The Byzantine Iconoclasm (Greek: Εἰκονομαχία, Eikonomachía) encompasses two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when Emperors, backed by imperially-appointed leaders and councils of the Orthodox Church imposed a ban on religious images or icons. The "First Iconoclasm", as it is sometimes called, lasted between about 730 and 787, when a change on the throne reversed the ban. The "Second Iconoclasm" was between 814 and 842. Iconoclasm, Greek for "image-breaking", is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any person who breaks or disdains established dogmata or conventions. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are derisively called "iconolaters" (εἰκονολάτραι). They are normally known as "iconodules" (εἰκονόδουλοι), or "iconophiles" (εἰκονόφιλοι).

Iconoclasm has generally been motivated by an Old Covenant interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbade the making and worshipping of "graven images", see also Biblical law in Christianity. The two serious outbreaks of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire during the 8th and 9th centuries were unusual in that the use of images was the main issue in the dispute, rather than a by-product of wider concerns.

Iconoclasm began with Emperor Leo III. Apart from the purely religious conflict, it created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society; it was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to constantly deal with Arabic raids. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces strongly opposed Iconoclasm. In recent decades in Greece, Iconoclasm has become a favorite topic of progressive and Marxist historians and social scientists, who consider it a form of medieval class struggle and have drawn inspiration from it. According to Arnold J. Toynbee, it is the prestige of Islamic military successes in the 7–8th centuries that motivated Byzantine Christians into evaluating and adopting the Islamic precept of the destruction of idolatric images.

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From Byzantine Greek Iea i i i i i i i i i i i ("iconoclast", literally "image ... One who opposes orthodoxy and religion; one who adheres to the doctrine of iconoclasm. ...

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