Open this text page in a new tab Open earthquake page in a new tab

Epitome by Patriarch Nektarios

Aliases
Aliases Greek
Nectarius of Jerusalem
Nectarios Kretas
Patriarch Nektarios
Nikolaos Pelopidis Νεκτάριος Πελοπίδης
Background and Biography
Background and Biography

Excerpts
English from Triantafyllou (2022)

  • from Triantafyllou (2022:11)
  • Epitome (Part Δ, p. 289)
  • According to Triantafyllou et al. (2022:10), this is reported to have occurred in A.H. 105 (10 June 723 - 28 May 724 CE) when Nectarius relates that A’sam became the 17th successor of Mohammed and was extremely heartless against the [Christian] Orthodox Higher Priests. Triantafyllou et al. (2022:11) provided a relevant seperate excerpt stating that A’sam understood that this great calamity was due to the wrath of God and let the Higher Priests alone causing them no further harm. A'sam refers to Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik who became Caliph in A.H. 105 (10 June 723 - 28 May 724 CE) and ruled from 26 January 724 CE until 6 February 743 CE.
And due to all these bad things the wrath of God arrived, and a great, terrible earthquake happened; because of the great seismic turmoil at sea many ships sank, while in the land many animals died due to the excessive motion of the Earth. In the East six hundred cities destroyed. It is said that the ruination of the East started at that time.

Chronology
Year Reference Corrections Notes
a reliable date is not possible from this account. According to Triantafyllou et al. (2022:10), this is reported to have occurred in A.H. 105 (10 June 723 - 28 May 724 CE) when Nectarius relates that A’sam became the 17th successor of Mohammed and was extremely heartless against the [Christian] Orthodox Higher Priests. Triantafyllou et al. (2022:11) provided a relevant seperate excerpt stating that A’sam understood that this great calamity was due to the wrath of God and let the Higher Priests alone causing them no further harm. A'sam refers to Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik who became Caliph in A.H. 105 (10 June 723 - 28 May 724 CE) and ruled from 26 January 724 CE until 6 February 743 CE. none - date appears to be doctored and therefore useless
  • A.H. 105 (10 June 723 - 28 May 724 CE) is too early for the Sabbatical Year Quakes

  • A.H. 105 was calculated using CHRONOS

  • Nektarios description of the earthquake echoes al-Makin who appears to have likely been a source. However, like al-Makin, the dating provided is suspect.

  • Triantafyllou (2022:12) proposed the quote below regarding chronology. I think they are incorrect in bracketing the date of the earthquake from AD 737/738 up to 757/758 and should have looked at the chronological inconsistencies in Al-Makin's account for the reason why Nectarius misdated the earthquake. Triantafyllou (2022:12) wrote that as Manousakas (1947) noted, al-Makin was in fact the main source for Nektarios as regards the Parts B and Δ of Epitome. The Sabbatical Year Earthquakes are well-dated from other sources. See Williams (2024) for an examination of the chronology of the Sabbatical Year Earthquakes. In their defense, it should be noted that Triantafyllou (2022) did not have the benefit of referring to Williams (2024) at the time of their composition and subsequent publication.
    Starting with the chronology issue, from Epitome we learn that the great earthquake happened after AD 723/724 but certainly before the death of A’sam (AD 742/743) as it derived from another passage: “A’sam understood that this great calamity was due to the wrath of God and let the Higher Priests alone causing them no further harm”. No large earthquakes were dated in the eastern Mediterranean in the early period of that time interval. On the contrary, it is likely that more than one earthquakes occurred in the late period of that interval and beyond up to around AD 757 (JW: should be 756 CE - By No Means Mild Quake). However, the many different dating systems used in the various documentary sources complicates the earthquake dating issue, thus the date of the great earthquake falls in the range from AD 737/738 up to 757/758.
Seismic Effects
  • a great, terrible earthquake happened
  • because of the great seismic turmoil at sea many ships sank
  • in the land many animals died due to the excessive motion of the Earth
  • In the East six hundred cities destroyed
  • It is said that the ruination of the East started at that time
Locations
  • In the East
Sources
Sources

Online Versions and Further Reading
References

Triantafyllou et al. (2022)

4.3 Mid-eighth century: earthquakes and tsunami in Palestine

4.3.1 Information sources

According to Epitome (Part Δ, p. 289), A’sam became the 17th successor of Mohammed in the year a.H.105 (AD 723/724) but he was extremely heartless against the Orthodox Higher Priests: “And due to all these bad things the wrath of God arrived, and a great, terrible earthquake happened; because of the great seismic turmoil at sea many ships sank, while in the land many animals died due to the excessive motion of the Earth. In the East six hundred cities destroyed. It is said that the ruination of the East started at that time”. This account implies that the earthquake was of large magnitude and caused several effects, which are described later in light of more information sources.

Several Byzantine, Arabic, Syrian and Jewish documentary sources make reference to a series of strong, disastrous earthquakes that shook eastern Mediterranean around the mid-eighth century. The relevant sources were reviewed and examined by many modern authors, including Ben-Menahem (1979), Guidoboni et al. (1994), Karcz (2004), Ambraseys (2005, 2009), Sbeinati et al. (2005) and Salamon et al. (2007). The earthquake reported in Epitome perhaps is one of those earthquakes. The most important event has been a great earthquake that affected Palestine, Jordan and Syria. However, in modern seismological and historiographic literature no general consensus exists neither regarding the number of single seismic events that occurred in that period nor about the events dating. Nevertheless, starting from the little information that Epitome provides we investigated the most candidate earthquake event(s). This effort has been based on the comparison of Nektarios’ narration with the accounts existing in other sources regarding earthquakes that may have occurred in that period of time.

