Jost Gippert and Jasmine Dum-Tragut (Eds.) Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania An International Handbook Edited by Jost Gippert and Jasmine Dum-Tragut This publication is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 101019006) and from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 ‘Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures’ (Project No. 390893796). ISBN 978-3-11-079459-5 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-079468-7 DOI https://doi.​org/10.​1515/9783110794687 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For details go to https://creativecommons.​org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.​0/.​ Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material. Library of Congress Control Number: 2022948927 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.​dnb.​de.​ © 2023 the author(s), editing © 2023 Jost Gippert and Jasmine Dum-Tragut, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston This book is published with open access at www.​degruyter.​com.​ Cover image: © Jost Gippert Typesetting: Meta Systems Publishing & Printservices GmbH, Wustermark Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Preface The background of the present Handbook In Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the Southern Caucasus was divided into three countries, Greater Armenia, Iberia (Eastern Georgia, Kartli) and the socalled Caucasian “Albania”. These three countries formed an ethnic, linguistic and religious conglomeration which bordered both geographically and culturally with South-Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Their official Christianisation began as early as the 4th century, leaving a lasting mark on the entire region. In the following centuries, it became a well-connected and strategically important buffer zone for Byzantine, Persian, Arab, Turkic, and Mongol powers. And although the borders constantly shifted, the ancient countries of the Southern Caucasus formed a geographical and historical unity that was diverse in itself, yet sharing not only the same history but also common cultural traits. For both Armenians and Georgians, history and culture of their countries are well known through their own languages, which have been written continuously since the 4th century CE. In contrast to this, Caucasian Albania with the peoples inhabiting it, its history and culture and, ultimately, its “disappearance” have remained by and large obscure, due to the scarcity of autochtonous sources. Nevertheless, interest in the ancient state of Caucasian Albania has been revived on a large scale, especially in recent years. After the Second Karabakh War in autumn 2020 and the ceasefire agreed between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the (internationally unrecognised) Republic of Artsakh in November 2020, massive media attention was paid to this historical region and especially to “supposedly” Albanian monuments such as churches and monasteries which are now under the administrative control of Azerbaijan. In particular, the Azerbaijani government and scientists affiliated to it have most intensively promoted a theory which, put simply, relates the history of the Azerbaijanis back to the Albanians, thus putting the state of Azerbaijan on a similar historical footing as Armenia and Georgia which can both demonstrate their millennia-long existence on the basis of textual, archaeological and architectural monuments. The “Albanianising” approach, first put forward by the Soviet-Azerbaijanian historian Ziya Bunyatov in the 1950s and 60s, has now acquired new topicality by being instrumentalised in abnegating the Armenian background of the disputed territory of Karabakh, even though international scholars such as Nora Dudwick and Harun Yilmaz have argued against this theory in several academic publications since the late 1980s, already during the outbreak of the First Karabakh War, and declared it politically motivated, as a form of historical revisionism that is based on nationalist attitudes. Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794687-201 vi Preface Since the end of the Second Karabakh War in November 2020, the Azerbaijani government, falling back on the “Albanianising” theory, has quickly started to classify medieval Armenian sites in Karabakh as Albanian, even demonstrably removing Armenian inscriptions. Armenia, in turn, refers to its strong ecclesiastical links with Caucasian Albania which are believed to have brought the country very close to the Armenian culture. However, all this is often built upon distorted, media-spread but not scientifically substantiated ideas about who the “Albanians” really were, and thus on the fact that many things have for long been – and are still being – misinterpreted, willingly or unwillingly, following various hypotheses that are not based on up-to-date, scientifically substantiated facts. Several traditional assumptions, even though outdated and obsolete, are mixed with manipulated narratives and historical claims as well as an inconsiderate and often erroneous exploitation of still understudied, newly discovered material. There are indeed several competing theories about what happened to the Albanians after the Middle Ages, whether they were absorbed into the Armenian, Georgian, Iranian or, lastly, Turkish population of the region. To shed light on this debate, which seems to have been fought mostly on the backs of the Armenians with their long-lasting presence, historically irrefutable, in the disputed region of Karabakh, and on that of the Udi people who are now being talked up as the true successors of the Caucasian Albanians, supported (if not directed) by the Azerbaijanian government in a new post-Soviet “ethnogenesis”, we deemed it overdue to