The Ethnic Backgrounds of Byzantine Emperors

Heraclius (r. 610-641) receiving the submission of Sassanian
Ruler Khosrow II (r. 590-628) | Louvre Museum

The Byzantine Empire was extremely cosmopolitan. Inside its borders lived Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Cappadocians, Pahlagonians, Germans, Isaurians, and many others. Nonetheless, Byzantines identified as Roman, a supra-ethnic form of identity that was continued from the Roman Empire. But while this Roman identity may have bound Byzantines together, ethnic identities and divisions still existed. Byzantine primary sources are replete with references to specific ethnicities inside the Empire, such as “Armenians” and “Isaurians.” Byzantine emperors were no different than their subjects in this respect; they were an ethnically diverse cadre of rulers.

Some Byzantine emperors were never ethnically identified in primary sources. In other cases, historians used terms that could refer to both a geographic or ethnic origin. It is not an easy task to delineate the ethnic origins of the Byzantine emperors. In the following paragraphs, I will try to lay out the ethnic origins of the 90 Byzantine emperors (not counting Basiliscus, Mezezius, Artabasdos, Michael IX, Andronikos IV, John VII, or Andronikos V, all of which were short-lived usurpers or junior emperors).

How Armenians Made Byzantium || Byzantine Empire and the Armenians

Michael Goodyear

University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)

 

In the past few decades, there has been an increasing academic and popular focus on ethnic minorities, even turning minority studies into a viable academic field.  In this new trend, however, minority studies are primarily focused on the present and recent past.  This ignores the importance of historical minorities, especially ones that impacted states to such a degree as the Armenians impacted the Byzantine Empire. In addition to their own national history and culture, ethnic Armenians were also a highly important minority inside the Byzantine Empire.[1]  During the middle centuries of Byzantium, from 610 to 1071, the Armenian populace served as an important source of manpower, and individuals of Armenian descent rose to the highest dignities in the Byzantine Empire as generals, politicians, patriarchs, intellectuals, and even emperors.  Some of the most famous and important Byzantines in history had Armenian blood, including Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641), who saved Byzantium from the perilous Persian onslaught in the seventh century, and Photios (r. 858-867, 877-886), the most famous medieval Patriarch of Constantinople.[2]  Armenian immigrants and Byzantines of Armenian descent constituted one of the key factors behind the longevity of the Byzantine Empire, positively impacting Byzantium in the fields of demographics, the military, imperial rule, economics, intellectualism, and religion. 

Destruction of Armenian heritage in Georgia

Kakheti, Gremi | Կախեթի, Գրեմ քաղաքատեղիի բազմաթիվ հայոց եկեղեցիներից մեկի արևմտյան ճակատում ագուցված գեղաքանդակ երեք խաչքարերը (ԺԶ դար) 2000-ական թթ. սկզբներին չեզոքացնելու մտքով պատել են բետոնով:
სერიიდან "მოძმე" ჰაოსი და ქართლოსი. საქართველოს აღმოსავლეთით, კერძოდ კახეთის ქალაქ (კახეთის სამეფოს ყოფილი დედაქალაქი) გრემში არსებული მრავალი სომხური ეკლესიებიდან ერთ-ერთის დასავლეთ ფასადზე მხატვრულად გამოქანდაკებული სამი ცალი ხაჩქარის (XVI ს.) დამალვის მიზნით, 2000-იან წლებში ხაჩქარების ზედაპირი გალესილ იქნა ბეტონით.

Alphabetum Armenicum et Fabulosa 1703 by Andreas Müller

Seeroon Yeretzian. Armenian illuminations series

Armenian alphabet - Beautiful Aypupen

Armenian Delegation, Apadana Staircase (5th century BC) Persepolis

Armenian tribute bearer carrying a jar decorated with winged griffins, detail of relief sculpture on the stairway leading to the Apadana of Darius at Persepolis, Iran, from the Achaemenian period, late 5th century bce.

