Christian Chronicles Research Articles

The Chronology of the Second Muslim Civil War between Shared and Competing Historical Memories

The events of the second Muslim civil war have been reported in Muslim sources and Christian chronicles. John bar Penkāyē is by far the most important non-Muslim source because he lived throughout the events that he documented in the Book of Main Points (Ktâbâ d-rêšê mellê) which he wrote in 67/687. Although some of the events reported by John are corroborated by Muslim sources and Christian chronicles as shared historical memories, he is also the main source of competing historical memories. As the sequence of events that John describes in his narrative does not often match with what has been reported in the Muslim sources, this article applies the methodology of Specific Date Verification, primarily derived from Muslim sources, to attempt to shed light on the competing historical memories. It concludes that John’s narrative was not influenced by a later editor and that his work, along with that of other Christian chroniclers, raises important questions about the events of the second civil war.

Székesfehérvár 16. századi szandzsákbégjei

After the fall of Székesfehérvár (1543) the Turks immediately established a new sancak, which was of strategic importance on the Ottoman–Habsburg borderland. This study attempts to reconstruct the list of its governors in the sixteenth century, using Ottoman sources, like defters of appointments, sultanic orders, and both Turkish and Christian chronicles. The result of the research is a table containing the basic data of the governors, which will provide an auxiliary tool for historians.

Patricia Crone and the “secular tradition” of early Islamic historiography: An exegesis

AbstractPatricia Crone famously identified three distinct sub‐traditions within early Islamic historiography: a “religious tradition”, a “tribal tradition”, and a “secular tradition”. Whereas the first is extremely unreliable and the second is partially unreliable regarding early Islamic history in general (c. 600–750 CE), Crone argued that the third provides “a coherent historical account”, at least as far back as the beginning of the Umayyad period (c. 661 CE). Some confusion has since arisen over the identity of this “secular tradition” (thanks to Crone's famously terse and technical style), but a close examination of her work reveals that she had in mind state‐oriented chronology and prosopography (i.e., basic political information on early Muslim caliphs, governors, judges, and commanders) or proto‐taʾrīkh. Crone argued that this material (which mostly survives intermingled with the religious and tribal traditions in extant Islamic literary sources) derives via continuous written transmission from rudimentary state‐oriented chronicles and prosopographies composed by pro‐Marwanid Muslim writers in eighth‐century Syria. Although these proto‐tawārīkh are now lost, Crone argued that their eighth‐century existence can be inferred from contemporaneous references thereto in extant Christian chronicles—a conclusion strengthened by more recent scholarship. For this reason, the “secular tradition” is substantially more reliable than the other traditions within early Islamic historiography, which underwent a protracted process of oral transmission and consequent mutation, distortion, and growth.

Between “Tyranny” and “Gentleness”: The Construction of Fernando III and Christian Kings in Arabic-Islamic Sources

Abstract This article examines the construction of the memory of Fernando III of Castile-León in Arabic-Islamic texts in order to explore the cross-cultural geopolitics of the western Mediterranean. It argues that historiographical attempts to define righteous authority transcended religious affiliation among military and political elites. In support of this claim, this article first provides a macro-historical survey of Arabic-Islamic texts to ascertain common sociocultural features used in describing Iberian kings. While stereotypes of Christian monarchs exist, Muslim depictions of individuals had a broad spectrum of associations. Second, the focused example of the memory of Fernando III demonstrates how Muslim authors were strategic in deciding whether to describe Christian monarchs or remain silent about them, to praise them or criticize/vilify them. Ultimately, in contrast to Western traditions of intensely scrutinizing the conquest narratives in Christian chronicles, which has led to a polarized view opposing Muslim and Christian rhetoric, the Arabic-Islamic sources depict Fernando III within the framework of the collapse of the Almohad state as one ruler among many, thus reflecting a broader sense of Maghrebi geopolitics as a larger struggle to define righteous authority.

"Et eamus ad regem legionis et faciamus eum regem super nos et dominum et amicus nostrum, quia, sicut ero noui, ipse dominatibur terre sarracenorum": Alfonso VII de León y Zafadola rex sarracenorum

Emperor Alfonso VII of Leon’s peninsular relations were shaped by the relationship and struggles between both, the Christian realms of the inner borders, as well as those in the external borders against Islam. This paper aims to recreate the stratagems of alliance and jurisdiction over Muslim leaders in order to develop and establish jurisdiction through the use of space at the expense of the Taifa of al- Andalus. This is the case of the links established with the sovereign Sayf al-Dawla, the Zafadola of the christian chronicles.

La imagen del poder público en al-Andalus a través de las crónicas cristianas de los siglos XI, XII y XIII

In this essay it is analysed the different official titles used by Muslim rulers through the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth-century Christian chronicles. Did Christians refer Muslim rulers with their authentic titles? Did they distinguish, at least, among several possibilities that help to organize authorities hierarchically? The article tries to answer these issues. It deals with a little explored topic that it is interesting from the point of view of the relations between Christians and Muslims. This will allow me to do a wider study that takes into account the perspective of the information recorded in other sources produced in the Western Christendom that would complement the results presented, which are focused in the Iberian Peninsula case.

