“The Story of the Theodoro city” as a source on the situation in the Southwestern Crimea in the late 14th century

The purpose of the study is to analyze the Byzantine written source of the late 14th century “The story of the Theodoro city”. The author, Hieromonk Matthew, traveled through the Southwestern Crimea from Yalta to the Theodoro city, the capital of the principality of the same name, located on the plateau of Mount Mangup. Despite the specific genre of the narrative (monody), it reflects very accurate observations concerning both the general location of the city and its individual objects. It is possible to reconstruct the main stages of Matthew’s route from Yalta through the Yayla ridge to Akhtiarskaya-Severnaya Bay, then to Mangup-Theodoro and further through the city. The author’s field of view includes the lifting road, the main city gates with a church above them, water sources, gardens irrigated by them in the Tabana-dere gorge, the citadel at Cape Teshkli-burun, religious and palace buildings and cave complexes. The devastation of the city, which Matthew associates with the invasion of the “Hagarites”, is described in detail, the circumstances of the prolonged siege and its difficult conditions experienced by the population are described. Archaeological research materials and field observations confirm the accuracy of the author’s descriptions of the sites of the settlement, the consequences of military operations that took place in the area shortly before the author visited it, and the result of the study is the interpretation of the described situation as the consequences of the conflict between Tamerlane and Toktamysh. It has been established that the source in question is the only written evidence directly reflecting the consequences of this confrontation on the territory of the Crimean ulus. The Story provides important information about the situation in Crimea in the last five years of the 14th century.