It took me five years to turn Pirone’s Italian translation of Eutychius’ Annals into English, using Google Translate. That process created 102 blog posts.
People complained that they couldn’t find the bits that they wanted. A kind correspondent wrote and emailed me a zip file of those posts, in 102 word documents.
So I’ve done it. I’ve combined them, straightened the formatting somewhat, and added them to the Eutychius home page. It’s here. There’s a .docx and a .pdf.
Eutychius – or Said ibn Bitriq – was the 10th century Melkite – Greek Orthodox – “Patriarch of Alexandria”. The real patriarch was, of course, a Copt. So he had a little congregation of Greeks, and had time for literature. His “Annals” are based on Byzantine Chronicles. But because he wrote in Arabic, he had access to Arabic translations of lost Sassanid Persian chronicles. He incorporates extracts into his work, which by itself would give it value.
As with all these Arabic Chronicles, it is divided into two halves. The first runs from the Creation of the World to the reign of Heraclius. The second part covers the Muslim period.
I hope it’s useful. It’s a totally unfinished piece of work, but I don’t know that I will ever do more. So… may it be useful as it is.
I can never thank you enough for your hard work. I can be the only person who has benefited tremendously from your generous effort, talent and scholarship.
(I meant to say I CAN’T be)
Lol! Thank you. The encouragement means a lot.