Abraham of Crete

Abraham III von Kreta (Kretac'i; * in Heraklion , Crete ; † April 18, 1737 in Etschmiadzin ) was a Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church and an important chronicler from 1734–1737 .

Life

Details about family, youth and upbringing are not known, except that he spoke Turkish , Armenian and some Greek . As a monk and member of the higher hierarchy of his church, he was subject to duty of celibacy. Abraham was the Armenian bishop of Tekirdağ (Rodosto) and at the same time the Armenian prelate for Thrace ( Ottoman Empire ) from 1708 to 1734. In 1719/20 he visited Jerusalem . In April 1734 he went as a pilgrim to the holy shrines in Dhu l-qaʿda in Greater Armenia (Persian Armenia ). During his visit to Yerevan , he impressed the Catholicos Abraham II of Echmiadzin so much with his religiousness that he named him as his successor in November 1734. Despite his protests that he was too old and too sick, he was named Abraham III. anointed Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Ottoman governor of Yerevan, Hācī Ḥüseyin Pasha, was pleased to see an Ottoman citizen at the top of the Armenian church hierarchy and saw to it that the Sublime Porte quickly confirmed it . His term of office lasted just under three years, until his death on April 18, 1737. In this relatively short time he visited many monasteries and ensured extensive privileges from the Persian government for his church.

His time in Armenia fell during the armed conflicts between Nadir Khan, the later Nadir Shah († 1747), successor to the deposed Shah Tahmasp II († 1739), and the Ottomans. In the years 1734–1736, Nadir Shah was able to recapture the Ottoman-occupied areas of Eastern Armenia and Georgia .

Patmut`iwn

In the last two years of his life, Abraham wrote his only work, an important historical source chronicle ( Patmut`iwn ) about the current events in Armenia. He describes in detail the arrival of Nadir Khan in the province of Yerevan, the campaigns against the Ottomans and Nadir's coronation as a Shah on March 8, 1736 in the Mugansteppe . This chronicle is one of the few non-Persian accounts of the events of these years and is more detailed than contemporary Persian works.

Abraham laments the poor living conditions in northern Persia and Transcaucasia during the Ottoman occupation since 1723. Requests of cattle and other food were the order of the day and drove some villages to ruin. He describes famine, lack of money and a serious epidemic (possibly cholera or typhus ) that killed many people. Although he was an Ottoman citizen himself, he sees Persian rule as the better one, probably also because of the church privileges granted to him by Nader Shah. He also describes the new Persian governor Ibrahim Khan very positively, despite his original concern for his community.

The qurulta'i (deliberation) that preceded Nader's coronation is detailed in the chronicle, as is the fact that it established the new Afshar dynasty . The description of the ceremonies, including the order of the dishes, the music and the dance, also takes up a lot of space. Abraham describes the audiences, the troops, their weapons and clothing, the delegations and guests much more precisely than Persian reports do. A description of the Mugansteppe follows, with the description of two bridges built especially for the festivities over the rivers Aras and Kura .

Armenian, Greek, Albanian and Bosnian troops in the Ottoman army are mentioned by him as noteworthy, especially since the Armenians and Greeks were probably not Muslims and therefore they usually did not have to face the army. As a counterpart, he describes the deployment of Armenian volunteers in the Battle of Eghvard on June 19, 1735, who contributed to the victory over the Ottomans.

The chronicle is written in a very clear style and the author is unlikely to have used any other sources for it. The first publication took place in Calcutta in 1796 , the second in Echmiadzin in 1870. A French translation by Brosset appeared in 1876, a Russian and Armenian annotated edition in 1973 in Yerevan. In 1968 a Persian abridged version was published, the English translation was done in 1999 by George A. Bournoutian.

Manuscripts

• Yerevan, Matenadaran Archives, Mss. 1387, 1674, 2616, 2622, 2722, 5026, 6974, 7130.
• Jerusalem , Archives of the Armenian Patriarchate, Mss. 699, 959.
• Vienna , library in the Mechitarist Museum in Vienna, Mss. 616,840.

Translations

• Marie-Felicite Brosset: Mon Histoire et celle de Nadir, Chah de Perse, par Abraham de Créte, Catholicos. In: Collection d'histoiriens arméniens, Volume 2, St. Petersburg 1876. (French)
• The Chronicle of Abraham of Crete . Mazda, Costa Mesa 1999, ISBN 1-56859-082-2 (English with annotations).

literature

• George A. Bournoutian: Abraham of Crete. February 2006. In: C. Kafadar, H. Karateke, C. Fleischer: Historians of the Ottoman Empire. Harvard University. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, ISBN 978-0-9762727-0-0 , pp. 97-99. [1]

Web links

• Abraham of Crete on seizure of power and coronation of Nadir Shah (English; PDF; 183 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Patmut'iwn Abrahamu Kat'oghikosi Kretats'woy. Calcutta 1796.
2. ↑ Abraham Kat'oghikosi Kretats'woy patmut'iwn. Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin) 1870.
3. ↑ Patmut'iwn. (critical edition) Erevan (Yerevan) 1973.
4. ↑ Sepanta / Hananyan: Montaḫabāti az yaddashthā-ye Abrāham Karoghikos ḫalīfe-ye a'zam-e aramanī. (“Selection of reports from Abraham, the head of the Armenians”), Vāḥid (Tehran) 1968.