward its inevitable conclusion, you root for the heroes and mourn their deaths.
Constantinople fell not because the Ottomans were the strongest empire in the world. Rather, it fell because the petty jealousies of the Western leaders made the defense of Constantinople impossible. Today, as the West finds itself again under attack, we should keep heed of our history, and avoid allowing our jealousies to cause another Fall of Constantinople.
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Title: A Short History of Byzantium by John J. Norwich ISBN: 0679772693 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: A History of the Crusades: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by Steven Runciman ISBN: 052134770X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire by Lord Kinross ISBN: 0688080936 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 August, 1979 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century (Canto S.) by Steven Runciman ISBN: 0521437741 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Fourteen Byzantine Rulers: The Chronographia of Michael Psellus (Classics S.) by Michael Psellus ISBN: 0140441697 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1979 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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