counter the (definitely not harmless) myths on Caucasian Albania that are swirling around today, with scientifically sound and proven facts. For this purpose, a group of internationally acknowledged scholars and distinguished representatives of their scientific fields have agreed to compile the present Handbook, bringing together in a neutral way up-to-date accounts of the historical realities of Caucasian Albania, based on their own research into the textual and archaeological sources available. The Handbook thus reflects the present state of scientific knowledge on ancient medieval Caucasian Albania, including the most recent findings. The interdisciplinary nature of the Handbook, which spans a wide range from historical, linguistic-philological, archaeological, church and art historical up to ethnological and sociological contributions, warrants a comprehensive picture of Caucasian Albania and its inhabitants. It was by no means compiled to support nationalistic or revisionist points of view but aims solely at a clear and neutral, scientific presentation of the existing facts. It is obvious that one or the other piece of the “puzzle” that Caucasian Albania presents is still missing if we intend to provide a complete, truly coherent and yet scientifically sound image. No doubt, much more research needs to be undertaken in this area in order to get rid of insubstantial national, political and territorial disputes and claims. But even now we may underline an important result of this Handbook, which lies so Preface vii to say in the heart of the puzzle: it is clear now that Armenians, Georgians, and a multitude of Caucasian and other peoples have lived together on the territory of ancient and medieval Caucasian Albania since Antiquity, leaving their traces in the history, culture and language of Caucasian Albania as one of the ancient states of the Southern Caucasus. Content and contributors All in all, the Handbook comprises 16 Chapters contributed by 15 different authors. In Chapter 1 (Caucasian Albania in Greek and Latin Sources), Marco Bais, Faculty member of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome as an expert of Oriental Ecclesiastical Sciences, evaluates with a special focus on the methodology of historical research the information on Albania and the Albanians that is provided by authors of Classical Antiquity, thus illustrating the oldest witnesses of the country that are known. In Chapter 2 (Caucasian Albania in Medieval Armenian Sources), Jasmine Dum-Tragut, specialist for Armenian studies, linguistics and equine sciences at the Center for the Study of the Christian East, Paris-Lodron University in Salzburg, and Jost Gippert, comparative linguist and Caucasiologist now working at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, University of Hamburg, provide an overview of the historiographical accounts of Albania in Armenian language, covering the period from the 5th to the 13th century; the Chapter largely builds upon previous work by Zaza Aleksidze, who unfortunately did not live to see the present volume published, and Jean-Pierre Mahé, whose readiness to support the Handbook is greatly acknowledged. The following three Chapters are devoted to the written heritage of the Albanian language. In Chapter 3 (The Textual Heritage of Caucasian Albanian), Jost Gippert summarises the present knowledge on the textual remains in Albanian, i.e., the fragments of Bible translation that were found in palimpsest manuscripts with Georgian overwriting in St Catherine’s monastery on Mt Sinai, as well as the few inscriptions that have been detected so far. Chapter 4 (The Language of the Caucasian Albanians), co-authored by Jost Gippert and the late Wolfgang Schulze, up to his untimely decease in April 2020 teaching as a linguist at the universities of Munich and Banská Bystrica and one of the leading specialists of East Caucasian languages, provides a comprehensive description of the Albanian language as preserved in the textual witnesses, taking into account the many amendments that have become possible by the utilisation of new imaging methods in analysing the palimpsests. Chapter 5 (Caucasian Albanian and Modern Udi), again co-authored by Wolfgang Schulze and Jost Gippert, outlines the mutual relationship of the Albanian language and that of the Udi people of today, Preface ix ty, and the Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, gives a comprehensive account of the present state of the excavations undertaken at the site of Tigranakert in Northeast Karabakh, with special emphasis on the reforms of the Albanian king Vachagan III manifesting themselves there. The final five Chapters of the Handbook are devoted to ethnic, religious and social issues of Caucasian Albania, from Late Antiquity up to the present day. In Chapter 12 (The Ethnic Situation in Antique and Medieval Caucasian Albania), Aleksan Hakobyan, renowned historian specialised on the Christian East at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, examines the question whether the late antique state of Albania was ethnically homogeneous and traces the emergence of an Albanian “meta-ethnos” through the centuries. Chapter 13 (The Rebels of Early Abbasid Albania) by Alison Vacca, historian of early Islam working on the caliphal provinces Armenia and Caucasian Albania at Columbia University in the City of New York, analyses the Arabic sources concerning rebellions in and around Albania during the Abbasid era (c. 566–809 CE) and the information these sources provide as to the inhabitants of the Caucasian provinces under Arab rule and their relation to the Caliphate. In Chapter 14 (“You say Albanian, I say Armenian”: Discourses of Ethnicity and Power Around an Albanian King of Armenia), Sergio La Porta, specialist on Near Eastern Languages and Civilisation in the Armenian Studies Program of California State University, Fresno, investigates the identity and positionality of a local king of the 11th century named Senekerim and ideologies of kinship manifesting themselves in contemporary and later discourses. In Chapter 15 (Between the Planes and the Mountains: the Albanian-Armenian Marches in the 12th Century and David of Gandzak), Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev studies the relation of Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the city of Ganja/Gandzak during the rule of the Kurdish Shaddadids and the first decades of the Turkic colonisation of the south-eastern Caucasus, with a focus on the “Admonitory Exhortations” of the Christian Armenian author David son of Alavik (c. 1065–1140) which mirror this relation. In an appended Chapter (15A: The Gate of Ganja), Jost Gippert provides a short account of the iron gate of Gandzak which was transferred as booty to Georgia by king Demetre after capturing the city in 1139. Lastly, Chapter 16 (Reverse Engineering: A StateCreated “Albanian Apostolic Church”) by Hratch Tchilingirian, researcher on the sociology of minorities and inter-ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus at the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, examines the way how Azerbaijan is constructing an “Albanian Apostolic” or “Udi Orthodox Church” as part of a new narrative that connects the modern state to ancient peoples, cultures and early Christianity in the Caucasus. x Preface Structural preliminaries Due to its broad historical scope, the Handbook deals with original sources in various languages and scripts, from (Caucasian) Albanian via Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Middle Persian, Parthian, and Russian up to Syriac. Given the chaos of different systems of transcription that are spread over the scholarly literature, we decided to use a simplified English transcription throughout the main text of the Handbook, thus rendering it as easily readable as possible. This accounts for all kinds of names and terms which are known from, or identifiable via, English reference works, but also for author’s names, which are resolved in their original spelling in the bibliographical references. Non-Latin scripts are usually only reproduced as such in quotations from original texts; the same is true for scientific transcription systems, which are here and there used in rendering names and special terms, especially when the actual sounding is thematised. In these cases, the transcription systems are those applied in the first edition of the Albanian palimpsests of Mt Sinai (Gippert et al. 2008) for Caucasian languages, Hübschmann-Benveniste for Armenian, DIN for Arabic, and Orientalists’ systems for other languages; Greek remains untranscribed. To help our readers cope with the wide range of publications referred to, many of which are hard to find in public or scientific libraries, we have added links to online representations (mostly in PDF format) wherever possible. In some cases, access will be limited to certain persons or institutions, and sometimes it will depend on fees; we hope that this will not result in severe problems for anybody. We have added links to Google Books only if it provides at least partial access to the contents of a given book or source, and we have refrained from linking to booksellers as we do not regard commercial support as our task. Publications that are only available online are labelled as such. Acknowledgements As editors, we are extremely grateful to the contributors of the Handbook who, alongside their many other duties, were ready to provide their Chapters in a remarkably short period of time so that the volume can now go into the press just one and a half year after the first online meeting of its participants. Beyond the authors of the Chapters, we wish to express our thanks to several other colleagues who have supported the publication with help and advice. Besides the late Zaza Aleksidze and Jean-Pierre Mahé, who generously let us make use of their introduction to the first edition of the Albanian palimpsests, this is true for the team of the Sinai Palimpsests Project (Claudia Rapp, Michael Phelps, Keith Preface xi Knox, Robert Easton and various other members of the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library, EMEL, as well as Dawn Childress and other members of the staff of the library of the University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA), who made excellent multispectral and transmissive light images available and thus facilitated a thorough re-analysis of the only manuscript remnants of the Albanian language. We are further grateful to many people who generously shared photographs and drawings with us; this is true, first of all, for the participants of the Artsakh archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Armenia, but also for Arshak Banouchyan, Andranik Kekishyan, Timur Maisak, Slava Sargsyan, Jon Seligman, Nikolaus von Twickel, and several online users who share their images via the internet. Our thanks are also due to a lot of librarians world-wide who undertook the efforts of digitising manuscripts, microfilms, and ancient and rare books which we needed for our research; in place of all, let us name the staff of the Matenadaran (Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts named after Mesrop Mashtots) and the Tache and Tamar Manoukian Library of the Mother See of St Ejmiatsin in Armenia, and Emzar Jgerenaia and Nineli Mikadze of the National Parliament Library of Georgia as well as Maia Machavariani and Temo Jojua of the Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts, Tbilisi, who helped us searching for old journals and manuscripts and identifying unknown authors. Peculiar thanks are due to the publishing house of de Gruyter, Berlin, who kindly accepted this Handbook for their “Reference” series, and especially to Birgit Sievert and Barbara Karlson, who accompanied us with help and advice during its preparation. Lastly, we greatly acknowledge the support by the European Research Council (ERC) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) who facilitated the preparation and Open Access publication of this Handbook by generous grants within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Germany’s Excellence Strategy, and the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Culture of the University of Hamburg for providing the necessary infrastructure. Hamburg, 28. 