III Campaign of Albania and Armenia 624 A.D. Of the three Caucasian countries which border on the north of Armenia Colchis Iberia and Albania Albania is the most easterly Bounded on the east by the Caspian on the west by Iberia it is separated from Armenia on the south by the Cyrus which mixing its waters with the great Armenian river Araxes at some distance from its mouth flows along with it into the Hyrcanian Sea In this country Heraclius recruited his army with Colchian Iberian and Abasgian allies and entered into negotiation with the Khazars a Hunnic people of the trans Caucasian steppes "
The campaign of 624 consisted of a series of movements and counter movements to and fro between Albania and Armenia wherein both sides exhibited dexterity but the Eoman Emperor proved himself superior At first he was opposed by two Persian armies one commanded by a new general Sarablagas 1 the other by the inevitable Shahr Barz The object of Sarablagas was to prevent the Romans from entering Persia and accordingly having garrisoned the passes of Azerbiyan he stationed himself on the lower Cyrus near its junction with the Araxes Heraclius however marched in a north westerly direction and crossed the river considerably higher up but his advance was retarded by a mutiny of his Caucasian allies and in the meantime Shahr Barz who had entered Armenia from the south west had arrived on the scene of action and effected a junction with his colleague Sarablagas When these tidings arrived the obstructives in the Eoman camp were pathetically penitent and bade Heraclius lead them where he would He then advanced towards the place where the Persians were stationed defeated some of their outposts and passing on marched to the Araxes "
Monday, September 10, 2007
Avarians claim autonomy within Azerbaijan
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Institute of Oriental Studies at the RA Academy of Sciences and Mitk analytical center initiated an international conference titled “The state system of Caucasian Albania and its ethnic and cultural heritage.”
Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Professor Ruben Safrastyan said the topic is both of scientific and political interest. “The state system of medieval Caucasian Albania needs serious and impartial investigation and I am hopeful that scientists from Azerbaijan will join our work,” he said.
According to Mitk head Eduard Abrahamyan, examination of the past and present of Caucasian Albania and Albanian peoples will lead to a better understanding of modern ethno-political processes in the Caucasus.
For his part, Armenian political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net that participation of representatives of Dagestani peoples will help to understand the problems of their self-identity in Azerbaijan. “The conference is rather a political than academic event. This can be proved by the statement of Dagestani Avarians who claim autonomy within Azerbaijan,” he said.
Professor of Dagestani State University Timur Aytberov said Baku pursues a policy of extermination of aborigine Dagestani peoples residing in some regions of Azerbaijan. “The Avarian people are going to assert their rights by all legal ways including the experience of Celtic peoples,” he said.
Caucasian Albania, also known as Alvank in Armenian, Ardhan in Parthian, Arran in Persian and Al-Ran in Arabic was an ancient kingdom, which existed on the territory of present-day Republic of Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan. The name "Albania" is Latin, and denotes "mountainous land". The native name for the country is unknown.
The population of Caucasian Albania descends from the union of 26 tribes speaking various dialects of the Nakh-Dagestani family of languages. The only known Albanian language is the Alvan or Gargarean language.
According to Movses Kaghankatvatzi, the Albanian alphabet was invented by Mesrob Mashtots, an Armenian monk, theologian and linguist.
Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Professor Ruben Safrastyan said the topic is both of scientific and political interest. “The state system of medieval Caucasian Albania needs serious and impartial investigation and I am hopeful that scientists from Azerbaijan will join our work,” he said.
According to Mitk head Eduard Abrahamyan, examination of the past and present of Caucasian Albania and Albanian peoples will lead to a better understanding of modern ethno-political processes in the Caucasus.
For his part, Armenian political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net that participation of representatives of Dagestani peoples will help to understand the problems of their self-identity in Azerbaijan. “The conference is rather a political than academic event. This can be proved by the statement of Dagestani Avarians who claim autonomy within Azerbaijan,” he said.
