04-12-2007, 02:49 PM
Gentlemen,
The Flags of the World web site says:
"The double-headed eagle was the symbol of the Paleologues, the last Greek-speaking "Roman" (i.e. Byzantine) dynasty to rule from Constantinople. Emperor Michael VIII Paliologos recaptured Constantinople from the Crusaders in 1261, from a state based in Asia Minor; the double-headed eagle symbolized the dynasty's interests in both Asia and Europe, and was kept despite the fact that virtually all of the Asian possessions were gobbled up by the Ottomans within a generation of the recapture of the City. Michael's descendants stayed on the Byzantine throne until the City and the Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.
The double-headed eagle had in the two centuries of Paleologan rule become identified not just with the dynasty but with the Empire itself and, more generally, with institutions and cultural ideas outside the Byzantine Empire that still remained centered on Constantinople. Most obvious of these is the Greek Orthodox Church, centered in theory in Istanbul to this day, and so it is not surprising that the Church would use the flag."
Josh Fruhlinger, 27 January 1999
The use of a double headed eagle is found in many cultures probably starting with the Hittites. Even the Seljuks used a double headed eagle. The double-headed eagle became the standard of the Seljuk Turks with the crowning of Toghrül (meaning "Eagle") Beg at Mosul in 1058 as "King of the East and the West" and was much used afterwards. The Sultans of Rum, Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I (1220-1237) and his son Kay Khusrau II (1237-1246) used the bicephalous eagle in their standards, and the motif was also found on textiles, ceramic tiles, cut stones, mural squares, and Koran holders.
Turcomans who ruled in Anatolia during the 13th century, inherited it from the Seljuk Turks. Islamic coins from the reign of Khalif Nasreddin Mahmoud bin Mohammad, following Turkish influence, sport a double-headed eagle on one side and the Star of David on the other as early as year 1200.
In the 14th century there was a fashion in the byzanticised Balkans for princelings and the nobility to wear silks on which the eagle appeared within beaded roundels.
Theodora, the wife of Alexios III of the Greek empire of Trebizon is depicted in a manuscript dated 1374 wearing a gown bearing a somewhat different style of double-headed eagle. The eagles on her gown are not in roundels, have their tail-feathers divided into three-the outer parts somewhat curled- and their necks in a curious looped from. This loop-necked eagle is very similar to a double-headed eagle on the inner face of a mosque lectern from Konya dated 1278 where the eagle’s tail is flanked by double volutes formed by lions.
The double-headed eagle motif found on silks, whilst certainly used as a design component by the Syro-Egyptian Ayyubids until their overthrow by the Memluks in 1250-1260, was seemingly never adopted by the Mamluks themselves. This is despite the fact that the Seljuks of Rum used it well into the Mamluk period. In keeping with the long-established associations of the eagle with ultimate authority, they identified it with the sultan: a 13th century star-tile depicting a double headed eagle,excavated from the Kubadabad Palace at Beyshehir near Konya ,carries an inscription reading â€
The Flags of the World web site says:
"The double-headed eagle was the symbol of the Paleologues, the last Greek-speaking "Roman" (i.e. Byzantine) dynasty to rule from Constantinople. Emperor Michael VIII Paliologos recaptured Constantinople from the Crusaders in 1261, from a state based in Asia Minor; the double-headed eagle symbolized the dynasty's interests in both Asia and Europe, and was kept despite the fact that virtually all of the Asian possessions were gobbled up by the Ottomans within a generation of the recapture of the City. Michael's descendants stayed on the Byzantine throne until the City and the Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.
The double-headed eagle had in the two centuries of Paleologan rule become identified not just with the dynasty but with the Empire itself and, more generally, with institutions and cultural ideas outside the Byzantine Empire that still remained centered on Constantinople. Most obvious of these is the Greek Orthodox Church, centered in theory in Istanbul to this day, and so it is not surprising that the Church would use the flag."
Josh Fruhlinger, 27 January 1999
The use of a double headed eagle is found in many cultures probably starting with the Hittites. Even the Seljuks used a double headed eagle. The double-headed eagle became the standard of the Seljuk Turks with the crowning of Toghrül (meaning "Eagle") Beg at Mosul in 1058 as "King of the East and the West" and was much used afterwards. The Sultans of Rum, Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I (1220-1237) and his son Kay Khusrau II (1237-1246) used the bicephalous eagle in their standards, and the motif was also found on textiles, ceramic tiles, cut stones, mural squares, and Koran holders.
Turcomans who ruled in Anatolia during the 13th century, inherited it from the Seljuk Turks. Islamic coins from the reign of Khalif Nasreddin Mahmoud bin Mohammad, following Turkish influence, sport a double-headed eagle on one side and the Star of David on the other as early as year 1200.
In the 14th century there was a fashion in the byzanticised Balkans for princelings and the nobility to wear silks on which the eagle appeared within beaded roundels.
Theodora, the wife of Alexios III of the Greek empire of Trebizon is depicted in a manuscript dated 1374 wearing a gown bearing a somewhat different style of double-headed eagle. The eagles on her gown are not in roundels, have their tail-feathers divided into three-the outer parts somewhat curled- and their necks in a curious looped from. This loop-necked eagle is very similar to a double-headed eagle on the inner face of a mosque lectern from Konya dated 1278 where the eagle’s tail is flanked by double volutes formed by lions.
The double-headed eagle motif found on silks, whilst certainly used as a design component by the Syro-Egyptian Ayyubids until their overthrow by the Memluks in 1250-1260, was seemingly never adopted by the Mamluks themselves. This is despite the fact that the Seljuks of Rum used it well into the Mamluk period. In keeping with the long-established associations of the eagle with ultimate authority, they identified it with the sultan: a 13th century star-tile depicting a double headed eagle,excavated from the Kubadabad Palace at Beyshehir near Konya ,carries an inscription reading â€
Peter Raftos
