VAHRAM’S
CHRONICLE
OF THE
ARMENIAN KINGDOM IN CILICIA.
VAHRAM’S
CHRONICLE
OF
THE ARMENIAN KINGDOM IN CILICIA,
DURING THE
TIME OF THE CRUSADES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ARMENIAN,
WITH
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
BY
CHARLES FRIED. NEUMANN.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND,
And Sold by
J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET;
PARBURY, ALLEN, & CO., LEADENHALL STREET;
THACKER & CO., CALCUTTA; TREUTTEL & WÜRTZ, PARIS;
AND E. FLEISCHER, LEIPSIG.
1831.
LONDON:
Printed by J. L. Cox, Great Queen Street
Lincoln’s-Inn Fields.
TO
PROFESSOR WILKEN,
AUTHOR OF
“THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES,”
AND
LIBRARIAN TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PRUSSIA,
THIS VOLUME
IS DEDICATED,
WITH PROFOUND RESPECT AND ESTEEM,
BY
THE TRANSLATOR.
The greatest defect of the followingChronicle is its brevity. Vahram, ofwhose life little more is known thanthat he was a native of Edessa, a priest,and the secretary of king Leon III., exhibitsalmost all the faults of the commonChroniclers of the Middle Ages. Herelates many barren facts, without statingthe circumstances with which they wereconnected, and he mistakes every wherethe passions of men for the finger ofGod. The compilers of chronicles werein those ages ignorant of the true end,and unacquainted with the proper objects[viii]of history. But with all its defects, thechronicle of the Armenian kings of Cilicia,written by a contemporary writer, is valuable.The friend of history may nowbe enabled to form an estimate of the originand the increase of an empire, whichfor want of materials has been overlookedby the most learned and acute historians.Gibbon, of whom it is doubtful whetherwe should most admire his genius or hiserudition, in his celebrated work simplymentions the name of Cilicia, a kingdom,which carried on successful wars againstthe emperors of Constantinople; andwhich, from the beginning of the Crusadesremained the friend and ally of the Franks,and to whom belonged a part of the sea-coast,that continued from the time ofEzekiel the theatre of the commerce ofthe world. The Venetians and Genoesewere so impressed with the importanceof Cilicia, that they made several commercialtreaties with the Armenian kings;[ix]the Armenian original of one of theseagreements, together with a translationand notes, has been printed by the learnedorientalist, Saint-Martin.
The Crusaders were astonished to findwithin the frontiers of the Byzantine empirea powerful prince and ally of whomthey had never before heard mention.Nicetas betrays a want of historical kno