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