Athingans

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The Athinganen (Greek Ἀθίγγανοι, Athínganoi "the untouchables"), were a Gnostic sect of the 9th century in Phrygia , today's western Anatolia. Little is known about them; Timothy of Constantinople called them the Melchizedechites . They probably knew the Sabbath as the day of rest during the week , which may also bring them in connection with the Jewish faith (cf. the article on Hellenistic Judaism). The peculiarity of not touching anyone of a different faith or not being touched by him is said to have led to the creation of her name. In general, they seem to have had numerous do's and don'ts related to physical cleanliness.

Their continuation beyond the 9th century is not certain. It is sometimes assumed that they spread over Armenia , Asia Minor and the Balkans after the destruction of Tephrike (today's Divriği in the province of Sivas in Turkey ) . The word Atsinganoi that with the Byzantines , the immigrant Roma designated, and from which the German word Gypsy to be descended and its equivalents in other European languages (gr. Tsinganos , Turk. Çingene , bulgar. Tsigan , fr. Tsiganes etc.) is possibly a corrupted form of the name Athinganen.

literature

  • Joshua Starr: An Eastern Christian Sect: The Athinganoi . In: Harvard Theological Review XXIX, 2 (1936), pp. 93-106
  • Ilse Rochow: The heresy of the Athingans in the 8th and 9th centuries and the question of their survival . In: Helga Köpstein , Friedhelm Winkelmann (eds.), Studies on the 8th and 9th Centuries in Byzanz , Berlin 1983 (= Berlin Byzantinist Works, 51), pp. 163–178
  • Paul Speck: The alleged heresy of the Athinganoi . In: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies 47 (1997), pp. 37–50
  • Ioannis A. Panagiotopoulos: Περὶ Ἀθιγγάνων. Πολιτικὴ καὶ θρησκεία στὴ βυζαντιὴ αὐτοκρατορία [About the Athingans. Politics and Religion in the Byzantine Empire] , Athens 2008.
  • Benedikt Wolf: "Without God, without a father, no part of society". On the virulence of the premodern discourse about the 'Athinganoi' in Greek antiziganism . In: Alexandra Bartels u. a. (Ed.), Antiziganistischeusten 2. Critical Positions Against Violent Conditions , Münster 2013, pp. 74–99.
  • Benedikt Wolf: Helpers of the enemy. From the heresy of the Athinganoi to the "tribe" of the Atsinganoi. In: Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma (ed.), Antiziganism. Social and historical dimensions of "Gypsy" stereotypes , Heidelberg 2015, pp. 18–37. [1]