3 ms·
I think this just highlights how much "Western" is a movable feast. The Byzantine empire is typically counted as part of the west. So "Constantinople" is part o
by moomin 9y ago
I think this just highlights how much "Western" is a movable feast. The Byzantine empire is typically counted as part of the west. So "Constantinople" is part of the West, but "Istanbul" is not. The qualification here mostly means "not Chinese".
- zeveb 9y ago> The qualification here mostly means "not Chinese". Well, and not Islamic. The West is 'European,' so Roman North Africa & Roman Anatolia were Western. 'Near East' or 'Middle East' mean the now-Islamic world (much of it was Western pre-conquest). 'Far East' mean Chinese or Japanese. At one point I think 'Oriental' (a word just meaning 'Eastern') could also apply to folks from the Indian subcontinent, but that's pretty rare to nonexistent nowadays.
- _dps 9y agoI'm confused by all the confusion about "western" here. It refers to a family of civilizations, cultures, and nations. Despite the geographic specifier, it is primarily about people and traditions, not a location. Pick up any book about "Western Civilization" and it always refers to the thing that nucleated with Greece and Rome, and then all the things that descended from it. Byzantium is absolutely part of this lineage.