Anna Xylaloe
Encyclopedia
Name
"Xylaloe" is a Greek languageGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
term for agarwood
Agarwood
Agarwood or oodh is a dark resinous heartwood that forms in Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees when they become infected with a type of mold...
, the resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
ous heartwood from Aquilaria
Aquilaria
Aquilaria is a genus of fifteen species of trees in the Thymelaeaceae, native to southeast Asia. They occur particularly in the rain forests of Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Northern India, the Philippines, Borneo and New Guinea. The trees grow to 6-20 m tall...
trees, large evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
s native to Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. Pedanius Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances , that was widely read for more than 1,500 years.-Life:...
mentioned it as an Aloe
Aloe
Aloe , also Aloë, is a genus containing about 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe"....
from the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, probably a confusion resulting from the similarity in name of the two products.
Empress
She is briefly mentioned in the chronicle of Michael PanaretosMichael Panaretos
Michael Panaretos wrote a chronicle of the Trapezuntine empire of Alexios I Komnenos and his successors from 1204 to 1426. Panaretos was a protosebastos and protonotarios in the service of Alexios III Komnenos...
. "Joannikios was tonsured and his second brother, the lord Manuel the Grand Komnenos, the greatest general and the most fortunate, succeeded to the throne. In the fifth year of his reign, in January of the fifteenth indiction, 6751 (1243) a great conflagration took place. After reigning well and virtuously in the eyes of God for twenty-five years, he died in March 6771 (1263). At his exhortation and choice, his son by the empress, the lady Anna Xylaloe, the lord Andronikos Komnenos, succeeded to the throne and reigned for three years. And he died in 6774 (1266)."
She is considered to have been the first of three wives of Manuel, married to him c. 1235. Her only known son, Andronikos II of Trebizond
Andronikos II of Trebizond
Andronikos II Megas Komnenos or Andronicus II , . Emperor of Trebizond from 1263 to 1266. He was the eldest son of Manuel I of Trebizond by his first wife, Anna Xylaloe, a Trapezuntine noblewoman....
, preceded his half-siblings George, Emperor of Trebizond
George, Emperor of Trebizond
George Megas Komnenos , , Emperor of Trebizond from 1266 to 1280. He was the elder son of Emperor Manuel I and his third wife, Irene Syrikaina, a Trapezuntine noblewoman....
, John II of Trebizond
John II of Trebizond
John II Megas Komnenos was Emperor of Trebizond from 1280 to 1297. He was the youngest son of Emperor Manuel I and his third wife, Irene Syrikaina, a Trapezuntine noblewoman...
and Theodora of Trebizond
Theodora of Trebizond
Theodora Megale Komnene , , Empress of Trebizond from 1284 to 1285. She was a daughter of Emperor Manuel I of Trebizond by his second wife, Rusudan, a Georgian princess....
on the throne. He is thus considered to have been their elder.
Manuel had at least two daughters whose mother is not mentioned. They could be children by Anna or another of his wives. One of the daughters married Demetre II of Georgia
Demetre II of Georgia
Saint King Demetrius II the Self-sacrificer , from the Bagrationi dynasty, was king of Georgia in 1270–1289.-Life:...
, the other married one of his Didebul. Though mentioned in modern genealogies as a name, "Didebul" was actually a title. According to "The Bagrationi (Bagration) Dynasty" by Christopher Buyers, the Didebul were "non-hereditary noblemen of high rank, senior to aznaur, usually enjoyed by one in state service".
Anna presumably died in the 1240s. Manuel next appears married to Rusudan of Georgia
Rusudan of Georgia, Empress of Trebizond
Rusudan of Georgia, Empress of Trebizond was the second Empress consort of Manuel I of Trebizond.-Family:Rusudan was a member of the Bagrationi dynasty, but there are at least two theories concerning the identities of her parents....
. Rusudan was a member of the Bagrationi dynasty
Bagrationi Dynasty
The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...
, but there are several theories concerning the identities of her parents.