MacEvitt 2007 Matthew Edessa PDF

The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa: Apocalypse, the First Crusade, and the Armenian
Diaspora
Author(s): Christopher MacEvitt
Source: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 61 (2007), pp. 157-181
Published by: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University
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TheChronicle of
Matthew ofEdessa:
ArmenianDiaspora
Apocalypse,theFirstCrusade,and the
Christopher MacEvitt
IN
1066/7, A TURKISH
a raid on the numerous
north
Armenian
on Antioch.2
emir
led his troops on

of the Amanus mountains,
named Afshin1
monasteries
The
the twelfth-century
ca.
(Matthew of Edessa,
result, mourned
eos
chronicler Matt
Urhayets'i
was
to
were
that
1136),
"many of the holy monks
subjected
to
the
edge of the sword and
being burned; moreover, their corpses
became food for the beasts and the birds."3 Despite
the holiness of the
1070-ca.
their suffering and death fulfilled divine will,

accomplish
the
words
of Psalm 78: "Their young men were devoured by fire
ing
and no one grieved for their virgins; their priests fell under the sword
and no one
for their widows."4 The biblical verses
grieved
appeared
as more than a rhetorical flourish from a clerical writer:
they evoked
monks,
themes woven
chronicle. While
the immo
throughout Matthew's
lated youths and the slain priests of Psalm 78 died
by thewill of their
own wrathful God, the
a
with
evocation of
ended
psalm
comforting
God's
love for the tribe of Judah and for his servant David.
Similarly,
Matthew's
chronicle depicted
an
angry God
punishing his wayward

it focused on an
abiding
flock (Christian Armenians),

but ultimately
sense of the imminent arrival of the end of the world
dant promise of redemption.
on the mountains
The massacre
violent episodes that proved
nated by God's wrath. Like
was
and the atten
in a
list of
long
a
era
lived in dark
domi
evidence
thatMatthew
other Christian
chroniclers, including
of
and
Hydatius
fifth-century Hispania
Ralph Glaber of eleventh
to write
was
sense of
Matthew
century Burgundy,5
inspired
by the
at the turn of the
ages, watching the ancient, corrupt order peel
living
and
the
new,
away
perhaps glorious, perhaps terrifying, emerge. All
i
Named
Evshen
Oshen
in the 1898 edition, and
in the 1869 Jerusalem edition of
Matthew's
text,Patmut'iwn
1869), 223. Dostourian
(Jerusalem,
surmises that this is
a version of the Persian name Afshin.

2
Throughout this article, Iwill be citing

theArmenian text ofMatthew of Edessa's
chronicle, using the 1898Vagharshapat

edition, which, as discussed below, relies
upon the largest number ofmanuscripts and
includes some critical apparatus: Matt'eos
Urhayets'i
[Matthew of Edessa],
Zhamanakagrut'iwn
(Vagharshapat,
1898),
hereafter Matt'eos Urhayets'i,

All translations,
Zhamanakagrut'iwn.
unless otherwise noted, are fromAra
Dostourian's
English translation: Matthew

ofOdessa, Armenia and the Crusades, trans.
A. E. Dostourian
afterMatthew
3
Matt'eos
(Lanham, Md.,
1993), here
of Edessa, Armenia.
Urhayets'i,
185;Matthew
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
of
125.
Ps. 78: 63-64. This passage also evokes

Ps. 79: 2-3: "Their blood flowed like water
all around Jerusalem and there was no one
to bury them" (Matt'eos

Urhayets'i,
186;Matthew
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
5
of
125).
R. W. Burgess, ed. and trans., The

of Hydatius and theConsularia
Chronicle
(Oxford, 1993); Burgess,

Constantinopolitana
"Hydatius and the Final Frontier: The Fall of
the Roman Empire and the End of the
in ShiftingFrontiers inLate Antiquity,
ed. R. W. Mathisen
and H. S. Sivan
World,"
(Aldershot, 1996), 321-32; Rodulphus

Glaber, The Five Books of theHistories, trans.
J. France and P. Reynolds (Oxford, 1989).

three chroniclers
in a trium
challenge of reconciling faith
or
defeat, disaster,
occupation. Matthew's
faced the
phalist Christianity with

and
apocalyptic focus has received little attention, unlike Hydatius's
Ralph's. Only by placing Matthew within his cultural context, that
to termswith the effects

of a diasporic Armenian
community coming
can we understand how Matthew
of the First Crusade,
understood
the suffering of the Armenians
and unravel his
seemingly contradic
non-Armenians.
of
tory depiction
between
1101/2 and the 1130s while Edessa was under
Writing
Frankish
took as the subject of his chronicle "the
rule, Matthew
nation
the Armenian
horrible punishment
{barkut'iwn), which
at the hands
endured
the nation of the Turks,
of the long-haired and abominable

Elamites,
The
the
Turks
and their brothers,
Romans."6
were at the same time

the Byzantines
(and later the Franks)
agents of divine retribution, the foot soldiers of Satan's army, and
as the Armenians.
the victims of the same punishments
Episodes of
and
punctuate Matthew's
history with metronomic
regularity.
an
account
Not simply
of events, his chronicle is a prehistory of the
and violence is the muscle that gives his history motion.
Apocalypse,
from
of the coming Apocalypse
drew his expectations
Matthew
violence
a number
of sources,
the most
important
of which
was
the Syriac
author now referred to as
an anonymous
seventh-century
One of the most influential apocalypses of the
pseudo-Methodius.7
it introduced the
who
medieval
figure of the last emperor,
period,
and then
would defeat the infidel people who oppressed Christians
return
at
crown on the
allowing the
Holy Cross
Golgotha,
place his
of Christ. The narrative spread quickly, becoming a part of Byzantine
traditions as well. Matthew,
and western Christian
apocalyptic
narratives with a different
and
however, employed apocalyptic
signs
his intent was
intent than did many other medieval
apocalyptists;
an
not to
embattled community, but to
of
strengthen the bulwarks
make clear its fragility and fast-approaching demise. Yet that demise
would not be the result of Turkish massacres or Byzantine duplicity.
account
by
Matthew
uses theword barkut'iwn,
or calamity,"
meaning "anger, punishment,
both here and throughout his chronicle to
describe
the suffering of theArmenians
(Matt'eos Urhayets'i, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

112-13;Matthew
7
of Edessa, Armenia,
83).
P. Alexander,
Tradition
Byzantine Apocalyptic
(Berkeley, 1985); G.J. Reinink, Die
Syrische Apokalypse des Pseudo-Methodius

(Leuven, 1993); andW. J.Aerts and G. A. A.
Kortekaas,
Methodius:
158
Die Apokalypse des Pseudo

die Altesten Griechischen und
CHRISTOPHER
2 vols. (Leuven,
Ubersetzungen,
"Christian Salvation
1998); C. Villagomez,
Divine
through Muslim Domination:
Lateinischen
Punishment
and Syriac Apocalyptic

in the Seventh and Eighth
Expectation
Centuries," MedE
4 (1998): 203-18. The

not appear
figure of the "last emperor" does
later
until
the
Armenian
tradition
in the
tenth century, and then in a revised version

of the Life ofNerses, a frequently edited text
concerning the prophecies of the fourth
century Armenian
J.-R. Emine, "Genealogie de la famille de

saint Gregoire et vie de saint Nerses," in
Collection des historiens anciens etmodernes
de I'Armenie, ed. V. Langlois (Paris, 1969),
2: 21-41; R. Thomson, "Crusades through
Armenian Eyes," in The Crusades from
thePerspective ofByzantium and theMuslim
World, ed. A. E. Laiou and R. Par viz
(Washington, D. C, 2001),
For further bibliography on apoca
lypticism, see note 85.
Mottahedeh
74-75.
patriarch, translated by
MACEVITT

Matthew's apocalyptic fears arose from the disquieting sense that

Armenians,particularlythoselivingindiasporic communitiessuchas
Edessa,were fadingfromsight,bleached out byByzantine,Frankish,
isMatthew's
cultural radiation. The chronicle
and Turkish
an
of why Armenians
feltArmenians
were
search for
were
indistinguishable
becoming
explanation
from their neighbors and rulers; he cast the answer in the language
of violence, which often stood in for the cultural violence Matthew
suffering.
in
of violence
and memory
the
description
Paradoxically,
a
was
a
in
the
boundaries
which
work
Matthew's
society
product of
were
one
ethnic
and
community from another
separating
religious
transparent, crossed and recrossed by soldiers, generals, and aris
out that
tocrats with little sense of any change. Matthew
pointed
inflicted suffering on each other as often as the Turks or
were themost
to him such
fascinating
"betrayals"
Byzantines did, and
and revealing kind of violence. His real concern was thus Armenian
to its current calami
society, proud of its ancient heritage but blind
ties, consuming itself in betrayal and backstabbing.
Armenians
Historiography
and
been used widely by Byzantinists
Armenia
of
the
and
historians
of
medieval
Islamicists,
by
crusades, for the better part of two centuries; it is arguably one of
the most important historical narratives from twelfth-century Syria.
chronicle
Matthew's
as well
Portions
has
as
ofMatthew's
chronicle have been
available
in translation
since Francois Martin

first translated
lateMatthew
purported
de Cirbied
and Jacques Chahan
(1772-1834)
it in 1811.8 In a sense, however, Martin
did not trans
at all; he
work that
that part ofMatthew's
published
a
to be a
letter written by the Byzantine
transcription of
emperorJohn I Tzimiskes (969-976) to theArmenian kingAshot
debut in the academic world was thus in

(952-977). Matthew's
Dulaurier
(1807-1881) published a complete
Byzantine dress. Edouard
translation of the chronicle in 1858, portions of which were included
III
in the Recueil
theArmenian
des historiens des croisades in 1869.9 The first edition of

textwas
in Jerusalem in 1869, based on two
published
8
Matthew of Edessa, Details historiques
de la premiere expedition des Chretiens dans
la Palestine sous Vempereur Zimisces, trans.
F.Martin,
notes by J. Chahan de Cirbied

(Paris, 1811).A second excerpt, focusing on
the First Crusade, was published a year later:

Notice de deux manuscrits armeniens conten
ant Vhistoire deMathieu
Eretz
et extrait de
cette histoire, relatifa la premiere croisade en

armenien etenfrancais (Paris, 1812).
Matthew
Matthieu
Dulaurier
of Edessa, Chronique de
(962-1136), trans. E.
d'Edesse
(Paris, 1858); Recueildes
des croisades, Documents

1869), 1:4-150. Dulaurier,
armeniens
historiens
(Paris,
however, first
published extracts concerning the First

Crusade in 1850 (Matthew of Edessa, Recit
editions. His
translation was used widely

byAra Dostourian's
until supplemented
translation published in 1993 (cited

above, n. 2). Itwas also translated into
English
Turkish by H. Andreasyan
(UrfaliMateos
ve
Papaz Grigor'un
vekayindmesi [9$2 -1136]
Zeyli [1136-1162] /Ankara, 1962]).
de la premiere croisade, trans. E. Dulaurier

translation, how
[Paris, 1850]). Dulaurier's
ever, leftout some episodes included in other
MATTHEW
OF EDESSAS

CHRONICLE
159
in
and another published
(Etchmiadzin)
Vagharshapat
as well as on the
in 1898, based on five
manuscripts
manuscripts,
in Armenia
its availability, historians
have paid little

of the text itself, and
Jerusalem edition.10 Despite

attention to the internal
instead have used
concerns
logic and
it to corroborate events described
sources. Aside
and Latin
inArabic, Greek,
to the French
from the introductions
and
in 1858 and
translations of the work by Edouard Dulaurier
English
in 1993, this is the first critical analysis ofMatthew's
Ara Dostourian
in any major
European
language.11
has sat on the
Matthew
sidelines for a number of
historiographic
reasons, not the least of which is the language inwhich he wrote?
not one of the
is
medieval Armenian. Armenian
primary
generally
East consider
historians
of
the
Middle
twelfth-century
languages
nor is the
East one of the areas
twelfth-century Middle
learning,
their realm of expertise. Like the
consider within
Armenologists
is often cited, but never studied.
proverbial bridesmaid, Matthew
events and dates of
interest to them,
only the
specific
Examining
chronicle
scholars have never confronted Matthew's
As
historical
larger
of his text,Matthew's
a result of such normative
tion
generally
historian. The
has been
readings
that of a prejudiced
agenda.
reputa
and therefore unreliable
in one of the
French Armenologist
Joseph Laurent,
Edessan
first careful studies of eleventh-century
history, commented,
does not merit a blind confidence without
"Matthew
that perhaps
the original
study,"worrying
text had been altered over time, for it lacked
on northern
In his
order and organization.12
Syria,
magisterial work
had "an insatiable hatred
that Matthew
Claude
Cahen
suggested
con
concurred,
recently Mark Whittow
to be "anti-Chalcedonian
and anti-Byzantine."14
sidering Matthew
Accusations
of inaccuracy are perhaps not the best form of criticism
or of any medieval
chronicle. The text is best read not as
ofMatthew,
a
a
discrete and differentiated peo
description of world containing
a protean
an attempt to
as
but prescriptively
shape
ples and cultures,
cultural landscape into such aworld.
of the Greeks."13 More
The 1898 edition was republished in 1991

with a modern Armenian translation
io
by H. Bartik'yan
(Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
ed. M. Melik-Adamyan
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
andN. Ter-Mik'ayelyan
[Erevan, 1991]).
11
Brief comments appear inH.
rendus," REA
Berberian,
10
"Comptes
H. Adjarian, "Matt'eos
HA
67
(1953): 350-54 [in
Urhayec'i,"
Armenian]; Anneliese Liiders, Die
(1973-74):
Kreuzziige
403-6;
imUrteil syrischer und armenis
cherQuellen
l6o
CHRISTOPHER
(Berlin, 1964), 17-19.
J. Laurent, "Des Grecs aux Croises.

Etude sur l'histoire d'Edesse entre 1071 et
12
1098," Byzantion
1 (1921): 372-73,
inEtudes d'histoire arminienne
14
M. Whittow,
600-102S
reprinted
(Leuven,
1971), 66-67.
C. Cahen, La Syrie du Nord a I'epoque
des croisades et la principaute franque
13
(Paris, 1940), 98; Steven Runciman also

follows this line,History of theCrusades
(Cambridge, 1952), 2: 483. Modern surveys
of crusader and Byzantine history scarcely
mention Matthew.
MACEVITT

TheMaking
(Berkeley, 1996), 383.
ofByzantium,
Structure oftheChronicle
Matthews apocalyptic interestsexplain thenumerologicaldrumbeat

the tripartite structure of his chronicle, a structure that
underlying
echoes other Armenian historians such asMovses Xorenats'i, Tovma
Artsruni,
and Yovhannes
Drasxanakerts'i.15
section covers half
Each
the time of the section preceding it, signaling the ascending sequence
of violence directed against Armenian
individuals and communi
ties.16Matthew
the world,
himself noted
acknowledging
the
quickening chronological pulse of

that "we also have become aware of time
us
change, decay, and disappear

on
to us the
instability of mankind
revealing
of Armenian
earth."17 The first section describes the disappearance
passing by very quickly,

ance ofwhat exists and
royal authority
showing
in the Caucasus
Mountains
and eastern highlands

aggression. The second
through Byzantine
subterfuge and Turkish
section details the subsequent destruction ofArmenian
communities
at the hands of the Turks, and in the third section Matthew
prepares
his readers for the coming Apocalypse.
About Matthew himselfwe know little.He
called himself a
"monk"18 as well
as a "monastic
never named his
priest,"19 though he
He also used the
(of Edessa), but
monastery.20
epithet "Urhayets'i"
never clarified whether he was born in Edessa, or whether his monas
terywas located there, or both. At some point he moved to the town
one hundred miles northwest of Edessa;
of K'esun,
approximately
the last entry in his chronicle, dated to 1136/7,detailed,

unusually in
the first person, a Turkish attack on the town.21 He
soon
likely died
15
J.-P.Mahe,
sur
"Entre Moi'se
Reflexions
etMahomet:
armeni
l'historiographie
enne," RE A 23 (1992): 121-53.
16
The years covered in each part
reflected Matthew's
interest in numerologi
to theApocalypse. The first
cal approaches
portion covers the years 952/3 to 10 51/2
the second
(Armenian years [AY] 401-500),
from 1051/2 to 1101/2 (AY 500-550), and
the third from 1101/2 to 1136/7 (AY 550-85);
thus each portion covers roughly half the
period of time of the previous section.
Although the second and third sections
include an authorial preface, inwhich
Matthew outlined the sources used for the
section, as well as explaining how itfit into
his historical progression, the first section
launches into a historical narrative unpref
aced. It is tempting to speculate that the
first portion of the chronicle has been lost,
including an introduction as well as an
account for the year 951/2 (AY 400).
The account concludes
in 1136/7 (AY 585),
indicated his intention to

although Matthew
end it in 1131/2 (AY 580) (Matt'eos
278-80;
Urhayets'i, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
of Edessa, Armenia, 182-83).
17 Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
Matthew
282; Matthew
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
18
184.
Vanakan; Matt'eos
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
19
of
Urhayets'i,
113;Matthew of
83.
Ara Dostourian
translates this
(inArmenian erits' vanats') as "superior

of a monastery," which suggests that
Matthew
was abbot, but he does not
describe other abbots with those words.

The modern Armenian
"chaplain"
translation suggests
(vanerets'); perhaps the best
translation might be "monastic priest."

[Iwould like to thank the anonymous
reviewer for this recommendation.]
126;Matthew
of Edessa, Armenia, 84).

The monastery most prominent in
account isKarmir Vank' (the
Matthew's
20
near K'esun, and while

"Red Monastery")
Matthew never directly links himself to
themonastery, itwas patronized by Kogh
Vasil and was the seat of the Pahlavunis
in the area. Kat'olikos Gregory III Pahlavuni
was consecrated here in 1113/4 (Matt'eos
329-30;
Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 215). As dis
cussed below, Matthew promoted both Vasil
and the Pahlavuni family, and a shared con
nection to themonastery may further
explain his enthusiasm.
21
Matthew referred to Baldwin
of
as "our prince"
and spoke of God
on the
mercy
having
town
despite "our sins" (Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
Marash,
who ruled K'esun,
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
368;Matthew
of
238-39).
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA'S

CHRONICLE
l6l
after, for his continuator, Gregory
the Priest,
began his narrative
the
following year.
It is difficult to be certainwhen Matthew first began his
I offer a
possible
information to be certain.
chronicle.
argument, but we do not have sufficient

In the introduction to his third section,
listed those patriarchs who were

ruling "when my history
was
few of the ordination or death dates of
begun."22 Unfortunately,
Matthew
the patriarchs given restrict the range of

for the begin
possibilities
career of
ning of the chronicle. For example, the
Symeon II, Greek
is the shortest
patriarch of Jerusalem (1092-99),
reign of
the five patriarchs listed. However,
both the dates of Symeon's ordi
are
we
nation as
patriarch and his death
poorly substantiated,23 and
cannot be certain when Matthew
believed Symeon held his position.
also noted that the year was 6610 anno mundi,
However, Matthew
Orthodox
which
produces
the date of 1102.24 Furthermore, Matthew
began
this
portion of his chroniclewith theArmenian year (AY) of 550,which

also equals 1101/2. The majority of evidence, therefore, suggests that
in 1101/2, and this is the date I follow.25
Matthew
began his chronicle
a
can thus
sense of how
Matthew
spent writ
gain
rough
long
to his second section, Matthew
ing his chronicle. In the introduction
announced
that he has been writing for eight years; thus he com
We
the years AY 401-500

(covering
in the year 1109/1110. He further indicated that he
[952/3-1051/2])
more
had eighty
years to chronicle, giving an intended completion
pleted
the first section of his work
dateofAY58o(ii3i/2).26
Then in his forties, themonk
events
anticipated another
to the
Apocalypse.
leading
two decades
of
At the begin
tells us he has now been writing
for fifteen years, and again signals his intention to end his chronicle
in AY
580, indicating that the year at that time was 1116/7.27His
account
in 1136/7 (AY 585), five years later than he
actually concluded
account of these additional five years is brief.
the
anticipated, though
of northern
intended audience was the Armenians
Matthew's
important historical
ning of his third section, Matthew
noted events in Edessa and sur

Syria, and his narrative frequently
areas.
section of his chronicle, however, took
Only the last
rounding
own life as its
northern Syria during Matthew's
primary focus. As
22
Matt'eos Urhayets'i, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

277; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 181.
23
Johannes Pahlitzsch, "Symeon II. und
die Errichtung der lateinischen Kirche von
Jerusalem durch die Kreuzfahrer," inMilitia
Sancti Sepulcri: Idea e Istituzioni, ed. Kaspar
Fonseca [Vatican
Elm and Cosimo Damiano
City, 1998], 341-60).
l6l
CHRISTOPHER
24
The monk further confused his chro
not included
nology by adding that "we have
these last ten years in our chronological
considerations";
it is not evident what the
x6

of Edessa, Armenia, 83.
113-14;Matthew
27

278;Matthew
chronicler intended by this.

Yet Berberian ("Comptes rendus," 404)
suggests thatMatthew began his chronicle
in 1113,though he does not give details.
25
MACEVITT

noted
earlier, the first two sections were
in the Armenian
kingdoms
to events
dedicated
largely
and around
of the Caucasus Mountains
Lake Van during the tenth and eleventh centuries.This choice

at least in part, to caution; Matthew
himself (per
current
events was
about
that writing
haps hyperbolically) warned
like to write about [the
with peril, noting that "we would
fraught
deeds, but dare not, since we are under
Franks'] many malicious
can be ascribed,
their authority."
however, may have preferred writing about
Matthew,
and the distant rather than about his own time and place
the past
because
in the past he could most easily

the apocalyptic violence
distinguish
From his perspective, the disappearance
of the Armenian
he
sought.
the
of
the
Ani, was
Bagratuni
kingdom
particularly
kingdoms,
most
traumatic of the "horrible punishments"
the Armenians
were
fated to suffer.Matthew
used
of the Armenian
misfortunes
city of Artsn
of the Armenians,"
the Turkish
siege and capture
in 1049/50, "the
the
beginning of
to urge his readers to "listen and
pay attention to this account of the end and decay of the East?by
slow degrees, year by year; for Artsn was the first town which was
and put to the sword and enslaved."29
captured from the Armenians
not ascribe Artsn's

sack and the massacre
notably did
and enslavement of its citizens to the city's sinfulness, as did the
chronicler Aristakes
the
Lastivertts'i.30 Rather,
eleventh-century
Matthew
was a
a disastrous
age.
city's destruction
sign of the beginning of
as victims
were
in his
Artsn
of
litany
Following
punishments
in
monasteries
smaller communities
such as the aforementioned
the Amanus
Sebasteia,
cultural
Mountains,
as well
as other
cities
such as Melitene,
considered
the
and, finally, in 1064/5 tne CltyMatthew
own
His
and religious heart of Armenia?Ani.
city of
massacres
others had suffered,
spared the sieges and
to
sense that, as
but Matthew
impress upon his audience the
sought
were
as
them
"left
Armenians,
strangers, describing
they
guardian
less in an alien land, since they left their ancestral home."31
Edessa
had been
Two
other, more
immediate
concerns
also inspired Matthew

was the
his
chronicle.
The
first
and
begin
surprising appearance
success of the First Crusade.
The crusades, and the
settle
political
ments
were a
to
sense
a
of
Matthew's
world
they produced,
challenge
to
28
Matt'eos Urhayets'i; Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

of Edessa, Armenia, 221. See also
239;Matthew
R. Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and theDeceits of

History: Adtmar ofChabannes, 989-1034
(Cambridge, Mass., 1995), 142-43. Inmy under
standing ofMatthew's
view of the past, I have
also been influenced by P. J.Geary,

Phantoms
ofRemembrance: Memory and

Oblivion at theEnd of theFirst Millennium
(Princeton, 1994).
30
Aristakes
Lastivertts'i, Patmut'iwn
(Venice, 1901), 64-69.

31

300; Matthew

103;Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 76-77.
29
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA's

CHRONICLE
l6^
and
by the "three nations"?Armenians,
Byzantines,
were the
of
his
chronicle.
putative subjects
Although
never accorded
the Franks the same status as the other
dominated
Turks?who
Matthew
three, he came
Turks. Matthew
under
monk
to know
or the
the Byzantines
in Edessa when the city came
them better
was
than
likely resident
in 1098, and the Armenian
the rule of Baldwin
of Boulogne
life
the
of
his
under
Frankish
remainder
rule, devot
spent
a considerable
to
portion of the third section of his chronicle
ing
soon
his work in 1101/2,
after the First
their deeds. Matthew
began
even
more
its
and
violence, unexpectedness,
Crusade;
surprising
success likelyprovidedMatthew with thefinal evidence needed to
confirm his sense of a world
momentous
undergoing
of two kat'olikoi32 of the Pahlavuni
The presence
change.
ear
family in
with further
northern Syria provided Matthew

ly-twelfth-century
to
write. The aristocratic Pahlavunis had established
incentive
a near
on the office of the kat'olikos, or

Armenian
patriarch of the
monopoly
church, in the latter half of the eleventh century. The valiant deeds
chron
of the family, a narrative thread running through Matthew's
icle, provided a connection between events inArmenia
(particularly
in the
of Ani), and in northern Syria. The origins of the
kingdom
were among
are obscure,33 but
by the late tenth century they
family
the leading aristocrats of the Bagratuni kingdom of Ani. Beginning
of
with Vasak Pahlavuni
(d.1021), sparapet (military commander)
the
Matthew
recounted
Ani,
family's accomplishments,
focusing
a series of
(d. 1047), successor
prominent members: Vahram
son
as
to his brother Vasak
Vasak's
Gregory Magistros
sparapet,34
and
of
doux
litterateur
Byzantine Mesopotamia,35
Gregory's
(d. 1058),
on
son Vahram
(d. 1105), who
became
32
Correctly transliterated as kat'ughikos,
but here I use themore familiar Greek-based
plural rather than theArmenian
kat'ughikosk'.
Cyril Toumanoff
33
Pahlavunis
connections
gives the
to the ancient
family and thus to the family

of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the
inArmenia, but
founder of Christianity
this genealogy is dubious; see his Studies
in Christian Caucasian History
themselves
D.C,
claimed
1963), 207. The

the connection,
family
per
on the
a
haps as way to solidify their hold
katholicate. Movses Khorenats'i
(of
164
CHRISTOPHER
Chorene),
been dated
patriarch
in
a historian whose writings have

anywhere from the fifth to the
descended
Moses
from the Iranian Pahlavids;
see
History of the
trans. R. W. Thomson
Khorenats'i,
Armenians,
(Cambridge, Mass.,
their surname
While
1978), 2: 27,165.
evoked
the Arsacid
an area in
being both
Iran and the name of the two branches of
monarchy,

98;Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 74. See the
34
genealogical chart inM. Leroy, "Gregoire

Magistros et les traductions armeniennes
eighth century, recorded that both Saint

were
Gregory and the Kamsarakans
Kamsarakan
(Washington,
the first Pahlavuni
Pahlav
d'auteurs grecs,"AIPHOS
3 (1935): 263-94.
A. Sanjian, "Gregory Magistros: An
35
Armenian Hellenist,"
Studies
inHonor
in TO EAAHNIKON:
ofSperos Vryonis,Jr., vol. 2,

Armeniaca, Islamica, the
Byzantinoslavica,
Balkans and Modern
Greece, ed. J. S. Allen
al. (New Rochelle, N.Y.,
et
1993), 131-58; Leroy,

263-94; B. L.
the Arsacid
family, the Pahlavunis

and
emerged only in the tenth century
with
cannot be linked to the Kamsarakans
"Gregoire Magistros,"
"Echos de legendes epiques
Chukaszyan,
iraniennes dans les ?lettres? de Grigor
any certainty.
Magistros,"
MACEVITT

REArm
1 (1964): 321-29.
1065-66 under the name Gregory II,36 and Gregory's second son
Vasak (d. 1077),doux of Byzantine Antioch.37Kat'olikos Gregory
as
and a grandnephew
bishops
nephews
two of them
succeeded him
consecutively
during his lifetime, and
to the
In contrast to his attitude toward almost all
patriarchate.
or
other leaders
groups, Matthew
rarely criticized the Pahlavunis;
II consecrated
his
two
even when
II decided to abandon his patriarchal duties to
Gregory
live an eremitic life,which led to a schism in the church, Matthew
admired
to take on a life of solitude,
his determination
and only
to his
replace
lightly chastised him for his subsequent hostility
vow
he had taken to
"for he forgot the
ment, the vardapet George,
in the
be George's
companion
spiritual life."38
first contact with the Pahlavunis may have come
Matthew's
1103/4, shortly after he began his chronicle. In that year, the
came to Edessa,
kat'olikos Barsegh Pahlavuni
(nephew of Gregory II)
39
count Baldwin
II. Matthew was likely
welcomed
by the Frankish
around
still living in the city at the time, and given the prominent place of the
inMatthew's
Pahlavunis
chronicle, the patriarch may have provided
or otherwise, toward Matthew's
some
encouragement, material
proj
ect. Their association
took
deepened when both Barsegh and Matthew
some years later.40One hundred
up residence in the town of K'esun
miles northwest of Edessa, K'esun was the center of a local Armenian
suncle
Gregory
renovatio in the early twelfth century.

Barsegh
Often known with the epithet
Vkayaser, meaning "lover of themartyrs,"
36
for his numerous
in Zoroastrianism;
translations of such stories

see
from Greek and Syriac into Armenian;

Matt'eos
I55~5^; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 106-7.
For a general biography and outline of his

travels, see A. Kapoian-Kouymjian,
L'Egypte
vuepar des Armeniens (Paris, 1988), 7-93.
37 Matt'eos Urhayets'i, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
zi^-14; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 141.
38
Matt'eos
Urhayets'i,
190-91; Matthew
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
of
127-28. A vardapet is a
theArmenian church.
rank within
unique
It is essentially a scholarly position, invested
with the authority to teach, and ranked
second only to that of the bishop. Although
the position did not have any sacramental
duties attached to it,vardapets did have the
"Vardapet
LeMuseon
39
II, after
see R. Thomson,
in the Early Armenian
Church,"
Danishmend
75 (1962): 367-84.
Matt'eos
Edessa, Armenia,
294; Matthew
of
192. The annexation
of the
kingdom of Ani spurred a period of nomad

ism on the part of the patriarchs, and the
political confusions of the late eleventh
century brought schism to the church?at
one time four different kat'olikoi were exer
cising their authority under the protection
of various Armenian and Muslim princes.
Barsegh had visited Edessa some ten years
earlier (1091/2), while the citywas still under
Turkish
control. It is possible
that this visit
also had an impact on Matthew;

Matt'eos
see
241; Matthew
Some historians
Dulaurier, Chronique, ix-x. It is

unclear when Matthew
leftEdessa for
have linked the institution to the office of
K'esun. He was still in Edessa when he
the herbad, which fulfilled an analogous
began the third and last part of his chronicle
power to excommunicate.
role
sultan Muhammad,
raremoment, Matthew
Urhayets'i,
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
in 1116,but the last entry in his chronicle

recounts an attack on K'esun by the
40
and in a
turns to the first
is compassionate and
in all things, in spite of our sins did
not will that we fall into the hands of the
person:
"God, who
merciful
enemy; rather he took pity on us ... and so

did not give the command for the infidels to
attack the town" (Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
^67; Matthew of
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
continua
238). Matthew's
torGregory also lived inK'esun, further
suggesting thatMatthew, at the end of his
Edessa, Armenia,
life at least, was living there. At the time of

his death in 1113/4,Barsegh was residing in
Behesni, a town only a few dozen miles to
the north of K'esun. An assembly of bishops
consecrated his nephew Gregory as his suc
cessor at themonastery of Karmir Vank',
also situated in the territory of K'esun:
Matt'eos
Urhayets'i, Zhamanagakrut'iwn,
329-30; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 215.
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA'S

CHRONICLE
165
years of traveling throughout the eastern Mediterranean,

Whether
up residence in the city, dying there in 1105/6.41
first took
inspired by
ruler Kogh42 Vasil, Matthew
by K'esun's Armenian
as the successor to the cultural and
promoted the city
or
the Pahlavunis
enthusiastically
military glories of Ani. He
while the Franks of Edessa
of the Turks, Vasil was
at Turkish
found great satisfaction in noting that

suffered defeat after defeat at the hands
defending Christians
and winning victories

regiment of Armenian
expense. Vasil "brought together

and
brave as lions or lion cubs, these soldiers rushed against
troops;
the infidels," decisively defeating them and capturing a number of
amounts of
in
prisoners and vast
booty.43 Lists of the great fighters
army, such as his adopted son Vasil Dgha, his nephew Petros,
and Tiran, further fostered a heroic image.
and the warriors Aplasat'
After Vasil's death in 1112/3,Matthew
recalled that "around this
Vasil's
were united the remnants of the Armenian

army, members of
prince
sons
of the
of Armenia,
the Bagratuni and Pahlavuni
families,
kings
with themilitary
and finallyall thoseof Pahlavuni lineage,together
aristocracy of Armenia."44
echoed his earlier praise of Bagratuni
While Matthew's
language
heroes and linked Kogh Vasil to a bygone era,Vasil himself arose from
"robber."
humble origins; kogh (gogh) is an Armenian
epithet meaning
for
him
and
claimed
the
nevertheless
Matthew
majesty
proud heri
tage of the storied Armenian
whom he suggested belonged
aristocracy through his unnamed wife,

to the ancient Kamsarakan
Her
family.45
and
connected Vasil to the Pahlavunis
unlikely ancestry conveniently

also to St. Gregory the Illuminator,
the revered founder ofArmenian
and Kogh Vasil's family as the

Christianity, placing the Pahlavunis
on K'esun. Matthew's
leaders of a new Armenian
society centered
and Kogh Vasil was tinged with the
promotion of the Pahlavunis
to the com
sweetness of
for
Kogh Vasil's principality fell
nostalgia,
bined hostilities
of other Armenian
lords and the Franks
soon after
in 1116/7 towrite
Vasil's death in 1112/3.By the time Matthew
began
of
the third section of his chronicle containing his descriptions
and Kogh Vasil, those heady days were gone, replaced by what
he considered the comparatively grim rule of the Franks.
K'esun
41
298-99; Matthew
of Edessa, Armenia, 195-96.
See also Kapoian-Kouymjian,
L'Egypte vuepar
des Armeniens, 7-93.

as "gogh," but
Properly transliterated
commonly as "kogh."
42

306-7; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 200-201.
43
Other chronicles do notmention these

Armenian victories.
44
45
would
As with the Pahlavunis,
this claim
seem to be at the least an exaggeration.
glory faded after the disastrous

aristocratic rebellion in 775-76 against the
Kamsarakan
'Abbasids, and thereafter the family disap

peared from the historical record; possibly
they lingered on as minor nobles, conscious
of their former dignity, and thus showed up
in twelfth-century Syria tomarry a daughter
toKogh Vasil, but this isunlikely.
l66
CHRISTOPHER
MACEVITT

Armenians Amid Enemies?

Perceptions ofTurks,Byzantines, and Franks
narratives and assessments
of other peoples of the Levant,

his
have
been in
what make
text,
interspersed throughout
large part
his depiction of
him so interesting to modern historians. However,
Matthew's
non-Armenians
was
assumed
quently
an
contradictory, and historians have fre

or anti-Frankish bias without
anti-Byzantine
often
the depiction
of such groups
Matthew's
examining
throughout
in
all their complexity make
chronicle. The images of non-Armenians
sense
within
his
endeavor.
only
larger apocalyptic
the disappearance
stated purpose of explaining
of
at
the
hands
of
the
and
Turks
power
prepares
Byzantines
account inwhich the
the reader for a polemical
Byzantines and the
Matthew's
Armenian
communities. Such an account

Turks oppress and persecute Armenian
would have established clear boundaries
from
separating Armenians
their neighbors and insisted on a moral scheme of

"good guys" and
"bad guys," and inmany cases, Matthew
supplied just that.Mamlan,
was "in his ferociousness
emir of
the Muslim
like a
Azerbaijan,
. . and
to the
bloodthirsty serpent.
spoke many blasphemous words
heavens
inArmenia
the first appearance
...
to
intent on
"bloodthirsty beasts,"
"winged serpents
like fire over all the lands of the Christian
faithful."47 An
above."46 Matthew
likened
of the Turks,
spreading
Armenian
cleric inMatthew's
account
called
sons of
them "accursed
was Satan.48
suggested that their closest ally
Likewise
the Byzantines,
"the apostate and
perfidious nation
as
of heretics,"49 appear
both political oppressors and
religious per
?
secutors. Matthew
on
in the
blamed a massacre
Holy
Sepulcher
to calculate
Byzantine
theologians who used the wrong calendar
Ham"
and
was the situation the intel

sarcastically commenting that "this
labeled the emperor
ligent sages of the Greeks brought about."51 He
III
Romanos
"a weak and timid person, besides
Argyros (1028-34)
Easter,
a very malicious
and notorious blasphemer of the Orthodox
A Byzantine attack on Armenia was remembered as
"bring
. .
a
the
sword and enslavement.
ing
killing savagely like poisonous
being
faith."
46

34-35; Matthew

47

72; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 59. For evil
48
Turks, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
41-42; Armenia,
41; Turkish attack on Edessa, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
55;Turks as "venomous serpents,"

146; Armenia, 102. For
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
65; Armenia,
the connection between Satan and theTurks,

see the discussion below on
apocalypse.
4 9 Matt'eos Urhayets'i, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
96; Matthew
50
of Edessa, A rmenia, 72.
For vicious Byzantines, Matt'eos
41;
Matthew
of Edessa, Armenia,
41; Byzantines
plundering Christians, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

66; Armenia, 56. For attitudes toward
crusaders and Franks, see below.
51

43; Matthew
52

of Edessa, A rmenia 51.
57;Matthew
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA'S

CHRONICLE
167
serpent, in this manner being no different from the infidel

X Doukas
(1059-67), supported by
Emperor Constantine
and
the
aristocrats, sought
patriarch
leading Byzantine
theArmenian
faith and "substitute his demonic, confused,
peoples."53
the Greek
to
destroy
and defec
tive doctrine."54
in
and perfidious Byzantines find their complement
heroic Armenian
leaders.Within
the first few pages of his chronicle,
a
for example, Matthew
gave a dramatic account of battle between the
Evil Turks
forces ofVasak
Pahlavuni
and theMuslim
Daylamites
of Azerbaijan.
his narrative with
epic language: Vasak, with

his beloved son Gregory and other illustrious noblemen, was making
a
merry in his fortress of Bjni. Vasak saw man coming in haste up the
Matthew
constructed
man is a bearer of
road on foot. Upon
seeing him, Vasak said: "This
to the
that the
bad news."55 Indeed the man announced
gathering
whole district of Nig has been enslaved. "Roaring like a lion," Vasak
his troops, stopping first for communion
and
girded for battle with
a
a
soon
came
to
on
the way. They
confession at monastery
village
where theMuslims were massacring Christians gathered in a church,
and killed three hundred of the invaders. Soon after, they confronted
the main Muslim
army, and Vasak engaged in single combat

whom
the Armenian
eventually cleaved
"a dark Ethiopian"

Such an account delivers what
going
against
in two.
Armenians
the reader expects?noble
and tri
brave, though vicious Muslims,
into battle
against
and faith.56
umphing through superior strength, virtue,
This pat dichotomy has been what historians have noticed most
often inMatthew's
account, leading to the suggestion thatMatthew
was biased
Such passages, however, are mis
against non-Armenians.
and Turks,
the Byzantines
leading. For every episode demonizing
the reader can find another praising them. Although Matthew
spe
as the
Turks
and
the
identified
destroyers of
Byzantines
cifically
not
either
he did
the Armenians,
group as evil
consistently portray
or
to Armenian
interests. He praised Basil
opposed
who arguably did the most to undermine Armenian
41;Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 41. The same
53
accusation was
leveled against the
in 1035/6 (Matt'eos Urhayets'i,

66; Matthew of
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Byzantines
Edessa, Armenia
56).

54
5?

Matthew
11;
$6
Other
inMatthew's
King Ashot
Matt'eos
Matthew
CHRISTOPHER
independence,
such heroic scenes can be found

description of battle between
and a nameless Georgian prince:
of Edessa, Armenia, 23; Hasan
9;
and
and
Chnchghuk avenging their father
brother: Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
91-92;
69-70;
see also the story of Liparit
and Ch'ortuanel:
107
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
the death of Dawatanos:
Armenia,
9; Armenia,
78-9;
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
l68
II, the emperor
142-3: Armenia,
100.
MACEVITT

and as one who lived "a holy and chaste life . . . leaving
"saintly"
even documented
inva
Basil's
behind a good memory."57 Matthew
as
sion of Armenia
and
annexation
of Armenian
kingdoms
with
instead offered his readers an unlikely story in

at an Armenian monastery on
secret
baptism
near Antioch
and thus "became like an adopted
the Black Mountain
sultan Malik-Shah
father of the Armenian
nation."59 The Turkish
out criticism,58 and

which
Basil
received
received an even more
enthusiastic
remem
upon death,
to all, and a benevolent, mer
encomium
as "father and
bered byMatthew
parent
man
towards all."60 The Turkish
ciful, and kind
Gumiishtegin
Matthew's
eulogy;
was
emir Malik-Ghazi
even
ancestry in
sorrow
great
were
his
who
faithful
under
rule."61
given Armenian
at his death, he noted, "there was
Danishmend
among the Christian

Matthew's
attitude
toward Frankish
leaders was
no
less contra
II, Count of Edessa (1100-1118)

dictory, and his depiction of Baldwin
and later King of Jerusalem (1118-31), reveals the extent to which he
separate political actions and personal virtue, acts of betrayal

as
and moral
rule of Edessa
accountability.
Portraying Baldwin's
interests, a stab in the back
particularly devastating for Armenian
could
a series of offenses
after initial cooperation, Matthew
documented
a
massacre
in Edessa
the
Frankish
leader, including
perpetrated by
in 1108/9, the temporary
of the city in
expulsion of the population
in the
1113/4, connivance
expulsion from Syria of Kogh Vasil's heir,
worst
of
the
exile, torture, and murder of a number of prom
and,
all,
inent Armenian
lords in 1117/8.Under Baldwin, Matthew

insisted,
were
as
these
"[the Franks]
continually occupied with such pursuits
more
and did
but
think
malicious
and
up
nothing
spiteful things;
no
over, they had a love for perfidious and evil ways,
regard for
having
and
actions."62
good
kindly
some
we read, in the
surprise, then, that
paragraph
one
the
Matthew's
above,
immediately following
quoted
appraisal of
Baldwin Hs personal and moral
He
reminded
his reader,
qualities.
It is with
57

of Edessa, Armenia, 49-50. Nor
55;Matthew
does Matthew
acknowledge that theByzantine

army that attacked Armenia in 991/2,
denounced as "killing savagely like a poison
ous serpent, in thismanner
being no differ
ent from the infidel
peoples" was, even under
his own chronology, necessarily under orders
from Basil II (Zhamanakagrut'iwn, 41;
father"; see T'ovmaj Vardapet Arcruni,

Patmut'iwn TannArcruniats'(St. Petersburg,
1887), 307, translated by R.W. Thomson in
Thomas Artsruni, History of theHouse of the
Artsrunik '(Detroit, 1985),370. For otherArmenian

49; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 46).
59

50;Matthew
attitudes towardBasil II, see J.-P.

Mahe, "Basile II
et Byzance vus par
TrM 11
Narekac'i,"
Grigor
(1991): 555-73. For Matthew's attitude toward
61
other Byzantine
297; Matthew
Armenia, 41). The anonymous continuator of
58
T'ovma Artsruni
King Hovhannes
likewise praised Basil as "a
for giving in to the emperor's demands
emperors, see below.
However, Matthew
did criticize
of Ani as "cowardly"
60

243; Matthew
62


339;Matthew
MATTHEW
OF EDESSAS

CHRONICLE
169
"Baldwin was
nobility;
one of the more
a valiant man
and
enemy of sin, and by nature humble

admit he had a bad side: "these good
nious avariciousness
and his insatiable
of the Frankish
illustrious members
a warrior,
in conduct,
exemplary
and modest."
Matthew
an
did
were
offset by inge
qualities
the
of others
and
wealth
seizing
accumulating
love formoney." Yet he continues on to tell us that
in
"he was very orthodox in his faith, and his ethical conduct and basic
statements of
character were quite solid."63 Matthew's
contradictory
this nature make it difficult to use him as a barometer of Armenian
attitudes toward other religious and ethnic groups, as historians have
a belief inMatthew's
to non
abandoned
often done. Having
hostility
was
to
the reader may be tempted
Armenians,
suggest thatMatthew
inconsistent or heavily edited. However,

the chronicler's
were not a result of
arose
apparent contradictions
inconsistency, but
as
in
interest
of
the
the
from his
portents
coming Apocalypse
tracing
either wildly
in the lives of individuals and communities. Baldwin's

they appeared
actions were signs, not of Frankish character or the nature of their
inwhich he lived.
authority, but of the calamitous age
Betrayal
the "good guy/bad guy" narratives, on which histo

for two reasons: they failed
rians have
largely focused, uninteresting
to
and placed emphasis on
among Armenians,
explain divisions
on the acts of violence themselves, as the
example
people, rather than
Matthew
of Baldwin
found
II above
suggests. The
actions ascribed
to the Armenian
king of Lori, Davit* Anhoghin (David the Landless, 989-1046/8),

make
clear that Matthew
viewed Armenians
as
equally susceptible
and Turks.
to contradictory acts of violence as Franks, Byzantines,
inMatthew's
chronicle was as the Christian
first appearance
David's
emir of
and king par excellence. Attacked
by the Kurdish
from
rallied
David
Dvin, AbuT-Uswar,
troops
king
neighboring
that
doms with the help of the Albanian
kat'olikos, who announced
warrior
"if there be any man or woman desirous of a martyr's death, lo, the
has
itself." Like the forces of the First Crusade,
opportunity
presented
not
but also
David's
army was composed
only of armed soldiers,
women
and
included unarmed men,
children, bishops, monks, and
theweapons of faith, "thewhole camp took up the

deacons. Wielding
cross and the
the forces of the wicked approached, and the
Gospels;
The defeat of the invad
stood
multitude of priests
opposite them."64
an army, David
army was total. As the leader of such
ingMuslim
into the "us
seem to
would
exemplify the pious prince-hero, fitting
chroniclers.
them" dichotomy historians often expect from medieval
Yet one year later (and two pages farther on in the modern
as "an official of
described David
Matthew
King Hovhannes
170
CHRISTOPHER
edition),
of Ani"
63

340; Matthew
64

81-82; Matthew
MACEVITT

who had rebelled against theking and "subjectedmany regions to

the sword and enslavement."65 Furthermore Matthew
accused David,
"through[his] treacheryand deceit,"66of encouragingtheByzantines

to attack Ani,
perhaps
Betrayal, Matthew
the greatest crime inMatthew's

eyes.
no
was
made
clear,
respecter of persons.
not indicate an individual's sinful
betrayed did
or
Betraying
being
nature, but rather the state of the larger Armenian
community. Even
the progenitor of the Pahlavunis, Vasak, could not escape betrayal.
Exhausted by his epic battlewith the Ethiopian described above,

fell asleep on a mountainside
underneath
the protection of an
some local
was found
outcropping of rocks. There he
by
villagers, who
struck him on the head, then threw his body from the high rocks; he
Vasak
was thuskilled by theverypeople he had foughttoprotect. It ishardly

a
expect for patriarch of a family Matthew
ruler whom Matthew
repeatedly praised. Another
respected, the
Davit'
of Tayk', died at the hands
"saintly and righteous" kouropalates
the heroic end one would
of his own archbishop, Hilarion, who after first attempting to poison

to
him with the Eucharistic
chalice during Mass,
finally resorted
in his
The deaths ofVasak and Davit' occur
smothering Davit'
sleep.67
in the first twenty pages ofMatthew's
account; many others could be
in
listed from elsewhere
the text.68
victim whose
The
kingdom
themost
fate Matthew
mourned
most
often was
the
was
and city ofAni. Its destruction and the exile of its
kings
of
the
"horrible punishments" he described, and the
painful
were emblematic ofwhat Armenians

betrayals associated with its fall
as a nation suffered.69Matthew
considered the death of King Ashot
IV ofAni (1021-39)a symbolicturningpoint in the fortunesof the

84-85; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 66. The
Byzantium, 384. Aristakes

believed that the poisoned
switch from "king" to "official" is inpart a

reflection of Lori's origin as a dependent prov
ince of the kingdom ofAni. Lori was given to
not hold the archbishop responsible. Instead

he blamed a group of noblemen of Tayk'
Daulah,
(Aristakes Lastivertts'i, Patmut'iwn,
who was killed by his own troops
6$
fatherGurgen as something like an

appanage. The kings ofAni were reluctant to
David's
accept Lori as fully independent.

66
88;Matthew
67
of Edessa, A rmenia, 6$.

37-38; Matthew
Matthew's willingness to adapt historical

events to his own purpose is
again evident here.
Matthew
suggests that Basil II, one of his
heroes, avenged David's death, when in fact he

seized David's lands afterhis death as punish
ment forDavid's
participation in the revolt
against him by Bardas Phokas; seeWhittow,
icewas
68
the cause of David's
8o-8i.
Lastivertts'i
Eucharistic
chal
death, but did
10).
For the anonymous
the doux of Antioch
vestis betrayed by
to the Turks so that
the vestismight not win fame and glory, see

157-58; Armenia, 108;
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
on Liparit, whom the Byzantine army aban
doned on the battlefield "so that he would
not gain the reputation of being valiant,"
see
107-9; Armenia,
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
79; on the four sons ofAbel, besieged by the
Byzantines (motivated by "venomous slan
ders"), one killed in his sleep by "comrades
and old friends," the other three imprisoned,
see
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
109-12; Armenia,
Significantly this episode is the last

in the first section ofMatthew's
chronicle.
Other
such episodes include Sharaf-al

emir ofMosul, "a kind man and
benevolent
towards the Christian
faithful,"
227-8; Armenia,
(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
"a benevolent, merciful
149); Malik-Shah,
and kind man," who was poisoned by his

wife (Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
243; Armenia,
158); the kouropalates T'oros killed by
after they swore an oath to protect
him (Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
261-62; Armenia,
Edessans
169-70).
Again his interest inAni may
reflect the patronage of the Pahlavunis,
69
lands were a part of the Bagratuni

kingdom of Ani, or perhaps point to
Matthew's own origins.
whose
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA'S

CHRONICLE
IJl
Armenians.
After this, "the Armenian

forces grew slack and scorned
to the Roman
the art of war. They became
subject
yoke, they reveled
in
one another and
drunkenness-They
departed from unity with
no
came to one another's aid.
tears for the land
they
longer
They shed
to
which was
the
sword, weeping
being put
together for its destruc
one another to the sword of
tion and at the same time
delivering up
the Greek nation."70
Betrayal
rarely benefited the traitor; it served only to place
Armenians
under "the Roman
decline within
the
yoke." Moral
Armenian world was thus the
of
the
assaults of Turks
complement
and Byzantines
ranks preceded
from without.
betrayal within Armenian

of the Turks and the annexations of
However,
the onslaught
the conquest of Armenia
decline.
cause, of Armenian
the Byzantines;
thus a symptom, not a
was
son and successor

II
Betrayal and conflict dogged Ashot's
Gagik
at
turn.
account
Matthew's
of
the
his
loss
of
every
(1042-45)
kingdom
a symptom of his
is confused,
and
perhaps
chronological
geographi
cal distance from the events he was trying to
explain.71 Matthew
an Armenian
name of
blamed
nobleman
the
by
largely
Sargis, who
attemptedto seize thekingdom forhimself in 1041/1followingthe
death of Gagik's
uncle Hovhannes.72
When
that proved unsuccessful,
IX
Constantine
Monomachos's
ultimately
Sargis instigated Emperor
successful attack on Gagik and Ani two years later.73At Sargis's sug
to visit him in
gestion, the emperor invited Gagik
Constantinople.
the king was
absent, Sargis and his supporters handed Ani over

to the
Byzantines, in the face of the opposition of the general populace,
who "wept for their royal throne and, deeply lamenting, wept for their
While
cursed those who

Strikingly, the weeping Armenians
not
the Byzantines
and his supporters?but
betrayed Gagik?Sargis
king Gagik."74
70
79; Matthew
III of Ani,
King Hovhannes-Smbat
his
had
uncle,
promised
kingdom to
Gagik's
the Byzantines after his death; according to
71
Matthew,
thiswas forestalled by a group of

see
Pahlavuni;
aristocrats led by Vahram

Matt'eos
85-86; Matthew
72

of Edessa, Armenia, 66. Yet Sargis
84;Matthew
was listed as one of the "eminent" men, along

with Gregory Magistros (one of the
Pahlavunis), sent toHovhannes Kozern
CHRISTOPHER
genealogical
chart in Leroy, "Gregoire
Magistros."
The royal heirs of Vaspurakan
later fell
73
victim to a similar betrayal. "A certain
and evil prince from the noblemen of
Senek'erim went to the Greek emperor and
wicked
severely denounced Atom and Abusahl, the

sons of Senek'erim, saying: 'They are intent
on rebelling against you and thus causing
you annoyance
to hear
his grim vision (Matt'eos Urhayets'i,

67; Matthew of Edessa,
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
17^
56).Matthew either did not know,

or chose not tomention, the fact that Sargis
was Gregory Magistros's
son-in-law; see
Armenia,
and trouble.' The emperor
[IV the Paphlagonian],

having
heard this, believed these falsely spoken
words_"
They saved themselves only by
Michael
throwing themselves on the tomb of

Emperor Basil II, whom Matthew claimed as
"an adopted father of theArmenian nation";
see Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
83-84; Matthew of
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,
65.

74
Aristakes also detailed Sargis s attempt to gain

the throne in thewake ofHovhannes's death,
as well as Vahram Pahlavuni
s opposition to
him (Aristakes, Patmut'iwn, 47-48). Aristakes,

however, blamed Gagik forpardoning Sargis
forhis treason, and then for compounding his
error by listening to his advice to go to
Constantinople, ignoringVahram's counsel to
the contrary (Aristakes, Patmut'iwn, 51).
MACEVITT

hands he was betrayed. The true threat was that of betrayal

or
from within, not from Byzantine
trickery.
aggression
intowhose
As with the violence of the Turks, Franks, and Byzantines,
Matthew
was more
interested in the act of betrayal than in themoral

of the betrayed, and frequently minimized
the culpability
qualities
of the betrayer by recounting
is theArmenian
early example
their repentance
or restitution. An
over his
general Aplgharip who, bitter
of
(936/7
replacement, betrayed his king, Derenik-Ashot
Vaspurakan
to
an
not
in
infidel army,which resulted
the
953),
capture
only
king's
an Armenian
in the
however,
army. Matthew,
slaughter of
even
excom
still considered the general
and
brave,"
"mighty
though
rescue
municated by theArmenian monks of
Varag, and described his
but also
of theking he betrayed.75
When King Hovhannes-Smbat III ofAni
(1020-40, Gagik's
uncle) wrongly imprisoned the kat'olikos Petros
in 1037/8, he installed the "eminent orator" and abbot Deoskoros
as the new
a mournful
tone
(Dioscorus)
patriarch. Matthew
adopted
when
and loss
discussing Dioscorus's
subsequent excommunication
was
of reputation,
in
the
abbot
Petros's
clearly complicit
although
supersession and had "ordained unworthy people to the episcopate."

After Petros was restored to his throne, Matthew
mildly noted that
"Dioscorus went back to Sanahin, his monastery, very much ashamed
of what he had done."76 Matthew
later included Dioscorus
in his list
was
vardapets," signaling that his character
act of
unbesmirched
by his
betrayal.77
were
Nor
Armenians
the only victims of
betrayal from within.
of "eminent Armenian
had a particular concern for Byzantine emperors, who suf

fered as much as did Armenian
leaders from untrustworthy subordi
nates and
were
and
family members,
given frequent opportunities by
Matthew
Matthew
how
to redeem themselves from the sin of

betrayal. He
recounted
the very
John Tzimiskes
"ruthlessly and savagely butchered
benevolent" emperor
as
II
"filled with
Phokas, praised
Nikephoras
believed that John later
every virtue and upright quality."78 Matthew
75
Matthew
enly placing
misdated
this event, mistak
it in 965/6, more
than twenty
years after the king's death (Matt'eos

30-31;
Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 35-36). See
also the story of Apirat, who rebelled against
of Ani and fled toAbuT
King Hovhannes
Uswar, Kurdish
emir of Dvin. AbuT-Uswar,
"vengeful in his heart," executed Apirat, a

"brave man, one mighty and renowned in all
ofArmenia"
(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
10-11;
Armenia,
Pahlavuni
24). Apirat married into the

family and was the grandfather
77

179;Matthew
of the kat'olikos Barsegh Pahlavuni
78
zu; Armenia, 140).

(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
76
6-7; Matthew
uses an Armenian
phrase (karijojzh),
combining twowords, which both mean "very
much." Together as a phrase they emphasized
the strength ofDioscorus's shame,
meaning
Matthew

of Edessa, Armenia, 21-22. His
murder of Phokas also led to the defeat of the

Byzantine army atAmida,
forGod
turned
against them and gave victory to theMuslims

(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
14-16; Matthew
of
Edessa, Armenia, 26-27).
"supremely, to the utmost."
MATTHEW
OF EDESSAS

CHRONICLE
I73
repentedand joined amonastery,79though in facthe diedwhile still
emperor. Isaac I Komnenos

(1057-59) was not liked "because he com
mitted various perfidious acts against the Christians"
and because he
had "an evil nature";80 yet when God annihilated
the Byzantine army
while
itwas
marching
to battle with
that all this

divine-rebuking
wrath
the
had
Pechenegs,
fallen upon
Isaac
"realized
the Christians
because of his iniquities,forby his sinshe had angeredGod." After
to leave the
"he
imperial throne and with
seeking forgiveness,
sought
and weeping
take up the life of a penitent."81 Even though
fasting
IV
Romanos
had sworn to exterminate
the
(1068-71)
Diogenes
faith and had been cursed by Armenian monks, Matthew
of the "perfidious Romans" who
still disapproved
secretly negoti
Armenian
ated to betray him to Alp Arslan before the battle of Mantzikert,82

to
and compared
the blinding and subsequent death of Romanos
III
The
the crucifixion of Jesus by the Jews.83
emperor Nikephoros
a year; his conscience both
the
throne
left
after
Botaniates
(1078-81)
Michael VII Doukas

eredhim, having seizedpower from
and pious and endowed with

and Doukas
and radiant holiness." Both Botaniates
who
"was benevolent
(1071-78),
all sorts of virtues

became monks.84
be at worst
the Inferno, betrayers would
at the last circle
not stuck in Satan's mouth
IfMatthew
had written
somewhere
in Limbo,
ofHell.
79
29-30; Matthew
80
125;Matthew
81

iz6; Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 91.
82

of Edessa, A rmenia, 133-4.
200; Matthew
83
Matt'eos Urhayets' i,Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

203; Matthew
84
Matt'eos Urhayets' i,Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

215;Matthew
174
CHRISTOPHER
MACEVITT

Apocalypse
The
attacks on Artsn, Melitene,
Sebasteia,
and Ani,
as well
as the
saw as endemic in Armenian

soci
and Byzantine
betrayal Matthew
were
a
event
the result of
cosmic
foretold by Scripture?
ety,
single
the release of Satan from the thousand-year imprisonment inwhich
death and resurrection had placed him.5 Nor was the vision
of John in the Book
the only warning God gave human
ofRevelation
a series of
were woven
visions
for
ity,
apocalyptic
through Matthew's
Christ's
in a sense a table of contents and

forming
foreshadowing
a dozen pages later. The two visions
events that often
appeared only
of the hermit and vardapet Hovhannes
Kozern86 were the first and
chronicle,
most
gave his readers. The first vision

descriptions Matthew
in the year 1022/3, when on the third of October
the trifecta
on the same
of
apocalyptic signs appeared
day?earthquake,
eclipse,
and blinding celestial
Armenian
When
princes sought the
light.
cosmic
of
these
dire
Hovhannes
told them the por
meaning
signs,
detailed
came
tents
that Satan had been
released from his thousand-year

soon
feel Satan's presence both in
imprisonment. Armenians would
the degradation of social and religious bonds within their communi
ties, and in the devastation of the "ferocious and savage nation of the
signaled
Turks." Monks
will
abandon
and family members

cities and
kingdom
will
theirmonasteries,
turn
will
fall
priests their churches,

each other, while Armenian
against
to Turkish
attack.87 The
hermit's
Rev 20:1-11. A large bibliography exists

covering apocalypticism and millenarianism.
On specific responses to the book of
Revelation, see The Apocalypse in theMiddle
society (Agat'angeghos, History of the

Armenians, trans. R. W. Thomson [Albany,
Ages, ed. R. K. Emmerson
History
8?
and B. McGinn
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1992); The Use and Abuse of

Eschatology in theMiddle Ages, ed.W.
Verbeke, D. Verhelst, and A. Welkenhuysen
(Leuven, 1988); The Apocalyptic Year 1000:
Religious Expectations and Social Change,
9SO-ioso, ed. R. Landes, A. Gow, and D. C.
Van Meter
Death
(Oxford, 2003); Last Things:

and theApocalypse in theMiddle Ages,
ed. C. Walker
Bynum and P. Freedman
(Philadelphia, 2000). Apocalyptic elements

have a long history inArmenian
historiography; see R. W. Thomson, "The
Writing of History: The Development
Armenian and Georgian Traditions,"
Caucaso:
of the
in II
Cerniero fra culture dal
divisions
N.Y.,
that would
soon beset Armenian
See also Lewond,
1976], 273-97).
ofLewond theEminent Vardapet of

theArmenians, trans. Zaven Arzoumanian
Pa., 1982), 131-32; and the
(Wynnewood,
two apocalypses at the end of Andrew
Palmer's The Seventh Century in theWest
Syrian Chronicles (Liverpool, 1993), 222-59,

as well as A.
Hultgard, "The Vision ofEnoch
theJust and Medieval Apocalypses,"
in
Apocryphes armeniens: Transmission,
traduction, creation, iconographie, actes du
colloque international sur la litterature
apocryphe en langue armenienne, Geneve,
18-20 septembre 1997, ed. V. Calzolari
Bouvier,J.-D.
(Lausanne,
Kaestli,
andB. Outtier
1999), 147-58. The text is
translated in J. Issaverdens, The Uncanonical
Mediterraneo
alia Persia (secoli IV-XI):

20-26 aprile 199$ (Spoleto, 1996), 493-514.
The fifth-century historian named
Writings of the Old Testament Found in the

Armenian Mss. of theLibrary ofSt. Lazarus
(Venice, 1901), 306-23. See also R. W.
recorded a vision of St.

