Byzantine Territory Research Articles

Հայոց եկեղեցու փոխհարաբերությունները Բյուզանդիայի և Մերձավոր Արեւելքի եկեղեցական կենտրոնների հետ

In his time John (Hovhannes) of Odzun (d. 728) proclaimmed that the hierarchical structure, theological conceptions and the rite of the Armenian Church were inherited from the time of the apostles. Along with the restoration of the public institutions in the Bagratid period (880s-1045), the Armenian authorities granted vast privileges to the Church, which turned into the most influential leverage for maintaining the inner and foreign policy of the state. In order to shatter the Bagratid Kingdom, the Byzantine Empire resorted to inciting conflicts between the Chalcedonian and anti-Chalcedonian Churches. Trying to subjugate Armenians and their territories at any cost, the Byzantine emperors weakened the religious structure of the Armenian Church. With the Seljuq raids of the 11th century we see that policy of Byzantium led to the Byzantine secession of the Minor Asian provinces where the Iconian Sultanate (or Sultanate of Rum, 1077-1308) and the Danishmandid State (1104-1178) were created by the Seljuq Turks. This continued with the gradual loss of the entire Minor Asian holdings of the Byzantine Empire and the emergence of the Ottoman Empire over the Byzantine territory. Finally the capital Constantinople was taken in 1453. The history of Armenian-Byzantine church relations shows that the mentioned churches had multifaceted religious and cultural relations. Over the centuries, they have made attempts to settle religious differences. In the process, each of them created a unique culture and civil system, the study of which allows us to understand their role in the modern world. To understand the characteristics of these cultures, detailed studies of ecclesiastical and literary monuments are assumed.

BEING BYZANTINE IN THE POST-1204 EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE (SOCIETY AND CULTURE)

The impact of the Latin conquest of Constantinople has often been treated from either the perspective of the Western newcomers who established themselves in various Byzantine territories, or from the perspective of the Byzantines who left the regions that came under Latin control and who managed to establish themselves elsewhere (Nicaea, Epiros, Trebizond). In this contribution the momentous consequences of the Fourth Crusade are addressed from the perspective of those Byzantines that came under Latin rule. By zooming in on a selection of individuals and subgroups a picture is sketched of the varied Byzantine experience within the confines of the (Latin) Empire of Constantinople after 1204. Attention will be given to the various – political, religious, socio-economic and cultural – spheres of society. The focus is on the capital and the region around Constantinople, but other regions come into view as well (Thessaloniki, Adrianople, Philippopolis, Achaia/Morea, Attica, Beotia, Euobia, Crete, etc.). Chronologically this contribution is primarily limited to the period until the loss of Latin Constantinople in 1261

I monaci athoniti e l’Islam nel sec. XIV: le fonti agiografiche

"The article aims to approach the theme of the progress of the Turkish brigades into the Byzantine territories, in particular the Mount Athos, during the fourteenth century. It provides a new perspective for this topic. Indeed, it focuses on the hagiographical sources and how they describe the reaction of the Athonite monks in front of this phenomenon. The sources have been set according to a thematic order: 1) cases of escape from the Holy Mountain after the Turkish raids; 2) reports of or from captivity; 3) the consequences of the Turkish progress into the Asiatic and Western provinces of the Byzantine Empire; 4) the psychological impact on the monastic communities of Athos, and finally 5) the relationship between Athonite monks and Islamic communities in the Holy Land as favorite pilgrimage destination. The perception of the violence of the Turkish troops forces the Athonite communities to a general reconsideration of lifestyle and of ascetical practices. Moreover, it indirectly causes the propagation of the hesychast lifestyle out of the borders of the Holy Mountain during the late Byzantine period. Out of fear for the Islamic enemies the hagiographers take the opportunity to praise the ethical qualities of their monastic champions. On the other hand, in these sources they do not deal with Islamic morals; the violence of the enemies is the unique theme they consider as a priori distinguished feature of Muhammed’s followers. Keywords: Mount Athos, Byzantine monasticism, hesychasm, fourteenth century, Byzantine hagiography, Turkish conquest, Christian–Muslim relations, Kallistos I, Gregory Palamas, Philotheos Kokkinos "

BEING BYZANTINE IN THE POST-1204 EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE (POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, CHURCH AND RELIGION)

The impact of the Latin conquest of Constantinople has often been treated from either the perspective of the Western newcomers who established themselves in various Byzantine territories, or from the perspective of the Byzantines who left the regions that came under Latin control and who managed to establish themselves elsewhere (Nicaea, Epiros, Trebizond). In this contribution the momentous consequences of the Fourth Crusade are addressed from the perspective of those Byzantines that came under Latin rule. By zooming in on a selection of individuals and subgroups a picture is sketched of the varied Byzantine experience within the confines of the (Latin) Empire of Constantinople after 1204. Attention will be given to the various – political, religious, socio-economic and cultural – spheres of society. The focus is on the capital and the region around Constantinople, but other regions come into view as well (Thessaloniki, Adrianople, Philippopolis, Achaia/Morea, Attica, Beotia, Euobia, Crete, etc.). Chronologically this contribution is primarily limited to the period until the loss of Latin Constantinople in 1261.

Burials of elite children in the Italian peninsula between the second half of the sixth and the end of the seventh centuries AD. Strategies of funerary distinction and funerary goods in the female realm

Abstract The investigation of elite girls' burials in the Italian peninsula is part of a broader doctoral research project that aims to outline the territorial distribution of Early Mediaeval elite women and girls in the Italian peninsula and analyse the strategies of their funerary self-representation in a short but significant period. Altogether 24 elite girls' burials have been identified in Roman-Byzantine and Lombard territories between the second half of the sixth and the end of the seventh centuries AD. Our analysis focuses on the most significant elements: find context, burial topography, the quality of the funerary goods, and funerary construction. In Byzantine territories, elite children were given ad sanctos burial, but with significant differences in purchasing power between the cities and the countryside. The urban elite was willing to spend huge amounts of money for the burial of their girls inside churches, while the same level of wealth has not been detected in the countryside so far. On the other hand, in the Lombard Kingdom and the Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento, funerals given to elite Lombard girls did not differ from those of older age groups and involved handing over important family brooches between generations. By the mid-seventh century AD, elite girl's burials were frequently near or inside churches and rural oratories, contributing in a significant way to a gradual narrowing of the cultural gap between Lombards and the local population.

Stefan Uroš II Milutin Nemanjić (1282–1321)

King Stefan Uroš II Milutin Nemanjić (1282—Donje Nerodimlje, October 29, 1321) was a Serbian medieval king, the seventh ruler of the Serbian Nemanide dynasty, the son of King Stefan Uroš I (r. 1243–1276) and Queen Helen Nemanjić (see), the brother of the King Stefan Dragutin (r. 1276–1282) and the father of King Stefan Dečanski (r. 1322–1331). Together with his great grandfather Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanide dynasty, and his grandson, Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, King Milutin is considered the most powerful ruler of the Nemanide dynasty. The long and successful military breach of King Milutin, down the Vardar River Valley and deep into the Byzantine territories, represents the beginning of Serbian expansion into southeastern Europe, making it the dominant political power in the Balkan region in the 14th century. During that period, Serbian economic power grew rapidly, mostly because of the development of trading and mining. King Milutin founded Novo Brdo, an internationally important silver mining site. He started minting his own money, producing imitations of Venetian coins (grosso), which gradually diminished in value. This led to the ban of these coins by the Republic of Venice and provided King Milutin a place in Dante’s Divina Commedia. King Milutin had a specific philoktesia fervor: He built or renovated over three dozen Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries not only in Serbia but also in Thessaloniki, Mt. Athos, Constantinople and The Holy Land. Over fifteen of his portraits can be found in the monumental painting ensembles of Serbian medieval monasteries as well as on two icons.

