Matthew of Edessa

• from Runciman (1951: v. 1:334-335)

There is one invaluable Armenian source covering the period of the First Crusade, the Chronicle of MATTHEW OF EDESSA. The work deals with the history of Syria from 952 to 1136 and must have been written before 1140. Matthew was a na1ve man with a hatred for the Greeks and no great love for those of his compatriots who were Orthodox in religion. Much of his information about the Crusade must have been derived from some ignorant Frankish soldier; but about events in his native city and its neighbourhood he was very fully informed.¹

Later Armenian chroniclers, such as SAMUEL OF ANI and MEKHITAR OF AIRAVANQ, writing at the end of the twelfth century, and KIRAKQS OF GANTZAG and VARTAN THE GREAT, in the thirteenth century, treat only briefly of the First Crusade. They seem to have made use of Matthew and of a lost history written by a certain JOHN THE DEACON, whom Samuel praises highly and who showed special animosity not only against the Emperor Alexius but also against his mother, Anna Dalasseta².

• from Crusades Wiki

Matthew of Edessa was an Armenian historian in the 12th century born in the city of Edessa.

Matthew was the superior abbot of Karmir Vanq (Red Convent), near the town of Kessoun, east of Marash (Germanicia), the former seat of Baldwin of Boulogne.

The literary and historical knowledge of Matthew was limited; however, the accuracy of his work has not been disputed. He remains the only primary source of certain information about the political and ecclesiastical events of his time and area. A man of strong convictions, he was a determined opponent of the Greek church and as well as the Latin church, he was especially bitter against Frankish settlers, whose avaricious and imperious rule and ingratitude he condemned. He was a fervent Armenian patriot, lamenting the martyrdom of his people and exalting their heroic deeds. To him we are indebted for the record of two documents of importance — a letter from the Byzantine Emperor Tzimisces, to King Ashot III Bagratuni and a discourse delivered in the cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, in the presence of the Emperor Constantine X Ducas by Gagik II, the exiled Bagratid king, concerning the doctrinal divergence between the Greek and Armenian churches.

Matthew's work is rather chronological, covering two centuries from the second half of the tenth through the second half of the twelfth. He relates much about the early Crusades, and the battles between Byzantines and Arabs for the possession of parts of northern Syria and eastern Asia Minor. Byzantine authors such as John Zonaras and Anna Comnena were well versed in their particular spheres, but uninformed regarding Edessa and neighboring lands which are treated by Matthew. Some of his chronological data is disputed by modern scholars.

Matthew, was intolerant towards both Greeks and Latins, as well as unsympathetic towards Syrians, judging by allusions made by Abul-Faraj at a later date. Matthew is said to have been slain during the Siege of Edessa by Zengi, atabeg of Mosul in 1144.

(This article incorporates text from History of Armenia by Vahan M. Kurkjian, a publication in the public domain.)

• from Bedrosian (2017:i-iv)

The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa translated below is a valuable source for the history of the Middle East in the 10th-12th centuries. Matthew's work describes the period from 952 to 1129. Appended to it is a continuation by Gregory the Priest, which describes events from 1137 to 1162. Western scholars have used the Chronicle primarily for its unique information on the Crusades. It contains, additionally, invaluable information on Byzantium, the Arabs, Saljuqs, Persians, and especially the Armenians, both secular and clerical, both lords and louts. Along with this, Matthew describes such diverse phenomena as urban mobs, siege warfare, and confessional disputes, and he presents a welter of remarkable material of interest to many disciplines, including folklore and anthropology. Curiously, the Chronicle also may be of some value to the history of astronomy, as it seems to describe, under different dates, the social impact of the supernova of 1054. This astounding phenomenon, which was visible for two years, was the background for a series of prophecies related by our author.

Matthew wrote his work in three parts, over many years. Part One was written during an eight-year period (1102-1110), and Part Two was written during a fifteen-year period (1110-1125). Then, for ten years, Matthew wrote nothing, expecting that others would continue the work. Seeing that this did not happen, he wrote Part Three, probably during 1136-1137. Part One covers the period from 952 to 1052; Part Two, from 1053 to 1102; and Part Three, from 1102 to 1129.