2. 2023 Jost Gippert Salzburg, 28. 2. 2023 Jasmine Dum-Tragut Contents Preface v I Caucasian Albania in Foreign Sources 1 Marco Bais Caucasian Albania in Greek and Latin Sources 2 3 Jasmine Dum-Tragut and Jost Gippert Caucasian Albania in Medieval Armenian Sources 33 (5th–13th Centuries) II The Heritage of Caucasian Albanian 3 Jost Gippert The Textual Heritage of Caucasian Albanian 4 Jost Gippert and Wolfgang Schulze† The Language of the Caucasian Albanians 5 Wolfgang Schulze† and Jost Gippert Caucasian Albanian and Modern Udi Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev 5A The Udis’ Petition to Tsar Peter 95 167 231 261 III The Caucasian Albanian Church 6 7 Charles Renoux Albanians, Armenians and Georgians: a Common Liturgy 267 Jasmine Dum-Tragut One or two? On Christological and Hierarchical Disputes and the 285 Development of the “Church of Albania” (4th–8th centuries) xiv Contents Armenuhi Drost-Abgaryan 333 7A The Holy Covenant 8 Yana Tchekhanovets Albanians in the Holy Land – Absence of Archaeological Evidence 337 or Evidence of Absence? IV Architecture and Archaeology 9 Armen Kazaryan Urban Planning and Architecture of Caucasian Albania. Main Monuments 353 and Trends of Development Patrick Donabédian 10 The Ensemble of the “Seven Churches” – an Ecumenical Monastery Ahead 387 of Time? Hamlet Petrosyan 11 Tigranakert in Artsakh 433 V Ethnic, Religious and Social Issues Aleksan Hakobyan 12 The Ethnic Situation in Antique and Medieval Caucasian Albania Alison M. Vacca 13 The Rebels of Early Abbasid Albania 475 489 Sergio La Porta 14 “You say Albanian, I say Armenian”: Discourses of Ethnicity and Power 515 Around an Albanian King of Armenia Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev 15 Between the Planes and the Mountains: the Albanian-Armenian Marches 537 in the 12th Century and David of Gandzak (c. 1065–1140) Jost Gippert 15A The Gate of Ganja 571 Contents Hratch Tchilingirian 16 Reverse Engineering: A State-Created “Albanian Apostolic Church” General References 611 675 Indexes 675 1 Persons (individuals and groups) 689 2 Place Names 698 3 Manuscripts and Inscriptions 698 3.1 Manuscripts by designation 699 3.2 Manuscripts by repository 700 3.3 Inscriptions 701 4 Source Texts 701 4.1 Bible 704 4.2 Other texts 706 5 Terms 706 5.1 Linguistic terms 710 5.2 Other terms 715 6 Words 715 6.1 Albanian 725 6.2 Armenian 727 6.3 Georgian 728 6.4 Greek 729 6.5 Iranian languages 730 6.6 Latin 730 6.7 Russian 730 6.8 Semitic languages 731 6.9 Turkic languages 731 6.10 Udi (and other Lezgic languages) xv 581 Yana Tchekhanovets 8 Albanians in the Holy Land – Absence of Archaeological Evidence or Evidence of Absence? Abstract: The existence of Albanian institutions in Jerusalem during the Late Byzantine – Early Islamic periods is attested by two historical texts: the list of Anastas Vardapet, mentioning four monasteries that belong to the community, and The History of the Country of the Albanians by Movses Daskhurantsi (or Kałankatuatsi), which contains a list of ten Jerusalemite monasteries that belong to the Albanians. The discovery and decipherment of the Albanian palimpsests of the collection of St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai open a new chapter in the study of the Albanian community of the Holy Land. Apart from the Sinaitic manuscripts, the Caucasian Albanians left no material traces in the Holy Land, and no archaeological finds clearly associated with Caucasian Albanians were discovered. However, the accurate analysis of archaeological evidence may shed light on the obscure history of the Albanians in the Holy Land and testify to the relations between the Churches of the three Caucasian countries. 1 Introduction Of all the national communities of Byzantine Palestine,1 the Caucasian Albanians remain the most mysterious group, and their history in the region is obscure. Their presence is unattested in the large corpus of Palestinian hagiographies, numerous pilgrims’ accounts, or other literature. During the Late Byzantine – Early Islamic periods, Albanian institutions in Jerusalem are attested only by two historical texts of Caucasian origin, written in the Armenian language: the list of Armenian monasteries by Anastas Vardapet, and The History of the Country of the Albanians by Movses Daskhurantsi (or Kałankatuatsi). The only clear material evidence of the Albanian monastic presence in the region are the palimpsests discovered in St. Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai. 1 Di Segni and Tsafrir (2012). Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794687-010 338 Yana Tchekhanovets 2 Manuscripts The discovery of a forgotten cellar room in St Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai in 1975 brought to light, inter alia, an extensive collection of ancient Georgian manuscripts.2 Especially significant was the discovery of the Albanian palimpsests, the only surviving specimens of the Albanian literary school, and the sole material evidence to the presence of this national community in the Holy Land. The two codices found (Sin. georg. NF 13 and NF 55) contained Georgian texts from the 10th century, with Albanian discovered in the under-writing, the early layer of the manuscripts. The decipherment of the Caucasian Albanian texts, started by Zaza Aleksidze in 1998 and proceeded by an international group of scholars, showed that the early-layer texts contained fragments of the Gospel of John and a Lectionary.3 The codicological and palaeographical development of the manuscripts is exceptionally high and shows a well-advanced system of manuscript writing – liturgical comments written in small letters on the manuscript margins, wide use of abbreviations, etc. The palimpsest studies per se and a recently proposed numismatic perspective4 point towards the independent literary work of the Albanian school and date the manuscripts to the period between the beginning of the 6th century and the beginning of the 10th century. It is not certain whether the manuscripts were produced in the Sinai or were brought there with other books from the Monastery of St Sabas or another Palestinian scribal center during the turmoil and insecurity of the 8th–9th centuries.5 It is also impossible to establish who could have been responsible for such a hypothetical transfer – Albanian monks moving from Palestine to Sinai or the new owners of the books, the Georgians. In any event, the palimpsests attest to the existence of a significant and educated Albanian monastic community in the country, while only scarce information regarding the monastic movement in Albania itself can be gathered from the History of the Country of the Albanians.6 One may assume that similar to the cases of Armenia and Georgia, monasticism came to Caucasian Albania from the East, from Syria and Palestine.7 2 Catalogued in Aleksidze et al. (2005). 3 Aleksidze and Mahé (2001); Gippert and Schulze (2007); Gippert et al. (2008); Gippert (2012b; 2015); for further information see Chapter 3 of this Handbook (Gippert). 4 Akopyan (2021a). 5 Patrich (2011); Schick (1995). 6 Book I, chapter 14 (Arakelyan 1983: 40; Dowsett 1961a: 24). 7 Garsoïan (2005–2007: 188); Haas (2009); Martin-Hisard (1985–1986). Albanians in the Holy Land 339 3 The Albanian monasteries in Jerusalem Two ancient texts mention the monastic presence of Caucasian Albanians in Jerusalem. The first is the List of Armenian Monasteries, traditionally attributed to Anastas Vardapet, who came to the Holy City to prepare the visit of his country’s rulers.8 This document, written in Armenian, survived only in later copies – the earliest known version is dated to the 16th century – and can hardly be considered reliable. However, at its core, it seems to retain a faithful rendition of an earlier text that is now lost, which dates to the Early Islamic period or even slightly earlier.9 Anastas Vardapet lists all the major and secondary Christian sanctuaries of Jerusalem as being Armenian and states whether they remained Armenian or were transferred to foreign hands. The latter includes four Albanian monasteries and one Georgian. The list comprises all the churches of Jerusalem and its vicinity, including the Nativity and Holy Sepulchre, not only the Armenian ones. Nevertheless, the list of the holy places itself, regardless of the declared ownership, can be relevant, considering the date of its core. Several churches listed by Anastas Vardapet such as the Lamentation of St Peter, the Forty Saints (the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste?), St John the Baptist on the Mount of Olives and others are known from various Byzantine and Early Islamic sources, but not from Medieval ones. All were destroyed or abandoned during the early period of the Arab rule, most probably during the Abbasid period, i.e. in the 8th–9th centuries.10 The numerous repetitions of the sentence “now occupied by tačiks” show that the author of the original document visited Jerusalem sometime after the Arab conquest of the city in 638, but before the abandonment or destruction of the mentioned churches. As it seems, the document’s original core must reflect the situation of the Holy City in the Early Islamic period. It is worth noting that despite the Medieval location of the Armenian monasteries on Mt Zion, the author of the list describes them as located on the Mount of Olives and in the northern part of Jerusalem, in the locations where Armenian structures dated to the Byzantine period were later discovered in archaeological excavations.11 8 Sanjian (1969); Terian (2016). 9 Sanjian (1969: 266); Terian (2016) dates the original core of the document to the 6th century. 10 Schick (1995: 337, 348, 356). 11 I am grateful to Michael E. Stone for this important remark regarding the reliability of the source. For Armenian monastic structures discovered in Jerusalem, see Stone and Amit (1997); Amit and Wolff (2000); Stone (2002); Re’em et al. (2021); for a summary of the archaeological evidence see Tchekhanovets (2018: 41–125). 340 Yana Tchekhanovets The source mentions four monasteries that belong to the Albanian community, and one is particularly named: – The monastery of Pand, dedicated to St Karapet [i.e. St John the Baptist], is located to the east on the Mount of Olives, which to date is owned by [Caucasian] Albanians; it too was built by royal expense, and named after the Holy Cathedral in the city of Vagharshapat.12 – Three other [Caucasian] Albanian monasteries, now occupied by tačiks.13 The second text testifying to Albanian presence in Jerusalem is the History of the Country of the Albanians by Movses Daskhurantsi, the only extant historical chronicle concerning the Albanians, probably compiled in the 10th century by an Armenian or by an Albanian who preferred to write in the Armenian language.14 The final chapter of the compilation15 contains a list of ten Jerusalemite monasteries that belong to the Caucasian Albanians according to the author. One of the monasteries in this list, the monastery of Pand, also appears in the list of Anastas Vardapet. Possibly, both texts derive from an unknown common source.16 The monasteries mentioned in the text are the monastery of Pand, to the east of the Mount of Olives; the monastery of Mruva, named after the Forty Martyrs, not far away from the Pand monastery; the monastery of Mežay, named after the Forty Saints; the monastery of Kałankatuykʿ;17 the monastery of Artsakh, to the south of St Stephen; the monastery of Amaras, named after St Gregory;18 and the monastery of Partaw, dedicated to St Mary, Mother of God, near the Tower of David: “half [of it] is held by a woman named Miriam from Šamkʿor,19 and half by the Arabs”. Another monastery is located “in the middle of the sūq”, and three more in unknown places, all “seized by Arabs”.20 A few locations given in the text are directing towards well-known monastic agglomerations of Byzantine Jerusalem: the Mount of Olives, the Tower of David, and the environs of the Church of St Stephen. 12 Translation by Sanjian (1969: 276). Vagharshapat, today Ejmiatsin, is the spiritual centre of the Armenians and the See of the Catholicos, the head of the Armenian Church. However, the cathedral in Vagharshapat is dedicated to the Holy Mother of God, not to St John the Baptist. 13 Translation by Sanjian (1969: 277). 14 Howard-Johnston (2020); for the historiographic context see Rapp (2020). 15 Book II, chapter 52 (Arakelyan 1983: 285–286; Dowsett 1961a: 184–185). 16 Sanjian (1969: 286–287). 17 Kałankatuykʿ is located in the Utik region, on the borders of ancient Albania. 18 Amaras is located in Artsakh (Mountain-Karabakh region; 39°41′2.4″ N, 47°3′25.2″ E). 19 Shamkhor (Şǝmkir) is located near the border between modern Georgia and Azerbaijan, not far away from the monastery of David Gareja (40°50′ N, 46°1′25″ E). 20 Translations by Dowsett (1961a: 185). Albanians in the Holy Land 341 3.1 The Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives to the east of the city becomes the central Christian location of Jerusalem already during the 4th century, with the foundation of the churches of Eleona and the Ascension; a few dozens of churches and monasteries were established at the site during the Byzantine period.21 It is tempting to identify the Albanian monastery of Pand dedicated to St Karapet with the monastery of St John the Baptist, established at the end of the 4th century by a monk named Innocent and mentioned under various names in numerous Byzantine sources.22 According to J. T. Milik, the remains of this monastery were discovered at the plot of the Russian convent of the Ascension, which was excavated in the 19th century. Nevertheless, the identification of the site with the ancient monastery of St John can be disputed because of the topographical coordination given by the sources as “to the east of the Mount of Olives”, whereas the Russian site is actually located on the summit, closer to the western slope of the mountain. The Greek and Armenian epigraphic evidence discovered at the site provides no connection to St John and tends to testify to the existence of a nunnery.23 The name of the monastery is not echoed in Jerusalem’s sacral topography of the Byzantine period; perhaps one should look for its meaning in the Caucasus region: it was proposed by M. Hajiev that the monastery holds the name of the Albanian catholicos Pand / Pant.24 3.2 The Tower of David The Tower of David, the ancient citadel of Jerusalem, is located in the western part of the city, near Jaffa Gate. During the Byzantine period, the area between the citadel and Mt Zion, the modern Armenian Quarter of the Old City, was occupied by numerous monastic institutions. This was probably the last intramural area of Byzantine Jerusalem that was still available for large-scale construction, and was developed in the 5th–6th centuries under ecclesiastical patronage. Numerous institutions – churches, monasteries, and pilgrim hospices – which were built here are known from literary sources.25 However, the archaeological evidence for the area from the Byzantine period is scarce, restricted to the Byzantine founda- 21 22 23 24 25 For archaeological research see Corbo (1965); Tsafrir (1999: 331–336). Milik (1960: 562–563, no. 34; 1960–1961: 184, no. 24). Tchekhanovets (2018: 227–228). Hajiev (2004; 2021a). For an overview see Tsafrir (2013: 255–256). 342 Yana Tchekhanovets tions of the Armenian Monastery of Ss James26 and the remains of another church, dated to the 5th century and identified by the excavators with the nunnery of Bassa known from Byzantine sources.27 Recently, the remains of an additional ecclesiastic complex dated to the Byzantine period were revealed between the Citadel and Mt Zion, where a large structure decorated with mosaic floors was partially excavated.28 The sparse Byzantine remains discovered on Mt Zion and in the area between its sanctuaries and the Tower of David preserve no material evidence that could be clearly identified with the monastery of Partaw (see also below). 