ABSTRACT
From Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Luke 12:19) – Food and Wine in Byzantium. Copyright © 2007 by the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd,
No high-ranking Muslim ruler visited Constantinople before the twelfth century. The situation changed when the Komnenoi came to power in 1081 and brought innovations to Byzantine foreign policy. The emperor Alexios I (1081-1118), and especially his successors John II (1118-43) and Manuel I (1143-80), arranged various dynastic marriages with western rulers. The increased diplomatic contacts with Muslim sovereigns were another innovation on the part of the Byzantines; and for the first time in its history Constantinople became the meeting place where emperors received sultans.
