An Arabic historian of X a.d. Qudama ibn Jaf’ar and the office of the domestic of the scholae in Byzantium: the problem of origin

Abstract

This paper considers an important aspect of Byzantium’s administrative history in 7th–10th centuries, that is an emergence of Great Domestic’s office, who headed imperial guard and army of Byzantine state. This person is mentioned in the treatise of Arabic historian and geographer Qudama ibn Jaf’ar (the first half of 10th c.), but the 10th-century Byzantium didn’t know such an appointment. The author of present paper believes that the term «Great Domestic» by Qudama ibn Jaf’ar meant the Domestic of the Sholae – a court military officer, who commanded the detachments of imperial guard. An analysis of narrative sources on 7th–10th centuries, which has been presented in this paper, permitted to define the time and circumstances of establishment of Domestic of the Sholae’s office, and also to clarify the time, to which Qudama ibn Jaf’ar’s evidence are related.