John Kourkouas

John Kourkouas (Greek: Ἰωάννης Κουρκούας, fl. ca. 915–946), also transliterated as Kurkuas or Curcuas, was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His successes in battle against the Muslim states in the East definitively reversed the course of the centuries-long Byzantine–Arab Wars and began Byzantium's 10th-century "Age of Conquest".

Kourkouas belonged to a family of Armenian descent that produced several notable Byzantine generals. As commander of one of the imperial bodyguard regiments, Kourkouas was among the chief supporters of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r. 920–944) and facilitated the latter's rise to the throne. In 923, Kourkouas was appointed commander-in-chief of the Byzantine armies along the eastern frontier, facing the Abbasid Caliphate and the semi-autonomous Muslim border emirates. He kept this post for more than twenty years, overseeing decisive Byzantine military successes that altered the strategic balance in the region.

During the 9th century, Byzantium had gradually recovered its strength and internal stability, while the Caliphate was becoming increasingly impotent and fractured. As a result the Byzantine armies, led by Kourkouas, advanced in depth into Muslim territory for the first time in almost 200 years, expanding the imperial border. The emirates of Melitene and Kalikala were conquered, extending Byzantine control up to the upper Euphrates and over western Armenia, while the remaining Iberian and Armenian princes became Byzantine vassals. Kourkouas played a role in the defeat of a major Rus' raid in 941, and recovered the Mandylion of Edessa (a holy relic depicting the face of Jesus Christ). He was dismissed in 944 as a result of the machinations of Romanos Lekapenos' sons, but restored to favour by Constantine VII, serving as imperial ambassador in 946.

Early life and career

John was a scion of the Armenian Kourkouas family (a hellenized form of their original surname, Gurgen), which had risen to prominence in Byzantine service in the 9th century and had established itself as one of the great families of the Anatolian land-holding military aristocracy.^[1][2] His grandfather, also named John, was a commander of the elite Hikanatoi regiment; John's brother Theophilos became a senior general, as did John's own son, Romanos.^[3]

Bronze coin (follis) of Romanos I Lekapenos

Little is known about John's early life. At some point during Empress Zoe Karbonopsina's regency (914–919) for her infant son Constantine VII, he was appointed as the commander of the Vigla regiment. From this post, Kourkouas played a role, first in the consolidation of Romanos Lekapenos' position as regent over Constantine VII, and eventually in Romanos' ascent to the post of senior emperor in 919–920.^[4] As a reward, in ca. 923, Lekapenos promoted Kourkouas to the influential post of Domestic of the Schools of the East, in effect commander-in-chief of the imperial armies in the East.^[3][5] According to the chronicle of Theophanes Continuatus, he held this post for an unparalleled continuous term of 22 years and seven months.^[6]

In this time however, and following the disastrous Battle of Acheloos in 917, the Byzantines were mostly engaged on their northern frontier with Bulgaria.^[7] Kourkouas' first task was the suppression of the revolt of the governing strategos of Chaldia, Bardas Boelas, which he quickly achieved. His brother, Theophilos Kourkouas, replaced Boelas as governor of Chaldi. As commander of this northernmost sector of the eastern frontier, Theophilos would prove a competent soldier and give valuable assistance to his brother's campaigns.^[8]

First submission of Melitene, campaigns into Armenia

In the East, for several centuries following the Muslim conquests of the middle 7th century, the Byzantine–Arab conflict had featured constant raids and counter-raids along a relatively static border roughly defined by the line of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains.^[9] Until the 860s, the Byzantines had generally been on the defensive against superior Muslim armies. Only from their victory in the battle of Lalakaon in 863 had the Byzantines gradually taken the initiative and gained some ground, launching raids into Syria and Mesopotamia and annexing the Paulician state around Tephrike.^[10][11] According to historian Mark Whittow, "by 912 the Arabs had been pinned back behind the Taurus and Anti-Taurus", while at the same the Armenians had switched their allegiance from the Caliphate to the Empire, in whose service they entered in increasing numbers.^[12] The revival of Byzantine power was further facilitated by the progressive decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, particularly under Al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932), when the central government faced several revolts. In the periphery of the Caliphate, the weakening of central control allowed the emergence of semi-autonomous local dynasties.^[13] The Byzantine position in the East would be further strengthened in 927: following the death of Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, a peace was concluded with Bulgaria, allowing the Empire's attention and resources to be shifted eastwards.^[7]

By 925, Romanos Lekapenos felt himself strong enough to demand the payment of tribute from the Muslim cities on the western side of the Euphrates. When they refused, in 926, Kourkouas crossed the border.^[14] Aided by his brother Theophilos and an Armenian contingent under the strategos of Lykandos, Mleh (Melias in Greek sources),^[15] he targeted Melitene (modern Malatya), the center of an emirate which had long been a thorn in Byzantium's side.^[16][17] The city was successfully stormed, and although the citadel held out, Kourkouas concluded a treaty by which the emir accepted tributary status.^[14][15]

Map of Armenia and the Caucasian states in the 9th century

In 927–928, Kourkouas launched a large raid into Arab-controlled Armenia. Samosata, an important stronghold on the Euphrates, was taken, and the Byzantines advanced as far as the Armenian capital of Dvin.^[15] An Arab counter-offensive however forced them out of Samosata after only a few days, and Dvin was also abandoned, with heavy loss of life according to Arab sources. At the same time, the Arabs of Tarsus conducted successful raids into southern Anatolia.^[18] The Byzantines then turned towards southern Armenia and plundered the region around Lake Van, taking the town of Khliat and prompting an exodus of Muslims from the region.^[19][20] This incursion, more than 500 km from the nearest imperial territory, was a far cry from the defensive-minded strategy Byzantium had followed during the previous centuries, and highlighted the new capabilities of its imperial army.^[7] Nevertheless, famine in Anatolia and the exigencies of campaigns in southern Italy weakened Kourkouas' forces, and the Armenian campaign of 929 was defeated and driven back by Muflikh-as-Sadji, a relative of the emir of Azerbaijan.^[19][21]

In 930, Melias' attack on Samosata was heavily defeated; among other prominent officers, one of his sons was captured and sent to Baghdad.^[21] Later in the same year, John and his brother Theophilos besieged Theodosiopolis (modern Erzurum), the capital of the emirate of Kalikala.^[22] The campaign was complicated by their ostensible allies, the Iberian rulers of Tao-Klarjeti. Resenting the extension of direct Byzantine control adjacent to their own border, they had already provided supplies to the besieged city. Now they vociferously demanded that the Byzantines hand over several captured towns, but when one of them, the fort of Mastaton, was surrendered, the Iberians promptly returned it to the Arabs. Since Kourkouas needed to keep the Iberians placated, and was aware that his conduct was being carefully observed by the Armenian princes, he did not react to this affront.^[23] After seven months of siege, Theodosiopolis fell in spring 931. The city was transformed into a tributary vassal, while all territory north of the river Araxes was given, according to the De Administrando Imperio, to the Iberian king David II. As in Melitene, the maintenance of Byzantine control over Theodosiopolis proved difficult, as the population remained restive. In 939, it revolted and drove out the Byzantines, and not until 949 did Theophilos Kourkouas subdue the city again. It was then fully incorporated into the Empire, while its Muslim population was expelled and replaced by Greek and Armenian settlers.^[23][24][25]

Final capture of Melitene

Following the death of Emir Abu Hafs in 928, Melitene renounced its Byzantine allegiance.^[14] After attempts to take the city by storm or subterfuge failed, the Byzantines established a ring of fortresses on the hills around the plain of Melitene, and methodically ravaged the area.^[7] By early 931, the inhabitants of Melitene were forced to come to terms: they agreed to tributary status, and even undertook to provide a military contingent to campaign alongside the Byzantines.^[7]

