At the start of Book One of the
Antiochene Wars, just
after a prologue describing a locust invasion usually
dated to 1114 CE,
Walter the Chancellor wrote an eyewitness account
of an earthquake that struck the
Principality of Antioch while he was presumably living
there. He described the collapse of walls, towers, and
buildings, as well as casualties. Reports also came from
Marash, which he said was
entirely destroyed
, and from
Mamistra. He wonders if
al-Atharib was also
damaged. Residents were said to have slept afterward in
tents set up in streets, gardens, squares, thickets, and
open plains because of continuing aftershocks
(
each day, the earthquake threatened for hopeless
hours
). Later in his text, Walter mentions five months of
continuing tremors.
Walter dates the earthquake to the night of 29 November
1115 CE, though other sources place it on 29 November
1114 CE. His translators
Asbridge and Edgington (2019:80 n.24) date the event to
29 November 1114 CE, as does
Ambraseys (2009).
Guidoboni and Comastri (2005) date it instead to
29 November 1115 CE. The day of the week was not given,
which would have allowed a firm distinction between 1114
and 1115. However, since Walter places the earthquake
before the Battle of Tell Danish on 15 September 1115, it
appears that either he or a copyist erred with the 1115
dating, and the event should be assigned to 1114 CE.
Walter also notes that the town of
Mamistra was
previously ruined with its citizens and the greater part
of the town on the
Feast of Saint Brice
(13 November)
.