The Great Church also lived an eventful modern afterlife. First it became
Louboutins On Sale the unpredicted symbol of the conquest of Christianity by Islam. After one of the decisive battles of history, Sultan Mohammed II, undaunted by the defensive chain across
Christianlouboutin the Golden Horn, hauled his fleet overland from the Bosporus. Constantinople fell on May zg, 1453. The Muslim conqueror entered the city, Gibbon recounts, "attended by his vizirs, bashaws, and guards, each of whom . . . was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, and equalin battle to any ten of the race of ordinary mortals. . . . By his command the metropolis ofthe Eastern church was transformed into a mosque; the rich and portable instruments ofsuperstition had been removed; the crosses were thrown down; and the walls, which were covered with images and mosaics, were washed and purified and restored to a state of naked simplicity." As a consequence, "the dome of St. Sophia itself, the
http://www.cheaplouboutinsonsale.com earthly heaven, the second firmament, the vehicle of the cherubim, the throne of the glory of God, was despoiled of the oblations of ages; and the gold and silver, the pearls and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal ornaments, were most wickedly converted to the service of mankind." Minarets and a great chandelier were added and, in place of
Christian Louboutin Slingbacks the scintillating mosaics, chaste calligraphic disks of Arabic letters extolled Allah and the Koran.
For five hundred years the Great Church remained a mosque and never since has it seen Christian worship. In ig21 the Byzantine Institute of America was permitted to begin uncovering and cleaning the mosaics. Then in 1935 Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), first president of the Turkish Republic, made the Great Church, the Great Mosque, into a museum. And so it became a grand symbol of the power of stone, the transcendence of art over politics and also, perhaps, over religion. had a contest to see which was higher. They asked the Buddha Amida to decide which was loftier. It was a difficult task. Amida ran a water pipe from the summit of Yatsu-ga-take to the summit of Fuji-san and poured water in the pipe. The water flowed to Fuji-san, so Amida decided that Fuji-san was defeated.
Although Fuji-san was a woman, she was too proud to recognize her defeat. She beat the summit of Yatsu-ga-take with a big stick. So his head was split into eight parts, and that is why Yatsu-ga-take (Eight Peaks) now has eight peaks.
Loyal pilgrims to Mount Fuji, who wanted to see their favorite mountain win, used to leave their sandals at the top to raise its height.