Religious Allegiance Quotes



The Christian world was in a great struggle with Islam. The Sultans were trying to take over Constantinople—the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Western Catholic Church in Rome also yearned for unification but under the Pope and his Cardinals. Notaraus feared them more than the Ottomans. Howeer, it was the latter who conquered Constantinople (Byzantium) in 1453 and executed the “first family” when Notaras would not deliver his children to Sultan Mehmet as hostages for assuring “good behavior” by the Greek community.


Yusuf was the ruler of the Almoravids, a Berber empire of North Africa and Mauritania. The Almoravids were a particular zealous group of Muslim fundmentalists. Al-Mutamid and the other Muslim petty kings of Spain asked help from the Almoravids who invaded Spain in 1090 and unified the then Islamic state. By that time al-Mutamid had evacuated Seville and passed away.