Empire of Trebizond
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The Empire of Trebizond and other states carved from the Byzantine Empire, as they were in 1265 (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911) |
The
Empire of Trebizond was a
Pontic Greek successor state of the
Byzantine Empire founded in 1204 immediately before the fall of
Constantinople. Queen
Tamar of Georgia provided troops to her nephew
Alexios I for the conquest of
Trebizond,
Sinope and
Paphlagonia.
When Constantinople fell to the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Empire of Trebizond was one of the three smaller Greek states that emerged from the wreckage, along with the
Empire of Nicaea and the so-called
Despotate of Epirus. Alexios, a grandson of
Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos and a descendant of King
David the Builder of
Georgia through his mother
Rusudan (daughter of
George III of Georgia), made
Trebizond (referred by Georgians as "Trapizoni") his capital and asserted a claim to be the legitimate successor of the
Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I had been deposed and killed in 1185. His son
Manuel was blinded and may have died of his injuries. The sources agree that Rusudan, the wife of Manuel and the mother of Alexios and David, fled Constantinople with her children, to escape persecution by
Isaac II Angelos, Andronikos' successor. It is unclear whether Rusudan fled to Georgia or to the southern coast of the Black Sea where the
Komnenos family had its origins. There is some evidence that the Comnenian heirs had set up a semi-independent state centred on Trebizond before 1204.
The rulers of Trebizond called themselves Grand Komnenos (
Megas Komnenos) and at first claimed the traditional Byzantine title of "
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans." After reaching an agreement with the Byzantine Empire in 1282, the official title of the ruler of Trebizond was changed to "Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians and the Transmarine Provinces" and remained such until the empire's end in 1461. The state is sometimes called the
Komnenian empire because the ruling dynasty descended from
Alexios I Komnenos.
Trebizond initially controlled a contiguous area on the southern
Black Sea coast between
Soterioupolis and
Sinope, comprising the modern
Turkish provinces of
Sinop,
Ordu,
Giresun,
Trabzon,
Bayburt,
Gumushane,
Rise and
Artvin. In the
thirteenth century, the empire controlled
Perateia which included
Cherson and
Kerch on the
Crimean peninsula.
David Komnenos expanded rapidly to the west, occupying first
Sinope, then Paphlagonia and
Heraclea Pontica until his territory bordered the
Empire of Nicaea founded by
Theodore I Laskaris. The territories west of Sinope were lost to the Empire of Nicaea by 1206. Sinope itself fell to the
Seljuks in 1214.
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Succesor states of the Byzantine Empire |
While Epirus effectively disintegrated in the 14th century, and the Nicaean Empire succeeded in retaking Constantinople and extinguish the feeble
Latin Empire, only to be conquered in 1453 by the
Ottoman Empire, Trebizond managed to outlive is competitors in Epirus and Nicaea.
Trebizond was in continual conflict with the
Sultanate of Iconium and later with the Ottoman Turks, as well as Byzantium, the Italian republics, and especially the
Genoese. It was an
empire more in title than in fact, surviving by playing its rivals against each other, and offering the daughters of its rulers for marriage with generous
dowries, especially with the
Turkmen rulers of interior
Anatolia.
The
destruction of Baghdad by
Hulagu Khan in 1258 made Trebizond the western terminus of the
Silk Road. The city grew to tremendous wealth on the Silk Road trade under the protection of the
Mongols.
Marco Polo returned to Europe by way of Trebizond in 1295. Under the rule of
Alexios III (1349–1390) the city was one of the world's leading trade centres and was renowned for its great wealth and artistic accomplishment.
The small Empire of Trebizond had been most successful in asserting itself at its very start, under the leadership of
Alexios I (1204–1222) and especially his younger brother
David Komnenos, who died in battle in 1214. Alexios' second son
Manuel I (1238–1263) had preserved internal security and acquired the reputaion of a great commander, but the empire was already losing outlying provinces to the
Turkmen, and found itself forced to pay tribute to the
Saljuks of Rum and then to the
Mongols of Persia, a sign of things to come. The troubled reign of
John II (1280–1297) included a reconciliation with the
Byzantine Empire and the end of Trapezuntine claims to Constantinople. Trebizond reached its greatest wealth and influence during the long reign of
Alexios II (1297–1330). Trebizond suffered a period of repeated imperial depositions and assassinations from the end of Alexios' reign until the first years of
Alexios III, ending in 1355. The empire never fully recovered its internal cohesion, commercial supremacy or territory.
