The Syrian Orthodox
The best-documented case of this process concerned the legal status of adherÂents of the Syrian Orthodox Church[406] After the reconquest of northern Syria by the soldier-emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r.
963-969), the region became the focus of an imperially-sanctioned program of resettlement after it had been devastated by decades of warfare. Most Muslims appear to have fled, or were otherwise expelled or enslaved, or at least one finds little sign of them in the newly-established Byzantine Doukate of Antioch in the first years after the conquest[407] Settlers, both Armenians and Syrian Orthodox, were encouraged to immigrate to this borderland[408] Nikephoros ii, at least according to the ecÂclesiastic and historian Michael the Syrian, invited the Syrian Orthodox patriÂarch Mar John Sarigta to resettle the cities of Melitene, Hanazit and Calllisura and to move the patriarchal residence to the Byzantine side of the border:The emperor Nikephoros, seeing Melitene destroyed and devastated, as well as Hanazit, busied himself with gathering residents there. The RoÂmans [Byzantines], however, were not all disposed to live there, out of fear of the Taiyaye [Arabs]. Some of his advisors suggested to him that the Syrians [Syrian Orthodox] who lived in the countries of the Taiyaye and who were accustomed to living in a milieu with two peoples and two emÂpires. This is why the emperor sent for the patriarch Mar John, nicknamed Sarigta, and promised him that if he resettled and gathered the inhabitÂants of Melitene, Hanazit and Callisura, and if the patriarch himself would establish his residence in these areas and no more in the empire of the Taiyaye, he would make peace between him and the Chalcedonians, as well issue as a decree that they would no longer harass our people.[409]
Though the text of the decree has not survived, and the form which it took is likewise not completely clear from Michael the Syrian's description, the priviÂlege granted by Nikephoros Phokas allowed the Syrian Orthodox to live in ByzÂantine unmolested and, so it seems clear from later evidence, would have alÂlowed them legal status equal to that of Orthodox, that is, full testamentary capacity, the ability to serve as witnesses, etc.[410] [411] Moreover, the Byzantines over the next three quarters' of a century did mostly keep their end of the bargain?1 In fact, the Syrian Orthodox community, whose cultural savoir-faire had been highlighted by the counsellors of Nikephoros Phokas in the above passage of Michael the Syrian, prospered as merchant interlocutors between the ByzanÂtine and Islamicate worlds, and its members founded numerous churches and monasteries with their newfound wealth. When the prominence of the Syrian Orthodox along the Syrian borderland eventually attracted the ire of the civil and church authorities, as it did in the aftermath of medieval Byzantium's apogee during the reign of Basil II (r. but who were also politically ambitious as well. Condemnation of the Syrian Orthodox involved the re-examination of Justinianic anti-heretical legislation. Provisions meant to apply to adherents of the Church of the East (â€?Nestorian’) Christians were, by a theological sleight of hand, expanded to include Syrian Orthodox. Three synods under Patriarch Alexios Stoudites (1025-43) harshly condemned the hitherto unrestricted legal status of these heretics and insisted upon the observation of Justinianic anti-heretical provisions. Prominent secuÂlarjudges were involved in this process, including the most famous Middle Byzantinejurist, Eustathios Rhomaios. A period of bitter persecution by the church and civil authorities followed, which lasted until direct imperial conÂtrol over the region was lost in the aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Manzikert, which, as newer scholarship has emphasised, should be seen as a stage in the gradual erosion of Byzantine authority on the eastern frontier rather than a turning point, allows us to once again return to the legal status of Muslims in Byzantine law.[412] During the heyday of Byzantine political ascendÂancy in the Near East from the middle of the tenth century to the middle of the eleventh century, we know precious little about Muslims living in the ByzanÂtine Empire, much less how they were viewed by Byzantine canonists and juÂrists. Within the Doukate of Antioch a Muslim judge or qadi living in Laodikeia and appointed by the Byzantines appears to have led the semi-autonomous Islamic community, which would suggest that Muslim judges were allowed to adjudicate religious or perhaps intra-communal affairs[413] [414] Yet this attestation has not been to date corroborated by other sources, which leaves this mention a very interesting yet at the same enigmatic piece of information regarding the legal status of Muslims in the empire. 5