717 CE Quake

AD 717 Dec 24 Syria

A damaging earthquake in Syria. Although many Byzantine and Arab writers describe this earthquake as most destructive, they do not mention the particular localities affected in Syria or Jazira (Mesopotamia). Aftershocks continued for six months.

Theophanes reports a 'great earthquake' in Syria in a.M. 6210 = September 717 to August 718. Once again the regnal year is one too low: Leo III a.2 =18 April 716 to 17 April 717. This is reported as occurring just before the caliph `Urnar banned wine in the cities and forced Christians to convert to Islam'.

The Syriac sources give more details. Chron. 846 dates this event to a.S. 1029, Kanun I, 24 on Friday, at the third hour, 'on the Feast of the Nativity' = 24 December 717, while al-Isfahani reports a recurrence of earthquakes in Sham in a.H. 98 (25 August 716 to 13 August 717), which is probably on al-Khawarizmi's authority. Two editions of Elias of Nisibe have important differences: both record an earthquake in Syria and Mesopotamia, adding that houses collapsed, which is significantly more detail than is given by Theophanes and the Chron. 846. Where they differ is that the Syriac edition gives a.S. 1028 Jumada II, a year too low, if this is the same earthquake. However, Eli. Nis. D. 33r gives a.H. 99 Jumada II, 15, a Friday = 23 January 718. This does not appear particularly helpful either, except that a.H. 99 Jumada II, 15 was not a Friday but a Sunday. Jumada I, 15th of a.H. 99 was Friday 24 December 717, hence it is probably a copyist's error. Thus it is certain that the entries in Elias of Nisibe refer to this rather than to another earthquake, probably of AD 713. Al-Suyuti has a brief note on this earthquake taken from the Mirat of Ibn al-Jauzi; a second entry says that 'as we have already noted' an earthquake took place in Syria during the caliphate of `Umar `Abd al-'Aziz. The latter was in fact caliph from 99 Safar 10 (22 September 717) to 101 Rajab 20 (5 February 720), so this is either an error or in fact pertains to an aftershock or to another earthquake.

Syrian authors give 15 Jumada II 99 a.H., instead of Jumada I, which may have led Guidoboni et al. (1994, 360-619) to include an additional earthquake in their catalogue. Also the damage to Edessa and Batna Sarug attributed to this earthquake by these authors is in error since their sources refer, quite clearly, to the event in AD 679.

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

(244) dawn on 24 December 717 Mesopotamia, Syria

sources 1

• Theoph. 399
• [Dion. Tellmahn] 2.170
• Chron. 846 234
• Elias Nisib. Syr.versio 161-2

sources 2

• Cedren. 791

catalogues

• Mallet (1853)
• Sieberg (1932 a)
• Grumel (1958)
• Guidoboni (1989

According to Theophanes and the Syriac Chronicle of 846, Syria was struck by a strong earthquake on 24 December 717 A.D. Pseudo-Dionysius of Tellmahre and Elias of Nisibis report that Mesopotamia was also struck by an earthquake at that period. Theophanes reports:

In that same year [6210 = 717/718 A.D.], since there had been a strong earthquake in Syria, `Umar banned wine from his cities and forced the Christians to embrace the Islamic faith.

The Syriac Chronicle of 846 also describes an earthquake in Syria on Christmas Day:

"And in the year 1029, on 24 Canun I [December] on Friday at the third hour, it being Christmas, there was a great earthquake, and the noise it made was mistaken for a heavy burst of thunder".

Pseudo-Dionysius of Tellmahre conflates this earthquake with the one occurred in 679, which damaged Edessa and Batnan (see entry ( 242 ):

"In the year 1029 [of the Greeks; i.e. 717-718 A.D ], there was a severe and terrible earthquake, and it destroyed many places, including temples and churches and great buildings. In particular it destroyed Beit Ma`de [Batnan] and the ancient church of Edessa. Even large and tall buildings collapsed on top of their inhabitants; and even in the case of buildings which survived and did not collapse in the tremor, the earthquake left signs of its presence in them, so that their inhabitants would tremble before the Lord every time they saw those signs of the earthquake".

