DEC. 4: NEIGHBORS
ISLAM, BYZANTIUM AND THE WEST IN THE TENTH CENTURY
The Abbasid empire: ruins of Samarra, near Baghdad


The Abbasid court:

The Frontier of Conversion: Russia

Russian Orthodoxy:

Kievan Military Saints:

Byzantium: the emperor crowned by Christ...

...in fact, the emperor is crowned by the patriarch:

Leo VI baptizes his son:

Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, "the white death of the Saracens"

An embassy to Constantinople:
