Michael Critobulus (; c. 1410 – c. 1470) was a Greek politician, scholar and historian. He is known as the author of a history of the Ottoman conquest of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

under Sultan

Mehmet II Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...

. Critobulus' work, along with the writings of Doukas,

Laonicus Chalcondyles Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Latinized as Laonicus Chalcocondyles ( el, Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης, from λαός "people", νικᾶν "to be victorious", an anagram of Nikolaos which bears the same meaning; c. 1430 – c. 1470; ...

and

George Sphrantzes George Sphrantzes, also Phrantzes or Phrantza ( el, Γεώργιος Σφραντζής or Φραντζής; 1401 – c. 1478), was a late Roman (Byzantine) historian and Imperial courtier. He was an attendant to Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, ''p ...

, is one of the principal sources for the

Fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...

in 1453. Critobulus is a

Romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...

of the name, which is alternatively

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

as Kritoboulos, Kritovoulos, Critoboulos; sometimes with Critobulus' provenance affixed (e.g. ''Critobulus of Imbros'').

Biography

Critobulus' birth name was ''Michael Critopoulos'' ( el, Μιχαήλ Κριτόπουλος). He changed this modern Greek family name to the more classical-sounding ''"Kritoboulos"'' in reference to a figure of that name in the dialogues of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

. He belonged to a family of landowners on the island of

Imbros Imbros or İmroz Adası, officially Gökçeada (lit. ''Heavenly Island'') since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1 ...

. In the 1450s he was a local political leader of the island and played an active role in the peaceful handover of

, Limnos and

Thasos Thasos or Thassos ( el, Θάσος, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area. The island has an area of and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate r ...

to the Ottomans after the final breakdown of the Byzantine Empire.

Works

He later wrote the work ''History'' in five books.John Antonakos, ''Noted Greeks Of The Middle Ages'', p. 61 It is a historical account of the rise of the Ottomans and the final conquest of the remainder of the Eastern Roman Empire. Its main part is a biography of the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II, the Conqueror, to whom the work was also dedicated. Writing under Ottoman rule, Critobulus expressed admiration for Mehmet in his work, and combined mourning for the Greek loss with an acceptance of the shift of power to the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

, which he interpreted as a divinely ordained world historic event. In doing so, Critobulus took as a literary model the works of

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

, the Jewish-Roman historian of the Roman destruction of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. His text is the most detailed historical account of the first decade of Turkish rule in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, including the Ottoman efforts of rebuilding and repopulating the city. The autograph of his text has been preserved in the Library of the Serail in Istanbul. He used

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...

as a model for his ''History''.

Editions

Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller ( la, Carolus Müllerus; 13 February 1813 in Clausthal – 1894 in Göttingen) is best known for his still-useful Didot editions of fragmentary Greek authors, especially the monumental five-volume ''Fragmenta Historico ...

, ''Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum'', vol
5
1873. *Diether R. Reinsch (ed.), ''Critobuli Imbriotae historiae.'' (

Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae {{Italic title The ''Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae'' (Latin: " Corpus of Byzantine history sources") or CFHB is an international project aiming to collect, edit and provide textual criticism on the historical sources from the time of the Byzan ...

22). Berlin: de Gruyter, 1983. *Diether R. Reinsch and Photini Kolovou (ed. and transl.), ''Κριτοβούλου του Ιμβρίου Ιστορία.'' Athens: Kanaki, 2005. *Charles T. Rigg (ed. and transl.), ''History of Mehmed the Conqueror.'' Princeton: Princeton UP, 1954.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Critobulus, Michael 1410 births 1470 deaths Greek educators 15th-century Byzantine historians People from Imbros