ABSTRACT
Due to the thematic specifics of the sources, the authors have more information about three categories of the Byzantine Persians: soldiers and especially high-ranking officers; members of the Byzantine bureaucratic elite; and intellectuals and clerics. It is also possible that most Byzantine Persians of the seventh tenth centuries were in fact Iranian Christians who were unwilling to remain under the authority of the Islamic state. In any case, most examples, described above, directly prove the Christian identity of the Byzantine Persians. In the twelfth century, it is speculated that the Byzantines ascribing of Persian identity to Anatolian Muslims impelled the latter, and especially Persian-speaking intellectuals within Anatolian ruling courts, to begin active formation of their own image as heirs to the age-old Iranian tradition. If Eulogios really was a descendant of the Byzantine Persians, his efficiency in spoken Persian is quite remarkable indicating that the secondgeneration Persians may have retained their native language.