Elias of Nisibis describes the earthquake in Mesopotamia as follows:

"The year 99 [of the Hegira; i.e. 14 August 717 -2 August 718 A.D.] began on Saturday 14 Ab [August] in the year 1028 of the Greeks. Kuwarazmi [...]. In that year there was an earthquake in Mesopotamia on a Friday about half way through Gumara II. Many houses collapsed; and the shocks lasted for six months".

Grumel (1958, p.479) dates the earthquake to 21/24 January 718, perhaps as the result of an error in working out the Syriac calendar.

References

Guidoboni, E., et al. (1994). Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century. Rome, Istituto nazionale di geofisica.

Palmer et al (1993:45-46) wrote

7. A CHRONICLE OF DISASTERS DATED AD 716

INTRODUCTION

A short notice, concerning various natural disasters which occurred between the years AD 712 and 716, is to be found in a manuscript dated AD 874, where it follows an account of the meeting between the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, John I, Composer of Prayers (AD 632-48), and an unnamed emir, on 9 May of an unspecified year (see Reinink, ‘Syriac apologetic literature’). The text (translated by S. P. Brock) helps to make the transition from the chronicles to the apocalyptic texts, No. 14 and No. 15. The author of the historical note would appear to have been a contemporary of the events he describes; his openness about the significance with which his beliefs endowed them is useful in understanding those texts in which we have to try to read between the lines. The text was edited, with a French translation, by Nau, ‘Un colloque’.

Next, the various aflictions which came to the land in the year 1024 according to the numeration of Alexander, and [in the years] following:

When the kingdom of the Ishmaelites held sway, its control spread over the whole land, in the days of Walid b. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwin who was reigning at that time, and the patriarch of the apostolic faith of the Orthodox, Elijah, was recognized throughout the whole land of Syria - he was from the monastery of Gubb6 BarrGyG, called ‘in the desert’: in the year 1023 according to the reckoning of the Greeks, on 8 August, a sign was seen in the sky, in the shape of a long lance, wide at the upper tip. It was in the northern part of the sky, facing and inclined towards the southern part, and it appeared in the evening, about the second hour [of the night].

In the following year, 1024, from December to February, there occurred [as] a judgment a great plague in the land, and many people perished in it, mercilessly. During this aforesaid act of judgment, before it had yet come to an end, on 28 February of that same year, in the middle of the night before Tuesday, there occurred a great earthquake, so that houses in the villages, churches, and many large towns collapsed on top of the people living there, bringing death to them in various and many terrible ways: in some cases houses, villages and towns caved in; some people were suffocated, while others were crushed; many others were left alive, with their homes made into graves; others were rescued. All these things occurred in accordance with the just, inscrutable and astonishing judgments of God.

This in particular happened, the story and account reaching us by way of people who were actually involved and who saw it. In what is now called the ‘western region’, I mean the city of Antioch and the area of Seleucia (?) and KSYWT, and the whole coast, this earthquake lasted from 28 February until the year 1027, so that the inhabitants of the villages and towns everywhere spent all this time with any of their property that remained, camping out and living away from their homes, in the fields, on the hills, on threshing floors, in orchards, making themselves tents and shelters. Many others (fled), their work left under the open sky without protection, out of fear and terror at the terrible judgment that had been brought upon the land and all who live in it because of our sins and iniquities. While these two terrible afflictions were still running their course together without any relaxation or end, God sent to the land a third affliction, known as the bubonic plague; countless people were buried without pity in all sorts of places.

References

Palmer, A., et al. (1993). The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles, Liverpool University Press. - at archive.org - online open access - can be read ("borrowed") with a free account

al-Isfah.: al-Isfahani, Hamza Ibn Hasan, Kitab tarikh sini muuk al-ard wa'l anbiya, ed. J. M. Gottwaldt, Leipzig, 1844-48.