Blocked from Europe by the impregnable walls of Constantinople
30 Μαΐου 2009
Byzantine naval battle
“Blocked from Europe by the impregnable walls of Constantinople and the unyielding spirit of the Emperor and his people, the armies of the “Prophet” were obliged to travel the entire length of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Gibraltar before they could invade the continent- thus extending their lines of communication and supply almost to breaking point and rendering impossible any permanent conquests beyond the Pyrenees. Had they captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than the fifteenth, all Europe- and America- might be Muslim today”.
Byzantium, the Early Centuries. John Julius Norwich
