TY - JOUR
T1 - AlMA
T2 - The blood of the grand komnenoi
AU - Shukurov, Rustam
N1 - Funding Information:
1. The research on which this article is based was made possible by the generous support of the International Science Foundation. My special thanks are due to Professor S.P. Karpov and Professor A.A.M. Bryer who helped me with suggestions and comments. 2. Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.L. van Dieten, 1 (Berlin-New York 1975) 169. English translation: H.J. Magoulias, 0 City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984) 96. 3. The prophecy already existed before 1167, when Manuel I accused the Protostrator Alexios Axouchos, the husband of his niece Maria, of conspiracy. Niketas ended his narration of the 'conspiracy' ofAxouchos with a rhetorical reproach: 'It behooved Manuel, who was worldly wise and not an ignorant and unlettered man, not to waste his labour seeking out him whose name began with alpha as the one to succeed him and bring an end to his rule, but to leave the charge of the reins of government to him who says he is the alpha and omega as John instructs me in the Apocalypse.' There are some reasons to believe that the prophetic word and its interpretation appeared even earlier, before 1163. In 1163, Manuel I, who then had no male heir to succeed him, resolved the question of the succession by betrothing his daughter Maria to the Hungarian prince Bela. Bela was designated the heir of the Constantinopolitan throne. Taking the place of Manuel's heir-son, Bela was baptised according to the Orthodox rite and was renamed Alexios.
PY - 1995/1/1
Y1 - 1995/1/1
N2 - The emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143–80) asked a certain fortune teller, how long the dynasty of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) would reign. The prophetic response was the word αιμα (blood), the first three letters designating the first initials of the Komnenian emperors in the order of succession, namely, Alexios I, John II (1118-43), Manuel I, the last alpha for the name of Manuel's future successor.
AB - The emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143–80) asked a certain fortune teller, how long the dynasty of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) would reign. The prophetic response was the word αιμα (blood), the first three letters designating the first initials of the Komnenian emperors in the order of succession, namely, Alexios I, John II (1118-43), Manuel I, the last alpha for the name of Manuel's future successor.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976714013&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1179/030701395790836630
DO - 10.1179/030701395790836630
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84976714013
SN - 0307-0131
VL - 19
SP - 161
EP - 181
JO - Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
JF - Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
IS - 1
ER -