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The Institute of manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of
Georgia
Zaza Aleksidze
The Institute of manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of
Georgia has already held three expeditions to Mount Sinai (in 1990, 1994 and No-vember-December
of 1996) to study the manuscripts that had been first found in 1975. 133
manuscripts have been described during the first expedition. We managed only to
give numbers to 15 manuscripts the leaves of which had been stuck together in a
compact mass. Just before our depar-ture we saw great number of fragments, we
could not manage to look through. Even then it became evident that the
preparation of the catalogue for publication would need having more expeditions.
The second and third expeditions contained more people. Besides the scholars,
the restorers also participated. Some 140 manuscripts have been described and
sorted out by the expedition and microfilms of the 1600 frag-ments were made.
The work performed by the restorers was immensely ef-fective. They managed to
open 15 manuscripts turned into compact mass and 77 manuscripts underwent
preliminary preventive works. How should this new discovery be categorized? 1.
There are now more then 230 manuscripts and 1600 fragments in Si-nai collection,
in all. Thus, at present much more is known about Georgian colonies on Sinai and
about their activities, than it was known till nowadays. A great number of Sinai
manuscripts (old and new ones) date back to the 10th c. The comparison of the
manuscripts (old and new ones) preserved and written here in various languages
(Greek, Arabic, Syriac etc.), reveals that the second half of the 10th c. is
mainly marked by presence of Georgi-ans on Mount Sinai. One of the most
interesting innovations is that the colo-phons of manuscripts in the new
collection supply new information about the Georgians' building activities on
Mt. Sinai. 2. New Georgian material from Sinai has preserved the ecclesiastical
lit-urgy called Hierosolymite. They are service books written up till the 10th
c. (hymnography, lectionaries, liturgies, calendars) that were lost in other
lit-eratures. It happened due to the fact that new liturgy, called
Constantino-32 pohtan or Byzantine, come into use since the 10th c. Some
attempts have been made to reveal this stage on the basis of Armenian
literature. The Armenian Church separated the Chalcedonian too early for the
reforms introduced by Or-thodoxy to have had any impact on it The old collection
of Sinai and especially the new one, have changed the emphasis. Now the
attention is focused also on Georgian as it is the one showing the oldest stage
of liturgy. 3.The New Sinai collection reveals the close contacts of the
Georgian breth-ren on Sinai with other Georgian centres of culture. Likewise,
the information that the Georgians on Mt. Sinai maintained close contacts with
the Mount Athos and the Athonites proves to be most important one. 4. A number
ofcodeces are preserved in new Georgian collection which pro-vide the names of
hitherto unknown authors, such as the Sinaite holy father Sam-uel the Georgian.
5. The new collection includes the two oldest recensions of the first Georgian
historical work "Conversion ofKartIi (Georgia)" and "The Lives of
13 Syrian fathers". We are fortunate enough to have the photocopies of
these manuscripts and they are being studied at present. 6. The information
given in Sin-50 of the new collection has proved to be unique as far as it
concerns one of the most interesting periods of Georgian his-tory of6-7th c.
Only some scanty, authentic sources shed light on this particular period. It
gives the catalogues of big cloister libraries and a description of their
treasure; there are exact chronological and genealogical data of Georgian Kings,
Dukes and their family members probably derived from tombstone inscriptions.
This information outstrips by several centuries the lineage and chronology of
the Bagratids and Rustavelis. 7. Particular international interest will be
aroused by an amount of newly dis-covered palimpsests . The lower texts of the
10th c. manuscripts are Georgian, Greek, Syriac, Ethiopian, Coptic and several
pages of Armenian. Unfortunately, the expeditions did not have enough time and
possibility to study the palimpsests, they look as if they will bring forth
unforeseen new discoveries. Two manuscripts among mem may serve as an example.
My present paper deals with information about these manuscripts. We can say for
sure that two underwriting texts of the palimpsests found on Mount Sinai
represent the monument or monuments of the lost literature of Caucasian Alba-nia.
Caucasian or Caspian Albania, as it is called in order to differentiate it from
Balkan Albania, was situated in Eastern Transcaucasia, mostly on the territory
of modem Azerbaijan. The main problems concerning Albania of the antique period
and early Middle Ages are as follow: when was the state formed on this
territory? How far did it spread? How did the process of ethnic and cultural
consoli-dation flew there? Did the Albanians create their original script and
litera-ture? If so, how well it developed and how long did it exist? Caucasian
studies face two radically diverse positions concerning the aforementioned
problems. According to one hypothesis of Armenian scholars (sometimes called the
"New point of view"), the Albanian Kingdom was formed at the beginning
of the 1st c. BC. Its border spreads to the south only as far as the river
Mtkvari (Kura). According to Strabo, the Albanians consisted of 26 tribes.
Ethnical consolidation in the Albanian Kingdom did not take place till the 3rd
c. A.D. and each tribe spoke its own language. The Albanian Kingdom was
abolished in 462 and the Sasanids created a Persian province (Marzpanate) under
the name of "Albania". It comprised two provinces of the Former Great
Armenia: "Utiq" and "Artsakh" that were situated on the
right bank of the river Mtkvari ("Kura"). The annexation of Utiq and
Artsakh to Albania is sometimes dated to 387, when Armenia was divided into two
parts between Byzantine and Iran. The "New point of view" suggests
that though these provinces were called "Albania", this name did not
aquire ethnonimic implication but only political one. Gradually, Ar-menian
provinces, situated on the right bank of the river Mtkvari adopted this name
without implying the Albanians living on the left bank and Arme-nians of these
provinces considered that they had had that name from the beginning. Likewise,
the so called "Albanian outlook" and "Albanian patri-otism"
were formed among the inhabitants of Armenian provinces dwelling on the right
bank of the river Mtkvari; though they never lost the Armenian outlook on the
world. These provinces, compared to the native Albanians living on the left bank
of the river Mtkvari, have formed "New Albania" as for cultural and
economic point of view they were at higher level of devel-opment. The language
of the church and the country was Armenian. Mash-tots (Mesrop), granted Armenian
alphabet (36 graphemes) to Armenian population of Albania and created new script
(52 graphemes) for the native Albanians. Thus, when speaking about creating new
alphabet for the coarse language of barbarian Albanians, he means the native
Albanians; but when speaking about Bible translation by the Albanians, he means
Armenian part of Albania. Native Albanians could not create their own literature
and they soon mingled with other people. When the sources of middle ages narrate
about Albanian written literature we must identify it as not native Albanian
one, but as the Armenian written literature created by the population ofUtiq,
Artsakh and Gardman. The Armenian scholars who adopt this "New point of
view" are challenged by scholars in Azerbaijan. In their view the territory
of Albania, including the right bank of the river Mtkvari, has always remained
un-changed throughout its existence. Utiq and Artsakh have only temporarily been
seized by Armenia and in 387 it is returned to Albania. The whole ter-ritory of
Albania including the disputable province of Karabakh in modem Azerbaijan is
populated by a single people of ethnic lineage, changing only its language and
religion throughout the centuries. Albanian script was cre-ated at the beginning
of the 5th c. successively followed by translated and original literature. The
Arab invaders and the Armenian Church ravaged the monuments of Albanian written
language in the 8-10th cc. Before that, the Armenians had translated works on
the history of Albania and ecclesiastical canons. That explains why they are
preserved only in Armenian language. Being under the influence of the Armenian
Church, consequently, the lan-guage and the literature of the monophysite
Albanian Church, gradually be-comes Armenian. Thus all the outstanding Albanian
figures of the 10-13th cc. originating from the former Albania situated on the
right bank of the river Mtkvari (for instance, Mkhitar Gosh, Kirakos of Ganzak)
ought to be considered Albanian writers and public figures using Armenian
language. What have we known about the Albanian literature up to now? Armenian
sources are the only ones presenting substantial information about Albanian
script and literature. The sources dealing with Mesrop-Mashtots' life must be
considered first. According to Koriun, Moses Khore-natsi, Moses Kalankatuatsi,
and others (not taking into consideration the differences), Mesrop-Mashtots at
the beginning of the 5th c. "created alpha-bet for the Gargarians'
pharyngal, disharmonious, barbaric and coarse lan-guage". The books of the
Prophets, the books of Apostles and the Gospels were also translated by his
assistance. The most precise documentary evidence for the existence of Albanian
script and written language is represented in the proceedings of the councel in
Dvin in 506, representing the whole of Transcaucasia. 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". The Albanian historian Moses Kalankatuatsi's
(Moses Daskhurantsi) work is available in a 10th c. Armenian version. The author
wrote his work in the 7th c. and he names the nations that had their own script
at that time and mentions Albanian language among them. Further accounts about
the existence of the Holy Scripture in Albanian language is represented by the
8th c. Armenian historian - Ghevond. The languages that had Gospels are named in
his work and Albanian language occupies the 12th place among them. This sums up
the factual information about Albanian script and litera-ture. A search for the
Albanian written language has been undertaken since the 1830s. Scholars have
from time to time received news of finding Alba-nian manuscripts and
epigraphical monuments. The news was invariably sensational, but has always
proved to have been premature. In all the cases the texts were written in an
unknown manner of either Armenian or Greek script; sometimes, indeed, it proved
to be a cryptogram. Georgian scholar Ilia Abuladze found the Albanian Alphabet
in a manual of Armenian grammar, among the alphabets of Armenian, Greek, Jewish,
Georgian, Syriac and Arabic languages, when there was almost no hope of finding
it. In the world of scholarly literature it caused such a great effect that the
date - 28th of September, 1937 was fixed exactly. The outstanding Armenian
scholar Hr. Acharian wrote in the "Herald" of Armenian Acad-emy of
Sciences: "Young Georgian scholar Ilia Abuladze is worthy of un-limited
honour and praise, who on the 28th of September, 1937 discovered Albanian
alphabet among other Manuscripts of Echmiadzin". He also com-pared the
post-discovery condition to a sudden exposure to the daylight of a man who had
been in the darkness for ages. I. Abuladze only made an announcement about the
discovery and passed it on for further study to A. Shanidze. The principal
pathos of this analyses was to prove that it actually was Albanian alphabet,
that it was correct in whole and that the system of sounds must have belonged to
the Udian lan-guage, in the Lezgian group of Caucasian languages. It seemed to
be a signal to further discoveries. One more manuscript with Albanian script was
found since then in California but it proved to be a co-pie of the 15th c.
manuscript discovered by I.Abuladze. The archaeological discoveries of
1948-1952, caused new impetus in the development of Albanian studies. Several
lapidary inscriptions and graffiti were discovered on the territory of
Azerbaijan. The unity of these discover ies is conventionally called the Corpus
of Albanian inscriptions. The overall number of the graphemes is approximately
200 and was dated back to the 6-9th cc. by the archaeologists. The pillar with
Albanian text, discovered in Dagestan is rightly considered by the specialists
to be untrustworthy as it is the exact copy of Armenian alphabet given in
Armenian manuscripts. The archaeological discoveries promised that Albanian
texts would eas-ily be deciphered as it was known what language to attribute it
to and the alphabet with its corresponding meanings was at hand. Specialists
from a number of countries participated in deciphering the inscriptions. But the
promise was not fulfilled. Each specialist began everything from the begin-ning
not taking into consideration specific results of his predecessors. Nowadays, it
has become evident to everybody that despite some minor successes in deciphering
Albanian script, all the attempts have ended in a deadlock. Albanian alphabet
given in the Armenian manuscript has been rewritten several times by a scribe
who did not know the script he reproduced. He sometimes makes mistakes in
shaping the letters. Albanian graphemes re-semble Armenian ones that are
familiar to him. As a result it makes it diffi-cult to identify the graphemes of
the alphabet and the graphemes of the cor-pus of the inscriptions. The writer
sometimes makes mistakes in giving pho-netic meaning of the graphemes (the same
mistakes that we can easily check are made concerning Georgian and Greek
alphabets); the phonematic meaning of Albanian alphabet, presented in the
manuscript is given by means of Armenian phonetics that inevitably causes great
differences, as 36 phonemes in Armenian language cannot reproduce 52 phonemes in
Alba-nian alphabet. Most number of Albanian corpus of inscriptions are the
graf-fiti, where the outline of the letters depends on the material, the skill
of the author and his own handwriting. Only 32 graphemes out of probable 52 ones
have been proved to be in the corpus of inscriptions. The lack of long and
continuous text makes it impossible to scheme various data. We could not be
entirely sure that Albanian writing must be deciphered by means of Udian
language as Gargarian language is mentioned in the sources. It is certain that
the Udian language that is today spoken only by some thousand people, is rather
far from old Albanian language. All these difficulties be-came evident in the
process of attempts to decipher Albanian writings. They proved to be futile. New
blood transfusion for Albanian studies became nec-essary. Precisely 60 years ago
A. Shanidze wrote: "We should hope that by means of special researches and
archaeological excavations in Azerbaijan (and first of all on the adjoining
territory with Bardav) Albanian written texts will be found. Some clues to them
have already been found. Besides, it is possible that sometime and somewhere in
some library, among the pal-impsests there will be found some fragments of
manuscripts in Albanian language". The first hope was realized 10 years
after those words had been written and 60 years later was realised another
prediction. What view shall we take of the newly discovered Albanian texts and
what can we therefore state? We have to remember that these are texts which have
not been yet rewritten and consequently have not been deci-phered. 1 .We are now
certain that Albanian literature has existed and did not die in the bud. 2. The
discovered text (or even texts) is written in the same high stan-dard as similar
texts in Armenian and Georgian. It is written in two columns in delicate uncial,
bold and well-trained handwriting. It has initial letters with punctuation and
abbreviation markings. There are some commentaries or notes about the paragraphs
on the borders written in small letters. Head-ings are written in bold letters
as compared to the text. According to the all aforementioned features, Albanian
writing kept up with its contemporary Armenian and Georgian written culture. 3.
The Albanian text must be an ecclesiastical work. Typologically, it does not
differ from the similar Georgian and Armenian written monuments. According to
common features, the palimpsests take after the Georgian-Jewish palimpsest of
6-7th cc., kept in the Bodleian library in Oxford. Ac-cording to the sources,
the Albanians had translated the books of Prophets, Apostles and the Four
Gospels. As far as the text has not been deciphered yet, I consider that
Albanian text may likely be the Acts of the Apostles. 4. To say that Albanian
texts had not been searched for among the pal-impsests would be untrue. But the
main mistake was that they were mainly searched for among Armenian manuscripts.
A. Shanidze also, wrote about it: "such fragments can likely be found in
Armenian manuscripts. I have worked in this direction in Echmiadzin in 1924, but
without any results". The thing is that the time of the development of
Albanian Christian litera-ture dates to the 5-7 th cc, and especially to the 6-7
th cc., when it keeps close connections to the Georgian Church. It is
independent at this stage and is confined to reconciling the doctrines of Zeno's
Henoticon between the diophysites and the monophysites. Later on it opposes the
Armenian Church, and allies itself with Chalcedonian and Georgian Churches. It
is the only time of its free development. But from about 720 onwards it was
strongly affected by the influence of the Monophysite Armenian Church. According
to the sources, the Armenian Church burnt the Albanian literature considered to
be diophysite. Consequently the Monophysite Albania changed to Armenian language
and script. Thus, the diophysite world, and particularly Georgia, affords
greater chances for the survival of the frag-ments of Albanian written language.
