It covers the specifics of the fierce at-sea dueling that went on within the larger competition that spread over a sea claimed by both
Byzantine Greek and Arab powers, anticipating by half a millennium the Ottoman conflict that would include both the fall of Constantinople and the ensuing battle of Lepanto.
The fifteenth century saw a majority of the
Byzantine Greek intelligentsia moving to the Latin West, particularly Italy, for a number of reasons--cultural, political, and economic--bringing with them knowledge of ancient Greek and Greek literature and manuscripts.
The Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (DOML), which was launched in 2010 and now runs to almost forty volumes, aims to provide accessible dual-language, facing-page translations of
Byzantine Greek, Medieval Latin, and Old English texts, with limited commentary.
He also suggested that Frazee "apply for permission to become bi-ritual" in the
Byzantine Greek rite.
Although the author alludes to important historiographic debates and makes creative use of sources that include Arab chronicles and
Byzantine Greek epics, the writing is marred by a tendency toward philosophic peroration, and the greater part of the narrative bogs down in the minutiae of dynastic history.
Ruthy Gertwagen of Haifa University specializes in Venetian and Byzantine maritime history and contributed to Pryor's well-received compilation, Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades (Aldershot, 2006), while Elizabeth Jeffreys is a professor of
Byzantine Greek at Oxford who collaborated with Pryor on his magisterial The Age of [DELTA]POM[OMEGA]N (Dromon): The Byzantine Navy ca 500-1204 (Leiden, 2006).
Hagia Sophia, or Aya Sofya was designed by the Greek professor of geometry Anthemios of Tralles and one of the main
Byzantine Greek architects Isidoros of Miletus in 532-537.
Besides, the section also boasts of a rare enamelled and gilt glass bottle from 13th century Syria decorated with unique bilingual Arabic and
Byzantine Greek inscriptions and applied small animal shapes, oriental rugs and over 20 pieces of Ottomon Turkish pottery.
De Lange discusses various
Byzantine Greek texts extant in Genizah collections, primarily that of Cambridge University, and also notes the possible influence of the Greek-Jewish tradition on Christian scholars, He rightly stresses the paucity of surviving Byzantine Jewish texts, although one should note that more kabbalistic texts from Byz-antium are extant than from Sepharad and Ashkenaz combined.