The sources of Theophanes and the Syriac chroniclers.

Abstract

The sources of Theophanes and the Syriac chroniclers.It has long been known that for the 7 th and 8 th centuries a large portion of the work of Theophanes is derived from an Eastern source which was also used, directly or indirectly, by Michael the Syrian; and in 1897 I published the concluding portion of a Syriac chronicle coming down to the year 846 *), the author of which appeared to ine ; äs I stated in the introduction, to have drawn from the same source.I then poiuted out that down to the year 728 the chronicle contains notices of Byzantine history and military events, to which may be added accounts of natural phaenomena; but that from 728 to 785 2 ) it deals with ecclesiastical affairs and the history of the Caliphs only, while from 785 to the end it is a mere list of Caliphs and patriarchs; from which it might be inferred that it was written about 785 and continued to 846, and that the author of 785 made use of a source which ended in or soon after 728.H. Buk however in an article entitled 'Zur ältesten christlichen Chronographie des Islam' 3 ) maintains, äs I understand him, that in the whole of the portion published in the ZDMG, or at least in the last continuous fragment, beginning in 679, no sources are used, but the chronicle consists of annalistic notices made at Charrhae 4 ); and my object in the present article is first to show that the author used the same source äs that which we find preserved in Theophanes and Michael, and then to attempt to throw some light on the very complicated question of the character of this source and the steps through which i t came into the works of these two historians.On this latter point indeed I cannot hope to establish any final conclusion; but, äs it is almost untrodden ground, the suggestions which I can make, even if they should be shown to be erroneous, may at least hate the effect of stirring interest in the 1) Z DM G LI 669 ff.The whole has now been published in the Corpus Scriptorum Chrietianornm Orientalium (Ghronica Minora pt. 2 p. 157 ff.).2) Not 784, äs stated in the ZDMG.3) Byz.Z. XIV 632 ff.4) I am now satisfied that the chxonicle was written in the monastery of Karthamin: see Introd. to new edition.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 13 citations exist upstream.