Samuil's Inscription Explained
Samuil's Inscription is a medieval text that was found on the tombstone of Samuel of Bulgaria's parents, erected in 992/3 CE. One of the oldest preserved Cyrillic Slavic inscriptions,[1] it was made in the First Bulgarian Empire by the order of Tsar Samuel. The text mentions the names of Samuel's parents as well as of his brother David.
The inscription was discovered in 1888 in the village of German, near Lake Prespa, now Greece, during the construction of the new church of the village. In 1916, it was taken by Bulgarian occupation authorities to Bulgaria, where it is currently stored at the National Historical Museum in Sofia. Its original location is thought to have been in the town of Prespa on the island of St. Achilles, from where it was subsequently transferred to the old church of German, which dates back to 1006. The dimensions of the tombstone are 125–130 cm high, 52–67 cm wide, and 7–10 cm thick. The inscription has been cited by historians such as Fyodor Uspensky, Yordan Ivanov, and Nicholas Adontz.
Inscription
Original text with reconstructed parts in square brackets and modern-style spaces, capital letters and punctuation (hyphens, commas, two dots and a colon) added:
The following is the French translation of the inscription by Adontz:
In English, translated from the French:
The year 6501 since the creation of the world corresponds to 992-993 CE.[2]
See also
Literature
- Book: Birnbaum . Henrik . Ancient Indo-European Dialects: Proceedings of the Conference on Indo-European Linguistics Held at the University of California, Los Angeles April 25–27, 1963 . Puhvel . Jaan . Univ of California Press . 2023 . 978-0-520-31241-8 .
- Book: Üre, Pinar . Reclaiming Byzantium: Russia, Turkey and the Archaeological Claim to the Middle East in the 19th Century . Bloomsbury Publishing . 2020 . 978-1-78831-745-0 .
- Book: Curta, Florin . Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) . 2019 . Brill . 9789004395190.
- Book: Zaimova, Vasilika . Bulgarians by Birth, The Comitopuls, Emperor Samuel and Their Successors According to Historical Sources and the Historiographic Tradition . 2018 . Brill . 9789004352995.
- Успенскiй, Ф. И. (Uspenskiĭ, Fedor I., 1845-1928) Надпис царя Самуила, Известия Русского Археологического Института в Константинополе,1898, III, с. 184 - 194.
- Иванов, Йор. (Ivanov, Ĭor.) Български старини из Македония. София, 1931, с. 25.
- Ivanov, Ĭordan (1872-1947). Bŭlgarski starini na Makedoniia, 1970.
- Кос, М. (Kos, Milko) О натпису цара Самуила, Гласник српског научног друштва 5, 1929, с. 203 - 209.
- Степанос Таронеци-Асохик (Asoghik, Stepanos T., 10th - 11th c.). Всеобщая история Степаноса Таронского - Асохика по прoзванию, писателя ХІ столетия. Перевод с армянскoго и объяснения Н.Эминым. Москва, Типография Лазаревского института восточных языков. 1864. XVIII, 335 стр.
- Asoghik (Stepanos de Taron). L'histoire universelle, Paris, 1859. Translation in German, Leipzig, 1907.
- Stepanos, Tarōnetsi (Stepanos Asoghik Taronetsi, 10th-11th c.) Tiezerakan patmutyun, Erevan, 2000, Pp. 455 (303 - 304).
- Adontz, Nikoghayos. Samuel l'Armenien, Roi des Bulgares. Bruxelles, Palais des academies, 1938, Pp. 63.
- Adontz, Nicolas. Etudes Armeno-Byzantines. Livraria Bertrand. Lisbonne, 1965, pp. 347–407 (384).
- Lang, David M. The Bulgarians, London, 1976.
- Lang, David M. The Armenians. A People in Exile. London, 1981, Pp. 203 (55, 105).
External links
Notes and References
- Book: Bulgaria . I.J. Print . 1994 . 23 . en.
- "Inscription dates 992-993 and Samuel is simply qualified there as servant of God, without any royal title. This cross-checking proves that in 993 Samuel was not still king, this in agreement with Asoghik and Yahya, who put his advent in 997 - 998, after the death of Roman". In: Adontz, Nicolas. Etudes Armeno-Byzantines. Livraria Bertrand. Lisbonne, 1965, Pp. 347-407 (385)
