Rewriting Caucasian History

461 Pages·2016·9.78 MB·English

by  Thomson R.W.

O X FO R D O RIENTAL M O N O G R A PH S
REWRITING CAUCASIAN
HISTORY
The Medieval Armenian Adaptation
of the Georgian Chronicles
The Original Georgian Texts
and
The Armenian Adaptation
Translated with Introduction
and Commentary by
ROBERT W. THOMSON
Published with the Support of the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation
C L A R E N D O N P R E S S O X F O R D
Oxford Oriental Monographs
This new series of monographs from the Faculty of Oriental
Studies, University of Oxford, will make available the results of
recent research by scholars connected with the Faculty. Its range
of subject-matter includes language, literature, thought, history
and art; its geographical scope extends from the Mediterranean
and Caucasus to East Asia. The emphasis will be more on special­
ist studies than on works of a general nature.
Editorial Board
John Baines Professor of Egyptology
Glen Dudbridge Shaw Professor of Chinese
Alan Jones Reader in Islamic Studies
Robert Thomson Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian
Studies
Titles in the Series
Sufism and Islamic Reform in Egypt
The Battle for Islamic Tradition
Julian Johansen
The Early Porcelain Kilns of Japan
Arita in the first half of the Seventeenth Century
Oliver Impey
Rewriting Caucasian History
The Medieval Armenian Adaptation of the
Georgian Chronicles
THE ORIGIN AL GEORGIAN TEXTS AND
THE ARM ENIAN AD APTATIO N
Translated with Introduction and Commentary
by
ROBERT W. THOMSON
CLARENDON PRESS OXFORD
1996
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6dp
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© Robert W. Thomson 1996
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
K'art'lis c'xovreba. Polyglot.
Rewriting Caucasian history: the medieval Armenian adaptation of
the Georgian Chronicles: the original Georgian texts and the
Armenian adaptation / translated with introduction and commentary by
Robert W. Thomson.
(Oxford oriental monographs)
Includes bibliographical references.
I. Georgia (Republic)— History— To 1801. 2. Georgia (Republic)—
Kings and rulers—Biography. [/. K'art'lis c'xovreba—
Translations into Armenian—History and criticism.]
I. Thomson, Robert W., 1934- . II. Title. III. Series.
DK675.2.K37R48 1996 947'.95—dc20 95-40306
ISBN 0-19-826373-2
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd.
Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by
Biddles Ltd., Guildford & King’s Lynn
PREFACE
Armenian literature is rich in historical writing. Although ori­
ginal compositions account for by far the greatest number of his­
tories, Armenians also translated some foreign historical works
into their own language, which were influential in the formation of
the Armenian literary tradition. The two most significant are the
Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius of Caesarea (translated via the
Syriac version in the fifth century) and his Chronicle (translated
directly from the Greek some time later). Other examples include
the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus, also re-edited in
an abbreviated fashion, and the Jewish Wars of Josephus, now lost
save for a seventeenth-century revision. In the thirteenth century
two other foreign histories were translated: the Syriac Chronicle of
the Patriarch Michael, and the collection of Georgian Chronicles
known as ‘The Life of Georgia’, K'art’lis C'xovreba.
These later translations are of interest, not merely for their infor­
mation about foreign lands, which now became available to
medieval Armenian writers, but also for the mode of translation.
For both are abbreviated renderings of the originals into which
some new, specifically Armenian, material was incorporated.
Before their impact on the succeeding generations of Armenian
writers can be properly assessed, it is therefore necessary to distin­
guish the adapted version from the original text. That is the pur­
pose of the present study of the Armenian version of the Georgian
Chronicles.
My attention was first drawn to the Armenian rendering of the
Georgian Chronicles a decade ago as one of the possible sources
of the ‘Historical Compilation’ by Vardan Arevelc'i. It was known
in Armenian as the ‘History of the Georgians’ (Patmut'iwn Vrac'),
though the ninteenth-century editor ascribed the whole text to the
author of one of its parts, JuanSer. My original intention had been
to publish the translation with a commentary. But I was soon
prompted to take up the original Georgian text. The prime reason
was that a commentary on the Armenian rendering (which is much
abbreviated yet contains some additions of its own) would run to
vi Preface
great length if all the changes and omissions had to be._explained.
It seemed thät a juxtaposition of the two texts would be not only
simpler, but also much more useful for a potential reader. A quick
glance would then suffice to note the variations between the two
works.
It should be made clear from the outset that this is a study of
the Armenian version of the Georgian Chronicles. It is not a crit­
ical study of the original Georgian. There are others far more
competent in Georgian historiography who have addressed, and
who are now engaged in studying, the historical and literary prob­
lems of the collection of texts known as the K’art'lis C'xovreba.
Two reasons prompted this English rendering of that part of the
Georgian Chronicles which was rendered into Armenian, namely
the sections from the mythical origins of Georgia down to the
accession of Demetre, son of David the Builder, in 1125. In the
first place, no English rendering of all these texts has been made
before, although K. Vivian has translated the History of David,
King of Kings (section VI below). The French translation by
Brosset (St Petersburg, 1848-52) is a splendid work to which all
scholars remain greatly indebted. But since Brosset’s time new
manuscripts have been discovered. My translation is thus based
on the critical edition of the Georgian published in Tbilisi in 1955.
There is a recent German rendering by Pätsch, but it lacks a com­
mentary. I therefore hope that those interested in the history of
the Caucasus in early and medieval times will find this translation
of some use.
But far more important for the present undertaking is the fact
that the Georgian translation is in effect the commentary to the
translation of the Armenian; for it is the latter which is my prime
target. Over the years I have studied numerous Armenian histori­
cal works. What interests me is how the Armenian authors put
together their histories, how they used their various sources, what
literary models they followed or adapted, what moral ideas they
wished to present to their readers, and the impact their works had
on succeeding generations. I have been trying to trace the devel­
opment of a specifically Armenian point of view about the past,
and the ways in which those views formulated by the earliest writ­
ers were picked up by later writers. So far as the Georgian
Chronicles are concerned, therefore, the Georgian is the ‘given’.
The historical accuracy or veracity of the original text is not my
Preface vii
concern. What matters—in the present enquiry—is what the
Armenian translator made of the text before him. How accurate
was his rendering, what did he omit, what did he introduce, and
what were his reasons for making changes?
So this book is not an attempt to write the history of Armenia
and Georgia from the origins down to the early twelfth century. It
is an attempt to understand the Armenian text as a document of
its own time. This means that the commentary will be more con­
cerned with matters philological than historical, though I have
attempted to guide readers through the tricky maze of Caucasian
dynasties. Luckily, for this there is already an excellent guide. Cyril
ToumanofPs Studies in Christian Caucasian History is to some
extent an elaborate commentary on the Georgian Chronicles and
related texts down to the tenth century; the attentive reader will
notice how deeply I am also indebted to his numerous articles on
specific questions and his invaluable Genealogie. It seemed to me
superfluous to repeat at any length information available else­
where; so my only claim to originality is in the translation of the
Armenian and Georgian and the annotation to the differences
between the two texts.
In the preparation of this work I am particularly grateful to
Carol Cross, who put the entire first draft of the translation and
commentary into the computer and thus saved me an enormous
amount of time when it came to corrections and additions. Once
more I must acknowledge the cartographical skill of Robert
Hewsen, to whose fine map at the end all readers will be indebted
in their search for sites to match the places named in the text.
Various other colleagues have helped in solving particular prob­
lems. I am indebted to Zaza Alek'sije for elucidation of several
obscure passages in the Georgian. And I also thank his predeces­
sor as director of the Kekelije Institute of Manuscripts in Tbilisi,
Helene Metreveli, who several years ago sent me a microfilm of
Abulaje’s critical edition of the Armenian text (not available in the
USA). Without the help of the Kekelije Institute and its generos­
ity over many years in sending texts, many of which were other­
wise quite inaccessible, the commentary would have been even
more deficient than it now is. I am also indebted to the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation for generously contributing to the costs of
production.
In what follows I have tried to combine three related goals:
viii Preface
1. A translation of the Armenian adaptation of the Georgian
text, making more accessible an important source used by
Armenian historians of the thirteenth and later centuries.
2. A translation of the original Georgian, making available for
the first time in English the Georgian traditions enshrined in this,
the most famous of all Georgian historical compilations.
3. A commentary, elucidating the Armenian translator’s aims
and methods, and drawing attention to the Armenian traditions to
which he alludes in his various changes to the original. The way in
which a foreign source was rewritten and adapted for Armenian
purposes is my prime interest throughout.
Robert W. Thomson
Oxford
Summer 1994
Published with the support of
the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation