When proposing PICERAN, I knew that there was Arabic material for the Roman Duchy of Antioch. As it has turned out, the works of Ibn Buṭlān have been both more and less than I had hoped. Less, in the sense that only fragments of his travel epistles survive, but more in the sense that some of the fragments which survive are highly relevant to the project, and partly available in English translation.
The following short summary of Ibn Buṭlān’s biography derives from Conrad 2011 (see Works cited, below). Abū ‘l-Ḥasan al-Muḫtār Yuwānnīs ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdūn ibn Saʿdūn ibn Buṭlān (d. 1066) was a physician and writer on a wide range of subjects including medicine, astrology, theology, and social commentaries. He grew up in Baghdad in the early eleventh century AD, and studied under Ibn al-Ṭayyib (d. AD 1043). Ibn al-Ṭayyib was a priest in the Church of the East, a polymath and prolific writer and, according to at least one tradition, a native of Antioch. In the years after his teacher’s death, Ibn Buṭlān established himself as a physician and teacher in Baghdad. However, in January 1049 he departed the city never to return.
He visited Antioch for the first time later that year, coming by way of Aleppo. However he did not stay long before proceeding via Laodicea, Damascus, and Jaffa to Cairo, which he reached in November the same year. In Cairo he sought the patronage of the court physician Ibn Riḍwān but the men had a falling out and a public war of words which caused Ibn Buṭlān to leave again sometime after May 1050. He made his way back to Antioch via Jaffa, but again did not stay long before continuing on to Tarsus and Constantinople. He arrived in Byzantion no later than 1052 and remained several years, witnessing an outbreak of plague in the city in 1054. It is not clear how long he remained, but he next spent time in Ma’arrat al-Nu’man where he seems to have formed a friendship with the poet-philosopher Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri (d. May 1057). It is not clear when Ibn Buṭlān finally settled in Antioch, but he certainly had by 1063 when he wrote a treatise on hot and cold remedies. He died, according to one source, on Friday September 2, 1066; his tomb in an Antiochene church was known and visited.
Ibn Buṭlān recorded his travels in a series of letters sent to his Baghdadi friend, the scholar Hilal al-Sabi. Ibn Buṭlān’s letters were quoted extensively by Hilal’s son Ghars al-Ni’ma al-Sabi in a now-lost work. However, Ghars al-Ni’ma’s work was a source used by the geographer Yaqut, the medical biogrphaer al-Qifti and the historian Ibn al’Adim. Al-Qifti preserve parts of Ibn Buṭlān’s descriptions of Antioch from his first visit to the city in 1049, while Yakut appears to have combined narrative elements from Ibn Buṭlān’s first and second visits to the region two years later.
A public domain English translation of the relevant passage in Yakut’s geography exists, in Le Strange 1890. However, in addition to expected anachronisms from a 19th century translation, the character recognition in the pdf is not great . As such, I’ve manually cleaned up the translation. In the process, I checked the text against the Arabic edition of the passages from al-Qifti, which are found in Schacht and Meyrhof 1937, and noticed that there is both considerable overlap as well as several short passages which were not present in Le Strange’s translation of Yakut. While not directly translated in Conrad’s article on pp. 150-151, Conrad does give a detailed paraphrase of the passages not found in Le Strange’s translation.
The combined translation below began by cleaning up and lightly editing Le Strange’s translation for readability, then comparing it with machine translations of al-Qifti’s text from the edition by Schacht and Meyrhof (using both Google Translate and DeepL). I checked these machine translations against Conrad’s paraphrase, which clarified the meaning of several words and the logical flow of the passages. I operate on the assumption (which may be wrong) that al-Qifti’s text is an abridged account of Ibn Buṭlān’s visit in 1049 which preserves the original order of the epistle’s narrative. I therefore use it as the framework for separating the passages in Yakut between that trip and Ibn Buṭlān’s second visit to Antioch two years later. Throughout, I note whether a passage comes from al-Qifti, Yakut, or is found in both.
To be clear, I cannot read much Arabic and categorically do not claim that either Le Strange’s translation or the light edits I have made below are faithful. This is an exercise in using digital tools for accessing historical source materials. If a reader wishes to use or analyze this material, I strongly recommend they treat this post as only the intellectual exercise that it is and directly check the sources in the works cited, below.
Lawrence Conrad, “Ibn Buṭlān in Bilād Al-Shām: The Career of a Travelling Christian Physician,” in Syrian Christians under Islam, the First Thousand Years, ed. David Thomas (Brill, 2001), 131-158. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004497467_008.
Guy Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems. A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500 (Alexander P. Watt for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1890), pp. 370-375. http://archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lest.
Joseph Schacht and Max Meyrhof, The Medico-Philosophical Controversy between Ibn Butlan of Baghdad and Ibn Ridwan of Cairo. A Contribution to the History of Greek Learning among the Arabs (The Egyptian University, Faculty of Arts, 1937), pp. 18-20.
