Information about Maštoc‘ in “The History of the Country of Albania” by Movsēs Kałankatwac‘i

Abstract

“The History of the Country of Albania” by Movsēs Kałankatwac‘i contains rather important materials concerning the activities of the 5th century notable Armenian figure Maštoc‘. Maštoc‘ is mentioned in Book One and Book Two, that is the section which is traditionally attributed to Movsēs Kałankatwac‘iʼs writings.

Data on Maštoc‘ preserved in Movsēs Kałankatwac‘iʼs work, can be conditionally classified into two groups according to factual material: 1. Data that can be called oral narratives. 2. Data based on a specific historical source.

In both books of “The History of the Country of Albania” the narratives about Maštoc‘ are significantly different from each other: according to the first group, Maštoc‘ is just a preacher and enlightener of Albania, and most importantly, these data is not confirmed by other sources. In addition to epic narratives, the work of Movsēs Kałankatwac‘i about Maštoc‘ tells the story where the Armenian figure of the 5th century is described as a preacher of Christianity who converted Albanian people. In the third chapter of the Book Two the visit of Maštoc‘ to the Albanian royal court is described,where he met the King of Albania Arsuał and Bishop Eremia; as well as the propagation of Christian religion and the creation of Albanian script with the help of Benjamin the translator.

Comparing the data about Maštoc‘ from “the History of the Country of Albania” with the data in Koriwn’s and Movsēs Xorenac‘iʼs works, revealed that the epic stories related to Maštoc‘ must be based on the Albanian tradition. As for the part of the work about the creation of Albanian alphabet and the propagation of Christianity, we can confidently say that “The History of the Armenians” by Movsēs Xorenac‘i is used as a source.

If we share the scholars’ ideas that Movsēs Xorenac‘i is a historian of the 9th century, then Movsēs Kałankatwac‘i, the historian of the 7th century, could not use Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s work as a source. It is logical to suppose that the data was included later by Movsēs Dasxuranc‘i according to Movsēs Xorenac‘i in the 10th century. Movsēs Dasxuranc‘i is considered the editor of Book One and Book Two and the author of Book Three. In my opinion, it is the reason why we have completely different, contradictory information about the person in one and the same source.