"Religions take time to evolve a fully-fledged belief system. Moslems, of course, eschew graven images. Yet 7th century Islamic coins in the Near East copied Byzantine forms, with many early Islamic coins showing the emperor holding a cross."
And while I'm in the mood for such anecdotes, here is one I use occasionally in teaching. In the 8th and 9th centuries A.D., the Vikings traveled up the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga (east of what is now St. Petersburg, Russia), then up the Russian rivers, ported their boats overland, then down more rivers into either the Black Sea or the Caspian. From the Caspian they reached what are now Iran and Iraq, but were then part of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid Caliphate was fabulously wealthy (1001 Arabian Nights), and the Vikings brought back Islamic coins in gold and silver. England didn't exist then. It consisted of small kingdoms, one of which was Mercia. King Offa of Mercia (757-796) was so impressed with Abbasid gold coins that he ordered his mint (such as it was) to produce some. Offa's engraver, copying what he took to be a design, produced the only English coin ever to proclaim "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet." Back to the Swiss Navy. Joe -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