How did the palimpsests with this Albanian text come to Mount Sinai? It is
evident that the manuscript was being kept untouched till the 10th c. Evi-dently,
some people knew its importance throughout all this time and it still was in
demand. The manuscript was very likely reused either on Mount Si-nai or
somewhere in the Palestinian region. It was normal for the 10th c. Sinai book
makers to reuse the manuscript or to reuse the torn parts of old manuscripts for
sewing new ones, as there was a great shortage of parch-ments. This fact is
proved by the great amount of palimpsests in Sinai col-lections and by notes on
the shortage of parchment in colophons. The Albanian Church considered Elisha (Elisei),
one of the 70 Apostles of Christ, who was ordained by James, brother of the
Savour, to be its illu-minator. He came from Jerusalem and this explains the
special attraction of the Albanian Church to the Holy Land and this would also
cause the prob-ability of their pilgrimage to that place. Moses Kalankatuatsi
gives an ac-count of Albanian churches and monasteries in Jerusalem, with their
names and exact pointing to the places of location. Besides, he gives precise
infor-mation about Albanian clergymen in the churches in the 10th c., about
those churches where Christian Arabs held services and about those that are in
the possession of Arabs, not implying whether these Arabs are Christians or not.
Moses Kalankatuatsi gives the overall number of Armenian and Albanian churches
in Jerusalem and however exaggerated the number ( more than a hundred) it is
still rather impressive. Evidently, Moses Kalankatuatsi (even may be Moses
Daskhurantsi, 10th c.) means the monophysite Albanian Churches. But in 4-7 th
cc. they ought to have been Chalcedonian ones. As we can see there are two ways
for Albanian manuscripts to come to Mount Sinai. A). The Albanian manuscript
came into Georgia in the hands of Chal-cedonian Albanians after the Albanian
Church became monophysite. Within a certain period of time there was no one left
who could read it and in the 10th c. the manuscript was washed away. A new text
was rewritten on the previous one and was donated to Mount Sinai. B). After the
Albanian Church became monophysite, the text that had been made in the
Chalcedonian Albanian circle of Palestine, came to Mount Sinai either via St.
Saba or a Georgian monastery in Jerusalem . Georgians (or even Albanians who had
become Georgians and brought the manuscript as a relic to the Mount Sinai) could
not understand the Albanian text. The shortage of parchment made him wash away
the text and write a new Geor-gian text anew. Incidentally, G. Klimov has
supposed the possibility of finding Albanian text outside the territory of the
Caucasia. In 1984, in the "Junior Philologist Encyclopaedia" he wrote:
"New discoveries can be ex-pected not only in the Transcaucasia, but even
in historical centres of for-eign Christian East". 5. Two palimpsests with
Albanian texts, enumerating 170 folios, with 12 fragments have survived. The
lower text in many cases has been so much washed away that it is impossible to
read it. It is still difficult to say how many pages will possibly be read by
means of applying special equipment. I suspect that the entire number of the
pages will not be less than 100. Luck-ily, there are pages that can easily be
read even now. Thus, a continuous text exists and there is a possibility that we
can decipher it, even though the Al-banian alphabet found in 1937 cannot always
provide evidence. At this point I have got the entire microfilms of both
manuscripts. I have reproduced 10 pages of the Albanian text and three frames
(two pages of the open book from both manuscripts). On the bases of this
material was composed the Albanian alphabet that stands closer to the graphemes
of the inscriptions than to the alphabet from the Armenian manuscript. All the
words, with abbreviation markings are written out from the text that we have at
hand. We know in general the words and proper names that had such markings in
old texts. All this makes it possibile to read them, to state pho-netical
meanings of the graphemes and the case makings of the names, etc. Some words and
even bigger phrases are often repeated in the text. Ac-cording to the data of
the Udian language, the meaning of some words have been read and stated; there
are separated infinitive endings of the verbs. Before the Albanian text is fully
copied it is difficult to determine the exact number of the graphemes used in
it. We shall probably make mistakes in reading the lower text of the palimpsest,
since some of the graphemes may have lost distinctive details, or they have been
covered by the upper text and are therefore illegible. Some separate graphemes
may be confused with technical signs, etc. But it is evident that even the
preliminary reckon-ing of the number of graphemes given in the Albanian text is
very close to the number of the graphemes discovered by I. Abuladze. At present,
