John Kaminiates
John Kaminiates (Greek: Ιωάννης Καμινιάτης, fl. tenth century) was a Greek resident of Thessalonica when the city, then one of the largest in the Byzantine Empire, was besieged and sacked by a Saracen force led by Leo of Tripoli in 904. His account of the city's plunder, On the capture of Thessalonica, (Εις την άλωσιν της Θεσσαλονίκης, Eis tēn alōsin tēs Thessalonikēs) survives in four manuscripts; though of these, none were written before the fourteenth century, causing some concern over the text's authenticity.[1]
John Kaminiates | |
|---|---|
Ιωάννης Καμινιάτης | |
| Born | 9th century |
| Died | 10th century |
| Citizenship | Eastern Roman Empire |
| Occupation | Priest Writter |
| Notable work | The capture of Thessaloniki (Εις την άλωσιν της Θεσσαλονίκης) |
| Title | Kouboukleisios |
Name
[edit]John Kaminiates has alternatively been transliterated John Kaminatos, Ioannis Kaminiatis, and sometimes appears in the Latinized forms Ioannis Caminiatae, Joannes Cameniata and John Cameniates.
Life
[edit]
Kaminiates was born in the end of the 9th century in the Byzantine Empire and was the son of an exarch. He grew up to become a priest of the imperial palace at Thessaloniki, holding the ecclesiastical dignity of kouboukleisios.[2] During the sack of Thessaloniki by the Abbasid Caliphate in 904, Kaminiates and his family were among the Thessalonians that were captured by the intruders.[3]
The capture of Thessaloniki
[edit]The capture of Thessaloniki (Greek: Εις την άλωσιν της Θεσσαλονίκης) takes the form of a long letter written by Kaminiates to his friend, Gregory of Cappadocia; and describes the conquest of the Thessaloniki and the treatment of the captives.[2] He gives a very detailed decription of the attack and his experience on the pirate ship, which was initially heading to Crete and then to Paphos, Tripoli and Tarsus in Cilicia. His work is an invaluable source about the sack of Thessaloniki in 904, as well as the slave trade in the eastern Mediterranean during the medieval times.[3]
However, its validity is questioned by some modern historians mainly due to some anachronisms that appear in Kaminiates' work. Alexander Kazhdan argued that the text was a 15th century composition masquerading as a 10th century text, written in response to the siege of Thessaloniki in 1430 by the Ottoman Empire. Other scholars like Ioannis Tsaras, David Frendo and Paolo Odorico support that the extant text is a reworked or modified version of a 10th century original.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Kazhdan 1978
- ^ a b c Neville, Leonora, ed. (2018), "John Kaminiates", Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 114–117, ISBN 978-1-107-03998-8, retrieved 2024-09-22
- ^ a b "Καμινιάτης, Εις την άλωσιν της Θεσσαλονίκης (Ταυτότητα) - [ΑΠΑΝ Αρχείο]". archive.apan.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2024-09-22.
Sources
[edit]English
- Kaminiates, John The capture of Thessaloniki (D. Frendo, A. Fotiou, and G.Böhlig, trans.) Byzantina Australiensia, 12. Perth: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 2000. ISBN 1-876503-00-9.
- Kazhdan, Alexander Some Questions Addressed to the Scholars, who Believe in the Authenticity of Kaminiates’ Capture of Thessalonika Byzantinische Zeitschrift 71. 1978. p. 301–314. ISSN 0007-7704.
- Tougher, Shaun (1997). The Reign of Leo VI (886-912): Politics and People. Leiden; New York; Köln: Brill. ISBN 9004108114.
Foreign
- Kaminiates, John Eis ten alosin tes Thessalonikes / De Expugnatione Thessalonicae (Böhlig, Gertrude, ed.) Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1973. ISSN 0589-8048
External links
[edit]- A portion of the translated text online
- The Manuscript Editing Process - An interesting look at how the four surviving manuscripts are used to create a modern scholarly Greek edition.
