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Chapter 134: The Komnenian Restoration and the Hesychast Controversy
Sarkis was a military commander driven by his sense of duty, with a strong sense of duty. He ordered several laws upholding moral order, such as banning of brothels and stupid comedies, but also one of their favourite past-times – the chariot races of the Hippodrome. He rarely visited Constantinople. If necessary, he favoured a villa in Skoutarion opposite the Bosporus on the Anatolian side. He felt uncomfortable in the large city, calling it a basket of poisonous snakes. True enough, many of its citizens were angered by his moralistic laws, and his absence from the city. He had an Armenian neighbourhood built in both Galata, north of the Golden Horn, with a cathedral church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator. The suburb of Galata had also a significant Latinate (read: Italian) and Jewish community in addition to its Rhomanian (Greek) plurality. Subsequently, the suburb of Skoutarion (Armenian: Skutor) across the Bosporus had also been enlarged and became a largely Armenian neighbourhood.
While residing in Syria, he left his younger brother Grigor in Skutor. His brother Grigor was a much more outgoing type of person, and made quite a number of influential friends among the important families of the city. By the time of Sarkis´death, in 1375 there were four contenders to the throne: Andronikos of the House Palaiologos, claiming succession from the deposed emperors of the Palaiologos dynasty, then Grigor, the brother of Sarkis, and his son Hagop. The fourth contender was Alexios of the Komnenian dynasty, controlling the Pontic coast.
The fact that Sarkis was rather unpopular has led some senators to claim him to be an usurper, and supported either the Palaiologid claimant, especially those in Macedonia and Morea, as well as some of those in Thrace; the Komnenian claimant had strong support in Anatolia, especially in Pontus and in Asiana. Hagop by this time was only a youngster on sixteen, little experienced in matters of state and military, relying on his court for advice. Grigor did manage to win over some of the important families of the empire, though by customs of succession his claim is considered invalid.
The Senate as a unified body had collapsed and a number of parallel Senates were established, supporting rival claimants. Most importantly, the Faction of the Market was rather keen on supporting the Komnenians, though a small section of them favoured Grigor. The Faction of the Knights, on the other hand, declared for Andronikos, while the Faction of Reconquest and Faction of the Purple ceased to exist as unified factions, and their members split according to personal sympathies. As mentioned, the provinces of Asiana and Pontus supported Alexios, Bithynia and Anatolikon declared for Grigor, Macedonia, Thrace, and Morea for Andronikos and Epirus and Dacia as well as Creta et Cyrenaica stayed neutral in the dispute, though the latter apparently sided tacitly with the Komnenians. Cilicia and Syria were under control of Hagop and his court. Grigor held the city of Constantinople, while Smyrna and Thessaloniki were under control of Alexios and Andronikos, respectively.
The first campaigns saw Grigor consolidate his positions in the vicinity of the capital, while Andronikos along with his son Manuel pushed across the region of ancient Troy, seizing control of the Hellespont strait. The Komnenians on the other hand seized the strategically town of Ankyra in north-central Anatolia.
View attachment 580961
A map of the civil war
In the second year of the conflict, Grigor attacked Andronikos´ forces in Thrace and pushed him westwards, while Alexios conquers Bithynia. In the south, Grigors bannermen in Anatolia are sandwiched between Syrian forces and Alexios´ loyalists. The disembarkment of Komnenian fleet in Athens opens another theatre in the struggle.
View attachment 580967
Andronikos Palaiologos, one of the claimants to the throne
Alexios´crossing of the Hellespont practically led to the elimination of Grigor as a contender, while the Epirus´ and Dalmatia´s alignment for Alexios have won him the war practically. By the end of 1378 it was clear that the Komnenian dynasty was to return to the Imperial throne, and Grigor and his remaining men fled on a ship to Georgia. The city of Constantinople opens its gates and crowns Alexios the Emperor. The Palaiologos, still controlling Macedonia and Thessaloniki, hastily seek reconciliation with the triumphant emperor – they are named as exarchs in Morea, parts of which they held at the time of their surrender.
Seizing the opportunity, Kemet takes over the region of Cyrenaica, in fact the sole possession of the Empire on the Libyan continent.
However, it turns out that one of the claimants to the throne remained undefeated. Hagop, reigning in Antioch advised by his courtiers, mainly by Hovhannes Mamonikian, his steward and the competent general Yousef Aun, Hagop was took a cautious stand in the war, and maintained control over Cyprus, Cilicia, Syria and Antioch. Maintaining amicable relations with both Italian states and Lebanon, Hagop hopes to preserve Syrian independence, while expanding slightly eastwards – primarily to gain control of Tadmur or Palmyra.
View attachment 580963
Alexios Megas Komnenos
With Alexios Megas Komnenos rising to the imperial palace begins what the historians would call as the “Komnenian Restoration”. The Empire enjoyed a period of relative peace, now after suffering another civil war, and there were few hawks in the Senate. Once again, it was primarily the Faction of the Market that had the upper hand, and the Empire experienced increased urbanisation and maritime trade. The city of Ragusa in Dalmatia, one of the more recent additions to the Empire has become the centre of Adriatic trade, much to the discontent of Venetians. In Italy, it were the cities of Tarent and Syracuse, that rose to importance as major outlets of Mediterranean trade between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Komnenian Restoration saw a period of increased intellectual and cultural activity. Many new pieces of literature, both poetic, epic and factual, were written down, and academic institutions flourished. It was focus on the man, on the individual and earthly life. This philosophical current, known as Anthropism, for its focus on the Human, rooted back in the classical tradition of Aristotle. Anthropist writers were concerned in writing “in the language of the common man, and their works are very well testimony to the evolution of the various Hellenic dialects of the later 14th century: Pontic with its many Kartvelian influences, Cappadocian of Anatolia heavily influenced by Armenian and Oghuz Turkic, and the western dialects of Morea and Epirus. Most scholars, primarily those in Thessaloniki, Adrianople, Constantinople and Smyrna, however continued to use the slightly modified standard High Rhomaic.
The Anthropist art, often ready to depict the beauty of the human body, nevertheless produced a back-clash. It came from the monastic mystical tradition cultivated in Athos and many other monasteries across the Empire and was known as Hesychasm. Based around inner meditation, focusing on the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, sinner”) repeated as a mantra. These practices were often strange to an outsider, such as a group of monks from Calabria – one of the places where Latin and Greek cultures met.
The issue has come to cause a serious controversy within the Orthodox Church, and it appears that it drew the monastic clergy against some of the well-versed secular clergy, with most parish priests staying aside of the whole thing.
View attachment 580968
Monasteries in Rhomania
What originated as a dispute on the method of prayer became part of a wider cultural debate within the Rhomaic Empire. Some see the whole issue to be a conflict between Aristotelianist and Platonic worldviews, between the practical and the mystical. For others it came to be regarded as a conflict on the place of religion in Rhomaic society – although that never was the case. Others have been trying to find a connection with Gnostic movements. For quite a few others, they were a new generation of religious fanatics, ready to hit down on the high culture of the Komnenian Restoration.
The Hesychast supporters organized themselves into the Faction of the Seekers of Salvation, becoming one of the major factions of the Senate, becoming second only to the Faction of the Market. Unrest, caused by vigilante Hesychast sympathisers broke out in western Macedonia and mountainous Morea, as well as Lycia and Caria.
Skutor opposite Constantinople experienced riots against the local Armenian population. Emperor Alexios has had enough. He summoned the Patriarch of Constantinople and ordered him to sort out this trouble. Andronikos Palaiologos ruling Morea dealt harshly with the revolting fanatics.
Apparently, the House of Palaiologos, firmly entrenched in Morea were one of the strongest opponents of the Hesychast movement, and in terms of geopolitics they looked westwards, viewing opportunities and contacts in the Appenine Peninsula. They considered themselves as practical, military men, interested in collecting the taxes from the peasants, dressing the recruits in armour and perhaps counting the profits brought up by trade. Not by mumbling tantric verses. Rather often, they were waiting for the lengthy liturgies to end. Though full of deep symbolism, quite a few people were tired of the hour-lengthy liturgies, and would never imagine to go on meditating for some hour or two.
The issue of the Hesychast controversy has not been solved during the lifetime of Alexios Megas Komnenos. However, he was rather successful in repairing the damage caused by the civil war and by the final years of his reign, he did see the country prosper.
The interior of the Anatolian Plateau, particularly the region of Konya had significant Turkish and Armenian populations. Alexios sought to repopulate the land with more Greek subjects. Over time, however, it did turn out that Turkish had become the common tongue in this region, with many Greek and Armenian loanwords. The Anatolian Turkish were chiefly of Nestorian religion and used the Armenian script to write down their tongue. Subsequent Patriarchs have sent a number of Orthodox priests fluent in the Turkish tongue to convert the Turks and bring them to the fold of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The progress of this effort was rather slow, and any results were tentative at best.