I can only say that this number may fluctuate between 50 and 56. The shape of
the letters of the Albanian text found on Mount Sinai is graphically rather
closer to the graphemes of the inscription corpus, than to the alphabet of the
Armenian manuscript. This is natural, as the Armenian manuscript is rather a
late one and the Armenian scribes sometimes distort the Albanian alphabet or
just write it in a similar way to the Armenian al-phabet. The graphemes of the
Sinai text and the corpus of inscriptions differ in just the way that neatly
written manuscripts differ from graffitis. Typo-logically, the graphemes of
Sinai manuscripts are very close to the Georgian and Armenian languages. But the
frequency of semblance with Georgian is a bit more than with the alphabet of an
Armenian letters. 20 graphemes of Georgian alphabet coincide with Albanian ones
without any difference though, evidently they differ in pronunciation. It is
interesting that in the layer of both manuscripts Armenian text can also be
read. Thus 13 and 55 manuscripts of new Georgian collection from St. Catherine's
library, actually embrace entire ancient Christian Caucasia. Despite other
discoveries, this single fact would bear greatest historical and symbolic
importance to display the unity of Christian Caucasia. It seems that the
Armenian text in N/Sin-55 is mainly written in one col-umn, in bold capital (Erkatagir)
letters, horizontally along Georgian text. Conventionally we shall call it
"Arm. I", though there are some pages with Armenian text written in
small, thin letters, in one column, in Erkatagir writing, and like Albanian it
reads perpendicularly to Georgian text (con-ventionally called
"Arm.2"). In N/Sin-13 the text is written in the second type manner.
This indicates that the Georgian scribe uses different Armenian manuscripts to
create two Georgian manuscripts. At present I can only state that Armenian text
in both Manuscripts can be traced with the naked eye, only on 20 pages. The
"Arm.l" paleographically is evidently very old. It may be placed
between 5-7th c. According to our present knowledge of Armenian paleog-raphy the
"Arm.2" should be considered to be written in later period but its
'terminus ante quern' is 9th c. as far as the Georgian text is written on it at
the beginning of the 10th c. Besides, the "Arrn.2" also bears some
evidences indicating that it had been written in the earlier times than the 9th
c. These features are as follows: there is no evidence of titles, that means
that they were used infrequently; no separation marks can be traced; letters are
writ-ten strictly between two lines and only P ("Pure") and K ("Ke")
letters stretch beyond the line; There are no initial letters either, even
though, there should be some, still they were not expected to be found at
present places; partially rounded letters have the shape of crescent, etc. The
question of correlation of the Armenian text with the Albanian is likely to
arise immediately. Do we have three texts successively written on one another or
is there no connection between Armenian and Albanian? At present I consider it
difficult to give a decisive answer to this question. The whole text should be
studied by ultra-violet filming and computer pro-grammes. At this stage, it
seems to me that Armenian and Albanian are pre-sented by different manuscripts
in the 10th c. Georgian manuscripts. Though one open folio enables us to think
that the "Arm.2" could be written under Albanian or on top of it. At
this stage, I think, the most correct conclusion is that the "Arm. 1"
should be regarded to be written between the 5th and the middle of the 6th cc.,
that is the times before the II Dvin Council, in the epoch of accord of
Georgian, Armenian and Albanian Churches. The "Arm.2" must be written
at the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th cc. in the times of unity of
Caucasian Churches on the Monothelite bases. We are facing the possibility of
making a new step in Caucasian studies. A new unknown Christian world is
revealing itself to us. Today, we can say that we shall soon have in hand the
precise alphabet of one of the original written languages in the world; we shall
have a chance of reading a literary monument or monuments of the language of a
nation that has long ago been lost. This discovery will not only be valuable to
any scholars of Caucasian languages but also for general linguistics. It will
enable the specialists to study the literary languages dating back not later
than the 8th c. And finally, this will enable us to be more unbiased when
reading many more documen-tary sources on the history of Albania and to reshape
ethnic origin and the history of the Albanian nation. Before concluding this
paper I should like to acknowledge here my debt and my sincere thanks to His
Eminence Archbishop of Sinai Damianos, Li-brarian of the St. Catherine
monastery, Father Dimitrios and all the monas-tery bretheren for their
never-failing support and hospitality.
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