Nothing certain is known about Matthew's life. Only in one place does he speak of himself, as "I, Matthew, a priest from Edessa." From his worldview it is clear that he was a God-fearing Christian (that is, an anti-Chalcedonian, eastern Orthodox Christian). He is not unswervingly loyal to any individual, and criticizes secular and clerical folk, Christians and Muslims of different persuasions. Acts of noteworthy cruelty and kindness are recorded by him without particular bias.

The city of Edessa (Ur'ha/Urfa), whose medieval history is an important focus of Matthew's Chronicle, played a major role in the development of Armenian literary culture. It was a cosmopolitan center of Syrian, Armenian, and Jewish culture from remote antiquity, and later was influenced somewhat by Greek Hellenism. To the north was the city of Melitene/Malatya, and to the west was Tsop'k' (Sophene), cradles of Armenian culture. While it is conventional to regard Armenian settlement in and around Cilicia — which Matthew describes — as a specifically medieval phenomenon, this is not the case. An Armenian population has been documented as residing in the area from at least the fourth century. In fact, the renowned historian of fourth century Armenian events, P'awstos Buzand himself, probably hailed from Faustinopolos or Podandus/Bozanti, just north of the Cilician Gates.

Events of the 10th-12th centuries vastly increased the Armenian population in this area. There were several causes for this. First, since the early 10th century, the Byzantine empire had been following a policy of annexing the lands of Armenian grandees in eastern Asia Minor. Armenian kings and nobles were coaxed or compelled to leave, and received, in exchange, territories in western areas, that is, in Cappadocia, northern Syria, Cilicia, and also in northern Mesopotamia. The Saljuq raids and invasions of Asia Minor, beginning in the 1020s, were a second important stimulus for Armenian emigration to Cilicia. Many prominent lords, with their gentry and their bishops, left the area. The bulk of the population, however, could not or would not leave, and so remained. Matthew chronicles all this: the Byzantine annexations, the movement of Armenian population, the Saljuq invasions, the Byzantine reactions, the Crusades, the Cilician Armenian kingdoms and regional statelets. He describes events in the Caucasus, among the Georgians and Aghuans, and mentions the Armenian statelets by the Caspian Sea.

At the time Matthew was writing — as well as before and after — Armenians of various faiths and speaking numerous languages, lived in a vast stretch of territory, from Georgia in the north, through eastern, central, and western Asia Minor, western Persia, northern Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt. They were Christians and Muslims of various persuasions, some pre-Christian and non-Christian elements (such as pagans, sun-worshippers, Zoroastrians, and Jews), as well as "heretics" or sectarians (such as the Paulicians and Tondrakians), some of the latter with ties to other radical movements of the day. At the time Matthew was writing — as well as before and after — large Armenian noble families, "dynastic condominiums" Cyril Toumanoff calls them, functioned in place of (or alongside) political states. Some, like the Pahlawunids (and the Bagratids before them), controlled territories and enterprises throughout the Middle East as well as the kat'oghikosate of the Armenian Church. The Church itself often served as a surrogate or ghost state among the Armenians, in the absence of political states. Matthew speaks of the "House of the Armenians" throughout his work (as he collectively styles these Christian communities). In addition, he is an invaluable source for the Muslim Armenians, whose descendants continue to live in the same areas occupied by their Christian and non-Christian ancestors.

Unfortunately, no critical edition of Matthew's Chronicle exists, as yet. The preferred edition of the Classical Armenian text was published in Vagharshapat/Ejmiatsin in 1898, based on six manuscripts [Matt'e'os Urhayets'1, Zhamanakagrut'iwn, M. Me'lik'-Adamean and N. Te'r-Mik'aye'lean, editors]. This is the text we have translated below, minus two lengthy sections mostly of doctrinal interest. Prior to the publication of the 1898 edition, Matthew's Chronicle already had been translated into French (1858) by Edouard Dulaurier. Since then, the Chronicle also has been translated into Turkish (1962), and modern Armenian (1991). The first full English translation was Ara Dostourian's Armenia and the Crusades: Tenth to Twelfth Centuries. The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa (Belmont, MA., 1993). Regrettably, this publication's reliability is compromised by a fair number of errors in translation. For example:

I. p 29. Ashot, shahnshah of the illustrious Armenians should be Ashot, shahnshah of Greater Armenia [Hayots' metsats' is a geographical term]

I. p. 32. for seven years should be for seven months

I. p. 32. We chased him and defeated...should be "we would have chased and defeated"

III. p. 199: "Then the sultan Kilij Arslan collected troops from the East and marched forth" should be "Then Kiliy-Arslan, sultan of the West, massed troops and went"

