[hnewsshadowbans]

I find it strange that people and historians are so fixated on the 4th Crusade as the be all end all of the Byzantine's and ignore or minimize as much as possible all that irrelevant side business of the centuries of fighting with the Muslims. You know, the guys that fought them far more often and more brutally and actually took away nearly all their territory and destroyed them? In addition to the above comment and a few others in this thread take this video for example.

https://youtu.be/Okph9wt8I0A

[beloch]

Don't forget the Persians before the Muslims or all the self-inflicted damage from coups, inept emperors, etc..

In this case though, the fourth crusade really is important since it was when the Hagia Sophia was first looted during a sack of the city. Nearly seven centuries of accumulated treasures were carted out of the place.

[tasogare]

It's totally done on a politically oriented ground to denigrate a religion and culture, and put another in favouring light. If people were more educated about some historical facts (for instance the bloody conquest of India) it would be harder for some people to keep the power and push their agenda.