3.3 St Stephen Two ancient churches dedicated to St Stephen are known from Byzantine Jerusalem: the large basilica containing the remains of the saint, to the north of the city walls,29 and an additional church on the traditional place of his martyrdom, to the east of the city walls and St Stephen’s Gate. The location of the Albanian monastery to the north of the city is very plausible: a large extramural agglomeration of monastic institutions with pilgrims’ facilities was discovered here, containing among others also the Armenian monastery.30 Possibly, the monastery of Artsakh located “south of St Stephen”, i.e. closer to the city walls, was placed somewhere within this sizeable monastic agglomeration, the largest of its kind in Byzantine Jerusalem and still not fully exposed. According to the results of the excavations, the extramural monastic complex was established during the 5th–6th centuries and was finally abandoned during the Abbasid period, in the 8th–9th centuries. Unfortunately, the available archaeological evidence gives no possibility to identify the monastery of Artsakh with any discovered ancient site within the large monastic quarter. Most of the monasteries in the list cannot be identified today, but it is clear that they were commonly known according to the origins of their builders: the toponyms point towards the ancient Christian centres of the Caucasus, Artsakh, Amaras, Kałankatuykʿ, Shamkhor, all within the limits of Caucasian Albania or close to its borders. 26 27 28 29 30 Tchekhanovets and Berjekian (2017). Tushingham (1985: 65–104). Avner and Ghazarian (2021: 213). Vincent and Abel (1922: 766–804). Amit and Wolff (2000); Stone (2002). Albanians in the Holy Land 343 In addition to the information regarding the monastic institutions, the chronicle of Movses Daskhurantsi31 also presents evidence for the pilgrimage of Caucasian Albanians and describes the journey of a monk named Mkhitar and his two companions from Artsakh to Jerusalem, where they receive relics of St George and St Stephen. Three years later, the journey was repeated by another clergyman from Artsakh, Joseph, who hoped to bring home with him the relics of St John the Baptist but came back disappointed, for “all the people of Jerusalem were affected by the contagion of Chalcedon”.32 4 The inscription from Umm Leisun Of particular interest for the study of Caucasian Albanians in Jerusalem is a Georgian burial inscription, discovered in the excavations in the village of Umm Leisun, in the south-western suburbs of the modern city. A small rural Georgian monastery from the Byzantine period can be classified as an additional link in the chain of Byzantine cenobitic monasteries built along the road leading from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and the Monastery of St Sabas.33 After discovering a Georgian funerary inscription at the site, the excavations were continued in cooperation with a group of Georgian scholars headed by I. Gagoshidze.34 The excavation exposed a modest rural monastic settlement, measuring 70 × 40 m, arranged around a central courtyard, with various service rooms, cisterns, and a small chapel, all dated by ceramic and other finds to the 6th–8th centuries. Under the monastery, two well-preserved burial vaults were found. The northern crypt was cut into the bedrock and built of hewn ashlar blocks and preserved 24 burials; of the securely identified individuals, most were adult males. The main tomb, settled in a niche in the western end of the crypt, contained the remains of an elderly man. The tomb was covered with a stone slab, bearing a Georgian inscription in ancient asomtavruli script, dated by G. Gagoshidze to the 5th–6th centuries; it reads (cf. Fig. 1):35 31 32 33 34 35 Book II, chapter 50 (Arakelyan 1983: 280–282; Dowsett 1961a: 181–183). Stone (1986: 103). Seligman and Abu Raya (2002). The site is situated at 31°44′24″ N, 35°14′32″ E. Seligman (2015: 177). Gagoshidze (2015: 181). 344 Yana Tchekhanovets ܰܽܰ ܽ‫ݎܹܼ݊ܬܷܬ‬ ܴܹ‫ܼݏܹ݀ ܸܰܬ݌‬ ܾ‫ܹܹܴܺܵܽܺܰ ܱܶܰܬ‬ ܴܽܽ‫ܱܼܰܳܬ݁ ݎܬ‬ ܴܶܽ‫ ݎܬ‬+ “This is the grave of Iohane Ese samarxoy Iohane Powr ṭavel eṗisḳoṗo sisay kartve lisay + bishop of Purtavi, a Kartvelian.” Fig. 1: The Old Georgian Inscription of Umm Leisun. The tomb of bishop Iohane is situated at the most prestigious place in the burial crypt. It was proposed that he was the founder of the monastery of Umm Leisun or played some other important role in the life of the Georgian community, in the Holy Land, or outside its borders.36 However, the deceased bishop’s name and his seat, Purtavi, cannot be correlated with any known personalities and toponyms. The use of the word “Kartvelian”, meaning “a person from Kartli” or Eastern Georgia, was a great surprise to Georgian scholars. From the 7 th century on, the word “Kartvelian” became a selfdefining national term in the Georgian language, but nothing was known about its use in earlier periods. It is generally agreed that the inscription from Umm Leisun is the earliest known example of this term in Georgian epigraphy. The need for a national definition seems unclear since the text itself is written in Georgian. An interpretation proposing that the name Purtavi has mixed Semitic and Georgian roots and derives from the Aramaic pwrta or the Hebrew pwra37 seems unconvincing. Besides, if that were true, it would mean that Purtavi is the original name of the Umm Leisun monastery, yet nothing is known of such a bishopric seat in Byzantine Palestine. A possible interpretation of the inscription from Umm Leisun and the complex as a whole is that its origin should be sought in the mysterious “Purtavi”. It 36 Gagoshidze (2015); Mgaloblishvili (2015). 