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Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
@byzantinemporia
11h • 8 tweets • 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
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Most of the adventures in the Arabian Nights take place around the Indian Ocean, stories with Persian or Indian origins. But at least one of them comes from Byzantine tales of the exotic. Thread. https://t.co/32qnrzdCOK https://t.co/KeoZXWzYnftwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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In the 4th century, an Egyptian Greek visited the island of Taprobane (usually identified as Sri Lanka, based on Ptolemy’s description). He reported that magnetic rocks on the island prevented ships made with iron nails from departing. https://t.co/WsdwqjNOsAtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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This story was embellished over the ages. In the 6thcentury, Procopius related a legend circulating in his time that the entire Indian Ocean was filled with magnetic rocks that shipwrecked vessels with iron—this was said to explain why shipwrights there did not use nails. Image
Indian Ocean ships did not in fact use nails until much later. Instead, planks were stitched together with palm fiber.

Marco Polo thought this was because of the hardness of the wood—the preferred teak is indeed very hard, but is not impossible to nail.
https://t.co/HU4TffFv1C

Pictures from this excellent account of sewn boats in India: https://www.einesaite.com/blog/einesaite/2013/11/26/sewing-boats
Pictures from this excellent account of sewn boats in India: https://www.einesaite.com/blog/einesaite/2013/11/26/sewing-boats
There are several other possible explanations for this: the scarcity of iron in the Indian Ocean (as Procopius believed), the abundance of palm fiber, or to make the hull more flexible when they get beached on the many coral reefs and sandbars.
https://t.co/KUFwfh5sZS
Photo from Qatar's annual dhow festival: https://www.marhaba.qa/dhow-boats-in-qatar/
The legend got embellished even more by the time it made it into the Thousand and One Nights. In the Third Qalandar’s Tale, one of the oldest in the collection, a ship is blown by a storm toward the Magnet Mountain, causing the nails to fly out and the ship to sink. https://t.co/BRp18pBE00twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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There may also be a faint echo in Sindbad’s sixth voyage: when he is shipwrecked on Serendib (i.e. Sri Lanka, or Taprobane), his ship is dashed against a cliff where many other merchant vessels have been wrecked.
It seems strange that characters from Harun al-Rashid’s Baghdad were sailing around in iron-nailed ships in the first place. But the oldest manuscripts of the Nights are Egyptian and Syrian—Mediterranean people like the Byzantines, telling tales of the exotic far-off East. https://t.co/EGGvmGADWttwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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More from @byzantinemporia

Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Jul 4
On this date in 1187 Saladin destroyed the Crusader army at Hattin, killing or capturing all but a few hundred of more than 20,000 men.

Perhaps history’s most one-sided victory, won by a middling tactician with a decidedly mixed record against the Franks. How did he do it? https://t.co/JZYbRQHXE7
The campaign of 1187 was Saladin’s fifth major invasion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He had greatly outnumbered the Crusaders on each previous occasion, but these had resulted in one major defeat, a minor victory, and two stalemates.
There was a downside to Saladin’s large, cavalry-heavy armies: they required immense logistical support.

He could sustain them indefinitely while mustering in the Hauran or Golan Heights, but as soon as he crossed the Jordan the clock started ticking.
https://t.co/h7JIEVEWuK
Read 30 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Jul 3
The Frankish knights of Outremer survived more than four decades in a period of acute crisis, during which they were desperately outnumbered by an increasingly united foe.

How did they do it?
After reaching their territorial peak in the 1130s, the Crusader states were put on their back foot. Upper Mesopotamia and most of inland Syria were being united under a single dynasty, while the relatively few Frankish knights received little reinforcement from the West.
The first sign of trouble was when Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul, extended his rule over Aleppo. This brought large numbers of fighting men under his control and extended his borders up to Outremer itself. He soon began rolling up Antioch’s inland possessions.
Read 22 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Jul 2
The voyages of Sinbad the Sailor unfailingly met with disaster, even if he always managed to return home laden with riches.

What would a voyage look like if he ever managed to complete one? https://t.co/HK7CPQzi1I
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Trade expeditions usually departed Basra’s port of al-Ubullah in September or October, when the seas were still calm. Sailing down the Shatt al-Arab, they entered the Gulf.
https://t.co/kUh2thwBNq
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Larger ships proceeded directly down the coast. But because of difficulties navigating the currents in the Shatt al-Arab, goods were often loaded onto smaller boats for the voyage to Siraf on the desolate Persian coast, where they were transferred to larger ocean-going vessels.
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Read 23 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Jun 27
Guicciardini v. Machiavelli

The most common objection I got to this thread was that Machiavelli was primarily a political philosopher who observed the broad patterns in human affairs.

This is where his friend Guicciardini serves as a useful antidote. Thread. https://t.co/nWRIEbbOUv
Francesco Guicciardini, who was 14 years Macchiavelli’s junior, also served the Florentine Republic. Not being as prominent in the government, he was allowed to retain his office when the Medici returned to power—he was even brought into Papal service under the Medici pope Leo X.
His history describes the same kinds of plots and power plays that Machiavelli emphasizes, in a perfectly matter-of-fact manner. But unlike Machiavelli, he is privy to the specific circumstances and describes them in great detail—he completely avoids stating general principles.
Read 8 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Jun 25
Was Machiavelli right about anything? (No)

Thread.
A lot of Machiavelli quotes have been making the rounds the past day or two, only to look completely silly less than 24 hours later.

But Machiavelli himself had already discredited his ideas by the time he even put pen to paper.
The lesson of his time wasn’t that you shouldn’t use mercenaries, but that you shouldn’t be an easy target.

Florence was famously reluctant to hire mercenaries, so it just got plundered by its neighbors’ condottieri like John Hawkwood.
Read 22 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Jun 20
MEDIEVAL RESERVE CURRENCIES

Several different coins served as the backbone of international trade during the Middle Ages. Although not exactly a reserve currency in the modern sense (there were no central banks), these followed the shifting pattern of economic might. Thread. Image
Like a modern reserve currency, the high and consistent quality of certain medieval coins led them to be widely trusted for large commercial transactions, commanding a premium in international markets. Many commodities were priced in such a currency, even if paid in another. Image
This was a big advantage for the issuing country. Its merchants got first access to high-quality coins, making them welcome in foreign ports, and demand for the coins drew foreign merchants to the issuer’s trade centers. Image
Read 21 tweets

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