By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 July 2025
Roman Eastern Foederati and Arab Monotheism Before Islam
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Tag Archives: Persia
Was Islam’s Ka’ba Always in Mecca?
Ahmad al-Shara Met Donald Trump, and the Islamic State is Not Pleased
A Note on Alexander the Great Inspiring Roman Invasions of Persia
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 7 February 2025
Alexander of Macedon being a model for Roman statesman went back to the era of the Republic, and this imitatio Alexandri was often expressed by trying to repeat his feat of conquering Persia.
Assessing the Early-Codification Theory of the Qur’an
The Nature of Pre-Revolutionary Russian Imperialism
The Letter of Mara bar Serapion: Implications for the Historical Jesus and Christianity’s Triumph
The Shah’s Perspective on the Islamic Revolution That Toppled Him
When Did the “Roman” Empire Become the “Byzantine” Empire?
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 June 2021
A painting representing the Byzantines use of “Greek fire” to repel the Arab siege of Constantinople, 674-78
The use of the word “Byzantium” for the Eastern Roman Empire is inescapable, though it is best thought of as a term of convenience rather than definition. For one thing, the inhabitants never called themselves “Byzantines”: they always thought of themselves as “Romans”, though using the Greek work “Romaioi”. The easiest way to see the problem is to ask: When did the Byzantine Empire begin? Continue reading
The Flag of the Islamic State
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on January 27, 2017
The Islamic State’s June 2014 declaration that the areas it controlled were the restored “Caliphate” was seen by many as a novel development. In fact, “the State” was declared in October 2006. The next month, the predecessor of the Islamic State (IS), Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM), dissolved itself, and a month after that the claim to statehood was expanded upon—while being wilfully ambiguous about the caliphal pretensions—in the first speech by the then-emir, Hamid al-Zawi (Abu Umar al-Baghdadi). Similarly, though confusion remains on the point, it was in this same period that the symbol of the Islamic State, its black flag, was established.
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