The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa Translated Below Is a Valuable Source for the History of the Middle East in the 10Th-12Th Centuries
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Matthew of Edessa's Chronicle Translated from Classical Armenian by Robert Bedrosian To the memory of Matti Moosa, visionary historian Sources of the Armenian Tradition (Long Branch, N.J., 2017) This translation is in the public domain. It may be copied and distributed freely. Maps: Two collections of maps appear as attachments to this document. Cartographers include: Robert H. Hewsen, B. H. Harut'yunyan, William R. Shepherd, Ramsey Muir, and H. W. Hazard. Translator's Preface Matthew of Edessa's Chronicle Part 1 The following Table of Contents was created for the convenience of readers and is not part of the Armenian text. 952-960 The famine of 952 in Mesopotamia; the Arabs assemble troops in Edessa and capture Samosata in 958; Emperor Romanus of Byzantium seizes Crete in 959. 961-970 The Arabs capture Anazarba and Aleppo in 961; royalty gathers at Ani for a coronation, also in 961; death of Emperor Romanus and the reign of Nicephorus II, Phocas 963-969 beginning in 963; how John Tzimisces became emperor, in 969. 971-980 Events in the Armenian city of Ani in 971 and thereafter; invasion of the Daylamites (Delmunk'); Vasak Pahlawuni's single-combat with a Qipchaq warrior named Seven Wolves; subsequent death of Vasak; the Byzantine general Mleh arrives at Melitene and forces the city to surrender, in 972; Mleh's subsequent defeat near Amida; Mleh's letter to Emperor Tzimisces; Tzimisces takes his troops to the East in 972 and is met by a large, watchful Armenian army; Tzimisces and the Armenian King Ashot make peace and Ashot agrees to provide auxiliaries. Tzimisces' activities at Edessa and Amida; his letter to Ashot, informing him of his military triumphs. Tzimisces' letter to vardapet Ghewond; Tzimisces resigns the throne. Basil II reigns again, 975-976; The treachery of the disgruntled Aplgharip against King Derenik of Andzewats'ik', Aplgharip's remorse and his liberation of Derenik. 981-990 Election of a new kat'oghikos; Emir Mamlan attacks Dawit' the curopalate; Archbishop Ilarion of Iberia/Georgia murders Dawit'; rebellion of Bardas Phocas (d. 989); Basil attempts to subdue the Bulghars. 991-1000 Fatimids attack Antioch; comet of 997/998. 1000-1010 Basil attacks the Bulghars again; Easter is celebrated on the wrong day; Armenian and Jewish specialists on the calendar are consulted; comet of 1003-1004. 1011-1020 Basil defeats the Bulghars; First appearance of the Turks in Vaspurakan; King Senek'erim, after his troops are routed, decides to give Vaspurakan to the Byzantines, in exchange for the Sebastia area. 1021-1030 Basil acquires the Armenian cities of Ani and Kars; Petros Getadardz becomes kat'oghikos [1019-1058]; rebellion of Nicephorus Xiphias from Basil. In 1022-1023 the Armenian vardapet Yovhanne's Kozer'n explains a frightening aerial phenomenon; death of Basil II; death of Senek'erim; reign of Constantine VIII [1025-1028]; reign of Romanus III Argyrus [1028-1034]. 1031-1040 Events in Edessa; Utayr's wife takes up arms; Muslim attack on Maniakes in Edessa; death of Romanus, and how Michael IV, the Paphlagonian, 1034-1041, came to rule. Terrifying aerial phenomenon; the interpretation of it given by Kozer'n. The city of Berkri is captured by Prince Gandzi and recaptured by the Muslims. King Yovhanne's removes Lord Petros from the kat'oghikosate and replaces him with the compliant abbot De'oskoros; Lord Petros is restored, and his detractors are excommunicated. A comet appears in 1040; Emperor Michael attacks the Bulghars and is badly defeated; King Ashot Bagratuni dies. The Kurdish emir of Dvin, Apusuar [Abu'l-Uswar], attacks Dawit' Anhoghin in Aghuania and is badly defeated. Senek'erim Artsruni's sons, Atom and Apusahl, are slandered and summoned to Constantinople, where they are vindicated. 1041-1050 Dawit' Anhoghin invades part of Armenia following the death of his relative, King Yovhanne's (d. 1040); the Byzantines invade, trying to seize Ani, but are routed by sparapet Vahram Pahlawuni. Gagik II reigns as king (1042-1045), through the efforts of Grigor Magistros; Byzantine activities and the brief reign of Michael Calfat. Xach'ik defends his Vaspurakan lands against raiders from the East; reign of Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachus (1042-1055). The treacherous Vest Sargis and his partisans dupe King Gagik into going to Monomachus, where rule over Ani is taken from him. Monomachus goes East with the army to claim Ani; earthquake in 1045; Byzantines attack Dvin. The Saljuq ruler, Sultan Tughril, sends troops to attack Mosul and defeats Arab armies. Emperor Monomachus tries to wrest the city of Dvin from Muslim hands in 1046-1047; rebellion of Leo Tornices (T'or'nik). 1050-1060 The Saljuqs Ibrahim and Qutlumush attack and capture the city of Artsn; the great wealth of Bishop Dawt'uk of Artsn; Monomachus sends troops to the East; he summons the Armenian kat'oghikos Lord Petros to Constantinople, where he remains for four years in grandeur, before being dispatched—to Sebastia, rather than to Ani. Liparit Orbelean is captured by the Saljuqs and taken to Sultan Tughril; nomads, including the Pechenegs, attack Constantinople in 1050-1051; slanderers arouse the Byzantines against the Armenian princes of Paghin. Part 2 1050-1060 Introductory remarks. The author will begin to describe his own period. In 1053-1054 Chalcedonian Byzantines attack the Syriac community in Antioch, and pay a price for it. In 1053-1055 Sultan Tughril comes to Berkri, and then to Manzikert; bravery of a Frankish soldier, who burns down Tughril's catapult. Death of Monomachus, brief reign of Theodora Porphyrogenneta, 1055-1056; successful rebellion of Isaac Comnenus against Emperor Michael VI Stratioticus, 1056-1057. Comnenus' disastrous war against the Pechenegs makes him decide to retire; Comnenus has Constantine X Ducas (1059-1067), crowned emperor in 1059, and then retires to a monastery. Death of the Armenian kat'oghikos, Lord Petros, and ordination of Lord Xach'ik II Anets'i (1058-1065) as his successor. Arrival of the Saljuq Dinar and his troops, led by Liparit's son, and the capture of Melitene. The hero T'or'nik of Sasun. Red snow falls that winter; famine. Saljuq attack on Sebastia. Matthew's analysis of why the Saljuqs had an easy time of it. Constantine Ducas' attempts to manipulate the Armenian kat'oghikosate 1061-1070 In 1062-1063 Saljuqs attack the district of Paghin; the mercy of the emir of Amida, Said ad-Daulah, son of Nasir ad-Daulah. Emperor Ducas sends General Frankopolos to the East, to counter the attacks; how the Kurds defend themselves; Ducas has Frankopolos murdered. Sultan Alp-Arslan invades Asia Minor in 1064-1065, and attacks the Aghuans; Kiwrike, king of the Aghuans, agrees to marry his daughter to Alp-Arslan. Alp-Arslan attacks Georgia, and Armenia; the capture of the city of Ani; the reaction of Gagik of Kars. Ducas' war against the Uz, in 1065; death of the kat'oghikos, Lord Xachik Anets'i, and a description of the Church's wealth; selection of a new kat'oghikos, Grigor Magistros Pahlawuni, also known as Vahram [Grigor II Vkayaser, 1066-1105]. Turkish attack on the city of Sewerak in the Edessa country, led by the unnamed "General of Khorasan"; the shameful activities of the duke of Edessa, Pegonites, against the Armenian duke of Antioch when fighting the Turks; the further activities of the "General of Khorasan" in the Edessa area. Emperor Ducas tries to force Chalcedonian doctrine on the Armenian princes Atom and Apusahl; King Gagik, in the nick of time, arrives in Constantinople and brilliantly defends the creed of the Armenians, astounding the Byzantine sages. A list of the prominent vardapets of that day. King Gagik, and Markos (the Byzantine metropolitan of Caesarea), and a dog named Armen. A miracle involving a fragment of the communion wafer. The comet of 1066-1067. The activities of Afshin and Gumush-Tegin in Cilicia and northern Mesopotamia. Death of Emperor Constantine Ducas [d. 1067], and the activities of empress and regent Eudocia Macrembolitissa in 1067-1068. Kat'oghikos Grigor II Vkayase'r (Martyrophile) wants to leave the kat'oghikosate and beome a solitary, and is betrayed by his friend, Ge'org. Activities of Emperor Ducas at Manbij. Emir Ktrich in Sebastia. 1071-1080 A comet in 1070/1071 presages the arrival of Sultan Alp-Arslan. His activities at Amida, Manzikert/Manazkert, and Edessa. In 1070/1072 Emperor Diogenes heads East, where he disrespects the Armenians in Sebastia, and threatens to destroy their anti-Chalcedonian confession, when he returns from his warfare in Persia. Then Diogenes recaptures Manzikert, which causes Sultan Alp-Arslan to break his siege of Aleppo and head East to fight. Traitors within Diogenes' army secretly communicate with Alp-Arslan; Diogenes follows their deliberately bad advice and partly disbands his army. The defeat of the Byzantines at Manzikert. Taken prisoner, Diogenes is released by Alp-Arslan, but murderously rejected by the newly crowned emperor, Michael VII Parapinaces, 1071-1078, and by his own people. Sultan Alp-Arslan goes to Samarkhand where he is assassinated. Before dying, Alp-Arslan has his son, Malik-Shah, recognized as sultan. Kat'oghikos Grigoris deposes Ge'org. The rise of Philaretus, his badgering of Kat'oghikos Grigoris, and his destruction of T'or'nik, lord of Sasun. Philaretus unsuccessfully tries to get Kat'oghikos Grigoris to settle with him. Instead, Grigoris fulfills his dream of visiting Rome and then Egypt (A.D. 1074), where he settles, temporarily. End of the reign of Emperor Michael VII, and the beginning of the reign of Nicephorus III Botaniates (1078-1081). Murder of Prince Vasak Pahlawuni by Byzantine assassins. Philaretus takes Antioch and avenges Vasak's death. Emperor Botaniates resigns and becomes a monk.