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Vox Patrum
|
2022
|
vol. 84
79-92
PL
Chronografia Teofanesa Wyznawcy to jedno z niewielu bizantyńskich dzieł historiograficznych, w którym tak wiele miejsca poświęcono światu islamskiemu i pierwszym władcom kalifatu. Oczywiście większość wzmianek na temat muzułmanów dotyczy raczej zagadnień militarnych – licznych najazdów na ziemie bizantyńskie, jakie miały miejsce praktycznie od początku powstania islamu. Istotny był też sposób w jaki Teofanes traktował sam islam – jako herezję. Trudno więc spodziewać się, aby opisy dotyczące kalifów można było uznać za pozytywne. W większości z nich znajdziemy raczej „dowody” na chciwość, głupotę czy skłonność do przemocy, jakie charakteryzować miały kalifów. Niemniej jednak w kontekście odpowiedzi na zadane w tytule pytanie – czy kalif mógł być cnotliwy – warto przyjrzeć się bliżej wizerunkowi dwóch władców w Chronografii – Mu‘awiji oraz ‘Abd al-Malika. Niniejszy tekst poświęcony został pierwszemu z wymienionych kalifów.
EN
The Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor is one of the few Byzantine historiographical works in which so much space is devoted to the Islamic world and the first ruling caliphate. Of course, most references to Muslims concern mostly military issues – numerous Muslim invasions on Byzantine lands that were happening almost since the beginning of Islam. Also important was the way Theophanes treated Islam itself as a religion – as heresy. Therefore, it is hard to expect that the descriptions of the caliphs can be considered positive. In most of them, we find rather “evidence” of the greed, stupidity, or propensity to violence, which were to characterize the caliphs. Nevertheless, in the context of the answer to the question posed in the title – whether the caliph could be virtuous – it is worth taking a closer look at the image of the two rulers in the Chronography – Mu‘awiya and ‘Abd al-Malik. This text is dedicated to the first of these rulers.
EN
Theophanes’ account regarding the rise of Islam and the history of the Prophet Muḥammad appears to be the most detailed and precise one that can be found in Byzantine historiography. The Confessor’s aim was to reproduce as many details about Muḥammad’s life as possible. Since his focus was not on religious ideas, but on key events surrounding the rise of the new religion, his account is not predominantly concerned with discussing Islam’s ideology. However, this does not allow us to regard it as in any way objective. Some of the views it contains were included with the clear goal of discrediting Islam as a religion that rivalled Christianity. This, for example, can be said of Theophanes’ remarks about the relationship between Muḥammad and the Jews. In this article, I focus on this aspect of Theophanes’ account, discussing it in the context of the long-running (the last several decades) scholarly debates regarding Jewish-Muslim relations.
EN
This text supplements another, a paper presented a decade ago on the portrayal of Umayyad rulers in Chronography of Theophanes the Confessor (B. Cecota, Islam, the Arabs and Umayyad Rulers according to Theophanes the Confessor’s Chronography, “Studia Ceranea” 2, 2012, p. 97–111). I am limiting myself here to discussing only those source remarks which directly concern one of the Abbasid Caliphs, or alternatively, to narratives structured in such a manner that they implied certain traits of a ruler. General remarks concerning the portrayal of the entire dynasty have been included, both in the main text and in the footnotes, only where this was necessary for the understanding of the context in which the Caliphs’ descriptions appear.
EN
This article attempts to interpret the messages of Theophanes the Confessor about the seizure of power in the Muslim caliphate by the Abbasid dynasty. The Byzantine studies debate of the last decades about Chronography was dominated by the dispute over the so-called eastern sources of information contained in the Byzantine chronicle. There were numerous suggestions, most notably about Teophilus of Edessa and alleged Arab sources. In view of this very important discussion, however, the issue of the work that Theophanes the Confessor himself (or the team of people who worked with him and George Syncellus in the context of the selection of materials) put into the creation of this chronicle disappears. What elements of the narrative did he want to emphasize, how did he conduct the narrative, what he wanted to suggest to his readers. According to the author of this text, a good example of the selection work performed by Theophanes are those elements of the narrative that concern the rise and takeover of power by the Abbasids. In the first part of this article, I dealt with the circumstances of the Abbasid seizure of power, which was highlighted by the Byzantine chronicler. Theophanes was certainly not an "supporter" of the Umayyads, as seen especially in the description of Marwan's reign, but he is negative about how the Abbasids seized power - considering their legitimacy questionable, presenting them as the people who led to the robberies and murders by the lower classes . I dealt with these issues, as well as some elements related to possible religious interpretations, in the first part of the work, presented here. In the second, I will present elements of Theophanes' narrative, which seem to suggest that with the seizure of power by the Abbasids he saw a certain collapse of the Muslim state.
PL
Artykuł jest próbą interpretacji informacji wybranych przez Teofanesa Wyznawcy na temat przejęcia władzy w muzułmańskim kalifacie przez dynastię Abbasydów. W bizantyńskiej debacie naukowej ostatnich dziesięcioleci na temat Chronografii dominował spór o tzw. wschodnie źródła, w szczególności dotyczący Teofila z Edessy i rzekomych źródeł arabskich. W świetle tej bardzo ważnej dyskusji znika jednak kwestia pracy, jaką sam Teofanes Wyznawca (lub zespół współpracujących z nim osób i Jerzy Synkelos, w kontekście doboru materiałów) włożył w tworzenie tej kroniki. Jakie elementy narracji chciał podkreślić, jak ją prowadził, co chciał zasugerować swoim czytelnikom. Zdaniem autora tego tekstu, dobrym przykładem pracy selekcyjnej dokonanej przez Teofanesa są te elementy narracji, które dotyczą powstania i przejęcia władzy przez Abbasydów. Teofanes z pewnością nie był „zwolennikiem” Umajjadów, co widać zwłaszcza w opisie panowania Marwana, ale negatywnie odnosi się do tego, jak Abbasydzi przejęli władzę – kwestionuje ich legitymizację, przedstawiając jako ludzi, którzy pozwolili na rabunki i morderstwa dokonywane przez niższe klasy. Tymi zagadnieniami, a także pewnymi elementami związanymi z możliwymi interpretacjami religijnymi zająłem się w pierwszej, prezentowanej tutaj, części pracy. W drugiej przedstawię elementy narracji Teofanesa, które zdają się sugerować, iż wraz z przejęciem władzy przez Abbasydów widział on pewien zmierzch muzułmańskiego państwa w ogóle.
EN
As the Chronography of Theophanes the Confessor includes a lot of information about the foreign states and tribes which were connected with the Byzantine Empire. It is legitimate, in the Author’s view, to analyse the account concerning Islam and the Arabs by this Byzantine author. Theophanes possessed detailed knowledge of the Arabs, Islam and Umayyad caliphs. He used, although presumably indirectly, some Muslim sources in his work. The argument which strongly proves this hypothesis is his precise description of inner clashes between the members of the ruling house, as well as of Arab civil wars. The article discusses how Theophanes (and presumably his sources) depicted not only the Arabs as an entity, but also the prophet Muhammad and some of the Umayyad caliphs (Muawiya, Walid I, Umar II, Hisham, Marwan II).
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