Theophilus of Edessa's Chronicle and the Circulation of Historical Knowledge in Late Antiquity and Early Islam - (Translated Texts for Historians)

About the Book

A reconstruction of the lost chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa (d.785). Covering 590-760, it describes such world-changing events as the last great war of antiquity between Byzantium and Iran, the Arab conquests, the establishment of a Muslim empire, and the revolution that saw the capital of this empire shift from Damascus to Baghdad.

Book Synopsis

Theophilus of Edessa was an astrologer in the court of the Muslim caliphs from the 750s to the 780s, a time when their capital, Baghdad, was a thriving cosmopolitan centre of culture and trade and one of the most populous and prosperous cities of the world. He was fluent in Greek, Syriac and Arabic, and he used this ability to bring together a number of historical sources in each of these languages and blend them into a single chronicle that charted events in the Near East from 590 to the 750s. His work is no longer extant, but it was cited extensively by a number of later historians and Robert Hoyland has collected and translated all these citations so as to give an impression of the scope and content of the original text. This is important, because this chronicle underlies much of our historical knowledge about the seventh and eighth century Near East, which was a crucial period in the region, witnessing as it did the devastating war between the two superpowers of Byzantium and Iran, the Arab conquests and the rise to power of the first Muslim Arab dynasty, the Umayyads (660-750), and their subsequent overthrow by a new dynasty, the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the Muslim Empire from Damascus to Baghdad. Hoyland also indicates the links between Theophilus' chronicle and other historical works, by Muslims as well as Christians, in order to illustrate the considerable degree of sharing of historical ideas and information that occurred among the various communities of the Near East.

The material translated consists of the sections of four chroniclers that deal with the period 590-750s: one in Greek (Theophanes the Confessor, d. 818), one in Arabic (Agapius of Manbij, fl. 940s) and two in Syriac (Michael the Syrian, d. 1199, and an anonymous author, fl. 1230s, who were both relying on the chronicle of Dionysius of Telmahre, d. 845). The latter three either had not been translated into English before (thus Agapius and Michael the Syrian) or had only partially been translated (the anonymous chronicler of the 1230s).

From the Back Cover

Theophilus of Edessa was an astrologer in the court of the Muslim caliphs from the 750s to the 780s, a time when their capital, Baghdad, was a thriving centre of culture and trade and one of the most populous and prosperous cities of the world. He was fluent in Greek, Syriac and Arabic, and he used this ability to bring together a number of historical sources in each of these languages and blend them into a single chronicle, written in Syriac, that charted events in the Near East from 590 to the 750s. His work is no longer extant, but it was cited extensively by a number of later historians and Robert Hoyland has collected and translated all these citations so as to give an impression of the scope and content of the original text. This is important, because this chronicle underlies much of our historical knowledge about the Near East in the seventh and eighth centuries. This was a crucial period in the region, witnessing as it did the devastating war between Byzantium and Iran, the Arab conquests and the rise to power of the first Muslim Arab dynasty, the Umayyads (660-750), and their subsequent overthrow by the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the Muslim Empire from Damascus to Baghdad. Hoyland also indicates the links between Theophilus' chronicle and other historical works, by Muslims as well as Christians, in order to illustrate the considerable degree of sharing of historical ideas and information among the various communities of the Near East.

The material translated consists of sections of four chronicles that deal with the period 590-750s: one in Greek (Theophanes the Confessor, d. 818), one in Arabic (Agapius of Manbij, fl. 940s) and two in Syriac (Michael the Syrian, d. 1199, and an anonymous author, fl. 1230s, who were both relying on the chronicle of Dionysius of Telmahre, d. 845). The latter three either have not been translated into English before (thus Agapius and Michael the Syrian) or have only been partially translated (the anonymous chronicler of the 1230s). The book also includes a transcription and translation of a section of Agapius' History never previously published.

Review Quotes

... this is a very useful and scholarly publication which will bring these interesting texts to a wider audience, as well as furthering the study of both Theophilus' lost Chronicle and those writings which made use of it.
Ecclesiastical History, Volume 64/3

The introduction, notes and scholarship within this book are all exemplary - a pattern which we are coming to expect from Liverpool University Press.
Journal of Medieval Archaeology, Vol 56

This enterprising translation presents what survives from Theophilus' work by offering renderings of the excerpts from the four surviving sources in sequential blocks to facilitate comparison. There is a detailed introduction, wide-ranging notes, and an exemplary appendix with a gazetteer, maps, genealogies, a bibliography, and an index.
MEDIUM ǼVUM Vol. LXXXI

About the Author

Robert G. Hoyland is Professor of Islamic History at The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford.