The bowed lyra of the Byzantine Empire was the first recorded European bowed string instrument.

The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih of the 9th century ( d. 911 ) cited the Byzantine lyra, in his lexicographical discussion of instruments as a bowed instrument equivalent to the Arab rabāb and typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the urghun ( organ ), shilyani ( probably a type of harp or lyre ) and the salandj ( probably a bagpipe ).

It is believed that these instruments eventually spread to China, India, the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East, where they developed into instruments such as the erhu in China, the rebab in the Middle East, the lyra in the Byzantine Empire and the esraj in India.

It is most likely that the first makers of violins borrowed from three types of current instruments: the rebec, in use since the 10th century ( itself derived from the Byzantine lyra and the Arabic rebab ), the Renaissance fiddle, and the lira da braccio ( derived from the Byzantine lira ).

After the ancient lyre fell in disuse, the name was used to label unrelated instruments, mostly bowed lutes such as the Byzantine lyra, the Pontic lyra, the Constantinopolitan lyra, the Cretan lyra, the lira da braccio, the Calabrian lira, the lijerica, the lyra viol, the lirone.

The instrument is European and derived from the Arabic bowed instrument rebab and the Byzantine lyra.

* Byzantine lyra: the pear-shaped bowed stringed instrument of the Byzantine Empire.

Earliest known depiction of Byzantine lyra | lyra in a Byzantine ivory casket.

The Cretan lyra is the dominant folk instrument on the island ; it is a three-stringed bowed instrument similar to the Byzantine Lyra.

This suggests that it was played by stopping the strings from the side with fingernails ( similarly to the Byzantine lyra ), rather than pressing strings onto the instrument's neck.

* Byzantine lyra

The prime instruments in Pontic music are the Pontic lyra ( Kemenche ), which has origins in Byzantine period and it is related closely with the Byzantine lyra and Cretan lyra.

A look at the classical, Byzantine, and otherwise medieval literature mentioning the site reveals a name change for part or all of Colossae to Cona or Chonae.

The portion of the Greek Arithmetica that survived, however, was, like all ancient Greek texts transmitted to the early modern world, copied by, and thus known to, medieval Byzantine scholars.

The word Tsar derives from Latin Caesar, but this title was used in Russia as equivalent to King ; the error occurred when medieval Russian clerics referred to the biblical Jewish kings with the same title that was used to designate Roman and Byzantine rulers-Caesar.

The medieval fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira ( Greek: λύρα, Latin: lira, English: lyre ), a bowed string instrument of the Byzantine Empire and ancestor of most European bowed instruments.

* The Eastern Orthodox Church had a period of Byzantine iconoclasm during the late medieval years, in which some groups destroyed the church's religious imagery.

In medieval ( 9th-11th centuries ) Byzantine sources written in Greek, Khazaria was referred to as Eastern Tourkia ( Τουρκία ), whereas the Principality of Hungary was referred to as Western Tourkia.

Babylonian astronomy served as the basis for much of Greek, classical Indian, Sassanian, Byzantine, Syrian, medieval Islamic, Central Asian, and Western European astronomy.

" The Early medieval Codex Argenteus and Codex Vercellensis, the Stockholm Codex Aureus and the Codex Brixianus give a range of luxuriously produced manuscripts all on purple vellum, in imitation of Byzantine examples, like the Rossano Gospels, Sinope Gospels and the Vienna Genesis, which at least at one time are believed to have been reserved for Imperial commissions.

* Byzantine Empire ( 330 / 476 / 629 to 1453 ), a Late Antiquity and medieval continuation of the Greek-speaking portion of the Roman Empire

Eastern Europe was influenced little by the jurisprudence of the Corpus Juris Civilis, though somewhat by the " Farmer's Law " of the medieval Byzantine legal system.

The early medieval slave trade was mainly confined to the South and East: the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world were the destinations, pagan Central and Eastern Europe, along with the Caucasus and Tartary, were important sources.

The scientific revolution was built upon the foundation of ancient Greek learning and science in the middle ages, as it had been elaborated and further developed by Roman / Byzantine science and medieval Islamic science.

It is sometimes cited as the notional end of the Middle Ages by historians who define the medieval period as the time between the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and the fall of the Byzantine ( Eastern Roman ) Empire.

