Istanbul, a mirror to Byzantium and Constantinople

“The long walks are good for the physique, Doc”, lets stop the run and concentrate on walking”, I definitely preferred walking with long strides to running.

Kal knew my reluctance to run and slowed down. “You are right Mo Chuisle, after all, walking with you helps me exercise my brain, the centre of learning”, he made a fist of his hand and touched his heart, an action quite the opposite to the organ he just spoke about.

“Constantinople”, I murmured and Kal cupped his ear with his hand, “Speak louder so that my heart can hear your murmurings”, he said.

“In the middle ages, the Great Emperor, Constantine, moved his Capital from Rome to Byzantine, naming it Constantinople”, I clarified my murmuring.

“Moving the capital to a more central location, so that more of the world could come under his control”, he immediately warmed up to my comparison of the brain and Byzantine.

“Constantine moved his capital, two simple reasons. The first was to take away the power from Rome and build a formidable empire in the centre, which would bring a population together, under one common religion. He is known for the Edict of Milan, which stated that noone whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion. This edict at once took away the power of Rome and the observance of Polytheism by the Romans.

“ The second reason of course was the strategic location, surrounded by water, difficult to lay siege,” Kal quipped.

“One always wants to create a replica of something famous; Constantine, shipped the statue of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and himself as Apollo from Rome, to make Byzantine into a true replica”, Kal continued, his eyes already had travelled to the place as he spoke.

“Byzantine was also built on the seven hills, just like ancient Rome”, I said.

“Hagia Sofia, or Ayasofya, the beauty of a church, commissioned to be built by Constantinople, destroyed and rebuilt, repurposed as a mosque, by Mehmed II and today stands a world famous museum”, he was mentally recollecting the beauty of Istanbul.

“A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.”

“ Byzantium by W.B. Yeats, mention the Hagia Sofia, I spoke following his line of thought.

“Your voice and those lines, I cannot quite explain the effect they have on me, beautiful,” he said

“And the bhosphorous, this lovely strait which connects Europe to Asia, such an important link for trade”, I was envisioning the lovely skyline of the Bhosphorous, trying to ignore that last line of his”.

“Its like the neck, MoChuisle, connecting the head to the rest of the body”, Kal would always find a way to connect anything to the human body.

“As Napolean once said, “If Earth were a single state, Byzantium would be its capital; Go home and have your Kahvesi, Doc,” I smiled.

“Turkish coffee without you? It’s not a possibility anymore, he said, his smile reaching deep within me, stirring a part of my heart which would be stirred only with intelligent words.

It was like going on a world tour, with a person who was intelligence par excellence.