Carigrad u carskoj ideologiji Stefana Dušana

The centuries-old expansion of the Serbian state at the expense of Byzantium received its epilogue with the rule of Stefan Dušan. The Serbian king managed to use the opportunity provided by the Roman civil war of 1341-1347, manoeuvring between two warring houses, Kantakouzenos and Palaiologos. It was the weakening of both Byzantium and Bulgaria that gave him the opportunity to, by crowning himself emperor of the Serbs and Romans, plan a possible attack on Constantinople, which would absolutely justify the title he had held since 1345. Byzantine sources testify in their own way about Dušan's negotiations with the Ottomans, Venice and others and the gathering of the coalition against the winner of the civil war-John Kantakouzenos, whose revitalization of Constantinople-controlled territory stood in the way of the Serbian-Roman ruler's imperial ambitions. The testimonies of Nicephorus Gregoras, the emperor-writer himself, as well as the documentary material, led us to the conclusion that Stefan Dušan planned an extensive action directed towards the walls of Theodosius II. Taking into account the data on the order of Empress Anna of Savoy to renew the Thessaloniki fortification elements from 1355/56, it speaks of a possible general attack by the Serbian army. In addition to the above, the place of the emperor's death, which can still be debated in science, leaves room for various premises since two Ragusian historians wrote that Dušan died in Thrace-in Byzantine territory.

I commerci adriatici e mediterranei di Ancona nel XV secolo

Ancona, located two hundred kilometers south of Venice on the western coast of the Adriatic Sea, is one of Italy’s main ports, especially for the international traffic of vehicles and passengers. Its fortunes began in the Middle Ages, when it became a shipping port for western goods headed east and a gateway for eastern products to the west. Although some scholars hesitate to call it a “maritime republic” because of its subjection to the pope, Ancona was a fierce economic rival of Venice for centuries, challenging—just like Ragusa (Dubrovnik) on the Dalmatian coast—Venetian thalassocracy in the Adriatic.1Giulia Spallacci’s book, derived from her PhD thesis at the University of Bologna, reconstructs Ancona’s trade history during a “long fifteenth century” (1345–1514), a period of buoyant economic growth for the city. Based on sources conserved in Italian and Croatian archives and on a rich bibliography, Spallacci first examines the political reality of Ancona, its maritime legislation, the distinctive features of its commercial treaties, and Venetian influence on its business development. She then analyzes the evolution of trade relations between Ancona and other Adriatic centers on both the western (Fermo, Recanati, Ravenna, Rimini) and the eastern side (Trieste, Senj, Split, Trogir, Zadar, Ragusa, Kotor, Durrës). Finally, she focuses on its commerce with Turks—to whom the Anconitans sold weapons to fight the Venetians—and on the products traded in the city’s market.The chapter concerning relations with Ragusa is particularly long and multifaceted due to the special links between the cities. “Ancona needed easy access to Balkan raw materials, while Ragusa needed food products, which it obtained through the port of Ancona,” writes Spallacci.2 More precisely, under a commercial treaty signed in 1292, Ancona exported wheat, wine, and salt to Ragusa, and Ragusan merchants brought hides, wax, furs, barrel staves, and grana (a brilliant red dye made from kermes) to Ancona. The document specifies that hides, wax, furs, and staves came from Byzantine territories in Europe (Romania) and the red dye from both Dalmatia (Sclavonia) and Byzantium (Romania).3 Later, with the growth of Ragusan trades in the Balkans and the Lower Danube, part of the hides and wax would arrive in Ancona from Wallachia, as stated in the Memoir by the Genoese Franco Sivori.4 Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century agreements greatly expand this scenario. According to the treaty of 1372 (renewed in 1397 and 1440), Anconitans traded grain, legumes, wine, salt, soap, oil, cheese, salted meats, livestock, and clothes in Ragusa; in Ancona, Ragusans sold hooded cloaks from Dalmatia and spices, sugar, cotton, and silks from the Peloponnese (Morea), Tartary, and the Crimea (Gazaria), not to mention gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones.5 The situation evolved further from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century: the granting of equal customs facilities to the Ragusans and to the Florentine, Sienese, and Lucchese merchants operating in the city made Ancona the preferred shipping port for Tuscan woolens directed to Constantinople and the Levant.6In addition to the historical essay, the book contains a complete transcription of sixty documents, including treaties between Ancona and Alexandria (Egypt), Kotor, Ragusa, Trogir, Venice, and Zadar, as well as summaries of 436 commercial agreements drawn up by Anconitan notaries and a short dictionary of medieval mercantile terms.With its impressive documentary apparatus and meticulous historical reconstruction, Ancona and Adriatic and Mediterranean Trading in the Fifteenth Century is a key resource for the analysis of commercial relations between Italy and the Balkans from a non-Venetian, but still significant, perspective.

