ABSTRACT
The most obvious difference between Byzantine and Islamic iconoclasm is that the former is usually spelled with a capital “I” and the latter with a small “i”. In Byzantium the historicity of the events which are called the Iconoclastic period is defined through very specific dates: a crisis involving the relationship of worshippers and religious images in the seventh century; a succession of edicts and debates starting around 726 and remarkable for their verbal wealth, intellectual content and occasional violence; and finally in 843 a final Restoration of Images, once again capitalized by becoming a Feast of the Church. The Nishapur plate or the Kalayan minaret are not really examples of a horror vacui but of the fact that everything has meaning and value.
