At some point after living in the Middle East during the 1990’s and early 2000’s, I bought the above named book by Bat Ye’or.

Ye’or’s writings have focused on the history of minorities under Islamic rule, which she calls dhimmitude. She also has written and spoken critically against some Europeans for criticism of Israel, accusing them of anti Semitism. Some accuse Ye’or of fostering Islamophobia.

Regardless, at the time I bought the book, I had experienced Middle Eastern cultures for the first time. Previously, I, a Southern Baptist raised in Tennessee, had known them shallowly if at all. Despite having a college minor in history, I was barely conscious of the great Byzantine Empire.

This empire, based in Constantinople (now Istanbul) endured almost a thousand years after the fall of the western Roman empire. Yet I knew relatively little about it or about the eastern Christian faith communities at the heart of this empire.

On a visit to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, I had first visited museums and churches featuring eastern Christian art. (I fictionalized this experience in Searching for Home.)

I began to ask questions. How had Christians became a minority? In a matter of a few centuries, even their Greek language was overtaken by the new language, Arabic.

No doubt the language change played a part in the gradual turning of Christian majority nations into Islamic majority ones. The newer religion used what became the common language. Greek, language of eastern Christian churches, was spoken less and less.

In reading the history of the Middle East before Islam became predominant, perhaps Christianity, as it came to be practiced then, lost its common touch. It became a state religion, beholden to secular leaders for its survival.

Christianity rapidly lost its influence in the Middle East. It was pushed into the backwaters of a place called Europe, the remnants of the old Roman empire fused with the Germanic elements of its conquerors.

Yet eventually Europe became culturally Christian as the Middle East become culturally Islamic. Christians again were tempted to build Christ’s kingdom through worldly power.

Christians, it seems to me, are most likely to endure when they don’t confuse earthly power with the religion of Jesus Christ.