«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

Byzantine Foreign, Defence And Demographic Policy During the Establishment... m 67 n ‘Abd al-Malik had assumed the caliphate (685 AD) 1 . In addition, concerning the terms of the treaty differences are observed among Theophanes, the Syriac sources and Balādhurī 2 . In all this confusion and especially since it is not easy to investigate The- ophanes’ sources and their relation with the Syriac and Arabic historic writ- ing, we could suggest that the attacks of the Mardaites lasted for much longer time, perhaps until the final treaty and their transfer from Lebanon. Secondly, an Arab request for peace by ‘Abd al-Malik during the last years of Constan- tine IV’s reign could be proposed. However, especially the unanimous merg- ing of the information in the Syriac sources into one treaty points rather to the conclusion that this treaty has been confirmed during the reign of Justinian II and it could be the one dated by Theophanes to 687/8 AD (A. M. 6178). One of the major clauses of this agreement was the Mardaites’s transfer 3 . It is surprising that by this agreement Justinian accepted the Mardaites’s transfer, especially if they were so much important for the protection of the Syr- iac frontier as Theophanes suggests: a “divine protection” 4 in the eyes of the ca- liph and a “brazen wall” 5 that averted the Arab assaults. The suspicion that the Mardaites changed fronts and perhaps damaged Byzantium, acting occasion- ally for the Arab interests, as already G. Ostrogorsky has suggested 6 , could lay behind the Emperor’s decision for their transfer. The Emperor’s decision was integrated in the wider plan of the Byzantine foreign policy and its objectives in other fronts as well. Theophanes’ negative disposition towards Justinian is a 1 Michael the Syrian II 469; Bar Hebraeus I 103. 2 Al-Balādhurī 246–252, 258 (Hitti). 3 Theophanes 363, 14–20: κα  πέμψας  βασιλε  ς προσελάβετο το  ς Μαρδαΐτας χιλιάδας ιβ΄ τ  ν P ωμαϊκ  ν δυναστείαν  κρωτηριάσας… ν παρασταλέντων, πάνδεινα κακ  πέπον- θεν  P ωμανία  π  τ  ν A ράβων μέχρι το  ν  ν (“The emperor sent orders to receive the Mardaites, 12.000 of them, thereby injuring the Roman State… Since they have been re- pressed, the Roman country has been suffering terrible ills at the hands of the Arabs un- til this day” [MANGO and SCOTT (1997), 506]). It should be mentioned that according to Theophanes, for the endorsement of this treaty, ‘Abd al-Malik promised among others the establishment of a kind of condominium over Cyprus, tax-sharing between Arabs and Byzantines in the island, as well as in Armenia and Iberia. Theophanes 363, 10–11: κα   να  χωσι κοιν  κα  κατ  σον το  ς φόρους τ  ς Κύπρου κα  A ρμενίας κα  I βηρίας (“…and that they would share in equal parts the tax revenue of Cyprus, Armenia, and Iberia” [ Mango and Scott (1997), 506]). Mango and Scott (1997) 506–507. On the Arab-Byzantine condominium in Cyprus, cf. CHRISTIDES (2006) 29ff. 4 Cf. n. 15. 5 On the real extend of the Mardaites’ threat, Lilie (1976) 105 and n. 13: “…die Bedeutung der Mardaiten scheint erheblich überschätzt zu werden”; cf. Lilie (2005) 17 and n. 19. 6 Ostrogorsky (1963) 110: “…die Mardaiten, ein christliches Räubervolk, das… den Byzantinern einst im Kampfe gegen die Araber gute Dienste geleistet hatte, nach und nach aber in arabischen Dienst überzutreten begann…”