King of Persia, Yazdagird II (439-451).[1] The most famous, though the least reliable Armenian historian is Moses of Khoren,[2] called the Herodotus or the Eusebius of his country. He claims to be a disciple of Sahak and Mesrob, writing his History of Armenia[3] soon after 458. His account, especially his chronology, dominated all later Armenian writers and all who wrote about the country.[4] Gutschmid has now shown that his chronology is impossible, and the historical value of his work almost nothing.[5] He draws from all manner of doubtful sources, embellishes his story with impossible legends, and (especially as to dates) is not innocent of deliberate fraud.[6] Since Moses' dates are thoroughly unsound, and no one else gives any, the chronology of early Armenian Church history is very uncertain.[7]
The total number of Armenians in the world is estimated at between three and a half and four millions, of whom about 1,300,000 are in Turkey, 1,200,000 in Russia, 50,000 in Persia, and the rest dispersed in India, Egypt, Europe and America.[8] The great majority of these are members of the Monophysite national (so-called Gregorian) Church (p. 432).
2. The Conversion of Armenia
The Apostle of Armenia is St. Gregory the Illuminator, in the 3rd and 4th centuries. But there were Armenian Christians before his time.[9] We shall not be surprised that this Church,
- ↑ Langlois, ii. 183-251.
- ↑ Khor'ni in Tarōn.
- ↑ Langlois, ii. 53-175 (French); Armenian edition, Venice, 1843. Gutschmid thinks he wrote really between 634 and 642.
- ↑ Gibbon knew it in George Whiston's edition (Armenian and Latin, London, 1736), and uses Moses' wrong chronology for Armenia throughout.
- ↑ Ueber die Glaubwürdigkeit der armen. Gesch. des Moses v. Khoren (Kleine Schriften, iii. 282-331); Moses von Chorene (ib. iii. 332-338).
- ↑ Thus, to evade the seven years of the reign of Manuel of Mamikon (378-385) he deliberately advances all former dates by as many years (Gutschmid: op. cit. 292).
- ↑ A sketch of Armenian literature (by N. Finck) will be found in C. Brockelmann: Gesch. der Christl. Litteraturen des Orients (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 75-130; also in A. Baumstark: Die Christl. Literaturen des Orients (Sammlung Göschen), 1911, ii. 61-99.
- ↑ Tournebize: op. cit. 7-8.
- ↑ Tournebize (pp. 765-769) examines the original paganism of the Armenians. It was a local polytheism, strongly affected by Persian mythology.
