Matteos Uhayeci and His Chronicle ─ History As Apocalypse in a Crossroads of Cultures

In Mattos Uhayeci and His Chronicle Tara L. Andrews presents the first ever in-depth study of the history written by this Armenian priest, who lived in Edessa (modern-day Urfa in Turkey) around the turn of the twelfth century and was an eyewitness to theFirst Crusade and the establishment of the Latin East. Although the Chronicle is known as an extremely valuable source of information for the eleventh- and early twelfth-century Near East, neither its guiding structure nor Uhayecis motivation in writing it have ever been clear to modern historians. This study elucidates the prophetic framework within which the text was written, and demonstrates how that framework has influenced Uhayecis understanding of the time in which he lived.

Tara L. Andrews, D.Phil. (2009), University of Oxford, is Professor for Digital Humanities at the University of Vienna. She is currently working on a full critical edition of the Chronicle of U?hayec?i.