The biggest threat lay however east of the Halys River. The domain of the Eretnids, originally a Turkic Uyghur dynasty lay in the border regions between Armenia and Anatolia. This region was a bastion of the heretical Paulician faith, and apparently the Eretnids were rather quick to find support from the heretical Armenians living in the region. The area was heavily fortified, with a dense network of inaccessible mountain fortresses in the mountainous terrain. The Emperor feared that the moment he attacks their domain, their forces would cross the Halys and seize Konya, and provoke a rebellion of the Anatolian Turks, while in the meantime the Hesychast movement would launch a rebellion of their own.
The Eretnids have come to rule over the upper Euhrates basin and the southern foothills of the Pontic Mountains, once again displacing the Aq Qoyunlu Turkoman rule from that region.
And then there was Syria. King Hagop Sarkisyan of the Trazarkian dynasty has been ruling the land to the south of the Taurus Mountains since the civil war. This included the regions of Cilicia and Cyprus, while maintaining a rather indirect hold over Lebanon as well. For the Rhomaic Empire, the existence of an independent Syria appears to be a threat, primarily because this Syria appears to be allying itself with Kemet, which in turn has taken advantage of the previous civil wars in the Rhomaic Empire and seized Cyrenaica.
Hagop Sarkisyan was thus ruling Syria as an Armenian king. The realm consisted of various religious and linguistic groups. There were the Antiochian Greeks, the Syriacs, the Armenians and the Arabs. The Greeks were Orthodox for the most part, the Armenians were followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. As for the Syriac-speaking subjects of his, some were followers of the Syriac Jacobite Church, though some were also Nestorians. However, the plurality were followers of the Antiochian Orthodox Church. The Arabs too, appear to be half-to- half divided among Nestorian and Jacobite denominations.
View attachment 580970
The Cathedral of Saint George in Damascus, belonging to the Syriac Jacoite Church
Historically, it ought to have been the Syriac Jacobite Church, whose adherents made a plurality in the region and was a main driver of cultural autonomy in Syria, seeking to preserve the Aramophone Syrian population from cultural Hellenization. However, over the course of the centuries, its position has been continually undermined by both the Rhomaic Emperors from the west and the Turkic Nestorian conquerors from the east, each seeking to impose their own denomination of Christianity over Syria.
View attachment 580971
A map of the religion in Syria
Hagop saw little difference in the Orthodox and Jacobite interpretation of Christianity. He was told that the Jacobite was the same as his own Armenian understanding of Christology, but once again, it appears to be a subject of theoretical scholarly debate of a handful of theologians, not something that should have made any practical difference. It turns out that the differences between the Orthodox and the Jacobites have largely faded away by now, and Hagop was seeking for a way to unite the two churches of Syria…
While residing in Syria, he left his younger brother Grigor in Skutor. His brother Grigor was a much more outgoing type of person, and made quite a number of influential friends among the important families of the city. By the time of Sarkis´death, in 1375 there were four contenders to the throne: Andronikos of the House Palaiologos, claiming succession from the deposed emperors of the Palaiologos dynasty, then Grigor, the brother of Sarkis, and his son Hagop. The fourth contender was Alexios of the Komnenian dynasty, controlling the Pontic coast.
The fact that Sarkis was rather unpopular has led some senators to claim him to be an usurper, and supported either the Palaiologid claimant, especially those in Macedonia and Morea, as well as some of those in Thrace; the Komnenian claimant had strong support in Anatolia, especially in Pontus and in Asiana. Hagop by this time was only a youngster on sixteen, little experienced in matters of state and military, relying on his court for advice. Grigor did manage to win over some of the important families of the empire, though by customs of succession his claim is considered invalid.
The Senate as a unified body had collapsed and a number of parallel Senates were established, supporting rival claimants. Most importantly, the Faction of the Market was rather keen on supporting the Komnenians, though a small section of them favoured Grigor. The Faction of the Knights, on the other hand, declared for Andronikos, while the Faction of Reconquest and Faction of the Purple ceased to exist as unified factions, and their members split according to personal sympathies. As mentioned, the provinces of Asiana and Pontus supported Alexios, Bithynia and Anatolikon declared for Grigor, Macedonia, Thrace, and Morea for Andronikos and Epirus and Dacia as well as Creta et Cyrenaica stayed neutral in the dispute, though the latter apparently sided tacitly with the Komnenians. Cilicia and Syria were under control of Hagop and his court. Grigor held the city of Constantinople, while Smyrna and Thessaloniki were under control of Alexios and Andronikos, respectively.
The first campaigns saw Grigor consolidate his positions in the vicinity of the capital, while Andronikos along with his son Manuel pushed across the region of ancient Troy, seizing control of the Hellespont strait. The Komnenians on the other hand seized the strategically town of Ankyra in north-central Anatolia.
View attachment 580961
A map of the civil war
In the second year of the conflict, Grigor attacked Andronikos´ forces in Thrace and pushed him westwards, while Alexios conquers Bithynia. In the south, Grigors bannermen in Anatolia are sandwiched between Syrian forces and Alexios´ loyalists. The disembarkment of Komnenian fleet in Athens opens another theatre in the struggle.
View attachment 580967
Andronikos Palaiologos, one of the claimants to the throne
Alexios´crossing of the Hellespont practically led to the elimination of Grigor as a contender, while the Epirus´ and Dalmatia´s alignment for Alexios have won him the war practically. By the end of 1378 it was clear that the Komnenian dynasty was to return to the Imperial throne, and Grigor and his remaining men fled on a ship to Georgia. The city of Constantinople opens its gates and crowns Alexios the Emperor. The Palaiologos, still controlling Macedonia and Thessaloniki, hastily seek reconciliation with the triumphant emperor – they are named as exarchs in Morea, parts of which they held at the time of their surrender.
Seizing the opportunity, Kemet takes over the region of Cyrenaica, in fact the sole possession of the Empire on the Libyan continent.
However, it turns out that one of the claimants to the throne remained undefeated. Hagop, reigning in Antioch advised by his courtiers, mainly by Hovhannes Mamonikian, his steward and the competent general Yousef Aun, Hagop was took a cautious stand in the war, and maintained control over Cyprus, Cilicia, Syria and Antioch. Maintaining amicable relations with both Italian states and Lebanon, Hagop hopes to preserve Syrian independence, while expanding slightly eastwards – primarily to gain control of Tadmur or Palmyra.
View attachment 580963
Alexios Megas Komnenos
With Alexios Megas Komnenos rising to the imperial palace begins what the historians would call as the “Komnenian Restoration”. The Empire enjoyed a period of relative peace, now after suffering another civil war, and there were few hawks in the Senate. Once again, it was primarily the Faction of the Market that had the upper hand, and the Empire experienced increased urbanisation and maritime trade. The city of Ragusa in Dalmatia, one of the more recent additions to the Empire has become the centre of Adriatic trade, much to the discontent of Venetians. In Italy, it were the cities of Tarent and Syracuse, that rose to importance as major outlets of Mediterranean trade between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Komnenian Restoration saw a period of increased intellectual and cultural activity. Many new pieces of literature, both poetic, epic and factual, were written down, and academic institutions flourished. It was focus on the man, on the individual and earthly life. This philosophical current, known as Anthropism, for its focus on the Human, rooted back in the classical tradition of Aristotle. Anthropist writers were concerned in writing “in the language of the common man, and their works are very well testimony to the evolution of the various Hellenic dialects of the later 14th century: Pontic with its many Kartvelian influences, Cappadocian of Anatolia heavily influenced by Armenian and Oghuz Turkic, and the western dialects of Morea and Epirus. Most scholars, primarily those in Thessaloniki, Adrianople, Constantinople and Smyrna, however continued to use the slightly modified standard High Rhomaic.
The Anthropist art, often ready to depict the beauty of the human body, nevertheless produced a back-clash. It came from the monastic mystical tradition cultivated in Athos and many other monasteries across the Empire and was known as Hesychasm. Based around inner meditation, focusing on the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, sinner”) repeated as a mantra. These practices were often strange to an outsider, such as a group of monks from Calabria – one of the places where Latin and Greek cultures met.
The issue has come to cause a serious controversy within the Orthodox Church, and it appears that it drew the monastic clergy against some of the well-versed secular clergy, with most parish priests staying aside of the whole thing.
View attachment 580968
Monasteries in Rhomania
What originated as a dispute on the method of prayer became part of a wider cultural debate within the Rhomaic Empire. Some see the whole issue to be a conflict between Aristotelianist and Platonic worldviews, between the practical and the mystical. For others it came to be regarded as a conflict on the place of religion in Rhomaic society – although that never was the case. Others have been trying to find a connection with Gnostic movements. For quite a few others, they were a new generation of religious fanatics, ready to hit down on the high culture of the Komnenian Restoration.
The Hesychast supporters organized themselves into the Faction of the Seekers of Salvation, becoming one of the major factions of the Senate, becoming second only to the Faction of the Market. Unrest, caused by vigilante Hesychast sympathisers broke out in western Macedonia and mountainous Morea, as well as Lycia and Caria.
