Moses of Khoren

Movses Khorenatsi (ca. 410–490s AD; hy, Մովսէս Խորենացի, , also written as ''Movses Xorenac‘i'' and Moses of Khoren, Moses of Chorene, and Moses Chorenensis in Latin sources) was a prominent Armenian historian from the late antique period and the author of the '' History of the Armenians.''

Movses's ''History of the Armenians'' was the first attempt at a universal history of Armenia and remains the only known general account of early Armenian history. It traces Armenian history from its origins to the fifth century, during which Movses claimed to have lived. His history had an enormous impact on Armenian historiography and was used and quoted extensively by later medieval Armenian authors. He is called the "father of Armenian history" () in Armenian, and is sometimes referred to as the "Armenian Herodotus." Movses's history is also valued for its unique material on the old oral traditions in Armenia before its conversion to Christianity.

Movses identified himself as a young disciple of Mesrop Mashtots, inventor of the Armenian alphabet. Moreover, he claimed to have written his history at the behest of Prince Sahak of the Bagratuni dynasty. He is recognized by the Armenian Apostolic Church as one of the Holy Translators. The exact time period during which Movses lived and wrote has been the subject of debate among scholars since the nineteenth century, with some scholars dating him to the seventh to ninth centuries rather than the fifth.

Biography

Early life and education

Movses's biographical details are given at the very end of the ''History of the Armenians'', but additional information provided by later medieval Armenian historians have allowed modern scholars to piece together additional information on him. Movses was believed to have been born in the village of Khorni (also spelled as Khoron and Khoronk) in the Armenian province of Taron or Turuberan sometime in 410. However, some scholars contend that if he was born here, he would have then been known as Movses of Khorneh or Khoron. They instead move the location of his birth from Taron to the Armenian province of Syunik, in the village of Khorena in the region of Harband.

He received his education in Syunik' and was later sent to be taught under the auspices of Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, and Catholicos Sahak Partev. In having considerable difficulty translating the Bible from Koine Greek to Classical Armenian, Mesrop and Sahak felt the need to send Movses and several of their other students to Alexandria, Egypt, at that time the center of education and learning, so that they themselves learn the Koine Greek and Syriac languages, as well as grammar, oratory, theology and philosophy. Sargsyan, Gagik Kh. s.v. "Movses Khorenatsi," Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 8, pp. 40–41.

Return to Armenia

The students left Armenia sometime between 432 and 435. First they went to Edessa where they studied at the local libraries. Then they moved towards Jerusalem and Alexandria. After studying in Alexandria for seven years, Movses and his classmates returned to Armenia, only to find that Mesrop and Sahak had died. Movses expressed his grief in a lament at the end of ''History of the Armenians'':

To further complicate their problems, the atmosphere in Armenia that Movses and the other students had returned to was one that was extremely hostile and they were viewed with contempt by the native population. While later Armenian historians blamed this on an ignorant populace, Sassanid Persian policy and ideology were also at fault, since its rulers "could not tolerate highly educated young scholars fresh from Greek centers of learning." Given this atmosphere and persecution by the Persians, Movses went into hiding in a village near Vagharshapat and lived in relative seclusion for several decades.

Gyut, Catholicos of All Armenians (461–471), one day met Movses while traveling through the area and, unaware of his true identity, invited him to supper with several of his students. Movses was initially silent, but after Gyut's students encouraged him to speak, Movses made a marvelous speech at the dinner table. One of the Catholicos' students was able to identify Movses as a person Gyut had been searching for; it was soon understood that Gyut was one of Movses' former classmates and friends. Gyut embraced Movses brought his friend back from seclusion and appointed him to be a bishop in Bagrevan.

''History of the Armenians''

Serving as a bishop, Movses was approached by Prince Sahak Bagratuni (died in 482 during Charmana battle against Persian army), who, having heard of Movses' reputation, asked him to write a history of Armenia, especially the biographies of Armenian kings and the origins of the Armenian ''nakharar'' families. Armenian historian Artashes Matevosyan placed Movses' completion of ''History'' to the year based on his research on the ''Chronicle'' by the sixth century Armenian historian Atanas Taronatsi.

One of his primary reasons for taking up Sahak Bagratuni's request is given in the first part of ''Patmutyun Hayots'', or ''History of the Armenians'': "For even though we are small and very limited in numbers and have been conquered many times by foreign kingdoms, yet too, many acts of bravery have been performed in our land, worthy of being written and remembered, but of which no one has bothered to write down." His work is a first historical record that covered the whole history of Armenia from a very ancient period until the death of the historian. His ''History'' served as a textbook to study the history of Armenia until the eighteenth century. Movses' history also gives a rich description of the oral traditions that were popular among the Armenians of the time, such as the romance story of '' Artashes and Satenik'' and the birth of the god Vahagn. Movses lived for several more years, and he died sometime in the late .

