Michael Critobulus

Michael Critobulus (Greek: Μιχαήλ Κριτόβουλος; c. 1410 – c. 1470) was a Greek politician, scholar and historian. He is known as the author of a history of the Ottoman conquest of the Eastern Roman Empire under Sultan Mehmet II. Critobulus' work, along with the writings of Doukas, Laonicus Chalcondyles and George Sphrantzes, is one of the principal sources for the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.^[1]

Critobulus is a Romanization of the name, which is alternatively transliterated as Kritoboulos, Kritovoulos, Critoboulos; sometimes with Critobulus' provenance affixed (e.g. Critobulus of Imbros).

Biography

Critobulus' birth name was Michael Critopoulos (Greek: Μιχαήλ Κριτόπουλος). He changed this modern Greek family name to the more classical-sounding "Kritoboulos" in reference to a figure of that name in the dialogues of Plato.

He belonged to a family of landowners on the island of Imbros. In the 1450s he was a local political leader of the island and played an active role in the peaceful handover of Imbros, Limnos and Thasos to the Ottomans after the final breakdown of the Byzantine Empire.^[2]

Works

He later wrote the work History in five books.^[3] It is a historical account of the rise of the Ottomans and the final conquest of the remainder of the Roman Empire. Its main part is a biography of the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II, the Conqueror, to whom the work was also dedicated. Writing under Ottoman rule, Critobulus expressed admiration for Mehmet in his work, and combined mourning for the Greek loss with an acceptance of the shift of power to the Ottoman Turks, which he interpreted as a divinely ordained world historic event.

In doing so, Critobulus took as a literary model the works of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish-Roman historian of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. His text is the most detailed historical account of the first decade of Turkish rule in Constantinople, including the Ottoman efforts of rebuilding and repopulating the city. The autograph of his text has been preserved in the Library of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul.

He used Thucydides as a model for his History.^[3]

Editions

Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, vol. 5, 1873.
Diether R. Reinsch (ed.), Critobuli Imbriotae historiae. (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 22). Berlin: de Gruyter, 1983.
Diether R. Reinsch and Photini Kolovou (ed. and transl.), Κριτοβούλου του Ιμβρίου Ιστορία. Athens: Kanaki, 2005.
Charles T. Rigg (ed. and transl.), History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1954.

References

^ Runciman, The Conquest of Constantinople: 1453 (Cambridge: University Press, 1969), pp.192-195
^ Babinger, Franz (1992) [1978]. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Bollingen Series 96. Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim. Edited, with a preface, by William C. Hickman. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 97f. ISBN 0-691-09900-6. OCLC 716361786.
^ ^a ^b John Antonakos, Noted Greeks Of The Middle Ages, p. 61

[1] Runciman, The Conquest of Constantinople: 1453 (Cambridge: University Press, 1969), pp.192-195

[2] Babinger, Franz (1992) [1978]. Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Bollingen Series 96. Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim. Edited, with a preface, by William C. Hickman. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 97f. ISBN 0-691-09900-6. OCLC 716361786.

[Antonakos-3] John Antonakos, Noted Greeks Of The Middle Ages, p. 61

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Byzantine historians
5th century	Annianus of Alexandria Eunapius John Rufus Malchus Olympiodorus of Thebes Panodorus of Alexandria Philostorgius Priscus Sabinus of Heraclea Socrates of Constantinople Sozomen Theodoret
6th century	Agathias Cyril of Scythopolis Eustathius of Epiphania Evagrius Scholasticus Hesychius of Miletus John Diakrinomenos John of Ephesus John of Epiphania Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor Jordanes John Malalas Liberatus of Carthage Marcellinus Comes Menander Protector Nonnosus Peter the Patrician Procopius Theodorus Lector Theophanes of Byzantium Zacharias Rhetor Zosimus
7th century	John of Antioch Trajan the Patrician Theophylact Simocatta
8th century	Hippolytus of Thebes
9th century	Theophanes the Confessor George Syncellus Nikephoros I of Constantinople George Hamartolos Scriptor Incertus
10th century	Constantine VII Joseph Genesius John Kaminiates Leo the Deacon Pseudo-Simeon Symeon Logothete Theophanes Continuatus
11th century	Michael Attaleiates George Kedrenos Michael Psellos John Skylitzes John Xiphilinus Yahya of Antioch
12th century	Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger Niketas Choniates Eustathius of Thessalonica Michael Glykas Anna Komnene John Kinnamos Constantine Manasses Joannes Zonaras
13th century	George Akropolites Theodore Skoutariotes
14th century	Nicephorus Gregoras Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos John VI Kantakouzenos George Pachymeres Michael Panaretos
15th century	John Anagnostes John Cananus Laonikos Chalkokondyles Michael Critobulus Doukas George Sphrantzes Pseudo-George Kodinos

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