[From al-Qifti and Yakut]
We left Aleppo intent on journeying to Antioch, and the distance is a day and a night’s march.
[only al-Qifti]
We spent the night in a town of the Romans known as Imma (ruins located in Yenişehir south of Reyhanlı, Türkiye),* in which there is a flowing spring from which fish are caught and a mill is turned on it. In it there are pigs, prostitutes, adultery, and wines of great importance. In it there are four churches and a mosque in which the call to prayer is given secretly.
* Location identified in TIB 15 pp. 1319-1321.
[al-Qifti and Yakut]
We found all the country between Aleppo and Antioch populous, nowhere ruined abodes of any description. On the contrary, the soil was everywhere sown with wheat and barley, which grew under the olive-trees. The villages ran continuous, their gardens full of flowers, and the waters flowing on every hand, so that the traveller makes his journey here in contentment of mind, and peace and quietness.
Antioch is an immense city. It possesses a wall and an outer wall. The wall has three hundred and sixty towers, and these are patrolled in turn by four thousand guards, who are sent to Antioch every year from Constantinople by the king, as warrant for the safe-keeping of the city, and in the second year they are changed. [19] The plan of the city is that of a semicircle; its diameter lying along the mountain (Silpion). The city wall climbs up over the mountain to its very summit, completing the circle. On the summit of the mountain, but within the wall, is a fortress, which appears quite small from the city below, on account of its distance up; and this mountain shades the city from the sun which only begins to shine over the town about the second hour of the day. In the wall surrounding (the city) and in the part not on the mountain, are five gates.
In the centre of the city is the Church of Cassian (al-Qusyān). It was originally the palace of Cassian, the king, whose son, Peter, chief of the disciples, raised to life. It consists of a chapel, the length of which is 100 paces, and the breadth of it 80, and over it is a church, supported on columns. Within the church are arcades where judges sit to give judgment, and where teachers sit who teach grammar and logic. At one of the gates of this church is a Clepsydra (water clock). It works day and night continuously, twelve hours at a round, and it is one of the wonders of the world.
In the upper portion (of the city) are five terraces, and on the fifth of these are the baths, and gardens, where beautiful points of view are obtained. You may hear in this spot the murmuring of waters, and the cause thereof is that the waters run down near this place from the mountain which overhangs the city. There are in Antioch more churches than can be counted; every one of them ornamented with gold and silver, and coloured glass, and they are paved in tiles. In the city is a hospital where the patriarch himself tends the sick.
[only Yakut]
Every year he causes the lepers to enter the bath, and he washes their hair with his own hands. Likewise the king also does this service every year to the poor. The greatest of the lords and patricians vie in obtaining of him permission to wash these poor people, after the like fashion, and serve them. In this city there are hot baths, such as you can find the equal nowhere else in any other town for luxury and excellence; for they are heated with myrtle wood (al âs), and the water flows in torrents, and with no scant. In the Church of Cassian are innumerable servants who all receive their daily rations, and there is an office for the expenditure and receipts of the church, in which office are some ten or more accountants.
[al-Qifti and Yakut:]
Outside the city is a river called al Maklub (the Orontes), which runs from south to north. It is of the size of the Nahr ’Isâ (in Babylonia). There are along its banks many mills, and it waters the gardens and grounds (of the city).
[only al-Qifti]
Outside the city is the monastery of Simeon, which is like half of the Caliph’s palace. It is said that its annual income is four hundred thousand dinars. From there, one ascends to the mountain of al-Lakam. On this mountain are monasteries, hermitages, gardens, gushing waters, flowing rivers, ascetics, travellers, the ringing of bells at dawn, and the melodies of prayers, such that one imagines that he is in Paradise. And in Antioch there is a man known as Abu Nasr ibn al-Attar (?), a judge who is knowledgeable in the sciences, eloquent in speech, and insightful.
I left Antioch for Latakia, which is a Roman city with a port, a theatre, and a hippodrome. It has a house that was for idols which is now a church. In the early days of Islam, it was a mosque. It is situated on the sea. It has a judge for the Muslims and a mosque where they pray. The call to prayer is given at the times of the five daily prayers. It is the custom of the Romans when they hear the call to prayer, they ring the bell. The Muslim judge there is appointed by the Romans. Among the wonders of the city is the market inspector who gathers in a circle prostitutes and foreigners who are inclined to corruption from among the Romans. He calls out each one of them, and the number of debauchers increases for the night. They are taken to the hotels, which are the inns for foreigners to stay in. After each one of them receives a token bearing the seal of the bishop, a proof in her hand against the governor’s pursuit. For whenever he finds a sinner with a sinner without the bishop’s seal, he will hold him liable for a crime. And in this city are hermits and ascetics in monasteries and mountains, every virtuous person, time is too short to mention their circumstances and the words spoken.