4.3.2 The dating issue

Starting with the chronology issue, from Epitome we learn that the great earthquake happened after AD 723/724 but certainly before the death of A’sam (AD 742/743) as it derived from another passage: “A’sam understood that this great calamity was due to the wrath of God and let the Higher Priests alone causing them no further harm”. No large earthquakes were dated in the eastern Mediterranean in the early period of that time interval. On the contrary, it is likely that more than one earthquakes occurred in the late period of that interval and beyond up to around AD 757. However, the many different dating systems used in the various documentary sources complicates the earthquake dating issue, thus the date of the great earthquake falls in the range from AD 737/738 up to 757/758. From detailed historiographic analysis, Guidoboni et al. (1994) suggested that the great earthquake of that period occurred in the morning of AD 18 January 749, which was also supported by Nur and Burgess (2008), on the basis of archaeoseismological interpretation, and adopted by Papadopoulos et al. (2014) and Papadopoulos (2016). An important archaeological discovery is the clear evidence of a powerful earthquake that affected the city of Ramla, to the west of Jerusalem, and dated by firm ceramic evidence around AD 749 (Gorzalczany and Salamon 2018). On the other hand, Karcz (2004), Ambraseys (2005, 2009) and Salamon et al. (2007), based mainly on the Chronography by the Byzantine Theophanes, which is the source nearest to the events, preferred AD 18 January 746 or 747. Other important earthquake events were dated in AD 749 or in AD 750 as well as on AD 9 March 757 (Karcz 2004; Ambraseys 2009).

Of interest is that the geometry, kinematics, and activity of the faults crossing the town of Tiberias, studied through an integrated structural, archaeoseismological and geophysical approach, revealed that this fault segment was activated in the AD mid-eighth century (Ferrario et al. 2020). Based on macroseismic information for an earthquake dated in AD 746, Riad et al. (2004) estimated maximum intensity as high as XI in Balqa, Jordan, and magnitude 7.7, which was adopted by Sawires et al. (2016) too. El-Isa et al. (2015) suggested two major earthquakes occurring in AD 746/747 and in AD 748/749 with estimated magnitudes 7.4 and 7.2, respectively. Zohar et al. (2017) placed the earthquake in 749/750 and suggested average magnitude of 7.2 as calculated from several previous estimates.

4.3.3 Tsunami

The Nektarios’ narration that “because of the great seismic turmoil at sea many ships sank” is an evidence of a destructive tsunami that possibly associated the earthquake. However, the tsunami place is not provided. This account looks like similar to the accounts provided by earlier texts, which in a chronological order are those by Sawirus (Severus) ibn-al Muqaffa (AD tenth century), a Coptic Orthodox Bishop of the AD tenth century, Michael the Syrian (AD 1126–1199), al-Makin (AD 1208–1273) and Chronikon (1234), a post-AD 1234 anonymous West Syriac universal history (see a collection of accounts in Antonopoulos 1973, 1979; Guidoboni et al. 1994 and Ambraseys 2009). These sources make also reference to an extraordinary storm in the sea that destroyed many towns and villages. However, it is not clear to which earthquake the tsunami was associated with. According to al-Makin and Sawirus Muqaffa, as analyzed by modern authors (Antonopoulos 1973, 1979; Guidoboni et al. 1994; Karcz 2004; Ambraseys 2009), the great tsunamigenic earthquake was dated in a.H.120 (AD 737/738). Chronikon (1234) as well as Michael the Syrian dated the great earthquake in a.S. 1059, i.e. from AD October 747 to AD September 748 according to the Seleucid (Greek) dating system. It is noteworthy, how ever, that in his earthquake accounts for that period, Theophanes does not make reference to an extraordinary storm in the sea or to similar phenomena.

On the other hand, the similarity between the above accounts indicates that one or more authors likely copied previous one(s). As Manousakas (1947) noted, al-Makin was in fact the main source for Nektarios as regards the Parts B and Δ of Epitome. The detailed historiographic analysis by Ambraseys (2009) showed that at least three strong earthquakes may have occurred causing destruction from Egypt to northern Syria in the time interval from AD 746 up to AD 757. The largest has been the one of 18 January 746 that caused extensive destruction and various ground failures, like landslides and soil liquefaction, in many places of Palestine and Jordan. We tentatively suggest that this is the tsunamigenic earthquake described by the various sources examined earlier.

4.3.4 Earthquake effects

The Epitome’s account that “In the East six hundred cities were destroyed” may reflect the large extent of the destruction and the many human victims caused by the great earthquake in several settlements (see review in Guidobini et al. 1994; Ambraseys 2009). However, the statement “while in the land many animals died due to the excessive motion of the Earth”, or a similar one, has not been found in other documentary sources available. To interpret this point there is a need to understand the ground shaking mechanism that may have caused massive animal death. The strong ground motion alone certainly is not enough to explain such an effect. What Nektarios possibly meant is that animals were buried by large scale landslides and/or rock falls triggered by the great earthquake. Such phenomena are clearly described by Theophanes in his account for the year 748/749 in association to the specific earthquake. Animals sacrificed by falling buildings, as a result of the earth shaking, sounds reasonable as well. In fact, Michael the Syrian (466–467) reported that in M abbug, Mesopotamia, human beings and animals were sacrificed when during the oblation a strong earthquake occurred, which likely was the one of AD 749 or AD 750. This episode was also mentioned by Theophanes as happening in the year 748/749 and by al-Makin although these two authors provide different dates (see relevant quotations in Guidoboni et al. 1994 and Ambraseys 2009).