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The triumph of idealism over materialism in the long run

1,500 years ago the Justinian the Great had some grand ambitions once he became ruler of the only Roman Empire left. They called him the “Last Roman.” He was the last East Roman (Byzantine) Emperor who grew up speaking Latin as his native language. He was the last Emperor whose vision reflected the polity of the ancient world.

Many things happened during Justinian’s long reign, from the attempt to reconquer the West (partly successful), to an unsuccessful project to unify the Christian factions of the East. But perhaps his biggest success was the Hagia Sophia. Justinian’s theological efforts were forgotten, most of the West was lost in less than two centuries, and for many modern Westerners Byzantium is the “forgotten empire.” But the Hagia Sophia stands in its complete physical form even down to the present.

It is his immortality. Great building projects echo down through the centuries and allow us to grasp a filament of the past, and perpetuate cultural memory in ways that even text cannot.

I have not been to Istanbul. But I have been to Rome, and it’s incredible that buildings such as the Pantheon come down to the present from deep antiquity. In the case of the Pantheon, Parthenon, and Hagia Sophia, the fact that they were used for religious purposes explains why they were left intact. Holiness is a vest of protection (many ancient buildings were mined in Rome for their marble in the medieval period). The Pantheon was turned into a church in the 7th century. The Parthenon was both a church and a mosque. And the Hagia Sophia similarly has been both a church and a mosque.

And today it is at the center of a worldwide controversy about the Turkish government’s proposal to open it up to Islamic worship again, as opposed to what it is today, a historical museum. I do not have well thought out opinions on this issue. Rather, it reemphasizes to me the salience of ideas, and “irrational” ideas at that, in shaping the course of human affairs.

A few years ago Jared Rubin’s Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not convinced me that ideology does matter in relation to religion, despite the excesses of Max Webber and his modern-day acolytes. Joe Henrich’s The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous convinced me even more (his views differ somewhat from Rubin’s, but they are of a piece). But, I think we need to be subtle about this. These views and ideologies are impactful over the long term and on the margin, resulting in systematic differences, but they are harder to discern in the proximate sense, where “rational” behavior is still dominant.

What I’m getting at can be illustrated by the opportunistic behavior of Amalfi, aligning with Muslim corsairs against their rivals, or France with the Ottoman Empire against the Habsburgs. In any particular interaction ideology is not predictive. Rational interest matters. But on the margin, ideological affinities and identities shift civilizations and histories over the long term. The French alliance with the Ottomans always caused issues and major blowback during episodes such as during the Second Siege of Vienna.

When you see Muslims across the world expressing solidarity with the Turkish government, you see the power of ideology and its role in identity signaling. When you see Hindus in India expressing solidarity with Orthodox Christians, and Greece and Russia, you see the role of ideological affiliations and alliances redounding in surprising ways. Operationally it means little, but it illustrates the ideological affinities which may play a role over the long term in shaping cultures and civilizations.

The conversion of the Indian Ocean trading network to Islam after 1000 A.D. is an example of this, as Muslims across the world shared common norms and religious laws, as well as affinities. Once everyone became Muslim then proximate rational considerations became overwhelming, as well as ethnic identities. But this does not negate the role of religion in fostering common identities which might be trans-national.

Secular people, who nominally lack these religious identities, too often reduce everything to material and rational considerations. I myself have done this. But to look at history, and you see that people do irrational things motivated not by self-interest, but their vision of what humans are, and bonds of fellowship and brotherhood which transcend optimization of individual utility. To understand humans we must understand and remember this.

11 thoughts on “The triumph of idealism over materialism in the long run

  1. Hagia Sophia is indeed one of Justinian’s great accomplishments. It’s impact was enormous. Particularly in the Muslim World where it was the type for the most important mosques and monuments. The Taj Mahal is a recapitulation of Hagia Sophia.

    But, the Corpus Juris Civilis was more important. It was a law code and legal textbook. It governed the Byzantine Empire until its collapse 900 years later. In Western Europe, scholars “rediscovered” the Corpus Juris in the 11th Century, and it became the basis of the curriculum at the first European universities, most notably the Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna. All of the law codes of Western Europe are rooted in the Corpus Juris, even the Canon Law of the Roman Church.

    Reference: Dingledy, Frederick W., The Corpus Juris Civilis: A Guide to Its History and Use (August 17, 2016). Legal Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 35, Iss. 4, pp. 231-255, DOI/10.1080/0270319X.2016.1239484, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2884811

    The Romans are gone, but we speak their language, live in their houses and their cities, are governed by their laws, and their religion.

  2. A comment on Turkey. I have been anti-Erdogan for some time. I think he is a bad dude. I think Turkey’s membership in NATO is indefensible. I am certain they would not come to our aid if were were attacked by Russia and I doubt that the American people would be willing to spend much money or many lives to defend the Erdogan regime.

    I think we now have enough clarity on the Erdogan regime and Turkey to take specific actions. We should expel Turkey from NATO. We should close, evacuate, and destroy the Incirlik airbase. We should tell the Russians that Turkey is now their problem.

  3. Justinian left his mark in Italy. Ravenna was the capital of his enterprises there: A complex of eight buildings in Ravenna is a World Heritage Site and the tangible remains of Byzantium in Italy (not counting all the stuff that the Venetians stole and used to decorate Venice):

    Orthodox Baptistry also called Baptistry of Neon (c. 430)
    Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (c. 430)
    Arian Baptistry (c. 500)
    Archiepiscopal Chapel (c. 500)
    Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo (c. 500)
    Mausoleum of Theodoric (520)
    Basilica of San Vitale (548)
    Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe (549)

    San Vitale contains mosaic portraits of Justinian and Theodora*.

    If you ever get the chance, go there and see it.

    *Theodora was Justinian’s wife and Empress. She began her career as a prostitute and ended as an Empress and was canonized by the Orthodox Church. She was the steel in Justinian’s spine. Somebody really needs to do a tv series about her. It has all of the sex and violence you need.

  4. They didn’t use the word Byzantium in the Middle Ages, did they? I recall that it was coined very late to deny it the privilege of being Rome.

    Hagia Sophia is also an important Paganist monument with its Varanger runic graffiti

  5. “In the case of the Pantheon, Parthenon, and Hagia Sophia, the fact that they were used for religious purposes explains why they were left intact. Holiness is a vest of protection …”

    Holiness can be a vest of protection when subsequent or conquering powers see enough merit in the buildings (perhaps as a showpiece), or when there’s some kind of syncretistic value to the “new” religion.

    Otherwise, I’m not sure people care all that much.

    Certainly there are plenty of examples of “holy buildings” destroyed by invading armies; my recollection is that even in the conquest of Constantinople, while the Hagia Sophia was preserved, many of the other churches in the city were either destroyed or stripped down to the rafters.

  6. I put the population of Constantinople/Byzantium above. The thing to understand is that the Second Millennium saw a contraction and decline of the city as its hinterland contracted. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade became the first successful foreign attack on the city. The Venetians stole a lot of stuff to decorate Venice. But, as the city contracted, areas inside the walls were abandoned. The buildings, sacred and profane in those areas decayed, and were plundered for materials. Marble was burned to produce lime for agricultural and building purposes. Metal fittings were melted down. And, bricks were salvaged for construction. So it goes in every city that is declining. Even in our day you can see it happening in Detroit.

    By the middle of the 15th Century, Constantinople was a shadow of its former self. The Turks really did not have much to loot by then.

  7. “Holiness can be a vest of protection when subsequent or conquering powers see enough merit in the buildings (perhaps as a showpiece), or when there’s some kind of syncretistic value to the “new” religion.”

    Exactly! In the case of Indian temples in the hands of the Islamic invaders, no such protection was there.

  8. @Walter:
    I reckon that our concrete cities wouldn’t last even that long.
    I guess one could use also concrete for soil betterment, as it contains calcium?

  9. A first-time visitor to Istanbul might be startled to see that the Blue Mosque is practically across the street from Hagia Sophia. The city was already crammed with mosques before Erdoğan came to power, and afterward he made sure to construct more, in cookie-cutter neo-Ottoman style of course. Taksim Square, perhaps the most liberal place in Turkey and the evergreen site for protests, is now disfigured with a huge generic mosque. And on the hills above Istanbul is the hideous Çamlıca Mosque, the largest in Turkey and the dullest.

    So there was no real need to convert Hagia Sophia back to a mosque except to pander to Erdoğan’s base, to the sore winners who had already succeeded in turning Trebizond’s Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.

    The impression I have received from various independent Turkish commentators is that many people in Turkey recognize the case of Hagia Sophia is a political one, and that Erdoğan hopes the conversion will distract attention from the still-declining economy. But a year from now Hagia Sophia will be a church and Turkey’s economy will likely continue to languish. If so, converting every remaining church in Turkey won’t help him.

    Ataturk had the political capital to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum because he had saved Turkey from dismemberment and disaster. Decades from now will someone else gain equal capital by saving Turkey from Erdoğan?

  10. @Karhukainen: “I reckon that our concrete cities wouldn’t last even that long.”

    The oldest building with a significant interior space is the Pantheon in Rome (which was the type for Hagia Sophia). It was built in 128 C.E. almost 1900 years ago. Its dome is made out of unreinforced concrete.

    At 43.4 meters in diameter Pantheon’s dome (a/k/a Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres) is much larger than the Hagia Sophia which is 31.5 meters. It was not surpassed in size until the construction of Santa Maria Di Fiore in Florence by Architect Filippo Brunelleschi 1300 years later.

    We now reinforce concrete which makes the structure much stronger and much lighter. Reinforced concrete domes have been built that were as much as 200 meters wide. But, there is a trade off. Concrete can crack and admit moisture which can cause the rebar to corrode and expand, dooming the concrete. This one reason why you now see coated rebar. But, no building can last very long without some periodic maintenance.

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