37 Mgaloblishvili (2015: 189). Albanians in the Holy Land 345 is possible to assume that the name of the bishopric seat is derived from the toponym Partaw, once an important political and ecclesiastic center of Caucasian Albania, today the regional center Barda in north-west Azerbaijan.38 The city of Partaw was established in the 4th century, and a hundred years later, during the reign of King Vache II (459–481), it became the country’s capital. For the following centuries, the bishop of Partaw was also the head of the Albanian Church or catholicos. The city name is mentioned in the list of the monasteries owned by Caucasian Albanians in Jerusalem: the monastery near the Tower of David, dedicated to St Mary Mother of God, is called Partaw.39 However, as G. Gagoshidze pointed out, in Georgian texts the city of Partaw is known exclusevely as Bardavi, starting from Leonti Mroveli’s compilation of the Georgian chronicle Kartlis Tskhovreba (11th c.).40 Nevertheless the meaning of the Umm Leisun text becomes clearer if “the bishop of Purtavi” is interpreted as “the bishop of Partaw”, and Kartveli not as “Georgian” but as “from Kartli”. The person buried in the vicinity of Jerusalem was a native of the Kartli kingdom but had served far away from his country, in Albania. Otherwise, why would the Georgian inscription on the gravestone stress his Georgian origin? The bishop of Partaw served at the same time as the head of the Albanian church. This can explain the inordinately large number of deceased buried in the monastery crypt: Iohane, bishop of Purtavi, was an important figure, revered by his community, and its members desired to be buried next to their shepherd.41 In the list of the Catholicoi of the Albanian church, the name of Iohane appears twice.42 The first Iohane led the church in the 4th century, before transferring the capital to Partaw. The second was head of the church in the years 644–671. These dates correspond to the archaeological dating of the Umm Leisun complex, but it seems too early to confirm this personal identification. The sources give no information regarding pilgrimage, migration, or death in the Holy Land of any of the Albanian Catholicoi. The bishop buried in Umm Leisun could be one of the active leaders of church hierarchy during the unity of the Caucasian Churches or, on the contrary, one of the schismatics who escaped to Palestine from the endless tangled Caucasian conflicts. These are all questions that remain open for future studies, but there is no doubt that the archaeological research of the Holy Land has implications beyond the confines of the region. 38 Geyushev (1971); Nuriev and Wordsworth (2020). Cf. Chapter 9 of this Handbook (Kazaryan), 2.3.2 for details as to Partaw. 39 Dowsett (1961a: 51). 40 For discussion and expanded bibliography, see Gagoshidze (2022: 93–94). 41 For comparison see Goldfus (1997: 241–243). 42 Book I, chapter 15 (Arakelyan 1983: 41–42; Dowsett 1961a: 24). 346 Yana Tchekhanovets 5 Conclusions Summarising the evidence of the Albanian presence in the monastic circles of the Byzantine Holy Land, it is worth noting that, in fact, the history of this community is only known through Armenian and Georgian media: – the list of the Albanian monasteries as preserved in the Armenian text of Anastas Vardapet and in the chronicle of Movses Daskhurantsi, both existing only in Armenian – the institutions in the above-mentioned lists appearing alternatively as Albanian or Armenian monasteries – probably ownership had passed from one to the other by then – the only known Albanian literary fragments with extracts of Bible translation being preserved under a layer of Georgian text – additional information regarding the Albanians found in the Georgian epitaph of bishop Iohane from Umm Leisun. Although fragmentary and sometimes circumstantial, this combined evidence may testify to close ties between the Caucasian communities in the Holy Land.43 Back home, such connections are well attested, both in historical documents and in epigraphic evidence. References Akopyan, Alexander Vladimirovich. 2021a. Revisiting the Question of the Time and Place of Writing of the Caucasian Albanian Palimpsest According to Numismatic Data (Part I). Восток. Афроазиатские общества: история и современность / Oriens. [Afro-Asian societies: history and modernity] 5. 106–115. https://doi.org/10.31857/S086919080016817-5. Aleksidze, Zaza & Jean-Pierre Mahé. 2001. Le déchiffrement de l’écriture des albaniens du Caucase. Comptes rendus des séances de l’année 2001, juillet-octobre, Académie des inscriptions et belleslettres. 1239–1257. https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_2001_num_145_3_16334. Aleksidze, Zaza, Mzekala Shanidze, Lily Khevsuriani & Michael Kavtaria. 2005. Catalogue of Georgian Manuscripts Discovered in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai / Κατάλογος γεωργιανών χειρογράφων ευρεθέντων κατα το 1975 εις την ιεράν μονήν του θεοβαδίστου όρους Σινά Αγίας Αικατερίνης / ‫ݖݭݚݣݧݖݜݒ ݒݘݒݘ‬, ‫ݖݭݚݞݒݪ ݒݜݒݧݖݘݝ‬, ‫ݒݚݢݒݙݗݒݧ ݜݚݖݰݚݝ & ݚݞݒݚݢݥݣݗݖݰ ݚݜݚݜ‬. ‫ݝݮ ݖݘݒݙݝ ݣݚݞݚݣ‬. ‫ ݚݪݢݖݤݣݒݞݟݝ ݣݖݞݚݢݖݤݒݛݖ‬1975 ‫ݒݓݟݜݚݢݖݮݨݒ ݒݙݢݖݮݒݞݜݖݰ ݜݥݙݢݒݧ ݜݚݞݖݫݟݝݨݒ ݣݜݖݮ‬. Athens: Greek Ministry of Culture and Mount Sinai Foundation. https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/ handle/1234/268308. 43 See also Chapter 6 of this Handbook (Renoux). Albanians in the Holy Land 347 Amit, David & Sam Wolff. 2000. An Armenian Monastery in the Morasha Neighborhood. In Hilel Geva (ed.), Ancient Jerusalem Revealed: Excavations, 1993–1999, 293–298. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. Arakelyan, Varag. 1983. Մովսէս Կաղանկատուացի, Պատմութիւն աղուանից աշխարհի. Բննական բնագիրը և ներածությունը Վարագ Առաքելյանի / Мовсес Каланкатуаци, История страны Алуанк. Критический текст и предисловие В. Д. 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In Lesław Daniel Chrupcała (ed.), Christ is here! Studies in Biblical and Christian Archaeology in Memory of Michele Piccirillo, Ofm., 245–264. (Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, collectio maior 52). Milano: Terra Sancta. Tushingham, Douglas A. 1985. Excavations in Jerusalem 1961–1967. I. Excavations in the Armenian garden on the Western Hill. Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum. 350 Yana Tchekhanovets Vincent, Louis-Hugues & Félix-Marie Abel. 1922. Jérusalem: Recherches de topographie, d’archéologie et d’histoire. II: Jérusalem nouvelle. 3: La Sainte-Simon et les sanctuaires de second ordre. Paris: Gabalda. Picture credits Figure 1: Photograph Jon Seligman, 2015.