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Originally Posted by zokka
I had a quick read of the article The Pope Stressing that they were not his own words; he quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire.
Not sure what he is trying to do, but I think he is just trying to be too clever for his own good. Does anyone know who the emperor was? and what context the comments where made?
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Yes, i do.
Manuel II Paleologus (1391-1425) ruled an 'empire' that was little more than the city of Constantinople (where the population had declined to considerably less than 100,000 and where there were farms and open fields
inside the walls) and a few villages in southern Greece. His territory was completely surrounded, openly threatened and frequently attacked by Empire of the Ottoman Turks. Manuels city was all that was left of Byzantium, an empire which had once included the entire mediterranean basin from Spain through North Africa, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and included nearly all of the Balkans as well as Southern Italy and Sicily. In short, most of the territory of the Roman Empire, indeed, the Byzantines considered themselves to be
The Roman Empire.
Now,
(i) see if you can guess what had happened to the rest of Byzantium's territory.
(ii) Then, see if you can guess how this occurred.
(iii) and finally try and guess who by.
Answers (i) Conquered. (ii) Violently. (iii) By Muslims.
This history (and the fact that he had been a hostage in The Turkish Sultans court prior to his accession) probably gave Manuel a pretty good insight into the true nature of Islam or at least into how it was being interpreted.