Movses Kaghankatvatsi Explained

Movses Kaghankatvatsi (xcl|Մովսէս Կաղանկատուացի 'Moses of Kaghankatuk'), or Movses Daskhurantsi (Մովսէս Դասխուրանցի 'Moses of Daskhuran'), is the reputed author (or the alias of several authors) of a tenth-century Classical Armenian historical work on Caucasian Albania and the eastern provinces of Armenia, known as The History of the Country of Albania (Պատմութիւն Աղուանից Աշխարհի,).[1] [2] [3]

Authorship

In the works of earlier Armenian authors no name is attached to The History and early in the 13th century, however, Mkhitar Gosh names a Movses Dasxurants'i as the author. It is to be noted that the earliest extant manuscript of The History, also of the 13th century (1289), bears no author's name; nor do other manuscripts. The earliest manuscript to bear the name of Movses Kalankatuaci is that copied by the scribe Lunkianos in 1761. The date of the compilation known as The History is based on the fact that the last person to have a hand in The History wrote at the earliest at the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century.[4]

The first historian to mention Movses' work was the medieval Armenian legal scholar Mkhitar Gosh, referring to him as "Movses Daskhurantsi."[5] A later historian, Kirakos Gandzaketsi, referred to a statement in the History itself, to attribute the name of the author as Movses Kaghankatvatsi. The statement in question (Book II, ch. 11) says:

Movses narrates the Khazar invasion of Transcaucasia and other events up to the seventh century in Book I and II of his History. Book III of his History differs from the previous ones in style of writing[6] and date. It deals with the Caspian expeditions of the Rus' and their conquest of Partav in the tenth century.Because of such time lapse and difference in style, attribution of the work to a single author seems doubtful. For this reason it has been common to assume two consecutive authors or editors, Kaghankatvatsi (seventh century) as the author of Books I and II, and Daskhurantsi (tenth century) as the editors of Kaghankatvatsi's text and the author of Book III.[5]

Publications and translations

Grabar (Old Armenian)

Modern Armenian

Russian translations

Georgian translation

English translations

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kushnareva , Karinė Khristoforovna . The Southern Caucasus in Prehistory. H. N. Michael (trans). Univ. of Pennsylvania. 1997. 0-924171-50-2 . The tenth century A.D. Armenian historian Movses Kalankatuatsi states that .... 196.
  2. Gesellschaft, Görres. Oriens Christianus. Leipzig, Germany: O. Harrassowitz 1905, p. 274
  3. Book: Howard-Johnston . East Rome, Sasanian Persia and the End of Antiquity . Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. . 2006 . 0-86078-992-6 . 49.
  4. Book: Movsēs (Daskhurantsʻi) . The History of the Caucasian Albanians . 1961 . Oxford University Press . xviii-xx . en.
  5. Book: Hacikyan , Agop Jack . The Heritage of Armenian Literature . registration . Wayne State University Press . 2000 . 171–172, 364 . 0-8143-3023-1.
  6. Book: Hewsen , Robert H. . Notes and Communications. Bulletin of Oriental and African Studies, University of London vol. 27 . 1964. London. 151–156.

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