Professor of Dagestani State University Timur Aytberov said Baku pursues a policy of extermination of aborigine Dagestani peoples residing in some regions of Azerbaijan. “The Avarian people are going to assert their rights by all legal ways including the experience of Celtic peoples,” he said.
Caucasian Albania, also known as Alvank in Armenian, Ardhan in Parthian, Arran in Persian and Al-Ran in Arabic was an ancient kingdom, which existed on the territory of present-day Republic of Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan. The name "Albania" is Latin, and denotes "mountainous land". The native name for the country is unknown.
The population of Caucasian Albania descends from the union of 26 tribes speaking various dialects of the Nakh-Dagestani family of languages. The only known Albanian language is the Alvan or Gargarean language.
According to Movses Kaghankatvatzi, the Albanian alphabet was invented by Mesrob Mashtots, an Armenian monk, theologian and linguist.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Professor Buniatov
Professor Buniatov one of the worst revisionists of Caucasian Albania.
He chose as his main field of study the "ancient history of Azerbaijan" aind in particular "Caucasian Albania". And he devised the theory that the Karabakh Armenian rulers, like the Belgarians and Hasan-Jalal were not really Armenians but Armenianized Albanians.
The "Albanians" Buniatov was referring to has nothing to do with the nation in the Balkans. This was the name the Romans gave to a Caucasian people when they first made incursions into the Caucasus in the first century B.C.
"Buniatov's academy reissued thirty thousand copies of a forgotten racist tract by the turn of the century Russian polemcisit Vasil Velichko, later Buniatov began a poisonous quarrel for which Caucasian Albanians themselves should take none of them blame. (Their true history has not become any clearer as a result). Buniatov’s scholarly credentials were dubious. It later transpired that the two articles he published in 1960 and 1965 on Caucasian Albania were direct plagiarism. Under his own name, he had simply published, unattributed, translations of two articles, originally written in English by Western scholars C.F.J. Dowsett and Robert Hensen."
Source: Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War by Thomas De Waal (Aug 25, 2004) , pages 152-153, 143
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Caucasian Albanian alphabet
By Narek Yegoyan
The Caucasian Albanian alphabet was the alphabet for the people of Caucasian Albania. It was discovered by a professor named Ilia Abuladze in 1937. The Alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashots a Armenian monk, warrior and translator.
Armenian historian Koriun, in The Life of Mashtots, wrote:
"Then there came and visited them an elderly man, an Albanian named Benjamin. And he Mesrob Mashdots inquired and examined the barbaric diction of the Albanian language, and then through his usual God-given keenness of mind invented an alphabet, which he, through the grace of Christ, successfully organized and put in order."
Zaza Aleksidze wrote: "The most precise documentary account on the existence of Albanian script and written language is represented in the accounts of the all Transcaucasian church counsel in Dvin in 506. In his letter to the christians living in Persia, the Catholicos of Armenia - Babgen - says that the letter was written "in consent with Georgians and Albanians, according to the letters of each country"."
References:
-Koriun, The life of Mashtots, Ch. 16.
-The History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movses Dasxuranci. by Movses Dasxuranci, C. J. F. Dowsett
A brief section on the history of Aghbania is presented below
At the beginning of the first [section of this] history we placed [accounts of] the holy Illuminator of the Armenians, the apostle, martyr, and coadjutor of the three blessed [155] Apostles Thaddeus, Bartholemew, and James-Judas, that is, blessed Gregory, and through his prayers we have reached this far. Now for the second section [we begin with] a chapter on the illuminators of the Aghbanian areas, since they are our relatives and coreligionists, and especially since many of their leaders were Armenian-speaking, their kings obedient to the kings of the Armenians and under their control, their bishops ordained by Saint Gregory and his successors, and their people remained with us in orthodoxy. For these reasons it is fitting to recall the two peoples together. Therefore we will begin by concisely describing their leaders up to the point where we left off.