ARMENIAN LETTERS ON WURZBURG PALACE FRESCO

Codex Armenicus Rescriptus

The Schoyen collection

The Codex Armenicus Rescriptus is a parchment originating at the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai. The original text on the parchment was an Armenian version of the Homilies on the Psalter by John Chrisostomos. It was later overwritten with Melkite liturgical prayers in Syriac. The Armenian text dates from the 6th century, the golden age of the Armenian language. The Syriac text dates from the 10th century.

Armenian church in Tomarza (Turkey)

Statue of Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon)

Statue of Calouste Gulbenkian in front of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

Armenian sculptor Harut Karapetyan

Armenians in Dhaka (Bangladesh)

By Adnan Morshed

Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Resurrection
Dhaka, 1781

Turkey seems to have a burlesque history of genocide denial. On June 2, the German Parliament voted to recognise the 1,915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "genocide." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reaction was predictable: “Germany has no right to comment on genocide.” Ankara recalled its ambassador from Berlin.

Sounds familiar? Ankara's recent withdrawal of its ambassador to Bangladesh following the execution of an indicted “war criminal” reveals the Erdogan regime's grotesquely negligent attitude toward the genocide in Bangladesh during 1971. 

My goal here today is not to psychoanalyse Turkey's peculiar discomfort with histories of genocide. Rather, I am intrigued by the common history of massacre that Armenians and Bangladeshis share, and how this history, in many ways, shapes the national personality of these two peoples. More fascinating yet that Dhaka presents a robust Armenian history, which I propose to explore through the lens of the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection on Church Road in Old Dhaka.

The church is modest in its architectural scope, yet its history offers a rich tapestry of the Armenian footprint on the commerce, politics, and education of East Bengal. More important, the church is an architectural testament to the story of how the Armenian diasporas spread out from their historic homeland, located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, to far-flung regions, and thrived as a versatile cosmopolitan community.

The Legacy of Turkish in the Armenian Diaspora

[The cover of "Osmanlıca Bilenlere Dört Günde
Ermenice Okumanın Usulü," an 1892 book teaching
Armeno-Turkish. Image via Tozsuz Evrak.]

There we sat, the proverbial Turk and Armenian, at neighboring tables in a university student center in New Jersey. My back to his, I drew my eyes out of the book I was reading to concentrate on the voice behind me. The gliding vowels of Turkish always sound familiar in the split second it takes for my brain to mark the language as unknown. As the man shouted into his cellphone, unaware of the aspiring eavesdropper nearby, a surge of recognition startled me each time I managed to catch a hiç or a hemen. These words were, after all, part of my language too.

That was the microcosmic encounter between two nations notoriously divided: a non-conversation through a handful of words that belong to us both. It was an encounter rooted in another time, another world away—a time before ethno-linguistic nationalism led Armenians and Turks to retreat into their languages and fortify them against each other, a time before the Turkish people held exclusive rights to the Turkish language, and a time before the Armenian people felt a visceral unease towards most things Turkish.

This scene recalls the intimate relationship that Ottoman Armenians once had with the Turkish language. Although this relationship grew strained nearly a century ago when most of the community was pushed into the diaspora, among many of the descendants of this community there remains a quiet, reticent affection for the language that still echoes today in far-flung corners of the Armenian diaspora.

Turkish: A Language of the Ottoman Armenians

How can the relationship between a people and their imperial language be framed as a transnational, multigenerational love affair in good faith? Other imperial contexts point to the striking implausibility of this scenario. The tendency of imperial powers to use language to sink their claws deeper into the minds of the colonized, strip them of their cultural identities, and tighten their grip on the territory they aim to pillage might prompt a raised eyebrow at the metaphor. But there is a distinction to be made between an Algerian’s relationship to French, an Indian’s relationship to English, and an Ottoman Armenian’s relationship to Turkish.