Primeras aproximaciones a la organización del espacio rural durante época islámica (902-1229) en Qalbiyan (S-O de Mallorca)

Se ha realizado una primera aproximación a la ocupación, durante época islámica, en el suroeste de Mallorca. Para ello, se ha utilizado desde la información documental disponible y la toponimia hasta métodos arqueológicos como la excavación y la prospección del territorio. El análisis espacial realizado ha mostrado una distribución de asentamientos rurales nucleada en torno a alquerías, puntos de captación de agua y asentamientos en altura. Estos diversos elementos materiales se articulan en valles que ofrecen grandes posibilidades agropecuarias y con abundantes recursos hídricos que son gestionados, en ocasiones, a través de enclaves estratégicos. Las distintas zonas de explotación se hallan individualizadas por accidentes geográficos que delimitan el territorio y su extensión. Sin embargo, los distintos núcleos de población aparecen vinculados mediante la captación de agua de los mismos torrentes y una red de caminos que comunica los diferentes asentamientos campesinos de toda la comarca. Finalmente, se ha podido consignar una serie de yacimientos con características muy singulares, que parecen asociarse a funciones relacionadas con contextos históricos concretos, como la conquista cristiana de la isla en 1229. Estos yacimientos aparecen indirectamente citados en las crónicas cristianas y árabes que relatan la conquista de Jaime I y los momentos previos a la misma, dando una idea de su importancia geoestratégica en la defensa de la isla.

Natural Disasters in the Chronographia of John Malalas: Reflections on their Function—An Initial Sketch

Christian chronicles have been regarded for a long time as an inferior sub-genre of historiography. One of the intentions of this article is to contribute towards a revision of this assessment—it does so through analysing the way natural disasters have been handled in the Chronographia of the Byzantine chronicler John Malalas. In accordance with the norms specific to the genre of Christian chronicles, Malalas too writes within a mould of salvation history, and interprets events as a manifestation of the workings of divine will. Especially during the reign of the emperor Justinian (527–65) the author observes the occurrence of several natural disasters, yet adheres to the view that these were not to be regarded as signs of an approaching end of the world. Instead, it would seem, that he wished to characterise the age of Justinian as an age of fear. As God spread fear through natural disasters so as to induce people to lead a life pleasing to God, the emperor too, at another level, disseminated fear in order to live up to his role as God's representative. Malalas interpreted contemporary events in terms of a retributive theology rooted in the Old Testament and for whose currency evidence could be found at different places during the sixth century.

The Frontier and Royal Power in Medieval Spain

The article reflects on the historical concept of frontier and our present idea of it. It focuses on the importance of the frontier in the dynamics of the feudal system in the Iberian peninsula and explores the role played by the crown. The hypothesis here is that the configuration of a coherent socio-political space spans differing yet chronologically juxtaposed phases. Four phases in the process of delimiting the political space are distinguished—military, socio-economic, cultural and political-administrative. New elements combine with the existing ones until a new entity takes shape: the political-administrative system, which is analysed here. In analysing this evolutionary process, an ensemble of Arab historiographic sources, Christian chronicles and fueros and secondary sources, has been used.

Christian Chronicles and Byzantine History, 5th-6th Centuries (review)

