Theophanes and the Arabic Historical Tradition: Some Indications of Intercultural Transmission*

Abstract

Theophanes provides an elaborate system of comparative chronology within which relatively brief accounts of selected events are listed or noted in annalistic form. Theophanes displays a generally high tolerance for exaggeration, particularly where numbers are involved. The genealogical scheme given by Theophanes originated and developed in the cultural tradition of Islam; hence, any manifestation of it, as in the Chronographia. The accuracy with which Theophanes reproduces the Arabic genealogical tradition is remarkable. Under AM 6123 Theophanes gives an account of an Arab defeat in Syria. This report is decisive evidence for the transmission of historical materials from the Arabic Islamic tradition into that of the Byzantine Greeks, and at the same time raises other complex historiographical problems. The existence of specific instances of intercultural transmission should also alert us to the potential usefulness of the Arabic tradition for understanding certain features of nomenclature in the Chronographia.