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 known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

under Sultan Mehmet II. Critobulus' work, along with the writings of Doukas, Laonicus Chalcondyles and George Sphrantzes, 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 Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...

in 1453. Critobulus is a

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

of the name, which is alternatively

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

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

Biography

Critobulus' birth name was ''Michael Critopoulos'' (). 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. He belonged to a family of landowners on the island of Imbros. In the 1450s he was a local political leader of the island and played an active role in the peaceful handover of Imbros, Limnos and

Thasos Thasos or Thassos (, ''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 380 km2 and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate regiona ...

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 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 () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...

, 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 (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing ''The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Judaea ...

, the Jewish-Roman historian of the Roman destruction of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

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

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

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

Topkapı Palace The Topkapı Palace (; ), or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih List of districts of Istanbul, district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the ad ...

in Istanbul. He used

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

as a model for his ''History''.

Editions

Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller (; 13 February 1813 in Clausthal – 1894 in Göttingen) was a German philologist and historian, best known for his Didot family, Didot editions of fragmentary Greek authors. ''Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum'' Müll ...

, ''Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum'', vol
5
1873. *Diether R. Reinsch (ed.), ''Critobuli Imbriotae historiae.'' ( Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 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 1410s births 1470 deaths Greek educators 15th-century Byzantine historians People from Imbros