The other Muslim states were not idle, however: in March, the Byzantines were hit by three successive raids in Asia Minor, organized by the Abbasid commander Mu'nis al-Khadim, while in August, a large raid led by Suml, the emir of Tarsus, penetrated as far as Ancyra and Amorium and returned with prisoners worth 136,000 dinars.^[26] During this time, the Byzantines were engaged in southern Armenia against the emir of Azerbaijan. There they scored a number of victories, taking the fortresses of Perkri and Manzikert, before marching into Mesopotamia and capturing Samosata again.^[26][27] At this point, the Melitenians called upon the Hamdanid rulers of Mosul for help. In response, the Hamdanid prince Said ibn Hamdan attacked the Byzantines and drove them back: Samosata was abandoned, and in November 931, the Byzantine garrison withdrew from Melitene as well.^[26][28] Said was however unable to remain in the area or to leave a sufficient garrison; once he left for Mosul, the Byzantines returned and resumed the blockade of Melitene and their scorched-earth tactics.^[7]

The fall of Melitene, from the Skylitzes Chronicle

The sources record no major Byzantine campaign for 932, when they were preoccupied with two revolts in the Opsician Theme.^[28] In 933 Kourkouas renewed the attack against Melitene, and Mu'nis al-Khadim sent forces to assist the beleaguered city. In the resulting skirmishes, the Byzantines prevailed and took many prisoners, and the Arab army returned home without achieving much.^[26][28] In early 934, Kourkouas, at the head of 50,000 men, again crossed the frontier and marched towards Melitene. The other Muslim states offered no help, preoccupied as they were with the turmoil following Caliph Al-Qahir's deposition. Kourkouas again took Samosata and besieged Melitene.^[26][28] Many of the city's inhabitants had abandoned it at the news of Kourkouas' approach, and hunger eventually compelled the rest to surrender on 19 May 934. Wary of the city's previous rebellions, Kourkouas only allowed those inhabitants to remain who were Christians or agreed to convert to Christianity; most did so, and the remainder were deported.^[7][28][29] Melitene was fully incorporated into the empire, and most of its fertile land was transformed into an imperial estate (kouratoreia). It was an unusual move, implemented by Romanos I to prevent the powerful Anatolian landed aristocracy from taking control of the province, and to increase the presence and control of the emperor on the crucial new borderlands.^[28][30]

Rise of the Hamdanids

The fall of Melitene profoundly shocked the Muslim world: for the first time, a major Muslim city had fallen and been incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.^[31] Kourkouas followed this success by subduing parts of the district of Samosata in 936 and razing the city itself to the ground,^[32] but other than that, until 938, the East remained relatively calm. The Byzantines were quite likely preoccupied with the full pacification of Melitene, while the Arab emirates, deprived of any potential support from the Caliphate, were reluctant to provoke them.^[31][33]

With the decline of the Caliphate and its obvious inability to defend its border provinces, a new local dynasty, the Hamdanids, emerged as the principal antagonists of Byzantium along its eastern frontier in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. They were led by al-Hasan, called Nasir al-Daula ("Defender of the State"), and by his younger brother Ali, best known by his epithet, Sayf al-Daula ("Sword of the State").^[33] In ca. 935, the Arab tribe of Banu Habib, defeated by the rising Hamdanids, defected in its entirety to the Byzantines, converted to Christianity and placed its 12,000 horsemen at the disposal of the Empire. They were then settled and assigned to guard five new themes created along the western bank of the Euphrates, those of Melitene, Charpezikion, Asmosaton (Arsamosata), Derzene and Chozanon.^[32][34]

