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XXV An Embassy from Baghdad to the Emperor Basil II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

H. F. Amedroz
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Extract

The following pages contain a rather circumstantial account of certain negotiations between the Buwaihid, 'Aḍud al-Daula, and the Emperor Basil, the slayer of the Bulgarians, consequent on the presence of Basil's defeated rival, Bardas Scleros, in honourable captivity at Baghdad. His defeat at Pancalia in A.D. 979 very nearly coincided with 'Aḍud al-Daula's final conquest of ‘Irāḳ, which was followed by the expulsion from Mosul of the Hamdanid Abu Taghlib. Between him and Scleros existed the tie of self-interest cemented by one of affinity: they had assisted each other against their respective adversaries, and had both been defeated. Abu Taghlib's defeat was final; driven from Diyār Bakr by the troops of 'Aḍud al-Daula, he fled to Syria and perished by a treacherous Arab hand. But no impassable barrier as yet interposed between Scleros and the object of his ambition. He had escaped to Mayyāfāriḳīn, which had lately submitted to ‘Aḍud al-Daula, and had sent thence his brother Constantine as his envoy to Baghdad with an appeal for succour and an offer of allegiance. Contemporaneously arrived at Baghdad an envoy from Basil with instructions to procure, at whatever cost, the surrender of Scleros, who was obviously a valuable pawn in the monarchs’ political game. 'Aḍud al-Daula thereupon caused him and his followers to be promptly conveyed to Baghdad, and the game proceeded.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 1914 , pp. 915 - 942
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1914

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References

page 916 note 1 d. A.H. 488 (Wust. Gesch., No. 227); the MS. has been recovered at Constantinople by His Excellency Aḥmiad Zéki Pacha.

page 917 note 1 At p. 158, 1. 15, and again p. 184, 1. 4, where he is called “Magister and Ḳunṭus”. On p. 167, 1. 6, we are told that he escaped from Baghdad after the release of Scleros and rejoined Basil. In A.D. 996 he defeated the Bulgarians (Épopée, ii, 134–42)Google Scholar, and in 1000 succeeded Damianus Dalassenus (who had been defeated and killed at Apamea; see Ibn al-Ḳalānisi, pp. 51–2)Google Scholar as governor of Antioch (Épopée, p. 158).Google Scholar

page 917 note 2 Von Rosen detected from a study of the Bodleian fragment of the Tajārib, MS. Marsh 357, that it was the basis of Ibn al-Athīr's narrative (Épopée, i, 421Google Scholar, n. 4). Ibn al-Athīr likewise made use of the Dhail, and in vol. viii, p. 517, is the statement that Zimisces' death was due to poison administered by the eunuch brother of Theophano, “who had been vizier since the death of Romanus, and whose name was Barkamūs (Parakoimomenos), and who thus acquired power.” The eunuch in question was Basil, natural son of Romanus Lecapenus, who aided Nicephorus to the throne and supplanted Bringas. But in another passage Ibn al-Athīr tells another story. In his survey of Byzantine history sub A.H. 433, from the birth of Basil and onwards (ix, 340–2), he attributes the poisoning to a priest instigated by Theophano from her place of exile, a distant cloister, whence she returned on the day Zimisces died, whereupon Basil succeeded, with herself as regent on the ground of his youth. Yahya (p. 147, 1. 1) merely records his death (A.H. 365), and says that thereupon Basil and Constantine, sons of Romanus, became real rulers, but that the government was exercised by Basil their elder alone, he being then 18 years of age; that he relied on the Barkamūs, and recalled his mother Theophano from exile.

page 919 note 1 See Ibn Khallihān, trans., ii, 671.Google Scholar

page 919 note 2 i.e. holder of the inkstand. The official, as above stated, was Nicephorus Uranus.

page 919 note 3 This was in the course of Zimisces' final campaign in Syria, A.H. 364. Yaḥya's account of the surrender, and of Kulaib's nomination as “Basilicus”, i.e. Governor of Antioch (p. 146, 1. 5), is quoted Épopée, i, 299.Google Scholar Kulaib had lately surrendered both Antioch and himself to Scleros, who had made him Governor of Malatya (p. 147, 1. 18; p. 148, 1. 6; Épopée, i, 376–7).Google Scholar Barzūya had been taken from the Byzantines by Saif al-Daula in A.H. 337 (Un Empereur byzantin, p. 132, n. 1).Google Scholar

page 919 note 4 Barkamūs, i.e. Parakoimomenos, accubitor, or chamberlain. This was the eunuch Basil who had declared himself in favour of Nicephorus Phocas, and on his success had replaced Bringas as chief adviser, remaining so until his dismissal by Basil in A.H. 375 (A.D. 985) (Yaḥya, p. 165Google Scholar, 1. 13, and Épopée, i, 573).Google Scholar

page 920 note 1 The speaker was son of Leo Phocas, brother of Nicephorus.

page 921 note 1 Son and successor of Nāṣir al-Daula at Mosul.

page 924 note 1 Curopalate, , “Maréchal du Palais Sacré, titre très considérable à fonctions mal connues”Google Scholar (Schlumberger, , Un Empereur byzantin, p. 361).Google Scholar He was Leo Phocas, blinded for his connivance in the revolt of his son Bardas against John Zimisces, but the mutilation in this case was intentionally carried out in a merciful fashion: see Épopée, i, 66.Google Scholar

page 924 note 2 Said by way of reductio ad absurdum, the place being near Samarkand. So Belisarius is said to have offered the Goths, in answer to their claim for Sicily which he had already conquered, the cession of Britain.

page 925 note 1 Sa'd al-Daula, the son of Saif al-Daula, had tendered his submission to 'Adud al-Daula on his arrival in Baghdad, and had included his name in the “Prayer” after that of the Caliph, (Yaḥya, p. 157, 1. 18).Google Scholar

page 928 note 1 The ancestor of the Marwānid dynasty at Mayyāfāriḳīn. Bād made a resolute attempt on Mosul after the death of 'Aḍud al-Daula, but failed, and fell in battle.

page 929 note 1 Basil, the eunuch, was natural son of Romanus Lecapenus, whose daughter Helen was wife to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the grandfather of the Emperor Basil.

page 930 note 1 i.e. when he was at Baghdad as envoy from Basil after the flight of Scleros to Moslem territory.

page 936 note 1 MS.

page 937 note 1 Also written “Asmand”, a village near Samarkand (Yâḳût, , Buldân, i, 265).Google Scholar

page 938 note 1 MS.

page 940 note 1 MS.

page 941 note 1 MS. , but the reference must be to Leo Phocas and his son Bardas.