Settlement Pattern and Land Use under the Frankish Feudal System in the Northwestern Peloponnese (Thirteenth–Mid-Fifteenth Centuries)

Abstract Following the Fourth Crusade, one of the Frankish states that were established in former Byzantine territories was the Principality of Morea, in the Peloponnese. A strict hierarchy consisting of the prince, the barons, and the fief-knights quickly implemented a feudal system and imposed it on the locals; towers were erected and settlements were relocated. Fieldwork in the Patras area, in the northwestern Peloponnese, has focused on identifying the implementation of the feudal system on the level of the barony and that of the fief. Data are drawn from surface surveys and from historical records, including Ottoman tax registers. Spatial analysis in GIS is used to examine the role of the towers in the economic and social life of the subordinate settlements and how the exercise of power manifests itself in the landscape.

Multiethnic Morea: the Position of the Non-Greek Population in the Late Byzantine Society of the Peloponnese

Among the consequences of the Fourth Crusade there was a serious change in the ethno-confessional landscape in the former Byzantine territories. Even though Byzantine society was never ethnically homogeneous, the ethno-religious situation became more complicated in the late Byzantine period. This article is devoted to the problem of the position of the non-Greek population in the late Byzantine society of Morea — one of the striking examples of a region with a multi-ethnic population. The author dwells on the analysis of the socio-cultural situation of the Slavic, Latin and Albanian diasporas who lived in the Byzantine territories of the Peloponnese. Based on the information from Byzantine historical writings, chronicles and epistolary sources, there was an attempt to determine the place of ethno-religious minorities in this provincial region of the empire in the era of Palaiologos and the degree of their integration into the Byzantine society.

Palaeologan Veria: A Peripheral Center under the Perspective of Its Monuments The Case of the Marble Decoration from the Old Metropolitan Cathedral as a Possible Donation by Christian Members of the Seljuk Dynasty

By the rising of the Palaiologan dynasty in Constantinople, regional centers on the Greek mainland, such as Veria, lived and prospered under the influence of the Byzantine capital, and at the same time geographically close Thessaloniki. The essay presents sculptures that came to light during the first phase of the investigations and the main phase of restoration of the Old Metropolis in Veria during the years 2011–2015. The sculptures decorated with arabesque motifs form a group with common stylistic features and are associated with a phase of renewal of the church’s liturgical furnishings in the first two decades of the 14th century, when the ecclesiastical seat of Veria was raised from an Archdiocese to a Metropolitan seat. The subject matter of the sculptures, although widespread in the Palaiologan era as the result of the interaction of the Christian with the Islamic world, might be associated with the presence, documented by written sources, of the family of Sultan ‘Izz ad-Dın Kaykaus II in Veria. The study of the documents, sources and published material and assessment of the evidence relating to members of the Seljuk ruling house of Iconium who settled in Byzantine territories of Imathia, the region of Veria including the village of Komanitzes, and the areas of Meliki, Ressiane, and Nese, reveals three noble families who took over the lands and general administration during the Palaiologan era. Since it is known from the archival researches of E. Gara that the Old Metropolis of Veria and its environs were known in the late 16th and early 17th century as the Melek Monastery, we think it is probable that the architectural sculptures described above were given to the church by that family, who could have been its patrons and benefactors.

Battles for Achaea: the Military and Political Situation in the Peloponnese in the 1420s

Based on materials from Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman sources the author of this article analyzes the political situation in the Peloponnese in the 1420s. Also, in the framework of this study, an attempt is made to determine the nature of the relationship between the despots of Morea and the Latin rulers in the Peloponnese in the context of the general opposition to Ottoman aggression. The author concludes that the capture of the key fortresses of Achaea, as well as the conclusion of matrimonial unions, allowed the Palaiologos to unite under their rule almost all Byzantine territories in Morea which were lost in the 13th century during the Latin conquest. This fundamentally changed the political situation in the Peloponnese, however, the permanent intervention of the Ottoman state in the affairs of the Byzantines did not allow the despots of Morea to pursue an independent and separate policy on the peninsula, and this greatly impeded the consolidation of the Greek forces and their military potential.

