İcons in the dimension of the relationship between politics, religion and art in the Byzantine Empire

With the collapse of the Roman Empire, the west was divided into two, and a powerful state was born in the east. A new power, the continuation of Rome, has taken its place in the world order. The state, which continued its life as Byzantium, witnessed many events in history and was the state that guided many successes. The state, which charted its path with a strong authority, continued its existence until Fatih Sultan Mehmet besieged Istanbul. While it has risen in some periods, its role in the historical scene has been fulfilled in the best way, and in other periods there has been a decline as a result of being deeply affected by relations with external situations and internal events. In Byzantine history, icons were influential in the religious, political and social life of Byzantium, and icons, which began to spread rapidly after a short time, gained a different dimension, and people with different ideas about icons emerged among society and church members. Sacred icons, which serve God as a means of communicating with humans, are blessed by priests. Although the visible side of the icon movement was the debates over religious depictions, it left important traces in Byzantine history. Hz. It appears as a period when the use of depictions of Jesus and other Christian Saints was appreciated. Although the architectural features of Byzantium were a continuation of Rome after its foundation, it brought a new breath to its architecture with the influence of the states it interacted with, and the innovations it developed and the descriptions it used fulfilled their function in this direction. Due to the beliefs of paganism, the worship of images began, and eventually, with the acceptance of Christianity, icon making became an art with rules. One of the most important rules to be considered in icon making is the type and quality of the material used. Icons of Jesus and Mary were the most common depictions. Icon making, which affected the Byzantine administration, began to become a problem, and as a result of the emperors being influenced by Judaism and Islam, a new problematic period emerged.