Blocked from
Europe by the impregnable walls of Constantinople and the unyielding
spirit of the Emperor and his people, the armies of the Prophet were
obliged to travel the entire length of the Mediterranean to the Straits
of Gibraltar before they could invade the continent - thus extending
their lines of communication and supply almost to breaking point and
rendering impossible any permanent conquests beyond the Pyrenees. Had
they captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than the
fifteenth, all Europe - and America - might be Muslim today.
From: J. J. Norwich,
Byzantium, the Early Centuries
Every time is suitable for your ablution,
since any time may be your death. With Paul, I shout to you with that
loud voice, "Behold now is the accepted time; behold Now is the day of
salvation;" and that Now does not point to any one time, but is every
present moment. - Gregory of
Constantinople the Theologian