Talk:Images

I think the literary comment can be boiled down as follows

"In OTL the Iconoclas[ism] was a major event of Byzantine history, lasting more than a century. During the reigns of several Emperors the Iconoclast position was the dominant religious doctrine and the prohibition on images strictly enforced [for more than a century], until the comeback of the Iconodules (icon worshipers) under the Empress Irene. This formed an important part of the background to Turtledove's "Farmers' Law" [is set against this backdrop]. In contrast, in the divergent timeline of the Agent of Byzantium stories, Iconoclasm appears much later and is suppressed almost immediately, never becoming an official doctrine."

"According to a widely held historical theory, the power of Iconoclasm in Byzantine society was partly due to the influence of Islam with its strict prohibition on making graven images. Turtledove, who studied Byzantine history, is likely to have known of this theory. It would logically follow that in a history where Islam never existed, Iconoclasm would be much weaker than in OTL."

Thoughts? TR (talk) 02:33, February 28, 2016 (UTC)