Literary influence

Three possible early references to Movses in other sources are usually identified. The first one is in Łazar Parpetsi’s ''History of the Armenians'' (about 495 or 500 A.D.), where the author details the persecution of several notable Armenian individuals, including the “blessed Movses the philosopher,” identified by some scholars as Movses Khorenatsi. Hovhannisyan, Petros. "Review of ''History of the Armenians''." ''Banber Yerevani Hamalsarani'' 45 (1982), pp. 237–239. But there is no indication in Parpetsi that this Movses had "composed any historical works." The second one is the ''Book of Letters'' (sixth century), which contains a short theological treatise by "Movses Khorenatsi." However, this treatise, not being an historical work, cannot be convincingly attributed to the historian Movses. See Annie and Jean-Pierre Mahé's introduction to their translation of Moïse de Khorène ''Histoire de l'Arménie'' (Paris: Gallimard, 1993), p. 13. The third possible early reference is in a tenth-eleventh centuries manuscript containing a list of dates attributed to Athanasius (Atanas) of Taron (sixth century): under the year 474, the list has "Moses of Chorene, philosopher and writer." This mention is, however, considered as too uncertain.

Early scholarship

Beginning in the nineteenth century, as a part of a general trend in those years to reexamine critically classical sources, Movses' ''History'' was cast into doubt. The conclusions reached by Alfred von Gutschmid ushered in the " hypercritical phase" of the study of Movses' work. Many European and Armenian scholars writing at the turn of the twentieth century reduced its importance as a historical source and dated the ''History'' to sometime in the seventh to ninth centuries.Topchyan, Aram. ''The Problem of the Greek Sources of Movsēs Xorenacʻi's History of Armenia''. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2006, pp. 5–14, notes 21–22, 31–33. Stepan Malkhasyants, an Armenian philologist and expert of Classical Armenian literature, likened this early critical period from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries to a "competition," whereby one scholar attempted to outperform the other in their criticism of Movses.

Modern studies

In the early decades of the twentieth century, scholars such as F. C. Conybeare, Manuk Abeghian, and Stepan Malkhasyants rejected the conclusions of the scholars of the hypercritical school and placed Khorenatsi back in the fifth century. Additionally, ethnographic and archaeological research during this time confirmed a number of claims made by Khorenatsi.Hacikyan et al. ''Heritage of Armenian Literature'', pp. 305–306.

Earlier critical points were revived in the second half of the twentieth century. For instance Robert W. Thomson, the former holder of the chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the translator of several classical Armenian works, claimed that Movses' account contained various anachronisms. His approach in evaluating Movses's work was criticized when the English translation of ''History of the Armenians'' appeared in 1978. Nersessian, Vrej. "Review of ''History of the Armenians''." ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 30 (October 1979): pp. 479–480. The points he raised have since been challenged. Vrej Nersessian, the Curator of the Christian Middle East Section at the British Library, took issue with many of Thomson's points, including his later dating of the writing and his contention that Movses was merely writing an apologist work for the Bagratunis:

Gagik Sargsyan, an Armenian scholar of the Classics and a leading biographer of Movses, also criticized Thomson for "anachronistic hypercriticism" and for stubbornly rehashing and "even exaggerating the statements once put forward" by the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century scholars, particularly by Grigor Khalatiants (1858–1912). Sargsyan noted that Thomson, in condemning Movses' failure to mention his sources, ignored the fact that "an antique or medieval author may have had his own rules of mentioning the sources distinct from the rules of modern scientific ethics." Thomson's allegation of Movses' plagiarism and supposed distortion of sources was also countered by scholars who contended that Thomson was "treating a medieval author with the standards" of twentieth century historiography and pointed out that numerous classical historians, Greek and Roman alike, engaged in the same practice. Aram Topchyan, a research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Armenian Studies, agreed with this view and noted that it was odd that Thomson would fault Movses for failing to mention his sources because this was an accepted practice among all classical historians.

Today, Movses Khorenatsi's work is recognized as an important source for the research of Urartian and early Armenian history. It was Movses Khorenatsi's account of the ancient city of Van with its cuneiform inscriptions which lead the Société Asiatique of Paris to finance the expedition of Friedrich Eduard Schulz, who there discovered the previously unknown Urartian language.Lang, D. M. (1979). Review of “Moses Khorenats’i”: History of the Armenians, by R. W. Thomson & Moses Khorenats’i. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 42(3), 574–575. http://www.jstor.org/stable/615590

Works

The following works are also attributed to Movses:
*''Letter on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary''
*''Homily on Christ's Transfiguration''
*''History of Rhipsime and Her Companions''
*''Hymns used in Armenian Church Worship''
*''Commentaries on the Armenian Grammarians''
*''Explanations of Armenian Church Offices''

Published editions

Armenian

*
*
* (A facsimile reproduction in three volumes of the original title as published in Venice in 1784–1786).
*
* (Translation into modern Armenian with introduction and notes).

English

* James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce
''Armenian Legends and Poems''
Bryce has selections of Khorenatsi's ''History of Armenia''
*
* A portion of Book II of Khorenatsi's ''History of Armenia''.

Latin

*

French

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*
*

Russian

*
*
*
*

Notes

External links

(in Armenian)
Movses Khorenatsi, "The History of Armenia"
(in English)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moses Of Chorene
410s births
490s deaths
5th-century Armenian historians
5th-century translators
Armenian saints
Christians in the Sasanian Empire
Armenian people from the Sasanian Empire