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4 days ago
3 min

The Night Watch: Hadrian's Wall in the Dark Ages

There has always been the assumption that Roman Britain became post-Roman (or “sub-Roman”) the moment it was denuded of Roman troops (by ...

317 views1 comment

The First Ottoman Patriarch: Scholarios on the Throne

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Jan 1
4 min

The First Ottoman Patriarch: Scholarios on the Throne

George Scholarios was about fifty years old when Constantinople fell in 1453. Three years earlier he had taken the name of Gennadios on b...

396 views0 comments

A Letter From the Lord: the Road from Abgar to Magic

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Dec 26, 2020
3 min

A Letter From the Lord: the Road from Abgar to Magic

The New Testament is about Christ and the consequences of his life. Yet it contains no words written directly by the Messiah. This clearl...

321 views0 comments

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Dec 24, 2020
5 min

Muslims on Medieval Europe

Talking of Europe to a European would have been irrelevant for much of Western history. Not because the occidental peoples didn’t have im...

1,285 views0 comments

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Dec 24, 2020
2 min

Eat Like a Byzantine

Proverbial wisdom has it that the fastest way to a man’s heart is via his stomach. Though bumptious sorts like to add it’s really through...

707 views0 comments

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Dec 10, 2020
3 min

Muslims in Constantinople before 1453

“O Hagia Sophia that great temple! O the wonders and antiquities in the Hippodrome!... Constantinople is greater even than its name! May ...

379 views0 comments

A History of Circumcising Women: FGM in Egypt

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Dec 3, 2020
5 min

A History of Circumcising Women: FGM in Egypt

Roland Betancourt’s recent book Byzantine Intersectionality (2020), which I negatively reviewed here, contained the claim that the Byzant...

282 views0 comments

The Fate of Byzantine Churches Under Early Islam

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Nov 28, 2020
4 min

The Fate of Byzantine Churches Under Early Islam

In the aftermath of the Arab conquest dozens of treaties safeguarded non-Islamic places of worship. These protections rarely forbade the ...

352 views0 comments

Unlikely Beginnings: How St James became Spain’s Patron Saint

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Nov 19, 2020
6 min

Unlikely Beginnings: How St James became Spain’s Patron Saint

Outside Rome the West lacked the relics of important apostles. This was rectified in Venice by the theft of St Mark the Evangelist from M...

321 views0 comments

Cultural Heavyweight: Iranianness Après le Déluge

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Nov 12, 2020
4 min

Cultural Heavyweight: Iranianness Après le Déluge

Textbooks typically note that Arab armies conquered Iran 637-651. And though the civilisation didn’t melt instantly into the Arab pattern...

339 views1 comment

The Refugees of the Medieval Roman Empire:Displacement in the East

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Oct 22, 2020
5 min

The Refugees of the Medieval Roman Empire:Displacement in the East

In the tumult of war or imperial strategy hundreds of thousands of people were moved around the map by Constantinople in a game of five-d...

424 views0 comments

Before the Storm: The Status of Images in Christianity Before Iconoclasm

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Oct 16, 2020
10 min

Before the Storm: The Status of Images in Christianity Before Iconoclasm

There are a number of iconoclastic tendencies within Christianity, most obviously the Old Testament Decalogue, which prohibited the creat...

524 views0 comments

The Trisagion Riots: Sanctified Violence

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Oct 8, 2020
7 min

The Trisagion Riots: Sanctified Violence

If challenged, most Byzantinists will have at least a couple of popular riots on the tip of their tongues. Nika (532) remains preeminent ...

413 views0 comments

The Attritional War: Paganism's Slow Demise

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Sep 3, 2020
5 min

The Attritional War: Paganism's Slow Demise

“If any unholy and defiled pagan does not make himself manifest… and run to the churches with his household… let him submit to the afores...

321 views0 comments

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Aug 27, 2020
5 min

The Roman Contribution to the Doughnut

Venetian fritoler with portable fryer c. 1900. Sweetness has always been prized. Cave paintings near Valencia dated to around 8000 BC dep...

370 views0 comments

Heaven's Court Crumbles: the Byzantine Frescos of Luxor

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Aug 20, 2020
6 min

Heaven's Court Crumbles: the Byzantine Frescos of Luxor

East wall, detail Once you’ve been immersed in Byzantium for long enough it’s easy to grow weary of the reel of churches, fortifications ...

197 views0 comments

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Aug 7, 2020
4 min

1955: the Second Fall of Constantinople

Hagia Sophia’s conversion into a mosque this year was part of a pattern in which the Turkish state views its legitimacy as threatened by ...

1,572 views0 comments

The Fall of Verulamium & Ascent of St Alban

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Jul 30, 2020
9 min

The Fall of Verulamium & Ascent of St Alban

“[Abbot Ulsinus] loved the district and people of St Albans and looked after their interests. He brought the people from the surrounding ...

337 views0 comments

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Jul 16, 2020
4 min

Genesis of the Nemesis: Venice Rising

According to legend, Venice obtained its relics of St Mark from Alexandria in AD 829. Apparently the pork-barrel-smuggled saint – a stick...

342 views0 comments

Beauty Beneath the Feet: Cosmogonic Paving

Henry Hopwood-Phillips

Jul 9, 2020
5 min

Beauty Beneath the Feet: Cosmogonic Paving

While most gawp upwards at mosaics, frescoes or columns in Byzantine churches, the gaze is often better fixed on the cupola’s basso profu...

872 views1 comment

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