In 923, John Kourkouas was appointed commander-in-chief of the Byzantine armies along the eastern frontier, facing the Abbasid Caliphate and the semi-autonomous Arab Muslim border emirates.
15 Facts About John Kourkouas
1.
2.
John Kourkouas kept this post for more than twenty years, overseeing decisive Byzantine military successes that altered the strategic balance in the region.
3.
John Kourkouas played a role in the defeat of a major Rus' raid in 941 and recovered the Mandylion of Edessa, an important and holy relic believed to depict the face of Jesus Christ.
4.
John Kourkouas was dismissed in 944 as a result of the machinations of Romanos Lekapenos's sons but restored to favour by Emperor Constantine VII, serving as imperial ambassador in 946.
5.
John Kourkouas's father was a wealthy official in the imperial palace, but no details are known about his life, nor is his name recorded.
6.
John Kourkouas himself was born at Dokeia, in the region of Darbidos in the Armeniac Theme, and was educated by one of his relatives, the metropolitan bishop of Gangra, Christopher.
7.
The Byzantine army successfully stormed the lower city, and although the citadel held out, John Kourkouas concluded a treaty by which the emir accepted tributary status.
8.
John Kourkouas's troops plundered the region and took the towns of Khliat and Bitlis, where they are said to have replaced the mosque's with a cross.
9.
Wary of the city's previous rebellions, John Kourkouas only allowed those inhabitants to remain who were Christians or agreed to convert to Christianity.
10.
John Kourkouas followed this success by subduing parts of the district of Samosata in 936 and razing the city to the ground.
11.
John Kourkouas ravaged the Byzantine holdings around Theodosiopolis and raided as far as Koloneia, which he besieged until Kourkouas arrived with a relief army and forced him to withdraw.
12.
In early summer 941, as John Kourkouas prepared to resume campaigning in the East, his attention was diverted by an unexpected event: the appearance of a Rus' fleet that raided the area around Constantinople itself.
13.
John Kourkouas assailed Edessa every year from 942 onward and devastated its countryside, as he had done at Melitene.
14.
John Kourkouas himself appears to have soon returned to imperial favour: Constantine provided the money for the repair of John Kourkouas's palace after it was damaged by an earthquake, and in early 946, he is recorded as having been sent with the Kosmas to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the Arabs of Tarsus.
15.
John Kourkouas infused a new spirit into the imperial armies, and led them victoriously deep into the country of the infidels.