[From only Yakut]
Some year and a part ago a thunderbolt struck this church, and the manner of its doing so was most extraordinary. Now at the close of the year 1362 of Alexander (Seleucid Era), which coincides with the year 442 of the Hijrah (AD 1050/51), the winter rains had been heavy, and some part of the days of the month Nīsān (April)** were already past, when, on the night whose morrow was Saturday, the 13th of Nīsān, there came thunder and lightning such as had never been known at the time, nor remembered, nor heard of in the past. The claps of thunder were oft repeated, and so terrible as to cause the people to cry out in fear. Then on a sudden, a thunderbolt fell and struck a mother-of-pearl screen which stood before the altar in the Church of Cassian, and it split from off the face of this (screen) of the Christians, a piece like what might be struck off by an iron pickaxe with which stone is hewn. The iron cross, too, which was set on the summit of this mother-of-pearl (screen), was thrown down (by the thunderbolt), and remained on the place where it fell; and a small piece also was cut off from the mother-of-pearl. And the thunderbolt descended through the crevice in the mother-of-pearl, and travelled down to the altar along a massive silver chain, by which is suspended the censer; now the size of this crevice was of two finger breadths. A great piece of the chain was broken off, and part of it was melted, and what was melted of it was found dropped down on the ground below. A silver crown which hung before the table of the altar was also thrown down. Beyond the table (of the altar), and to the west of it, stood three wooden stools, square, and high, on which were usually set three large crosses of silver gilt, studded with precious stones. But the night before they had removed two of the crosses, those on either side, taking them up to the church treasury, and leaving only the middle cross in its usual place. Now the two stools on either side were smashed (by the thunderbolt), and the pieces sent flying over and beyond the altar, though here there was seen no mark of fire, as had appeared in the case of the chain, but the stool in the middle remained untouched, nor did anything happen to the cross that was set thereon.
** Ibn Buṭlān uses the solar Assyrian calendar for month names.
Upon each of the four marble columns which supported the silver dome covering the table of the altar was cloth of brocade wrapping round the column. Each one of these suffered a greater or less stroke (from the thunderbolt); but the stroke fell in each case on a place (in the cloth) where it had been already worm-eaten and worn to shreds; but there was no appearance as though flame’ had scorched it, nor as though it had been burnt. The table (of the altar) was not touched, nor was any damage done to the altar-cloths upon it; at least, no sign of any such damage was to be seen. Some of the marble (slabs) which were in front (on the pavement below) the table of the altar were struck as though by the blow of a pickaxe, and the mortar and lime setting thereof (was cracked). Among the rest was a large slab of marble, which was torn from its bed and fractured, and thrown up on to the square top of the silver dome covering the table of the altar; and here it rested, the remaining pieces of the marble being torn from their bed, and scattered far and near. In the neighbourhood of the altar was a wooden pulley, in which was a hemp-rope — quite close to the silver chain which had been broken, and part of it melted — and (to this rope was) attached a large silver tray, on which stood the bowls for the glass lamps. This tray remained untouched — none of the lamps were overturned, nor aught else thereon; neither did any damage happen to a candle that stood near the two wooden stools (as already mentioned). The greater part of these wondrous occurrences were witnessed by many who were in Antioch.
Further, outside the city, on the night of Monday, the 5th of the month ʾĀb (August), of the year before mentioned, there was seen in the heavens the likeness of a window, through which light shone out broad and glittering, and then became extinguished. The people waited till morning, expecting some event therefrom. And after a time news came that in the early part of the day of that Monday, at the city of Ghunjurah*** in the Roman country, which is nine days’ journey from Antioch, terrible earthquakes had taken place, following one another continuously. The greater number of the houses (of this city) had been thrown down, and a piece of ground outside the town had been swallowed up; while a large church and a fine fortress which had stood here had both disappeared, so that no trace remained of either. From the crevice in the earth extremely hot water had been thrown up, flowing forth from many springs. It had submerged seventy farmsteads. The people fleeing therefrom had escaped for safety to the hill-tops and high places around. The water covered the surface of the ground during seven days, spreading round about the city for the distance of two days’ journey. After that time it disappeared, and the place where it had been became a swamp. A number of those who were witnesses of these events testified thereto, and the people of Antioch reported to me (Ibn Buṭlān) all that I have here set down. They related, further, that when the inhabitants had carried up their goods to the hill-tops, the ground rocked so by the strength of the earthquake that the chattels came rolling down again to the level earth below.
*** Identity unclear. Le Strange proposed Gangra (also called Germanicopolis, modern Çankırı), but the distance (9 days’ travel) does not match. Orbis Terrarum, which models travel on Roman roads by season, estimates an overland travel time in August of 21 days from Antioch to Ancyra, and Gengra lies further north from there. In terms of distance, Germanicia Caesarea (modern Kahramanmaraş) seems like a better candidate. From checking “Ibn Buṭlān” in the index of TIB 15, it appears that the volume’s editors did not comment on this episode.