The "Description of the Times" by Mōr Michael the Great (1126-1199): A Study on Its Historical and Its Historiographical Context

329 Pages·2021·4.555 MB·English

by  Dorothea Weltecke

27 Eastern Christian Studies
THE “DESCRIPTION OF THE TIMES”
¯
BY MOR MICHAEL THE GREAT
(1126-1199)
A Study on its Historical
and its Historiographical Context
by
Dorothea Weltecke
THE “DESCRIPTION OF THE TIMES”
BY MŌR MICHAEL THE GREAT
(1126-1199)
EASTERN CHRISTIAN STUDIES
A series published by
The Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, Nijmegen
and
The Louvain Centre for Eastern and Oriental Christianity, Leuven
Edited by
Joseph Verheyden
Heleen Murre-van den Berg
Alfons Brüning
Herman Teule
Peter Van Deun
Volume 27
EASTERN CHRISTIAN STUDIES 27
THE “DESCRIPTION OF THE TIMES”
BY MŌR MICHAEL THE GREAT
(1126-1199)
A Study on its Historical
and its Historiographical Context
by
Dorothea Weltecke
Translated by Anthony Runia,
revised by Dorothea Weltecke and Thomas Palmer
PEETERS
LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT
2021
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
© 2021 Uitgeverij Peeters, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven (Belgium)
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
D/2021/0602/54
ISBN 978-90-429-3658-4
eISBN 978-90-429-3888-5
To H.Em. Mōr Gregorius Yuhanna Ibrahim,
Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo,
abducted in Syria in the year 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
PREFACE TO THE GERMAN VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . XV
INTRODUCTION: HISTORIOGRAPHY ABOUT HISTORIOGRAPHY . . . 1
CHAPTER I. STATE OF RESEARCH – AIMS OF THE INQUIRY . . . . 7
1. Edessa 1897 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. ‘A valuable collection of material’ . . . . . . . . 11
3. Research perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CHAPTER II. APPROACH TO UNIVERSAL HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE
SYRIAC ORTHODOX TRADITION . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1. Historical premises: Eastern Christians . . . . . . 19
2. Historiographical conditions: Christian world chrono -
graphy and ecclesiastical historiography . . . . . . 27
a. Chronicle: definition of the concept . . . . . . 27
b. Beyond the ‘horrible wide grave’: the inventions of
Eusebius of Caesarea . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3. Universal historiography in the Syriac Orthodox tradition 39
a. Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
b. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CHAPTER III. PATRIARCH MŌR MICHAEL RABBŌ AND HIS TIME . . 49
1. Scope of the chapter, remarks on the sources . . . . 49
2. The world on the threshold of the 12th century from
Michael’s perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3. Antioch – Edessa – Melitene – Amid . . . . . . . 56
4. The Syriac Orthodox Church in crisis . . . . . . . 63
5. The candidate of the reformers: Raban Michael and the
great deeds of Mōr Bar Ṣawmō . . . . . . . . . 67
6. Michael I, Patriarch of Antioch: a methodological problem 74
7. Investiture, programme, realization . . . . . . . 78
8. An honoured man: the first years . . . . . . . . 81
9. Parte a se . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
10. Limits of power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS
11. The meeting with Qilij Arslān II: sign of change?. . . 97
12. Schism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13. Mōr Michael – learned contemporary, collector and artist 105
14. Sōbō Qaddīšō . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
CHAPTER IV. TEXTUAL CRITICISM, SOURCES AND LINGUISTIC FORM
IN MICHAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
1. Survey of the structure of the chronicle’s text . . . . 115
2. Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
3. Dealing with sources: aspects of Michael’s conception of
history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4. Criteria of the selection of sources and excerpts – a metho -
dological problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5. Interim findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
CHAPTER V. ‘CHRONOGRAPHIC’: GRAPHIC ASPECTS OF MICHAEL’S
HISTORICAL METHOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
1. Chabot’s copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
a. Chabot’s copy and facsimile . . . . . . . . . 140
b. The model for Chabot’s copy: Michael bar Barṣawmō 141
c. The model for Michael bar Barṣawmō: Moses of
Mardin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
2. Graphic elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
a. Structure, text block, glosses . . . . . . . . . 145
b. Graphics and numbers . . . . . . . . . . . 148
c. Page layout, columnar system, canon . . . . . . 150
d. Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
e. Production and script . . . . . . . . . . . 165
3. ‘Chronographic’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
a. The archetype: Jacob of Edessa . . . . . . . . 167
b. The original of Michael’s chronicle . . . . . . 178
CHAPTER VI. ASPECTS OF HISTORICAL THOUGHT IN MICHAEL:
COMPARISONS AND CONTEXTS . . . . . . . . . . . 181
1. Patriarch Michael and Patriarch Dionysios († 845): origin
and succession of the Church, the end of the world . . 181
2. Patriarch Michael and Maphrian Bar ‘Ebrōyō († 1286):
succession and origin of the empires . . . . . . . 191
TABLE OF CONTENTS IX
3. Querelles d’histoire – Michael’s conception of history as
work on and in reality . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
a. Who are the Syrians and why do they not have kings? 205
b. Who drives the course of history? . . . . . . . 214
4. Dionysios bar Ṣalībī and Michael: the teacher’s plan . . 229
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
LIST OF QUOTED MANUSCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
1. Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
2. Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305