THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS

by David Dereksen ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Dereksen (a pseudonym for a well-known novelist) describes herein the fall of Byzantium to Mahomet II in May, 1453, and a fascinating fall it is. What dejection!--Byzantium, that splendor celebrated by Yeats, was in that fateful month nearly a ghost city, with weeds growing from the cornices, the great markets deberted and all the inhabitants idle. The city (also called Constantinople after its founder) was the most luxurious on earth and built to accommodate one million people at a time when Rome's population was 125,000. But eight plague epidemics in 85 years, a nil birth rate, the sacking by the Crusaders, horrendous fires and loss of inhabitants taken into slavery had reduced the city to 60,000 listless christians. Constantine XI, the Divine ruler, found himself standing practically alone against young Mahomet's professional fanatics. Many of Dereksen's best details of conjuration and evocation are taken from eyewitnesses of the nightmare when the 1,000-year empire fell and the Turks swept on into Europe. The story has an exotic brilliance.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION