Ashtishat

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Aschtischat ( Armenian Աշտ իշա տ ), also Aštišat, Ashtishat was in antiquity a place of worship with shrines for three with Zoroastrianism associated gods and in early Christian times, the first religious center of Christian Armenians in the Armenian Canton Taron whose position about today's Province Muş corresponds to in eastern Turkey . Legend has it that Gregory the Illuminator destroyed the pagan temples at the beginning of the 4th century and founded the first Armenian church building in their place.

In the following two centuries, Taron was more connected to the Syrian-Christian tradition, while Vagharschapat was the religious center of the Armenians with Hellenistic influences and the Byzantine faith. In 484 the seat of the head of the church ( Catholicos ) was relocated from Ashtishat in the Byzantine Empire to Dvin in the Persian east of Greater Armenia . This was an essential step towards the separation of the Armenian Apostolic Church from the Chalcedonian Church of the Byzantines, which took place a little later .

No remains of the old Ashtischat have survived. The Anabaptist monastery ( Surb Karapet ) founded in its place preserved the importance of the holy place as a pilgrimage destination until the 19th century. Around 1915 the monastery was completely destroyed. The name of today's Kurdish village Çengili ("Square of the Bells") is a reminder of Christian history .

location

Coordinates: 38 ° 57 ′ 40 ″  N , 41 ° 11 ′ 30 ″  E

Relief Map: Turkey
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Ashtishat​
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Turkey

The former canton of Taron belonged to the Turuberan province and formed the southwestern heartland of the historic Greater Armenian settlement area in the Armenian highlands , next to the eastern part on the middle reaches of the Arax (historical Airarat province, larger than today's Ararat province in the center of the Republic of Armenia ). The Taron plain is drained by the Murat , which flows to the west of the Euphrates . The numerous tributaries of the Murat and the fertile volcanic soils of the basin have always provided favorable settlement opportunities, which explains the many places of worship that have been handed down in the area. Bounded by mountain regions that are difficult to pass, the Murat Valley was an ancient trade route in an area that had existed since the 6th millennium BC. Chr. Is continuously settled until today.

The oldest Armenian historical source Buzandaran Patmut'iwnk ' ("Epic story") reports about Aschtischat , which is assigned to an author named Faustus of Byzantium and probably received its well-known version around 470, as well as a more incidental, under the pseudonymous Greek author name Agathangelos ( “Bearer of good news”) work handed down in the 6th century. According to the Agathangelos , Ashtishat was on the summit of the Karke mountain above the Euphrates (meaning its tributary Murat, also "Eastern Euphrates", in Armenian Aratsani) opposite the Taurus Mountains . According to Faustus, who may have been born in Taron, two rivers converged below Ashtishat. The city of Mtsurk (also Mtsuin, Mtsbin) is said to have been located in the vicinity, in which the Arsakid king Sanatruk, who ruled at the end of the 1st century AD, had built a palace. An anonymous medieval author known as Pseudo- Sebeos reports on the palace . In his geography of the 4 continents (Armenian, first part: Venice 1806), the mechitarist L. Injijean from Venice connects Ashtischat with the village of Surb Sahak at the foot of a mountain, six hours east of the village of Surb Karapet, which is also at the foot of a mountain. The church of the monastery of Surb Sahak had Timur demolished in order to rebuild a destroyed bridge over the Euphrates two hours away with the stones. According to this information, Vital Cuinet located in his geographic-statistical work ( La Turquie d'Asie - Géographie Administrative, Paris 1896) Aschtischat in a certain Dérig, where a bridge over the Euphrates was.

Other experts at the turn of the 20th century moved Ashtishat to the site of the Surb Karapet monastery , which has been widely accepted since then. In the 12th century, Aristakes Lastivertatzi described Armenian history between 981 and 1071, especially the collapse of the Bagratid Empire of Ani . In an addition to this work from the 13th century it says:

“In this year (1158/9) the Seljuks also built the beautiful house (palace) of St. Forerunner on fire, which Hrahat, one of the procurators of the great Gregor (Magistros), son of Wassak, had built with great difficulty when they (the Pahlawunians) were still masters of the country; also the vestibule ( Zamatun ), which in front of St. Forerunners, which he set up with well-fitting (well-considered) preparation for the honor and glory of the great witness and forerunner of Christ; other buildings and the wooden church known as St. Gregor calls (set them on fire). It was the year 507 of our era (= 1058 AD) when this happened. "

This description probably refers to the Surb Karapet monastery and its predecessor building, legendarily built by St. Gregory.

Surb Karapet was about 35 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital Muş , which at that time was called Taron, in a hilly area on the right (northern) side of the Murat. Other monasteries in the vicinity of Taron were Yeghrduti Vank , a secondary medieval pilgrimage destination, which was about 20 kilometers west of Taron, and the Apostle Monastery ( Surb Arakelots ), four kilometers south of the city. On his trip to the Orient in October 1843, Karl Heinrich Koch also saw the village of Hatsekats (Hac'ekac ', Hatsik), the birthplace of Mesrop Maschtoz (around 360-440 ), the inventor of the Armenian script. Koch reports: “Among them, the Armenian guide showed us Chatzig, a village in a northerly direction and four hours from Musch, where the inventor of the Armenian and Greetings alphabet, of which he discovered the former in AD 406, G. should have given, was born. ".

Ancient place of worship

Aschtischat in the historic canton of Taron west of Lake Van.

Heinrich Hübschmann derives Aschtischat (Aštišat) from Ašti , a shortened Persian name and šat , "joy". He rejects the old interpretation of yašt , Middle Persian “sacrifice”, about yaštišat in the meaning “place of sacrifice” as folk etymological, because he considers Aštišat to be the older word.

189 BC BC founded. Artashes I (r. 189-160 v. Chr.) The realm of artaxiad dynasty and took the Seleucid province Taron from. The first capital of this Armenian kingdom, which ruled Greater Armenia until the Romans came to power , was Artaxata near the present-day city of Artashat , followed by Dvin and Vagharschapat, all of which were in the old province of Airarat, and Tigranokerta in the south of Greater Armenia . In addition to these political capitals, Ashtishat was the religious center of the Armenians. Taron and other satrapies in the south had a certain autonomy vis-à-vis the Armenian center of power, although nothing is known about the exact political relationships. With the division of the empire with the Treaty of Nisibis in 299, the southern areas came under Roman influence.

The ancient Armenian religion took up the cults and myths of the Urartians . From the rule of the Achaemenids from the 6th to the 4th century BC. BC and later under the Arsacids , the cultural influence from the Iranian highlands dominated . A syncretistic religion emerged that integrated gods from Zoroastrianism into the local ancient Armenian pantheon. The Armenians identified themselves in general with the Urartian culture, from which they took over viticulture, and in the same way, for example, by taking over hunting as a status symbol of the kings with their Iranian models. This oriental culture came after Alexander the Great's conquest against the Persians around 330 BC. Hellenistic influences from the west.

One of the most revered ancient Armenian deities was Anahit , who formed a triad of gods together with Aramazd and Vahagn and who was worshiped in three sanctuaries (Armenian bagin ) in Ashtishat . Originating from the Iranian goddess of water and fertility Anahita and with parallels to the Greek Artemis , she developed into a powerful protective goddess in Armenia, whose reputation is expressed in her name. It means "untainted", "immaculate" (Verneinungs-prefix Toggle faces ahita , "tainted", "dirty"). The popular goddess was nicknamed "Mother of Gold", as it is written in the Agathangelus in the report about her temple in Ashtishat. Accordingly, by the time Saint Gregory arrived in the city, the temple ( mehean ) was richly filled with gold and silver treasures offered by great kings. The first sanctuary was dedicated to the fire and war god Vahagn, comparable to the Greek Heracles , and the second to Anahit. The third temple was called the room of the Vahagn and was dedicated to his companion Astghik (Armenian "asterisk"). In Agathangelos , Astghik is equated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite . Moses von Choren reports that the most important Artaxid king Tigranes II (ruled around 95-55 BC) introduced the Astghik cult imported by the Greeks. The charm of the Astghik, who tries to seduce young men, still lives on in the Armenian popular belief.

The main temple of Anahit was in Eriza near the modern city of Erzincan , where , according to the Agathangelus , the Armenian king Trdat III. (ruled around 298 - around 330) made sacrifices in his first year of reign and got into a dispute with St. Gregory about it. In addition to Ashtishat there was another Anahit temple in Artaxata, and there were places of worship in the Vaspurakan area . In Bagaran (“place of gods”) on today's Turkish-Armenian border, Anahit was worshiped in an oracle cult together with Tir, the god of wisdom and scripture corresponding to Apollo .

Early Christian History and Legends

50,000- dram note, introduced in 2001 on the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the conversion of Trdate by Gregory.

According to legend, the Christianization of Armenia began with the apostles Thaddäus (Syrian Addai) and Bartholomew in the 1st century. According to church tradition, Thaddäus was a martyr in the castle of Anggh in the southern Armenian province of Sophene . The return to the first church disciples took place in order to delimit the Armenian church from the Byzantine church and to attest it an independent, "apostolic" origin, which is, however, doubted by the Byzantines. The Orthodox Churches in the Byzantine tradition let the Armenian Church begin with Gregory, who was sent to the east by the Byzantine head of the church in Caesarea (today Kayseri ) with a missionary order. For the autocephalous character, however, the mediation of the Byzantine Church must be excluded. In the 2nd century there were possibly Armenian Christians in greater numbers in the 3rd century. The church history of Eusebius mentions Armenian martyrs and bishops in these two centuries. In a letter to a certain Meruzanes (Greek; Armenian: Meruzhan), Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria (officiated 248–265) writes of the "Brothers in Armenia". Meruzanes was evidently Bishop of Sophene. The letter has not survived and apart from his Armenian name nothing is known about the bishop. The persecution of Armenian Christians is reported for the year 230 and again for the period from 287 to 301.

The Christianization from the Syrian area ( starting from Antioch ) of southern Greater Armenia in the first centuries is only considered provisional; The actual transition of Greater Armenia to Christianity is seen with reference to the depiction of Agathangelus only in the conversion of King Trdate IV at the beginning of the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator, who came from the Hellenistic Cappadocia . The stories by Gregor and Trdat have mythical features. First King Trdat acted as an evil persecutor of Christians and imprisoned Gregory for 13 (15) years in a cave (near the Khor Virap monastery ). As a punishment, according to a legend that shows Old Testament parallels, he was transformed into a boar and only received human form again through a miracle by Gregory. This legend and the martyrdom of the virgins Hripsime and Gayane and their companions are at the core of Armenian hagiography .

The official year of Trdate's conversion is 301. On this date, Armenia celebrated 1700 years of Christianity. According to historians, this event, which made Christianity the state religion in Armenia, is very likely to be the year 314. That year Gregory returned to Airarat to the east from Cappadocia, where he had been ordained bishop by church leader Leontius at a synod in Caesarea. On the way he destroyed the temples of Ashtishat and Bagaran. King Trdat expected Gregory on his return at a place near Vagharschapat (Etchmiadzin), where the Zvartnots Cathedral was later built. The fact that Greater Armenia was converted as a whole and the first religious center was founded in Vagharschapat, as stated in the Agathangelos , established a tradition that actually only refers to the north of the Arsakid Empire in the cooperation of Gregor and Trdat . This gives the geographical allocation of the place names that occur. The oldest of several text variants handed down under the name Agathangelos comes from the 560s and was written in Armenian. The author describes himself as an eyewitness to Gregory's mission, which cannot be true because the Armenian script was only introduced at the beginning of the 5th century.

The oldest Armenian source, the "Epic History" ( Buzandaran ) of Faustus of Byzantium from the second half of the 5th century, sees the missionary work of St. Gregory connected with the Syrian tradition of the apostle Thaddäus. Accordingly, the mother church of the Armenian Christians was in Ashtishat in southern Taron. Here the first altar was set up in the name of the Lord. The word "mother church of Armenia", used several times in Buzandaran, should probably remind of the oldest church of the Syrian Christians in Antioch. While the Buzandaran refers to the special importance of the church in Ashtishat, Ashtishat appears only marginally in the later Agathangelos . Instead, Vagharschapat is reported as the leading religious center.

The simultaneous use of Greek and Syriac as the liturgical languages speaks against the alleged unity of the early Armenian Church and for its geographical division into a southern area with the center of Ashtishat and a northern area around Vagharschapat with a Hellenistic-Byzantine culture . which were used before the official adoption of Armenian in the early 5th century. The intensive contacts that have existed with the Susiana district (in Chusistan ) on the Persian Gulf since the 4th century at the latest , as reported by several Armenian sources beginning with the Buzandaran and up to the 10th century , also speak against the one-sided Christianization from Hellenistic Cappadocia . From there, Persian traders and missionaries came to Armenia with heretical teachings. Unlike the Armenian tradition, Nina Garsoïan notes a dominance of the Syrian tradition in the early Armenian church, which continued into the 5th century.

This Syrian tradition is also represented by Mesrop Maschtoz, who is considered the inventor of the Armenian (and Georgian) alphabet and was born in the village of Hatsekats in Taron, as his biographer Koriun (work 440s) indicates. This would mean that Mesrop Mashtots was a follower of a faith that was condemned as " Nestorians " by the Armenians in several councils in the 5th and 6th centuries . Mashtots spoke Syrian and some Greek as a second language alongside Armenian. According to a remark by the historian Ghazar Parpetsi (around 442 - early 6th century), however, neither he nor the fellow believers around him knew enough Greek to translate the Bible from Greek into Armenian. Maschtoz's students, whom he sent to Edessa to translate the writings of the Syrian fathers , were able to do this right away, but also had trouble with the Greek texts that they were later to translate in Constantinople .

Gregory's son and successor in the office of Catholicos , Aristakes , was ordained in Caesarea, as were other successors up to the 5th century. Aristakes took part in the Council of Nicaea in 325 and officiated until 333. He was followed by Vrtanes (333–341), another son of Grigor. The Byzantine Church and the Catholikoi and bishops of the Gregorids (descendants of Gregory) still formed a unit at the end of the 4th century, in addition there were the bishops of the Aghbianids in southern Armenia, who were more inclined to Syrian Christianity. In addition, there was the division of Greater Armenia in 387 between the Roman Empire and the Sassanids , which meant the political separation between the centers of Ashtishat and Vagharschapat. The introduction of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Maschtoz is seen as an attempt to reunite the Armenians culturally in a time of religious and political turmoil.

Tradition of the holy place

The historical sources do not provide a description of the first Christian buildings; archaeological finds are also missing. Throughout ancient times there has been a tradition of sacred places of worship that has been upheld by different religions one after another. For example, archaeologists found a Zoroastrian fire altar under Zvartnots Cathedral. According to tradition, the importance of the pagan temples of Ashtishat was transferred to the first church building in Armenian history and other Christian cult buildings, which were built under St. Gregory and later. The Armenian art historian Toros Toramanian (1864–1934) developed an evolutionary theory according to which the oldest Armenian basilicas were built from long rectangular Urartean temples, to which an apse and side rooms were built on the east wall. Building studies of the examples he cited could not confirm his hypothesis. In the case of Ashtishat, it is based on the unreliable information provided by Zenob von Glag (9th / 10th centuries), who claims that Gregory had a church of the same size built over the site of the destroyed temple. In fact, there is no reliable information for a partial takeover of older structures in Ashtishat. Neither in the Buzandaran nor in the Agathangelos is there any mention of Ashtishat or other places where Gregory destroyed temples that they were built on old foundations. The temples were always destroyed “to the ground”, the temple land was given to the church and the temple treasures were distributed to the poor.

In Buzandaran , Ashtishat is alternately referred to as awan , "city" and as gewgh , "village". The church was fortified with an enclosure wall and there was a residence of the head of the church. Despite this meager description, Ashtishat appears to have been the original religious center of the Armenian Christians and Taron to have been a culturally significant region. This was the case at least until the middle of the 5th century. 440/441, Catholicos Sahak I , who died in Plour in the canton of Bagrewand (Airarat province), was buried in Aschtischat . Where exactly he was buried is not entirely clear; either, as the historian Koriun notes, in an existing burial chapel or in a building specially built for Sahak. Possibly this belonged to the type of the double chapel , in which, as in the first memorial building for Mesrop Maschtoz in Oschakan, there is a devotional chapel above the grave tomb on the upper floor. Ashtishat and Vagharschapat competed as religious centers with each other until 484. In that year the seat of the Catholicos was moved to the capital Dvin .

Numerous Armenian monasteries are legendarily ascribed to the apostles Thaddäus and Bartholomäus, St. Gregory or his grandson and later successor in the office of Catholicos, Grigoris, as well as the virgin martyr Hripsime or St. Jacob of Nisibis . The historical sources, on the other hand, give no evidence of the founding of monasteries before the 7th century, nor has any archaeological material emerged to prove the existence of pre-Islamic Armenian monasteries. Saint Gregory is reported to have settled in a cave on Mount Sepuh (Köhnem Dağı near Erzincan ) at the end of his life . A monastic community in the vicinity of Gregor's retreat first became historically tangible in 921. The founding of the Surb Karapet monastery is said to go back to Gregory himself. This is what it says at least in a two-part text entitled “The Story of Taro”, the first part of which is said to have been written in Syrian by a Syrian named Zenob Glag (Zenobius Glak) in the 4th century and later translated into Armenian . The second part is said to have been added by Yovhannes Mamikonean in the 7th century. Zenob claims to be a companion of Gregory and to have destroyed numerous pagan temples throughout Armenia with him around 304. The work, previously considered a particularly authentic source of history, turned out to be a forgery after recent investigations, which can be dated to the 9th or 10th century. So there is also a lack of reliable information on the founding of the important pilgrimage center Surb Karapet near Ashtishat.

For the faithful, the legend persisted until the 19th century that the bones of John the Baptist were kept in the monastery of Surb Karapet . They were first brought to Ephesus and later to Caesarea in the 1st century . From there, St. Gregory received them and distributed them in the area of ​​his first mission. In addition to Surb Karapet , Yeghrduti Vank came into possession of a smaller part of the bones. According to Agathangelus, the mules coming from Caesarea and laden with relics in a side valley of the Euphrates shied away from Ashtischat, so a mausoleum for John Prodromos (Greek "John the forerunner") was also built there. The first relic transfer is historically documented for the year 356, when apostle relics were brought to the Apostle Church in Constantinople. Around this time the cult of relics began to flourish in general.

The holy places of the Armenians, where relics were kept, were also given a magical significance by their Muslim neighbors, who are predominantly Kurds in the Muş region and around Lake Van . The Polish traveler Simeon Lehaci (1584–1639) wrote at the beginning of the 17th century that Muslims swore by Muratatur (“wish- fulfilling ”) Mšoy Sult'an Surb Karapet . The "Sultan of Mush" (alias John the Baptist , Surb Karapet ) enjoyed great veneration for his ability to grant wishes, and according to popular belief, he possessed this ability because he made use of the help of the Zoroastrian spirit beings ( Daevas ), who since lived under the monastery in ancient Armenian times. Especially the poor, the sick and the disabled should be helped, also among the Kurdish and Turkish Muslims. The continuity is also expressed in the Christian-Armenian Transfiguration Festival ( Wardawar ), which was once dedicated to the goddess Astghik. At this and other church festivals musicians performed in front of the monastery and praised Surb Karapet, the “wish-maker” in verse. A pilgrim's prize poem from the 14th century was preserved, which was varied many times in later centuries. Around the 18th century, when the tradition of epic folk singers ( aschugh ) was well established, Surb Karapet appears to have been the patron saint of the Armenian aschughs .

With the name Çengili ("Square of Bells") for the village on the site of the old Ashtischat and the monastery, which in the Middle Ages attracted attention with the ringing of bells, today's Kurds keep history in their minds.