How to win new followers for Christianity?: The origins of eastern and western missions in early medieval 'younger Europe'

The Christianisation of eastern Europe started later than in western Europe and faced challenges not faced by the West in late antiquity. In those eastern lands occupied by Slavs and others, formerly under control of the Byzantines or others, the process of re- Christianising those lands and bringing Christianity for the first time to the occupiers, was done gradually and often with cultural concessions, like the preservation of language. In Bulgaria there was an acceptance of Christianity in former Byzantine territory often associated with increasing political ties. In Frankish lands, however, where there was a push for Christianisation there was often more conflict. The pace of this increased in the ninth century with Cyril and Methodius as missionaries, whose new style of spreading Christianity and the development of a written Slavic language brought permanent success.

Western Europe in the Ottoman World: Media, Mediation, and Intermediaries

Western Europe in the Ottoman World:Media, Mediation, and Intermediaries Humberto Garcia (bio) Alexander Bevilacqua The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Enlightenment cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 2018 xv + 340 pages; ISBN: 9780674975927 John-Paul A. Ghobrial The Whispers of Cities: Information Flows in Istanbul, London, and Paris in the Age of William Trumbull oxford: oxford university press, 2013 xvi + 192 pages; ISBN: 9780199672417 Daniel O'Quinn Engaging the Ottoman Empire: Vexed Mediations, 1690–1815 philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 2019 468 pages; ISBN: 9780812250602 as one of the most powerful, expansive, and resilient empires in history, the Ottoman Empire (ca. 1300–1922) has attracted considerable attention among scholars who have elaborated on Donald Quataert's insight into the "truly intimate way the Ottomans became part and parcel of everyday European life."1 From coffee and coffeehouses to tulips, percussion instruments, and smallpox inoculation, [End Page 199] this empire's material exports helped make Europe European. After all, the House of Osman, hailing from Islamic and Turkic Anatolia, considered itself the heir of Rûm, comprising the former Roman and Byzantine territories.2 And for centuries, this dynasty was intricately bound to its western neighbors through trade, diplomacy, and war. The three monographs reviewed here shed further light on these complex linkages by considering how various textual, oral, and pictorial media fostered cross-cultural communication and knowledge making in the late seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries. Although examining different cultural artifacts and grounded in different historical archives, Alexander Bevilacqua, John-Paul A. Ghobrial, and Daniel O'Quinn offer complementary accounts for why the culture of news, the advent of Arabic-Islamic studies, book history, and the visual arts cannot be adequately understood from within a Eurocentric or orientalist paradigm. Movable-type print technologies, primarily printed books, have long been seen as the main vehicles by which people in Britain and Europe received information about the Ottomans and formulated knowledge about them. In particular, travel literature, the Oriental tale, and plays have been privileged in explanations of how this multiethnic Islamic polity came to be known alternately as Christendom's scourge, a friendly trading partner, or an object of envy.3 The ways in which knowledge was disseminated west depended on the travelers, diplomats, merchants, renegades (Christian converts to Islam), and dragomans (official interpreters) whom scholars have treated as the chief intercultural brokers—the polyglot go-betweens who regularly transacted with or worked for Ottoman authorities.4 But connecting this east–west informational nexus primarily to print and focusing almost exclusively on official [End Page 200] and semiofficial actors has had the unintended effect of devaluing other media and intermediaries. In The Whispers of Cities: Information Flows in Istanbul, London, and Paris in the Age of William Trumbull, Ghobrial brings this neglected mediation to the fore. His monograph makes visible the oral, epistolary, and scribal communications from Istanbul that collectively informed early modern news in such capitals as London and Paris. Rumors circulating in or about the Sublime Porte and relayed through various Ottoman subjects, including priests, doctors, scribes, servants, and harem women, were integral to European news genres and newspapers in the late seventeenth century. In The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Enlightenment, Bevilacqua describes how this information flow nurtured the formation of Arabic-Islamic scholarship, creating a community of European scholars who shared a humanistic investment in, and even a kinship with, Muslim peoples, empires, and histories despite their own Christian biases against this religion and its founder, Prophet Muhammad. Although Bevilacqua's aim is to center the underexamined Catholic contribution to this republic, he also shows the extent to which European publications on Islamic topics relied on oral and manuscript culture in Istanbul and the Ottoman bookdealers, scholars, and translators who made this ambitious academic enterprise feasible. Extending this intellectual transmission to British, French, and Dutch visual and performative mediums, O'Quinn's Engaging the Ottoman Empire: Vexed Mediations, 1690–1815 makes a cogent case for how the eighteenth-century discourses of orientalism and philhellenism were coproduced by European painters, draftsmen, engravers, book illustrators, and writers in Ottoman lands and with the assistance of Ottoman guides, interpreters, soldiers, and artists. The rigorous...