Agat'angeghos
Gregory the Illuminator, which revealed the
Thomson,
"Biblical Themes
Historian
Sebeos,"
in theArmenian
inAfter Bardaisan:
Studies in Continuity and Change in Syriac

Christianity inHonor ofProfessor Han J. W
Drijvers,
ed. G.J. Reinink
(Leuven, 1999), 295-302.

addresses
and A. C. Klugkist
Thomson
this theme inMatthew
briefly
of Edessa:
"'History' inMedieval Armenian Historians,"

inEastern Approaches toByzantium: Papers
from the Thirty-third Symposium of
Byzantine Studies, ed. A. Eastmond
(Aldershot, 2001), 89-99, as weU as m
"Crusades
86
through Armenian Eyes," 74-75.

also appeared in the
Hovhannes
eleventh-century account of Aristakes

Lastivertts'i, where he is noted as an author
of a book on faith (Aristakes, Patmut'iwn,
13).
52-55;Matthew of Edessa, Arme nia, 47-49.
87
For similar Byzantine concerns around the

same time, see P.Magdalino, "The History of
the Future and ItsUses: Prophecy, Policy and
Propaganda," in TheMaking ofByzantine
History, ed. R. Beaton and C. Roueche
(Aldershot, 1993), 3-34; Magdalino, "The Year
1000 inByzantium," in
Byzantium in theYear
1000, ed. P.Magdalino
(Leiden, 2003), 233-70.
MATTHEW
OF EDESSAS

CHRONICLE
175
vision
thus predicted
the betrayals within Armenian
society and
the "horrible
Armenians
suffered at the hands of
punishments"
that were Matthew's
other peoples
theme. While
principal
else
whereMatthew explicitlyblamed theByzantines and theTurks for
Armenia's
decline, Hovhannes's
master who was

Matthew's
responsible
revelation made
for the violence
Satan the puppet

and betrayal endemic in
world.
In 1036/7 another
earthquake and eclipse again struck fear into

the hearts of the Armenians,
and Matthew
had the hermit reiterate
his former predictions
in greater detail.88
Again Hovhannes
sized Satan's release and his close association with the Turks,
as the moral
decline
that would
undermine
the social bonds
empha
as well
at the
society. His second prediction, however, added a

to his
element
previous grim prophecy. After sixty years,
hopeful
"the valiant nation called the Franks will rise up; with a great number
heart of Armenian
new
of troops they will capture the holy city of Jerusalem, and the Holy
Sepulcher, which contained God, will be freed from bondage."89
Yet the crusaders were only the
renewal,
harbingers of Christian
for their arrival would
a
by
forty-year period featuring
than that which accompanied
the initial
be followed
seven times worse

suffering
Turkish invasion. True salvation would
come
only when "the Roman
a
as
an
iffrom
Emperor will be awakened
sleep, and like
eagle, rapidly
will come against the Turks with a very great army, as numerous as
the sands of the seashore. He will march forth like a
burning fire, and
creatures
in
all
will tremble
fear of him."90 The emperor's triumph
over theMuslims
be complete, and the way made clear for the

never
second coming of Christ, though Matthew
directly discussed
the final days and the Last Judgment.
Hovhannes's
recorded. He
will
were not the

ones Matthew
only
predictions
noted that the division of the Armenian
patriarchate
in the 1080s had been

predicted by Saint
The First Crusade,
Sahak, one of the earliest Armenian
patriarchs.91
fore
"the coming of theWesterners,"
was, according to Matthew,
seen
the crusaders
another early kat'olikos. When
by Saint Nerses,
among
88
six rival kat'olikoi
68,71; Matthew
of Edessa, Armenia, 57,58.
Hovhannes made
reference to the signs of
fourteen years earlier; this ismistranslated as

"forty" byDostourian.
89
For more on Franks as apocalyptic signs, see

Thomson, "Crusades through Armenian
Eyes," 74-75
176
CHRISTOPHER
90

73; Matthew
91
Matthew
Hovhannes
reminds the reader that
Kozern
also predicted
this

of Edessa, Armenia, 151). See
230; Matthew
also N. Garsoian,
"Reality and Myth in

in The East and the
Armenian History,"
Meaning
ofHistory: International Conference
November
1992) (Rome, 1994), 137-42.
(23-27
MACEVITT

assured his reader that this, too, was
captured Jerusalem, Matthew
predicted byNerses, adding "but because of theirsins the cityonce

Matthew evenhad a
againwill fall into thehands of the infidels."92
Syrian hermit named Mark
years after the First Crusade,
a few
predictions
lest his reader forget their importance.93
visions (and sometimes accompanying
reiterate Hovhannes's
Alongside
apocalyptic
noted
them, as we have seen with Hovhannes
Kozern), Matthew
occur
events such as comets,
and
eclipses
cataclysmic
earthquakes,
to
on a
ring
regular basis, explicit reminders of the final disaster
an earth
star that
in 1003/4,
accompanied
by
appeared
a
was "an omen of the wrath [barkut'iwn] of God
quake and plague,
towards all living creatures and also a sign of the end of the world."95
come.94 A
Fire from heaven

punishment
that Antioch
(a
destroyed the church of St. Peter in Antioch
intended to recall that of Sodom, forMatthew
alleged
in the same sin), and an

there
participated
earthquake
In 1058/9 poisonous
red snow
swallowed ten thousand Christians.96
man and beast, "a hor
fell for sixty days on northern Syria,
killing
rible sign of [God's] great wrath [barkut'iwn]"97 Comets
appeared
in 1066/7,1070/1, and 1097/8, and Matthew
them
linked
explicitly
to God's
or
imminent apoca
sin, Turkish attack,
anger, Christian
The arrival of the crusaders was
lypse.98
four celestial events.
heralded
and visions were more
by
no
less than
to
simply warnings
to
events of
Armenian
communities;
they served
particu
highlight
lar significance to Matthew.
He
exhorted his reader to remember
Predictions
than
the grim events of the past,

declaring the purpose of his chronicle
to be that "these
persons shall learn about the terrible misfortunes
which
in those times and, once

again bringing these things
shall remember the divine wrath
[barkut'iwn] which we
occurred
to mind,
92

267; Matthew
Thomson, "Crusades throughArmenian Eyes,"

71-82.
93
94
The very first incident Matthew
described
in his chronicle was a famine and
plague of locusts around Edessa and

Mesopotamia,
though he did not explicitly
designate this a sign as he did other such
events (Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Armenia,
1;Matthew
of Edessa,
19).
115-17;Matthew
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
of
85-86). Other earthquakes

are cited in 1090/1
(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
241; Armenia, 157) and in 1114/5, again citing
Edessa, Armenia,
God's
barkut'iwn
(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Armenia,
97
331;
216).
This was the same year as the sack of
Melitene
(Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
131;Matthew
Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Edessa, Armenia,

95
Itwas also punishment for the incin

eration of a Syrian Orthodox
[Jacobite]
Bible, burnt by the Byzantine patriarch and
his priests (Matt'eos Urhayets'i,
96
occurred
of
93); another plague
in 1003/4 (Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
45-46; Armenia,

78 (death ofAshot IV Bagratuni), 185 (preced
ing the attacks of theTurk Afshin), 193
98
(accompanying the attacks ofAlp Arslan), 260

(in conjunction with the First Crusade), 304 (at
the same time as theArmenian revolt in
Aplast'an), 316 (massacre of the citizens of
Edessa); Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 62,124,
Such signs also impacted
communities: fire from heaven
129,168,198,206.
Muslim
destroyed amosque
inAmida
in 1115/6
(Zhamanakagrut'iwn, 334-35; Armenia, 218);

and a similar event inBaghdad in 1121/2,
again
an expression ofGod's
barkut'iwn
(Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
350-51; Armenia, 228).
43).
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA'S

CHRONICLE
177
the righteous judge, as a penalty for our sins."

on
Most
connecting
importantly, however, the chronicler insisted
in the past to that of his own commu
the suffering of Armenians
received from God,
we find ourselves inflicted with the same chastise

nity. "Once again
ment for our sins, a chastisement which we received for that which
99
we
justly deserve."
to
Matthew
recognize
clearly feared that Armenians would fail
of their patriarchs and hermits unfolding around them.

such as
Indeed he provided examples of such improvident Armenians,
the prophecies
those seized in 1062/3 by a Turkish
group, who
asked their captives,
"Why did you become enslaved, [allowingyourself] to be in

such an unprepared
state, and why were you unable to have
ear or
a
so that you
sign,
might
through
foresight, either by
have fled from us?" The [Armenian] captives answered: "We
were
unable
Then the infidel woman

anything."
the sign of your destruction; when in the
to realize
said: "Lo, this was
and sheep squatted

evening your cock crowed and your cattle
to defecate, this was the
the
for
calamity." The captives
sign
to us many times in our
answered: "All that had happened
was a
country, but we were never able to realize that it
sign
for us of the calamity
Yet not all Armenians
Senek'erim-Hovhannes
(barkut'iwn)"100
were
ignorant of the coming calamity. King

ofVaspurakan
(1003-21) had better instincts
than did the confused captives.After the firstbattle inwhich he

encountered
Turkish
forces,
"[he]
examined
the chronicles
and
of the divinely-inspired prophets, the holy vardapets, and

found written in these books the time specified for the coming of the
forces and soldiers of the Turks. He also learned of the impending
utterances
destruction
and end of the whole world-"101
Senerk'erim
decided
for territories within the Byzantine Empire,

exchange his kingdom
be safer there.
hoping that he would
concerns emerge not only through recita
Matthew's
apocalyptic
tion of prophecies, accounts of disastrous weather, earthquakes, and
Turkish attacks, but also, perhaps most importantly, in the decline of
to
Armenians. When
among Christians, particularly
inAnatolia)
(modern Elbistan
community ofAplast'an
faith and morality

theArmenian
99
113-14;Matthew

141;Matthew of Edessa, Armenia, 99.
ioi

of Edessa, Armenia, 45.Matthew
48; Matthew
(or Senek'erim) was mistaken;

likely raiders fromAzerbaijan;
Redgate, TheArmenians
I78
CHRISTOPHER
theywere more
seeA. E.
(Oxford, 1998), 226.
MACEVITT

tiredof Frankishoppression,theyinvitedTurkish soldiersto occupy

their town, a decision
that led to a battle and subsequent massacre
of
the entireFrankish garrisonby the local population. Yet Matthew
turned his interest away from the explicit violence of the story and
focused on the more subtle social and moral effects Satan's presence
had engendered. Through Frankish oppression Satan had not only
and provoked a massacre but, inMatthew's
alienated the Armenians
the land itself. "Because of the Franks, the
description, had poisoned
land became barren. The vineyards and orchards withered, the fields
became covered in thistles, and the springs dried up. Friendship and
102
was
Just as Hovhannes
pre
destroyed."
happiness between friends
the
abandoned
church
and
hatred
dicted, people
spread everywhere.
Yet this episode was not a sign of inherent Frankish evil, of little inter
est toMatthew,
but a sign of the state of the world. The Franks were
victims, too, just as Adam had been a victim of Satan's wiles in the
The consequences
of sin at the
garden of Eden.
beginning and end of
time extended to the
in
and in
fertility of the earth itself;
Aplast'an
were
once
in
thistles
what
fertile
fields.103
Eden,
grew
Peace
and ItsDangers
The prophecy ofHovhannes

