Ara Edmond Dostourian - Armenia and the Crusades (1993).pdf - Crusaders (Krzyżowcy) - kubiasz84

The Chronicle

Matthew ofEdessa

Translatedfrom the Original Annenian

with a Commentary and Introduction by

Ara Edmond Dostourian

Foreword by

Krikor H. Maksoudian

National Association for Armenian Studies

and Research

ARMENIAN HERITAGE SERIES

University Press of America

Lanham· New York . London

National Association for

Armenian Studies and Research

University Press of America~ Inc.

4720 Boston Wny

Lanlmm, Murylund 20706

3 Henrietta Street

London WC2E 8LU Englund

Printed in the United States of America

British Cataloging in Publication Information Available

Dedication

Copublished by arrangement with the

National Association for Armeninn Studies and Research

To my mother Zepure (nee Panikian) of Bardizag

(Constantinople!Istanbul), who nurtured me in the

culture of my forebears and in the proper use of the

Armenian language;

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Dntu

Mntthew. of Edessa, 12th cent.

[Putmowt' iwn. English]

Armenia and the Cl1Isades : tenth to twelfth centuries : the Chronicle

of Matthew of Edessa I translated from the originul Armenian with a

commentm-y and introduction by Am Edmond Dostourian ; foreword

by Krikor H. Maksoudian.

p. cm. - (Armenian heritage series)

By Matthew of Edessu. continued by Grigor Erets'.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Armenia-History-Turkie Mongol domination. 1045-1592.

2. Armenia-History-Bugratuni dynasty. 885-1045. 3. Islamic

Empire-History-750-1258. I. Dostouriun. Aru Edmnnd.

II. Grifor. Erets', 12th cent. III. Title. IV. Series.

DS186.M3713

To my father Levon of Yaraisar-Shghni (SepasdiaJ

Sivas), who inculcated in me a love for and devotion to

the native soil of my ancestral homeland;

To Mary (Mariam) Merjian (nee Ashjian), a loyal

daughter of Edessa (UrhalUrfa), who inspired me in

the writing of this tome.

1993

956.6'2013-dc20

92-39679 eIP

ISBN 0-8191-8953-7 (cloth: alk. puper)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of

§TM American National Standard for Infonnation Sciences-Permanence

of Paper for Printed Library Materiuls. ANSI Z39.48-1984.

...

Table of Contents

Foreword by Krikor H. Maksoudian

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Text, Part I

Text, Part II

Text, Part III

181

Text, Continuation

241

Notes, Part I

283

Notes, Part II

307

Notes, Part III

335

Notes, Continuation

351

Glossary

361

Maps:

Historic Armenia During the Medieval Period

363

Cilicia, Syria, and Palestine, 10-12th Centuries

364

Select Bibliography

365

Index

367

Foreword

The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa and that of his continuator,

Gregory the Priest, are indispensable sources on the period from the

mid-tenth to the mid-twelfth centuries. The renowned Seljuk

specialist Claude Cahen puts Matthew in the same class with

Michael the Syrian and Anna Comnena, calling him an "illustrious

writer" of Christian faith: The Chronicle serves as a primary source

not only for Armenian, but also for Byzantine, Crusader, Syriac, and

Islamic history, including otherwise unknown facts and documents.

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, western scholars

have frequently cited Matthew's work, using partial French transla-

tions of excerpts by Chahan de Cirbied (1811 and 1812) and particu-

larly by E. Dulaurier (1850). In 1858 Dulaurier published the entire

text, but left out certain sections. The works of both of these authors

appeared before the editio princeps (Jerusalem, 1869), which was

based on two manuscripts, and the complete edition of Vagharshapat

(Etchmiadzin, 1898), based on five manuscripts and the readings of

the Jerusalem text.

After more than thirteen decades, the French translation, long out

of print and out of date, remains the only translation available to the

western reader. The scholarly works that appeared in the past one

hundred and thirty years and the important advances in Byzantine,

Armenian, Crusader, Syriac, and Islamic studies make the notes of

Dulaurier's work obsolete. The accuracy of the translation also leaves

much to be desired.

The need for a new translation of Matthew's Chronicle was felt for

a long time, and Dostourian has come forward to fill that gap. Unlike

Dulaurier, he has used the Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) text, which

contains much better readings, and has refrained from leaving out

any sections. Moreover, being a native speaker of Armenian and a

former seminarian, he has a much better command of Matthew's

language, which is the classical idiom mixed with words and

·Claude Cahen, "Historiography of the Seljuqid Period," Historians of

the Middle East, Bernard Lewis and P. M. Holt, eds. (London, 1962),78.

MATTHEW OF EDESSA

expressions characteristic of the twelfth century spoken Armenian.

Dostourian also had the good fortune of having at his disposal

linguistic works on Middle Armenian, the vernacular in Matthew's

time, and the scholarship of the past century and a half.

The scholar of Armenian, Byzantine, or Middle Eastern history

may expect more copious notes on Matthew's Chronicle than what

Dostourian has provided. He has restricted his comments mostly to

explain the text to the western reader with no background in

Armenian, Byzantine, or Middle Eastern history. An attempt other

than that would have meant a voluminous work, which would have

taken several decades to complete. Thus, the value of the present

volume lies particularly in the translation of the Chronicle.

Preface

The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa is considered by scholars to

be a primary source of major importance for the history of the Near

East during the period of the early Crusades (tenth to twelfth cen-

turies). The present work is the first translation of the Chronicle

from the original Classical Annenian into English. Three other

translations have been published: French, Turkish, and Modern

Armenian. Only the present work and the Modern Armenian

translation are based on the most complete and accurate text avail-

able. Therefore, this English translation of the Chronicle should be

of great benefit to those scholars working in the field of medieval

Near Eastern history who are not familiar with the original language.

The number of extant manuscripts of Matthew's chronicle is not

large. Moreover several of these manuscripts are incomplete. The

oldest surviving manuscripts date from the late sixteenth/early

seventeenth centuries, while the most recent were copied in the

nineteenth century. A number of libraries in the world have manu-

scripts of the Armenian historian's work, either complete or fragmen-

tary: The Matenadaran (Manuscript Library) located in the Republic

of Armenia the library of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem,

the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, the library of the Mekhitarist

Fathers of Venice, the library of the Mekhitarist Fathers of Vienna,

the Armenian Hostel in Rome, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and

the British Museum in London.

The first published text of Matthew's chronicle was the Fr~nch

edition prepared by E. Dulaurier (Matthew of Edessa, Chromque,

Paris, 1858). This edition, based on the three manuscripts found in

the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, contains several gaps (see, for

example, Part I, section 48, note 4; Part II, section 54, not~ 2;

Continuation, section 7, note 3), which were due no doubt to defiCIen-

cies in the available manuscripts. The French historian appended an

introduction and copious notes to the translation.

The first published text of Matthew's chronicle in its original

Armenian language appeared in Jerusalem in 1869 (~atthew of

Edessa, Patmut'iwn [History), Jerusalem, 1869). The edItor (whose

Very Rev. Dr. Krikor H. Maksoudian

Zohrab Information Center

Diocese of the Armenian Church

New York, New York

September 1991

Ara Edmond Dostourian - Armenia and the Crusades (1993).pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: