International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Christos Kafasis
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Institut für Byzantinistik, 
Byzantinische Kunstgeschichte und Neogräzistik, Munich, Germany; 
[e-mail]
Cultural Exchange between the Byzantine and the Islamic World: 
Persian Astronomy in the 14
th
Century Trebizond
Andrew Libadenos, a second-rank Byzantine scholar of the 14
th
century, left Constantinople 
in 1335 and travelled to Trebizond, where he had the opportunity to receive a better education in 
astronomy „
not according to the Athenian, but after the Chaldean method
“. At the dawn of the 14
th
century and for about 50 years we can indeed observe the development of astronomical studies 
influenced by the so-called Islamic astronomical school in the capital of the Komnenian Empire.

---

138
The establishment of an astronomical tradition in Trebizond must be attributed to the activities 
of Gregory Chioniades, a Byzantine intellectual who was educated in astronomy at the end of the 
13
th
century in the Ilkhanid Persia. Chioniades translated the astronomical handbooks he used 
during his studies into Greek and tried to introduce Islamic astronomy in Byzantium without any 
real success due to the negative attitude of Byzantine literary circles towards any foreign wisdom 
and especially towards Islamic astronomy which was linked to astrological predictions.
Chioniades didn’t have any important influence by his work in Byzantium, he became however 
a distinguished person in the pocket Empire of Pontos, which he visited many times on his way to 
and from Persia. Emperor Alexios II the Great Komnenos supported the activities of the Byzantine 
scholar, whose work and heritage were kept in Trebizond which subsequently became attractive for 
Byzantine students wishing to study Persian astronomy. Trebizond lost its special place as a center 
of astronomical studies after the successful reintroduction of Islamic astronomy into Byzantium in 
the middle of the 14
th
century.
The development of astronomy in the Empire of Trebizond constitutes a main part of my 
doctoral research on scholars and their literary work in the Empire of Trebizond. In my presentation 
I will give a brief overview on the scholarly activities in the field of astronomy in Pontos and on the 
factors which led to the establishment of an Islamic-influenced astronomical school in the region 
and what impact it had on the so-called Palaeologan Renaissance.