Late Antique Historiography

Chronicle of 1234

Title(s):
  • Chronicle of 1234
Author:
Period covered:
At least Creation-1234
Language:
Syriac
State of Preservation:
Partial
Genre:
  • Chronicle (narrative chronicle)
Remarks:
The anonymous chronicler wrote in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. The presence of two colophons dated to 1204 has been adduced as evidence of the fact that the original text ended in that year, and was later continued by another author (Conrad 1991: 34-35). According to Hilkens (2014: 17-22), though, the chronicle was written by the same author based on other sources up to 1204, and on the author’s personal experience from 1204 on.
The only manuscript preserving the chronicle, now lost, was last owned by the Syrian Orthodox bishop Paulos Fehim (d. 1914); it was described by Philoxenos Yuhanna Dolabani (Ibrahim 1994).
Edition - Translation:
  • J.-B. Chabot (1937) Anonymi auctoris Chronicon ad annum Christi 1234: Praemissum est Chronicon anonymum ad A.D. 819 pertinens. Volume One (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 81: Scriptores Syri, 36). Leuven.
  • J.-B. Chabot (1916) Chronicon ad annum Christi 1234 pertinens. Volume Two (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 3.15). Paris.
  • A. Abouna, J.-M. Fiey (1974) Anonymi auctoris Chronicon ad annum Christi 1234 pertinens. Volume Two (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 109: Scriptores Syri, 56). Leuven.
  • J.-B. Chabot (1920) Anonymi auctoris Chronicon ad annum Christi 1234: Praemissum est Chronicon anonymum ad A.D. 819 pertinens. Volume One, ed. Aphram Barsaum (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 109: Scriptores Syri, 56). Leuven.
  • A. Hilkens (2014) The anonymous Syriac chronicle up to the year 1234 and its sources. Diss. Ghent.
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • L.I. Conrad (1991) 'Syriac perspectives on Bilād al-Shām during the Abbasid period'. In: Bilād al-Shām during the Abbasid period: Fifth international conference on the history of Bilād al-Shām, ed. M. Adnan al-Bakhit - R. Schick. Amman: 1-44.
  • M. Conterno (2014) La 'descrizione dei tempi' all'alba dell'espansione islamica: Un'indagine sulla storiografia greca, siriaca e araba fra VII e VIII secolo (Millennium studies, 47). Berlin - New York.
  • 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: 585-589.
  • A. Hilkens (2013) 'Syriac Ilioupersides: The fall of Troy in Syriac historiography'. Le muséon 126: 285-317.
  • A. Hilkens (2018) The anonymous Syriac Chronicle of 1234 and its sources (Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta 272). Leuven.
  • A. Hilkens (2015) 'Andronicus et son influence sur la présentation de l'histoire postdiluvienne et pré-abrahamique dans la Chronique syriaque anonyme jusqu'à l'année 1234'. In: L'historiographie tardo-antique et la transmission des savoirs, ed. P. Blaudeau - P. Van Nuffelen (Millennium studies, 55). Berlin: 55-82.
  • R. Hoyland (2011) Theophilus of Edessa's Chronicle and the circulation of historical knowledge in Late Antiquity and early Islam (Translated texts for historians, 57). Liverpool.
  • G.Y. Ibrahim (1994) Filuksinōs Yuhannon Dōlabānī, Mhawwyono da-ktobe srite d-botay arke d-dayroto wa-d-'idoto suryoyoto da-b-Madnho (Fihris mahtūtātas-suryānīya). Aleppo.
  • H. Teule (2012) 'Chronicon ad annum 1234 pertinens'. In: Christian-Muslim relations: A bibliographical history. Volume Four: 1200-1350, ed. D.R. Thomas - A. Mallett (The history of Christian-Muslim relations, 17). Leiden-Boston: 307-309.
  • D. Weltecke (2009) 'Les trois grandes chroniques syro-orthodoxes des XIIe et XIIIe siècles'. In: L'historiographie syriaque, ed. M. Debié (Études syriaques, 6). Paris: 107-135.
  • D. Weltecke (2010) 'A renaissance in historiography? Patriarch Michael, the Anonymous chronicle ad a. 1234, and Bar 'Ebrōyō'. In: The Syriac renaissance, ed. H.G.B. Teule - C.F. Tauwinkl - R.B. ter Haar Romeny - J. van Ginkel (Eastern Christian studies 9). Leuven - Paris - Walpole (MA): 95-111.