Kourkouas

The Kourkouas or Curcuas (Greek: Κουρκούας, from Armenian: Գուրգեն, Gourgen) family was one of the many nakharar families from Armenia that migrated to the Byzantine Empire during the Islamic invasions. They rose to prominence as part of the Anatolian military aristocracy in the 10th century, providing several high-ranking generals and an emperor. They intermarried extensively with the aristocratic families of Phokas and Skleros. In the 11th and 12th centuries, they shifted to the civilian bureaucracy.

Famous members

• Romanos Kourkouas, conspirator against Basil I
• John Kourkouas the Elder, Domestic of the Hikanatoi regiment
• John Kourkouas, grandson of the above, Domestic of the Schools of the East and famous general under Romanos I Lekapenos
• Theophilos Kourkouas, brother of John, strategos of Chaldia and later Domestic of the Schools
• Romanos Kourkouas, son of John Kourkouas and Domestic of the Schools of the West
• John Kourkouas, son of Romanos, Domestic of the Schools of the East, killed in the Siege of Dorostolon
• John I Tzimiskes (c. 925–976), grandson of Theophilos Kourkouas, Byzantine Emperor in 969–976
• John Kourkouas, Catepan of Italy in 1008–1010
• Michael II Kourkouas, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1143–1146.

Sources

• Cheynet, Jean-Claude (1996) (in French), Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963–1210), Publications de la Sorbonne, ISBN 978-2-85944-168-5, http://books.google.com/books?id=vicqWvzRLkYC 
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, pp. 1156–1157, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 
• Stouraitis, Ioannis (2003), "Kourkouas Family", Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor, http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=9099