Manuel III (1390–1417), who succeeded his father Alexios III as emperor, allied himself with
Timur, and benefited from Timur's defeat of the
Ottoman Turks at the
Battle of Ankara in 1402. His son
Alexios IV (1417–1429) married two of his daughters to
Jihan Shah, khan of the
Kara Koyunlu, and to
Ali Beg, khan of the
Ak Koyunlu; while his eldest daughter Maria became the third wife of the
Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos.
Pero Tafur, who visited the city in 1437, reported that Trebizond had less than 4,000 troops.
John IV (1429–1459) could not help but see his Empire would soon share the same fate as Constantinople. The Ottoman Sultan
Murad II first attempted to take the capital by sea in 1442, but high surf made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While
Mehmed II was away laying siege to
Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of
Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although defeated, took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute.
John IV prepared for the eventual assault by forging alliances. He gave his daughter to the son of his brother-in-law,
Uzun Hasan, khan of the
Ak Koyunlu, in return for his promise to defend Trebizond. He also secured promises of help from the Turkish
emirs of
Sinope and
Karamania, and from the king and princes of
Georgia.
After John's death in 1459, his brother
David came to power and misused these alliances. David intrigued with various European powers for help against the Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of
Jerusalem. Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues, and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother.
Mehmed's response came in the summer of 1461. He led a sizeable army from
Brusa, first to Sinope whose emir quickly surrendered, then south across Armenia to neutralize Uzun Hasan. Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and placed it under siege. The city held out for a month before the emperor David surrendered on
August 15,
1461.
*
Alexios I Megas Komnenos (
1204–
1222)
*
Andronikos I Gidos (
1222–
1235)
*
John I Axouchos Megas Komnenos (
1235–
1238)
*
Manuel I Megas Komnenos (
1238–
1263)
*
Andronikos II Megas Komnenos (
1263–
1266)
*
George Megas Komnenos (
1266–
1280)
*
John II Megas Komnenos (
1280–
1284)
*
Theodora Megale Komnene (
1284–
1285)
*
John II Megas Komnenos (restored,
1285–
1297)
*
Alexios II Megas Komnenos (
1297–
1330)
*
Andronikos III Megas Komnenos (
1330–
1332)
*
Manuel II Megas Komnenos (
1332)
*
Basil Megas Komnenos (
1332–
1340)
*
Irene Palaiologina (
1340–
1341)
*
Anna Anachoutlou Megale Komnene (
1341)
*
Michael Megas Komnenos (
1341)
*
Anna Anachoutlou Megale Komnene (restored,
1341–
1342)
*
John III Megas Komnenos (
1342–
1344)
*
Michael Megas Komnenos (restored,
1344–
1349)
*
Alexios III Megas Komnenos (
1349–
1390)
*
Manuel III Megas Komnenos (
1390–
1416)
*
Alexios IV Megas Komnenos (
1416–
1429)
*
John IV Megas Komnenos (
1429–
1459)
*
David Megas Komnenos (
1459–
1461)
*
Johannes Bessarion*
George of Trebizond*
Michael Panaretos*
George Amiroutzes*
Gregory Choniades*
John Xiphilinus* Michael Panaretos: Chronicle
* Johannes Bessarion: The praise of Trebizond
* Miller, W., Trebizond: The Last Greek Empire, (1926; repr. Chicago: Argonaut Publishers, 1968)
* F.I. Uspenski, From the history of the Empire of Trabizond (
Ocherki iz istorii Trapezuntskoy Imperii), Leningrad, 1929, 160 pp: a monograph in Russian.
* Levan Urushadze, The Comnenus of Trabizond and the Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia. — J. "Tsiskari", Tbilisi, No 4, 1991, pp. 144–148: in Georgian.
*
Ayasofya museum*
Sumela Monastery*
Brief History of Trabzon from ancient to Medieval
