| Title: | Decline and fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks |
| Author: | Doukas |
| Translator: | An Annotated Translation of “Historia Turco–Byzantine” by Harry J. Magoulias |
| Editor: | |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | |
| Place: | Detroit |
| Publisher: | Wayne State University Press |
| Year: | 1975 |
| Pages: | 346 |
| ISBN: | 0814315402 |
| File: | PDF, 8.77 MB |
| Download: | Click here |
The first name and date of birth of Doukas is unclear.The author’s grandfather, a supporter of John Kantakuzenos, fled to the sultan of Smyrna in 1345 and befriended his son Isa. Doukas was probably born at the start of the 15th century and, if he was the eldest son, probably had the same name as his grandfather, Michael. Doukas spent his life in the service of the Genoese, firstly in Nea Phokaia and later on Lesbos. He spoke Turkish and Italian, a rarity for Byzantine historians. He saw that the Byzantine Empire was in terminal decline so was an advocate of church union for purely pragmatic reasons and considered the Orthodox to be schismatics. The Turko–Byzantine History of Doukas covers the years 1341 to 1462. It breaks off in mid–sentence in the account of the Ottoman siege of Mytilene in Lesbos. Doukas was an eyewitness to many of the events he describes. He specifically states that he saw the impaled bodies of Italian sailors and describes an embassy to the sultan where Mehmed tired to extort a double tribute from the Genoese.