They say that the initial cause of the illumination of the eastern areas was the blessed Eghishe (pupil of the great Thaddeus the Apostle) who, after the death of the holy Apostle went to Jerusalem to James, the brother of the Lord, received [g192] ordination as bishop from him, and then went to the land of Iran eventually reaching the land of the Aghbanians. He came to a place called Gis and built a church there, and he himself was martyred there, though it is not known by whom. His body was thrown into a well with other corpses and it remained there until the time of pious King Vach'agan the last.
[156] Here are the kings of the Aghbanians from the line of Hayk, descendants of Arhan whom the Parthian Vagharshak set up as overseer and prince of those areas. First Vach'agan, Vach'e, Urhnayr. The latter came to the great king of the Armenians, Trdat, and to Saint Gregory and was baptized by him; and Saint Gregory gave to King Urhnayr a man from among his deacons who had come with him from Rome, and whom [Gregory] had ordained as bishop. Vach'agan, Marhawan, Sato, Asa, Esvaghen. In the days of the latter king, the venerable Mesrop made alphabets for the Armenians, Georgians, and Aghbanians. [Then] Vach'e [ruled]. Yazdigert, king of Iran, who destroyed the holy Vardaneans forcibly made [Vach'e] a mage, but subsequently he left magianism and his kingdom with it, became an ascetic adhering to a severe discipline, and reconciled himself with God against Whom he had sinned. Then the pious Vach'agan ruled, whom we recalled above. He heard that they had thrown blessed Eghishe['s body] into a well and he ordered that all the bones found [in the well] be removed. They removed them and piled them into heaps. The pious king prayed to God that the bones of Saint Eghishe be [g193] revealed. A fierce wind arose and scattered across the face of the plain all the bones except for those of Saint Eghishe. Thanking God, the king gathered them up and distributed [the relics] throughout his realm.
[157] Then holy Shup'haghishoy became bishop. However we are confused about his placement, for the man who wrote the history of the Aghbanians [translator's note: See the History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movses Dasxuranci, C.J.F. Dowsett trans. (London 1961)] places his name in the time of the pious Vach'agan, proof of which being the canons which Vach'agan established with all the bishops of the Aghbanians, writing: "I Vach'agan, king of the Aghbanians, and Shup'haghishoy, archbishop of Partaw." Elsewhere this name is not found again among the ranks of the bishops. But as we have found it, so we have written it.
Then lord Matt'e, lord Sahak five [years], lord Movses six [years], lord Pant seven [years] lord Ghazar eight [years]. Then the blessed youth Grigoris, son of great Vrt'anes brother of Yusik, grandson of Saint Gregory whom the great king of the Armenians Trdat sent and who was killed on the plain of Vatean as a martyr of God, [was patriarch]. His body was brought and buried at Amaras. Later, during the time of Vach'agan, relics were discovered among which were those of the blessed Zak'aria, father of John the Baptist and of Pantaleimon the great martyr for Christ who was slain in the city of Nicomidea in the time of Maximianos [and whose relics] Saint Gregory had taken with him.
[158] Then lord Zak'aria [ruled], ten years, [followed by] lord Dawit' for eleven years, and lord Yovhannes (who also was bishop of the Huns), twelve years, lord Eremia, thirteen years. In Eremia's time the venerable Mesrop created the Aghbanian alphabet with great effort. Lord Abas [ruled] for fourteen years. The Council of Dwin wrote to Abas that he should recite the formula "Holy God, immortal, Who Was crucified" and "of one nature, divine and human." Lord Viroy for thirty-three years. He was a prisoner for many years at the court of Xosrov, the Iranian king, but after Xosrov's death he was freed and came to his own country. He freed the Armenian, Georgian and Aghbanian prisoners from the Xazar Shat' (son of Jebu Xak'an who had enslaved the land). He built six cities named after Shat': Shat'arh, Shamk'or, Shak'i, Shirvan, Shamaxi, and Shaporan. Lord Zak'aria [who ruled for] fifteen years, saved the great city of Partaw from slavery by his prayers. Lord Yovhan [ruled for] twenty-five years. Lord Uxtanes, twelve years. [g195] [It was Uxtanes] who cursed the Aghbanian naxarars for their foul mixed marriages, and all of them died. Then lord Eghiazar [ruled for] six years. Lord Nerses [ruled for] seventeen years. While [Nerses] was bishop of Gardman, he convinced a certain woman named Spram, the wife of an Aghbanian prince, that if she had him ordained kat'oghikos of the Aghbanians, he would do whatever she wanted. The woman was steeped in the Chalcedonian heresy. [159] She entreated the bishops to ordain Nerses Bakur as kat'oghikos of the Aghbanians.
After some time had passed, the heresy which she had conceived within her became apparent. As soon as she was reprimanded by the bishops and priests, she began persecuting many of them. The spiritual leaders of the Aghbanians assembled and anathematized her and wrote to the kat'oghikos of the Armenians, Eghia, to aid them.
Eghia wrote [a message] to the head of the Tachiks, Abdlmelik', to the effect that "The [religious] leader of the Aghbanians and a woman here want to place their land in rebellion against you, for they are assisting the Greeks." Abdlmelik' commanded Eghia to go to Aghbania and dethrone him and to send him and the woman to court with their feet bound and thrown onto camels like freight, so that they would be the objects of derision for all the troops.
Eghia and the king's eunuch went to the city of Partaw and executed the royal order. While they mocked him thus with dishonor, Nerses died bitterly from exasperation, eight days later. [g196] All the Aghbanians naxarars and all the bishops gave [160] pledges before the eunuch with the royal command and seal that they would not ordain an Aghbanian kat'oghikos without the order of the Armenian kat'oghikos.
Then Eghia ordained for the Aghbanian [patriarchal] throne lord Simeon, who removed the disturbance caused by Nerses. [Simeon] reigned for one and a half years and established canons with seven provisions.
Lord Mik'ayel [reigned for] thirty-five years. He summoned the prior of Mak'enots'ats' [monastery], Soghomon, and cursed those who had married their relatives in the third degree. These were generally eliminated. They also anathematized the Georgian [spiritual] leader T'alile, for he had authorized the illegal marriages. Then lord Anania [ruled for] four years. Lord Yovsep' [ruled for] seventeen years. In the fifth year of his reign the two hundredth year of the Armenian Era was completed [751/52]. Lord Dawit' [ruled for] four years. [Dawit'] freed Church lands and ornaments. He died of poisioning. [Another] lord Dawit' [then ruled for] nine years. He sold Dastakert and Sahmanaxach' to the infidels. Lord Matt'eos [ruled for] one and a half years; he too was given poison to drink and died from it. Lord Movses, one and a half years; lord [g197] Aharon two years; lord Soghomon, half a year [Editor K. Melik'-Ohanjanyan has inserted this patriarch from the list Kirakos was using, i.e., the list in Book III of Movses Dasxurants'i's History of the Caucasian Aghbanians]; lord T'eodoros [161] four years; lord Soghomon, eleven years; lord Yovhannes, twenty-five years. [Yovhannes] moved the kat'oghikosate to Bardak which was their summer residence when it was removed from Partaw. Lord Movses [ruled for] one half year; lord Dawit', for twenty-eight years. It was [Dawit'] who blessed the impious marrage of the lord of Shak'i. Now the prince's lay brother asked [Dawit']: "Whence do you come, lord?" And [Dawit'] replied: "From your brother's house." Then the prince said to Dawit': "May your tongue, which blessed this not speak, and may your eye dry up." And this very thing happened immediately, nor was [Dawit'] cured until his death.
They say that the initial cause of the illumination of the eastern areas was the blessed Eghishe (pupil of the great Thaddeus the Apostle) who, after the death of the holy Apostle went to Jerusalem to James, the brother of the Lord, received [g192] ordination as bishop from him, and then went to the land of Iran eventually reaching the land of the Aghbanians. He came to a place called Gis and built a church there, and he himself was martyred there, though it is not known by whom. His body was thrown into a well with other corpses and it remained there until the time of pious King Vach'agan the last.
[156] Here are the kings of the Aghbanians from the line of Hayk, descendants of Arhan whom the Parthian Vagharshak set up as overseer and prince of those areas. First Vach'agan, Vach'e, Urhnayr. The latter came to the great king of the Armenians, Trdat, and to Saint Gregory and was baptized by him; and Saint Gregory gave to King Urhnayr a man from among his deacons who had come with him from Rome, and whom [Gregory] had ordained as bishop. Vach'agan, Marhawan, Sato, Asa, Esvaghen. In the days of the latter king, the venerable Mesrop made alphabets for the Armenians, Georgians, and Aghbanians. [Then] Vach'e [ruled]. Yazdigert, king of Iran, who destroyed the holy Vardaneans forcibly made [Vach'e] a mage, but subsequently he left magianism and his kingdom with it, became an ascetic adhering to a severe discipline, and reconciled himself with God against Whom he had sinned. Then the pious Vach'agan ruled, whom we recalled above. He heard that they had thrown blessed Eghishe['s body] into a well and he ordered that all the bones found [in the well] be removed. They removed them and piled them into heaps. The pious king prayed to God that the bones of Saint Eghishe be [g193] revealed. A fierce wind arose and scattered across the face of the plain all the bones except for those of Saint Eghishe. Thanking God, the king gathered them up and distributed [the relics] throughout his realm.
[157] Then holy Shup'haghishoy became bishop. However we are confused about his placement, for the man who wrote the history of the Aghbanians [translator's note: See the History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movses Dasxuranci, C.J.F. Dowsett trans. (London 1961)] places his name in the time of the pious Vach'agan, proof of which being the canons which Vach'agan established with all the bishops of the Aghbanians, writing: "I Vach'agan, king of the Aghbanians, and Shup'haghishoy, archbishop of Partaw." Elsewhere this name is not found again among the ranks of the bishops. But as we have found it, so we have written it.
Then lord Matt'e, lord Sahak five [years], lord Movses six [years], lord Pant seven [years] lord Ghazar eight [years]. Then the blessed youth Grigoris, son of great Vrt'anes brother of Yusik, grandson of Saint Gregory whom the great king of the Armenians Trdat sent and who was killed on the plain of Vatean as a martyr of God, [was patriarch]. His body was brought and buried at Amaras. Later, during the time of Vach'agan, relics were discovered among which were those of the blessed Zak'aria, father of John the Baptist and of Pantaleimon the great martyr for Christ who was slain in the city of Nicomidea in the time of Maximianos [and whose relics] Saint Gregory had taken with him.
[158] Then lord Zak'aria [ruled], ten years, [followed by] lord Dawit' for eleven years, and lord Yovhannes (who also was bishop of the Huns), twelve years, lord Eremia, thirteen years. In Eremia's time the venerable Mesrop created the Aghbanian alphabet with great effort. Lord Abas [ruled] for fourteen years. The Council of Dwin wrote to Abas that he should recite the formula "Holy God, immortal, Who Was crucified" and "of one nature, divine and human." Lord Viroy for thirty-three years. He was a prisoner for many years at the court of Xosrov, the Iranian king, but after Xosrov's death he was freed and came to his own country. He freed the Armenian, Georgian and Aghbanian prisoners from the Xazar Shat' (son of Jebu Xak'an who had enslaved the land). He built six cities named after Shat': Shat'arh, Shamk'or, Shak'i, Shirvan, Shamaxi, and Shaporan. Lord Zak'aria [who ruled for] fifteen years, saved the great city of Partaw from slavery by his prayers. Lord Yovhan [ruled for] twenty-five years. Lord Uxtanes, twelve years. [g195] [It was Uxtanes] who cursed the Aghbanian naxarars for their foul mixed marriages, and all of them died. Then lord Eghiazar [ruled for] six years. Lord Nerses [ruled for] seventeen years. While [Nerses] was bishop of Gardman, he convinced a certain woman named Spram, the wife of an Aghbanian prince, that if she had him ordained kat'oghikos of the Aghbanians, he would do whatever she wanted. The woman was steeped in the Chalcedonian heresy. [159] She entreated the bishops to ordain Nerses Bakur as kat'oghikos of the Aghbanians.
After some time had passed, the heresy which she had conceived within her became apparent. As soon as she was reprimanded by the bishops and priests, she began persecuting many of them. The spiritual leaders of the Aghbanians assembled and anathematized her and wrote to the kat'oghikos of the Armenians, Eghia, to aid them.
Eghia wrote [a message] to the head of the Tachiks, Abdlmelik', to the effect that "The [religious] leader of the Aghbanians and a woman here want to place their land in rebellion against you, for they are assisting the Greeks." Abdlmelik' commanded Eghia to go to Aghbania and dethrone him and to send him and the woman to court with their feet bound and thrown onto camels like freight, so that they would be the objects of derision for all the troops.
Eghia and the king's eunuch went to the city of Partaw and executed the royal order. While they mocked him thus with dishonor, Nerses died bitterly from exasperation, eight days later. [g196] All the Aghbanians naxarars and all the bishops gave [160] pledges before the eunuch with the royal command and seal that they would not ordain an Aghbanian kat'oghikos without the order of the Armenian kat'oghikos.
Then Eghia ordained for the Aghbanian [patriarchal] throne lord Simeon, who removed the disturbance caused by Nerses. [Simeon] reigned for one and a half years and established canons with seven provisions.
Lord Mik'ayel [reigned for] thirty-five years. He summoned the prior of Mak'enots'ats' [monastery], Soghomon, and cursed those who had married their relatives in the third degree. These were generally eliminated. They also anathematized the Georgian [spiritual] leader T'alile, for he had authorized the illegal marriages. Then lord Anania [ruled for] four years. Lord Yovsep' [ruled for] seventeen years. In the fifth year of his reign the two hundredth year of the Armenian Era was completed [751/52]. Lord Dawit' [ruled for] four years. [Dawit'] freed Church lands and ornaments. He died of poisioning. [Another] lord Dawit' [then ruled for] nine years. He sold Dastakert and Sahmanaxach' to the infidels. Lord Matt'eos [ruled for] one and a half years; he too was given poison to drink and died from it. Lord Movses, one and a half years; lord [g197] Aharon two years; lord Soghomon, half a year [Editor K. Melik'-Ohanjanyan has inserted this patriarch from the list Kirakos was using, i.e., the list in Book III of Movses Dasxurants'i's History of the Caucasian Aghbanians]; lord T'eodoros [161] four years; lord Soghomon, eleven years; lord Yovhannes, twenty-five years. [Yovhannes] moved the kat'oghikosate to Bardak which was their summer residence when it was removed from Partaw. Lord Movses [ruled for] one half year; lord Dawit', for twenty-eight years. It was [Dawit'] who blessed the impious marrage of the lord of Shak'i. Now the prince's lay brother asked [Dawit']: "Whence do you come, lord?" And [Dawit'] replied: "From your brother's house." Then the prince said to Dawit': "May your tongue, which blessed this not speak, and may your eye dry up." And this very thing happened immediately, nor was [Dawit'] cured until his death.
Ancient archaeological monument discovered in northern Azerbaijan
Baku, 27 April: An interesting tomb attributed to the period of Caucasian Albania was discovered by the Saki department of the Azerbaijani Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography during archaeological excavations in the village of Fizil in Saki District.Trend news agency's regional correspondent reports that in addition to providing evidence that the Yalovlutapa culture, which is attributed to ancient times, reached a high level of development in this area.
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