John Kourkouas
John Kourkouas | |
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Born | John Tzimiskes |
John Kourkouas (Greek: Ἰωάννης Κουρκούας, romanized: Ioannes Kourkouas, fl. c. 900–946), also transliterated as Kurkuas or Curcuas,[a] was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His success in battles against the Muslim states in the East reversed the course of the centuries-long Arab–Byzantine wars and set the stage for Byzantium's eastern conquests later in the century.
Kourkouas belonged to a family of
During the 9th century, Byzantium had gradually recovered its strength and internal stability while the Caliphate had become increasingly impotent and fractured. Under Kourkouas's leadership, the Byzantine armies advanced deep into Muslim territory for the first time in almost three centuries, expanding the imperial border. The emirates of
Biography
Early life and career
John was a
Little is known about John's early life. His father was a wealthy official in the imperial palace, but no details are known about his life, nor is his name recorded (although it was likely Romanos).
At this time, and following the disastrous
First submission of Melitene, campaigns into Armenia
Following the
By 925, Romanos Lekapenos felt himself strong enough to demand the payment of tribute from the Muslim cities on the western side of the Euphrates. When they refused, in 926, Kourkouas led the army across the border.[21] Aided by his brother Theophilos and an Armenian contingent under the strategos of Lykandos, Melias,[22] Kourkouas targeted Melitene (modern Malatya), the center of an emirate which had long been a thorn in Byzantium's side.[23][24] The Byzantine army successfully stormed the lower city, and although the citadel held out, Kourkouas concluded a treaty by which the emir accepted tributary status.[21][22]
In 927–928, Kourkouas launched a large raid into Arab-controlled
In 930, Melias's attack on Samosata was heavily defeated; among other prominent officers, one of his sons was captured and sent to Baghdad.[30] Later in the same year, John and his brother Theophilos besieged Theodosiopolis (modern Erzurum), the capital of the emirate of Qaliqala.[31] The campaign was complicated by the machinations of their ostensible allies, the Iberian rulers of Tao-Klarjeti. Resenting the extension of direct Byzantine control adjacent to their own borders, the Iberians had already provided supplies to the besieged city. Once the city was invested, they vociferously demanded that the Byzantines hand over several captured towns, but when one of them, the fort of Mastaton, was surrendered, the Iberians promptly returned it to the Arabs. As Kourkouas needed to keep the Iberians placated and was aware that his conduct was being carefully observed by the Armenian princes, he did not react to this affront.[32] After seven months of siege, Theodosiopolis fell in spring 931 and was transformed into a tributary vassal, while, according to Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio, all territory north of the river Araxes was given to the Iberian king David II. As in Melitene, the maintenance of Byzantine control over Theodosiopolis proved difficult and the population remained restive. In 939, it revolted and drove out the Byzantines, and Theophilos Kourkouas could not finally subdue the city until 949. It was then fully incorporated into the Empire and its Muslim population was expelled and replaced by Greek and Armenian settlers.[32][33][34]
Final capture of Melitene
Following the death of Emir Abu Hafs, Melitene renounced its Byzantine allegiance.[21] After attempts to take the city by storm or subterfuge failed, the Byzantines established a ring of fortresses on the hills around the plain of Melitene, and methodically ravaged the area.[13] By early 931, the inhabitants of Melitene were forced to come to terms: they agreed to tributary status and even undertook to provide a military contingent to campaign alongside the Byzantines.[13]
The other Muslim states were not idle, however: in March, the Byzantines were hit by three successive raids in Anatolia, organized by the Abbasid commander
The sources record no major Byzantine external campaigns for 932, as the Empire was preoccupied with two revolts in the
Rise of the Hamdanids
The fall of Melitene profoundly shocked the Muslim world: for the first time, a major Muslim city had fallen and been incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.[40] Kourkouas followed this success by subduing parts of the district of Samosata in 936 and razing the city to the ground.[41] Until 938, the East remained relatively calm. Historians suggest that the Byzantines were likely preoccupied with the full pacification of Melitene, and the Arab emirates, deprived of any potential support from the Caliphate, were reluctant to provoke them.[40][42]
With the decline of the Caliphate and its obvious inability to defend its border provinces, a new local dynasty, the
The first Byzantine encounter with Sayf al-Dawla took place in 936, when he tried to relieve Samosata, but a revolt at home forced him to turn back.
By that time, the Byzantines had captured Arsamosata and additional strategically important locations in the mountains of southwest Armenia, posing a direct threat to the Muslim emirates around Lake Van.
Rus' raid of 941
The distraction by the Hamdanids proved fortunate for Byzantium. In early summer 941, as Kourkouas prepared to resume campaigning in the East, his attention was diverted by an unexpected event: the appearance of a
Campaigns in Mesopotamia and recovery of the Mandylion
Following this distraction, in January 942 Kourkouas launched a new campaign in the East, which lasted for three years.
Kourkouas assailed Edessa every year from 942 onward and devastated its countryside, as he had done at Melitene. Finally, its emir agreed to a peace, swearing not to raise arms against Byzantium and to hand over the Mandylion in exchange for the return of 200 prisoners.