literature

  • Nina G. Garsoïan: Taron as an early Christian Armenian center . In: Richard G. Hovannisian (Ed.): Armenian Bagesh / Bitlis and Taron / Mush. Mazda, Costa-Mesa (CA) 2001, pp. 59-69
  • Nina G. Garsoïan: Janus: The formation of the Armenian Church from the Ivth to the VIIth Century . In: R. Taft (Ed.): The Formation of a Millenial Tradition: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Witness (301-2001) . (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 271) Pontificio Instituto Orientale, Rome 2004, pp. 79-95
  • Nina G. Garsoïan: Introduction to the problem of early Armenian monasticism . In: Revue des Etudes Arméniennes 30 , 2005–2007, pp. 177–236
  • Annegret Plontke-Lüning: Early Christian architecture in the Caucasus. The development of Christian sacred buildings in Lazika, Iberia, Armenia, Albania and the border regions from the 4th to the 7th century (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Volume 359. Publications on Byzantium Research, Volume XIII) Verlag der Österreichische Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2007, pp. 173–176; Enclosed CD-ROM: Catalog of church buildings that have not been preserved in writing , p. 22, ISBN 978-3700136828
  • Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 2. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918 ( online at Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Strzygowski, Volume 2, pp. 610f
  2. ↑ Mitchell S. Rothman, Gülriz Kozbe: Muş in the Early Bronze Age. In: Anatolian Studies 47, 1997, pp. 105–126, here p. 108
  3. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Taron as an early Christian Armenian center , p. 59
  4. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: center Taron as of early Christian Armenian , p 64
  5. ^ Josef Strzygowski: The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 1. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918, p. 272 ​​( online at Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Heinrich Huebschmann : The old Armenian place names. With contributions to the historical topography of Armenia and a map. Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1904, p. 401; Literally taken from Josef Strzygowski, Volume 2, p. 660
  7. ↑ Rouben Paul Adalian: Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2002, pp. 123, 347
  8. ↑ In the Eastern churches the role of John the Baptist as a forerunner (herald) and forerunner of Jesus is emphasized more strongly. See Mark 1, 2–15  EU . The forerunner is called in Greek Πρόδρομος, Prodromos , and that is why John is also called Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Πρόδρομος (Saint John the forerunner).
  9. ↑ quoted from Josef Strzygowski, Volume 2, p. 660
  10. ^ Karl Heinrich Koch : Walks in the Orient, during the years 1843 and 1844 . Volume 2. Weimar 1846, p. 405 ( online at Google Books )
  11. ^ Heinrich Hübschmann, 1904, p. 401
  12. ↑ K. Ishkol-Kerovpian: Mythology of the pre-Christian Armenians. In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig , Carsten Colpe (ed.): Gods and myths of the Caucasian and Iranian peoples (= dictionary of mythology . Department 1: The ancient civilized peoples. Volume 4). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-12-909840-2 , pp. 83 f., 97 f.
  13. ↑ K. Ishkol-Kerovpian: Mythology of the pre-Christian Armenians, p. 85
  14. ^ W. St. Clair-Tisdall: The Conversion of Armenia to the Christian Faith. The Religious Tract Society, London 1897, p. 45
  15. ↑ K. Ishkol-Kerovpian: Mythology of the pre-Christian Armenians, p. 139
  16. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 143
  17. ↑ Sirarpie DerNersessian: Armenia and The Byzantine Empire. A Brief Survey of Armenian Art and Civilization. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1947, p. 30
  18. ^ Robert W. Thomson: Mission, Conversion, and Christianization: The Armenian Example. In: Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 12/13 (Proceedings of the International Congress Commemorating the Millennium of Christianity in Rus'-Ukraine) 1988/1989, pp. 28–45, here p. 30
  19. ↑ Bertold Spuler : The Armenian Church. In the other: Handbook of Oriental Studies . First division: The Near and Middle East . Second section: Religious history of the Orient in the time of the world religions. Brill, Leiden 1961, p. 240
  20. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 307
  21. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Janus: The formation of the Armenian Church from the IVth to the VIIth Century , p 83
  22. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Taron as an early Christian Armenian center , p. 59
  23. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 174
  24. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Janus: The formation of the Armenian Church from the IVth to the VIIth Century, pp. 84-86
  25. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Janus: The formation of the Armenian Church from the IVth to the VIIth Century, p 87
  26. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: center Taron as of early Christian Armenian , S. 65f
  27. ↑ Wolfgang Hage : The oriental Christianity . (The Religions of Mankind, Volume 29, 2) Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, p. 230
  28. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, pp. 144f
  29. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, pp. 265f
  30. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Early Mediaeval Armenian City: An Alien Element? ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Janes 16–17 , 1984/85, pp. 67–83, here p. 71, footnote 23 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jtsa.edu
  31. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Taron as an early Christian Armenian center , pp. 67-69
  32. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 176
  33. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 170
  34. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Introduction to the Problem of early Armenian monasticism , S. 185f
  35. ^ J. Kennedy: The Indians in Armenia. 130 BC – 300 AD In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. April 1904, pp. 309-314, here p. 309
  36. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Introduction to the problem of early Armenian monasticism , p. 189; Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 266: “10./11. Century "
  37. ^ Karl Heinrich Koch: Walks in the Oriente , p. 390
  38. ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 175
  39. ↑ "Giver of Wishes, Sultan von Musch, Surb Karapet". Compare the story Msho muratatur surp Karapet vanke ("The wish- fulfilling monastery of St. Karapet in Musch") by the Armenian writer Msho Gegham, actually Gegham Ter-Karapetian (1865-1918)
  40. ^ Theo Maarten van Lint: The Gift of Poetry: Khidr and John the Baptist as Patron Saints of Muslim and Armenian ʿĀšiqs - Asułs. In: Jan J. Ginkel, Hendrika Lena Murre-van den Berg, Theo Maarten van Lint (eds.): Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East Since the Rise of Islam. Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2005, pp. 352-355
  41. ↑ James R. Russell: The Bells: From Poe to Sardarapat. In: Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 21 , 2012, pp. 1–42, here p. 32
  42. ↑ James R. Russell: Raiders of the Holy Cross: The Ballad of the Karos Xač '(Cross of Celery) and the Nexus between Ecclesiastical Literature and Folk Tradition in Mediaeval Armenia. In: Josef Johannes Sicco Weitenberg (Ed.): New Approaches to Medieval Armenian Language and Literature. Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam 1995, pp. 87f