Chronicle of Sembat Open this page in a new tab

Sempad the Constable (aka Sembat, Smpad, Smbat, Smbat Sparapet, and Smbat Gundstabl) was born in 1208 CE into a noble family in Cilician Armenia. He was an older brother of King Hetoum I (r. 1226-1270) and acted a diplomat, judge, and military officer in Cilician Armenia holding the title of Constable or Sparapet, supreme commander of the Armenian armed forces (wikipedia). He was also a writer and translator known for his book which has the French Title of Chronique du Royaume de Petite Armenie (Chronicle of the Kingdom of Little Armenia) or simply as the Chonicle of Sembat.

Der Nersessian (1959:143) notes that the Chronicle of Sembat is one of the principal Armenian sources for the history of the Crusades. Der Nersessian (1959:143) reports that the section of it which extends from the year 951 to 1162 follows mainly the History of Matthew of Edessa and of his continuator Gregory the Priest, occasionally including information derived from other sources. For events of the 13th century, it is particularly important since it was written by a man [Sempad] who had direct access to the official documents and who, moreover, played a major role in many of the events he related (Der Nersessian, 1959:143). Der Nersessian (1959::143) adds that an anonymous writer continued the Chronicle down to the year 1331.

The part of the Chronicle of Sembat written by Sembat ends in 1274, two years before his death in battle in 1276. Before he died, he visited Mongolia twice, once from 1247-1250 and again in 1254. He was involved in diplomatic discussions with the Mongols on more than one occasion and married a relative of the Great Khan with whom he had a son. After the death of his father, Sempad became Baron of Papeŕōn (Çandır Castle) and resided in its small, but lavish baronial palace (wikipedia).
Manuscripts and Editions

The two Armenian editions, one published in Moscow in 1856 by Osgan of Erivan, the other in Paris in 1859 by G. Chahnazarian, have long been out of print. In 1862 V. Langlois published a French translation of certain sections only;2 in 1869, the greater part of the text, beginning with the year o092, was included by E. Dulaurier, together with a French translation, in the Recueil des historiens des Croisades.

All of these publications were based on two manuscripts of fairly late date in the Library of Etchmiadzin and on copies of them made towards the middle of the nineteenth century. The new Armenian edition, recently published by Father Serope Akelian, deserves, therefore, special attention.4 It is based on a manuscript of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century which had been bought in Constantinople in 1876 by Serope Markar Alishan and given to his elder brother, Father Leonce Alishan, who deposited it in the Library of San Lazzaro (no. 1308).5 There are several lacunae in this manuscript. The initial folios, relating the events of the years 951 to 974, are lost and the manuscript is also incomplete at the end, where it stops abruptly in the middle of an account of the events of the year 1272; the other missing parts occur after folios II, 35, 45, and 156 (A.D. 1023-1029, lo63-1o64, 1070, 1230-1251). In order to present a continuous text, the editor has copied the missing parts from the Paris edition of Smpad's Chronicle and in one instance from the History of Matthew of Edessa, clearly indicating these additions through the use of smaller type.

Unfortunately, this new publication is not a critical edition. There are frequent references in the footnotes to the corresponding passages of Matthew of Edessa and occasional references to those of the Chronicle of Samuel of Ani, but in rare instances only is the text compared with that of the earlier editions of Smpad's Chronicle. This is particularly regrettable because of the many important differences, and the reader who does not himself make this comparison remains unaware of the particular significance of the manuscript on which the new edition is based, and of the new information that it provides.

... for more details (lots of details), see Der Nersessian (1959:144-168)

Wikipedia pages

Sempad the Constable