Diplomacy gone to seed: a history of Byzantine foreign relations, A.D. 1047-57

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan, 2004 by Paul A. Blaum

The concordat between Constantine IX and al-Mustansir did not mean that Byzantines and Fatimids ceased to watch each other with a wary eye or that they rushed to dismantle the cordon of fortifications which separated them. On February 4, 1047, the Persian traveler Nasir-i Khusrau arrived in Tripoli, a Fatimid fortress-city in what is today northern Lebanon, close to the Byzantine frontier.

He notes: "The walls are of hewn stone and have battlements and embrasures, and there are ballistae on top of the walls, as they lived in constant dread of naval attacks by the Byzantines." (27) Nasir-i Khusrau proceeded on to Egypt, where he visited the port city of Tinnis and observed that "there is a full armed garrison stationed there as a precaution against attacks by Franks [Italians?] and Byzantines." (28) On the Byzantine side, a similar cold war mentality remained in place, at least on the surface. The priest-doctor Ibn Butlan, having made a sojourn to Antioch in 1049, writes thus to his friend in Baghdad: "Antakiyyah is an immense city. It possesses a wall and an outer wall (fasil). The wall has three hundred and sixty towers, and these are patrolled in turn by four thousand guards, who are sent to Antakiyyah every year, from the presence of the king in Constantinople, as warrant for the safe-keeping of the city, and in the second year they are changed." (29) For the native populations, however, the borders between Byzantium and the sundry Muslim states were relatively permeable, and merchants, professionals, intellectuals, and most average people could to and fro without much hindrance. When the ambition of princes did not stir up fanaticism (an increasing rarity), Christian and Muslim tended to get along, especially in commercial matters. Nasir-i Khusrau points out, for instance, that Tripoli was not only a fortress but also a customs station, which received vessels from Byzantium, Christian Europe, Andalusia (i.e. Muslim Spain), and the Maghrib (i.e. north Africa). The Fatimid caliph in turn kept ships at Tripoli, from whence they sailed to Byzantium, Sicily, and the Maghrib to trade. (30) In 1049, during his journey from Baghdad to Cairo, Ibn Butlan, a Christian, passed through Aleppo, where he received with honor by the Mirdasid Arab emir Thimal Mu'izz ad-Daulah. Thimal was planning the construction of a hospital at Aleppo, and Ibn Butlan advised him on the healthiest location for it. At the emir's request, Ibn Butlan also drew up a code of regulations for Christian worship at Aleppo, but the native Christians did not take to it. In the summer of 1054, Ibn Butlan would arrive in Constantinople, where the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, was no less deferential to him than the Muslim emir of Aleppo and asked him to compose treatises on the doctrine of the Eucharist and the use of unleavened bread. (31) For Christians everywhere, the most important consequence of improved relations between the Byzantines and Fatimids was permission given by the Fatimid caliph to rebuild the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Characteristically generous funding from Constantine IX had made possible the final reconstruction of the church in 1048. That indefatigable traveler, Nasir-i Khusrau, had visited Jerusalem twice during the preceding year and noted that "from the Byzantine realm and other places too come Christians and Jews to visit the churches and synagogues located there." (32) He gives a memorable description of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in his time: