Peter Charanis (1908 – 23 March 1985), born Panagiotis Charanis ( el, Παναγιώτης Χαρανής), was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-born American scholar of

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...

and the Voorhees Professor of History at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. Charanis was long associated with the

Dumbarton Oaks Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, M ...

research library.

Biography

Dr. Charanis was born in

Lemnos Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The p ...

Ottoman Greece Most of the areas which today are within modern Greece's borders were at some point in the past part of the Ottoman Empire. This period of Ottoman rule in Greece, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greek War of Independence t ...

. He immigrated to the United States as a pre-teen leaving his family in Lemnos and settling in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in 1920. He received his bachelor's degree from Rutgers and his doctorate from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, where he studied under Alexander Vasiliev. He continued his studies as a postgraduate in the University of Brussels under the eminent Byzantinist,

Henri Grégoire Henri Jean-Baptiste Grégoire (; 4 December 1750 – 28 May 1831), often referred to as the Abbé Grégoire, was a French Catholic priest, Constitutional bishop of Blois and a revolutionary leader. He was an ardent slavery abolitionist and sup ...

. From 1936 to 1938, he participated in Grégoire's seminar where he met his future wife Madeleine Schiltz and befriended the likes of

Nicholas Adontz Nicholas Adontz (, ''Nikoghayos Adonts’'', also spelled Adonts; ; January 10, 1871 – January 27, 1942) was an Armenian historian, specialist of Byzantine and Armenian studies, and philologist. Yuzbashyan, Karen. s.v. Adonts', Nikoghayos G ...

and

Paul Wittek Paul Wittek (11 January 1894, Baden bei Wien — 13 June 1978, Eastcote, Middlesex) was an Austrian Orientalist and historian. His 1938 thesis on the rise of the Ottoman Empire, known as the '' Ghazi thesis'', argues that the Ottoman's ''raison d ...

. According to Charanis himself, during his stay in Brussels, he acquired a profound interest in the

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...

. That interest influenced both him and his studies, notably ''The Armenians in the Byzantine Empire'' (Byzantinoslavica, 1961) and ''A Note on the Ethnic Origin of Emperor Maurice'' (Byzantion, 1965). Charanis also spent some time at the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

in Greece, and upon his return to the United States joined the Rutgers faculty in 1938, becoming Voorhees Professor of History in 1963. At that time,

Byzantine Studies Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman Empire. T ...

was still at its infancy in the United States. Charanis persuaded the history department to begin a course in Byzantine Studies, which eventually became one of the most popular courses at Rutgers. From 1964 to 1966, he served as chairman of the university's history department. He retired in 1976. Charanis is known for his anecdotal narrations about Greek Orthodox populations, particularly those outside the newly independent

modern Greek state The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition by the Great Powers — Britain, France and Russia — of its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1828 to the present day. Background The Byzantine Empire had ...

, who continued to refer to themselves as ''Romioi'' (i.e. Romans, Byzantines) well into the 20th century. Since Charanis was born on the island of

, he recounts that when the island was taken from the Ottomans by Greece in 1912, Greek soldiers were sent to each village and stationed themselves in the public squares. Some of the island children ran to see what Greek soldiers looked like. "What are you looking at?" one of the soldiers asked. "At

Hellenes The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, other ...

," the children replied. "Are you not Hellenes yourselves?" the soldier retorted. "No, we are

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

," the children replied..

Selected bibliography

*"An important short chronicle of the fourteenth century", ''Byzantion'' 13 (1938) *"Byzantium, the West and the origin of the First Crusade", ''Byzantion'' 19 (1949) *"On the Social Structure and Economic Organization of the Byzantine Empire in the Thirteenth Century and Later", ''Byzantinoslavica'' 12 (1951) *"Ethnic Changes in the Byzantine Empire in the Seventh Century", ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'' 13 (1959) * *"The Armenians in the Byzantine Empire", ''Byzantinoslavica'' 22 (1961), Repr. Lisbon, 1963, London, 1972 *"Observations on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire", ''XIII International Congress of Byzantine Studies'', Oxford, 1966

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charanis, Peter American Byzantinists Armenian studies scholars 1908 births 1985 deaths People from Lemnos Greek emigrants to the United States Rutgers University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Rutgers University faculty Recipients of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece) 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Scholars of Byzantine history American male non-fiction writers