Greek Fire and God’s Storms Save Constantinople from Islam
On August 15, 718, Constantinople hurled back the greatest assault the forces of Islam had ever mustered — and in so doing, preserved Western civilization. The irony of this date runs deep: The Muslims’ siege of that great city had begun on the same date a year earlier. And deeper still is the bitter fate that Constantinople — once the shield of Christendom — went on to suffer. The story is worth retelling in full. For All the Marbles After several failed sieges of Constantinople, in 715 the Umayyad Caliphate decided that enough was enough. This time it would vomit forth everything it had in a single, all-consuming effort to bring down the ancient Christian capital. Caliph Suleiman summoned his younger brother Maslama, commanding him to lead Islam’s combined might to Constantinople and “stay there until you conquer it or I recall you.” The young emir accepted the task as a sacred honour; he vowed, “I [will] enter this city knowing that it is the capital of Christianity and its glory; m...