Peter Charanis

Peter Charanis(1908 – 23 March 1985), bornPanagiotis Charanis(Greek:Παναγιώτης Χαρανής), was aGreek-born American scholar ofByzantiumand the Voorhees Professor of History atRutgers University.Charanis was long associated with theDumbarton Oaksresearch library.

Biography

Charanis was born inLemnos,Ottoman Greece.He immigrated to the United States as a pre-teen leaving his family in Lemnos and settling inNew Jerseyin 1920. He received his bachelor's degree from Rutgers and his doctorate from theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison,where he studied underAlexander Vasiliev.He continued his studies as a postgraduate in theUniversity of Brusselsunder the eminent Byzantinist,Henri Grégoire.From 1936 to 1938, he participated in Grégoire's seminar where he met his future wife Madeleine Schiltz and befriended the likes ofNicholas AdontzandPaul Wittek.According to Charanis himself, during his stay in Brussels, he acquired a profound interest in theArmenians.That interest influenced both him and his studies, notablyThe Armenians in the Byzantine Empire(Byzantinoslavica, 1961) andA Note on the Ethnic Origin of Emperor Maurice(Byzantion, 1965).

Charanis also spent some time at theAristotle University of Thessalonikiin Greece, and upon his return to the United States joined the Rutgers faculty in 1938, becoming Voorhees Professor of History in 1963. At that time,Byzantine Studieswas still at its infancy in the United States. Charanis persuaded the history department to begin a course in Byzantine Studies, which eventually became one of the most popular courses at Rutgers. From 1964 to 1966, he served as chairman of the university's history department. He retired in 1976.

Charanis is known for his anecdotal narrations about Greek Orthodox populations, particularly those outside the newly independentmodern Greek state,who continued to refer to themselves asRomioi(i.e. Romans, Byzantines) well into the 20th century. Since Charanis was born on the island ofLemnos,he recounts that when the island was taken from the Ottomans by Greece in 1912, Greek soldiers were sent to each village and stationed themselves in the public squares. Some of the island children ran to see what Greek soldiers looked like. "What are you looking at?" one of the soldiers asked. "AtHellenes,"the children replied." Are you not Hellenes yourselves? "the soldier retorted." No, we areRomans,"the children replied.^[1]

Selected bibliography

"An important short chronicle of the fourteenth century",Byzantion13(1938)
"Byzantium, the West and the origin of the First Crusade",Byzantion19(1949)
"On the Social Structure and Economic Organization of the Byzantine Empire in the Thirteenth Century and Later",Byzantinoslavica12(1951)
"Ethnic Changes in the Byzantine Empire in the Seventh Century",Dumbarton Oaks Papers13(1959)
Charanis, Peter(1969) [1955]. "The Byzantine Empire in the Eleventh Century".A History of the Crusades.Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 177–219.ISBN 9780299048341.
"The Armenians in the Byzantine Empire",Byzantinoslavica22(1961), Repr. Lisbon, 1963, London, 1972
"Observations on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire",XIII International Congress of Byzantine Studies,Oxford, 1966

References

^Kaldellis, Anthony (2007).Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–43.ISBN 978-0-521-87688-9..

E. Laiou, Angeliki(1985). "Peter Charanis, 1908–1985".Dumbarton Oaks Papers.39.Dumbarton Oaks: xiii–xv.ISSN 0070-7546.
"Dr. Peter Charanis Dies at 76; Retired Professor at Rutgers".The New York Times.March 27, 1985.Retrieved2007-01-10.

[1] Kaldellis, Anthony (2007).Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–43.ISBN 978-0-521-87688-9..

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