THE LAST PENETRATION OF THE CRUSADER ARMIES INTO THE SELJUḲ TERRITORY OF ANATOLIA: EMPEROR FRIEDRICH BARBAROSSA’S CRUSADE (1089-1190)

<div><!--block-->In the 12th century, Anatolia witnessed the great struggles between the Crusaders and the Turks, and the Crusaders penetrated into the Seljuḳ territory for the last time during the Third Crusade (1189–1192). By conquering Jerusalem in 1187, the Egyptian-Syrian ruler, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, put an end to the Crusaders’ domination in Jerusalem, which lasted 88 years, at which point German Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa assumed the cross as well. Emperor Friedrich's army entered into Byzantine territory over Hungary in 1189, and by crossing through the Dar-danelles (Çanakkale) into Anatolia, they moved southward through Bālikesir-Ala Shehir and headed toward Seljuḳ territory after the Byzantine border town Denizli (Laodiceia). Having proceeded under attacks from the Seljuḳian army upon the Byzantine/Seljuḳ borderlands, the German Crusaders set Aḳshehir on fire and marched toward Iconium. After a fierce battle, Emperor Friedrich finally managed to enter into Iconium by force on May 18th, but after lea-ving Iconium, Friedrich drowned while crossing the Saleph River (Silifke / Salūḳiya), upon which the German army disbanded (June 10, 1190). This paper deals with Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa’s army marching through Anatolia and the concurrent Seljuḳian-Crusader struggle.</div>

A Muslim Fighter in the Byzantine Territories: Abd al-Wahhab Ghazi

Abdülvehhâb b. Buht (ö. 113/732) ya da meşhur adıyla Abdülvehhâb Gazi, hayatını hem ilmî çalışmalarla hem de cihat ile geçirmiş bir şahsiyettir. Anlatılanlara göre, Battal Gazi (ö. 113/732), Ahmet Turan Gazi (ö. 113/732) ve Abdülvehhâb Gazi Anadolu topraklarının İslâmlaşması için mücadele etmişlerdir. Battal Gazi ile birlikte Rûm topraklarına yapılan gazvelere katılmış ve 113/732 senesinde şehit olmuştur. Anlatıldığına göre 732 yılında Emevî komutanı Mesleme b. Abdülmelik (ö. 121/739), büyük bir ordu ile Bolvadin’e gelir ve burada Akrenon (Afyon) kalesini kuşatır. Rumlara karşı verilen mücadelelerde Abdülvehhâb Gazi’nin kahramanlıklarına şahit olunmuştur. Askerlerin kaçtığını gördüğü zaman onları savaşa devam etmeleri için teşvik etmiştir. Abdülvehhâb Gazi, hadis ile de meşgul olmuştur. İbni Ömer, Enes ve Ebû Hüreyre’den hadis rivâyet etmiştir. Yaşadığı dönemde önemli hizmetler yapmış olmasına rağmen çok fazla tanınmayan bu kahramanın da gelecek nesillere örnek olarak sunulması gerekmektedir. Abdülvehhâb Gazi hakkında kaynaklarda yeterince malumat mevcut değildir. Bu sebeple makalemiz, eldeki veriler oranında onun kişiliği, hayatı, ilim ve cihat alanındaki faaliyetleri ile sınırlı tutulmuştur.

