Yeghrduti Vank

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Coordinates: 38 ° 45 ′ 2.8 ″  N , 41 ° 20 ′ 26.1 ″  E

Relief Map: Turkey
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Yeghrduti Vank​
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Turkey

Yeghrduti Vank ( Armenian Եղրդուտի վանք ), "Jeghrdut Monastery", was a medieval monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the eastern Turkish province of Mus . During its entire history, which according to legend goes back to early Christian times, the monastery was in the shadow of the monastery and important pilgrimage center Surb Karapet, a few kilometers away . Yeghrduti Vank still existed in the middle of the 19th century and was abandoned when the Armenians were expelled around 1915 at the latest . The ruin is known in the region today under the Kurdish name Dera Sor ("Red Church").

location

Yeghrduti Vank was about 20 kilometers west of the city of Muş in a grassy mountain area at the far end of a high valley. The wide end of the valley is surrounded on three sides by hills covered with coniferous forest and opens to the northeast to the plain of the Murat , which flows into the Euphrates in a westerly direction . The next village, Kızılağaç, is around three kilometers northwest on the foothills of the mountains. Farther north, beyond the Murat, was the Surb Karapet monastery, which could be seen from the local monastery, as was Süphan Dağı, called Masis by the Armenians, to the east . Another monastery in the vicinity of Mus was the Apostle Monastery ( Surb Arakelots ) four kilometers south of the city.

The area belonged to the former Armenian canton of Taron, which was part of the historic Armenian province of Turuberan. The fertile soils and the numerous tributaries of the Murat have offered good opportunities for settlement since ancient times and explain the many places of worship built here. Taron is also of religious historical importance for the Armenians because in Ashtischat , the site of the later Surb Karapet monastery, according to the Armenian historian with the Greek name Agathangelos, St. Gregory founded the first church on the way to Eastern Armenia at the beginning of the 4th century should. The oldest of the text variants handed down under the name Agathangelos ("bearer of good news") comes from the 560s. Agathangelus, who wrote in Armenian, 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. Nevertheless, it is likely that the sacred site of Ashtishat, founded on the site of a Zoroastrian temple, was the first religious center of the Armenians before Echmiadzin .

History and legends

Later churches were founded around the mother church of Ashtischat in Taron. Legends handed down by medieval Armenian historians, according to which monasteries were built in Taron or elsewhere in Armenian territory at the time of Gregory, do not withstand historical or archaeological scrutiny. There are no reliable references to monasteries in pre-Arab times (before the 7th century). This also calls into question the supposedly early founding of the famous Karapet Monastery.

For Surb Karapet and Yeghrduti Vank, who were associated with St. Gregory because of their location near Ashtishat, a legendary connection to the first Christian apostles seemed necessary, which was generally put forward to justify the early Christian demarcation of the Armenian from the Byzantine Church becomes. On his trip to the Orient in 1843/44, Karl Koch learned that the remains of John the Baptist were being kept in the two monasteries . They came to Ephesus in the 1st century and were brought to Caesarea in Cappadocia (today Kayseri ) because of the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius in 251 . St. Gregory received them from there 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. The monastery has the name Surb Hovhannes Vank ("Johanneskloster") and the nicknames Manra Vank ("place of the little things", read: the little bones), Madre Vank ("place of the little finger") and Madra Vank ("chapel place" ) receive.

The heyday of Taron, from which the expansion of the monasteries began, began at the end of the 10th century when the princes of the Mamikonian dynasty took over power in the province, and, like in Eastern Armenia, reached its peak in the 12th century. The monastery consisted of the main church Surb Hovhannes , which was located in a walled courtyard, as well as sacred and secular outbuildings. Furthermore, from a will Arcvaber ( Ardzvaper chapel mentioned) reports, stating the names that kept in the monastery handwriting of Gospels was brought by an eagle. A few other legends surround the origins of the monastery and its importance in the Middle Ages. When Karl Koch passed the monastery on his way from Surb Karapet to Muş in October 1843, he found it still inhabited, but besieged by Kurds who settled in the area, and a nearby Christian village called "Khardsor" was largely deserted by its residents. At the site of the monastery, the remains of a building with a 60 meter long outer wall have been preserved.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Alexander Sinclair: Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Volume 1, The Pindar Press, London 1989, p. 294, ISBN 0-907132-34-0
  2. ^ Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 2. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918, p. 610 ( online at Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Christian Marek, Peter Frei: History of Asia Minor in antiquity . CH Beck, Munich 2010, p. 674
  4. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Taron as of early Christian Armenian center . In: Richard G. Hovannisian (Ed.): Armenian Bagesh / Bitlis and Taron / Mush. Mazda, Costa-Mesa (CA) 2001, pp. 61, 68
  5. ↑ Nina G. Garsoïan: Introduction to the Problem of early Armenian monasticism . In: Revue des Etudes Arméniennes 30 , 2005–2007, pp. 177–236, here pp. 185, 189
  6. ^ Karl Heinrich Koch : Walks in the Orient, during the years 1843 and 1844 . Volume 2. Weimar 1846, p. 390 ( online at Google Books )
  7. ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art. Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, p. 566, ISBN 3-451-21141-6
  8. ^ Heinrich Huebschmann : The old Armenian place names. With contributions to the historical topography of Armenia and a map. Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1904, p. 405
  9. ↑ Karl Heinrich Koch, p. 396f