Kozern was a template Matthew
intended
as a
to the recent past and present. The
guide
period ofMatthew's
own life
to the
"seven
corresponded
period of Turkish oppression
times worse"
that followed
the conquest of Jerusalem by the "valiant

nation of the Franks." Matthew
reminded his readers that "since the
went forth, not one
or favorable omen
day the Frankish nation
good
on the contrary, all the omens
to the
appeared;
pointed
calamity,
destruction, ruin, and disruption of the land through death, slaugh
ter,famine, and other catastrophes."104 All that remained to complete
Kozern's
prophecy
which,
was
the appearance
of the last Roman
to the hermit's timetable, should have
emperor,
according
happened
this can be tied to events contemporary with
1148.105Again
The expansion of Byzantine power under the Komnenian
Matthew.
around
emperors matched Kozern's

was
by the time Matthew
Komnenos
northern
triumph
had
of imperial triumph, and

predictions
finishing his chronicle in the 1130s, John
intimidated
the Franks, Armenians,
Syria into acknowledging

was not far off.
102 Matt'eos
103
Gen.
3:18.
his power. Clearly
and Turks
in
his complete
10$ For Byzantine attitudes toward the last

emperor at this time, seeMagdalino,
"History of the Future," 26-27.

MATTHEW
OF EDESSAS

CHRONICLE
IJ<)
vision were more difficult to

other aspects of Hovhannes'
a
discern. Even Matthew
had
hard time
finding episodes of political
or
1120s
Armenians
military oppression affecting
occurring in the
and 30s that matched
the drama of the initial Turkish attacks on
Yet
cities such as Ani
Armenian
1124/5 he even recorded
in the eleventh century. In

had been liberated from the yoke
and Artsn
that Ani
rule by "the saintly and virtuous king" David,

ruler of the
was
in response to the
city's liberation, "there
rejoicing
ofMuslim
Georgians;
all Armenia."106 This hardly seems seven times worse

throughout
than the sack of the city some sixty years before. Instead Matthew
in the dis
the hermit's prophecy fulfilled, as at Aplast'an,
a
sign of
integration of the social and moral bonds of society, equally
satanic influence. Just as Armenian
betrayal had preceded Turkish
perceived
as the world's end drew near,

Satan in the
sieges, Matthew,
sought
sapping of the natural bonds of family, religion, and community,
rather than in the savagery of Turkish raids.
a world inwhich
in
entirely wrong
perceiving
ethnic and religious boundaries were crumbling, particularly for
aristocrats moved
Armenian
generals and
diasporic Armenians.
little sense of polit
and
with
Franks,
easily among Byzantines, Turks,
Matthew
was
not
ical betrayal or cultural loss, a fluidity characteristic of the eleventh

East. Particularly prone to such peri
and twelfth-century Middle
were the new
and
military elites spawned by Byzantine
pateticism
Armenian
expansion
for example,
in the tenth century. The Armenian

nobleman
left the service of Kogh Vasil after a dispute
Aplasat',
lord, attached
and, instead of joining the forces of another Armenian
II of Edessa.107 Even Matthew's
himself for a time to Baldwin
heroes,
the Pahlavunis,
depicted
showed
little regard for such boundaries.

patriots, yet the Pahlavunis
them as Armenian
Matthew
had
little
in
former oppo
compunction
taking up employment with their
the sparapet Vahram had defended
nents, the Byzantines. Although
Ani from Byzantine attack,108 he died a few years later serving in the
and Gregory's sons
His nephew Gregory Magistros
imperial army.109
and political honors from the emperor.
accepted military positions
from Ani to Rome, as well as visit
Kat'olikos Gregory II wandered
ingFatimid Egypt,where he named his nephewGregory kat'olikos
for the large Armenian

viziers who
of Armenian
there by a series
established
community
ruled Fatimid Egypt from 1073 to 1121.110
io 6 Matt'eos Urhayets' i,Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

359;Matthew
l8o
io 8 Matt'eos Urhayets' i,Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

85-86; Matthew
no

211;Matthew
109 Matt'eos Urhayets' i,Zhamanakagrut'iwn,
Kapoian-Kouymjian,
310-11;Matthew
98;Matthew
Armeniens, 7-93.
CHRISTOPHER
MACEVITT

L'Egypte vuepar des
saton theouter limitsof theMediterranean and

Although Armenia
Near Eastern worlds geographically,conquest by Byzantines and
Muslims had led to the establishmentofArmenian communities
as well as in
Edessa, and Alexandria,
Constantinople,
as
these places
Sicily and Bulgaria. For many Armenians,
places such
were no more
chronicle was an
than Ani and Kars. Matthew's
foreign
was a
to
Armenians
this
world
remind
that
argument
danger
larger
ous one inwhich Armenians
should never feel too comfortable.
in
far abroad
The experience of other Christian minorities in the Islamic world

was similar. The memoirs of a Nestorian
doctor named
Christian
to late eleventh century, detailed
in the middle
Ibn Butlan,
living
his life as a peripatetic doctor, practicing his craft at various times
as well as Antioch
in
Yet
and Cairo
and Constantinople.
Aleppo
more
concern with the
his account showed
professional jealousy of
rival doctors
and
the
seemingly disparate political, religious,

is, profes
through which he traveled.111 That
were
as
soldier?often
identities?doctor,
important as, and
ethnic
sional
than with
realms
at times more
or
In the eyes of
important than, ethnicity
religion.
this cultural fluidity was not a good
but a sign of
Matthew,
thing,
the Satan-induced
His
chronicle
crumbling of natural social bonds.
was
a reminder toArmenians
they had suffered in the

past; he clearly feared that they were blind to its contemporary
sig
to remember the
nificance and therefore
frequently urged his readers
The peacefulness
omens, predictions, and evidence of God's
anger.112
own
was
and integration ofMatthew's
thus the greatest threat,
day
for itwas themost insidious expression of Satan's power.
was not its absence,
For Matthew
the problem tolerance
presented
of the violence
but its confusing, ambiguous, and anomalous presence. While

stories
to Frankish and Muslim
of violence and massacre
chroni
appealed
clers because they clearly delineated
separation among communities,
for Matthew
violence was
not
the opposite of tolerance, but

phe
the same
social
manifestation
of
Satan's
thing?the
nomenologically
this view, Matthew's
of the
power in the world. With
understanding
Last Days makes more sense. He had little interest in the final event
never mentioned
the return of Jesus Christ or the Last

account of the time
to the
Judgment, and his
leading up
Apocalypse
on
depended entirely
widely held beliefs about the figure of the Last
was content to
as a
Emperor, whom Matthew
identify
Byzantine,
toArmenian
his
devotion
not
Matthew
did
seek to
despite
kingship.
Armenians
to
for
the
end
of theworld, but
prepare
open their eyes to
itself. He
the erosion of their culture and

community by themilitary, political,
and cultural power of the
Byzantines, Turks, and Franks.
?Dartmouth
in
Lawrence Conrad,
"Ibn Butlan
in
Bilad al-Sham: The Career of a

Traveling
Christian Physician," in Syrian Christians
under Islam: The First Thousand Years
(Xeiden, 2001), 131-58.
112 Matt'eos
College
MATTHEW
OF EDESSA's

CHRONICLE
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The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa: Apocalypse, the First Crusade, and the Armenian

This content downloaded from 71.172.227.83 on Wed, 3 Apr 2013 07:28:49 AM

led his troops on

their suffering and death fulfilled divine will,

punishing his wayward

flock (Christian Armenians),

and the atten

in the 1898 edition, and

in the 1869 Jerusalem edition of

1869), 223. Dostourian

surmises that this is

a version of the Persian name Afshin.

Throughout this article, Iwill be citing

chronicle, using the 1898Vagharshapat

hereafter Matt'eos Urhayets'i,

English translation: Matthew

Ps. 78: 63-64. This passage also evokes

all around Jerusalem and there was no one

to bury them" (Matt'eos

R. W. Burgess, ed. and trans., The

(Oxford, 1993); Burgess,

(Aldershot, 1996), 321-32; Rodulphus

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phalist Christianity with

to termswith the effects

the nation of the Turks,

of the long-haired and abominable

were at the same time

uses theword barkut'iwn,

the suffering of theArmenians

(Matt'eos Urhayets'i, Zhamanakagrut'iwn,

Syrische Apokalypse des Pseudo-Methodius

Die Apokalypse des Pseudo

and Syriac Apocalyptic

4 (1998): 203-18. The

tenth century, and then in a revised version

J.-R. Emine, "Genealogie de la famille de

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Matthew's apocalyptic fears arose from the disquieting sense that

cultural radiation. The chronicle

chronicle have been

since Francois Martin

emperorJohn I Tzimiskes (969-976) to theArmenian kingAshot

debut in the academic world was thus in

des historiens des croisades in 1869.9 The first edition of

notes by J. Chahan de Cirbied

the First Crusade, was published a year later:

cette histoire, relatifa la premiere croisade en

(Paris, 1858); Recueildes

des croisades, Documents

published extracts concerning the First

translation was used widely

translation published in 1993 (cited

Zeyli [1136-1162] /Ankara, 1962]).

de la premiere croisade, trans. E. Dulaurier

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its availability, historians

have paid little

Jerusalem edition.10 Despite

from the introductions

scholars have never confronted Matthew's

a result of such normative