ABSTRACT
The Byzantines saw their society as a continuation of the glorious and all-powerful Roman Empire, albeit the Christian Roman Empire of Constantine. In the period between the eighth and the thirteenth centuries, few people would have foreseen that in the fifteenth century Islam would prevail, and that Byzantine Constantinople would become Turkish Istanbul, where the Church of Hagia Sophia would serve as the conqueror's mosque. The design was popular during the eleventh and twelfth centuries in both Byzantine and Islamic Workshops. By the time of Omar's death in 644, the Islamic conquests spread from Egypt to Iran. In contrast to the focused processional character of a basilica or the rising domes of a Byzantine church, Islamic architecture—and art—achieves its effect through the seemingly endless repetition of equal units, whether columns in a building or geometric motifs in the decorative arts.
