The crusades and islam

The spanish inquisition wikipedia Anna Comnena (born December 2, —died c. ) was a Byzantine historian and daughter of the emperor Alexius I Comnenus. She is remembered for her Alexiad, a history of the life and reign of her father, which became a valuable source as a pro-Byzantine account of the early Crusades.

Anna (Komnenos) Komnene ( - )

"Of the writings which contribute eye-witness testimony to but a portion of the history of the Crusade, the Alexiad, by Anna Comnena, is one of the most important. The writer was the daughter of Alexius, and, though she was barely fourteen years of age when the Crusaders came to Constantinople, it may be assumed that the presence of so many rude strangers in the imperial city made a most vivid impression on her mind.

Both Anna and her husband, Nicephorus Briennius, had been highly educated, and when the palace intrigue in which they were both concerned proved unsuccessful and she was shut up in a convent by her brother's order, she undertook to complete the history which her husband had begun. Forty years after the first Crusaders had passed through Antioch she began her task.

Anna comnena and the crusades wikipedia She is the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades.

In the meantime there had been various bands of Crusaders from the West. Bohemund had taken Antioch in defiance of the Emperor and had even made war upon him. The relations of Alexius with Count Raymond of Toulouse had undergone changes, and many other events relating to the Latins and the Crusades had occurred.

Thus, with so much to confuse her memory, her chronology is uncertain, her statement of fact often inaccurate, and her style highly rhetorical and affected.

Muslim crusades Anna Komnene chronicles the different groups of people involved in the crusades, and refers to them as "Celts", "Latins", and "Normans". [6] She also talks about her father, Alexios Komnenos in great detail and his conquests throughout his rule from to [7] She does this by presenting a "Byzantine view" of the Crusades. [7].

Never very certain of the identity of the Latin leaders, as she herself confesses, she calls them all counts and confuses one group with another in hopeless fashion. Nevertheless, her work is exceedingly valuable as a presentation of the Byzantine attitude toward the Latins, and her conception of her father's feeling toward the Westerners can probably be relied upon as correct.

A MS copy of the account, corrected by Anna herself, is preserved at Florence. Other fragments also remain."[2]

Sources

  1. ↑ The History of the Crusades, by, Joseph Fr. Michaud, William Robson, and Hamilton W Mabie, pg 81 [1]
  2. ↑ The first crusade; the accounts of eyewitnesses and participants, by August Charles Krey [2]
  • Wikipedia contributors, "Anna Komnene," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [3] (accessed March 23, ).