John Kaminiates (
Greek: Ιωάννης Καμινιάτης, fl. tenth century) was a
Greek resident of
Thessalonica when the city, then one of the largest in the
Byzantine Empire, was
besieged and sacked by a
Saracen force led by
Leo of Tripoli in 904. His account of the city's plunder, On the capture of Thessalonica, (Εις την άλωσιν της Θεσσαλονίκης, Eis tēn alōsin tēs Thessalonikēs) survives in four manuscripts; though of these, none were written before the fourteenth century, causing some concern over the text's authenticity.[1]
Name
John Kaminiates has alternatively been
transliterated John Kaminatos, Ioannis Kaminiatis, and sometimes appears in the
Latinized forms Ioannis Caminiatae, Joannes Cameniata and John Cameniates.
Kaminiates, John The capture of Thessaloniki (D. Frendo, A. Fotiou, and G.Böhlig, trans.) Byzantina Australiensia, 12. Perth: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 2000.
ISBN1-876503-00-9.
Kazhdan, Alexander Some Questions Addressed to the Scholars, who Believe in the Authenticity of Kaminiates’ Capture of Thessalonika Byzantinische Zeitschrift 71. 1978. p. 301–314.
ISSN0007-7704.