Theophilus of Edessa’s Chronicle and the Circulation of Historic

Theophilus of Edessa was an astrologer in the court of the Muslim caliphs from the 750s to the 780s, a time when their capital, Baghdad, was a thriving centre of culture and trade and one of the most populous and prosperous cities of the world. He was fluent in Greek, Syriac and Arabic, and he used this ability to bring together a number of historical sources in each of these languages and blend them into a single chronicle, written in Syriac, that charted events in the Near East from 590 to the 750s. His work is no longer extant, but it was cited extensively by a number of later historians and Robert Hoyland has collected and translated all these citations so as to give an impression of the scope and content of the original text. This is important, because this chronicle underlies much of our historical knowledge about the Near East in the seventh and eighth centuries. This was a crucial period in the region, witnessing as it did the devastating war between Byzantium and Iran, the Arab conquests and the rise to power of the first Muslim Arab dynasty, the Umayyads (660-750), and their subsequent overthrow by the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the Muslim Empire from Damascus to Baghdad. Hoyland also indicates the links between Theophilus' chronicle and other historical works, by Muslims as well as Christians, in order to illustrate the considerable degree of sharing of historical ideas and information among the various communities of the Near East.

A reconstruction of the lost chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa (d.785). Covering 590-760, it describes such world-changing events as the last great war of antiquity between Byzantium and Iran, the Arab conquests, the establishment of a Muslim empire, and the revolution that saw the capital of this empire shift from Damascus to Baghdad.

Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Translation of Theophilus of Edessa's Chronicle Appendix 1: Unique Notices in Theophanes about Affairs in Syria and Palestine Appendix 2: The Common Source of Theophilus' Chronicle and Chron 819 Appendix 3: The Missing Sections of Agapius from Ms Laurenziana Or 323 Gazetteer Maps 1. The Near East in Late Antiquity 2. Provinces of the Early Islamic Middle East 3. Syro-Mesopotamia in the Sixth-Eighth Centuries Figures 1. Transmission to and from Theophilus of Edessa 2. The Tribe of Quraysh 3. The Umayyad Caliphs Bibliography Index