Database: Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP)

Title(s):

Chronicle
ܦܢܩܝܬܐ ܕܡܟܬܒܢܘܬܐ
(penqītā d-maktbānūtā, Volume of the chronicle)

Author:

John of Kaysum

Period covered:

12th c.

Language:

Syriac

State of Preservation:

Fragmentary

Genre:

Remarks:

The sorrowful tone of John's preface suggests that the work was composed after the destruction of Edessa in 1146 A.D., which exerted a strong emotional impact on Syrian Orthodox Christians (Van Ginkel 2010: 118-119).

John says that he drew on many different sources for his work. The continued raids and attacks of the twelfth century have probably encouraged a flourishing of historiographical activity on contemporary events.

Edition - Translation:

Fragments:

Michael the Great, Chronicle 16.10 [Chabot 1910: 627]

Users:

Sources:

Bibliography:

J.-B. Chabot (1905) (tr.) Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche jacobite d'Antioche (1166-1199). Volume Three. Paris: 256-257.
J.-B. Chabot (1910) (ed.) Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche jacobite d'Antioche (1166-1199). Volume Four. Paris.
M. Debié (2015) L'écriture de l'histoire en syriaque: Transmissions interculturelles et constructions identitaires entre hellénisme et Islam (Late antique history and religion, 12). Leuven - Paris - Bristol: 577.
J.J. van Ginkel (2010) 'A man is not an island: Reflections of the historiography of the early Syriac renaissance in Michael the Great'. In: The Syriac renaissance, ed. H.G.B. Teule - C.F. Tauwinkl - R. B. ter Haar Romeny - J.J. van Ginkel (Eastern Christian studies, 9). Leuven - Paris - Walpole (MA): 113-121.