New Histories of a Time of Conflict: The Seventh Century in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian

New Histories of a Time of Conflict: The Seventh Century in the Chronicle of Michael the SyrianTravaux et mémoires 26Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/M7RP6IY2/tei

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2024-08-15-04:00

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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.PhilipWoodNew Histories of a Time of Conflict: The Seventh Century in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrianhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/M7RP6IY2https://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/M7RP6IY2https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/M7RP6IY2PhilipBoothMaryWhitbyMélanges James Howard-JohnstonParisAssociation des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance2022595-616Travaux et mémoires 26This article examines the description of the Arab conquests of the seventh century preserved in the twelfth-century Chronicle of Michael the Syrian. Some of these scenes had been used in the past to sustain an argument of strong confessional divisions that facilitated the Arab victory. It surveys the identification of the Romans as Chalcedonian “heretics” or “persecutors” from a Miaphysite perspective and it attempts to characterise the authorship of these passages. In some cases, criticism of emperors or generals is not essentially religious, and the accusation is one of malpractice or incompetence rather than persecution. In others, individual Chalcedonians do engage in the persecution of Miaphysites. Nevertheless, the authors of these scenes do not tend to criticise Heraclius or the empire as a whole, but focus on individual villains. Finally, I argue that a number of these scenes have been interpolated by a later hand, probably Michael the Syrian himself, to increase the sense of a division between Miaphysites and Chalcedonians. Wood, Philip. “New Histories of a Time of Conflict: The Seventh Century in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian.” In Mélanges James Howard-Johnston, edited by Philip Booth and Mary Whitby, 595–616. Travaux et Mémoires 26. Paris: Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, 2022. Philip Wood, New Histories of a Time of Conflict: The Seventh Century in the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian,” in Mélanges James Howard-Johnston, ed. Philip Booth and Mary Whitby, Travaux et Mémoires 26 (Paris: Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, 2022), 595–616.Arab conquestHeracliusJacobitesMichael the SyrianVII CEVII-XVIII CEXII CEhistoriography