In the land of the blind…

I’m reading an excellent book, The First Crusade by Thomas Asbridge. The tagline “the roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam” makes it all the more interesting. Although not a brick in book terms, it’s heavy and when I’m tired, sometime between the hour of 12 and 1 am, I manage to get past a few pages before my eyes starts to close, voluntarily or not. It’s full of anecdotes and as with most books, you find little treasures that in some cases turns into an epiphany. Here is one…
There is a saying that goes like this “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.” It’s fairly easy to understand, and in effect bases its wisdom on a universal theory…the one of relativity. But I never knew where this saying originated from. Until a few days ago…. As I was reading, I encountered this most obscure story, which in effect made all the pieces of the puzzle drop into place. And so the story goes like this…

“At the start of the eleventh century Byzantium enjoyed something of a resurgence of wealth and power under the ferocious despot Basil II (976-1025), also known as Basil the Bulgar-Slayer. He earned this epithet through an act of unparalleled ruthlessness. Facing renewed Bulgar aggression in 1014, he outmanoeuvred and trapped their army, capturing 14,000 prisoners. The Bulgar Prince Samuel escaped, so Basil decided to send him a clear message about the dangers of threatening the empire [Byzantium]. He chose to release rather than execute his prisoners, but had ninety-nine in every 100 blinded, leaving the hundredth man one eye with which to guide his mutilated companions back into Bulgar territory. The sight of this train of broken wretches crushed Samuel’s spirit and he died of chock two days later.” *

This story, not very well known to mainstream history, leaves a powerful, yet sad aftertaste. I’ve been pondering it ever since, and told my friend C about last Saturday as we were solving the worlds problem between the two of us. Although perhaps not of great importance to world history, this event must have shaped generations to come. One can only imagine… It’s just one of  those stories I will never forget, and now perhaps you will either…

* Extract taken fromThomas Asbridge’s The First Crusade