Η παρακμή του Μεσαιωνικού Ελληνισμού στη Μικρά Ασία και η διαδικασία εξισλαμισμού

by Speros Vryonis Jr., Σπύρος Βρυώνης, Κάτια Γαλαταριώτου (Translator)

Book by Vryonis, Speros

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Greece, Medieval, Religion

664 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Speros Vryonis Jr. (Greek: Σπυρίδων "Σπύρος" Βρυώνης, born July 18, 1928 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American historian of Greek descent and a specialist in Greek and Byzantine history. He is one of the most eminent Byzantinists of his generation. After a distinguished career at UCLA, he became the founding director of the Alexander S. Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies at New York University, from which he retired as emeritus Alexander S. Onassis professor of Hellenic civilization.

Reviews

[Doğukan Barbaros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic, brick-heavy book on the matter. Vryonis sums up and analyses almost all the relevant records from the late Byzantine period to calculate the toll of the Turkish conquest in Anatolian Hellenism and Christianity. While his usage of Byzantine sources is excellent, he expectably provides a less abundant collection of Islamic sources, yet this is not a huge flaw given the Islamic sources on the subject are already well-studied and known. One thing that casts doubt on his scholarship is his awkward paper on Ottoman cannibalism, but I believe he was simply misguided in that one. He seems to be objective in general. So yeah, definitely read this book if you want to learn how the cradle of Christianity and the main block of Byzantine Greek hinterland turned into a %90 Muslim country in a matter of centuries. Recommend.

[Thanos Tram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Όποιος καταφέρει να διαβάσει αυτό το βιβλίο θα καταλάβει αρκετά πράγματα και θα βρει πληροφορίες για γεγονότα που θα φωτίσουν αρκετά από την παρακμή του Ελληνισμού της Μικράς Ασίας.

[Batuhan DOĞAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Islamization of Anatolia is a topic that has been heavily misused for political and historical purposes, yet when approached without prejudice and understood on its own terms, it becomes an incredibly fascinating subject. The author genuinely seems to pursue that kind of understanding, and it is clear that a great deal of effort and care went into this work. He makes good use of sources, avoids sensationalist or radical claims, and supports many of his arguments with numerical data, which gives the book a stronger sense of credibility. I also learned quite a lot about Byzantium through this book, and I can honestly say it broadened my perspective on the period.

That said, I do think the book has one major weakness: its one-sidedness. The author approaches the subject from a distinctly Greek-centered perspective, which leads him to rely very heavily on Byzantine chronicles — sources that, by their very nature, tend to portray the Turkish conquest as an apocalyptic catastrophe. He does not seem particularly familiar with Turkish sources, or perhaps chose not to engage with them extensively. This bias is not directed only against Turkish sources either, but also against other Christian sources of Anatolia such as Armenian, Syriac, and Georgian. In fact, even if I had not known about the author’s Greek background beforehand, I probably could have guessed it simply from the way the sources are handled.

Still, I do not want the criticism to overshadow the overall experience. I absolutely do not regret the time I spent reading this book, and I would still recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.