The Byzantine celebration of Christmas attracted the attention of the Arab Harun ibn Yahya, who had been captured by the Byzantines in 911/12. Leo VI, the Wise, had already introduced an innovation according to which muslim prisoners were invited to the official…
Dietary rules for Holy Saturday in the Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents & cumin flavor
According to the “Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders’ Typika and Testaments”(1), “In Stoudios [A30], the monks begin the vesper service at the eleventh hour and break their fast when it is concluded with a…
No famine during the harsh winter of 763-4?
Extreme cold and extensive snowfall is rather unusual in the eastern Mediterranean apart of the mountain regions. However the winter of 763-4 AD was so terrible that Byzantine sources referred abundantly to it. Leo IV and Constantine V. Leo was…