The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace.

* The Piccolo Museo San Paolo, a museum with a collection of medieval Byzantine and Russian artistic items.

Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of what was done in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy, in classical Indian astronomy, in Sassanian, Byzantine and Syrian astronomy, in medieval Islamic astronomy, and in Central Asian and Western European astronomy.

It includes the Thyatian Empire, which could be compared to Byzantine Empire ; the Grand Duchy of Karameikos ( which includes the town of Threshold, the default setting of many classic D & D adventures ), comparable to medieval southeastern Europe ; the Principalities of Glantri, which is similar to medieval western Europe, ruled by wizard-princes ; the Ethengar Khanate, a Mongol-like society ; the merchant-run Republic of Darokin, which is based somewhat loosely on the mercantile states of Medieval Italy ; the Emirates of Ylaruam which have an Arabic flavor ; the Heldannic Territories, ruled by an order of religious Knights devoted to the Immortal Vanya, similar to the Teutonic Knights ; the Atruaghin Clans, which have an Amerindian feel ; the nation of Sind, based on India during the rule of the Mughals ; the Northern Reaches Kingdoms of Ostland, Vestland, the Soderfjord Jarldoms, based on Scandinavian kingdoms at various periods of history ; the Dwarven nation of Rockhome ; the elven Kingdom of Alfheim ; the Halfling lands of the Five Shires ; and the Alphatian Empire, ruled by wizards and other spellcasters.

The only western province where the Justinianic code was effectively introduced was Italy, following its recovery by Byzantine armies ( Pragmatic Sanction of 554 ), but a continuous tradition of Roman law in medieval Italy has not been proven.

The medieval ( Byzantine ) castle.

A number of ancient Roman, Byzantine and medieval Bulgarian buildings are preserved in the centre of the city.

The Byzantine Empire inherited Classical Greek culture directly, without Latin intermediation, and the preservation of classical Greek learning in medieval Byzantine tradition further exerted strong influence on the Slavs and later on the Islamic Golden Age and the Western European Renaissance.

The modern European violin evolved from various bowed stringed instruments from the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire.

Ancestors of the modern bowed string instruments are the rebab of the Islamic Empires, the Persian kamanche and the Byzantine lira.

There is however evidence of the existence of bowed instruments in the 9th century also in Eastern Europe: the Persian geographer of the 9th century Ibn Khurradadhbih cited the bowed Byzantine lira ( or lūrā ) as typical bowed instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the Arab rabāb.

Continuous, clear records of the use of crwth to denote an instrument of the lyre ( or the Byzantine bowed lyre ) class date from the 11th century.

The vielle possibly derived from the lira, a Byzantine bowed instrument closely related to the rebab, an Arab bowed instrument

The nyckelharpa is similar in appearance to a fiddle or the bowed Byzantine lira.

Another possible origin of the Gadulka may be the lira, the bowed Byzantine instrument of the 9th century AD and ancestor of most European bowed instruments.

Photios continued his career as a writer during the reign of Emperor Leo VI who probably rehabilitated his reputation within the next few years ; in his Epitaphios on his brothers, a text probably written in 888, the Byzantine emperor presents Photios favorably, portraying him as the legitimate archbishop, and the instrument of ultimate unity, an image that jars with his attitude to the patriarch in 886 – 887.

The Oud (; ʿūd, plural: أعواد, a ‘ wād ; Assyrian: ܥܘܕ ūd, ; Hebrew: עו ּ ד ; barbat ; ;, Azeri: ud ; or kaban ) is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Greek, Byzantine, North African ( Chaabi, Classical, and Andalusian ) and Middle Eastern music.

The first recorded reference to fiddles in Europe was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih ( d. 911 ) describing the lira ( lūrā ) as a typical instrument within the Byzantine Empire.

It is also known The well-known Cretan music of the dominant folk instrument Cretan lyra on the island as the results of immigrant music ; a three-stringed bowed instrument similar to the Byzantine Lyra.

Kamancheh ( kamānche or kamāncha ) () is a Persian bowed string instrument related to the bowed rebab, the historical ancestor of the kamancheh and also to the bowed lira of the Byzantine Empire, ancestor of the European violin family.

* Byzantine lira, the bowed instrument of the Byzantine Empire