Yahya of Antioch

For other people with the same name, see Yahya (disambiguation).

Yahya of Antioch, full name Yaḥya ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī (Arabic: يحيى بن سعيد الأنطاكي), was a Melkite Christian physician and historian of the 11th century.^[1][2]

He was most likely born in Fatimid Egypt. He became a physician, but the anti-Christian policies of Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021) forced him to flee to Byzantine-held Antioch.^[3]

His chief work is a continuation of Eutychius' Annals, stretching from 938 to 1034.^[4] Drawing on a variety of sources, his history deals with events in the Byzantine Empire,^[5] Egypt, as well as Bulgaria and the Kievan Rus'. Whilst in Antioch, he also wrote theological works in defence of Christianity and refutations of Islam and Judaism. He died c. 1066.^[3]

His history was published, edited and translated in 1924 by I. Kratchkovsky and A. Vasiliev into French in Volumes 18, 23, and 47 of the Patrologia Orientalis. In 1997 it was translated into Italian by Bartolomeo Pirone.^[6] A supposed English translation by J. H. Forsyth in 1977 is in fact only a study.^[7]

Sources

• Micheau, Françoise (1998). "Les guerres arabo-byzantines vues par Yaḥyā d'Antioche, chroniqueur arabe melkite du V^e /XI^e siècle". ΕΥΨΥΧΙΑ. Mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler. Byzantina Sorbonensia (in French). Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne. pp. 541–555. ISBN 9782859448301.

References

1. "Yaḥyā of Antioch". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
2. Rassi, Juliette (2017), Schenk, Gerrit Jasper (ed.), "Several Natural Disasters in the Middle East (at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century) and Their Consequences", Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe, Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 63–79, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49163-9_3, ISBN 978-3-319-49163-9, retrieved 2023-07-18
3. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 2213. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
4. Butts, Aaron Michael; Young, Robin Darling (2021-01-08). Syriac Christian Culture: Beginnings to Renaissance. CUA Press. ISBN 978-0-8132-3368-0.
5. Theotokis, Georgios; Meško, Marek (2020-10-27). War in Eleventh-Century Byzantium. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-57477-1.
6. Yaḥyā ibn Sa'ïd, al-Anṭākī, m.? (2023). Cronache dell'Egitto fāṭimide e dell'impero bizantino : (937-1033) (PDF). Translated by Pirone, Bartolomeo (3ª ed. ulteriormente riveduta e corretta ed.). Bologna: Gruppo di Ricerca Arabo-Cristiana. ISBN 978-1535396271. OCLC 1105613833.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. J.H. Forsyth "The Chronicle of Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Antaki", (Univ. of Michigan Ph.D. thesis, 1977), Online here: https://archive.org/details/forsyth-1977-chronicle-yahya-antaki/Forsyth_1977_Chronicle_Yahya_Antaki/

External links

• Volume 18 of the Patrologia Orientalis, including the first part (sections 1-135) of Yahya's history, at the Internet Archive (pp. 698–833)
• Volume 23 of the Patrologia Orientalis, including the second part (sections 136-312) of Yahya's history, at the Internet Archive (pp. 346–520)
• Volume 47 of the Patrologia Orientalis, including the third and final part (sections 312 onwards) of Yahya's history, at the Internet Archive (pp. 372–559)