Dismissal and rehabilitation
Despite this triumph, the downfall of Kourkouas, as well as of his friend and protector, Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, was imminent. The two eldest surviving sons of Romanos I, co-emperors Stephen and Constantine, were jealous of Kourkouas and had in the past tried to undermine him, albeit without success.[62] Following the success of Kourkouas in the East, Romanos I considered marrying his trusted general into the imperial family. Kourkouas's daughter Euphrosyne was to be wedded with the emperor's grandson, the future Romanos II (r. 959–963), the son of his son-in-law and junior emperor Constantine VII. Although such a union would effectively cement the loyalty of the army, it would also strengthen the position of the legitimate Macedonian line, represented by Constantine VII, over the imperial claims of Romanos's own sons.[59][63][64] Predictably, Stephen and Constantine opposed this decision and prevailed upon their father, who was by this time old and ill, to dismiss Kourkouas in the autumn of 944.[62][65]
Kourkouas was replaced by a certain
The fall of the Lekapenoi signalled the end of an era in terms of personalities, but Kourkouas's expansionist policy continued: he was succeeded as Domestic of the Schools by Bardas Phokas the Elder, followed by Nikephoros Phokas, who reigned as emperor in 963–969, and finally, by Kourkouas's own great-nephew, John Tzimiskes, who reigned as emperor in 969–976. All of them expanded the Byzantine frontier in the East, recovering Cilicia and northern Syria with Antioch, and converting the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo into a Byzantine protectorate.[68]
Assessment
"... the aforementioned
magistros and Domestic of the Schools John became unrivalled in matters of war, and set up many and great trophies, and expanded the Roman boundaries and sacked many Hagarenecities."
Chronicle of Theophanes Continuatus, Reign of Romanos Lekapenos, 40.[69][70]
Kourkouas ranks among the greatest military leaders Byzantium produced, a fact recognized by the Byzantines themselves. Later Byzantine chroniclers hailed him as the general who restored the imperial frontier to the Euphrates,[71] In a contemporary eight-book history, written by a protospatharios Manuel and now lost save for a short summary in Theophanes Continuatus, he is acclaimed for having conquered a thousand cities, and described as "a second Trajan or Belisarius".[3][72]
The ground work for his successes had certainly been laid by others:
Notes
References
- ^ a b c ODB, "Kourkouas" (A. Kazhdan), pp. 1156–1157.
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 337–338.
- ^ a b c PmbZ, Ioannes Kurkuas (#22917)
- ^ Guilland 1967, pp. 442–443, 446, 463, 571.
- ^ PmbZ, Maria (#24923)
- ^ PmbZ, Romanos Kurkuas (#26836)
- ^ Guilland 1967, pp. 443, 571.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 58–62.
- ^ Guilland 1967, p. 571.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 69.
- ^ Whittow 1996, p. 418.
- ^ Guilland 1967, pp. 447, 571.
- ^ a b c d e f g Whittow 1996, p. 317.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 70–71, 135.
- ^ Guilland 1967, pp. 442–443, 571–572.
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 176–178.
- ^ El-Cheikh 2004, p. 162.
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 311–314.
- ^ Whittow 1996, p. 315.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 136–137.
- ^ a b c Runciman 1988, p. 137.
- ^ a b c Treadgold 1997, p. 479.
- ^ Whittow 1996, p. 310.
- ^ Treadgold 1998, p. 111.
- ^ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976, p. 77.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 138.
- ^ a b c Ter-Ghewondyan 1976, p. 82.
- ^ a b Treadgold 1997, p. 480.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 138–139.
- ^ a b Runciman 1988, p. 139.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 139–140.
- ^ a b Runciman 1988, p. 140.
- ^ Whittow 1996, p. 322.
- ^ Holmes 2005, p. 314.
- ^ a b c d e Runciman 1988, p. 141.
- ^ a b c Jenkins 1987, p. 246.
- ^ a b c d e f Treadgold 1997, p. 481.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 141–142.
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 341–342.
- ^ a b Runciman 1988, p. 142.
- ^ a b c d e Treadgold 1997, p. 483.
- ^ a b c Whittow 1996, p. 318.
- ^ Treadgold 1998, p. 78.
- ^ ODB, "Sayf al-Dawla" (A. Kazhdan), p. 1848.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 142–143.
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 319–320.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 143–144.
- ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 483–484.
- ^ a b c d e Runciman 1988, p. 144.
- ^ Whittow 1996, p. 320.
- ^ Jenkins 1987, pp. 250–251.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 111–112.
- ^ Jenkins 1987, p. 251.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 112.
- ^ Guilland 1967, pp. 442–443, 572.
- ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 484.
- ^ a b c d e Whittow 1996, p. 321.
- ^ a b Jenkins 1987, p. 247.
- ^ a b Guilland 1967, p. 572.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 5.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 145.
- ^ a b c d Runciman 1988, p. 146.
- ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 484–485.
- ^ Holmes 2005, pp. 131–132.
- ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 485.
- ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 486.
- ^ Guilland 1967, pp. 442, 572.
- ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 322–327.
- ^ Niebuhr 1838, p. 426.
- ^ Holmes 2005, pp. 135–136.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 148.
- ^ Whittow 1996, p. 344.
- ^ Runciman 1988, pp. 146–149.
- ^ Runciman 1988, p. 150.
Sources
- Andriollo, Lisa (2012), "Les Kourkouas (IXe-XIe siècle)", in Cheynet, Jean-Claude; Sode, Claudia (eds.), Studies in Byzantine Sigillography (in French), vol. 11, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 57–88, ISBN 978-3-11-026668-9
- El-Cheikh, Nadia Maria (2004). Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. ISBN 0-932885-30-6.
- OCLC 878894516.
- Holmes, Catherine (2005). Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976–1025). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-927968-3.
- Jenkins, Romilly (1987). Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, AD 610–1071. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-6667-4.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
- Niebuhr, Barthold Georg, ed. (1838). Theophanes Continuatus, Ioannes Cameniata, Symeon Magister, Georgius Monachus. Bonn: E. Weber. OCLC 246268950.
- ISBN 0-521-35722-5.
- OCLC 490638192.
- ISBN 0-8047-2630-2.
- ISBN 0-8047-3163-2.
- ISBN 978-0-520-20496-6.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0195338423.