Hi, all. I would like to recommend a book.

"Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World"
by Colin Wells
ISBN-10: 0553803816
ISBN-13: 978-0553803815
link at Amazon.com

The gist of this book is how the Byzantine Empire shaped the three civilizations that grew up around it, especially intellectually. The first part discusses Byzantium's influence on Western Europe, especially the Italian Renaissance. The second part discusses Byzantium's influence on Arab civilization, especially through Christian Syriac translators. The third part discusses how Byzantium shaped, influenced and (in some senses) founded Slavic civilization.

It is not a large book; but the scope is broad and the material is dense with historical data and summaries. As such, it is also a good general history (or, a good refresher) of Byzantine history.

The author's "bias", if it can be described as such, is that he is clearly a humanist. He clearly approved of Byzantium's dissemination of secular knowledge (especially ancient Greek knowledge). He also is clearly less than pleased with Hesychasm, which he seems to regard as a the main force which (in his opinion) shut down classical humanism within Byzantium during its last intellectual renaissance. He seems to have close to little appreciation for the spiritual benefits of hesychasm. However, he is not anti-clerical; and his discussion of the mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodius seems to be a good one.

With my interest in and practice of Eastern Christianity, it was odd but refreshing for me to read a history of the Byzantine Empire which did not emphasize the religious element of its civilization. Instead, this book emphasized the intellectual influence (especially by the dissemination of classical texts and thought) to the civilizations which grew up around Byzantium. Overall, it was a good read.

-- John

I picked it up but haven't read it yet. I'm reading Obolensky's "Byzantium and the Slavs" which is pretty scholarly as well.

According to Random House:

COLIN WELLS has studied with eminent Byzantinist Speros Vryonis Jr. at UCLA and holds an M.A. from Oxford University in Greats (Greek and Latin language and literature). He has written numerous articles on world history and culture for over a decade. He lives in upstate New York.