Eutychios of Alexandria

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Eutychios of Alexandria , actually Sa'id ibn Batriq (Arabic سعيد بن البطريق; born 876/77 in Fustat , today Cairo ; † May 11, 940 in Alexandria , Egypt ), was Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria (933 to 940) and author of several Fonts.

Life

The exact date of birth of Eutychios is controversial in modern research, but the year 877 is more likely. In his time as patriarch he had particularly sharp disputes with the Jacobite Church .

Before he became a clergyman, he worked as a doctor. This is evident from the entry in Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah's biography encyclopedia from the 13th century, in which famous doctors are listed.

According to this, Eutychios wrote at least three writings: a medical manual, a theological text and a historical work that Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah calls pearls , but is better known under the name Annals .

The first work has not survived, the annals allude to the second , but it has not yet been possible to identify it with absolute certainty from the corpus of Arabic-Christian literature. But the annals have been preserved. The work, written in Arabic, represents a chronicle-like world history and extends from the creation of the world to the year 938. The work offers a lot of valuable information, especially with regard to the Christian Orient and is also not insignificant for the history of Byzantium , but also contains some misinformation, especially since Eutychios was often not very critical. In spite of all the shortcomings, one aspect must also be emphasized: Eutychios is the only author who has undertaken a kind of “synchronous observation” of the (Eastern) Roman Empire and the New Persian Sasanid Empire in a historical work . Although many a late antique (western) author paid attention to the Persian Empire of the Sasanids ( Ammianus Marcellinus , Prokopios of Caesarea and Agathias are to be mentioned here in the first place), the Roman authors were biased in many ways. Eutychio's consideration, which of course came about centuries after the fall of the Sasanid Empire, is quite remarkable in this context, if not free from error.

In the 11th century the annals of Yahja Ibn Said continued.

expenditure

A Latin translation of the work of Eutychios, obtained by Edward Pococke , appeared in 1658; it was then taken over by Jacques Paul Migne in the Patrologia Graeca collection . A German translation was made by Michael Breydy in 1985.

literature

  • Franz Altheim : History of the Huns . Volume 5. Chapter 5: Eutychios' Annals . de Gruyter, Berlin 1962, p. 126ff.
  • Michael Breydy: Études sur Sa'id ibn Batriq . Peeters, Louvain 1983.
  • Michael Breydy (ed.): The annals of Eutychios of Alexandria ( Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium , 471-472). 2 volumes. Peeters, Louvain 1985. (Text with German translation)
  • Sidney H. Griffith: Apologetics and Historiography in the Annals of Eutychius of Alexandria: Christian Self-Definition in the World of Islam . In: Herman GB Teule: Studies on the Christian Arabic heritage . Peeters, Louvain 2004, ISBN 90-429-1464-5 , pp. 65ff.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See the explanations in Breydy, who, given the exact date, is closer to September 10th than August 17th (which is often mentioned).
  2. ↑ Griffith, Apologetics and Historiography , pp. 65ff, offers a good overview .
  3. ↑ See Altheim, Hunnen , p. 126ff.
predecessor Office successor
Christodoulos Patriarch of Alexandria
933-940 		Sophronios II
personal data
SURNAME Eutychios of Alexandria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Batriq, Sa'id ibn (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria and author of several works
DATE OF BIRTH 876 or 877
PLACE OF BIRTH Fustat
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 940
Place of death Alexandria , Egypt