The
Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet
describes an earthquake that produced multiple shocks in the
middle of the night. Its sound was
a rumble
accompanied
by
terrible roars
, and
the sea got up, and the mountains
and hills made terrifying sounds
. A great number of cities
were said to have been ruined. Collapsed cities included
Antioch, Mecis
(
Mamistra = Mopsuestia?),
Hisn-Mansur,
Kaysum,
Ablastha,
Raban, and
Samosata.
Marash was said to be
completely overturned
with forty thousand dead. A church
collapse at the Basilian Monastery in the Black Mountains
(location debated) caused the deaths of two doctors and thirty
monks.
The specific date provided in the *Chronicle of Smbat* appears
to be in error. The earthquake is said to have struck in the
Armenian month of Mareri in the Armenian year 563, which
corresponds to a Julian date range of 18 November – 17 December
1114 CE. However, the chronicle also states that the earthquake
occurred on the day of the
Finding of the Cross, which
is typically celebrated on 15 September, or in some traditions on
25 October.
Ambraseys (2009) observed that
the account in the Chronicle of Sembat ... is based in part on
Matthew of Edessa’s record, from which it takes the date of the
Finding of the Cross
and the Armenian year 563. Thus, like
Matthew, Smbat may have referred to the wrong festival. If the
intended reference was to the eve of the
Feast of Saint Andrew, then
the event would date to the night of 29 November 1114 CE, in
agreement with other authors.