Dukas (historian)

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Dukas (* around 1400; † after 1462) was a Byzantine historian .

All information about D (o) ukas, whose baptismal name is unknown, comes from his history. In 1421 he lived in Nea Phokaia in Asia Minor, where he was in the service of the Genoese Podestà there ; later he served the Gattilusio family on the island of Lesbos until the island fell to the Ottomans in 1462 . On their behalf, he was also entrusted with diplomatic missions.

After 1462 he wrote a historical work whose title has not been passed down. It begins with a brief outline of world history, then becomes more detailed from 1341 and ends abruptly in 1462. Dukas had access to Turkish and Italian sources. It provides important information and is generally considered to be quite reliable. In contrast to Michael Kritobulos , who took over the Turkish perspective, Mehmed II is viewed much more negatively by Dukas.

Translations

  • Harry Margoulias (Ed.): Dukas. Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks ("Historia Byzantina"). University Press, Detroit 1975, ISBN 0-8143-1540-2 .

literature

  • Herbert Hunger : The high-level profane literature of the Byzantines . Vol. 1 (philosophy, rhetoric, epistolography, historiography, geography). Beck Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-01427-5 , p. 490ff.
  • Peter Wirth: Dukas , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 1. Munich 1974, p. 446