The first Byzantine encounter with Sayf al-Daula took place in 936, when he tried to relieve Samosata, but a revolt at home forced him to turn back.^[32] In another invasion in 938, however, he captured the fort of Charpete and defeated Kourkouas' advance guard, seizing a great amount of booty and forcing Kourkouas to withdraw.^[32][35] In the same year, negotiations between Constantinople and the Caliphate resulted in a peace agreement. The rising power of the Hamdanids caused anxiety for both sides, and facilitated the negotiations.^[36] Despite the official peace with the Caliphate, warfare continued between the Byzantines and the local Muslim rulers, now aided by the Hamdanids. In 939, a Byzantine attempt to besiege Theodosiopolis was abandoned at the news of the approach of Sayf al-Daula's relief army.^[32]

By that time, the Byzantines had captured Arsamosata and additional strategically important locations in the mountains of southwest Armenia, posing a direct threat to the Muslim emirates around Lake Van.^[33] Aiming to reverse the situation, in 940 Sayf al-Daula initiated a remarkable campaign: starting from Mayyafiriqin (Byzantine/Roman Martyropolis), he crossed the Bitlis pass into Armenia, where he seized several fortresses and accepted the submission of the local lords, both Muslim and Christian. He then ravaged the Byzantine holdings around Theodosiopolis and raided as far as Koloneia, which he besieged until Kourkouas arrived with a relief army and forced him to withdraw.^[37][38][39] This effort however was not followed up, since until 945 the Hamdanids were preoccupied with developments in the Caliphate and fighting against the Buyids in Mesopotamia and the Ikhshidids in Syria.^[40][41]

Rus' raid of 941

The Hamdanids' distraction proved fortunate for Byzantium, because in early summer 941, as Kourkouas prepared to resume campaigning in the East, his attention was diverted by an unexpected event: the appearance of a Rus' fleet that raided the area around Constantinople itself. Both army and navy were absent from the capital, and near panic gripped its populace. However, a hastily assembled squadron of old ships armed with Greek Fire and placed under the protovestiarios Theophanes defeated the Rus' fleet on 11 June, forcing it to abandon its course towards the city. The surviving Rus' landed on the shores of Bithynia and ravaged the defenseless countryside.^[42][43] The strategos of the Armeniac Theme, Bardas Phokas, hastened to the area with whatever troops he could gather, contained the raiders, and awaited the arrival of Kourkouas' army. Finally Kourkouas and his army arrived and fell upon the Rus', who were plundering the countryside in small groups, killing many of them. The survivors retreated to their ships and tried to cross to Thrace under the cover of night. During the crossing, they were attacked and annihilated by the entire Byzantine navy, which had been recalled from the Mediterranean.^[44][45]

Campaigns in Mesopotamia and recovery of the Mandylion

The surrender of the Mandylion to the Byzantine parakoimomenos Theophanes by the Edessenes, from the Madrid Skylitzes

Following this distraction, in January 942 Kourkouas launched a new campaign in the East, which lasted for three years.^[40] The first assault fell on the territory of Aleppo, which was thoroughly plundered: at the fall of the town of Hamus, near Aleppo, even Arab sources record the capture of 10–15,000 prisoners by the Byzantines.^[40] Despite a minor counter-raid by Suml from Tarsus in the summer, in autumn Kourkouas launched another major invasion. At the head of an exceptionally large army, some 80,000 men according to Arab sources, he crossed from allied Taron into northern Mesopotamia.^[40][46] There the Byzantines marched and ravaged at will: Mayyafiriqin, Amida, Nisibis, Dara—places where no Byzantine army had trod since the days of Heraclius 300 years earlier—were stormed.^[40][47][48] But the real aim of these campaigns was Edessa, the repository of the "Holy Mandylion". This was believed to have been a cloth with which Christ had wiped his face, leaving an imprint of his features, and given to King Abgar V of Edessa. To the Byzantines, especially after the end of the Iconoclasm period, it was a relic of profound religious significance, and its capture would provide Lekapenos' regime an enormous boost in popularity and legitimacy.^[47][49]

