The Kourkouas or Curcuas family was one of the many nakharar

Nakharar

Nakharar was a hereditary title of the highest order given to houses of the ancient and medieval Armenian nobility.-Nakharar system:Medieval Armenia was divided into large estates, which were the property of an enlarged noble family and were ruled by a member of it, to whom the title of Nahapet...

 families from Armenia

Marzpanate Period

Marzpanate period refers to the period in Armenian history after the fall of the Arshakuni Dynasty of Armenia in 428, when Marzpans , nominated by the Sassanid Persian King, governed the eastern part of Armenia...

 that migrated to the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 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

Phokas (Byzantine family)

Phokas or Phocas , feminine form Phokaina , was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic clan from Cappadocia, which in the 9th and 10th centuries provided a series of high-ranking generals and an emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas...

 and Skleros

Skleros

The Skleros or Sclerus , feminine form Skleraina/Scleraena , was a noble Byzantine family active mostly in the 9th–11th centuries.-Origin and early members:...

. In the 11th and 12th centuries, they shifted to the civilian bureaucracy.

Famous members

• Romanos Kourkouas, conspirator against Basil I
  Basil I
  Basil I, called the Macedonian was a Byzantine emperor of probable Armenian descent who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a simple peasant in the Byzantine theme of Macedonia, he rose in the imperial court, and usurped the imperial throne from Emperor Michael III...
  
  
• John Kourkouas the Elder, Domestic of the Hikanatoi
  Hikanatoi
  The Hikanatoi , sometimes Latinized as Hicanati, were one of the Byzantine tagmata, the elite guard units based near the imperial capital of Constantinople...
  
  regiment
• John Kourkouas
  John Kourkouas
  John Kourkouas , also transliterated as Kurkuas or Curcuas, was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His successes in battle against the Muslim states in the East definitively reversed the course of the centuries-long Byzantine–Arab Wars and began Byzantium's 10th-century...
  
  , grandson of the above, Domestic of the Schools
  Domestic of the Schools
  The Domestic of the Schools was a senior Byzantine military office, extant from the 8th century until at least the early 14th century. Originally simply the commander of the Scholai, the senior of the elite tagmata regiments, the Domestic quickly rose in prominence: by the mid-9th century, its...
  
   of the East and famous general under Romanos I Lekapenos
• Theophilos Kourkouas
  Theophilos Kourkouas
  Theophilos Kourkouas was a distinguished Byzantine general in the 10th century. He was also the grandfather of the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes ....
  
  , brother of John, strategos
  Strategos
  Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
  
  of Chaldia
  Chaldia
  Chaldia was a historical region located in the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor . Its name was derived from a people called the Chaldoi that inhabited the region in Antiquity. Chaldia was used throughout the Byzantine period and was established as a formal theme, known as the Theme of Chaldia , in...
  
   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
  John I Tzimiskes
  John I Tzimiskes or Tzimisces, was Byzantine Emperor from December 11, 969 to January 10, 976. A brilliant and intuitive general, John's short reign saw the expansion of the empire's borders and the strengthening of Byzantium itself.- Background :...
  
   (c. 925–976), grandson of Theophilos Kourkouas, Byzantine Emperor in 969–976
• John Kourkouas, Catepan of Italy in 1008–1010
• Michael II Kourkouas
  Michael II Kourkouas
  Michael II Kourkouas was an Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople ....
  
  , Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1143–1146.