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Constantinople besieged

Narrative concerning the war that occurred in Constantinople in the year 6930, when Amurat Bey attacked it with a heavy force and almost conquered it, had not the most holy Mother of the Lord protected it, written by lord John Kananos

1. "It is good to keep the secret of a king, but it is glorious to reveal the works of God"; for the angel said to Tobit. This now greatly impels and encourages me and makes me a bold herald, so that I may narrate the most wondrous miracle of my all-holy Lady. But my inexperience in speaking hinders me, but again my own desire, human passion, pushes me back and draws me. And I am defeated, and I confess the defeat, and from these things I have begun the history. And I beg those who read this and who have experience in letters, neither to be wearied by the satiety of the speech nor to condemn the solecistic and barbarous phrasing, since I too confess the weakness of my inexperience in letters. But I have not written these things for the wise or the learned, but for the unlearned only, as I too am unlearned, so that the unlearned, as unlearned people, may read this without criticism and without condemnation. And so for all these reasons I became a bold writer and herald, and I have narrated the much-talked-of miracle of the all-holy Lady and the incursion of the Hagarenes against us and the siege of the city, according to the power of my speech, and from these things I have begun.

2. In the thirty-second year of the reign of the emperors Manuel Palaiologos and his son John, in the six thousand nine hundred and thirtieth year, of the fifteenth indiction, on the tenth of the month of June, on the third day, at the second hour of the day, suddenly an army of Muslims again ran down against us, twice five thousand in number, having also as commander a man who was mad and bloodthirsty, and his name was called Mihalbey, and every city and land under the imperial authority they brought under their own in a single moment of time, and they deprived us of all the surroundings of this city, and they destroyed its villages, plundered them, took them captive, and some of the men they slaughtered, and others they transported far away to Iconium and Aratzapetas Kyphas, and the women they shamefully debauched, and the infants they offered to Mohammed for circumcision, and every beast of burden and that was not yoked they destroyed and annihilated. But the loss of the crops and the ruin of the vineyards, who then and what tongue will be able to describe it? For at the time of the harvest they unexpectedly ran down and shut us in, and all the things outside came under their dominion. But how and whence and for what reason this disaster and destruction and these most terrible evils befell the unfortunate and wretched Romans, it seemed better for us to be silent. But it is necessary to narrate the end of that most bitter battle and that most frightful war.

3. For the first army of those Muslims ran down on the tenth of June and shut us in, as we said before, but on the twentieth of this month another army of Muslims appeared like a cloud full of hail and a deadly locust swarm, and they blighted all and every land of the Romans, and like a flame of burning lightning it burned and set fire to everything, and every fruitful timber and fruit-bearing tree and the shoots of the vineyards they cut off from the root, and every other terrible and destructive thing they did against us. But the great commander and emir and master of all of them arrived. He came furious and enraged, arrogant

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Constantinopoli oppugnata

∆ιήγησις περὶ τοῦ ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει γεγονότος πολέμου κατὰ τὸ ςλʹ ἔτος, ὅτε ὁ Ἀμουρὰτ Πεὶς παρέπεσε ταύτῃ μετὰ δυνάμεως βαρείας καὶ παρολίγον ταύτην ἐκράτει, εἰ μὴ ἡ ὑπέραγνος Μήτηρ τοῦ Κυρίου ταύτην ἐφύλαξε, συγγραφεῖσα παρὰ κυρίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κανανοῦ

1. «Μυστήριον βασιλέως κρύπτειν καλόν, τὰ δὲ ἔργα τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀνακηρύττειν

ἔνδοξον»· εἶπε γὰρ ὁ ἄγγελος τῷ Τωβήτ. Τοῦτο νῦν καὶ ἐμὲ λίαν ὠθεῖ καὶ θαρρύνει καὶ τολμηρὸν ποιεῖ κήρυκα, ὅπως τὸ πανθαύμαστον θαῦμα τῆς Παναγίας μου διηγήσομαι. Ἐκκόπτει δ' ἐμὲ ἡ ἀπειρία τοῦ λόγου, ἀντωθεῖ δ' ἐμὲ πάλιν καὶ ἕλκει τὸ ἴδιον τῆς ὀρέξεως, τὸ ἀνθρώπινον πάθος. Καὶ ἥττημαι, καὶ τὴν ἧτταν ὁμολογῶ, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτων τὴν ἱστορίαν ἠρξάμην. Καὶ δέομαι τοὺς ἀναγινώσκοντας ταύτην καὶ τῶν γραμμάτων τὴν πεῖραν ἔχοντας, μήτε τὸν κόρον τοῦ λόγου ἀκηδιάσωσι μήτε τὴν σολοικοβάρβαρον καταγνώσονται φράσιν, ἐπεὶ κἀγὼ τῆς ἀπειρίας μου τῶν γραμμάτων ὁμολογῶ τὴν ἀσθένειαν. Ἀλλὰ οὐδὲ διὰ σοφοὺς ἢ λογίους ἔγραψα ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ διὰ ἰδιώτας καὶ μόνον, ὡς καὶ ἐγὼ ἰδιώτης, ἵνα οἱ ἰδιῶται ὡς ἰδιῶται ἀπεριέργως καὶ ἀκαταγνώστως ἀναγινώσκουσι ταύτην. ∆ιὰ δὲ δὴ ταῦτα πάντα τολμηρὸς ἐγενόμην γραφεύς τε καὶ κῆρυξ, καὶ τὸ πολυθρύλητον θαῦμα τῆς Παναγίας καὶ τὴν καθ' ἡμῶν τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν ἐπιδρομὴν καὶ τὴν πολιορκίαν τῆς πόλεως ἱστόρησα κατὰ τὴν τοῦ λόγου μου δύναμιν, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτων ἠρξάμην.

