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

Byzantine Foreign, Defence And Demographic Policy During the Establishment... m 69 n As a feature of the Byzantine defence against the Arab attacks from the very begging at the time of Heraclius could be rightly regarded that resistance was centred mainly on the cities. Similar strategic considerations are perhaps reflected in the decision to remove the Mardaites from the Lebanon area. Their activities were occasionally troublesome for both sides in a region difficult to control; the existence of a “buffer state” was a factor of instability so that the will to find a solution through diplomatic agreements prevailed 1 . The Mardaites are generally accepted to be a Christian tribe closely related to the Maronites of Libanon 2 . The place of origin of the Mardaites in connec- tion to the various name forms provided for them in different groups of sources create some problems. Bartikian argued for an Armenian origin of these people linking them with the ancient Armenian Mardoi, the population of the Arme- nian province Mardali 3 . We must however keep in mind that they are referred to have their residence in the region of Antioch 4 and that the name forms in the Syrian and Arab sources support some other explanations concerning their ori- gin, the meaning and the derivation of their name 5 . The dating of their transfer to Asia Minor, at the begging of Justinian II’s reign, more precisely before the failed Byzantine attack against the Arabs at 692 AD, which was assisted by the transferred to Theme Opsikion Slavs, seems to be correct, as H. Ditten argues 6 . Our later information concerning the Mardaites is related with events dated to the ninth century and is provided by the works of the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. In the court of Constantine VII an anonymous continuation of Theophanes’ Chronography was produced. Two references to the Mardaites are included in the V Book of Theophanes Continuation. This book was com- posed by Constantine and relates events of his grand-father’s Basileios I (867– 886 AD) reign. Here the Mardaites participate along with the regular army in campaigns against the western Arabs and they are related with Peloponnese 7 . 1 Kaegi (1989). 2 On this matter a special analysis in the article of Moosa (1969); cf. Herrin (1987) 283f.; Stratos (1968–1980) IV 39ff.: “These people were most probably lukewarm Christians, but whether Monophysites or Monothelites is unknown”; Head (1972) 34ff., with general remarks, not using extensively the sources information. 3 Bartikian (1986); Ditten (1993) 138f. and n. 75, considers this hypothesis as quite possible and accepts the identification of the Mardaites with the ancient Armenian Μάρδοι. 4 Canard (1965) 468f. 5 Stratos (1968–1980) IV 41: “The Greeks… describe them as inhabitants of the Amanus mountains, that their name derives from the Persian word ‘Merd’ meaning a brave man, or from the Arabic ‘mardat’ a synonym for partisan or rebel”. 6 Ditten (1993) 153, with additional literature; Brandes (2002) 362f. 7 Theophanes Continuatus V 63, 303,23–304,3; V 70, 311,18–21. On the successful expedition of Basilios Nasar against the Arabs in 880, Vasiliev and Canard (1968) 96–99. On the Mardaites of Peloponnese, Bon (1951) 74, 115.