By Audra Yoder
Central and southeastern Europe in the ninth century was a convoluted mess. (Actually, I have difficulty recalling a period when southeastern Europe wasn’t hopelessly confusing. To me, it still is.)
Anyway, the Byzantine Empire was in the middle of a resurgence under the Macedonian dynasty. Its emperors were able politicians for once, arts and culture were flourishing after the iconoclastic controversy had died down, and the empire was in the process of winning back lands it had lost to Muslim Arab incursions.
Meanwhile, north of Byzantium, and taking up rather more territory, the Khazar kaganate was at its zenith. The Khazars controlled the most powerful steppe empire of the period, and ran one of the most successful trading conglomerates in the medieval world. The Khazars were a Turkic people; interestingly, pretty much all their high leadership converted to Ashkenazy Judaism at the beginning of the ninth century, and following this, the kaganate became one of the earliest states to practice religious toleration: under their leadership, Christians, Muslims, and Jews all lived together in peace.
Meanwhile, further north still, an amorphous mass of East Slavic tribes was in the process of transforming itself into something that would ultimately become Russia. The semi-legendary Norse princeling Rurik settled in Novgorod in 862, and the Rurikid dynasty he founded would rule Rus′, and later Muscovy, until the early seventeenth century. [1] Rurik’s descendant prince Oleg would seize Kiev in 878, and open up the Black Sea for East Slavic trade.
Meanwhile, in Central Europe, the West Slavic state of Great Moravia was in full swing. Under rulers Rastislav and Svatopulk I, Moravia achieved its greatest geographic size in the ninth century, controlling Bohemian, Hungarian, Polish, and Czech territories. This little empire was busily trying to disentangle itself from the more powerful Germanic and Frankish kings to its west.
Back in Byzantium, or more specifically, in the Greek city of Thessalonica, two brothers, Constantine and Michael, lost their father when Constantine was only fourteen. The boys came under the protection of a powerful Byzantine official, who provided them with a first-rate education.
Constantine, who would take the name Cyril upon becoming a monk, was ordained to the priesthood after he completed his education, and because of his knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, was sent over to debate the concept of the Trinity with Muslim theologians. He became the unofficial head of Byzantine interfaith relations, engaging in fierce polemics with the Jewish aristocracy of the Khazar kaganate. Cyril even traveled to Khazaria in an attempt to stop the spread of Judaism there, but his mission failed, and the kagan subsequently imposed that religion on the entire population.
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| Mural painting of Cyril & Methodius by Zahari Zograf (1810–1853) [Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria] |
I. A Tale of Four Empires
Central and southeastern Europe in the ninth century was a convoluted mess. (Actually, I have difficulty recalling a period when southeastern Europe wasn’t hopelessly confusing. To me, it still is.)
Anyway, the Byzantine Empire was in the middle of a resurgence under the Macedonian dynasty. Its emperors were able politicians for once, arts and culture were flourishing after the iconoclastic controversy had died down, and the empire was in the process of winning back lands it had lost to Muslim Arab incursions.
Meanwhile, north of Byzantium, and taking up rather more territory, the Khazar kaganate was at its zenith. The Khazars controlled the most powerful steppe empire of the period, and ran one of the most successful trading conglomerates in the medieval world. The Khazars were a Turkic people; interestingly, pretty much all their high leadership converted to Ashkenazy Judaism at the beginning of the ninth century, and following this, the kaganate became one of the earliest states to practice religious toleration: under their leadership, Christians, Muslims, and Jews all lived together in peace.
Meanwhile, further north still, an amorphous mass of East Slavic tribes was in the process of transforming itself into something that would ultimately become Russia. The semi-legendary Norse princeling Rurik settled in Novgorod in 862, and the Rurikid dynasty he founded would rule Rus′, and later Muscovy, until the early seventeenth century. [1] Rurik’s descendant prince Oleg would seize Kiev in 878, and open up the Black Sea for East Slavic trade.
Meanwhile, in Central Europe, the West Slavic state of Great Moravia was in full swing. Under rulers Rastislav and Svatopulk I, Moravia achieved its greatest geographic size in the ninth century, controlling Bohemian, Hungarian, Polish, and Czech territories. This little empire was busily trying to disentangle itself from the more powerful Germanic and Frankish kings to its west.
Back in Byzantium, or more specifically, in the Greek city of Thessalonica, two brothers, Constantine and Michael, lost their father when Constantine was only fourteen. The boys came under the protection of a powerful Byzantine official, who provided them with a first-rate education.
Constantine, who would take the name Cyril upon becoming a monk, was ordained to the priesthood after he completed his education, and because of his knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, was sent over to debate the concept of the Trinity with Muslim theologians. He became the unofficial head of Byzantine interfaith relations, engaging in fierce polemics with the Jewish aristocracy of the Khazar kaganate. Cyril even traveled to Khazaria in an attempt to stop the spread of Judaism there, but his mission failed, and the kagan subsequently imposed that religion on the entire population.