Map of Asia in the Shape of a Winged Horse (Pegasus)

Heinrich Bünting, 1581 / 1594

"Asia secunda pars terrae in forma Pegasir"

Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, Magdeburg, 

Location: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Asia secunda pars terrae in forma Pegasir

Adolf Hitler: The Obersalzberg Speech

Modern History Sourcebook: 

Adolf Hitler: The Obersalzberg Speech | August 22, 1939

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Adolf Hitler: The Obersalzberg Speech

Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter – with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me. I have issued the command – and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Source:

From Documents on British Foreign Policy. 1919-1939. eds. E. L. Woodward and Rohan Riftlep; 3rd series (London: HMSO, 1954), 7:258-260.

Associated Press bureau chief in Berlin, Louis Lochner.

Inscription | The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The third paragraph of the L-3 document:

ORIGINAL : "Wer redet heute noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier?"

"Vernichtung" - destruction | extermination | annihilation

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HayForum.Blog | ARMENIAN GENOCIDE | 1915

Jeweled gun of Sultan Mahmud I, dated 1732-1733

The jeweled gun of Sultan Mahmud I, dated 1732-1733, hand crafted by the Armenian master jeweler Hovhannes Agha Düz (Յովհաննէս Աղա Դուզ [Դուզեան / Տյուզեան գերդաստան]). 

Art Museum in San Francisco, CA.

Jeweled Gun of Sultan Mahmud I

Referencing the elite pastimes of hunting and writing, this ceremonial jeweled musket set includes a dagger, pen box, penholder with reed pen, penknife, a cleaner, and a spoon - all conveniently housed within the butt and breech of the musket.

THE HISTORY OF WINE A 40 SECOND | ANIMATED GIF

Watch wine spread to six of the planet’s seven continents — over the course of 6,000 years — in 40 seconds. Interactive timeline.

4100 B.C.

The Oldest Winery Is Founded In Ancient Armenia

What we know of to be the oldest winery is founded in ancient Armenia. The site was discovered in 2007 by UCLA researchers.

The oldest winery in the world Areni-1 winery | Armenia

Traditional Armenian Garments | Folk costume | Part 2

Traditional Armenian Garments | Folk costume | Part 1

Are Turks acculturated Armenians?

Discovermagazine.com | By Razib Khan 

To the left you see a zoom in of a PCA which Dienekes produced for a post, Structure in West Asian Indo-European groups. The focus of the post is the peculiar genetic relationship of Kurds, an Iranian-speaking people, with Iranians proper, as well as Armenians (Indo-European) and Turks (not Indo-European). As you can see in some ways the Kurds seem to be the outgroup population, and the correspondence between linguistic and genetic affinity is difficult to interpret. For those of you interested in historical population genetics this shouldn’t be that surprising. West Asia is characterized by of endogamy, language shift, and a great deal of sub and supra-national communal identity (in fact, national identity is often perceived to be weak here). A paper from the mid-2000s already suggested that western and eastern Iran were genetically very distinctive, perhaps due to the simple fact of geography: central Iran is extremely arid and relatively unpopulated in relation to the peripheries.

But this post isn’t about Kurds, rather, observe the very close relationship between Turks and Armenians on the PCA. The _D denotes Dodecad samples, those which Dienekes himself as collected. This affinity could easily be predicted by the basic parameters of physical geography. Armenians and Anatolian Turks were neighbors for nearly 1,000 years. Below is a map which shows the expanse of the ancient kingdom of Armenia:

The Kingdom of Armenia at its greatest extent under Tigranes the Great, who reigned between 95 and 66 BC 

Historic Armenia was centered around lake Van in what is today eastern Turkey. The modern Republic of Armenia is very much a rump, and an artifact of the historic expansion of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus at the expense of the Ottomans and Persians. Were it not for the Armenian genocide there may today have been more Armenians resident in Turkey than in the modern nation-state of Armenia,* just as there are more Azeri Turks in Iran than in Azerbaijan. Many areas once occupied by Armenians are now occupied by Kurds and Turks. But a bigger question is the ethnogenesis of the Anatolian Turkish population over the past 1,000 years.