Inscription of Gregorios Kourkouas from the church in Patalenitsa, 1090/1091
The Kourkouas family or Curcuas (Medieval Greek: Κουρκούας, from Armenian: Գուրգեն, Gurgen) was, allegedly, one of the many nakharar families from Armenia that migrated to the Byzantine Empire during the period of Arab rule over Armenia (7th–9th centuries) although the latter is mostly speculative.[1] They rose to prominence as part of the Anatolian military aristocracy in the 10th century, providing several high-ranking generals and an emperor. They intermarried extensively with the aristocratic families of Phokas and Skleros. In the 11th and 12th centuries, they shifted to the civilian bureaucracy.
Famous members
- John Kourkouas (9th c.), Domestic of the Hikanatoi regiment and conspirator against Basil I
- John Kourkouas (10th c.), grandson of the above, Domestic of the Schools of the East and famous general under Romanos I Lekapenos
- Theophilos Kourkouas, brother of John, strategos of Chaldia and later Domestic of the Schools
- Romanos Kourkouas, son of John Kourkouas and Domestic of the Schools of the West
- John Kourkouas, son of Romanos, Domestic of the Schools of the East, killed in the Siege of Dorostolon
- John I Tzimiskes (c. 925–976), grandson of Theophilos Kourkouas, Byzantine Emperor in 969–976
- John Kourkouas (11th c.), Catepan of Italy in 1008–1010
- Gregory Kourkouas, doux of Philippopolis in 1089–1091
- Michael II Kourkouas, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1143–1146.
References
- ↑ "Aristocrats, Mercenaries, Clergymen and Refugees: Deliberate and Forced Mobility of Armenians in the Early Medieval Mediterranean (6th to 11th Century a.d.)", Migration Histories of the Medieval Afroeurasian Transition Zone, BRILL, pp. 327–384, 2020-04-23, retrieved 2023-04-18
Sources
- Andriollo, Lisa (2012), "Les Kourkouas (IXe-XIe siècle)", in Cheynet, Jean-Claude; Sode, Claudia (eds.), Studies in Byzantine Sigillography (in French), vol. 11, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 57–88, ISBN 978-3-11-026668-9
- Cheynet, Jean-Claude (1996), Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963–1210) (in French), Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, ISBN 978-2-85944-168-5
- Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 1156–1157, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- Stouraitis, Ioannis (2003), "Kourkouas Family", Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor, Athens: Foundation of the Hellenic World
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