Skutor opposite Constantinople experienced riots against the local Armenian population. Emperor Alexios has had enough. He summoned the Patriarch of Constantinople and ordered him to sort out this trouble. Andronikos Palaiologos ruling Morea dealt harshly with the revolting fanatics.
Apparently, the House of Palaiologos, firmly entrenched in Morea were one of the strongest opponents of the Hesychast movement, and in terms of geopolitics they looked westwards, viewing opportunities and contacts in the Appenine Peninsula. They considered themselves as practical, military men, interested in collecting the taxes from the peasants, dressing the recruits in armour and perhaps counting the profits brought up by trade. Not by mumbling tantric verses. Rather often, they were waiting for the lengthy liturgies to end. Though full of deep symbolism, quite a few people were tired of the hour-lengthy liturgies, and would never imagine to go on meditating for some hour or two.
The issue of the Hesychast controversy has not been solved during the lifetime of Alexios Megas Komnenos. However, he was rather successful in repairing the damage caused by the civil war and by the final years of his reign, he did see the country prosper.
The interior of the Anatolian Plateau, particularly the region of Konya had significant Turkish and Armenian populations. Alexios sought to repopulate the land with more Greek subjects. Over time, however, it did turn out that Turkish had become the common tongue in this region, with many Greek and Armenian loanwords. The Anatolian Turkish were chiefly of Nestorian religion and used the Armenian script to write down their tongue. Subsequent Patriarchs have sent a number of Orthodox priests fluent in the Turkish tongue to convert the Turks and bring them to the fold of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The progress of this effort was rather slow, and any results were tentative at best.
The biggest threat lay however east of the Halys River. The domain of the Eretnids, originally a Turkic Uyghur dynasty lay in the border regions between Armenia and Anatolia. This region was a bastion of the heretical Paulician faith, and apparently the Eretnids were rather quick to find support from the heretical Armenians living in the region. The area was heavily fortified, with a dense network of inaccessible mountain fortresses in the mountainous terrain. The Emperor feared that the moment he attacks their domain, their forces would cross the Halys and seize Konya, and provoke a rebellion of the Anatolian Turks, while in the meantime the Hesychast movement would launch a rebellion of their own.
The Eretnids have come to rule over the upper Euhrates basin and the southern foothills of the Pontic Mountains, once again displacing the Aq Qoyunlu Turkoman rule from that region.
And then there was Syria. King Hagop Sarkisyan of the Trazarkian dynasty has been ruling the land to the south of the Taurus Mountains since the civil war. This included the regions of Cilicia and Cyprus, while maintaining a rather indirect hold over Lebanon as well. For the Rhomaic Empire, the existence of an independent Syria appears to be a threat, primarily because this Syria appears to be allying itself with Kemet, which in turn has taken advantage of the previous civil wars in the Rhomaic Empire and seized Cyrenaica.
Hagop Sarkisyan was thus ruling Syria as an Armenian king. The realm consisted of various religious and linguistic groups. There were the Antiochian Greeks, the Syriacs, the Armenians and the Arabs. The Greeks were Orthodox for the most part, the Armenians were followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. As for the Syriac-speaking subjects of his, some were followers of the Syriac Jacobite Church, though some were also Nestorians. However, the plurality were followers of the Antiochian Orthodox Church. The Arabs too, appear to be half-to- half divided among Nestorian and Jacobite denominations.
View attachment 580970
The Cathedral of Saint George in Damascus, belonging to the Syriac Jacoite Church
Historically, it ought to have been the Syriac Jacobite Church, whose adherents made a plurality in the region and was a main driver of cultural autonomy in Syria, seeking to preserve the Aramophone Syrian population from cultural Hellenization. However, over the course of the centuries, its position has been continually undermined by both the Rhomaic Emperors from the west and the Turkic Nestorian conquerors from the east, each seeking to impose their own denomination of Christianity over Syria.
View attachment 580971
A map of the religion in Syria
Hagop saw little difference in the Orthodox and Jacobite interpretation of Christianity. He was told that the Jacobite was the same as his own Armenian understanding of Christology, but once again, it appears to be a subject of theoretical scholarly debate of a handful of theologians, not something that should have made any practical difference. It turns out that the differences between the Orthodox and the Jacobites have largely faded away by now, and Hagop was seeking for a way to unite the two churches of Syria…
- Tomislav Addai
- Word Count: 2.2k