2. Ἐν ἔτει τριακοστῷ δευτέρῳ τῆς ἡγεμονίας τῶν βασιλέων Μανουὴλ τοῦ Παλαιολόγου καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννου, ἐν τῷ ἑξακισχιλιοστῷ ἐννακοσιοστῷ τριακοστῷ ἔτει, ἰνδικτιῶνος πεντεκαιδεκάτης, δεκάτῃ μηνὸς Ἰουνίου, ἡμέρᾳ τρίτῃ, τῆς ἡμέρας ὥρᾳ δευτέρᾳ, κατέδραμεν αὖθις ἄφνω στρατιὰ καθ' ἡμῶν Μουσουλμάνων, δὶς πέντε τὸν ἀριθμὸν χιλιάδες, ἔχοντες καὶ στρατάρχην ἄνδρα μανὸν καὶ αἱματοβόρον, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τούτου Μιχάλπαις ἐκαλεῖτο, καὶ πᾶσαν πόλιν καὶ χώραν τὴν ὑπὸ τὴν βασιλικὴν ἐξουσίαν ἐν μιᾷ καιροῦ ῥοπῇ ὑπὸ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἐποιήσαντο, καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀπεστέρησαν τῆσδε τῆς πόλεως πάντα τὰ πλησίον, καὶ ταύτης τὰ χωρία ἔφθειραν, ἐλεηλάτησαν, ᾐχμαλώτευσαν, καὶ τοὺς μὲν τῶν ἀνδρῶν κατέσφαξαν, τοὺς δὲ καὶ πόρρω τοῦ Ἰκονίου καὶ Ἀρατζάπητας Κύφας διαβιβάσαντες, τὰς δὲ γυναῖκας ἀσελγῶς αἰσχρουργήσαντες, τὰ δὲ βρέφη εἰς περιτομὴν τῷ Μωάμεθ προσέφερον, καὶ πᾶν ζῶον ὑπόζυγον καὶ ἀζύγων διέφθειραν καὶ ἠφάνισαν. Τὴν δὲ ζημίαν τῶν γεννημάτων καὶ τῶν ἀμπελώνων τὴν λύμην τίς ἄρα καὶ ποία δυνήσεται γλῶσσα ταύτην ἐξιχνιάσαι; Καὶ γὰρ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς συγκλείσεως ἀπαραπροσδοκήτως κατέδραμον καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀπέκλεισαν, καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν δεσποτείαν αὐτῶν πάντα τὰ ἔξω ἐγένοντο. Τὸ δὲ καὶ πῶς καὶ πόθεν καὶ δι' ἥντινα ἡ συμφορὰ καὶ φθορὰ καὶ ταῦτα τὰ δεινότατα χαλεπὰ τοῖς δυστυχοῖς καὶ ἀθλίοις ἐπέβη Ῥωμαίοις σιωπᾶν ἡμῖν ἄμεινον ἔδοξεν. Τῆς δὲ πικροτάτης μάχης ἐκείνης καὶ τοῦ φρικτοτάτου πολέμου τὸ πέρας χρὴ διηγήσασθαι.

3. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον στράτευμα τῶν Μουσουλμάνων ἐκείνων τῇ δεκάτῃ τοῦ Ἰουνίου κατέδραμε καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀπέκλεισεν, ὡς προέφημεν, τῇ δὲ εἰκοστῇ τούτου ἑτέρα ἐφάνη στρατιὰ Μουσουλμάνων ὡς νέφος χαλάζης πλῆρες καὶ τετρυγὸς ὀλέθριον καὶ πᾶσαν καὶ παντοίαν τὴν ὑπὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων ἠμαύρωσαν γῆν, καὶ ὡς φλὸξ ἀστραπῆς καιομένης πάντα κατέκαυσε καὶ ἐνεπύρισε, καὶ πᾶν ξύλον κάρπιμον καὶ δένδρον εὔκαρπον καὶ τὰς κουρβούλας τῶν ἀμπελώνων ἐκ ῥίζης ἀπέτεμον, καὶ πᾶν ἄλλο δεινὸν καὶ ὀλέθριον καθ' ἡμῶν ἐποιήσαντο. Ὁ δὲ στρατάρχης ὁ μέγας καὶ πάντων ἐκείνων ἀμηρᾶς καὶ δεσπότης ἔφθασεν. Ἦλθε μανὸς καὶ ἠγριωμένος, ἀλαζὼν