It is all Greek to me - a window on Istanbul

by Padma Edirisinghe

The city of Constantinople (now named Istanbul after the Ottoman Turk conquest of it around 1453 AD) is one of my dream destinations.

With an exotic magazine like the National Geographic one can indulge in arm chair travelling, yet despite the clarity of writing one seems to get bogged in further complications as regards the long saga of this ancient capital of the famous Byzantine Empire sited at the cross-roads between Asia and Europe flaunting its status as a major entrepot for world trade since the beginnings of recorded history.

The connections of the respective Roman and Greek civilisations to Constantinople pose complicated issues which the writer wishes to share with the reader to mitigate her own confusion.

Strangely it was a reference to king Constantine in one of my contributions to a now defunct Sinhala newspaper that triggered my interest in this city. I had read that a man sentence to death appeared before this king who had asked whether he has any last words.

"Yes. My lord. I am innocent of this crime but I forgive the man who entangled me in it"

"Why?"

"Because my religion has taught me to forgive. Love is its chief word"

"What is your religion?"

"The teachings of Christ".

King Constantine had probed the man for further details and then on further contemplation not only embraced this faith but had issued an edict that hence forth this should be the religion of the Roman Empire whose central city however had now shifted from Rome to Constantinople due to a breakdown of life in the earlier renowned city.

So the new religion had supplanted the monotheistic faiths of the Roman Empire with its pantheon of numerous Gods and Goddesses who had straddled the region from Egypt to the Balkans since primeval days.

The circumstances that motivate countries to take on particular religions in itself make interesting reading. Here is Prince Vladimir of old Russia "shopping" for a religion for Russia. This large country had been minus a religion for a long time, perhaps as an ominous precursor to Communist Russia.

Vladimir had sampled religions as Judaism, Islam and some primeval religions too. Islam had appealed to him for he was very fond of women. This religion allowed a man to have more than one wife. Anyway before making it Russia's official religion he took care to go through its taboos and was horrified to read "No wine, please". Liquor was completely tabooed.

But drinking had become Rissia's Joy no 1 by this time, king himself having his fill of wine daily. Going through the New Testament of Christianity he found frequent references to wine-drinking, Christ himself having a sip. So he opted for Christianity, the orthodox version of it.

I have strayed from my original reference. My reference to king Constantine appeared in a series I was writing to a newspaper titled Episodes of World History. This particular article was titled Emergence of Christianity that followed Emergence of Buddhism. I had naturally drawn attention to the king who sublimated Christianity from a parochial religion to a global religion.

Instinctively I compared him to king Asoka who did the same for Buddhism. There was another similarity between the two. One was inspired by a person committed to death while the other was inspired by a young monk ambling along the streets of ancient Bharatha desha.

Soon I received almost a death threat from a fanatic Buddhist who questioned me fiercely, "Who dare you compare the disseminator of Buddhism in Lanka to an infidel?"

The facts too are wrong, he argued for king Constantine converted to X'tinaity on his death bed leaving him no time to issue edicts to convert the whole Empire. That made me look out for further readings.

Internet itself was not very helpful and then this National Geographic Magazine I happened to leaf through confirmed my own facts. In a long detailed article the writer has this to say, "Constantine elevated the persecuted X'tian faith to the favoured religion of the temporarily consolidated Roman Empire which had been divided between the Eastern and western co-emperors.

In AD 330 he built the Eastern capital of Constantinople on the ancient Greek port of Byzantium ....." and so on. Despite having earned a degree in European history I have forgotten completely the particular relationships of the Roman and Greek civilizations to this capital.

It is not that I have begun to suffer from memory loss but it is the fault of our educational system. We accumulate facts to pass exams and then forget them all after getting through. So now it is all Greek to me, the history of the glorious Byzantine Empire that went on to blossom with minarets under the new Turkish regime too.

Magnificent mansions, sky touching domes, basilicas, churches lavish with mosaics, frescoes, golden gates, Moor minarets and fortresses - you name it, Istanbul has it all. I once reviewed a book by a German scholar, on his request, who traced the antecedents of Christianity to Buddhism.

That German writer to substantiate his theory among many other evidences mentions a colony of bald headed recluses in the crescent territory between Egypt and Jerusalem and states that Jesus had been inspired by their teachings.

The savants, he says, were Buddhist monks who had crossed over, once Graeco Indian relations began after Alexander the Great's invation of North India. This rather unsuccessful invasion had taken place about three centuries after Buddha's time.

Gandhara sculpture is presented today as the strongest influence of the Greeks in India. Buddha made beautiful with finely chiseled features. Robes markedly showing the elegance of Roman robes.

And now braving titters I reproduce here a pictorial cameo I came across in that magazine which is from a Mosaic at Sant Appolinare Nuovo at Ravenna, Italy. It shows a procession of virgins approaching the Madonna and Child. Something familiar? They are all wearing the famous female dress of India, the Saree! Who copied whom? The Romans and Greeks from the Indians or the Indians from those two races? It is all Greek to me.

Will somebody like Prof. Merlin Peiris, an authority on Greek civilization elucidate facts?