Asparuh and His People on the Lower Danube through the Eyes of Theophanes, or a Story that Was Not Meant to Happen

The Bulgarians’ settlement in the Lower Danube area constituted one of the most significant events in the history of the Balkan Peninsula in the Middle Ages. The Danube Bulgaria’s rise and its territorial expansion changed the political situation in this area. The Bulgarians became Byzantium’s chief opponents in the struggle for establishing ascendancy over the Balkan Peninsula. The analysis of Theophanes’ Chronography, which remains, in addition to the account by Patriarch Nicephorus, the main source of information about these events supports the conclusion that this Byzantine author took a very negative view of the effects of the arrival of these nomads in the former Byzantine territories. Although this account has been analysed in detail by a number of scholars, these authors have paid no attention to the key role of the tale of Khan Kubrat and the disobedience of his five sons who failed to remain faithful to his last wish. The significance of the personal experiences of Theophanes, who witnessed the Bulgarian expansion during the era of Khan Krum, is also omitted from today’s discussion of these issues. These experiences contributed to the way in which he viewed the migration of the ancestors of the distinguished Bulgarian ruler. The chronicler may thus be considered to have offered a very clear view of what the readers should think of the Bulgarians’ arrival in the Balkan territories.

The Religious Policy of Emperor Heraclius (610-641) in regards to Hebrews

Our study sets out to discuss the religious policy of Emperor Heraclius ( 610-641) in regards to Hebrews. Before the relic of the Holy Cross was reinstalled in Jerusalem (31 March 630), Emperor Heraclius's relations with the Hebrews do not seem to be tense. Starting with 630, Heraclius retaliates against the Hebrews as a punishment for their collaboration with the Persians, as well as for their involvement in the massacre of Christians when Jerusalem was conquered by the Persians (614). The Emperor issued an edict for the forced conversion of Hebrews to Christianity. The scope of this edict covered the entire Byzantine Empire, but it was only enforced in Cartagena (May 31, 632). Saint Maximus the Confessor condemns Heraclius's decision to forcibly convert Cartagena Hebrews to Christianity. Heraclius's decree was contested among the Hebrews. Their forced christening caused their migration to Persia. Also, Heraclius's anti-Hebrew policy determined them to facilitate the Arab expansion in Byzantine territories. Keywords: religious policy, emperor Heraclius, Hebrews, conversion, baptism

ХАЛЫҚТАРДЫҢ ҰЛЫ ҚОНЫС АУДАРУ КЕЗЕҢІНДЕГІ ВИЗАНТИЯ ИМПЕРИЯСЫ ЖӘНЕ СЛАВЯНДАР

During the Great Migration of Nations in Eurasia, the Byzantine Empire established links with neighboring barbarian tribes and kingdoms. One of the tribes neighboring the Eastern Roman Empire was the Slavs. In the IV-VII centuries the Slavs entered the Byzantine territory, which was due to this empire. Recently, the national historiography conducted research on the foreign policy of the Byzantine Empire and political relations with neighboring tribes. The scientific article – is one such work, which focuses on the political, social relations and military traffic between the Byzantine Empire and the neighboring Slavic tribes during the Great Migration. The appearance of the Slavs in the South-Eastern Europe and their political, commercial and social relations with Byzantium are mass processes. Analyzing the early medieval sources and different scientific materials, studied the history of the Slavic peoples, strengthening and development, tradition, custom and social history of south-eastern Slavs and their relations of the Byzantine Empire. Scientific work includes the policy of the emperors of the Byzantine Empire against the Slavic tribes. The article defines the political and historical significance of the relations of the Slavic tribes with Byzantium.

Pan Kubrat i jego pięciu synów. Teofanesa wizja przybycia Bułgarów na Półwysep Bałkański

The Bulgarians’ settlement in the Lower Danube area constituted one of the most significant events in the history of the Balkan Peninsula in the Middle Ages. The Danube Bulgaria’s rise and its territorial expansion changed the political situation in this area. The Bulgarians became Byzantium’s chief opponents in the struggle for establishing ascendancy over the Balkan Peninsula. The analysis of Theophanes’ Chronography, which remains, in addition to the account by Patriarch Nikephoros, the main source of information about these events supports the conclusion that this Byzantine author took a very negative view of the effects of the arrival of these nomads in the former Byzantine territories. Although this account has been analysed in detail by a number of scholars, these authors have paid no attention to the key role of the tale of Khan Kubrat and the disobedience of his five sons who failed to remain faithful to his last wish. The significance of the personal experiences of Theophanes, who witnessed the Bulgarian expansion during the era of Khan Krum, is also omitted from today’s discussion of these issues. These experiences contributed to the way in which he viewed the migration of the ancestors of the distinguished Bulgarian ruler. The chronicler may thus be considered to have offered a very clear view of what the readers should think of the Bulgarians’ arrival in the Balkan territories.