Reviewed by: Christian Chronicles and Byzantine History, 5th-6th Centuries Alexander Golitzin Brian Croke . Christian Chronicles and Byzantine History, 5th-6th Centuries. Variorum Reprints. Brookfield: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1992. Pp. xii + 336. $89.95. The historians and chroniclers of late antiquity have never been my interest or even, I must confess, in the sphere of my acquaintance. I felt in consequence a certain dismay on receiving a book that, as its author remarks (ix), was the "by-product" of his research on the sixth-century chronicle of Count Marcellinus (who? I thought), and wondered what on earth I might find to say about it that would be of interest and not (perhaps the more serious consideration) at the same time show me up a fool. While the latter may still prove to be true, there is no doubt that here is ample food for reflection and, even, interest to those of us not versed in the intricacies fifth- and sixth-century chronology and historiography. Croke divides his nineteen reprinted articles into four categories: chronicles (numbers I-IV); the chroniclers Marcellinus, Jordanes, and Cassiodorus (V-VI); historiographical problems (VII-XI); and Balkan encounters (XII-XIX). Two pages of addenda and an eight-page index follow. The articles are reprinted from a number of periodicals and collections, those of most interest to readers of this [End Page 229] journal being probably Byzantion; Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies; Journal of Roman Studies; and Journal of Theological Studies. In the "Preface" to this volume (ix-xi) Croke pays tribute to his scholarly ancestry, singling out in particular his debt to Th. Mommsen's edition of late Roman chronicles, together with his attention to detail and Constantinopolitan perspective, and to A. Momigliano for the latter's lucidity and respect for the intellectual culture of his subjects. That the ancients did have brains, and that they are to be respected for them by the modern student of antiquity, are messages that come through loud and refreshingly clear in these essays. Whether he is dealing with the invention and nature of the world chronicle as a genre (I and III), or the "Manufacture of a Turning Point: 476 A.D." by Constantinopolitan recorders (V), exploring the strange stories of a child emperor turned bishop ("Basiliscus the Boy Emperor," X) or a Gothic highwayman turned successful general in Justinian's empire ("Mundo the Gepid," XVIII), picking through the liturgical commemorations of earthquakes in Constantinople (VIII and IX), or plumbing—literally—the waterworks of a ruined Roman fortress city on the Persian frontier (XI, "Procopius and Dara"), Croke's regard for his sources and attention to detail reward the reader with unexpected discoveries. A single line in Marcellinus reveals a devasting Hun incursion into Thrace in 421/422 (XII). A retired official of Gothic origins, whom earlier moderns had held in contempt as a barbarian of "very little brain" for his (admittedly) grubby Latin, emerges as writer of intelligence, clearly held convictions, and generally trustworthy as an historical source ("Cassiodorus and the Getica of Jordanes," VI). Discussion over "The Context and Date of Priscus Fragment 8" (XIV) leads to the surprising (for this reader at least) picture, late in the reign of Theodosius II, of "an exhausted and bankrupt Roman state," bloodied by Attila's invasions of 447 and at wit's end in the face of his continuing demands. The last brings me to the first of the two most valuable insights I received from this book. Like many I think, I had been used to seeing the Völkerwanderungen of the fourth and following centuries as primarily a catastrophe afflicting the Roman West, but leaving Constantinople and the East relatively unscathed. The reality as Croke and his sources present it was quite different, indeed. Pressure on "New Rome" appears instead to have been unremitting, leading not only to the enlargement of the famous walls under Theodosius II but, toward the fifth century's end, the attempt to seal off the Thracian approaches to the capital ("The Date of the 'Anastasian Long Wall,'" XVII). Goths, Huns, and even Slavs (see "Justinian's Bulgar Celebration," XIX) appear in one wave after another to roll up and over the northern...

Municipal Ransoming Law on the Medieval Spanish Frontier

A serious yet unstudied consequence of the Christian-Muslim conflict in medieval Spain was the capture and enslavement of soldiers and civilians. Men, women, and children who were seized on raids, taken in battle, or pirated off ships were regarded by their captors as booty, to be used as slaves or to be sold for profit. Since warfare in twelfth-century Spain pitted Christians against Muslims, the usual prohibitions against enslavement of coreligionists clearly did not apply.' For Muslims and Christians alike, capture meant a life of slavery. Christian chronicles of this era are replete with stories of captives taken off to be sold in the slave markets of al-Andalus in southern Spain or, even worse, in those of North Africa.2 Some of these slaves, however, were able to regain their freedom through redemption that is, to purchase their liberty by paying a ransom. Since the ransom price frequently exceeded what could be gained in the slave auctions, redemption became an attractive option to both captor and captive. Ransoming is probably as old as slavery, and in Spain prior to the twelfth century there are numerous instances of kings ransoming their soldiers and parents their sons.3 It was not until the twelfth century, however, that the practice of redemption became institutionalized. This attempt at systematization coincided with the extension of Leon-Castile into the trans-Tagus and of Aragon into the middle Ebro valley at the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth centuries. Here, at the peninsula's center, new Christian communities were planted on what would be a shifting and volatile frontier with the fierce Murabits (or Almoravids) and Muwahhids (or Almohads), those Berbers of North Africa who had absorbed the fragments of the old Islamic caliphate in Spain. Thus, until Islam's decisive defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 and the transfer of the conflict to Andalusia and Murcia, there existed in central Spain a Muslim-Christian frontier across which the military forces of both sides attacked and raided.4

The revolution of Fās in 869/1465 and the death of Sultan ‘Abd al-ḥaqq al-Marīnī

If our present knowledge of the history of the Muslim Maghrib is in general unsatisfactory, few periods remain as obscure as the fifteenth century.The extant sources are very scarce. Contemporary Maghribī historical writings are practically non-existent and, with few exceptions, this is still an epoch for which Christian chronicles are not yet really relevant. Only fragmentary and partial information can be extracted from the contemporary Spanish and Portuguese documents. Therefore, we have to rely for our knowledge on the so-called manāqib literature or hagiographic dictionaries which proliferated in Morocco during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These volumes—many of which were lithographed in Fās during the nineteenth century—cannot be considered a first-rate source. They are posterior to the period dealt with and appear as versions of a traditional history composed over the years by agglomeration, repetition, and revision from a series of original stories which may be doubtful, even though they are hallowed by time and usage, and fortified by the weight of respectability. Committed to writing, they have acquired the seal of authority and have seldom been challenged.