Byzantine emperor Manuel II met yesterday with the emissaries of Turkish Sultan, Egyptian Pasha and several other, less important Muslim ding dignitaries to resolve the outstanding issues.
Reporters from Constantinople Star, Cairo Sphinx, Messopotamia Messenger and other MSM organs were not allowed to be present during the meeting. Due to the exceptional thickness of the meeting room’s door, the discussion remained under wraps. The sounds of occasional thuds, dragging of heavy objects and knocking had their source, most probably, in the ongoing repairs activity in the emperor’s palace.
The senior emissary, Vizier of Turkey, said after the meeting that it was “constructive, positive and to the point”. He refused to be more specific, saying only that the minuscule misunderstanding was resolved to full satisfaction of everyone present. When asked about the slight discoloration on his left cheek and a minor bump on his forehead, his answer was “Oh, just stumbled into a door the other day”.
The emperor has chosen not to speak to the press immediately after the meeting. He was seen during his morning audience for the newly arrived Ambassador of Abyssinia, visibly relaxed and clearly in a good mood. “We are getting much closer with my Mohammedan friends,” he told the gathered reporters, “I can tell you. I believe that there is nothing that cannot be resolved between two good men over a bottle of good wine.”
“Oops…” he added after a slight pause.
Cross-posted on SimplyJews
So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 13: Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. 14: If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15: For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17: If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. 18: I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 19: Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. 20: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. John 13:12-20