Beyond such errors in translation, there are some questionable techniques employed, such as translating the same word variously. For example, Dostourian sometimes translates Armenian k'aghak’' ("city"), as "town," even though Matthew uses one and the same word. Again, though ay/asgi ("foreigner") and ano're'n ("impious") usually refer to Muslims, and Zachik usually refers to "Arabs" and/or "Muslims" in Matthew's work and elsewhere in the Armenian sources, this is not always the case, especially at the beginning of the invasions. Furthermore, the presence of Armenians of different persuasions, often on multiple sides of the various conflicts, also makes automatic equations of this nature dubious. For such reasons, we prefer to be literal in our translation. Otherwise, the translator is adding a layer of possible misunderstanding, where it does not exist in the original text.

Our decision to translate Matthew was not, primarily, related to correcting errors. Rather, there were several additional reasons. For one, we want to have copyright-free, searchable versions of the Armenian historical sources online. Considering that for some periods, these Armenian sources are almost the only contemporary sources for the history of neighboring countries as well, having them online and searchable is a good way to more thoroughly integrate their information into the study of World history. Our second and principal reason for translating Matthew is personal: we enjoy this activity greatly. Each of the Armenian sources has its own luster, like a radiant, magical gem. They are enchanting, and if you hold them up and turn them, you will see different and unexpected facets each time. Matthew, although he disparages his own abilities, is a fine stylist. His grabar is straightforward, his prose is graceful and pleasurable to read, at times seeming almost like modern Armenian. Thus, a personal enjoyment of historical literature — enjoyment of a work's composition, style, and vocabulary — is involved. A third reason is our enthusiasm for the challenges involved in putting such material online: how to display it in useful, attractive ways, how to create books in an exciting new medium. We enjoy designing clickable Table of Contents pages for enhanced navigation, making scrollable chronological tables, and directing Google's search engine to search a particular translation, or a noteworthy website. Such techniques can transform online books into wonderful platforms for study, far superior to hardbound books.

In 2009 an important publication appeared: Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa, with a Discussion of Computer-Aided Methods Used to Edit the Text, by Tara L. Andrews (Oxford, 2009). This outstanding work (the author's Ph.D. dissertation) is the best available in a Western language describing many aspects of the Chronicle and its continuation, including a history of the manuscript tradition and an insightful discussion of Matthew's themes. The author's aim is to describe and demonstrate a methodological framework for creating a critical edition (there are some 35 known manuscripts of Matthew's Chronicle). She has modified and created computer software to help with this daunting task, and tests the method with translations of four excerpts: the First prophecy of Yovhanne's Kozer'n, (1029/30); the Second prophecy of Yovhanne's Kozer'n (1036/7); the Author’s prologue to Book Two; and the Author’s prologue to Book Three. Andrews' approach and virtuoso computer skills augur well for philology in general and for Armenian studies in particular. Her important work is available for reading online and/or downloading in various formats from Internet Archive: Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa.

Readers who like human duplicity with a medieval patina will find much to savor in Matthew's compilation. One need only change the clothing styles, the types of weapons, and the declared motives, and the general historical processes chronicled by Matthew could be transferred to our own day. Even the places and the peoples are the same. Those interested in studying this period would do well to begin with the 12th-century Syriac Chronicle of Michael Rabo, the great patriarch of the Asori/Assyrians or Syriacs/Syrians, translated into English by our colleague, Dr. Matti Moosa (Teaneck, NJ, 2014). Event by event, Moosa, in his detailed footnotes, describes other sources (including Matthew) and how they agree and disagree. An extract, covering the same period as Matthew's Chronicle, may be read online and/or downloaded from Internet Archive (archive.org) in various formats here: The 10th-12th Centuries from Michael Rabo's Chronicle, and also: The Late 12th Century from Michael Rabo's Chronicle. Our own website has an English translation of the medieval Armenian versions of Michael, The Chronicle of Michael the Great, Patriarch of the Syrians. Another valuable Armenian primary source for the 11th century is Aristake's Lastivertts'i's History, which describes the Saljuq invasions and the dislocations they caused. A third Armenian source of particular interest is the 13th-century Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet. Smbat actually used Matthew's Chronicle extensively in the early part of his own compilation, and made corrections to it — providing us with a rare example of medieval Armenian philology.