Kourkouas assailed Edessa every year from 942 onwards, and devastated its countryside as he had done at Melitene. Finally, its emir agreed to a peace, swearing not to raise arms against Byzantium and to hand over the Mandylion in exchange for the return of 200 prisoners.^[47][50] The Mandylion was then conveyed to Constantinople, where it arrived on 15 August 944, on the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. A triumphal entry was staged for the venerated relic, and it was deposited in the Theotokos of the Pharos church, the palatine chapel of the Great Palace.^[47][48] As for Kourkouas, he concluded his campaign by sacking Bithra (modern Birecik) and Germanikeia (modern Kahramanmaraş).^[51]

Dismissal and restoration

Despite this triumph, Kourkouas' downfall, as well as that of his friend and protector, the Emperor Romanos Lekapenos, was imminent. Romanos' two eldest surviving sons and co-emperors, Stephen and Constantine, were jealous of Kourkouas and had in the past tried to undermine him, without success.^[52] Following Kourkouas' successes in the East, Emperor Romanos considered marrying his trusted general into the imperial family by wedding Kourkouas' daughter Euphrosyne with his grandson Romanos II, the son of his son-in-law and junior emperor Constantine VII. Such a union would effectively cement the loyalty of the army, but also strengthen the position of the legitimate Macedonian line, represented by Constantine VII, over the imperial claims of Romanos' own sons.^[49][53][54] Predictably, the latter opposed this decision, and prevailed upon their father, who was by this time ill and old, to dismiss Kourkouas in the autumn of 944.^[52][55]

Kourkouas was replaced by Pantherios, who was almost immediately defeated by Sayf al-Daula in December, whilst raiding near Aleppo. On 16 December, Romanos Lekapenos himself was deposed by Stephen and Constantine and banished to a monastery on the island of Prote. A few weeks later, on 26 January, another coup removed the two Lekapenoi from power as well, and restored the sole imperial authority to Constantine VII.^[47][52][56] Kourkouas himself appears to have soon returned to imperial favour: in early 946, he is recorded as having been sent with the magistros Kosmas to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the Arabs of Tarsus.^[57] Nothing further is known about him after that.

The fall of the Lekapenoi signalled the end of an era in terms of personalities, but Kourkouas' expansionist policy continued: he was succeeded by Bardas Phokas the Elder, followed by Nikephoros Phokas, and finally, by Kourkouas' own great-nephew, the Emperor John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976). All of them expanded the Byzantine frontier in the East, recovering Cilicia and northern Syria with Antioch, and converting the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo into a Byzantine protectorate by the end of the 10th century.^[58]

Assessment

Kourkouas ranks among the greatest generals Byzantium produced. Byzantine chroniclers hailed him as the general who restored the imperial frontier to the Euphrates,^[60] and in a contemporary eight-book history, written by a protospatharios Michael and now lost save a short summary in Theophanes Continuatus, he is acclaimed as "a second Trajan or Belisarius".^[61]

The ground work for his successes had been certainly laid by others: Michael III, who broke the power of Melitene at Lalakaon; Basil I, who destroyed the Paulicians; Leo VI the Wise, who founded the vital theme of Mesopotamia; and Empress Zoe, who extended Byzantine influence again into Armenia and founded the theme of Lykandos.^[27][52] But it was Kourkouas and his campaigns who incontrovertibly changed the balance of power, securing the frontier provinces against Arab raids and turning Byzantium into an expansionist power.^[27][62] In the words of historian Steven Runciman, "a lesser general might [...] have cleared the Empire of the Saracens and successfully defended its borders; but Curcuas did more. He infused a new spirit into the imperial armies, and led them victoriously deep into the country of the infidels. The actual area of his conquests was not so very large; but they sufficed to reverse the age-old roles of Byzantium and the Arabs. Byzantium now was the aggressor... John Curcuas was the first of a line of great conquerors and as the first is worthy of high praise."^[63]

References

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