Christian Caucasia between Byzantium and Iran: New Light from Old Sources

Abstract

1. The story of how one of the two great Caucasian nations, the Armenians, came to form a national Church, while the other, the Georgians, remained for several centuries longer within the unity of the Church Universal, is still to be written. Practically all that has been said on the subject stands in need of revision. This is due to several factors in connection with Caucasian sources. In the first place, these sources were for a long time unsatisfactorily evaluated. It is within but the last half-century or so that the correct floruit of some of the important Armenian historians was established — for instance that of Moses of Khoren: sometime between the seventh and the ninth century and not, as was formerly held, in the fifth — and that many other, especially Georgian, historical works came to be critically studied and dated. Secondly, many of the invaluable sources — such as the Book of Letters or the Queen Anne Codex of the Georgian Royal Annals — were only quite recently published and have not been made use of, even to this day, by some scholars dealing with Caucasian history. Finally, some Armenian historians that have always been known and held in esteem have not always been recognized as afflicted with what was once called la maladie de Froude and, consequently, prone, in serving the cause of national religion, to overlook some facts of history and to alter others.