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Moses of Chorene
Movses Khorenatsi's statue in front of the Matenadaran in Yerevan.
Born	circa 410 AD Taron, Armenia
Died	490s AD Armenia
Occupation	Historian
Known for	History of Armenia
Notes
It has also been suggested that Movses was born in Syunik. See Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, pp. 13-14.

Movses Khorenatsi (Template:Lang-hy, Armenian pronunciation: [movsɛs χoɹɛnɑtsʰi], Movses of Khoren; also written Movsēs Xorenac‘i, Movses Khorenats'i; circa 410 – 490s AD) was an Armenian historian and author of the History of Armenia. He is credited with the earliest known historiographical work on the history of Armenia, but was also a poet, or hymn writer, and a grammarian. Although other Armenians, such as Agatangeghos, had written histories of Armenia, Movses' work holds particular significance because it records the old oral traditions in Armenia during its pagan era and, more importantly, traces Armenian history from Movses' day to its origins. For this, he is considered to be the "father of Armenian history" (patmahayr), and is sometimes referred to as the "Armenian Herodotus."

Biography

Early life and education

Movses was believed to have been born in the village of Khorni (also spelled as Khoron) in the Armenian province of Taron 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 Greek to 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 Greek and Syriac languages, as well as to learn grammar, oratory, theology and philosophy.

Return to Armenia

The students left Armenia sometime between 432 to 435. After studying in Alexandria for five to six years, Movses and his fellow classmates returned to Armenia, only to find that Mesrop and Sahak had died. Movses expressed his grief in a lamentation at the end of History of Armenia:

While they awaited our return to celebrate their student’s accomplishments , we hastened from Byzantium, expecting that we would be dancing and singing at a wedding...and instead, I found myself grieving at the foot of our teachers' graves...I did not even arrive in time to see their eyes close nor hear them speak their final words.

To further complicate their problems, the atmosphere in Persian Armenia that Movses and the other students had returned to was one that was extremely hostile and they were viewed at with contempt by the native population. While later Armenian historians blamed this on an ignorant populace, Persian ideology and policy also lay 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.

The Catholicos of Armenia Gyut (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 and, being either a Chalcedonian Christian or at least tolerant of them (since Movses was also Chalcedonian), brought his friend back from seclusion and appointed him to be a bishop in Bagrevan.

History of Armenia

Serving as a bishop, Movses was approached by Sahak Bagratuni, who, having heard of Movses' reputation, asked him to write a history of the Armenians, especially the biographies of Armenian kings and the origins of the Armenian nakharar families. Movses agreed to do so and he finished his book sometime in the time period of 483-485. One of his primary reasons for taking up Sahak Bagratuni's request is given in the first book of Patmutyun Hayots, or History of Armenia: "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." 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 490s.

Authorship and works

Many scholars doubt that Movses wrote the work in the fifth century due to historical inconsistencies, refer to him as "Pseudo-Movses", and dated him and the History to the seventh to ninth centuries. Stepan Malkhasyants, an Armenian philologist and expert of classical Armenian literature, likened this to a "competition", whereby one scholar attempted to outperform the other in their criticism of Movses. Although some claim that these views have now been discredited and "much of this criticism has been rejected," others believe that Movses is not the true author of the work and criticize it heavily as a historical source.

Robert W. Thomson, a philologist and the holder of the chair in Armenian studies at Harvard University, who was a translator of several classical Armenian works, is one of the foremost of modern scholars to expound this theory. Thomson's dating of Khorenatsi and his characterization of the author met severe criticism in Armenia, where the English translation of History of Armenia appeared in 1978. Gagik Sargsyan, a leading scholar and biographer of Movses, as well as other scholars admonished Thomson for anachronistic "hypercriticism" and for stubbornly rehashing and "even exaggerating the statements once put forward" by the late 19th and early 20th century scholars, and in particular, those of Grigor Khalatyants (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' supposed falsification of sources was also countered by Sargsyan, who contended that Thomson was "treating a medieval author with the standards of modern scientific ethics."

The following works are also attributed to Movses:

• Treatise on Rhetoric
• Treatise on Geography
• Letter on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Homily on Christ's Transfiguration
• History of Hripsime and Her Companions
• Hymns used in Armenian Church Worship
• Commentaries on the Armenian Grammarians
• Explanations of Armenian Church Offices

Notes

1. Template:Hy icon Malkhasyants, Stepan. "Introduction" in Movses Khorenatsi's History of Armenia, 5th Century (Հայոց Պատմություն, Ե Դար). Gagik Sargsyan (ed.) Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing, 1997, pp. 6, 16. ISBN 5-5400-1192-9.
2. Chahin, Mack. The Kingdom of Armenia: A History. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2001, p. 181 ISBN 0-7007-1452-9.
3. For this reason, some have also referred to him as Movses of Taron.
4. Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, p. 7.
5. Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, p. 7.
6. Template:Hy icon Sargsyan, Gagik. «Մովսես Խորենացի» (Movses Khorenatsi). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. viii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1982, pp. 40-41.
7. Template:Hy icon Movses Khorenatsi. History of Armenia, 5th Century (Հայոց Պատմություն, Ե Դար). Annotated translation and commentary by Stepan Malkhasyants. Gagik Sargsyan (ed.) Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing, 1997, 3.68, p. 276. ISBN 5-5400-1192-9.
8. Hacikyan, Agop Jack, Gabriel Basmajian, Edward S. Franchuk, and Nourhan Ouzounian. The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age, Vol. I. Detroit: Wayne State University, 2000, p. 307. ISBN 0-8143-2815-6.
9. Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, p. 15.
10. Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, p. 16.
11. Movses Khorenatsi. History of Armenia, 1.4., pp. 70-71.
12. Hewsen, Robert H. "The Primary History of Armenia: An Examination of the Validity of an Immemorially Transmitted Historical Tradition." History in Africa, Vol. 2., 1975, pp. 91-100.
13. Hacikyan et al. Heritage of Armenian Literature, pp. 305-306.
14. Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, pp. 3-5.
15. Malkhasyants. "Introduction" in History of Armenia, p. 3.
16. Hacikyan et al. Heritage of Armenian Literature, p. 306.
17. See Robert W. Thomson's introduction in his translation of Movses' work, History of the Armenians, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978.
18. Ronald Grigor Suny. Constructing Primordialism: Old Histories for New Nations. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 73, No. 4 (Dec., 2001), pp. 862—896
19. Template:Hy icon Ter-Petrosyan, Levon. "Review of History of the Armenians." Patma-Banasirakan Handes. № 1 (88), 1980, pp. 268-270.
20. Nersessian, Vrej. "Review of History of the Armenians." Journal of Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 30: № 4, October 1979, pp. 479-480.
21. Sarkissian, Gaguik . The "History of Armenia" by Movses Khorenatzi. Trans. by Gourgen A. Gevorkian. Yerevan: Yerevan University Press, 1991, pp. 58-59.
22. Sarkissian. "History of Armenia" by Movses Khorenatzi, p. 76.
23. Sarkissian. "History of Armenia" by Movses Khorenatzi, p. 80.

Further reading

• Adonts, Nicholas. Armenia in the Period of Justinian: the Political Conditions Based on the Naxarar System. Translated with partial revisions, a bibliographical note, and appendices by Nina G. Garsoïan. Lisbon, 1970.
• Template:Hy icon Malkhasyants, Stepan. Խորենացու առեղծված շուրջը (About the Enigma of Khorenatsi). Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1940.
• Template:Hy icon Sargsyan, Gagik. Հելլենիստական դարաշրջանի Հայաստանը և Մովսես Խորենացին (Armenia in the Hellenistic Age and Movses Khorenatsi). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1966.
• Template:Hy icon ______________. Մովսես Խորենացու «Հայոց Պատմության» ժամանակագրական համակարգը. (The Chronological Structure of Movses Khorenatsi's History of Armenia).Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1965.
• Sarkissian, Gaguik . The "History of Armenia" by Movses Khorenatzi. Trans. by Gourgen A. Gevorkian. Yerevan: Yerevan University Press, 1991

External links

• Template:Ru icon Movses Khorenatsi. The History of Armenia.

• Armenian people
• Doctors of the Church
• History of Armenia
• Historians
• Armenian historians