Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia: First Century Bce - Fourteenth Century Ce 2021058954, 2021058955, 9780197582077, 9780197582091, 0197582079

Table of contents :
Cover
Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abbreviations
1 “Ararat” and Armenia in the Bible and Associated Traditions
1.1 Genesis 8:4
1.2 Isaiah 37:38
1.3 Jeremiah 51:27
1.4 Concerning a City Built after Exit from the Ark
1.5 “Land of Ararat” in a Document of the Late First Century ce
1.6 The Ark in Apamea
2 Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period (First Century bce to Fifth Century ce)
2.1 Introductory Remarks
2.2 The Oldest Evidence in Armenian Literature: Jews Deported from Armenia by the Persians (368/​9 ce)
2.3 The Historical Background: The Events of 363–368/​9
2.4 The Information on the Conquest of the Cities: Accurate or Legendary?
2.5 P‘awstos Buzand, 4.55
2.6 What Do the Numbers Indicate and What Might “Jews” (հրեայք) in P‘awstos Buzand Mean?
2.7 How Did the Jews Come to Armenia?
2.8 Greco-​Roman Sources on Tigran’s Deportations
2.9 The Countries from Which Tigran Could Have Expatriated Jews
2.10 The Eight Armenian Cities with Armenian-​Jewish Populations
2.11 Herod the Great’s Descendants on the Throne of Armenia
2.12 Information on the Jewish Origin of Armenian Princely Families in Movsēs Xorenac‘i
2.13 Jews Converted to Christianity in Armenia
2.14 Linguistic Issues: Possible Hebrew Words in Armenian
2.15 The Word for “Jew” in Armenian
2.16 Concluding Remarks
3 The Middle Ages
3.1 The Main Routes of Medieval Armenia
3.2 Jews in the Capital Dvin (Seventh through Ninth Centuries) and the “Jewish Singers” in the Region of Vaspurakan (Ninth Century)
3.3 Jews in Kapan (Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries) and a Jewish Physician at the Monastery of Geret‘in (Thirteenth Century)
3.4 Jews in Vayoc‘ Jor (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)
3.4.1 The Seljuk Attack and the Vayoc‘ Jor District
3.4.2 The Results of Ōrbelean Policy
3.5 The Cemetery
3.5.1 The Village of Ełegis
3.5.2 The Tombstones
3.5.3 The Inscriptions and the Character of the Community
3.5.4 The Decoration
3.5.5 Persian Origin of the Jewish Community
3.5.6 Conclusions
3.6 Why Do the Jews Disappear from Our Sources (Supposedly, in the Fourteenth Century)?
3.6.1 The Inscription of the Church Spitakawor Astuacacin as Additional Evidence
4 Other Armenian-​Jewish Connections
4.1 Armenian Pilgrims and Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
4.1.1 Pilgrimage
4.1.2 Pilgrims between the Fourth Century and the Muslim Conquest
4.1.3 Pilgrim Graffiti
4.1.4 Pilgrimage in the Sixth to Eighth Centuries
4.2 References to Armenia in Ancient Jewish Literature
4.2.1 Possible References in Talmud
4.2.2 Identifications of Armenia in Medieval Jewish Sources
4.2.3 Later Jewish Identifications of Ashkenaz
4.2.4 Later Jewish Information about the History of Armenia
4.2.5 Medieval Jewish Identifications of and Traditions about Armenia
4.3 A List of Armenian Cities in Judeo-​Arabic
4.4 Armenia in the Khazar Documents
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Personal, Ethnic, and Geographical Names

Citation preview

Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia First Century bce to Fourteenth Century ce M I C HA E L E . S T O N E A N D A R A M T O P C H YA N

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2022 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stone, Michael E., 1938- author. | Topchyan, Aram, author. Title: Jews in ancient and medieval Armenia : first century BCE to fourteenth century CE / Michael E. Stone and Aram Topchyan. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021058954 (print) | LCCN 2021058955 (ebook) | ISBN 9780197582077 (hardback) | ISBN 9780197582091 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Jews—Armenia (Republic)—History. Classification: LCC DS135.A83 S76 2022 (print) | LCC DS135.A83 (ebook) | DDC 947.560492/4—dc23/eng/20220210 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058954 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021058955 DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197582077.001.0001 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America

Contents Preface  Acknowledgments  Introduction  Abbreviations 

1 “Ararat” and Armenia in the Bible and Associated Traditions  1.1 Genesis 8:4  1.2 Isaiah 37:38  1.3 Jeremiah 51:27  1.4 Concerning a City Built after Exit from the Ark  1.5 “Land of Ararat” in a Document of the Late First Century ce  1.6 The Ark in Apamea 

2 Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period (First Century bce to Fifth Century ce)  2.1 Introductory Remarks  2.2 The Oldest Evidence in Armenian Literature: Jews Deported from Armenia by the Persians (368/​9 ce)  2.3 The Historical Background: The Events of 363–368/​9  2.4 The Information on the Conquest of the Cities: Accurate or Legendary?  2.5 P‘awstos Buzand, 4.55  2.6 What Do the Numbers Indicate and What Might “Jews” (հրեայք) in P‘awstos Buzand Mean?  2.7 How Did the Jews Come to Armenia?  2.8 Greco-​Roman Sources on Tigran’s Deportations  2.9 The Countries from Which Tigran Could Have Expatriated Jews 

ix xi xiii xv

1

1 6 8 10 15 18

19

19 20 21 23 24 26 30 37 43

vi Contents 2.10 The Eight Armenian Cities with Armenian-​Jewish Populations  2.11 Herod the Great’s Descendants on the Throne of Armenia  2.12 Information on the Jewish Origin of Armenian Princely Families in Movsēs Xorenac‘i  2.13 Jews Converted to Christianity in Armenia  2.14 Linguistic Issues: Possible Hebrew Words in Armenian  2.15 The Word for “Jew” in Armenian  2.16 Concluding Remarks 

3 The Middle Ages 

3 .1 The Main Routes of Medieval Armenia  3.2 Jews in the Capital Dvin (Seventh through Ninth Centuries) and the “Jewish Singers” in the Region of Vaspurakan (Ninth Century)  3.3 Jews in Kapan (Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries) and a Jewish Physician at the Monastery of Geret‘in (Thirteenth Century)  3.4 Jews in Vayoc‘ Jor (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)  3 .4.1 The Seljuk Attack and the Vayoc‘ Jor District  3.4.2 The Results of Ōrbelean Policy 

3.5 The Cemetery 

3 .5.1 The Village of Ełegis  3.5.2 The Tombstones  3.5.3 The Inscriptions and the Character of the Community  3.5.4 The Decoration  3.5.5 Persian Origin of the Jewish Community  3.5.6 Conclusions 

3.6 Why Do the Jews Disappear from Our Sources (Supposedly, in the Fourteenth Century)?  3.6.1 The Inscription of the Church Spitakawor Astuacacin as Additional Evidence 

46 52 57 64 65 67 67

70

70 73 78 79

80 82

85

86 87 89 90 91 93

93 95

4 Other Armenian-​Jewish Connections  97 4.1 Armenian Pilgrims and Pilgrimage to the Holy Land  97 4.1.1 Pilgrimage 

97

Contents  vii 4.1.2 Pilgrims between the Fourth Century and the Muslim Conquest  4.1.3 Pilgrim Graffiti  4.1.4 Pilgrimage in the Sixth to Eighth Centuries 

98 100 102

4.2 References to Armenia in Ancient Jewish Literature  104 4 .2.1 Possible References in Talmud  4.2.2 Identifications of Armenia in Medieval Jewish Sources  4.2.3 Later Jewish Identifications of Ashkenaz  4.2.4 Later Jewish Information about the History of Armenia  4.2.5 Medieval Jewish Identifications of and Traditions about Armenia 

104

105 106 107 108

4 .3 A List of Armenian Cities in Judeo-​Arabic  4.4 Armenia in the Khazar Documents 

109 112

Notes Bibliography  Index of Personal, Ethnic, and Geographical Names 

115 157 173

Preface The genesis of this volume lies in the activity stimulated by the discovery of the Jewish cemetery in Ełegis and its inscriptions, work carried out by Michael Stone and the late David Amit in cooperation with the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Armenian Academy of Sciences and its late director, Aram Kalantaryan, with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and with the Israel Antiquities Authority. That discovery stimulated research into the Jews in Armenia in which Aram Topchyan took a most significant and active part. Subsequently, Stone and Topchyan decided to continue working on this subject, which resulted eventually in the present book. The various chapters and sections were written by Stone and Topchyan as follows: Stone: Chapter 1; Chapter 2, Sections 2.1 and 2.14–15; Chapter 3, Sections 3.4–5; Chapter 4. Topchyan: Chapter 2, Sections 2.2–2.13 and 2.16; Chapter 3, Sections 3.1–3 and 3.6. Each author bears responsibility for his contribution. The maps have been prepared by Mitia Frumin. Maps 1 and 2 are based on B. H. Harut‘yunyan and V. G. Mxit‘aryan, Հայաստանի պատմության ատլաս Atlas of the History of Armenia, 2 vols. (Erevan: Macmillan Armenia and Manmar, 2004, 2015), 1.26–27 and 80–81. Biblical quotations are taken from the NRSV. Transliteration of Armenian follows the system of the Revue des études

x Preface arméniennes. Armenian manuscripts are assigned sigla according to the system endorsed by the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes. Abbreviations for biblical, apocryphal, and pseudepigraphical books follow the SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd edition, except that all apocrypha and pseudepigrapha are italicized. Translations of Armenian sources are by the present authors, unless otherwise noted.

Acknowledgments Deep thanks are expressed to Dr. David and Jemima Jeselsohn, who generously supported this project. Their support was instrumental in the book coming to fruition. We are grateful to Maria Ushakova and Matthew Wilson, our research assistants, both of whom assisted us greatly, particularly in the course of the finalization of the work. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Dr. David Sklare for drawing our attention to relevant material in the Cairo Geniza manuscripts. He guided us and made his own learning available to us.

Introduction

It has long been accepted that, unlike neighboring Georgia, Armenia has not had a sustained Jewish minority over the centuries. This popular wisdom seemed to be strikingly challenged by the discovery in 1997 of a medieval Jewish cemetery with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions in the region of southern Armenia called Vayoc‘ Jor.1 Stimulated by this discovery, the authors sought further evidence in Armenian and Jewish sources for Jewish settlement in Armenia. These efforts bore some fruit, and it is these results that are presented here. It is, indeed, impossible at present to write a continuous history of Jewish presence in Armenia, since there is no evidence of sustained Jewish settlement in the Land of Ararat. Nonetheless, there are episodic sources existing in Armenian, Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages that attest the presence of Jews there. If we think of the history of Jews in Armenia as a dark tunnel, then the extant sources cast light upon patches of the tunnel, without illuminating it to all its length. It is to the elucidation of these patches of illumination that the present book is dedicated. As so often in historical writing, the statements made here are presently the most plausible way of accounting for the surviving data. New finds, documentary, archaeological, or epigraphic, may engender modification of some statements, and in adding to our knowledge may force us to modify our assertions. As an outcome of the varied and different data and considerations adduced in this book, the Jewish presence in Armenia is now a factor to be considered by all studying the history of the region. Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia. Michael E. Stone and Aram Topchyan, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197582077.001.0001

xiv Introduction In the last chapter, information about Armenia and Armenians garnered from Jewish sources from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages is presented, as well as some information about Armenian pilgrims to the Holy Land, two subjects that illuminate other dimensions of Armenian-​ Jewish interface and contacts. These data do not show anything directly about the presence of Jews in Armenia, but they do reflect the ongoing contacts between the two communities as well as illustrating knowledge (or the lack thereof) about Armenia among Jews in the Diaspora and in the land of Israel.

Abbreviations ABD AJ BDB

BJ CUP DSD EJ GCS HATS HUAS HTR IDB IEJ JANES JAOS JE JJS JPS Jub JRS JSAS JSOT JTS LCL LXX MT m, t, b, y n.a.

Anchor Bible Dictionary Josephus Flavius, Antiquitates Judaicae (Antiquities of the Jews) F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906; repr. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1997) Josephus Flavius, Bellum Judaicum (War of the Jews) Cambridge University Press Dead Sea Discoveries Encyclopedia Judaica Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller Harvard Armenian Texts and Studies Hebrew University Armenian Series Harvard Theological Review Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible Israel Exploration Journal The Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society Journal of the American Oriental Society Jewish Encyclopedia Journal of Jewish Studies Jewish Publication Society of America Book of Jubilees Journal of Roman Studies Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Journal of Theological Studies Loeb Classical Library The Septuagint, Greek translation of the Old Testament The Masoretic Hebrew text of the Old Testament (in references): Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, Palestinian Talmud no author

xvi Abbreviations n., nn. NBHL

NRSV OLA OUP PEQ p., pp. PPTS RB REArm SBL SBLEJL SBLSBS SGFWJ s.v. SVTP UPATS

note, notes G. Awetik‘ean, X. Siwrmēlean, and M. Awg‘erean, Նոր բառգիրք հայկազեան լեզուի New Dictionary of the Armenian Language, 2 vols. (Venice: St. Lazzaro, 1837) New Revised Standard Version, English translation of the Bible Orientalia Louvainiensa Analecta Oxford University Press Palestine Exploration Quarterly page, pages Palestine Pilgrim Text Society Revue Biblique Revue des études arméniennes Society of Biblical Literature Society of Biblical Studies Early Jewish Literature Society of Biblical Literature Sources for Biblical Study Schriften der Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaft des Judentums sub vocem, under the entry Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts & Studies

1 “Ararat” and Armenia in the Bible and Associated Traditions The examination of ancient Jewish sources starts with the Bible.1 The first and most famous reference to Armenia is inferred from the mention of the “Mountains of Ararat” in Genesis 8:4, talking of the resting place of Noah’s Ark after the flood. The biblical sources show us what knowledge of Armenia was current in ancient Israel, even if they do not ultimately provide information about Jews settled in Armenia.

1.1  Genesis 8:4 The biblical text in Genesis 8:4 reads: And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the Mountains of Ararat (‫)הרי אררט‬.

The dominant medieval Armenian tradition identifies “the Mountains of Ararat” of the Bible with the two-​peaked mountain that, down to the present day, the Armenians call or Sis and Masis. Among other factors, the twin peaks were understood to account for the plural “mountains” in the text of Genesis. Noah’s Ark is thus reputed to have landed in Historical Armenia on the higher peak (5,165 meters) of Mount Masis’s two peaks, or else on, or better between both of them.2 As we shall see, the identification of the “Mountains of Ararat” in Late Antiquity was more complicated.3 Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia. Michael E. Stone and Aram Topchyan, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197582077.003.0001

2  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia It is generally accepted that the biblical name “Ararat” is connected with the name “Urartu,” designating a pre-​Armenian people of the Armenian Highlands, who had a large empire in the late second and first millennia bce. “Urartu” is the form of their name in Assyrian.4 In addition, in a subsidiary remark, Garsoïan interprets the variant reading hwrrṭ “Hūrarat” for “Ararat” in Isaiah 37:38, which occurs in the Qumran Isaiah scroll designated 1QIsaa, as “showing quite indubitably” that the biblical reference is to Urartu—​presumably because of the long ū or ō in the first syllable.5 The central region of the Urartian Empire was in the area of Lake Van, in Historical Armenia. The Septuagint translation of Genesis (third century bce) renders the Hebrew as ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη τὰ ’Αραρατ “on the Ararat mountains,” transliterating the name of the mountain. This adds no information to the text of the Hebrew Bible, and, because they used this transliteration, the Greek translators did not express any specific geographical identification for “Mountains of Ararat.” In the Hexaplaric tradition, however, the reading preserved by the witness οἱ λ´(=​οἱ λοιποί reliqui) is Ἀρμενίας “of Armenia.” This variant reading shows an explicit relation of the Mountains of Ararat to Armenia, though it does not identify the mountain specifically, nor does it indicate which area is designated Armenia. The connection between Ararat and Armenia is also to be found in the writings of the pagan rhetor Apollonius Molon of the first century bce. He is quoted as saying that “the man who survived the flood left Armenia with his sons, having been expelled from his native place by the inhabitants of the land. Having traversed the intermediate country, he came to the mountainous part of Syria, which is desolate.”6 It is clear, then, that, in the first century bce in the Hellenistic world and also in the Jewish Hellenistic world, the Mountains of Ararat were thought to be in Armenia. This is also the view of the well-​known Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who lived from 37/​38 to 100 ce (Josephus, AJ 1.90 and 1.92).7

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  3 The attempt to identify the “Mountains of Ararat” more specifically, as we have noted, raises problems. Early in the Christian era, the Aramaic Bible translation called Targum Onqelos reads ‘l ṭwry qrdw “on the mountains of Qardo,” that is, Gordyene, modern Kurdistan. In addition, the Palestinian Targum Neofiti evidences the same tradition, and it has the spelling qrdwn “Qardon.”8 There is reason to think that in many matters Targum Onqelos reflects a Babylonian tradition.9 The name “Qardo/​u” that Targum Onqelos gives also occurs in certain Hexaplaric witnesses to the Septuagint of Genesis, which attribute the reading καρδι to “to hebraikon” and “hē syrē.” Thus, all these witnesses identify the Mountains of Ararat with Qardu, that is, with Korduk‘ or Gordyene and, therefore, with southern mountains of present-​day Kurdistan.10 This name is also known to Midrash Genesis Rabba 33:4, which glosses “on Mountains of Ararat” as ‘al ṭûrê qardoniya “on the mountains of Qardoniya.”11 Berossus says that the land where Xisouthros’s ship came to rest was “the land of Armenia”12 and that a small part of the ship remains in “the mountains of the Cordyaeans in Armenia.” This material, which is drawn from Berossus’s Chaldaica, is transmitted by the eighth-ninth-​century Byzantine chronographer George Syncellus.13 Most likely, Berossus or the retailers of Berossus were influenced by the biblical narrative. For Berossus, as Syncellus recounts, the Mountains of Ararat are the Mountains of Gordyene, and they are in Armenia. This means that the southern extent of the area designated by “Armenia” varied with the vicissitudes of history.14 This variation provided an opening for harmonization of the various traditions.15 The identification of the Mountains of Ararat with mountains south of Lake Van was old in Armenian tradition as well. In the fifth century, the historian P‘awstos (3.10) knows the name Sararad. Some have considered this name to be the result of a misreading of his Armenian phrase i lerins Araratay as i leṙin Sararaday (i.e.,

4  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia “on the Mountains of Ararat” is misread as “on the mountain of Sararad”),16 though the context in P‘awstos, and especially the second reference to the same name in that chapter, weighs against such an overly simplistic explanation.17 One wonders whether it is likely that a well-​known name from the Bible would be corrupted, by whatever textual process, to an otherwise unattested form. Regardless, in his Historical Atlas, Robert Hewsen marks a mountain named Sararad (with a variant Ararad) on his map 110 E4, but this name, he informs us, is based on P‘awstos.18 Josephus cites yet a third tradition, this time from Berossus, who says, “It is said, moreover, that a portion of the vessel still survives in Armenia on the mountain of the Cordyaeans, and that persons carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they use as talismans” (Josephus, AJ 1.93).19 Thus he identifies the “Mountains of Ararat” with Gordyene, and that in turn concords with the views of Targum Onqelos and of the Hexaplaric variant called reliqui. The attribution of this tradition to the Babylonian historian Berossus may confirm its eastern origin. Moreover, Gordyene is easily accessible from Mesopotamia. From all this it is clear that “the Mountains of Ararat” were connected with Armenia.20 According to the second-​century bce Book of Jubilees 5:28, the specific mountain on which the Ark rested was named Lubar, and it was “one of the Ararat mountains.” In Jubilees 5:28 we read the following: “Noah planted vines on the mountain on which the Ark had rested, named Lubar, one of the Ararat Mountains.” The same name, Lubar, for the mountain recurs in Jubilees 7:1, 7:17, and 10:15. Jubilees was written at the latest in the second century bce. The name Lubar is also mentioned in the extract from Jubilees 10 that is preserved in the Hebrew medieval work Book of Asaf the Physician.21 Independent additional witness to the name Mount Lubar occurs in other texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely 1Q20 (1QGenesis Apocryphon) 12:13, 4Q244 (4Q pseudo-​Danielb) frag. 8:3, and 6Q8 (6QGiants) frag. 26:1. Jubilees is written in Hebrew, the other three documents are written in Aramaic, but all are

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  5 Jewish and are preserved in manuscripts written around the turn of the era. We have found no further occurrences of the name Lubar, but according to the pre-​Christian Jewish tradition in Jubilees and in these Qumran documents, it was the name of the mountain of Ararat upon which the Ark rested and also had other connections with Noah. Nothing indicates in which land the mountain was situated, and so, as far as we know today, this intriguing tradition supports neither the tradition that the “Mountains of Ararat” were Masis nor that the location of these mountains is in the very south of Armenia, in Gordyene. It is striking, but not surprising, that texts having a connection with Mesopotamia (i.e., Targum Onqelos, Berossus, and the Syriac documents mentioned earlier) tend to identify the mountain in the region of Qardo, that is Gordyene, relatively close to Mesopotamia. As we noted, Hewsen regards this identification to be of Semitic origin, though what that implies is unclear. In the Palestinian (Jerusalem) Targum, which stems from the first part of the first millennium ce and from the Land of Israel, we read the following translation of Genesis 8:4: “And the Ark rested in the seventh month, that is the month of Nisan, on the seventeenth day, on the mountains of Qardon [qrdwn]. The name of one mountain was Qardoniya (qrdny’) and the name of the other mountain was Armeniya (’rmny’). And here the city of Armeniya (’rmny’) was built, in the eastern land.”22 The Palestinian Targum mentions two mountains in connection with the Ark, and thus it explains the plural in the biblical text in Genesis 8:4. In its gloss here, then, the Palestinian Targum conflates the tradition that Ararat was in Armenia with the tradition of its location in Qardo-​Gordyene. The text does know a tradition relating one mountain by name to Armenia, which it distinguishes from the other, connected with Qardo or Gordyene. Both, it says, are in “the mountains of Qardon.” Yet it is not clear that earlier, in Hellenistic times, such a distinction existed. In addition, there is variation about which territory the name “Armenia” designates.

6  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia The Palestinian Targum likely reflects a later, post-​Hellenistic geographical tradition. The specific location of Mount Armeniya is not clear, and it might well be the result of a conflation involving the Masis tradition. The building of a city called Armeniya “in the eastern land” after the descent from the Ark is not mentioned in the Bible, but Armenian sources know of the building of a city at that time, as is discussed later.23 This evidence may be taken to mean that in Palestine and elsewhere in the Hellenistic East, by the first century bce Ararat was known to be in Armenia, whether it was localized as Masis or Mountains of Gordyene or Judi Dag, and this tradition was transmitted further.24 In the fifth century ce, P‘awstos Buzand offers a specific identification when he says that “Mountains of Ararat” designates Mount Sararad in Gordyene. This specific identification has few Armenian parallels, none of which is clearly independent of this fifth-​century author himself. Moreover, in the first century ce in 4 Ezra, if our resolution of the mysterious verse 13:45 is accepted, the land of Ararat was understood to be to the north of Mesopotamia.25 The Palestinian Targum adds some knowledge of the geographical realities of Armenia to this information. Its understanding that there were two mountains may well have been inspired by reports of the two-​peaked Masis mountain.26 Several centuries earlier, however, Jubilees and three Aramaic documents found at Qumran call the mountain on which the Ark lodged Mount Lubar. “This (P‘awstos Buzand’s statement) would bespeak the Armenian Christian tradition’s familiarity with Jewish traditions, conceivably conveyed through Syriac/​Aramaic sources known to early Armenian writers.”27

1.2  Isaiah 37:38 As he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  7 sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esar-​haddon succeeded him.

For this verse the Septuagint has: καὶ ἐν τῷ αὐτὸν προσκυνεῖν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ Νασαραχ τὸν παταχρον αὐτοῦ, Αδραμελεχ καὶ Σαρασαρ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ ἐπάταξαν αὐτὸν μαχαίραις, αὐτοὶ δὲ διεσώθησαν εἰς Ἀρμενίαν· καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν Ασορδαν ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἀντ᾿ αὐτοῦ.

The Greek Bible, which in Genesis simply represented “Ararat” by a transliteration, in this instance translates Hebrew “land of Ararat” with “Armenia.” Of course, the translations of Genesis and Isaiah were not made by the same individual, but the Greek of the Pentateuch did have a great influence on subsequent translators, so that occurrence of Armenia has some significance. “Armenia,” as we noted, is the translation of “Ararat” in certain Hexaplaric witnesses to Genesis 8:4. A doublet of Isaiah 38:38 appears in 2 Kings 19:37: the verse is identical in the two Hebrew texts, and the LXX of Kings is very similar to that of Isaiah, except that where the Greek of Isaiah 37:38 reads “Armenia,” the Greek of 2 Kings 19:37 reads the transliteration Ἀραρατ. This neither helps nor hinders our investigation, and it serves to confirm that the Jewish Greek tradition knew “Ararat” to refer to “Armenia.” When we examine the Aramaic Targums of the phrase “they escaped into the land of Ararat” in Isaiah 37:38 and 2 Kings 19:37, however, we see that they read ‫“ ואנון אשתזבו לארעא קרדו‬and they (i.e., the two sons of King Sennacherib) took refuge in the land of Qardo.” Here the same tradition known to Berossus and Targum Onqelos in Genesis 8:4 again comes to the fore, and “Ararat” is linked with Qardo, Gordyene. In Isaiah 37:38 and 2 Kings 19:37, however, the texts speak of a land and not of a mountain. In the Targums of Isaiah there is no hint of the tradition of two mountains found in the Palestinian Targum of Genesis 8:4.

8  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia Referring to the same incident as Isaiah and 2 Kings that we just quoted, the Book of Tobit 1:21 states that they fled to τὰ ὄρη Αραρατ, “the Mountains of Ararat.” 4Q196, the Aramaic text of the Book of Tobit, frag. 2.4 translating Tobit 1:21, refers to the same incident, and there we find ṭȗrē ’Araraṭ “Mountains of Ararat.” As noted, elsewhere the Aramaic fragments of Tobit name the mountain “Lubar.”28 This reference exhausts three of the four instances of “Ararat” in the Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha.

1.3  Jeremiah 51:27 The fourth occurrence of the name “Ararat” in the Hebrew Bible is in Jeremiah 51:27. This verse includes “the kingdom of Ararat” in a list of nations. We shall seek to elucidate the understanding of these nations’ names in the Second Temple period and later. Raise a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations for war against her, summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz (’rrṭ mny w’šknz), appoint a marshal against her, bring up horses like bristling locusts. In the Septuagint we read: Ἄρατε σημεῖον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, σαλπίσατε ἐν ἔθνεσιν σάλπιγγι, ἁγιάσατε ἐπ᾿ αὐτὴν ἔθνη, παραγγείλατε ἐπ᾿ αὐτὴν βασιλείαις Αραρατ παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ καὶ τοῖς Ασχαναζαίοις, ἐπιστήσατε ἐπ᾿ αὐτὴν βελοστάσεις, ἀναβιβάσατε ἐπ᾿ αὐτὴν ἵππον ὡς ἀκρίδων πλῆθος.

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  9 This Greek translation raises a number of interesting text-​critical issues that lie beyond our discussion. Its rendering of the list of nations, however, is crucial for the present inquiry. In English, based on the Hebrew, we find, “Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz,” and it is commonly accepted that Ashkenaz designates the Scythians.29 For example, according to The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “the association of Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz and Medes (Jer 51:27–28) recalls the military situation of the early sixth century B.C., when Urartu, Manneans, Scythians, and Medes were all active preceding the fall of Babylon.”30 In his detailed commentary on Jeremiah, Holladay remarks, “The Minni were the Manneans, Assyrian Mannay; this people was centered just south of Lake Urmia in what is now northwest Iran.”31 The LXX transliterates the first and third terms as Αραρατ and τοῖς ’Ασχαναζαίοις, giving a gentilic form for Ashkenaz, that is, Ashkenazians. The Greek translator rendered Hebrew mny, which occurs only here in the Bible, not as an ethnic or even a place name but as an affixed form of the preposition mn “from,” reading παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ =​“from me.” In the Aramaic Targum’s translation of Jeremiah 51:27 we find, once more, an intriguing tradition: “kingdom of the land of Qardo (corresponding to Ararat), the dwelling place of Hūrmȋnȋ (corresponding to Minni), Adiabene (ḥdyb: corresponding to Ashkenaz).” Observe that the Targum translates mny, taken by the Greek translation to mean “from me,” as “Hūrmȋnȋ,” an alternative form of Harmȋnȇ or Hārmȋnē. That is a place name that occurs in Targum Amos 4:3 and Targum Micah 7.12 as translation of the MT ‫הַ הַ ְר ֖מ ׄונָה‬, which the NRSV English translates as “into Harmon.”32 Undoubtedly, the Targum at least partly reflects a later political situation than that of the biblical books. The suggestion has been raised that this Targumic form “Hūrmȋnȋ” should be related to the name “Armenia,” and this is made more plausible by Targum Micah 7:12, which according to the Targum, prophesies the ingathering of those exiled to “great Hūrmȋnȋ.”33 This, Jastrow proposes, might translate “Armenia Maior,” but that idea remains

10  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia in the realm of speculation.34 In Amos 4:3 we find in Hebrew ‫ה ְשׁלַכְ תֶּ ֥נָה הַ הַ ְר ֖מ ׄונָה‬. ִ This is translated by NRSV as “and you shall be flung out into Harmon,” while JPS translates “And flung on the refuse heap.” There is clearly a linguistic problem here in the word haharmȏnȃ, which is listed by BDB with the notation “meaning dubious.”35 The LXX give εἰς τὸ ὄρος τὸ Ρεμμαν “to the mountain of Rhemman,” which interpretation is based on separating the word into two, har “mountain” +​ rmȏnȃ. Intriguingly, the Targum also separates this word into two parts. It translates the first part and then copies the whole word, producing ṭȗrē harmȋnȋ “mountains of Harmȋnȋ.” This evokes Genesis 8:4, “Mountains of Ararat.” From these two readings we might be led to conclude that Ha/​ ūrmȋnȋ is taken by the Targum of the Prophets to refer to Armenia, though this is not certain. It is obviously a wordplay, whose repeated use shows the importance of Armenia in the early Christian period. Therefore, these ancient interpretations reflect the idea that Armenia is associated with Ararat and mountains.36 Although perhaps of interest to the student of ancient geography, none of these occurrences in Isaiah, Kings, and Jeremiah offers anything at all for our particular research, beyond the basic association of Ararat with Armenia. Armenia is on the map for those ancient translators of the Bible, which is not in the least surprising.37 Nonetheless, the confirmation is welcome.

1.4  Concerning a City Built after Exit from the Ark In an interesting tradition preserved in Josephus, AJ 1.92, the historian says, “The Armenians call that spot (i.e., the site of the Ark’s actual resting and Noah’s descent) the Landing-​place (Apobaterion), for it was there that the ark came safe to land, and they show the relics of it to this day.”38 Professor Hewsen has remarked on the striking similarity of this information with the

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  11 Armenian tradition that identifies Naxiǰewan as the place of descent. This, he says, “sounds like a folk etymology for Naxiǰewan, whose modern name is derived from an earlier ‘Nakhjawan’ apparently from the same folk etymology.39 This identification may actually be very old and may have been made by Jews in the old Armenian capitals (Armawir, Artašat) from which Mt. Ararat is clearly visible.”40 If Hewsen’s view is accepted, and it is only hypothetical, then the connection of the “Mountains of Ararat” with Masis might indeed be old, as also was the onomastic midrash associated with the descent from the Ark.41 It is hard to know precisely what another tradition preserved by Josephus in the name of Nicolaus of Damascus (first century bce) witnesses: “There is above the country of Minyas in Armenia a great mountain called Baris, where, as the story goes, many refugees found safety at the time of the flood, and one man, transported upon an ark, grounded upon the summit, and relics of the timber were for long preserved; this might well be the same man of whom Moses, the Jewish legislator, wrote” (Josephus, AJ 1.95, citing Nicolaus of Damascus Book 96).42 This pre-​Christian, pagan author from Syria clearly thought that the mountain of the flood was in Armenia, though he did not specify exactly where in Armenia. We can make no suggestion as to the origins of the name Baris.43 A number of Armenian sources share the tradition discussed by Hewsen that Noah, on descending from the Ark, built a city whose name means “descent” (Iǰewan). According to Josephus, the place at which Noah and his sons descended from the Ark was named Apobaterion. That name also means “descent,” like the later attested Armenian name Iǰewan. The Armenian idea that Noah built a city when he left the Ark may be related distantly to the information known to Jubilees (second century bce), according to which, after leaving the Ark, Noah’s sons each built a city and each named his city after his wife (Jub 7:14–16).44 Both these are quite distinctive ideas, not attested elsewhere in ancient sources.

12  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia 1QGenesis Apocryphon 12.8–9, which was written several centuries before Josephus recorded the tradition about city building in AJ 1.95, tells a similar tale more briefly.45 Conveying Noah’s direct speech, it reads, “] the ark settled [on] one of the mountains of Hurarat (10.12).” Unfortunately, the ensuing context is somewhat damaged, but Machiela’s reconstruction of the lacunose text that follows is: “After this I descended to the base of this mountain, my sons and I, and we built a ci[ty], for the devastation of the earth was great.”46 His reconstruction seems likely, and so in this document also the reestablishment of civilization starts with the building of a city. Mount Ararat’s connection to Armenia is quite clear in 1QGenesis Apocryphon, and the building of a city most plausibly goes with it. Josephus knows that the name of the place of descent from the Ark was Apobaterion but does not mention a city name. Genesis Apocryphon mentions only Mount Lubar; likewise, it does not mention the names of the other mountains known to the Palestinian Targum, Armeniya and Qardoniya. This particular tradition, the idea that building a city was part of establishing civilization, is shared by a number of sources.47 According to the Hebrew Bible, Cain built a city (Gen 4:17), and the men of the generation of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:4) another one. Cain’s city in Genesis 4:17 is named after the Cainite Enoch, not after his wife. The sons of Noah founded cities and called them after their wives according to Jubilees 7:14–16. In addition, Genesis 10:10–11 relates that Nineveh and three other cities were built by Ham’s descendant Nimrod. None of these acts of city-​building seems to fit with the particular tradition that Noah or his sons built a city after leaving the Ark and descending Mount Ararat.48 Another tradition about a city built after leaving the Ark was touched upon earlier. To recap: this tradition, preserved by the Palestinian Targum to Genesis 8:4, says about the Mountains of Ararat, “The name of one mountain was Qardiniya and the name of another mountain was Armeniya. And there the city of Armeniya

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  13 was built, in the eastern land.” The tradition about postdiluvian city-​building is much older than the Palestinian Targum. We have already observed its occurrence in Genesis Apocryphon and in Jubilees, a second-​century bce work that reads, “And Shem dwelt with his father Noah, and he built a city close to his father on the mountain, and he too called its name after the name of his wife Sedeqetelebab” (7:16).49 In the Syriac work The Cave of Treasures we read that Noah and his sons “built a city and called the name thereof Themânôn, after the . . . eight souls who had gone forth from the Ark.”50 The same tradition occurs in the Apocalypse of Pseudo-​Methodius, a writing that survives in Greek as well as the original Syriac. The following traditions encountered elsewhere also resemble those discussed earlier. 1. D. de Bruyne gives the following fragment, from page 290 of the eighth-​century manuscript he is studying. Clearly, it preserves a material close to Jubilees, for the cities are each named after the founder’s wife, but this text makes no mention of the connection with Armenia.51 Uel propinquam sororem fas esse non alienam sicut fili noe post transactum cataclysmum respexerunt /​290 /​sibi loca in qua aedificarent sibi civitates, nuncupantes eas in nomine uxorum suarum, quorum similitudinem et isti iugati consumant. Now, it is not lawful for a closely related sister to be estranged: just as the sons of Noah, after the passing of the flood, sought out places for themselves in which they could build cities for themselves, naming them in the name of their wives, so that those married to their sister also use the sameness of the places’ [names].52

2. In an Armenian apocryphal retelling of the early history of humankind, we read that Masis was the mountain upon

14  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia which the Ark rested. “55 And Noah, after receiving God’s blessing, descended the mountain and dwelt in Akoṙi. 56 When his seed multiplied, they went down to Iǰewan and 57 they filled the first dwelling [nax iǰewan], and in such a way they filled the earth. 58 And the name of the place was called Naxiǰewan, and that is Noah’s tomb. 58 Such it is until today.”53 Here, biblical events are connected with Armenian geography; Armenian names are used and distinct onomastic etiologies are invoked. Thus, the name Իջեւան Iǰewan is connected with the Armenian word իջանեմ “to descend” combined with avan “village” or even with ōt‘ewan “lodgings,” meaning “dwelling of descent,” while Naxiǰewan, a different place, is understood to embody նախ “first,” and so “dwelling of the first descent.”54 Moreover, the place of their initial descent is identified as a site in Armenia called Akoṙi, at the foot of Mount Ararat. According to the Armenian tradition, thence they moved to Naxiǰewan, which city actually still exists. So, though the immediate building of a city is not mentioned explicitly, a well-​known city is said to be the first place in which Noah’s family dwelled permanently upon leaving the Ark, which idea is buttressed by a popular etymology.55 The particular variant of the city foundation tradition preserved in this Armenian source differs from some of the earlier Jewish materials in that it has Noah and his sons founding one city, which bore the name “dwelling of the first descent,” while Jubilees mentions three cities, named after Noah’s sons’ wives. Of the place on Mount Ararat where the Ark stopped, Josephus says that the Armenians call that spot the Landing-​place, “for it was there that the ark came safe to land” (AJ 1.92). Writing in the first century ce, Josephus apparently knew some form of the etiological tradition of the toponym Iǰewan that is witnessed in Armenian in much later sources. This etiological tradition, in turn, resembles the tradition

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  15 reported in the Palestinian Targum of Genesis, and we propose that the Targumic passage includes the reworking of a tradition ancestral to that included in the later Armenian text Good Tidings of Seth reported earlier. Because of the double peak and the naming of the city, both of which occur in these two sources, it is even possible that the information shared by these two texts derives from information reflecting immediate knowledge of Masis’s geographical configuration. Could such familiarity with traditions specific to the Armenian telling of the Noah story have been gained by Jews directly from Armenians? It is impossible to know. Regardless, it does bespeak some direct or indirect contact, the more so when the Jewish tradition that resembles the Armenian occurs in a Palestinian text. Intriguing as are the Jewish-​Armenian cultural connections that this Ararat tradition exhibits, nonetheless it does not yield any information on Jews living in Armenia.

1.5  “Land of Ararat” in a Document of the Late First Century ce The expression “land of Ararat” is biblical, occurring in 2 Kings 19:37 and the parallel text in Isaiah 37:38.56 It also occurs in Jubilees 10:15 and 19. With this in mind, I shall examine Inscription no. 17 in the Medieval Jewish cemetery in Ełegis, Armenia. I do so at this point because of a remarkable coincidence, and I emphasize: coincidence.57 This inscription is on a tombstone dated to 1266 ce and occurs on the circular end of the tombstone, which bears the shape of a recumbent pillar. The inscription on that end starts some distance from the right-​hand edge but is crowded up to the left-​hand edge. It is clearly the work of a relatively unskilled mason, for he did not calculate the length of the line of writing against the space available.58 In the initial publication of the inscription, Dr. David Amit read ‫בארזיארת‬, which does not mean anything.59 This reading was

16  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia included in our joint article, cited in n. 59. On occasion of a further visit to the site, however, Dr. Amit read the signs that he formerly deciphered as the letters ‫ זי‬as a final ṣadē ‫ץ‬, thus yielding the reading ‫בארץ ארת‬. He interpreted this as a writing of ‫בארץ אר[ר]ט‬ “in the land of Araat,” with a single reš instead of the doubled one and an error of taw for ṭeṭ (see Figure 1.1). This is an acceptable reading and interpretation of the Hebrew letters, which are nearly all complete. Upon renewed examination of the stone, the reading of final ṣadē seems to me quite certain.60 In 4 Ezra, a Jewish apocalypse written in Hebrew in the last decade of the first century ce, the following passage exists. Unfortunately, its Hebrew original has perished, and the book survives only in daughter versions of a lost Greek translation. Quite independently of the inscription from Ełegis, describing the exile of the Ten Tribes, 4 Ezra says:61 13:43 And they went in by the narrow passages of the Euphrates river, 13:44 for at that time the Most High performed wonders for them, and stopped the springs of the river until they had passed over. 13:45 To that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and a half; and that country is called Arzareth.

The name of the land is written “Arzareth” in most Latin manuscripts. This Latin text, like all the ancient versions of this work, is a translation of a no longer extant Greek text, itself translated from the lost Hebrew original. The readings of the other versions seem to derive from an alternate Greek ΑΡΖΑΦ /​ ΑΡΣΑΡΘ.62 This first conjectured Greek reading seems not to be supported by the inner-​Latin variants, which can all derive from “Arzareth.” I venture to take up again Violet’s suggestion that “Arzareth” of the Latin version of 4 Ezra 13:45 is not, as often assumed, a corruption of ‫“ ארץ אחרת‬another land,” an expression derived from Deuteronomy 29:28.63 Indeed, I myself implied this reading in a note on this passage written in

Ararat and Armenia in the Bible  17 1990. Instead, as Violet proposed, I now suggest that it goes back to a transliteration of ‫“ ארץ אררט‬Land of Ararat.” If so, then 4 Ezra would attest that at the end of the first century ce the view was current that the remote area, the “Land of Ararat” across the Euphrates, is the domicile of exiled Israelites, apparently the so-​ called Lost Tribes exiled by the Assyrians in 720 bce. The Euphrates River rises in the Armenian Highlands. The first part of its channel is north of the River Tigris, and then it swings around, flows south and eventually southwest, beyond the Tigris to the south and into the Persian Gulf. We should note that the text refers to the “springs” and the “narrow passages” of the (presumably) Euphrates River. This might mean its headwaters and its upper sections, before it grew into the great waterway that it is for most of its length.64 The mention of the narrow passages of the Euphrates and the consciousness of the remoteness of this land would fit very appropriately with this interpretation. It is still possible that the geography implied by this text is completely fantastic, but it is also possible that it reflects information known in the Land of Israel at the end of the first century ce concerning Jewish communities north of Babylon, across and beyond the Euphrates River. The falling together of the two “r”s of Ararat in 4 Ezra 13:45 is not particularly problematic; another instance of it is the Ełegis tomb inscription I cited earlier. Thus, this first-​century ce text might be based on knowledge of the presence of Jews beyond the headwaters of the Euphrates, in a somewhat ill-​defined region north of Mesopotamia that was designated by the name “land of Ararat.” If so, it would lend support not just to the view that Tigran II the Great (reigned 95–55 bce) indeed took Jews to Armenia in the first century bce 65 but also to the idea that Jews had settled there, perhaps descendants of exiles of earlier centuries. It is, of course, only a coincidence, though a striking one, that a similar corruption might have taken place in the original of Latin 4 Ezra

18  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia as that which we observed a millennium later in Inscription No. 17 from Ełegis.

1.6  The Ark in Apamea In Late Antiquity, another place vied with Armenia for recognition as the site on which Noah’s Ark landed. This was the city of Apamea in Pisidia (Asia Minor), which claimed to be the location of Mount Ararat. This second identification is preserved alongside the tradition of the Ark’s connection with Armenia. As examples, we quote Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by George Syncellus: “But when the water receded, the Ark came to rest on the Mountains of Ararat, which we know to be in Parthia, but some say it is Kelainai in Phrygia.”66 Similarly, the sixth-​ century Byzantine chronographer John Malalas says in Book 1.4: After the flood had ceased and the waters had abated, the Ark was found to have settled on the Mountains of Ararat in the province of Pisidia, whose metropolis is Apamea. Its timbers are there to the present day, as Pergamos the Pamphylian has written. Josephos and Eusebios Pamphyliou and other chroniclers have stated that the Mountains of Ararat are near Armenia, between the Parthians, the Armenians and the Adiabenoi, and the Ark settled there.67

The role of Apamea in stories about the Ark is discussed in some detail by Ruth Clements in a fine paper on the iconography of Noah’s Ark.68 The tradition tying the Ark to this particular city is well attested, and it is a rival of the Armenian Mount Ararat.

2 Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period (First Century bce to Fifth Century ce) 2.1  Introductory Remarks “It is most unlikely,” J. Russell writes, “that there were no Jews in earliest Armenia, since the exilic communities1 were well established in Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Media . . . for centuries. Nor need we suppose that it was impossible that some of them married Urartians and Armenians.”2 This statement seems plausible, and one could add to it the possibility that some Jews came to Armenia from the neighboring kingdom of Adiabene, whose royal house converted to Judaism in the first century ce. Yet no evidence supporting either of these suppositions has survived in known sources that might provide us with documented connections to or information about such exiled Jews who took up residence in Armenia. Two further possibilities have been raised and will be discussed and refined in the present study: first, that Jews were brought to Armenia by the renowned king Tigran II in the framework of his policy of synoecism;3 second, that in Armenia there had developed a considerable number of Judaizers who were often reckoned with the Jewish community.4 The preserved evidence for Jews in Armenia is both scattered and episodic. The following chapters discuss the attestations known to us to their presence there during the Ancient and Medieval periods. The most prominent early historical reports relate to Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia. Michael E. Stone and Aram Topchyan, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197582077.003.0002

20  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia the Hellenistic-​Roman period, such as those retailed by P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i,5 and from different perspectives by Josephus Flavius and Plutarch. They relate that Tigran II the Great settled Jews in Armenia in the first century bce. Such direct reports are few and rare, but when they exist they are very good evidence, though of course subject to the critical reading that is demanded for the utilization of all historical sources. In Armenian sources dating from the fifth and later centuries ce, there is considerable information about Jews in Armenia, or more precisely, the settlement of Jews in Armenia and the later expulsion of Jews from certain Armenian cities. Here we discuss this information in detail. Once assessed critically, this evidence makes it quite clear that there were Jews in Armenia, first attested in the first century bce and clearly present by the fourth century ce.

2.2  The Oldest Evidence in Armenian Literature: Jews Deported from Armenia by the Persians (368/​9 ce) The first ancient Armenian literary source to mention Jewish population in Armenia is the History of Armenia ascribed to P‘awstos Buzand,6 probably composed in the third quarter of the fifth century ce.7 The long passage (4.55) that refers to multitudes of Jewish families living in Armenian cities concerns one of the most disastrous and fateful events in the history of Armenia, namely the invasion and ravaging of the country by Persian troops circa 368/​9.8 As a consequence of that invasion, almost all significant Armenian cities were ruined and devastated, and their inhabitants, who, according to P‘awstos, were exclusively Armenians and Jews, were captured and taken to Persia. The historian speaks of more than ninety-​five thousand Jewish families that were settled in seven Armenian cities: Artašat, Vałaršapat, Eruandašat, Zarehawan, Zarišat, Van, and Naxčawan. This campaign by the Persian king

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  21 Shāpūr II (reigned 309–379) formed the completion of a series of strenuous diplomatic and military actions. He directed these actions toward the subjection of the disobedient country following the peace agreement he concluded with the Roman emperor Flavius Jovian (363–364) in 363.

2.3  The Historical Background: The Events of 363–368/​9 To clarify the context in which the Jewish families are mentioned, we must present briefly the sequence of events leading up to the Persian conquest of these Armenian cities. The most reliable description is by a contemporary eyewitness, the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (ca. 330–395 ce).9 He relates that the emperor Julian (361–363 ce) crossed the river Euphrates and campaigned against Persia;10 King Arsaces of Armenia (Aršak II, ca. 350–368/​9 ce) was Julian’s ally (23.2). The Romans subjugated several towns and strongholds on their way (24.1, 2, 4, 5) and reached Ctesiphon, the winter capital of the Persian kings (24.6).11 However, although here Julian’s army won a brilliant victory, the Roman emperor and his generals decided not to besiege the city, regarding that as a “rash and untimely” undertaking, and so they retreated (24.7). Julian was killed in a subsequent battle (25.3),12 and, “as if by the blind decree of fortune,” Flavius Jovian, “a slothful, weak man,” was chosen as emperor.13 Under the pressure of the starving and exhausted Roman soldiers, Jovian concluded a thirty-​years’ “shameful treaty” (ignobile decretum) with Shāpūr II, ceding to the Persians five provinces west of the Tigris and the cities Nisibis and Singara (25.7). Then Ammianus indicates what this agreement stipulated regarding Armenia (25.7.12). Based on this agreement, some time later (in about 368/​9) Shāpūr’s army destroyed the seven Armenian cities and moved their Armenian and Jewish inhabitants to Persia. “To these

22  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia conditions,”14 Ammianus writes, “there was added another which was destructive and impious, namely, that after the completion of these agreements, Arsaces, our steadfast and faithful friend, should never, if he asked it, be given help against the Persians. This was contrived with a double purpose, that a man who at the emperor’s order had devastated Chiliocomum15 might be punished, and that the opportunity might be left of presently invading Armenia without opposition.” The same events, Julian’s campaign, the Romans’ retreat, Julian’s death, and the conclusion of the peace treaty between Jovian and Shāpūr II, are also described in detail in the Nea Historia (3.12–31) of the early sixth-​century Byzantine author Zosimus.16 He says (3.31.2) that, according to the treaty, “the Persians also took away most of Armenia, allowing the Romans to keep only a small part,” but this concerns more the aftermath of the truce than the agreement itself. P‘awstos Buzand, too, knows about the fatal treaty (4.21): “When peace came between the Greek king17 and Šapuh king of Persia,” he writes, “the Greek wrote a letter of covenant, sealed it, and sent it to the king of Persia. . . . ‘I give you,’ he said, ‘the city of Mcbin,18 which is in Aruestan, and Syrian Mesopotamia. And I am withdrawing from the Armenian Midlands. If you are able to attack and subject them, I shall not support them.’ ” P‘awstos also states that the Roman emperor had to send such a letter to the king of Persia because he was in a difficult situation. Further, P‘awstos narrates that Shāpūr II waged war against Aršak II, king of Armenia. According to Hakob Manandian, this happened in the year 364 ce, and for four years the Armenians were able to resist the attacks of the powerful Persian army.19 Finally, as Ammianus witnesses, after deceitfully summoning Aršak to Persia and executing him,20 Shāpūr conquered most of Armenia, including the royal stronghold Artogerassa (Artagers).21 Thus, the destruction of the seven cities and the capture of Armenians and Jews, to which c­ hapter 4.55 of P‘awstos’s History of Armenia bears

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  23 witness, should be viewed in the context of this last and victorious incursion of Shāpūr’s armed forces into Armenia.

2.4  The Information on the Conquest of the Cities: Accurate or Legendary? P‘awstos Buzand’s work is a very important source for the history of fourth-​century Armenia.22 However, scholars have concluded that the book is largely based on oral traditions rather than on any written account,23 and that it contains many inaccuracies and fabulous stories. Consequently, before dealing with the ethnicity and numbers of the deported inhabitants, we must first determine whether or not the main substance of P‘awstos’s testimony is rooted in reality. In other words, is it true that, in the fourth century, the cities of Artašat, Vałaršapat, Eruandašat, Zarehawan, Zarišat, Van, and Naxčawan were seized and destroyed by the Persians and their citizens taken captive? Ammianus Marcellinus provides valuable information which, although for the most part lacking specific details, in general corroborates P‘awstos’s words. According to Ammianus, the result of the peace treaty “was that later . . . Arsaces was taken alive, and that the Parthians24 amid various dissensions and disturbances seized a very great tract of Armenia bordering on Media, along with Artaxata” (25.7.12). Artaxata (Artašat) is the first of the seven cities listed by Buzand, and the “very great tract of Armenia” (Armeniae maximum latus) might well have included the other six. Later, after his reference to Arsaces’s (Aršak’s) execution (27.12.3), Ammianus tells about the same encroachment of Shāpūr’s troops into Armenia (368/​ 9), resulting in the seizure and destruction of the royal fortress Artogerassa (27.12.11–12): “Sapor . . . mustering greater forces began to devastate Armenia with open pillage. . . . After burning the fruit-​bearing

24  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia trees and the fortified castles and strongholds that he had taken by force or by betrayal, he blockaded Artogerassa with the whole weight of his forces and after some battles of varying result and the exhaustion of the defenders, forced his way into the city and set it on fire, dragging out and carrying off the wife and the treasures of Arsaces.” Ammianus confirms the capture of Artaxata in the first passage cited earlier (25.7.12), and by “the fortified castles and strongholds” (castella munita et castra), which Shāpūr burned (27.12.12), he may have also meant Vałaršapat, Eruandašat, Zarehawan, Zarišat, Van, and Naxčawan. As to the deportation, ethnicity, and numbers of the inhabitants, one has to rely, as far as it is reasonable, on P‘awstos Buzand’s and, additionally, on Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s information.25

2.5  P‘awstos Buzand, 4.55 Then26 Šapuh (Shāpūr) king of Persia sent two of his princes . . . against the realm of Armenia. . . . They came to the great city of Artašat and took it. They destroyed its wall, carried off the hoarded treasures that were there, and captured the entire city. And they carried off from the city of Artašat nine thousand Jewish households who had been taken prisoners by King Tigran Aršakuni out of the land of Palestine, and forty thousand Armenian families, whom they took from the city of Artašat. . . . They . . . destroyed every building in the city to its foundations . . . emptied it of all its population.27

The same happens to six other Armenian cities: from Vałaršapat the Persians take away “nineteen thousand families,” adult men, women, and children; from Eruandašat, they take away twenty

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  25 thousand Armenian families and thirty thousand Jewish families; from Zarehawan in Bagrewand they take away five thousand Armenian families and eight thousand Jewish families; from Zarišat, in the district of Ałiovit, they take away fourteen thousand Jewish families and ten thousand Armenian families; from Van, in the district of Tozb, they take away five thousand Armenians and eighteen thousand Jewish families; and from Naxčawan, they take away two thousand Armenian families and sixteen thousand Jewish families. Naxčawan is also the gathering place of the Persian army and of all other captives, who are then taken to Persia, to King Shāpūr II. Table 2.1 lists the cities and the captured inhabitants according to P‘awstos.

Table 2.1  The Cities and the Numbers of Their Captured Armenian and Jewish Inhabitants according to P‘awstos Buzand City name

Province

Artašat

Number of Jewish families 9,000

Number of Armenian families 40,000

Vałaršapat

19,000

Eruandašat

30,000

20,000

8,000

5,000

Zarehawan

Bagrewand

Zarišat

Ałiovit

14,000

10,000

Van

Tozb

18,000

5,000

16,000

2,000

Naxčawan

Number of families (ethnicity unspecified)

Total: 95,000 Total: 82,000

26  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

2.6  What Do the Numbers Indicate and What Might “Jews” (հրեայք) in P‘awstos Buzand Mean? As is evident from Table 2.1, among the cities mentioned, Armenians formed the large majority of those exiled only from Artašat, the most celebrated Armenian metropolis of the ancient world. Regarding Vałaršapat, the proportion of Jews to Armenians is not clear, for P‘awstos gives only the total number of the citizens, without indicating their ethnicity.28 In the other five cities the Jewish families, in various ratios, form the majority, which is especially striking in the cases of Van and Naxčawan. It is interesting that in the History by the ninth-​tenth-​century historian T‘ovma Arcruni (1.10), the same numbers (five thousand and eighteen thousand) of the inhabitants of Van are given, but the number of Jews, on the contrary, is five thousand and of Christians (not “Armenians”!) is eighteen thousand.29 P‘awstos’s information, very likely not based on any documentary evidence but just acquired by word of mouth, should not be accepted at face value; no doubt, the numbers of both Armenian and especially Jewish inhabitants are greatly exaggerated. Nevertheless, Manandian concludes that in the days of Tigran and later on during the Arsacid reign, not the Armenians themselves but the foreign settlers, in the first place Jews and Syrians, played the leading role in the country’s commercial affairs.30 Garsoїan infers that “the Armenians of this period were not city dwellers at any level of society,”31 and that the information provided by P‘awstos shows “almost invariably that the Jews composed the majority of the early Armenian urban population.”32 These conclusions based on P‘awstos Buzand are disputable and too categorical, but we can clearly state the following: if there were not considerable numbers of Jews in Armenia at the time of the Persian expedition of 368/​9, P‘awstos would not have mentioned them at all, and the large numbers, although exaggerated, indicate that the

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  27 Jewish settlement was substantial. Furthermore, one may also conjecture that even after the removal of those tens of thousands to Persia by Shāpūr II, Armenian Jewry had by no means become just a distant memory in the time of P‘awstos. He was most probably led to speak of more than ninety-​five thousand Jewish families involved in the tragic events of some hundred years before his time by the continuing existence of their descendants as a significant part of Armenia’s population. This becomes more apparent when one deals with another early medieval Armenian literary source, namely the History of Armenia by Movsēs Xorenac‘i33 (discussed later), in which Jews often play quite a conspicuous role. One should also suppose that the term “Jew” means both “Jews” and “Judaizers” rather than simply the ethnos, for otherwise the large numbers of “Jewish” captives and the odd division of the city-​ dwellers into only two groups, “Jews” and “Armenians,” would be difficult to understand.34 In this respect, the passage in Josephus Flavius’s War of the Jews (BJ 2.462–464) describing the enmity between the two large groups of the inhabitants of Syrian cities is extremely interesting.35 Speaking about the events preceding the great war against the Romans and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 bce, Josephus writes that “every city was divided into two camps, and the safety of one party lay in their anticipating the other.” Those two armies were “Syrians” (Σύρoι) and “Jews” (  Ἰoυδαῖoι). The former were massacring the latter, but among the Ἰoυδαῖoι there were people whom the Syrians regarded with suspicion but were not determined to kill. Josephus calls them “Judaizers” (  Ἰoυδαΐζoντας) and characterizes them as “ambiguous” (ἀμφίβoλoν) and “mixed” (μεμιγμένoν), unlike those who were clearly “alien” (ἀλλόφυλoν), that is, ethnic Jews.36 What Josephus says about the Ἰoυδαῖoι in Syrian cities may well be true regarding the Armenian equivalent for “Jews” in P‘awstos Buzand: հրեայք or հրէայք (հրեայ or հրէայ in singular) should be interpreted as “Jews and Judaizers,” that is, people of other nations, presumably non-​ Armenians (because the Armenians form the other large group of

28  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia the seven cities), converted to Judaism. Needless to say, “becoming a Jew” was a widespread phenomenon in many countries of the civilized world throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods.37 In scholarly literature, the various meanings of “Jew” (or “Judean”) and “Judaizer” are stressed. We would like to mention two comparatively new studies discussing those terms in detail. Louis H. Feldman speaks of “God-​fearers” (φoβoύμενoι τὸν θεόν) and “sympathizers,” “those non-​Jews who adopted certain Jewish practices without actually converting to Judaism.”38 The story of the gradual conversion of Izates, king of Adiabene, told by Josephus (AJ 20.17ff.) is a good example of how a “sympathizer” becomes a proselyte. Shaye J. D. Cohen39 distinguishes three main meanings for the Hebrew Yehudi, Greek Ioudaios, and Latin Judaeus: (1) ethnic/​geographic, (2) religious/​cultural, and (3) political (“a citizen or ally of the Judean state”).40 For the first meaning, he prefers “Judean” to “Jew” in English. Notably, in Josephus’s story about the conversion of the royal family of Adiabene, where Izates wants to be circumcised to “be steadily a Jew” (εἶναι βεβαίως Ἰoυδαῖoς), Ioudaios has absolutely no ethnic sense and means only “Judaizer.”41 Both of the first two meanings mentioned by Cohen seem to be relevant to Buzand’s հրեայք. This word is the exact Armenian equivalent of the Hebrew Yehûdîm, Greek Ioudaioi, and Latin Iudaei.42 In addition to “ethnic Jews” (“Judeans”), it also has the wider meaning “followers of Judaism,” Judeans and non-​ Judeans, including “sympathizers,” “God-​fearers,” and proselytes. We can cite examples from Armenian literature, starting with the Armenian version of the famous passage in Acts 2:5–11,43 referring to “Jews from every nation” (  Ἰoυδαῖoι . . . ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνoυς), listed afterward as “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.” In the Armenian Bible the Greek text is translated literally: հրեայք . . . յամենայն ազգաց “Jews from

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  29 every nation,” which is subsequently explained as հրեայք եւ եկք նոցուն “both Jews and proselytes” (  Ἰoυδαῖoί τε καὶ πρoσήλυτoι). This usage of հրեայք to mean “Jews and proselytes,” together with the oral tradition associating հրեայ with the two meanings, ethnic and cultural/​religious, and deriving from Yehûdî-​Ioudaios-​ Iudaeus, would have easily entered writings composed in Armenian. A typical example of a wider, not simply ethnic meaning of the word occurs in the History of Vardan and the Armenian War by the fifth-​century historian Ełišē.44 He mentions one of the Persian kings (Shāpūr II or III), who, after uselessly trying to persecute Christians, had to tolerate them as well as adherents of other religions in his kingdom:45 “He commanded the magi and chief-​ magi that no one should molest them in any way, but that they should remain undisturbed in their own doctrines without fear—​ magus and Zandik46 and Jew (հրեայն) and Christian, and whatever other many sects there where throughout the Persian Empire.” Ełišē lists religious rather than ethnic groups, so in this passage հրեայ means “a follower of the Jewish religion” in a more general sense and not simply “a representative of the Jewish nation.” This religious meaning of the word is apparent in the following usage of the abstract noun հրէութիւն (literally, “Jewishness”), a derivative of հրեայ/​հրէայ, in the Teaching of Saint Gregory (§542), a treatise that survives as part of the History of Armenia attributed to the fifth-​century author Agat‘angełos:47 “Paul was unknown to be a vessel of election (Acts 9:15) in the time of his Judaism (հրէութեան ժամանակին),” or “In the time of the priesthood of Judaism (ի ժամանակս հրէութեան քահանայութեանն) . . . the priests took the fire of the sacrifices and cast it into the well” (§544). Finally, as already noted, it is remarkable that the ninth-​tenth-​century author T‘ovma Arcruni, narrating that the Persians deported Armenians and “Jews” զհրէայսն taken captive in Van,48 uses the term “Christians” զքրիստոնեայսն instead of “Armenians.” Thus, the “Jews,” according to T‘ovma, were a large religious group, like the Christians.

30  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia P‘awstos explains the presence of հրեայք in Armenian cities by the deportations of Tigran II the Great, king of Armenia, who had taken them prisoner from Palestine. As we shall see, Tigran II deported numerous captives not only from Palestine but also from other countries. Part of those peoples could have been converted to Judaism before Tigran’s campaigns, and part of them possibly became “sympathizers,” “God-​fearers,” or proselytes after being settled, together with ethnic Jews, in Armenia.49 The Armenian tradition reflected in P‘awstos Buzand and other early medieval literary sources, in accordance with the general concept of the “Jews” in the Greco-​Roman world, did not clearly distinguish the ethnos from the followers or converts: for the Armenians, all of them were հրեայք.50

2.7  How Did the Jews Come to Armenia? P‘awstos Buzand says (4.55), “All this multitude of Jews, who were taken into captivity from the land of Armenia,51 had been taken in ancient times from the land of Palestine by the great Armenian king Tigran, at the time that he also took and brought to Armenia the high-​priest of the Jews, Hiwrakandos. And the great King Tigran brought all these Jews in his own days, and settled them in the Armenian cities.”52 This passage talks of two different events as if they were one, Tigran II’s exiling of a “multitude of Jews” to Armenia and the captivity of the high priest Hyrcanus (Hiwrakandos).53 From the examination of this passage it becomes evident that P‘awstos Buzand confused different events that took place at different times.54 He says that the high priest Hyrcanus was captured by Tigran II. However, Hyrcanus was actually taken captive in the year 40 bce, at a time when not Tigran II but his son Artawazd II was king of Armenia. Tigran II had died in 55 bce; Artawazd came to the throne in 54 and ruled until 33. Therefore, Hyrcanus could not have

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  31 been taken captive by Tigran II, who was already dead. The “multitude of Jews,” however, were transferred to Armenia by Tigran II.55 Josephus Flavius, the main source for Hyrcanus’s captivity, narrates the following.56 With their troops, Barzapharnes, a Parthian satrap, and the Parthian king’s son Pacorus conquered Syria and invaded Judea, reaching as far as Jerusalem. Lysanias, king of Coele Syria, and Antigonus, the previous high priest and king of Judea, promised Pacorus a thousand talents and five hundred women if he would remove Hyrcanus from power and restore Antigonus to the throne. The Parthians continued their military expedition in Judea, plundering Jerusalem and besieging the coastal towns of Tyre, Sidon, and Ptolemaïs (Acre). The inhabitants of Sidon and Ptolemaïs yielded to the Parthians, but the Tyrians resisted them. Hyrcanus and his companion-​in-​arms Phasaelus, Herod’s brother, were persuaded to meet the Parthians for negotiations. They left Herod in Jerusalem and went to the maritime town of Ecdippon (Achziv). There they were perfidiously imprisoned and handed over to Antigonus, who bit off Hyrcanus’s ears so that he could never hold the high priesthood again, for, according to Jewish law, a priest must be whole of limb. Phasaelus committed suicide, and Hyrcanus was taken captive to Parthia. Later on, Josephus says, Hyrcanus, after being brought to Parthia, was lodged in Babylon. Scholars have stated that Josephus’s information about Hyrcanus settling in Babylon contradicts that which is related by P‘awstos, namely that Hyrcanus, together with other Jews, was taken as a captive to Armenia.57 And since no one has doubted the truthfulness of Josephus’s account, it has naturally been concluded that the Armenian tradition is false. Let us try, however, to resolve this contradiction, using the other important Armenian source for the events in question, the History of Armenia by Movsēs Xorenac‘i, and also taking into consideration the fact that Josephus does not clearly distinguish Armenia and the Armenians from Parthia and the Parthians.58 Furthermore, we should stress once again that,

32  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia according to Josephus, Hyrcanus was first taken to Parthia, and only subsequently, when he was brought to King Phraates, who treated him gently, did he receive a dwelling in Babylon. Thus, even if not much importance is attached to the confusion of Parthia and Armenia in Josephus, we may infer that Hyrcanus could well have been in Armenia, at least for a short period of time, on his way to Parthia and Phraates’s palace before settling in Babylon, and together with him other Jews could have been brought captive to Armenia.59 Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s report helps to explain both the anachronisms in P‘awstos and the contradiction between Josephus and the Armenian tradition about where Hyrcanus was brought by the victorious troops, for he actually refers to two deportations of Jewish population to Armenia. According to Movsēs (2.14), the first deportation took place before Tigran II’s conquest of the Phoenician town Ptolemaïs in 70 bce. “He (i.e., Tigran II) attacked Palestine,”60 and, Movsēs writes, “took many captives from among the Jews and besieged the city of Ptolemaïs.” Then he narrates (2.16) that those Jews were settled in two Armenian cities: “The king of Armenia, Tigran, after settling the Jewish prisoners in Armawir and in the city of Vardges . . . marched to Syria against the Roman army.” Armawir was the ancient capital of Armenia.61 Thus, in addition to the seven cities mentioned by P‘awstos Buzand,62 Movsēs Xorenac‘i witnesses to Jewish settlers in Armawir, although, as he further reports (2.49), those Jews were later moved by King Eruand the Last63 to his new capital, Eruandašat, and, subsequently, King Artašēs I made his celebrated capital city Artašat their home.64 Furthermore, in 2.65 Movsēs reports that “the city of Vardges” was Vałaršapat, which had been fortified by King Vałarš: “Vardges . . . built this town. Here the middle Tigran . . . settled the . . . colony of Jewish captives, and it became a commercial town. Now this Vałarš surrounded it with a wall . . . and called it Vałaršapat.” Finally, in 3.35 Movsēs describes the devastation of Armenian cities by Shāpūr’s army (ca. 368/​9):

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  33 Gathering many troops . . . he (Shāpūr) attacked Armenia. They came and invested the castle of Artagerk‘. . . . [T]‌he garrison of the fortress . . . surrendered willingly. . . . Taking them captive with the treasures and Queen P‘arandzem they brought them to Assyria. And there they massacred them. . . . At the same time there arrived a command from King Shapuh that they should destroy and raze the fortifications of all cities and bring the Jews into captivity including those Jews living by the same Jewish law in Van Tosp whom Barzap‘ran Ṙshtuni had brought there in the days of Tigran. . . . They also took into captivity the Jews in Artašat and Vałaršapat whom the same king Tigran had brought there.65

To this last account, much shorter than that in P‘awstos, Movsēs adds notable details, not cited here, which will be discussed below.66 The second deportation is referred to in Movsēs Xorenac‘i 2.19, which passage contains significant information and is quite important for the study of Movsēs’s sources and his methods of using them. Here he speaks of the Jews brought by the Armenian commander Barzap‘ran Ṙštuni to Van. The relevant parts of his narrative generally correspond to one of his main sources for this chapter, that is, Josephus’s account of the Parthian incursion into Syria in 40 bce summarized earlier. However, what Movsēs relates differs from Josephus at a number of points. The chief difference is that he attributes the military campaign not exclusively to the Parthians but to the “Armenian-​Persian” (“Persian” here meaning “Parthian”) joint army. In addition, Josephus’s Parthian satrap Barzapharnes (or Bazaphranes) has become an Armenian named Barzap‘ran Ṙštuni. Third, “Pacaros” (the Parthian king’s son Pacorus in Josephus) acts as mediator between Barzap‘ran Ṙštuni and Antigonus, Hyrcanus’s brother. Antigonus offered a thousand talents of gold and five hundred women as a bribe in exchange for his restoration to the high priesthood and sovereignty. Some scholars have claimed that Movsēs Xorenac‘i simply invented the information that has no parallel in Josephus.67 Others

34  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia have rightly regarded the participation of Armenians in these events as quite probable, because in this period the Parthians, together with their Armenian allies, conducted prolonged military campaigns in Syria.68 But what other work could Movsēs have used as a source for the more detailed information available to him neither in P‘awstos’s nor in Josephus’s works? Most experts have been mistrustful of Movsēs’s reference in History 2.10 to his other important literary source (alongside Josephus and Hippolytus of Rome) for this section of his book, namely the Chronicle of Sextus Julius Africanus (second to third centuries ce), now surviving only in fragments.69 I have already demonstrated elsewhere that there are verbatim parallels between the relevant passages by Africanus70 and Movsēs.71 Those parallels corroborate Movsēs’s use of at least fragments of the Chronicle. It is well-​known that a large part of Africanus’s book covered the same period and related the same events as Josephus’s works, so in certain cases in which Movsēs differs from Josephus, he may have drawn information from Africanus. Authors such as Eusebius of Caesarea and George Syncellus used Josephus and Africanus in parallel with one another. Possibly, Movsēs knew about the participation of Armenians in the conquest of Syria in 40 bce from Africanus’s Chronicle. Given the fact that the two allied countries, Parthia and Armenia, were in a close relationship in this period (so close that Josephus confused them), the commander Barzapharnes (Barzaphranes, Barzap‘ran—​Βαζαφράνης /​Βαρζαφράνης) might have been an Armenian and might have brought Jewish captives to Armenia. “Tigran ordered Barzap‘ran,” Movsēs writes, “to settle the captive Jews from Marisa in the city of Semiramis” (2.19).72 To summarize: P‘awstos Buzand refers to one captivity of Jews by King Tigran II in 70 bce, at which time, he says, the high priest Hyrcanus was also brought to Armenia. According to P‘awstos, those Jews were settled in the seven Armenian cities, Artašat,

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  35 Vałaršapat, Eruandašat, Zarehawan, Zarišat, Van, and Naxčawan, which were subsequently ruined by the Persians circa 368/​9 ce. Movsēs Xorenac‘i helps to solve the anachronism in P‘awstos, who writes as if Hyrcanus were deported with the other Jews by Tigran II in 70 bce. In fact, Hyrcanus was exiled in 40 bce and so could not have been deported by Tigran II in the year 70. Movsēs reports two deportations of Jewish population from Palestine, the first immediately before the fatal conflict of Tigran II with the Roman army in 69 bce, and the second at the time of the Parthian-​Armenian invasion into Syria and Palestine in 40 bce. Of the seven cities with Jewish population mentioned in P‘awstos, Movsēs speaks of four: Artašat, Vałaršapat, Eruandašat, and Van. He also adds another famous Armenian city to the list, Armawir, stating that the Jewish settlers were later moved thence, first to Eruandašat and then to Artašat. Armawir, together with Vałaršapat, Movsēs says, became the home of the Jews of the 70 bce deportation, while the captives of the year 40 bce were all settled in Van. For more clarity, those data in Movsēs Xorenac‘i are presented in Table 2.2. Table 2.2  The Settlement of Jews in Armenian Cities according to Movsēs Xorenac‘i Jews deported by Tigran II in 70 bce settled in:

Jews deported by Barzap‘ran in 40 bce settled in:

Armawir → Eruandašat → Artašat Vałaršapat

Van

P‘awstos combined two different events, placing both in the year of Hyrcanus’s exile (40 bce) and erroneously thinking that the high priest was brought to Armenia by Tigran II. Movsēs also mistakenly thought that Barzap‘ran was acting on Tigran II’s orders, while in reality Artawazd II was king of Armenia in 40 bce. Movsēs, clearly and correctly, knows that there was a first

36  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia deportation at the time Tigran invaded Phoenicia (70 bce). That this invasion really took place is corroborated by Josephus. It is unlikely that Movsēs simply invented this information—​there was no reason for such an invention. Josephus speaks of Tigran II’s siege of Ptolemaïs, keeping silent about any expulsion of Jews. Movsēs has drawn some of his data from Julius Africanus’s Chronicle (probably from fragments of it) as well as from Josephus’s War. Indeed, since Africanus’s Chronicle may well have been the source of Movsēs’s knowledge of the first deportation, we can conclude that during his military campaigns Tigran II took substantial numbers of Jews captive and brought them to Armenia. The settlement of Armenian cities by way of synoikismos,73 that is, the practice of shifting multitudes of peoples from the conquered countries, was typical of Tigran II’s policy. Information about this practice is also contained in Greco-​ Roman sources, including Strabo (64/​63 bce–ca. 23 ce), Plutarch (46–119 ce), Appian (second century ce), Cassius Dio (ca. 150–235 ce), and Justin (third century ce) citing Pompey Trogus (first century bce–first century ce). According to these authors, on various dates the inhabitants of at least twelve Hellenistic cities of Cilicia, Cappadocia, Mesopotamia, and other countries were brought to Armenia. Some of those peoples were probably assimilated by the Armenians, and others, especially Greeks, returned to their countries. Most of the Jews, as is evident from the Armenian sources, stayed in Armenia and lived as a separate community.74 The policy of synoikismos was very likely continued by Tigran II’s son and successor, Artawazd II. His armed forces accompanied the Parthians on their incursion into Syria and Judea, brought more Jews to Armenia and settled them in Van. Subsequently, since in Armenian tradition Tigran II the Great’s fame overshadowed all his successors, the military campaign and synoikismos of the year 40 bce, in Artawazd II’s days, were also attributed to him.75

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  37

2.8  Greco-​Roman Sources on Tigran’s Deportations Further corroboration of mass deportations of various peoples, most probably including Jews, in the time of Tigran II is to be found in Greco-​Roman sources. P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i speak only of Jews exiled from Palestine, before the siege of Ptolemaïs (70 bce) and in 40 bce. However, in 93 bce, long before the year 70, Tigran II had already initiated his policy of bringing masses of captive foreigners and settling them in Armenia. He continued this practice throughout his conquests, from 93 down to 69 bce, the first year of his disastrous conflict with Rome. Those deportees very likely included Jews as well, though that is not mentioned explicitly in Greco-​Roman sources. Before discussing the relevant passages in Strabo, Plutarch, Appian, Cassius Dio, and Justin, we should note that, unlike the Armenian sources, these authors (as well as Josephus Flavius in reporting the conquest of the Phoenician city Ptolemaïs) generally do not list Palestine among the countries under Tigran’s control.76 However, Plutarch,77 in Lucullus’s address to the Roman soldiers (Lucullus 14.6), mentions Tigran II as a powerful enemy who reigns over Syria and Palestine (Συρίας κρατεῖ καὶ Παλαιστίνης).78 Appian in the Syrian War (8.48–49) says that “Tigranes conquered all of the Syrian peoples this side of the Euphrates as far as Egypt.”79 Thus, Tigran might have held sway, at least for some period of time, over a part of Palestine as well, and captives could have been brought to Armenia from there too. As to the synoikismos of the year 40 bce, the Parthian-​ Armenian troops at that time reached as far south as Jerusalem. At the beginning of Tigran II’s reign and after he had attached Sophene to Armenia Major, he invaded Cappadocia (in 93 bce). Subsequently, this region was overrun by him repeatedly. Mithridates Eupator (reigned 120–63 bce), king of Pontus, was Tigran’s ally.80 Pompey Trogus’s testimony about this alliance

38  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia is preserved in Justin’s epitome (38.3).81 The two allies had agreed that the conquered towns and lands would be under Mithridates’s dominion while the people and any movable property would belong to Tigran.82 This is partly corroborated by Movsēs Xorenac‘i (2.14), who says that at the beginning of his reign, Tigran, after his first military campaign, “entrusted the Cappadocian capital Mazhak83 . . . to . . . Mithridates . . . and leaving a numerous army with him . . . returned to our country.”84 The evidence in Strabo’s Geography about another conquest of Cappadocia85 and deportation of the Mazaceni is well-​known: “Mazaca is distant from Pontus about eight hundred stadia to the south. . . . Tigranes, the Armenian, put the people in bad plight when he overran Cappadocia, for he forced them, one and all, to migrate into Mesopotamia; and it was mostly with these that he settled Tigranocerta” (12.2.9).86 Appian in the Mithridatic Wars (10.67) indicates the huge, even if exaggerated, number of the Cappadocian captives taken to Armenia in consequence of this military operation: “Tigranes . . . the Armenian king threw, as it were, a drag net around Cappadocia and made a haul of about 300,000 people,87 whom he carried off to his own country and settled . . . in . . . Tigranocerta.” Tigran II’s other conquests, between 89 and 85 bce, after the Parthians had acknowledged his supremacy, included Atropatene, Gordyene, Adiabene, Mygdonia,88 Osroene, and the rest of Mesopotamia. In 84/​83 bce Tigran ascended the throne of the Seleucids in Antioch, becoming the sovereign of Upper Syria and afterward of Cilicia Pedias89 and Commagene. Following those conquests, Tigran II from time to time invaded Phoenicia up to 70 bce, in which year he took Ptolemaïs.90 The Iberians (Georgians) and Caucasian Albanians were also governed by Tigran.91 For those campaigns of the King of Kings, often resulting in mass expulsions of the inhabitants of the defeated countries, the following information in Strabo (11.14.15) is noteworthy: The Sophenian Artanes, who held the southern parts and those that lay more to the west than these, was a descendant of

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  39 Zariadris. But he was overcome by Tigranes, who established himself as lord of all. The changes of fortune experienced by Tigranes were varied, for at first he was a hostage among the Parthians; and then through them he obtained the privilege of returning home, they receiving as reward therefor seventy valleys in Armenia; but when he had grown in power, he not only took these places back but also devastated their country, both that about Ninus92 and that about Arbela;93 and he subjugated to himself the rulers of Atropatene and Gordyaea, and along with these the rest of Mesopotamia, and also crossed the Euphrates and by main strength took Syria itself and Phoenicia; and, exalted to this height, he also founded a city near Iberia, between this place and Zeugma on the Euphrates; and, having gathered peoples thither from twelve Greek cities which he had laid waste, he named it Tigranocerta.

Strabo does not specify those twelve “Greek” (that is to say, “Hellenistic” πόλεων Ἑλληνίδων) cities,94 but they supposedly were in at least some of the countries mentioned in the cited passage, that is, Sophene, Assyria, Adiabene, Atropatene, Gordyene, “the rest of Mesopotamia” (τὴν λoιπὴν Μεσoπoταμίαν), Syria, and Phoenicia. Strabo’s information is supplemented by others. Plutarch, when describing the siege of Tigranocerta (Tigranakert) in 69 bce by Lucullus’s army, says that “there were in the city many Greeks who had been transplanted, like others, from Cilicia, and many barbarians who had suffered the same fate as the Greeks—​ Adiabeni, Assyrians, Gordyeni, and Cappadocians, whose native cities Tigranes had demolished, and brought their inhabitants to dwell there under compulsion” (Lucullus 26.1–2). Then Plutarch writes that the Greek dwellers of Tigranocerta handed it over to the Romans and were sent back to their native cities, together with others (“barbarians”) by Lucullus (29.2–4). Appian informs us that Tigran forcefully settled Armenians, too, in Tigranocerta: the “best” (τoὺς ἀρίστoυς) of them (12.84). He probably means the

40  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia Armenian aristocrats. Furthermore, Appian, like Plutarch, testifies to the capture of the city by treason: the Greek mercenaries inside “seized some of the towers, called to the Romans outside, and admitted them when they came. In this way was Tigranocerta taken, and the immense wealth, appertaining to a newly built and nobly peopled city, plundered” (12.86). Likewise, Cassius Dio (36.2.3–4) says that Lucullus “did seize Tigranocerta when the foreigners living in the city revolted against the Armenians; for the most of them were Cilicians who had once been carried off from their own land, and these let in the Romans during the night.” Summing up: the countries mentioned by name in Greco-​ Roman sources, whence multitudes of captives were banished and settled in Armenian cities, are Cappadocia, Cilicia, Adiabene, Assyria, and Gordyene. This does not mean that there were no additional synoikoi moved to Armenia from other countries possessed by Tigran. According to his custom, he surely also brought peoples to his urban foundations from elsewhere (e.g., from Upper Syria, where he ruled following the Seleucids for about fourteen years). No one knows where exactly were most of Strabo’s twelve cities, whose dwellers became Tigranocertians. One of them was probably Mazaca, mentioned by Strabo himself, and another one was perhaps the Cilician Soli, which, as Plutarch and Cassius Dio witness, was ruined by the Armenian king. The Greco-​Roman sources mostly refer to foreign synoikoi only in Tigranocerta,95 but it is difficult to imagine that an ancient city, even such a great and marvelous one as Tigran’s new capital,96 could host all those masses of foreigners (supposedly 300,000 from Cappadocia alone, captured during one campaign!) together with the Armenian elite, and that those twelve cities, with all their inhabitants, could fit into one! We should assume that from the beginning some of the captives took up residence at other places (among which were, probably, the seven cities with foreign inhabitants mentioned by P‘awstos). On the other hand, it is possible that Tigran II did not completely empty the cities when he

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  41 exiled their inhabitants. In two instances, one in Strabo and the other in Plutarch, much larger geographic entities than simply Tigranocerta figure. Strabo, in the passage about the Mazaceni (12.2.9), before mentioning Tigran II’s new capital, states that he “forced them, one and all, to migrate into Mesopotamia” (ἅπαντας . . . ἀναστάτoυς ἐπoίησεν εἰς τὴν Μεσoπoταμίαν), and Plutarch, in Lucullus’s address to the Roman soldiers (14.6), witnesses that Tigran II had moved Hellenistic urban communities to Media (πόλεις Ἑλληνίδας εἰς Μηδίαν ἀνακoμίζει). Finally, we should note that this Tigranocerta, the capital, was founded in the late 80s bce,97 whereas Tigran II’s deportations had begun from the first years of his reign in the mid-​90s. Thus, he must have settled his earliest deportees elsewhere. The sources say that after the fall of Tigranocerta, the foreigners, especially the Greeks, returned to their native countries, but doubtless there were many others who stayed and made their home elsewhere in Armenia. In this respect, Strabo’s words about the Mazaceni, ὕστερoν δ’ ἐπανῆλθoν oἱ δυνάμενoι (“later on those who were able returned”) in the same passage (12.2.9) are important; they indicate that only those captives who were able to do so returned to their homelands. Also, it should be noted that Tigranocerta survived this Roman attack and continued to exist as an important city, though not as the capital of Armenia, until at least the mid-​fourth century ce. According to P‘awstos Buzand (4.24), the troops of Shāpūr II, before demolishing Artašat, Vałaršapat, Eruandašat, Zarehawan, Zarišat, Van, and Naxčawan, “took and destroyed the great city Tigranakert,” where “they immediately took forty thousand families captive.”98 This time, P‘awstos does not specify the nationality of those families: among them there could well have been Jews who had returned to Tigranocerta after its recovery from the disaster of 69 bce. We should also observe some contradictions between the Greco-​Roman sources. Strabo regards the Mazaceni (300,000, according to Appian), all of whom (ἅπαντας) had been deported, as

42  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia the main settlers of Tigranocerta, saying that Tigran II “mostly” (τὸ πλέoν) settled the city with them. But in the other passage quoted earlier, Strabo, somewhat contradicting himself, reports that Tigran had gathered the inhabitants of twelve Hellenistic cities in Tigranocerta. Cassius Dio, unlike Strabo, informs us that most settlers of Tigranocerta were Cilicians (not Mazaceni): Κίλικές τε γὰρ oἱ πλείoυς αὐτῶν ἦσαν. Plutarch, as if summing up all available data, states that there were both Greeks and “barbarians” in the city; many Greeks were among the Cilician migrants (ἦσαν . . . πoλλoὶ μὲν Ἕλληνες τῶν ἀναστάτων ἐκ Κιλικίας), which means that there also were “barbarians” from Cilicia. The other “barbarians” were Ἀδιαβηνoὶ καὶ Ἀσσύρoι καὶ Γoρδυηνoὶ καὶ Καππάδoκες (Adiabenians, Assyrians, Gordyeneans, and Cappadocians). We can conclude from these slightly confusing data that for about twenty-​five years (ca. 95–70 bce) Tigran II conquered various countries and transplanted their populations to Armenia,

Map 1  Tigran II’s Empire before the Roman-​Armenian Wars (69–66 bce) and the Armenian Cities with Jewish Inhabitants in 363–368/​9 ce.

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  43 as well as to Mesopotamia and Media. Many of the migrants lived in the new capital, Tigranocerta, while others probably established residence elsewhere in Armenia. Most likely, those Tigranocertians who, after the capital’s destruction, were not able to return to their homelands also moved to other Armenian cities. Our next step will be an attempt to determine from which countries, in addition to Palestine specified in the Armenian sources, Jews could have been brought to settle in Armenia.

2.9  The Countries from Which Tigran Could Have Expatriated Jews There is an interesting quotation in Josephus (AJ 14.115) from a lost work by Strabo: “This people (Jews) has already made its way into every city, and it is not easy to find any place in the habitable world which has not received this nation and in which it has not made its power felt.”99 The authenticity of Josephus’s citation can hardly be doubted. If Strabo, the well-​informed geographer and one of the most reliable authors of the ancient world, really wrote this, even if he spoke somewhat hyperbolically, nonetheless we may conclude that Tigran in fact could have deported Jews to Armenia from more or less anywhere.100 Josephus himself in AJ 11.132–133, speaking of the growth of the Jewish population in Babylonia and the neighboring countries following the Babylonian exile, witnesses that of the twelve Jewish tribes, only two lived “in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans,” and that up to his own days, the other ten lived beyond (πέραν, i.e., east of) the Euphrates River101 and formed “countless myriads whose number cannot be ascertained.”102 The core of Tigran’s huge kingdom was northeast of the Euphrates, but as we saw, before the war with Lucullus in 69 bce he had also attached to it vast territories west of the Euphrates as far as Phoenicia and up to Palestine. Thus, Jews could have been shifted to Armenia from both sides of the famous river, which was

44  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia an important boundary for classical authors.103 More specifically, we can point to several countries possessed by the Armenian king where, to judge from the surviving sources, considerable numbers of ethnic Jews and Jewish converts lived at the time of his conquests. The first in our list will be Adiabene, a petty kingdom neighboring Armenia Major on the latter’s southern border and the territory of the former Assyria. Its capital, Arbela, yielded to Tigran II between the years 89 and 85 bce (see p. 39). Josephus’s story about the conversion of the Adiabenian royal family to Judaism (AJ 20.17ff.) is well-​known and corroborated by the Talmud.104 Izates, son of King Monobazus of Adiabene and his sister Helene, was brought up at the court of Abennerig, king of Charax-​Spasinou (in southern Mesopotamia), where a Jewish merchant named Ananias, after having converted Abennerig’s wives, also persuaded Izates to worship God according to the Jewish customs. In the meantime, Queen Helene in Adiabene was won over to the Jewish religion by another Jew. Gaining the kingdom following his father’s death, Izates decided, after some hesitation (because Ananias warned him that he might incur the opposition of his subjects), to be circumcised in order to become “firmly” a Jew (εἶναι βεβαίως Ἰoυδαῖoς). He was urged to do so by the third Jew figuring in this story, Eleazar. Izates’s elder brother Monobazus, who later became his successor, and their kinsmen followed the king’s example. The conversion of the royal family of Adiabene took place in the first half of the first century ce, that is, about a century after Tigran II’s death. However, scholars state that a strong Jewish community existed in Adiabene long before Izates, Helene, Monobazus, and their kin were proselytized.105 Since the Babylonian exile, the Jewish population of Babylonia had grown steadily,106 spreading, in the course of time, toward Upper Mesopotamia as well as to the south.107 “Even before the conversion,” Feldman writes, “the Jewish population of Adiabene was probably not inconsiderable,

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  45 especially because it included the newly acquired Nisibis, with its sizable Jewish population.”108 Mygdonia, with its capital Nisibis, as indicated, was another Mesopotamian country subjected by Tigran II. It remained a part of the Armenian kingdom until the Parthian king Artabanus presented it to Izates (Josephus, AJ 20.68). Josephus speaks of the Jewish population of Nisibis in AJ 18.311–313 and 18.378–379. He says those Jews had settled in that strong city on the Euphrates to be safe from the attacks of the Babylonians and Seleucids, just as other Jews had settled in another well-​defended on the Euphrates, Nehardea, for the same reason. Among the ancient countries inhabited by Jews as a result of the Babylonian exile, scholars also mention Osroene (especially its capital, Edessa),109 Gordyene,110 and Iberia.111 The Jewish population of Syria was especially numerous. Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 bce–50 ce) testifies in Legatio ad Gaium 33.245112 that there were multitudes of Jews “in every city of Asia and Syria” (  Ἰoυδαῖoι καθ’ ἑκάστην πόλιν εἰσὶ παμπληθεῖς, Ἀσίας τε καὶ Συρίας). There is also evidence in Josephus’s BJ that many Jews resided in Syrian cities. Philo even says that the Roman governor of Syria, Petronius, had become an adherent of Judaism.113 I mentioned earlier the very interesting passage in which Josephus writes that in Syrian cities there were two hostile camps, Syrians and Jews together with the Judaizers.114 In another passage (BJ 7.43–44) he writes, “The Jewish race, densely interspersed among the native populations of every portion of the world, is particularly numerous in Syria, where intermingling is due to the proximity of the two countries.” They especially congregated in Antioch, he adds, because that city was a very large one, and chiefly because King Antiochus’s successors made it possible for them to live there safely.115 Josephus is referring to the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 bce), whose successors had permitted a great number of Jews to settle in Antioch.116

46  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia In 84/​83 bce, Tigran II succeeded the Seleucid dynasty as ruler of Antioch and, in line with his favored policy of synoecism, might well have deported Jews to Armenia from the Seleucid capital, Antioch, or from other cities of Upper Syria. Josephus’s next testimony (BJ 2.559–561) pertains to Damascus, another famous Syrian city under Tigran II’s rule, where his coins have been found.117 Josephus, in his narration of the tragic events before the great revolt of the Jews against the Romans in the late 60s ce, reports that the Syrians of Damascus organized a mass slaughter of the Jewish population of the city but were afraid of betrayal by their own wives, almost all of whom had been won over to the Jewish religion.118 Thus, considerable numbers of Jews lived in several countries that were part of Tigran’s vast kingdom. Both P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i say that the Jews who lived in the cities demolished by the Persians in the fourth century ce had come from Palestine because they knew that the homeland of the Jews was Palestine119 and because the Armenian tradition apparently was aware only of the military campaigns of 70 and 40 bce. However, in view of the considerations outlined earlier, we may say that Jews could have moved to Armenia at least from Adiabene, Mygdonia, Gordyene, Osroene, Iberia, and Syria as well.

2.10  The Eight Armenian Cities with Armenian-​Jewish Populations Of the eight cities, the most ancient was Van (Tosp-​Van),120 the capital of the kingdom of Urartu (flourished in the ninth to seventh centuries bce), located two to three kilometers east of Lake Van (now in eastern Turkey). It was called Tušpa in the Urartian times, and subsequently its name, in the form Tosp, was given to the district; from the late sixth century on it was part of the Vaspurakan region. “Van” is probably derived from Biaina (Biainili), the Urartian name of the kingdom. Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 100–170 ce), in the

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  47 description of Armenia Major in his Geography,121 names both Lake Van and the district Θωσπῖτις and mentions the city as Θώσπια (5.12.3 and 8). Movsēs Xorenac‘i attributes the construction of Van to Semiramis, the legendary queen of Assyria, and provides a beautiful depiction of the site and the city (1.16). In the Achaemenid epoch, Van was the administrative center of the thirteenth satrapy, and it continued, with its local and foreign inhabitants, to flourish in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. P‘awstos Buzand reports that when Van was taken by Shāpūr’s troops, it belonged to the Ṙštuni noble family: “The lady of Ṙštunik‘ [remained] in the citadel of the fortress of Van.” Afterward she was cruelly executed (4.59).122 Van was a stronghold with an unassailable citadel in its midst, located in the central part of Armenia Major and connected with the rest of the country by a network of routes. The city of Van remained an important urban center throughout the history of Armenia, and today it survives as a minor town mainly inhabited by Kurds; much of Van, however, is now ruins. The history of Armawir, too, goes back to Urartu.123 It was probably built some time after the fall of that kingdom on the remains of the Urartian town Argištihinili124 founded by King Argišti I (reigned ca. 780–756 bce). Armawir was one of the two cities where, according to Movsēs Xorenac‘i, Tigran settled the Jews taken captive before the siege of Ptolemaïs (70 bce). He attributes its foundation to the legendary hero Aramayis (hence the city’s name) (1.12). Ptolemy mentions Armawir (Ἀρμαoυίρα) alongside Artašat (5.12.5), and, in fact, they were not far from each other. The archaeological site, as Gevorg Tirac‘yan states, is located around a volcanic height, “sur la rive gauche de l’Araxe, à l’ouest de la vallée l’Ayrarat.”125 In the late fourth through late third centuries bce, Armawir was the royal capital of the Eruandid (Orontid) dynasty,126 which was succeeded by the Artašesids in the early second century bce. The last representative of the Eruandids, called Eruand (Orontes), is mentioned by Strabo (11.14.15): “The last was Orontes, the descendant of Hydarnes,127 one of the seven Persians.”

48  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia He reigned in the late third through early second centuries bce and, as Movsēs Xorenac‘i witnesses (2.39 and 49),128 transferred the royal residence, together with the Jewish captives, from Armawir to his newly founded capital, Eruandašat. On the basis of the Greek inscriptions found in Armawir in 1911 and 1927, Manandian came to the conclusion that Greek colonists, together with Armenians, lived in the city in the early Hellenistic period and that there was a temple of Apollo and Artemis in Armawir, where Greek priests served.129 Thus, the city of Armawir was accustomed to foreign inhabitants long before Tigran settled the Jews there. Following the transfer of the capital by the last Eruand, Armawir gradually lost its significance, though it existed as a city until the fifth century ce. Naxčawan (Naxiǰewan)130 was an ancient city, but there is no clear evidence in the sources about the time of its foundation. Its name, meaning “first dwelling,” is connected with the myth that after the Flood Noah landed there and founded the city.131 If we believe Movsēs Xorenac‘i (1.30), a great number of captive Medes were settled there as early as the sixth century bce. Naxčawan was a commercial center situated on the trade route from Ecbatana to Artašat; it was slightly north of the Araxes (Arax) River, southeast of Artašat. In Ptolemy’s Geography it is named Ναξoυάνα and mentioned alongside Armawir and Artašat (5.12.5). In the Middle Ages, it was included in the Vaspurakan and at other times in the Siwnik‘ region of Armenia. P‘awstos Buzand (4.55) says that the Persians “ruined it” (զնա քանդեցին) but does not add, unlike in the case of the other cities, that it was “demolished to its foundations.” Perhaps Naxčawan was significantly damaged but not completely destroyed. Existing as a village until the seventh century, it regained its city status in the period of Arab rule. Subsequently, Naxčawan was ruined or plundered several times (by the Seljuks, the Mongols, and others); nevertheless it still survives as the main town of the Naxiǰewan region. Eruandašat,132 another ancient Armenian metropolis, as already noted, was built in the late third or early second centuries bce

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  49 by King Eruand the Last. “Eruandašat” is explained as “Eruand +​ šād,” the latter meaning “joy” in Middle Persian (“Eruand’s joy”). Eruand transferred the royal court from Armawir to Eruandašat, but shortly after that, this new royal residence had to cede its status to Artašat.133 Strabo’s reference to the last Eruand was cited earlier.134 His name also figures in the Greek inscription discovered in Armawir in 1927.135 Manandian supposes that the official language of the Eruandid elite was Greek.136 Eruandašat was probably an international city of the Hellenistic type like Armawir. It was situated in the Aršaruni district of the Ayrarat region, west of Armawir and not far from it. Movsēs Xorenac‘i is the best source for information about Eruandašat. He narrates the change of the capital as follows (2.39): “In his (Eruand’s) days the court was transferred from the hill called Armawir, for the River Araxes had shifted to a distance, and in the long winter and when the stream froze over from the bitter north winds there was no longer sufficient water for the capital. Inconvenienced by this and also seeking a stronger site, Eruand moved the court westward to a rocky hill around which flowed on one side the Araxes and on the other the Akhurean.” Eruandašat was still prosperous in the mid-​fourth century ce, but its destruction by the Persians in 368/​9 turned out to be final. It existed as a village until its complete disappearance in the Middle Ages. The last traces of human activity found there are from the thirteenth century. Recently, archaeological research has begun at the supposed site of the city. Artašat137 was the most renowned Armenian city in the Hellenistic world. Founded by King Artašēs (Ἀρταξίας) I (reigned 189–160 bce), it replaced the former capitals Armawir and Eruandašat. The name Artašat (Ἀρταξάτα) means “Artaši +​šād” (“Artašēs’s joy”). Judging from the data available in literary sources, as well as from the archaeological finds, it was a typical Hellenistic city with a multinational population. Pliny the Elder (ca. 23–79 ce) in his Natural History (6.10.27)138 locates the city “on a plain

50  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia adjoining the Araxes” (in campis iuxta Araxen). Movsēs Xorenac‘i writes that it was built at “the place where the Araxes and Metsamawr join” (2.49), but since the latter river’s course has changed, the location of Artašat remained unclear until about 1970, when archaeological excavations began in the Ararat region, not far from the Xorvirap church in the district formerly called Ostan (“Big City”) In recent decades, those excavations have been renewed.139 Strabo (11.14.6) states that Artašat “was founded by Hannibal for Artaxias the king.” Plutarch (Lucullus 31.4) gives more details: Hannibal found refuge in Artašēs’s palace.140 Seeing an appropriate and fitting place for a new city, he made a preliminary plan and persuaded the Armenian king to start the construction work. Artašēs gladly agreed and asked Hannibal to supervise the builders. Thus “a great and very beautiful city” (μέγα τι καὶ πάγκαλoν χρῆμα πόλεως) was constructed, to which Artašēs gave his own name and made it the capital of Armenia. We know from Tacitus (56–ca. 120 ce), Annales, 13.41 and Cassius Dio, Roman History, 62.20.1, that in 58 ce Artašat was taken and subsequently burned and demolished by the legions of the Roman commander Domitius Corbulo (died 67 ce). When in 66 ce Trdat (Tiridates) I, brother of the Parthian king Vologeses I,141 received the crown of Armenia from Nero’s hands, the emperor also gave him permission, money, and workers to rebuild Artašat, and for a short time the reconstructed city was called Νερώνεια in honor of Nero (Cassius Dio, 63.1.2–7, 63.2). Situated on a significant trade route to the ports of the Black Sea, Artašat was of commercial importance. With some interruptions, it probably remained the main metropolis of Armenia until about the second half of the fifth century, when Dvin became the capital of the country. Movsēs Xorenac‘i writes (3.8) that the inhabitants of the city gladly moved to Dvin because at that time the climate around Artašat was unhealthy. After that, Artašes’s city is no longer mentioned as an urban center. There are but few data in the sources about the cities Zarehawan142 and Zarišat.143 Like Artašat, both were apparently

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  51 built in the time of Artašēs I and possibly bore the name of his father, Zareh (Ζαρίαδρις):144 “Zareh +​awan” (awan meaning “settlement” or “town” in Armenian), “Zareh’s town,” and “Zareh +​ šād,” “Zareh’s joy.” In Manandian’s opinion, Zarehawan was situated in the Bagrewand district, south of Eruandašat and northeast of Lake Van, close to the main trade route of Armenia passing by Tigranakert and Artašat. Zarišat was situated southeast of Zarehawan, not far from the northeastern shore of Lake Van. Apparently, both were Hellenistic cities with mixed population. The numbers of the inhabitants taken captive (see Table 2.1) suggest that Zarehawan was smaller than Zarišat. This is corroborated by the fact that P‘awstos Buzand (4.55) calls Zarišat a “great city” (զքաղաքն մեծ), while he mentions Zarehawan as simply a “city” (զքաղաքն). Movsēs Xorenac‘i speaks of “the royal city of Zarišat” (յարքունական քաղաքին Զարիշատի) in the days of King Aršak II (3.23), which means that in the mid-​fourth century Zarišat belonged to the Armenian Arsacids. Destroyed by the Persians, both cities subsequently declined to the status of villages. Vałaršapat,145 as the name itself suggests (“Vałarš +​âbâd,” the latter meaning “settled” in Pahlavi: “settled by Vałarš”), was founded by King Vałarš (Vologeses) I of Armenia, who reigned 117–140 ce. According to Movsēs Xorenac‘i (2.16 and 2.65), Vałaršapat previously was a town called Աւանն Վարդգեսի (Vardgēs’s Town). It had been built in the days of the first Eruand (i.e., in the sixth century bce). Vałarš “surrounded it with walls,” and it was in Vałaršapat that the “first colony of Jewish captives” was settled. As a result of this synoecism, “it became a commercial town” (2.65). In 163 ce, the Romans declared Vałaršapat the capital of Armenia and renamed it Καινὴ πόλις (“New City,” Նոր Քաղաք in Armenian sources). Though Vałaršapat’s status of capital did not prove permanent, this city continued to exist. It survived the destruction by the Persians in the fourth century and was one of the most important Armenian cities until the Arab invasion in the mid-​seventh century. In the fourth to fifth centuries ce, Vałaršapat

52  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia was the religious and cultural center of the country. Agat‘angełos refers to it as “the residence of the Armenian kings” in the province of Ayrarat (§122). His remarks concern the time of Trdat III the Great (293–ca. 330), during whose reign, in the early fourth century, Christianity became the official state religion of Armenia. Vałaršapat is also closely associated with another crucial event in the history of Armenia, the invention of the Armenian script in the early fifth century ce. During the Arab rule in the mid-​seventh to ninth centuries, the city lost its significance, existing as an abandoned, partly ruined village, to be once again revived by the Bagratid kings in the ninth century. Other disastrous periods in the city’s life were the Seljuk (from the mid-​eleventh century) and Mongol (from the first quarter of the thirteenth century) conquests. However, Vałaršapat was restored to its former status of the religious center of Armenia in 1441, when the Patriarchal See was transferred there from Sis in Cilicia. Since then, Vałaršapat, more commonly called Ēǰmiacin (“The Only Begotten descended”),146 is the residence of the Catholicos of All Armenians and the center of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Situated about twenty kilometers west of Erevan, today it is a pleasant town with many sacred places and historical monuments. As is clear from the foregoing, for some of the cities in question, the Persian invasion of 368/​9 was the end. Others (especially Van, Vałaršapat, and Naxčawan) were rebuilt and rehabilitated, so that they figured as important urban centers in later times and indeed survive as towns to the present day.

2.11  Herod the Great’s Descendants on the Throne of Armenia Following the death of Tigran IV, the last Artašesid king of Armenia, in his battle against “barbarians” in 1 ce and the abdication of his sister and wife, Queen Erato,147 Rome and Parthia

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  53 competed with one another for their protégés to govern the country. This situation lasted until the year 66, when Trdat I received the kingdom and the Parthian Arsacids were firmly established on the throne of Armenia. Before that, two kings of Herodian descent are reported to have ruled in Armenia Major for short periods of time, and a third king of Herodian lineage is reported to have been appointed king of Armenia Minor, where his reign was probably quite long. The two kings of Armenia Major bore the dynastic names Tigran V and Tigran VI, and the king of Armenia Minor was called Aristobulus. The main sources for Tigran V are the bilingual Latin-​Greek Monumentum Ancyranum, also known as Res gestae divi Augusti (37),148 Josephus Flavius (AJ 18.139; BJ 1.552, 2.222), and Cornelius Tacitus (Annales 6.40).149 In the Monumentum Ancyranum, Augustus Caesar (emperor from 31 bce to 14 ce) mentions the installation of the Mede Ariobarzanes as king of Armenia among his noteworthy deeds. After Ariobarzanes’s death, Augustus gave the kingdom to Ariobarzanes’s son Artavazdes. When the latter was killed, he sent Tigranes, “who was descended from the royal family of the Armenians” (qui erat ex regio genere Armeniorum oriundus, ὃς ἦν ἐκ γένoυς Ἀρμενίoυ βασιλικoῦ) to that kingdom. Ariobarzanes was a member of the royal family of Atropatene. He reigned for about two years (2–4 ce) and, as Tacitus relates (Annales 2.4), died accidentally. His son Artavazdes (known as Artawazd IV) was also king for about two years (4–6 ce). He was killed, probably by Armenians, and Tigran V became king (6 ce).150 His rule was even shorter than his predecessors’, less than one year;151 and then he was dethroned. The reign of the two Medes and Tigran V was apparently not welcomed by the Armenian elite. Augustus Caesar notes that Tigran V was of the Armenian royal family, but from Josephus’s information it is clear that Tigran V could have been an Artašesid (Artaxiad) only on his mother’s side. “Alexander, King Herod’s son,” Josephus writes in AJ 18.139–140, “who had been put to death by his father, had two sons, Alexander and Tigranes, by

54  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia the daughter of Archelaus,152 king of Cappadocia. Tigranes, who was king of Armenia, died childless after charges were brought against him at Rome.” Thus, Josephus explicitly says that this Tigran (undoubtedly Tigran V) was Herod the Great’s153 grandson and son of Alexander, whose wife was from the Cappadocian royal family (her name was Glaphyra).154 Manandian hypothesizes that Glaphyra was the daughter of an Armenian Artašesid king.155 This conjecture seems to be correct, or else Augustus Caesar’s testimony that Tigran was ex regio genere Armeniorum, ἐκ γένoυς Ἀρμενίoυ βασιλικoῦ would be baseless. However, Glaphyra herself boasted about her pedigree, claiming that “she was descended on her father’s side from Temenus, on her mother’s from Darius, the son of Hystaspes” (Josephus, BJ 1.476). Temenus was the mythical ancestor of the Macedonian kings (Herodotus 8.137–138). This means that Glaphyra, if her boast was justified, could have been an Artašesid, like her son Tigran V, only by her mother’s lineage, which she claimed went back to Darius I. Earlier I cited the evidence in Strabo that the last Eruand was a descendent of Hydarnes, one of the “seven Persians,” Darius I’s allies. In his Aramaic inscriptions, Artašes I calls himself “Eruandian”;156 that is, he and his descendants traced their genealogy to Achaemenian nobility. (Glaphyra preferred to vaunt Darius I himself as her ancestor!) As to the further fate of Tigran V, Josephus witnesses that he “died childless after charges were brought against him at Rome.” Furthermore, we know from Tacitus (Annales 6.40) that the accusation was fatal: “Even Tigranes, who had once ruled Armenia and was now impeached, did not escape the punishment of an ordinary citizen157 on the strength of his royal title.” He was executed, Tacitus reports, in the consulate of Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius (36 ce); thus, Tigran V became one of Tiberius Caesar’s victims. A unique copper coin, attributed to him, is kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.158 Alexander, Tigran V’s father and Herod the Great’s son, had a brother named Aristobulus (their mother was Mariamne, Herod’s

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  55 second wife). Fearing a plot, Herod put Alexander and Aristobulus to death (Josephus, BJ 1.551). Aristobulus was married to Bernice, daughter of Herod the Great’s sister Salome, and they had three sons. One of them, named Herod, was king of the petty kingdom of Chalcis in Syria. Herod’s son bore his grandfather’s name, Aristobulus, and became king of Armenia Minor (Herod of Chalcis’s wife, Aristobulus’s mother, was also called Mariamne). Information about Aristobulus, King of Armenia Minor, is found in Josephus and Tacitus.159 In BJ 2.221–222, Josephus speaks of his descent and family, and in AJ 20.158 and BJ 2.252, he testifies that Nero (emperor from 54 to 68 ce) gave the kingdom of Armenia Minor to Aristobulus. This is confirmed by Tacitus: “Lesser Armenia was entrusted to Aristobulus, Sophene to Sohaemus, each with the ensigns of royalty.” This happened in the first year of Nero’s rule (Josephus, AJ 20.158: πρώτῳ τῆς Νέρωνoς ἀρχῆς ἔτει), or more exactly, at the end of that year (Tacitus, Annales 13.6: fine anni). Tacitus mentions him again when narrating the events of 60 ce (14.26). He was probably still the king of Armenia Minor. In addition, Nero gave him more parts (unspecified) of Armenia, just as he gave parts of it to other kings who were his supporters: those regions, “according to their respective proximities, were put under the subjection of Pharasmanes, Polemo, Aristobulus, and Antiochus.” Finally, Aristobulus figures once more as king of Chalcis and ally of Rome in Josephus’s narrative (BJ 7.226–227) of the Roman general Petus’s invasion of Commagene in the fourth year of Vespasian’s reign, that is, in 72 ce (Vespasian was emperor from 69 to 79). This may mean that Aristobulus was no longer king of Armenia Minor, which supposedly had become a Roman province earlier in the same year.160 In short, Aristobulus ascended the throne of Armenia Minor in 54 and presumably governed there until circa 72. Tigran VI, son of Tigran V’s brother Alexander, figures in the last stage (late 50s to mid-​60s) of the conflict between Rome and Parthia in the first century ce for dominion over Armenia. It

56  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia ended in 66, when Trdat, brother of the Parthian king Vologeses I, was crowned in Rome and became the founder of the Aršakuni (Arsacid) dynasty of Armenia. Tigran VI was Nero’s protégé and was strongly opposed by many Armenians, who preferred Trdat, and particularly by the powerful Parthians. Therefore, his reign (60–61 ce), like that of Tigran V, was short. Especially irritating to the Armenian pro-​Parthian party and the Parthians themselves was his cruel and devastating attack in the spring of 61 on Adiabene, Armenia’s immediate neighbor and part of Vologeses I’s kingdom. Shortly after that, he had to flee from the Parthian army and defend himself behind the walls of Tigranakert. Although the troops besieging Tigranakert could not take it, on Vologeses’s demand Tigran VI was soon removed from the throne by the Romans. References to Tigran VI occur in Josephus (AJ 18.139) and Cassius Dio (62.20.2–4), and considerable information about him is provided by Tacitus in the Annales (14.26, 15.1–6, 17).161 Tacitus describes Tigran’s character quite negatively. Josephus, too, does not sympathize with him for a clear reason: Tigran was not an adherent of Judaism. “Alexander had a son who had the same name as his brother Tigranes,” Josephus writes, “and who was sent forth by Nero to be king of Armenia.” He adds that this younger Alexander also had a son called Alexander, and that the descendants of the elder Alexander—​Tigran V, his brother Alexander, and the latter’s son Alexander—​were Hellenized Jews: they “abandoned from birth the observance of the ways of the Jewish land and ranged themselves with the Greek tradition.” Cassius Dio briefly relates the invasion of Adiabene by Tigran VI, the subsequent siege of Tigranakert by Vologeses’s generals, and, as a result of these events, the Parthian-​ Roman negotiations. Tacitus, narrating the same events in more detail, states that Armenia once again remained without a “master” (arbiter) because Tigran VI had to leave Armenia after his short and restless reign. Summing up, let us attempt to diagram the genealogy of the Herodian kings of the two Armenias (Table 2.3).

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  57 Table 2.3  The Genealogy of the Herodian Kings Herod the Great (37–4 bce) and his second wife, Mariamne ↓ Alexander, married to Glaphyra (presumably, Armenian on her mother’s side), daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia (36 bce–17 ce)

↓ Aristobulus, married to Bernice, daughter of Herod the Great’s sister Salome

↓ Tigran V, king of Armenia Major in 6 ce, executed in Rome in 36

↓ Herod ↓ Aristobulus, king of Armenia Minor in 54–ca. 72 ce

↓ Alexander ↓ Tigran VI, king of Armenia Major in 60–61 ce

2.12  Information on the Jewish Origin of Armenian Princely Families in Movsēs Xorenac‘i There is intriguing information in the History of Armenia by Movsēs Xorenac‘i about the Jewish origin of one of the leading princely families of Armenia, the Bagratids (Bagratunis). The story goes back to the distant past when King Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned ca. 605–ca. 561 bce) took Jerusalem and deported Jews to Babylonia. In c­ hapter 1.22, based, as Movsēs says, on Mar Abas Catina,162 he tells the following events. King Hrač‘eay of Armenia is permitted by Nebuchadnezzar to settle one of the captive Jewish leaders, called Šambat (=​Hebrew Šabbat or Syrian “Šabbəθā”), in Armenia. Hrač‘eay greatly honors him, and from this Šambat, Movsēs says, “the Bagratuni family descends, and that is certain.” Furthermore, Movsēs refutes the Armenian origin (from Hayk, the mythical ancestor of the Armenians) of the Bagratids supposed by others, calling such assertions “foolish” (յիմար բանք).

58  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia Then, in various parts of his History, Movsēs develops the story of the Bagratids being Jews, for which they were at times persecuted by Armenian kings. King “Vałaršak” (presumably, a king of Armenia in the early Parthian period or else Trdat I), who had made the family of another Šambat Bagarat, a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar’s contemporary, the coronants of the Armenian Arsacids and given them the name Bagratuni (2.3), begs him “with forceful words” to deny Judaism and worship idols. However, when Šambat refuses, the king tolerates his adherence to the Jewish religion (II.8). Vałaršak’s son and successor, Aršak, turns out to be more intolerant and cruel (2.9). “He persecuted the sons of Bagarat,” Movsēs writes, in an effort to make them worship idols. Two of them bravely died by the sword for their ancestral customs. I am not ashamed to call them followers of the companions of Anania and Eleazar.163 But the others accepted this much only: to ride out to hunt or to war on the Sabbath and to leave their children uncircumcised when they were born—​for they were unmarried. And it was commanded by Aršak that they should not be given wives from any of the princely houses unless they made an oath to abandon circumcision. They accepted only these two conditions, but not the worship of idols.

Then Movsēs states that this was the last part of his book, which was based on Mar Abas Catina. Similar forceful actions against the Bagratids are taken by the “Middle Tigran” (presumably, Tigran II). When the Bagratids do not agree to offer sacrifices on the altars set up by Tigran in front of temples, he orders the tongue of one of them, named Asud, to be cut out. The other Bagratids agree to eat the meat from Tigran’s sacrifices, even pork, though they decline to sacrifice and worship themselves. Therefore, the king’s punishment is partial: they are

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  59 deprived of the command of the army but remain the coronants of the Arsacids (2.14). Further persecution of a Bagratid, this time by another Armenian king figuring in Movsēs’s History, Aršam, is referred to in ­chapter 2.24. This Bagratid is named Enanos. Movsēs narrates a story connected with the high priest Hyrcanus, brought captive to Armenia, as he says, by the Middle Tigran’s commander Barzap‘ran Ṙštuni (see pp. 33–35). Aršam is exasperated at the coronant Enanos, who has freed Hyrcanus from captivity. Enanos tries to calm the king’s anger, saying that Hyrcanus promised a ransom of one hundred talents for his freedom. Enanos’s brother, Senekia, is sent to Judea to bring the money, but Herod kills Hyrcanus, and when Aršam learns that no ransom will arrive, he deprives Enanos of the coronant’s rank and imprisons him. Then, executing one of Enanos’s relatives, Saria, before his eyes, the king threatens also to kill Enanos’s sons, Sap‘atia and Azaria, if he does not abandon Judaism and worship the sun and idols. The frightened Enanos and all his family agree, and he is restored to the coronant’s rank. In ­chapter 2.33 of Movsēs’s History, Tobias (“Tubiay” in the Armenian original), “the Jewish prince, who, they say, was of the Bagratuni” family, is mentioned. He had escaped from Aršam’s persecution and had not denied the Jewish religion “until his conversion to Christ.” In Edessa, Movsēs informs us, the Apostle Thaddeus entered his house. Finally, in c­ hapter 2.63, telling a story about Trdat Bagratuni, “a spirited and powerful man, short in stature and ugly in appearance,” Movsēs lists some “Jewish” names of the Bagratids, which, according to him, had become “barbaric” (խժական) after they had renounced Judaism: Bagadia—Bagarat; Asud—Ašot; Vazaria—Varaz; and Šambat—Smbat.164 How should this evidence on the Jewish origin of the Bagratids be evaluated? It can be neither fully refuted nor accepted uncritically, because there are no reliable sources that corroborate or contradict what we are told by Movsēs. The claim that the Bagratids

60  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia were Jews by origin was probably raised by the Bagratids themselves and consequently reflected in the work of the historian of their family, Movsēs Xorenac‘i. Scholars have tried to find logical explanations for the issue; the most interesting one was suggested by Nicholas Adontz165 (in 1908) on the basis of Joseph Markwart’s remarks.166 That explanation is derived from the testimony in Appian’s Syrian Wars (8.48–49) about Tigran II, that he “conquered all of the Syrian peoples this side of the Euphrates as far as Egypt. He took Cilicia at the same time (for this was also subject to the Seleucids) and put his general, Magadates, in command of all these conquests for fourteen years.” From the two variae lectiones in the manuscripts of Appian’s work, Μαγαδάιτης and Βαγαδάτης, the latter, according to Markwart and Adontz, is the correct one. Βαγαδάτης is the initial form of the Armenian name Բագարատ (Bagarata from Bagaδata:167 “given by god,” baga, and data =​the Greek Θεόδoτoς), before the interchange of the consonants δ > r. Tigran’s general of that name, Adontz believes, was undoubtedly the ancestor of the Bagratids. Furthermore, since he was appointed governor of Syria inhabited by Semites, this may explain the alleged Jewish pedigree of the coronant family. As an additional argument for this supposition, Adontz refers to the anonymous writing attached to Sebēos’s History,168 where the province Angeł tun (Angelene), in the south of Armenia toward the Syrian border, is mentioned as the domain of the Bagratids. Cyril Toumanoff, in accordance with his negative attitude toward Movsēs Xorenac‘i as a source, is mistrustful of the evidence in question.169 Again based on Markwart, he states that “Pseudo-​ Moses must have been struck by a series of near-​homophones in Josephus,” namely, by the mention of Ananus, son of Bagadus in the BJ (5.531) and of Archelaus, son of Magadates, figuring together with him in another passage (BJ 6.229). They were contemporaries of Titus, as well as of Ananelus (Josephus, AJ 15.22), upon whom Herod the Great bestowed the high priesthood after killing Hyrcanus. Correlating these names with the memories

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  61 of Bagadates, Viceroy of Syria, Movsēs must have “evolved a composite and imaginary personage,” Enanos the Bagratid. But this conjecture of Markwart, repeated by Toumanoff, is hardly convincing. Of Josephus’s works, Movsēs knew only the War.170 He was not familiar with the AJ and, consequently, he could not have known of Ananelus.171 Besides, the story about Enanos has almost no parallels with that narrated by Josephus about Ananelus. As to Ananus, according to Josephus’s characterization, “the most bloodthirsty of Simon’s lieutenants” (τῶν Σίμωνoς δoρυφόρων ὁ φoινικώτατoς), and Magadates, the father of Ananus’s companion Archelaus, contemporaries of Titus (emperor of Rome 79–81 ce), they have nothing to do with Enanos. He, as Movsēs says, had freed from captivity the high priest Hyrcanus (put to death by Herod in 30 bce) and was persecuted by Aršam. Further, Toumanoff refers to another remark of Markwart: the Bagratid praenomina that Movsēs derives from “the Hebrew names Bagadia (Bagath), Shambat or Shambay, Asud, Azaria or Vazaria,” are “typically Iranoid.” In his turn, Toumanoff adds that the Hebrew claim was later on adopted and, in a much-​embellished form, developed by the Iberian cousins of the Armenian Bagratids. This observation of Toumanoff ’s suggests that the theory was quite widespread and could hardly have been simply invented by Movsēs.172 Neusner173 tries to find a scintilla of truth in Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s stories, though he states that “we have no basis whatever on which to evaluate their historical reliability.” He associates the name Šambat, from which Movsēs derives Smbat, the beloved name of the Bagratunis, with the Levite name Shabbethai (Nehemiah 8:7 and 11:16) =​the Greek Σαββάθαι. Then Neusner explains the passage about Tigran II forcing the Bagratid prince to abandon Judaism by his need for the alliance of a powerful Jewish satrap when he was about to conquer Syria: nothing would secure the faithfulness of Tigran’s ally better than the satrap’s readiness to worship the local gods. It was important for the Armenians, who were new Christians, Neusner states, also to participate in Israelite

62  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia history “in the flesh, as they did after the spirit.” This is why the Jewish claim of one of the leading princely families was willingly accepted and propagated. Robert Thomson174 regards Movsēs’s information as a complete fraud perpetrated for certain purposes. According to Thomson, he derived the name Bagarat itself “from the P‘ak‘arat of Nehemiah 7:59,” one of Nebuchadnezzar’s Jewish captives, “and the name Shambat he has invented to account for Smbat, a Bagratid personal name common in his own day.” Movsēs’s purposes, Thomson says, were, first, to corroborate the Bagratid’s claim to ancient pedigree and social prominence (Šambat, freed by Nebuchadnezzar, “enjoying an honorable position a thousand years before the time Moses claims to be writing”). Further, by the stories about the kings making vain efforts to force the Bagratids to worship idols, the religious steadfastness of the Bagratids is established. Finally, by the mention of Tobias being converted to Christianity in Edessa by Thaddeus, Movsēs emphasizes that his Bagratuni patrons have a more ancient claim to an association with the first apostles than the other leading princely family of Armenia, the Mamikonids, though the latter had married into the house of St. Gregory the Illuminator. From this brief summary of views expressed on the issue, the earlier statement becomes clearer: Movsēs’s narrative about “Bagratids the Jews” can be treated only by mere reasoning, since there is no surviving evidence from other sources that could support, confirm, or refute these data. Scholars have made speculative remarks congruent to their own purposes and their general attitude toward Movsēs Xorenac‘i, the historian of the Bagratuni family. While Markwart and especially Adontz, in accordance with their moderate positions, have attempted to suggest possible explanations without any tendenz, Toumanoff and Thomson have assessed the relevant passages in the context of their overall criticism of Movsēs’s work, and Neusner, since he wanted to prove that Jews were living in pagan Armenia, has in certain cases chosen to believe the stories. In the end, it is impossible to draw a final

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  63 conclusion, and no one can be sure of the Jewish or Armenian descent of the Bagratids. This is also true regarding Movsēs’s testimony on another noble family of Armenia, the Amatunis,175 to whom he also ascribes Jewish origin (2.57): The family of the Amatunik‘ came from the eastern regions of the land of the Aryans. But they are by origin Jewish, descended by a certain Manue,176 whose son was . . . called Samson, as is the Jewish custom to call [children] after the names of their ancestors. . . . They were taken there by Aršak, the first king of the Parthians, and in the regions of Hamadan in the land of the Aryans they were promoted to a position of honor. What the reasons for their coming here might be, I do not know. . . . And some Persians call them Manuean after the name of their ancestor.177

Hamadan (Ahmatan in Movsēs Xorenac‘i) is Ecbatana,178 the capital of Media, where, so Movsēs believes, the Amatuni family had been settled in the early Parthian period. Later, when Trajan was emperor of Rome (cf. 2.55),179 the Amatuni family had migrated to Armenia for an unspecified reason. Neusner180 has attempted to identify the Amatunis with the royal family of Adiabene converted to Judaism (see earlier discussion). He is sure that Manue “obviously” is the Armenian form of Monobazes (more correctly, Monobazus, Μoνoβάζoς), “which exists also in Parthian; the Parthian form is MaNaWaZ.” Consequently, Neusner asserts, Manue and Monobazes, the father of King Izates, or Izates’s brother, also called Monobazes, could have been the same person. After Trajan’s invasion, the descendants of Manue-​Monobazes possibly had to flee to the east, to Ecbatana, the summer capital of the Parthians, and then to take refuge in Armenia. Neusner’s hypothesis is interesting but hardly persuasive.181 He gives no explanation of how the biblical name Manue (Manoaḥ, Μανωε),

64  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia the name of Samson’s father, as Movsēs explicitly says, could be the Armenian form of Monobazes. Besides, he clearly notes that the Amatunis were settled “in the regions of Hamadan” by Aršak I (247–217 bce), the founder of the Parthian kingdom, and not in the time of Trajan’s eastern campaign, when, after having lived in their former homeland for centuries, they came to Armenia. Thus, unfortunately, as in the case of the Bagratids, the question of whether or not the legend about the Jewish extraction of the Amatunis contains any historical truth remains open.

2.13  Jews Converted to Christianity in Armenia We have already mentioned the Bagratid Tobias, who, according to Movsēs Xorenac‘i (2.33), had become Christian in the days of the Apostle Thaddeus. In addition to this converted Jew, Movsēs refers to many other Jewish converts to Christianity in ­chapter 3.35.182 Witnessing to the invasion of the Persian troops into Armenia circa 368/​9 ce and the destruction of three cities, he reports that they took captive the “Jews living by the same Jewish law in Van Tosp whom Barzap‘ran Ṙštuni had brought there in the days of Tigran,” as well as “the Jews in Artašat and Vałaršapat whom the same king Tigran had brought there and who in the days of Saint Gregory and Trdat had believed in Christ.” The Jews from Van, who had not abandoned their ancestral laws, were settled in Isfahan.183 As to the others who, as Movsēs states, had embraced Christianity, he does not specify the place where they were taken by Shāpūr’s army. Instead, he adds another piece of information, about a Jew converted to Christianity, Zuit‘ay, the elder (երէց) of Artašat. He is slandered before Shāpūr that “he had come with the captives to urge them to adhere firmly to the Christian religion.” Shāpūr orders Zuit‘ay to be tortured so that he will renounce his faith, but the elder refuses to do so and is martyred.

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  65 The same person, Zuit‘ by name, also figures in P‘awstos’s History (4.55–57), in connection with the same events, the conquest of the Armenian cities by the Persians during which both Armenians and Jews were taken captive. The Persians suggest Zuit‘ going away, but the elder of Artašat answers that “it is not fitting that the shepherd abandon his flock.” He is taken to Persia, and Shāpūr II orders him to accept the religion of the Magi. Zuit‘ prefers death and is beheaded. P‘awstos does not say that Zuit‘ was a converted Jew and that in the days of Gregory the Illuminator and Trdat III, that is, as a result of the official Christianization of Armenia in the early fourth century, the Jews of Artašat and Vałaršapat had come to believe in Christ. However, that is what Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s version of the story implies. There is information in Agat‘angełos (§781) about the conversion of the pagan priests of the goddess Anahit’s temple in Artašat. That sanctuary was ruined, and “the (temple’s) property and servants with the pagan priests and their lands and territories” were “devoted to the church’s service.” However, Agat‘angełos knows nothing about Jews in Artašat converted to Christianity. Thus, once again, we are dealing with evidence found only in Movsēs Xorenac‘i, which can neither be confirmed nor refuted by other available sources. It cannot be excluded that there were Christianized Jews in Armenia, but, due to the lack of any firm corroborative material, one can only speculate on this matter.

2.14  Linguistic Issues: Possible Hebrew Words in Armenian Another type of evidence for Jewish settlement in Armenia might be the existence of loanwords from Hebrew in Armenian. To find such words, we reviewed all the borrowings from North West Semitic languages presented by Hübschmann in the section

66  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia of his Altarmenische Grammatik dealing with loanwords from Syriac.184 The absence of such loanwords would prove nothing, but their presence could be probative.185 Syriac, an Aramaic dialect, is linguistically rather close to Hebrew. For our inquiry, the existence in Armenian of word forms that are possible in both Syriac and Hebrew proves nothing of their specific origin. The most likely candidates for an unambiguous Hebrew origin are two words ending in -​ut‘. These two words, if understood as Syriac, would have to be construct states186 of words, the last root letter of which is -​y. Yet the nouns borrowed from Syriac (Aramaic) are overwhelmingly in either the definite state, and so end in -​a(y), such as k‘ahana and šuk‘a, or in the absolute state, which has no distinctive ending. The ending -​ut is found on only two words of those listed by Hübschmann, gałut‘ “exile, exiled community” and xanut‘ “shop.” Both these forms are normal in Hebrew, in which language they are not in the construct but are in the absolute state. However, they could equally be the construct form of roots ending in -​y in Syriac.187 Admittedly, the rarity of Armenian borrowings of words in the construct state might weigh in favor of Hebrew. These two instances would be the only cases of borrowing from Hebrew, while there is at least one further instance of the borrowing of a Syriac noun in the construct state even though the construct itself is rare in Syriac.188 That noun, գզաթ gzat‘ “fleece,” in the construct state (in -​at) is not homographic with a Hebrew form.189 Regardless, Hebrew played no clearly discernable role in the development of Armenian vocabulary.190 Dan Shapira has used fairly complex criteria to attempt to isolate different layers of borrowing of Aramaic words into Armenian.191 His conclusion is the same as that proposed here, that “there hardly was any direct linguistic impact of Jewish Semitic languages on Armenian,” and he adds that some apparently Judaizing Aramaic elements were transmitted through Syriac influences at very early stages of Armenian Christianization.192

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  67

2.15  The Word for “Jew” in Armenian The normal designation for “Jew” in Armenian is հրե/էայ “hre/ ēay.” This word is to be found in fifth-century sources and from then on. Its etymology is not immediately clear. In NBHL, the standard lexicon of Ancient Armenian, the word is said to be derrived from Hebrew ‫ ידוהי‬yěhûdî. The derivation of hre/ēay from yěhûdî is not self-evident, nor does this great lexicon venture an explanation. Hṙač‘ya Ačaṙyan, in his fine Armenian etymological dictionary, suggests that հրեայ derives from *հուրեայ, presumably with the regular Armenian reduction of unstressed -​u-​, which he then compares, appropriately, with Georgian huria and similar forms in other Caucasian languages. That Caucasian form, in turn, Ačaṙyan regards as deriving from yěhûdî, and so on, but he offers no explanation of how the form with the r instead of d arose.193 Professor Shaul Shaked remarked to me some years ago that a shift from d > r took place in a number of Iranian dialects, as, more recently, Dan Shapira has also noted.194 I wish to observe, however, the fact that this word form is shared by the oldest attested level of Armenian and Georgian (and other Caucasian languages), which indicates its antiquity. In all likelihood it can be related to an encounter with Jews in the Caucasian peninsula in the period before these languages were written. Therefore, the word form constitutes a mute witness to early Jewish settlement in the Caucasus, though Armenia proper cannot be specified. This bears out James Russell’s general remarks quoted in section 2.1 of the present work.

2.16  Concluding Remarks Were there Jewish inhabitants in Armenia from the first century bce to the fifth century ce? In all probability yes, because there is

68  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia no reason to doubt the gist of what is reported by P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i. We cannot form any idea about the approximate number of those Jews, but it seems to have been significant. Furthermore, we should accept that most of them were brought to Armenia by Tigran II. The mass deportations in his time of various peoples, very likely including Jews, are corroborated by Greco-​ Roman sources. Moreover, the anachronistic mention of the high priest Hyrcanus and other Jews coming with him to Armenia permits us to infer that in the days of Tigran’s successor, Artawazd II, as well, a certain number of Jews became residents of Armenian cities. Given the great numbers of the Jewish settlers indicated by P‘awstos, we conjecture that “Jews” (հրեայք) in Armenian tradition, as elsewhere, meant not only the ethnos but also “sympathizers of the Jewish religion,” “God-​fearers,” and proselytes. We cannot be certain about the Jewish origin of the Bagratids or Amatunis, but when dealing with Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s stories about them, we should note, as relevant to our immediate concern, the following aspect of the many references to հրեայք “Jews” in his History of Armenia. Movsēs appears to have specific knowledge in Jewish matters. He compares the death of Bagarat’s two sons with the martyrdom of Hannah and Eleazar; he knows that Jews do not eat the meat of pagan sacrifices or pork, that they avoid any activities (in particular, they do not hunt or go to war) on the Sabbath, and that the custom of circumcision is strictly observed by them. He could have been familiar with all this from the Bible,195 but the fact that he speaks so much about the Jews and their habits might suggest that in his time the “Jewish factor,” that is, the presence of Jews and their influence in various spheres, was quite significant in Armenia. Hence we can conclude that even after the captivity of tens of thousands of Jews in 368/​9 by the Persians, many Jews continued living in Armenia at least until the end of the fifth century ce. Moreover, in later sources, both Armenian and foreign, there

Jews in Armenia in the Ancient Period  69 is evidence about Jewish inhabitants in Armenia in the Middle Ages, the most striking corroboration of this being the recently discovered Jewish cemetery, mainly of the thirteenth century, in the village Ełegis of the Vayoc‘ Jor province of the Republic of Armenia.196

3 The Middle Ages 3.1  The Main Routes of Medieval Armenia Before discussing the literary and archaeological evidence for the presence of Jews in Armenian cities in the Middle Ages, it will be useful to present briefly the main routes running through medieval Armenia,1 by which the Jewish inhabitants could have been drawn to travel and settle in various places within the country and nearby. These routes constituted a major factor in the movement of people and goods and of settlement. When King Smbat I Bagratid (reigned in 890–914) concluded an alliance with the Byzantine Empire, the emir of Atrpatakan (Atropatene) expressed his discontent. Smbat replied to him that the alliance was also of benefit to the Arabs, for they could find in the empire everything they needed and a route was open for their merchants to trade with the Byzantines. After that alliance, Armenia became a trade center visited by caravans from both Byzantine and Arab countries. In the beginning, the Armenian capital Dvin (where, as we shall see, there were many Jewish settlers) and Partav (Bardha‘a) were the main centers of the transit trade. In the tenth century, the number of such centers increased (Ani, Kars, and Arcn appeared, and other towns grew in size). There were several routes connecting Armenia with Transcaucasian, Arab, and Byzantine countries. Two arterial international trade routes passed through Armenia, the northern route and the southern. They had branches, and at several points joined one another. Passing toward the southeast, Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia. Michael E. Stone and Aram Topchyan, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197582077.003.0003

The Middle Ages  71 those two routes came together at Marand in Iran, then through Iran they led to Central Asia, China, and India. The northern route passed from Marand to Naxčawan (one of the seven cities with a Jewish population mentioned by P‘awstos Buzand), whence it went to Dvin, which was a junction of routes. A way from Dvin went northward and, passing through Erevan and through Bǰni on the northwestern shore of Lake Sevan, divided into two branches. One branch ran through the valley of the Ałstev River and led to Tiflis (modern Tbilisi), and the other turned southeastward at the eastern shore of the lake and again divided into two branches. One branch continued eastward and went through Hat‘erk‘ to Partav, and the other, turning to the north, passed through P‘arisos to Gandzak. Tiflis, Partav, and Gandzak, too, were significant junctions of routes and led to the coasts of the Black and Caspian seas and farther north to other countries. Caravans went by the Dvin-​Partav route, through Derbend, toward the banks of the Volga River and Russia, and from Partav the route led southeastward through Ardabil to Iran, Central Asia, and China. Passing from Dvin to Ani, Kars, and Karin, the northern arterial route led to the countries of the Byzantine Empire and to the coasts of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. In Karin (Erzerum), a branch separated from the main northern route. It went through Baberd toward Trapizon (Trebizond), and merchants could go via the Black Sea northward toward Russia and also westward. There was an old route passing from Dvin to Karin through Vałaršakert. Ani, too, was a route junction. One way from Ani led to Loṙi, Dmanisi, and Tiflis, and another way went from Ani to Axalc‘xa (Akhaltsikhe), Kutaisi, and the Black Sea. The route going from Ani toward Kars and the Black Sea also was important. The southern arterial route led from Marand to Her, Berkri, Arčeš, Xlat‘, Bałeš, Arcn, and Np‘rkert, also called Martyropolis. A road from Np‘rkert went to Amida, Carrhae, and Baghdad; another one to Amida, Edessa, and Antioch; and a third to Melitene

72  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia (Malatia), Cappadocian Caesarea, and other cities. The Maragha-​ Urmia-​Salmast-​Her-​Naxčawan-​Dvin route passed from the south northward. At Her, it crossed the southern route and led thence to Marand and Naxčawan, joining the southern and northern arterial routes. Another junction of the main two routes was in Ani. Toward the southwest, it went to Vałaršakert and divided into two branches, one leading to Arčeš and the other to Manazkert-​ Xlat‘. Another road joined the two arterial routes by the line Arčeš-​Manazkert-​Karin or Xlat‘-​Manazkert-​Karin. The third way joining the two main routes passed from Np‘rkert through Muš to Karin. There was also a route from Manazkert to Muš, Ašmušat, Xarberd, and Melitene, and yet another from Ašmušat, through Xozan, led to Erznka.

Map 2  The Main Routes of Medieval Armenia. The continuous line shows the southern route, and the interrupted line shows the northern route. The direct lines are conventional and may not correspond to the actual topography. Also, we have not specified a time span since our purpose was to represent a general view. The title of the map (“The Main Routes of Medieval Armenia”) suggests that particular routes and roads could have been of more or less importance in earlier or later periods.

The Middle Ages  73 Significant Armenian cities and towns on the northern arterial route were Dvin, Ani, Kars, Karin, and Erznka, and those on the southern route were Her, Van (one of the seven cities mentioned by P‘awstos), Berkri, Arčeš, Manazkert, Xlat‘, Bałeš, Arcn, and Np‘rkert. The cities and towns of the Siwnik‘, Gugark‘, Vaspurakan, Taron, and Cop‘k‘ regions were in general off the two arterial routes. Kapan (where there was a Jewish quarter; see section 3.3) was connected by secondary routes with Ałuank‘ (Caucasian Albania), Atrpatakan, Dvin, and Ani, and was of some, although not great, importance from the aspect of trade. But the region was rich in metal, so Kapan must have been a significant metallurgical center.

3.2  Jews in the Capital Dvin (Seventh through Ninth Centuries) and the “Jewish Singers” in the Region of Vaspurakan (Ninth Century) There are two pieces of interesting information concerning Jews in Dvin, which was a major city of Armenia, located in the central Ararat province. One piece is preserved by the Arab author Yāqūt al-​Hamawī (1178–1229) and concerns the mid-​seventh century:2 “Ḥabīb reached Dabīl (Dvin), conquered the city and the neighboring villages, and made peace with the inhabitants. He gave them an official letter, a copy of which is the following: ‘This is the insurance policy on behalf of Ḥabīb . . . given to the Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jewish inhabitants of the city, those present and those absent among them. I ensure the security of your life and your property, as well as the churches, temples, and ramparts of the city.’ ” The text of the same letter bestowed by the Arab general Ḥabīb ibn Maslama al-​Fihrī (ca. 617–ca. 662) is also preserved in another Arabic source, namely Abū l-​ʿAbbās Aḥmad al-​Balādhurī (ninth century).3

74  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia The other piece of information is related to the late ninth century. In an undated Armenian colophon, we read the following: “There was a severe earthquake . . . and from that earthquake many buildings collapsed in numerous places, and in the city of Dvin from that earthquake 62,000 people died among the Armenians, among the Jews (ընդ հրեայ), and among the Persians. And Ašot, having reigned for 25 years, passed away, and after him Smbat reigned.”4 This was the powerful earthquake of the year 893 ce. Smbat I the Bagratid succeeded his father, Ašot I, on the throne in 890, and in fact it was Smbat I who reigned for twenty-​five years. Dvin (Duin)5 (Δούβιος or Τίβιον in Greek and Dabīl in Arabic), the capital of Armenia in the early medieval period, had a history of around one thousand years. It was situated in the Ostan (Ոստան) province of the Ayrarat region of Greater Armenia, north of the previous capital Artašat (Artaxata) and not far from it. Information on the foundation of the city by King Xosrov “the Small” (otherwise known as Xosrov Kotak [reigned 330–338]) is found in Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s History of Armenia (3.8): “But Khosrov was unconcerned for valor and good repute; he occupied himself with pleasure and hunting birds and other game. It was for this reason that he planted the forest beside the Azat River, which is called by his name to this day. He also transferred the court to a spot above the forest and built a shady palace. The place is called Dvin in Persian; in translation it means ‘hill.’ Because . . . there were blowing hot, fetid, and pestilential winds, which those who dwelt at Artashat could not endure, they willingly agreed to the change.”6 Thus, situated on a hill and surrounded with a forest (the present-​day Xosrov’s Forest), the new settlement was remarkable for its healthy climate. Approximately 120 years after its foundation (following the Vardananc‘ War of 451), Dvin became the capital of Armenia. The Araxes River had changed its course, and the marshlands around Artašat, the previous capital, had expanded and the conditions of life there had become unbearable. As a result, Artašat had fallen into decline, as had the other Hellenistic

The Middle Ages  75 cities in Armenia. The inhabitants of Artašat, among whom, as stated by P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i, were a significant number of Jews, settled in Dvin in great masses. As a result of this resettlement, Artašat was soon emptied, while Dvin became a densely populated and prospering capital. We might also hypothesize that many Jews moved to Dvin not only from Artašat but also from other places in Armenia.7 The letter of the Arab general Ḥabīb was written in 644 or 653 during one of the cruel Arab invasions of Dvin. In this specific case, however, as the letter indicates, the general had behaved mercifully toward the inhabitants of the city. Despite the complicated historical period and the vicissitudes of the city’s life, it gained more significance during the seventh and eighth centuries, becoming the administrative center of the prefecture “Armenia (Arminīya)” of the caliphate. “Arminīya” at that time included the larger part of eastern Armenia, as well as eastern Georgia and Albania. In the 880s, when the caliphate had lost its former power, the national liberation movement of the Armenians gained momentum, and in the end, the country achieved independence under the Bagratid kings of Armenia. Although the Bagratid kings did not succeed in attaching the prefecture (or emirate) of Arminīya to their kingdom, its rulers, foreign and Armenian, were regarded as Bagratid subjects. In the second half of the ninth century, two powerful earthquakes took place in Dvin, in 862 and 893. The earthquake of 893 is referred to in the colophon cited earlier,8 which states that sixty-​two thousand inhabitants of the city died, Armenians, Jews, and Persians. However, even those natural calamities could not prevent Dvin from developing and flourishing. During the tenth through the early thirteenth centuries, it became one of the most prosperous cities of Armenia, a major center of trades, crafts, and culture with over 100,000 inhabitants. The city was on one of the two main trade routes of Armenia, which allowed it to be connected not only with other major centers of Armenia but

76  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia also with neighboring and more distant countries. Those routes led traders to Iran, Caucasian Albania, Georgia, the Byzantine Empire, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere.9 Dvin had many markets and squares, which were always full of Armenian and foreign (Arab, Iranian, Greek, Syrian, Georgian, and certainly Jewish) merchants and craftsmen selling their goods. The city continued to flourish until the Mongol invasion of the country in 1236. After the establishment of Mongol rule, during which many parts of Armenia were laid waste, Dvin, like a number of other Armenian cities, including Ani, Vałaršapat, Kars, Karin, Van, Xlat‘, and Manazkert, went into decline, gradually becoming no more than an unimportant settlement, until it finally disappeared some time in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Following the Mongol conquest some Jews may have moved from Dvin to the comparatively safe region of Vayoc‘ Jor and settled in Ełegis. This possibility is suggested by the dates of the tombstones and other archaeological data, discussed in section 3.5. The evidence on Jews in Dvin is supplemented by a noteworthy Armenian colophon of the thirteenth century.10 It is in MS 5476 of Matenadaran: the manuscript is a Gospel, copied by Cerun in the town of Surb Mari (=​Surmari, Surmalu), in the year 1296. This town was in the province of Čakatk‘11 in the same Ayrarat region of Armenia as Dvin. It lay to the west of Dvin, on the banks of the Araxes River. The copyist narrates a discord between “the three kings” of the Mongols: “And . . . Ghazan killed Payitu. . . . Since Payitu was a Christian, they [i.e., the Mongols called ‘the nation of Ismael’] . . . ruined churches as well as two houses of prayer of Jews and pagans (երկուս այլևս զաղաւթանոցսն հրէից և հեթանոսաց).” This probably took place in the Čakatk‘ province in or around the year mentioned in the colophon, 1296. From the period when Armenia was successfully fighting the Arab Caliphate for independence (the 880s), we have interesting information about Jewish inhabitants in another prosperous region of Armenia, Vaspurakan. Van, the capital of Vaspurakan, is

The Middle Ages  77 a city that both P‘awstos and Movsēs mentioned among the partly Jewish-​populated cities. To the north of Vaspurakan, the eighth region of Greater Armenia, lay the region of Ayrarat with its capital Dvin, and to its northeast lay the region of Siwnik‘. The information concerning Jews in this area is related to a tragic event, the assassination of Prince Grigor Derenik Arcruni in 887. It suggests that, if the Jews figuring in this episode or their offspring were local, they were going to live in another flourishing part of Armenia. The course of events was the following: In the beginning, the Arcruni princes struggled for independence as allies of the Bagratids. Some years later, in 908, after achieving success, King Gagik I Arcruni founded an independent Armenian kingdom (Kingdom of Vaspurakan), which was destined to exist for more than a century (until 1021). The information on Jews is provided in the History by T‘ovma Arcruni (ninth through tenth centuries), or, more precisely, in the section written by his anonymous continuator (see c­ hapter 1). We read the following: “When the event had been confirmed and the news of his [Derenik’s] death verified, then she [his wife, Sophia] threw herself on her face to the ground, strewing ashes on her head and spreading gloom throughout the palace. She cast off her noble veil adorned with pearls, dressed herself in black, and prepared a dark-​colored covering for her head. Summoning her daughters, she prescribed rites of mourning and arranged in groups Jewish singers, and had them chant the laments of the kings of Israel.”12 We do not know who these “Jewish singers” (պարաւորս եբրայեցիս, more literally, “Hebrew dancers”) were, whence they had come, and how they had appeared in the palace of Grigor Derenik. Were they descendants of the ancient Jews deported to Armenia and settled in eight cities (among which was Van) in the first century bce, as narrated by P‘awstos and Movsēs, or were they newcomers or a traveling troupe of singers (and dancers) whom the princess hired to mourn the death of her husband? In any case, one thing is clear: the Jewish singers, with their performances

78  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia of biblical verses or songs, were highly respected among the Armenian elite of Vaspurakan.

3.3  Jews in Kapan (Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries) and a Jewish Physician at the Monastery of Geret‘in (Thirteenth Century) According to the outstanding historian, statesman, and bishop of Siwnik‘ Step‘annos Ōrbelean (ca. 1250–1304), in the eleventh and twelfth centuries many Jews lived in Kapan, the capital of Siwnik‘.13 In ­chapter 61 of his History of the Region of Sisakan Step‘annos relates the conquest of Kapan in 1103 by a Seljuk commander named Chort‘man. He says that the Seljuks “began to massacre from the Jewish Quarter” (սկսան կոտորել ի Ջհտաթաղոյն). Thus, there was a separate quarter in Kapan which was outside the fortress of Bałaberd, at a rocky place that had been deemed inaccessible to foes. There, Jews were living and it was known as “the Jewish Quarter.” The fortified town Kapan14 was situated in the Jork‘ or Kapan province of the Siwnik‘ region, about fifteen kilometers northwest of the modern town of Kapan (Łap‘an). It was surrounded with a dense forest and protected in the south by the Arewik‘ Mountains, by a steep gorge with the River Ołǰi in the north, by the fortresses Bałaku and Bałaberd in the west, and by strong walls in the east. That is to say, it was a good and safe place to live and settle, both for the local people and migrants. It started in the fifth century ce as a small settlement, but in the late ninth and early tenth centuries, after being fortified by Prince Jagik (Ձագիկ) III, it first became the residence of the Jagikean princes and then, in the late tenth century, the capital of the Kingdom of Siwnik‘. Kapan flourished throughout the eleventh century; it probably had around twenty thousand inhabitants, Armenians and Jews (and maybe other foreign settlers as well).

The Middle Ages  79 They were involved, it seems, in trade, crafts, and metalworking, for the area was rich in copper. Archaeological evidence shows that Kapan was a center of metallurgy, and old furnaces for melting metal ores have been found in the region.15 After the devastating Seljuk invasion of 1103, Kapan gradually was reduced to a village and afterward was almost annihilated. Bałaberd replaced it as the capital, but some decades later this fortified town was also taken by the Seljuks, and the Kingdom of Siwnik‘ ceased to exist in 1170. Many inhabitants of Kapan who had survived the massacre moved north to Vayoc‘ Jor. They settled most notably in the village of Arp‘a (Areni), in Ełegis, and elsewhere.16 Jews from Kapan also were among those refugees. The thirteenth-​century historian Grigor Aknerc‘i preserved a second piece of evidence for Jewish presence, stemming from a quite different context.17 Grigor narrates that “many khans came from the East” (he means the Mongols) to Armenia, and among them was one named Khul, who went to the Monastery of Geret‘in, the location of which is unknown.18 There, the Mongols killed the prior Step‘annos in 1257. After this cruelty, they had awful pains, so they found “an unbelieving Jewish physician” (անհաւատ ջհուտ մի բժիշկ) and brought him to Khul. Jews in the East were well known as physicians, and here a glimpse of one such is given.

3.4  Jews in Vayoc‘ Jor (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries) The most extraordinary archaeological find bearing on the Jews of Armenia is from the excavation in the years 2000–2001 of a Jewish cemetery with gravestone inscriptions in Hebrew and Aramaic.19 This cemetery, by the present-​day village of Ełegis in Vayoc‘ Jor, a district of the Siwnik‘ region, was in use in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

80  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

3.4.1  The Seljuk Attack and the Vayoc‘ Jor District Vayoc‘ Jor was the largest district of the Kingdom of Siwnik‘, which was founded in 987 ce by the “prince of princes” Smbat, son of Sahak, prince of Bałk‘. This happened after the Armenian Bagratids finally failed to create a united Armenian state.20 The Seljuk Turks attacked the Kingdom of Siwnik‘ at the beginning of the twelfth century, and its capital, Kapan, fell to them in 1103. This Seljuk invasion and the consequent razing of the Jewish Quarter of Kapan were discussed in section 3.3. A modern survey of the area produced no positive results, partly because the area was thickly overgrown with brush and impenetrable.21 That survey, however, was not exhaustive, nor is the localization of the “Jewish Quarter” certain. The losing conflict with the Seljuks continued until 1170, when, with the conquest of the fortress of Bałaberd by the emir of Atrpatakan, Seljuk rule was finally extended over the whole of the former Kingdom of Siwnik‘.22 Step‘annos Ōrbelean’s explicit mention of a Jewish quarter in Kapan is the earliest of several references to the presence of Jews in this southern part of Armenia in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Jewish burial ground in Ełegis is another, and a third is the lapidary inscription at the church of Astuacacin Spitakawor.23 Henceforth, the greater part of our energies will be devoted to the discussion of the Jewish cemetery at Ełegis. However, it may be helpful, before we embark on this task, if we offer some information about the conditions obtaining at this time in Siwnik‘ in general, and in northern Siwnik‘, in the district called Vayoc‘ Jor, in particular.24 After the fall of the Kingdom of Siwnik‘ and its capital Kapan, in the course of the twelfth century many of its inhabitants moved to the northern province of Vayoc‘ Jor.25 The individuals who migrated north settled in Arp‘a (Areni), Ełegis, and other towns and villages of Vayoc‘ Jor. A number of Armenian inscriptions from the Vayoc‘ Jor district witness to this migration, which was

The Middle Ages  81 brought about by the oppressive Seljuk rule.26 The noble family of the Ōrbeleans was prominent at this time. This family was one of the two dominant families in Vayoc‘ Jor toward the end of the twelfth century. Its origin was the following: The Georgian noble family of Ōrbeli had been massacred by King Georgi III of Georgia (1156–1184) and their lands confiscated. Georgi III was a scion of the Bagration dynasty, and he and his daughter Queen Tamara (1184–1213) ruled during the “Golden Age” of Medieval Georgia, when Georgian power was at its zenith and Georgia dominated the whole Caucasus. The Ōrbeleans were rehabilitated during the reign of Queen Tamara, who granted the nobleman Liparit Ōrbeli lands in the provinces of Vayoc‘ Jor and Kotayk‘ to compensate for the Ōrbeli possessions lost in Georgia. Liparit Ōrbeli had residences in Ełegis and in the region of Arp‘a (known today as Areni).27 He married the daughter of one of the local noblemen, Bubak, and became the ancestor of the Ōrbelean family of Siwnik‘, of which the historian Step‘annos Ōrbelean was a scion. The other powerful family of the Vayoc‘ Jor district was the Pṙošeans, or Xałbakeans. They stemmed from further south, and their founder, Prince Pṙoš, had been appointed sparapet (commander) of the joint Armenian-​Georgian army in 1223, a position he held for sixty years. As Sanjian puts it, “the principalities of the Ōrbelian and Xałbakian families interlocked in curious and often discontinuous geographical holdings.”28 Between them, they controlled a considerable area. Under the command of the Zak‘arean brothers,29 Zak‘arē and Ivanē, the Georgian and Armenian troops conducted a war against the Seljuks for twenty-​five years (beginning in the 1190s). As a result, many regions of Armenia were liberated from the Seljuk yoke. Queen Tamara took over the title and high office of at‘abek from the Mongols and adapted it to her realm.30 This title was granted to the Zak‘arean (Mkhargrzeli) family; when Ivanē received the title, he became the ruler of Vayoc‘ Jor, together with the regions of Gełark‘unik‘, Sodk‘, and northeastern Siwnik‘. The Ōrbelean

82  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

Map 3  Armenia in the Time of the Zak‘arean Princes in the Thirteenth to Early Fourteenth Centuries.

family of Siwnik‘ became the most powerful noble house in Ivanē’s dominion.

3.4.2  The Results of Ōrbelean Policy In 1236 the Mongols with their commander Aslan invaded and conquered Armenia. Under their pitiless sway, Armenia was devastated. “The whole country filled up with the corpses of the dead yet there was no one to bury them,” writes the historian Kirakos Ganjakec‘i, who lived between ca. 1200/​1202 and 1271 (­chapter 22).31 From the very beginning of the invasion, however, Prince Ēlikum II Ōrbelean of Siwnik‘ (d. 1243) had accepted Mongol rule, and thanks to this wise and timely Ōrbelean diplomacy, Siwnik‘ became a comparatively privileged region in Armenia.

The Middle Ages  83 The second half of the thirteenth century was the zenith of Ōrbelean power. Ēlikum II Ōrbelean’s successor was his brother Smbat (1251–1273), who is even called “king of Siwnik‘” in some Armenian sources.32 In 1251 Smbat went to the Mongol court and received a high rank from Mangu Khan. Thus Siwnik‘ became reckoned among the indjus, privileged districts directly subject to the Great Khan, independent of the extortions and taxes laid on the people by the various Mongol notables and tax farmers.33 Since Siwnik‘ was an indju, the taxes and imposts were collected by the Ōrbelean princes directly, on behalf of the Great Khan. Smbat’s dominion included the regions of Ełegis and Vayoc‘ Jor, Kotayk‘, and a significant part of Gełark‘unik‘. During his rule, Smbataberd, the fortress of Ełegis situated on a ridge overlooking the town and about two kilometres distant from it, was restored and strengthened.34 The Ōrbelean rulers had a great position and were titled “prince of princes.” Due to the extremely severe economic situation in most of Armenia and the comparative prosperity of Siwnik‘ in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, thousands of people who were forced off their lands in various parts of Armenia migrated to Siwnik‘. The influx of population during the second half of the thirteenth century turned Siwnik‘ into a cultural center with flourishing economy. This tendency became particularly marked in the 1290s when the socioeconomic crisis engendered by Mongol rule became acute. Ełegis was also home to a significant scriptorium, where a number of still surviving manuscripts were copied.35 Moreover, a distinct school of sculpture developed in Vayoc‘ Jor in the thirteenth century.36 Up to 1273, the town of Arp‘a, located on the important route Naxiǰevan-​Gełark‘unik‘, was the residence of the Ōrbeleans. This town, now called Areni, is in the valley of the Arp‘a River and well placed from the point of view of the trade routes. Afterward, the Ōrbelean throne was transferred to Ełegis.37 The new Ōrbelean capital was not closely connected to the two arterial trade routes

84  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia (northern and southern) that passed through Armenia, for which reason, although it was the residence of the Ōrbelean rulers, it was never among the most important cities of Armenia.38 From the tax imposed for the monastery of Tat‘ew (twelve drams), it appears that even in its floruit Ełegis did not have numerous inhabitants and that its population did not surpass ten thousand.39 In view of this, two questions arise: Why did the Ōrbeleans make it their capital, instead of the well-​situated town of Arp‘a? What led the Jewish community to settle there for at least a century? The answer to the first question remains beyond the scope of this research. Two reasons, however, may be floated for the Jewish settlement there. The first is that there are enough Persian elements on the tombstones to permit us to speak of a Persian Jewish origin for at least some of the Jewish inhabitants. In those days the Persian presence in Armenia was indeed substantial,40 and south of Kapan ran the Araxes River, which was the Persian border. Another factor may have been the attraction of the metalworking in Kapan, and then a subsequent migration northward following the Seljuk victories of 1103 and 1170. As we mentioned, the decimation of the Jewish Quarter during the conquest of Kapan is attested by Step‘annos Ōrbelean. On Spitakawor Astuacacin church, not very far from Ełegis, there is a most interesting inscription: “We gave as a gift to the [church] Astuacacin the land of . . . the Jew . . . which we had bought.” It is not dated but probably was incised between 1321 and 1325.41 At that time there still were Jews in Ełegis and probably in Ełegnajor. It is possible that the land mentioned was bought some years earlier. We should also note that the construction of Spitakawor was finished in 1321.42 So not only were there Jews in the area, but one, at least, was a landowner. With the disappearance of the Ilkhanid Khanate in the mid-​ fourteenth century, the Georgian king Georgi V (1314–1346) restored the independence and territorial unity of Georgia in 1327. The Armenian princedoms were reduced to a purely local

The Middle Ages  85 role after 1350. Subsequently, Ełegis gradually decreased in size to a town and then a village. According to local tradition, the city was abandoned as the result of a volcanic eruption. This is not corroborated in the written sources we have examined, nor confirmed by the physical remains that inhabitants pointed out as the result of the earthquakes.

3.5  The Cemetery The most important evidence touching on the Jews in Medieval Armenia was uncovered in the course of the excavation of the Jewish cemetery in Ełegis, in the Vayoc‘ Jor district. This cemetery was excavated and explored between 1997 and 2002, and the scientific reports were published in 2002 and 2006.43 In all, sixty-​four tombstones were found in an area that had been a Jewish cemetery in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The tombstones bore a total of twenty inscriptions in Hebrew and Aramaic, and this total includes two inscriptions that had been published in 1912. Those two inscriptions certainly belong to the group from the cemetery, but when they were copied, the stone bearing them was in secondary use in the village of Ełegis.44 Some of the inscriptions include dates that range from 1266 to 1346 ce. Thus, we learn that this Jewish community was active at least from the mid-​thirteenth to the mid-​fourteenth century. The floruit of the city of Ełegis was in the thirteenth century under the Ōrbeleans. Indeed, the period of the tombstone inscriptions, the second half of the thirteenth century and early part of the fourteenth, was one of relative prosperity and a measure of independence in the regions of Siwnik‘ and Vayoc‘ Jor, during an age in which the dominant power was in the hands of the Mongol khans. The relative isolation of the region behind its mountainous barriers to the north contributed to this prosperity, which contrasted with

86  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia the devastation of most of Armenia at the time. It was in just that period that the Ełegis Jewish community was active, as is witnessed by the tombstones. There is to date no known written corroboration of this community’s existence in historical sources, but the time sequence of the Seljuk final victory in 1170 and the movement of population northward under Seljuk pressure is significant. It is at least possible that people from the Jewish community of Kapan moved north to the new Ōrbelean capital, Ełegis. The indications from the tombstones that we will set forth show that at least some of the Jews of Ełegis were of Persian Jewish origin. Tabriz in Persian Atrpatakan is roughly a hundred kilometers south of Kapan. The cemetery, then, is clearly that of a Jewish community that existed in the city of Ełegis in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries at least. This is supported by the fact that the dates on the tombstones are in the decades of the floruit of the city of Ełegis.

3.5.1  The Village of Ełegis The present-​day village of Ełegis is on the Ełegis River, a tributary of the Arp‘a, which flows into the Araxes River in the Ararat Valley. It is characterized by fruit orchards and vineyards in a narrow valley between mountains. To the west of the present village are the ruins of the ancient city of Ełegis, also called Ełegik‘ or Ełegeac‘. Its ruins extend four to four and a half kilometers along the narrowing valley of the Ełegis River. In the Middle Ages the northern part of Vayoc‘ Jor was called Ełegeac‘ Jor, explained from the words ełegn “reed” and jor “valley,” that is, “valley of reeds.”45 As we observed, Ełegis was the seat of the Ōrbeleans in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Major construction was undertaken there, the ruins of which survive, in various conditions. Notable are the fortress complex and the churches and xač‘k‘ars (monumental stone crosses).

The Middle Ages  87 The course of the powerfully flowing Ełegis River separates the present-​day village from the Jewish cemetery. A level shelf of ground rises a few meters above the southern bank of the Ełegis River and parallel to it. This shelf is about eighty meters wide, and the cemetery is located on it. Supporting walls protect this shelf of ground from erosion into the river, and today it is covered with thick vegetation—​ancient walnuts, self-​sown trees and bushes, as well as dense, more recent plantings of forest trees. Above this shelf are very steep basalt cliffs, hundreds of meters high, with deep crevices at the base of which rocky debris (colluvium) has collected. When the winter snows melt, the runoff toward the river carries the colluvium with it, partly into the cemetery. The cemetery extends over an area of 1.5 dunams (1,550 square meters) covered by thick vegetation.

3.5.2  The Tombstones A total of sixty-​ four tombstones were uncovered, as well as fragments of a further number (see Figure 3.1). The length of the tombstones is an indication both of the stature of the deceased and of their age, if they were children. The shortest tombstone is 68 centimeters long (no. 47) and the longest is 178 centimeters (no. 1). When these numbers are compared with the sizes of the tombstones in the Ōrbelean family cemetery in Ełegis, we see that the shortest stone there is 81 centimeters (no. 9) and the longest 204 centimeters (no. 13).46 The person buried under the 204-​centimeter stone must have been exceptionally tall. Of these Jewish tombstones, nine bear inscriptions, some of them more than one. The total number of inscriptions is twenty.47 In assessing the meaning of this find, it is important to make two preliminary observations. The first is that a number of the tombstones were found in secondary use, and clearly more than that number may have been taken away and reused, so the original

88  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

Figure 3.1  Ełegis Cemetery, Tombstone 12, Inscription 10.

number of tombstones may have been significantly larger than those found in situ.48 Moreover, the number of tombstones does not teach us about the number of burials. In the original disposition of the tombstones on the site, quite large level areas existed between them. Moreover, we estimated that half the tombstones in the site had been moved from their original location.49 These level areas were presumably once used for less expensive burials. The extremely massive tombstones were certainly not cheap and resemble in both character and material the tombstones of the Ōrbelean burial ground, which hosted expensive burials of members of the most prominent noble house of the region.50

The Middle Ages  89 These considerations must be borne in mind when we try to assess the size and wealth of this Jewish community, as well as the duration of its existence in Ełegis.

3.5.3  The Inscriptions and the Character of the Community Despite the fact that in shape and material, and in some very striking points of decoration, the tombstones resemble those of the Ōrbelean cemetery and some of those of the local churchyard,51 the people buried in the graveyard were Jews. This is evident both from the Hebrew and Aramaic languages in which the inscriptions were written and from the citation in Hebrew of verses from the Hebrew Bible. In one case a citation is even introduced by the common rabbinic formula ‫“ דכתיב‬as is written” (Inscription no. 16, stone 46), preceding a citation of Proverb 31:30 that is followed by a brief reference to Proverb 31:31. In Inscription no. 20, Isaiah 26:19 is quoted without this formula. The same verse of Isaiah is cited, broken into two parts, in Inscriptions nos. 8 and 9 (stone 12) and recurs in Inscription no. 13 (stone 6). These same verses feature in Jewish funerary contexts in other places as well. The use of standard Jewish funerary formulae and common abbreviations as well as familiarity with rabbinic sources show that the Ełegis community cultivated a tradition of Jewish learning. The citation of biblical verses used elsewhere in funerary contexts, the knowledge of very specific exegetical traditions, as well as the terminology utilized, all combine to show the relatively high standard of Jewish culture in this community. From the study of the inscriptions, we may also conclude that the Jews of Ełegis were rabbinic Jews, and not Karaites. This is shown by the rather numerous reflections of rabbinic exegetical and midrashic traditions in the tomb inscriptions. Such are discussed and documented in detail in the annotations to the inscriptions in the published reports on the research done in Ełegis.52

90  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

3.5.4  The Decoration Some of the tombstones are decorated, study of which is revealing. We can conclude that the Jews of Ełegis, on the whole, utilized tombstones that were identical in design and material to the Christian Ōrbelean ones.53 The whirl rosette occurs frequently, as on tombstones nos. 39 and 12, and there is also figurative decoration composed of animals.54 Donabédian stresses both the originality and creativity of architectural sculpture in Vayoc‘ Jor at this time, and particularly notes the role of relief sculpture. Many of the subjects found on churches and other buildings in the region are the same as those on the decorated Jewish tombstones, which we will discuss later. Thus, on a church in the village of Verin (Upper) Axta, in that region, in the area between the gable and a high window, is a design in which two lions stand in heraldic fashion facing an eagle, over the head of which is a wheel rosette.55 All three symbols appear in the Jewish cemetery in Ełegis. At Noravank‘ is a sculpture of an eagle holding its prey, which symbol was the coat of arms of the Ōrbeleans. The eagle and the lion are also found over the entrance arch of the Pṙošean fortress at Boloraberd. In fact, the images of a lion and an eagle are widespread in the Pṙošean holdings, and elsewhere in Vayoc‘ Jor. Indeed, Yovsēp‘ean has proposed that they were part of the coat of arms of the Pṙošean dynasty.56 Both feature in the Ełegis Jewish cemetery. However, it is most important to bear in mind that the same two symbols are common in Jewish art from antiquity, such as in synagogue sculpture.57 The combination of Jewish religious and cultural traditions with local Armenian cultural tradition is evident. For Christians, the lion and the eagle represent two of the Evangelists. It is intriguing, moreover, that in Noravank‘ these same two symbols occur alone, when in Christian art they would occur most naturally in the full series of four. The reuse of the rosette and the wheel of eternity is a similar case of Jewish selection

The Middle Ages  91 of local but nonspecific Christian symbols that had also been used in Jewish contexts since antiquity. In Jewish use, the whirl rosette was decorative; in the cemetery of Ełegis, however, it must have been endowed with the Armenian symbolic meaning of eternity.58 Thus, the ornaments on the gravestones have well-​established roots in Jewish art from the Second Temple period on, but for the most part also occur in the Christian art of the region. The conclusion we drew in 2002 seems to us to stand firm: “We propose that the Jewish tombstones were made by local masons and, for decoration, symbols were selected from their repertoire that had iconographic resonance for the Jewish community and no overt Christian meaning in isolation. . . . This was a well-​to-​do community,59 whose tombstones rivalled those of the ruling family of the region.”60

3.5.5  Persian Origin of the Jewish Community The Jews of Ełegis were at least partly of Persian Jewish ori­ gin, though they may have lived in Armenia for generations. In Inscription no. 5, a Persian name, Anisi, appears. The latest of the inscriptions are on the single tombstone discovered in Ełegis by Garegin Yovsēp‘ean in 1912 and published in Russian by N. Marr, whose article is translated into English and printed at the end of “Second Report.”61 In that report we republished these important epigraphs along with some corrections to the 1912 decipherment and dating.62 Significantly, the first of these inscriptions, no. 19, refers to “Mar Khawaja Sharaf al-​Din son of the elder, Khawaja Zaki,” recording Persian names and titles. We consulted Professor Amnon Netzer, whose illuminating response is given here in full: I have studied a list of 48 individuals whose name or appellation was Sharaf al-​Din. None of them seems to be the individual

92  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia mentioned on the tombstone, though most of them belonged, more or less, to the twelfth–fourteenth centuries. The importance of the discovery in my view is that in the Ilkhanid period (1219–1367), certain Persian Jews achieved eminence and were given the honorific titles “al-​Dawla” and “al-​ Din.” For example, Sa‘ad al-​Dawla was a doctor and prime minister in the court of Arghun. He appointed many of his Jewish relatives, who bore the title “al-​Dawla,” to positions of provincial governors in different parts of the realm. Sa‘ad al-​Dawla, chiefly because he was Jewish, was executed in March 1291 and on his death a pogrom broke out and nearly all those Jewish governors were killed. Rashid al-​Din, physician and prime minister in the court of Uljeitu Khan, underwent a similar fate. He had converted to Islam, apparently when he was 30, but in the end was executed in 1318. As in the previous instance, after his execution Jews were killed, particularly those in high positions. About 100 years after his death, by royal command his body was exhumed and he was reburied in a Jewish cemetery.63 The two Jews, Sa‘ad and Rashid, were active in the court of the rulers of Tabriz, geographically close to Armenia. I can only hypothesize that Sharaf al-​Din was the title of a converted Jew and that he held high office. If a Jew was in a high position, he was permitted to be called “al-​Dawla,” and not “al-​Din.” Perhaps this Sharaf al-​Din died or was killed in circumstances like those of Rashid al-​Din, and was buried in a Jewish cemetery. His father’s name, Zaki, as well as the title Hawaja, are customary among Persian Jews.

Consequently, we may conclude that at least one element of the Jewish community of Ełegis came from Persia. From Netzer’s analysis, we also learn that at least one individual had achieved considerable eminence, probably as a Muslim, though eventually he was buried as a Jew.

The Middle Ages  93

3.5.6  Conclusions There is no doubt that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries at least, there was a Jewish community in the town of Ełegis, which left behind the cemetery discussed here. Partly, at least, of Persian origin, these Jews were Rabbanites and versed in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish funerary traditions, and traditions of rabbinic midrash and exegesis. At the same time, they had adapted culturally, to a greater or lesser extent, to the Armenian Christian context in which they lived. This is clear from the identical shape of the Jewish and Christian tombstones, which were probably manufactured in the same atélier or atéliers and which shared decorative motifs. A Jewish quarter in Kapan was well established at the time of the Seljuk invasion of 1103, and perhaps its inhabitants moved north from Kapan under Seljuk pressure. The community might have included people of other origins as well, but we have no clear information on this. The reason for the cessation of burials in the Ełegis cemetery is not at all clear. It might have been due to the Mongol invasions and, in particular, to the taxation policy, which became onerous in the fourteenth century. That remains hidden by the veil of the past.

3.6  Why Do the Jews Disappear from Our Sources (Supposedly, in the Fourteenth Century)? It is difficult to find a particular historical event that may help to explain the dates of the tombstones as well as the literary evidence. This may mean that at least some of the Jewish inhabitants left Armenia during the first half of the fourteenth century, and we can call attention to the following happenings. The socioeconomic crisis of Armenia in the period of Mongol rule deepened gravely in the 1290s.64 Thousands of people had to

94  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia leave their land and migrate. As we already know, thanks to the geographical conditions and the diplomatic policy of the Ōrbeleans, Siwnik‘ was in a better state than much of the country. From the time of Smbat Ōrbelean (1251–1273) it had become an indju, a privileged region directly subject to the Mongol khan, which means that some taxes payable to other rulers were reduced in Siwnik‘. Consequently, many people from other parts of Armenia came to live there. Some of the earliest Jewish tombstones are dated 1290, which may mean that during the crisis of the 1290s (or earlier, say, after 1103 or 1170 from the south) the Jews buried near Ełegis had come there from another part, or from other parts, of Armenia. It was the time of Elikum Ōrbelean (1290–1300), who had good relations with Mongol authorities. Being an indju, Siwnik‘ was comparatively free from the violence and tyranny of taxmen, unbearable in other, more oppressed parts of Armenia. Kayghatu Khan (1291–1295) did not follow any religion, and during his rule persecutions of adherents of different faiths did not take place. Ghazan Khan (1295–1304), who was trying to establish order and overcome the economic crisis in the Ilkhan Empire, was a follower of Islam. Nevertheless, according to Garegin Yovsēp‘ean, under his rule Armenia was at peace. Ghazan’s death is even lamented in an Armenian colophon of the year 1304.65 Though Yovsēp‘ean’s assertion about peace in Armenia under Ghazan should be accepted with certain reservations, we may conclude that in the time of Kayghatu and Ghazan the Jewish community near Ełegis and elsewhere in Armenia lived at least in bearable conditions. Cruel persecution of Christians was instituted in the time of Ghazan’s successors, Oljaytu (also called Muhammed Khodabandeh, 1304–1316) and Abu Sa‘id (1316–1335). Oljaytu persecuted the Christians (and probably adherents of other faiths), forcing them to become Muslims. In 1307 he imposed severe taxes on Christians. Unable to pay, some people had to sell their children.66 A colophon dated 1314 witnesses that under Oljaytu,

The Middle Ages  95 Siwnik‘ was no longer in an advantageous situation. The scribe writes that Mongol taxmen came to Vayoc’ Jor and “counted even one-​month-​old boys” in order to collect more taxes.67 A well-​known scribe, Połos, a graduate of the “monastery-​university” of Glajor, wrote a very interesting testimony. He recounts that in 1313 Oljaytu imposed taxes also on “foreigners” living in Armenia, who were not taxed during the rule of other khans.68 The new conditions under Oljaytu may have weakened the Jewish community of Ełegis and caused some of its members to migrate. The dates on the tombstones, however, continue until 1346/​7, well after Oljaytu’s rule came to an end. Their cessation is probably to be connected with the dire conditions created by Mongol tribal conflict that took place in Transcaucasia in the first part of the fourteenth century as well as the unrest that affected the last decades of the Ilkhanid Empire, which came to an end after 1353.69 Most of the burials in the Jewish cemetery took place during the latter half of the thirteenth century. Among other calamities that may have caused eventual emigration of members of this community, the sources of the time speak of famine. This was a result of the devastation of the country by the Mongol invaders; being cattle breeders, they destroyed areas under crops and utilized those areas as pastures; wheat was often used as forage.70 There were repeated famines, in 1314 and 1316, and a terrible earthquake took place in 1321 from which Gełark‘unik‘ especially suffered.

3.6.1  The Inscription of the Church Spitakawor Astuacacin as Additional Evidence Finally, there is an additional piece of information that may hint at the fact that Jews left Armenia during these years. One of the inscriptions on the church Spitakawor Astuacacin in Vayoc‘ Jor, built around 1321 under the patronage of the Pṙošean princes, reads,71 ԿԱՄԱՒՆ Ա[ՍՏՈՒԾՈ]Յ ԵՍ ՄԱՐԳԱՐԷ ՎԱՐԴԱՊԵՏՍ ԵՒ

96  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia ՀԱՐԱԶԱՏՆ ԻՄ ԳՐ[Ի]ԳՈՐԷՍ, Ւ ԿԻՆ ԻՒՐ ՇՆՈՀՎՈՐ ՏՎԱՔ ԸՆՁԱ Ա[ՍՏՈՒԱ]ԾԱԾՆԻ ԶԹԱՃԵՐԻ ՀՈՂՆ ՈՒ ԶՋՀՏԻՆ . . . ՈՐ ՄԵՐ ԳՆՈՒԱԾՔ ԷՐ “By God’s will I, Margarē vardapet, and my kinsman

Grigorēs and his wife Šnohvor gave as a gift to the [church of] Astuacacin the land of T‘ačer and the Jew . . . which we had bought.” The church Spitakawor is seven kilometers north of the village of Vernašen, which is located northeast of the town of Ełegnajor, not far from Ełegis. The inscription is undated, but it was probably carved not long after the building of the church was finished in 1321 (in any case, not later than the first half of the fourteenth century).72 What can we infer? Would it be farfetched to suppose that the Jewish owner of the land sold it to Margarē vardapet, his kinsman Grigorēs and the latter’s wife Šnohvor because he was going to leave his home in Armenia together with other Jews? This is probably pure fancy. Regardless, the fact that a Jew could and did own property in this region in the first half of the fourteenth century is a notable contribution to the evidence we have assembled.

4 Other Armenian-​ Jewish Connections 4.1  Armenian Pilgrims and Pilgrimage to the Holy Land In addition to information transmitted by Armenian and Hellenistic historians touching on Jews and Armenia, after the mid-​fourth century ce there is sustained evidence for pilgrimage of Armenians to the Holy Places; moreover, Armenian religious institutions were established in the Land of Israel. Such Armenian visits to and settlements in the Holy Land do not necessarily bespeak contacts between Armenians and Jews and certainly cannot serve as evidence for communities of Jews in Armenia. Nonetheless, the frequency of Armenian pilgrimages and the substantial proportions of Armenian settlement in the Land of Israel may prove to have some weight in this discussion.1 There also seems to have been an Armenian intellectual center in Jerusalem in the fifth century,2 and some contacts between Jewish and Christian savants in the country did exist at various times.3 But from these considerations to Jews settled in Armenia, the path is very tortuous.

4.1.1  Pilgrimage It is not the object of this chapter to give a full account of Armenians journeying to or living in the Holy Land in Late Antiquity, or of the numerous ancient Armenian monuments to be found in Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia. Michael E. Stone and Aram Topchyan, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780197582077.003.0004

98  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia Jerusalem, Nazareth, and elsewhere, many discovered during the past century and a half.4 Nonetheless, Armenian enthusiasm for pilgrimage to the Holy Places, particularly in the early centuries of Christianity, may have led to some interchanges between Jews and Armenians, and certainly between traditions of the Holy Land and of Armenia, and so we mention here the chief evidence for early Armenian pilgrims.5 It is clear that the pilgrim movement might have affected Jewish-​Armenian relations, but if that did happen, its extent is unclear.6 This sustained relationship between Armenia and the Holy Land could also have played a role in the question of the history of Armenian Jewry and perhaps also influenced Armenian attitudes to Jews. Armenian pilgrimage continued after the Muslim conquest and, indeed, continues to the present, persisting despite changes of rulers and policies.7 Nonetheless, although the overall issue of the Armenians in the Holy Land is extremely interesting, it has no necessary connection with the research into the Jews in Armenia. Yet it can provide insight into information and persons that might have moved between the two communities via the pilgrim routes.

4.1.2  Pilgrims between the Fourth Century and the Muslim Conquest Here we shall present the evidence for the period from the fourth century ce down to the Muslim conquest. This evidence relates both to individuals and to groups of pilgrims and makes it quite clear that the travel of groups of pilgrims from Armenia to the Holy Land was a well-​established practice. The oldest reference to travel between Armenia and Jerusalem is in the Book of Letters, a collection of ecclesiastical correspondence of varied dates. The reference is in an epistle written by Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem (312–334), to Vrt‘anēs, Catholicos of Armenia (333–341).8 Macarius is answering Vrt‘anēs’s inquiry about issues of church order.9 The epistle refers to the dispatch of letters from

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  99 Armenia to Jerusalem and back10 carried by the hand of “God-​fearing priests,”11 who might have been pilgrims or else special emissaries. It should be remarked that although this text is preserved in Ancient Armenian, it could not have been composed in that language, which was written only from the early fifth century. Moreover, it is unlikely that the bishop of Jerusalem wrote to his Armenian colleague in any language other than Greek. Thus, the document is a translation from Greek, but that makes it no less significant.12 The Armenians’ attitude to the bishop as a source of authority may have stemmed from an attempt that was encouraged by Catholicos Vrt‘anēs to define (or to limit somewhat) the Armenian relationship with Constantinople.13 Moreover, a century later, it was the Jerusalem Lectionary that was translated into Armenian.14 Another indication of Jerusalem’s central role is that a distinctly Jerusalem text-​type of the works of Gregory Nazianzen served as the basis for the translation of his works into Armenian.15 The authority inhering in these ecclesiastical works, I believe, derives from the Armenians’ special reverence for Jerusalem, an attitude that stemmed from that city’s very biblical associations, and not necessarily from any political or ecclesiastical connections. Moreover, the translation of the Lectionary and of Gregory Nazianzen’s writings in Jerusalem indicates that there was an Armenian school of learning in the city in the fifth century.16 Jerome (ca. 347–419/​20) in an epistle written in the name of Paula and Eustochium to Marcella (dated 386) refers to Armenians who have come to the Holy Land to live, and they are mentioned alongside members of a number of other Christian nations.17 This is relevant mainly to the question of Armenian monastic settlers rather than of pilgrims, but many of the monks or those who became monks arrived in the land in the first place as pilgrims.18 From Epiphanius of Salamis we learn of the first known and named pilgrim to the Holy Land, who was from Armenia. In Against the Heresies 40 (291a and 292a–b) he recounts that a certain Eutaktos came from Armenia Minor near Satala, visited the Holy Land and Egypt, and returned home.19 Eutaktos seems to

100  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia have been a pilgrim; he visited in the time of Constantius, close to his death. Constantius died in 361, and Epiphanius (ca. 317–403), a native of Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin) at the foot of the Judean hills, was a contemporary of the events he relates. Thus, Eutaktos visited in the late 350s, a little more than two decades later than the messengers who carried Macarius’s and Vrt‘anēs’s letters. It is also notable that he came from the borderlands between Armenia Major and Armenia Minor.20 There is other evidence, admittedly from nearly a century later, indicating that travelers from Armenia Minor were quite frequent.21 Thus we learn of a group of four hundred Armenian pilgrims from that region who, not long after 428, visited St. Euthymius, the founder of Palestinian monasticism, in the Judean desert on their way to Jericho. St. Euthymius was himself an Armenian from Melitene,22 and the pilgrims’ visit to him reminds us that, at that time, visits to saintly men were as important as visits to sacred places.

4.1.3  Pilgrim Graffiti The pilgrim graffiti discovered in Nazareth and the Sinai corroborate other evidence for the presence of Armenian pilgrims to the Holy Places in the fifth century. Over 140 Armenian graffiti were discovered in the Sinai Desert, in the Monastery of St. Catherine at the foot of Jebel Musa (traditional Mount Sinai), and on Jebel Musa itself. The oldest of these date from the fifth century, and the latest dated graffito is from 1436.23 The linguistic and archaeological issues raised by these inscriptions are complex. In the context of the present study, their importance is to confirm the pilgrimage patterns and routes that were followed by Armenians in the second part of the first millennium ce. In 1967, B. Bagatti published the results of his excavations on the site of the present Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.24 Beneath a mid-​ fifth-​ century mosaic floor25 in a church and

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  101 monastery, he uncovered fragments of an earlier Christian building. Among these were plastered stones, inscribed with graffiti.26 Certain of these graffiti were in Armenian.27 Taylor’s analysis demonstrates that they date from the first part of the fifth century.28 Two individuals, called Babgen and Anania, wrote their names not only on the plaster of the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth but also on rocks in the Sinai Desert on the route to the traditional site of Mount Sinai.29 A final remark on this extraordinary find: the late Archbishop Norayr Bogharian suggested to me possible identifications of the graffiti writers Anania and Babgen. Anania might have been a churchman because of his biblical name and is perhaps to be identified with Anania, Bishop of Siwnik‘, who died ca. 486 and who is mentioned by Ełišē, Koriwn, and Movsēs Xorenac‘i.30 Moreover, Ełišē and Łazar P‘arpec‘i mention a Babgen, Prince of Siwnik‘.31 One can therefore imagine these two prominent citizens of Siwnik‘, prince and bishop, both literate, going on pilgrimage together. In any case this find enhances the evidence for Armenian pilgrims in the fifth century. The existence of Armenian graffiti in many Christian Holy Places indicates the major role of pilgrimage in Armenian piety. Such are to be found, for example, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in Nazareth (in addition to those discussed earlier), in the Milk Grotto in Jerusalem, in Gethsemane, and elsewhere. It seems that the writing of graffiti was part of Armenian pilgrim practice and not just the expression of a widespread human urge. The Armenian graffiti, for example, far outnumber the Georgian ones, which exemplifies a difference between the two traditions. We know of other Armenian pilgrims during the first millennium. From the sixth century we have an account of Armenian pilgrims ascending Mount Tabor, the traditional site of the Transfiguration. Certain of them, the source says, stayed on in the monasteries there.32 This report combines with the Nazareth

102  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia inscriptions to confirm Armenian pilgrimage to the north of the Land of Israel, which we would have assumed anyway. Despite the plausibility of this assumption, having material evidence of it is most convincing. It also highlights one of the ways that Armenian monastic presence was sustained, as we have said.

4.1.4  Pilgrimage in the Sixth to Eighth Centuries The evidence for Armenian pilgrimage continues during the seventh century; the correspondence between Catholicos Komitas and Modestus of Jerusalem mentions a number of details.33 This exchange of letters most likely took place soon after the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614.34 It is intriguing to compare Macarius of Jerusalem’s correspondence with Armenia with this seventh-​century correspondence between Jerusalem and Armenia preserved in the History by Sebēos.35 In that seventh-​century instance, however, it was Modestus, the senior cleric of Jerusalem, who asked the assistance of the Armenian catholicos Komitas in the wake of the Persian incursions of 614–620. In Modestus’s letter to Komitas, he speaks of regular groups of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem from Armenia. From this, we learn that there had been a fixed pattern of group pilgrimage between Armenia and the Holy Land that was interrupted by the Persian incursions. Komitas stresses the difficulties of travel and mentions that the route included the River Jordan and Mount Sinai.36 Further evidence emerges from recent discoveries of Armenian pilgrim inscriptions and graffiti in Jerusalem.37 One graffito was excavated in the western extramural quarter of Byzantine Jerusalem outside the Jaffa Gate.38 It dates from the first half of the seventh century and is an invocation scratched by a pious pilgrim, who wrote it after he had reached Jerusalem. He wrote it apparently before he set out thence to holy sites or on his return to the city after visiting them.39

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  103 Movsēs Dasxuranc‘i (Kałankatuac‘i)’s History of Caucasian Albania, a collection of sources, the latest of which stem, apparently, from the eleventh century, preserves a pilgrim narrative by one Joseph of Arc‘ax.40 Joseph, in the company of a certain Mxit‘ar, the text relates, having obtained in Jerusalem certain relics of the Prodromos John the Baptist, traveled back to Armenia traversing only Byzantine (Christian) territory. In Jerusalem Joseph and Mxit‘ar had received the relics for safekeeping due to the fear generated by the Muslim incursions, but despite the Muslim encroachment, they were still able to travel back to Armenia over contiguous Christian territory. This would have been possible only until the 630s, at which time there was still contiguous Christian territory from Jerusalem to the Taurus Mountains.41 In the mid-​ eighth century, Anastasius Sinaïta tells of a group of eight hundred Armenian pilgrims who came to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula a century before, ca. 630. The journey of such a group must have required a special logistic infrastructure.42 The story of the Armenian pilgrims continues throughout the centuries, illustrated by finds of graffiti and inscriptions, with historical sources providing further information.43 It is clear, then, that the Holy Land played a major role in the religious life of Armenia. The travel of individuals back and forth, the economic and logistic structures required to support this pilgrimage, and not only the settling of Armenians in monasteries in the Holy Land44 but also the establishment of a school of learning and translation, all formed part of this pattern. It is unknown (and perhaps unknowable) whether these links with the Holy Land also provided a channel of connection between Jews and Armenians both in the Holy Land and in Armenia. Considering the known Jewish-​Christian connections in the Land of Israel itself, this is not impossible, though there is no sign of it in the surviving texts.45

104  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

4.2  References to Armenia in Ancient Jewish Literature There seem to be no unambiguous ancient references in Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic sources to the presence of Jews in Armenia, though there are references to Armenia in Jewish literature both in Hebrew and in other languages, from Antiquity and down to the Middle Ages and, of course, later. Indeed, certain early texts have some familiarity with the geography of Armenia, while others offer varying identifications of Armenia, thus showing that there was some uncertainty about the matter. Such early references are to be found in the Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible—​the Septuagint and the Targums in particular—​and in certain rabbinic midrashim. When they exhibit specific knowledge about Armenia, or knowledge of distinctive traditions found predominantly in Armenian sources, they show that Jews in Palestine and in Mesopotamia had access to explicit information about Armenia. Such information did not necessarily derive from Jews in Armenia, but its familiarity to the Jewish translators and authors argues for quite specific contacts between Jews and Armenians or Armenia, though it is unclear how and where this contact took place.

4.2.1  Possible References in Talmud J. Gittin 6:7, 48a mentions R. Jacob Armenīya in the phrase ‫“ רבי נחמן בשם רבי בקעי ארמנייה‬Rabbi Naḥman, in the name of R. Jacob Armenīya.” Note also R. Jacob Adiabene (‫רבי יעקב‬ ‫ )חדייבא‬named in b Baba Batra 26b; compare R. Jacob Mina’a (‫ )מנאא‬in b Megilla 23a, b and R. Arminīya (‫ )ארמיניא‬in j Moed Qatan fol. 3:5 and b Ḥullin 84a.46 Neusner observes that these may or may not have been the same person. Despite the names, none of these individuals, whether they were one or several persons, seems to have had any discernible impact on the Babylonian

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  105 Talmud and its sages.47 Yet the geographical name(s) may well indicate that this rabbi or these rabbis came from area/​s to the north of the Euphrates.

4.2.2  Identifications of Armenia in Medieval Jewish Sources In Midrash Lamentations Rabbati on Lamentation 1:14 we read that the difficult first word of that verse, which is Hebrew sqd, is to be translated “impress, bound.” This is, the Midrash says, to be read as if the initial letter sin was actually a šin, producing šqd, meaning “to be diligent.” Thus, the verse is taken to mean that God carefully considered where he would exile the Israelites. The Midrash says, “If I exile them through the desert, behold! they will die of hunger; rather, behold! I will exile them through Armenia, so that cities and provinces, and food and drink should be available to them.”48 The author of this Midrash can be assumed to be employing ideas available to him. In that case, one can infer that Jews exiled to the northeast were thought to be exiled through Armenia, and that Armenia itself had civic organization, and that food and drink were available there. This Midrash has been dated to the Byzantine period, probably toward the middle of the first millennium ce. One wonders whether the passage reflects the situation that preceded Shāpūr II’s fourth-​century exiling of the Jews from Armenia, which is referred to by P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i (see c­ hapter 2). In the Medieval period, the Armenians designated themselves “Ashkenaz,” for which ethnonym see Genesis 10:3. There, Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarma are sons of Gomer, who is a son of Japheth.49 According to Movsēs Xorenac‘i 1.5, however, the genealogy of Hayk, the eponymous ancestor of the Armenians, is Japheth > Gomer > Togarma > Hayk. Note that Movsēs omits “Ashkenaz.” However, Ačaṙyan points out, giving several clear examples, that Armenians did identify themselves as Ashkenaz.50

106  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia Examples of identification of Ashkenaz as the Armenian people may be observed in the opening line of Koriwn, Life of Maštoc‘, and in Gregory of Narek (tenth century), “Ode to St. Gregory the Illuminator.”51 Ashkenaz as a Noachian progenitor of the Armenians is cited by Movsēs Kałankatuac‘i in Պատմութիւն Աղուանից աշխարհի History of the Land of Albania 1.14.52 This is of a piece with a tendency, often seen, for the Armenians to seek a biblical anchor for their existence and identity.53 This tendency was not unique to the Armenians; the same process took place quite often among newly Christianized nations. Biblical scholars differ about the identifications of Ashkenaz in its historical context. It seems that the name originally denoted a people in West Asia that may have penetrated close to the Armenian plateau.54 For most, this people is identified as the Scythians, whose war against the Assyrians is apparently referred to in Jeremiah 51:27.55

4.2.3  Later Jewish Identifications of Ashkenaz In the Targum of Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz is identified as Adiabene (‫)חדייב‬, as noted on page 9. Later, Ashkenaz is sometimes taken to denote the Saquliba, Slavic people sold into slavery in the Muslim world. Such a view was held by the ninth-​century savant Saadia Gaon, who lived in Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq, in his commentary to Genesis 10:3. In Don Isaac Abarbanel’s (Abravanel’s) commentary to Genesis 10:3, Ashkenaz is the Crimea and an area to the east, which, we remark, might at least partly include Armenia. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitsḥaki, 1040–1105) and other European commentators use Ashkenaz to denote Teutonic peoples and the Rhineland. In medieval times, Jews often called nations by biblical names, such as Sefarad for Spain and Ṣorfat for France. These

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  107 names subsequently came to denote the Jewish communities in those lands. For European Jews, Ashkenaz referred particularly to the Jewish community of the Rhineland (predominantly the cities of Mainz, Worms, and Speyer). This community expanded into eastern Europe and then, through emigration, to many lands. Hence the modern use of Ashkenazim to mean Jews of European countries.

4.2.4  Later Jewish Information about the History of Armenia The Book of Josippon (early tenth century, Italy) relates that Cambyses (reigned 529–522 bce) conquered “Arminīya” after Damascus and took its sons hostage (8.37–38).56 Moreover, this document knows the events related by Josephus about Tigran II and his meeting with Queen Salome in Acre (34.46–55). In ­chapter 46.24 Josippon relates Mark Antony’s war against “Artavan,” King of Armenia, following Josephus, AJ 15.104.57 Tigran was also known to the Hebrew translation of the History of Alexander 13.3 (on which work, see n. 57). The passage there reads, with standardization of the proper names, “Tigranes, King of Armenia, married the daughter of Mithridates, and he took forth a great host and a strong force and he defeated Antiochus the Great, King of Aram and deposed him and subdued all the land up to the land of the Philistines. From that year the Armenians began to pay tribute to the Romans.” None of this shows more than a familiarity with Josephus and the Alexander Romance. It, of course, affects the way some information about Armenia penetrated the European Jewish cultural tradition. However, once again these data neither show the presence of a Jewish community in Armenia nor document the absence of such.

108  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia

4.2.5  Medieval Jewish Identifications of and Traditions about Armenia In Jewish usage down to the high Middle Ages, diverse countries and regions are designated by the name “Armenia.”58 Different authors in varied places and periods of time do not have an agreed “Armenia.” Quite often, it seems, it is known to be beyond the Euphrates, but that is all. However, for some authorities it also included Constantinople, as well as other places. To us, this fluidity of denotation indicates that the Jewish communities from Spain to Egypt did not have a clear idea of where Armenia was. This would weigh against the existence of a large Jewish community there, or if there was such, it was unknown in the eastern Mediterranean and the West. As we have seen, there is clear evidence for a Jewish community in southern Armenia from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. It may well have been small and did not gain renown among Middle Eastern and European Jews. In Targum Lamentation 4:21, “you that live in the land of Uz (‫ ”) ארץ עוץ‬is translated “city built in the land of Armenia (‫בארץ‬ ‫)ארמניה‬.”59 Some traditions about trans-​Euphrates (Armenian) Jews say they were Benjaminites. It is doubtlessly connected with Esther 2:6, which characterizes Mordechai as a Benjaminite. This is the case in Josippon ­chapter 64, which says that leaders of the tribe of Benjamin conquered Amalek at the time of King Saul and that Benjaminites are ancestors of Armenian Jews in the period of the Judges.60 The Persians, and especially Haman, hated the Jews, particularly the Benjaminites, who were the ancestors of Mordechai. According to Josippon, Amalek was conquered by Benjaminite noblemen under Saul (ch. 64, p. 26), and Benjaminites are assumed to be the founders of Armenian Jewry in the time of the Judges (Judges 19–21). All this structure has no basis in historical reality. Some have read this tradition as the locus of origin of the name “Amalek” that some Jewish traditions apply to the

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  109 Armenians.61 Horowitz in an article on the various reapplications of the appellation “Amalek” notes the medieval naming of Armenians thus, but characterizes it as “puzzling” and can find no basis for it.62 He says the first glancing mention of this is in Josippon, and then in various late medieval authors, all stemming, like Josippon, from Italy. The ninth-​century traveler Eldad Had-​Dani claims that the tribe of Zebulun lived in tents made of animal hair that came from Armenia.63 In Midrash Genesis Rabbati, section Wa-​yēṣē 11 we find the same tradition. The author, R. Moses the Preacher, lived in Narbonne, southern France, in the eleventh century and had access to many ancient traditions.

4.3  A List of Armenian Cities in Judeo-​Arabic This document is one page, fol. 2r–2v, of a fourteen-​page fragmentary manuscript discovered in the Geniza of the Karaite synagogue Dar Simcha in Cairo.64 It is presently housed among the Geniza fragments in the National Library of St. Petersburg, Russia. Its shelf number is RNL Yevr.-​Arab. II:3292. The fragment is on paper, which, according to Malachi Beit-​Arié, indicates a late tenth-​or early eleventh-​century date. David Sklare, however, prefers to date it early tenth century and considers it to be a copy of a ninth-​century composition.65 In his view, the author of this document was active in northern Mesopotamia and not in Egypt.66 The work is an anonymous document of questions concerning the Bible. It is written in Judeo-​Arabic, and we are indebted to Dr. Sklare for the English translation.67 The close context of this passage is lost and so we cannot tell how the author is introducing this list. He is solving a biblical exegetical problem in the text of the Torah by proffering the argument that the name of a geographical region may also designate various

110  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia specific inhabited locations within that region. He chooses to exemplify this by Arminīya ‫ארמיניה‬, and the list of places is an example of places that could also be designated as being “Arminīya.” Arminīya, as we have noted, is the name given to the Arab province that included Armenia, Caucasian Albania, and eastern parts of Georgia (Kartli).68 In this part of the document, we read the following: Take Armenia as an example. It has in it a number of towns and many settled areas which (together) are called Armenia [] and Aladen (?), and Shaki (?), and Ghamit (Jamit?), and Ghuwakh (Juwakh?), and Ba[]shut, and Shoranim (?), and al-​Hadakh (al-​Harakh?), and Khagrund (?), and al-​G al-​Kuniya[]. There are many places, approximately one thousand, and all of them have the name Armenia while each has its own name. The same is true in Syria, Byzantium, Khurasan, Khazaria, China, India, Ethiopia, Nubia, the Maghreb and Sambation. Each of these lands has within it towns, villages and fortresses which cannot easily be counted.

Dr. Sklare notes that the end of fol. 2r (just before the list of place names) is corrupt: there is a dittography on the last two lines. Moreover, the beginning of folio 2b is torn, so it is not certain exactly how the author introduces this list. Nonetheless, it is quite clearly a sample list of places in Armenia.69 We have been able to suggest some resolutions of these place names, but of course they have passed through various oral and written transcriptions, and a number of Armenian phonemes cannot be expressed using the Hebrew or Arabic alphabet. If we consider the names in their context, one wonders about several matters. The author is making the point about regional names and specific toponyms both being used to designate the same place. He seeks to give an example and chooses Armenia, and he knows the names of various Armenian cities. One presumes that

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  111 he makes this choice because these places in Armenia would be familiar to his readers. If not, his argument is considerably weaker, as we noted earlier. Then he gives the names of a number of lesser known countries, one of which is legendary: Syria, Byzantium, Khurasan, Khazaria, China, India, Ethiopia, Nubia, the Maghreb, and Sambation. Table 4.1 lists the place names mentioned. Table 4.1  List of Place Names in the Judeo-Arabic Document Name in document

Proposed identification

Aladen

Aladin; several villages and a mountain bore this namea

Shaki

Shakēb

Ghamit =​? Jamit

Perhaps Gamir, Gamirk‘c

Ghuwakh =​? Juwakh

Jawakh, Jawaxk‘ (Javakheti in Georgian)

Ba[]shut Shoranum

Perhaps Šurad

al-​Hadakh or al-​Harakhe Khagrund

Possibly Xarberd (Kharberd)f

al-​G al-​Kuniya

Konya (Iconium)

a Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms, 1.58 and 86. b

There are places in Georgia and Armenia with names like this or variants of it at different times; see Hewsen, Historical Atlas, map 78 Bb, 110 B6 (Georgia); map 265 B5 (just north of Sisian), and further sites exist. c Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms, 1.777. Several places bore this name. d See Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms, 4.151. e Uncertainty in decipherment. f This and the conjectures for Ghamit, Shoranum, and Khagrund were most graciously proposed by Aram Topchyan.

112  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia The document was found in Egypt and was composed in Arabic in Hebrew letters (Judeo-​Arabic). Therefore, it must have originated in an Arabic-​speaking land or community. One might feel drawn to somewhere in Iraq or, perhaps, even Iran as a location of origin. The document, however, shows that this Arabophone author was familiar with Armenia and its cities, as were his readers. This, as David Sklare observed, points in the direction of northern Mesopotamia as its probable location of origin. It is a most interesting piece of evidence for contacts between Armenia and neighboring Jewish communities and, in its way, supports the evidence of the papyrus for Jewish-​Armenian interchange in the latter part of the first millennium ce.70

4.4  Armenia in the Khazar Documents The existence of a kingdom in what is now Northern Caucasus, peopled by the Turkic Khazar people who had converted to Judaism, is a well-​known fact. Yehuda HaLevi, a famous Spanish Jewish thinker and poet of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, wrote a work called The Kuzari. It is set in the context of a debate about religion before the ruler of the Khazars, which decided the ruler to continue adhering to and to deepen the kingdom’s commitment to Judaism. Information about the Khazar Jews had been known throughout the Middle Ages.71 The debate, though some consider it fictional, seems to have a basis in reality. However, Yehuda HaLevi used it only as a framework to present his own views. Among the documents found in the Cairo Geniza, Norman Golb recognized a Khazarian Jewish document in Hebrew that mentioned the group’s origins, their organization, and some of their battles.72 Golb and Pritsak’s demonstration of the authenticity of this document and its overall reliable character seem to be convincing. The document is apparently a diplomatic copy of a letter from Khazaria, directed to the famous Ḥasdai ibn Shaprut

Other Armenian-Jewish Connections  113 (ca. 915–ca. 970). He was a Jewish physician who came to play a very prominent role as virtual vizier in the Muslim court of Cordova. Among other activities he carried out delicate diplomatic missions, utilizing his linguistic skills to negotiate with non-​ Muslim lands and empires, such as Byzantium.73 Golb reedited the document, whose beginning runs thus: [.ca. 15 ll. [‫ ויברחו מפניהם אבותי[נו כי לא י[כ]לו‬.‫ ארמניא‬.1 ‫ לשאת עול עובדי אלילים ויקבלום [אנשי קזרי]א כי א[נש]י‬.2 ‫ קזריא היו תחילה בלא תורה וישאר[ו שכיניהם ארמיניא] בלא‬.3 .‫ תורה ומכתב‬.4

This is translated by Golb as follows: 1. ] Armenia and [our] fathers fled before them [] for they were un[ab]le 2. to bear the yoke of the idol-​worshippers, and [the people of Qazari]a received them. For the people of 3. Qazaria were at first without Torah, while [their neighbor Armenia] remained without Torah and writing. The text continues with the narrative of the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, the debate of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sages, the king’s decision to continue in their Jewish belief, and some further matters. In a footnote to the restoration of “their neighbor Armenia” on line 3, Golb says, “The sense of the passage is that whereas Khazaria was once pagan, Armenia remained both pagan and illiterate, and that it was for this reason that the forefathers fleeing from Armenia to Khazaria were better received in the latter country.”74 Golb’s restoration, then, if correct, would enable us to say that the Jews who fled to Khazaria came from Armenia and that Armenia was, at that time, both idolatrous and illiterate. Now, Armenia was neither idolatrous nor illiterate in the relevant period, its literary tradition

114  Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia going back to the beginning of the fifth century and its conversion to Christianity to the early part of the fourth century. Since other considerations (such as the existence of Islam) prevent us dating these events back to the third century or earlier,75 and since there is no record of the persecution of Jews in Armenia in Armenian or other historical sources, one is led to wonder about the restoration of “their neighbor Armenia.” A further observation on this is that the Hebrew word ‫ ארמניא‬in line 1 most probably should be transcribed “Arminīya,” the name of the Arab province of the Caucasus, including eastern Georgia (Kartli), Armenia, and Caucasian Albania. The Arabs ruled in Armenia from 654 to 884/​5.76 In the same volume Omeljan Pritsak, however, suggests a different interpretation. He proposes that “idolaters” may be referring to the people of Sasanian Iran;77 the persecution is one of two known persecutions of the Jews there, in the time of Khosrow I Anūširwān’s reign (531–577) or in the time of Khosrow II Parvez (591–628) after his conquest of Palestine in the early seventh century. Armenia then was mentioned as the country of transit of this group of Persian Jews, fleeing northward. This reading, which seems to me more plausible than that emerging from Golb’s restoration, means that there is no evidence in this document for the existence of a seventh-​century or so Armenian Jewish community that fled persecution by idolaters. Yet the discovery that at least some, if not all, the Jews of the Ełegis cemetery, admittedly a number of centuries later than the events being discussed, came from Persia,78 makes the transiting of Armenia by persecuted Persian Jews less improbable. Moreover, earlier we discussed trade routes from Iran through Armenia and on into Central Asia.79

Notes Introduction 1. D. Amit and M. E. Stone, “Report of the Survey of a Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Eghegis, Vayots Jor Region, Armenia,” JJS 53 (2002), 66–106 and D. Amit and M. E. Stone, “The Second and Third Seasons of Research at the Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Eghegis, Vayots Jor Region, Armenia,” JJS 57 (2006), 99–135.

Chapter 1 1. A very clear, brief presentation of the evidence of biblical translations and of major points of rabbinic exegesis relating to Armenia is to be found in D. D. Y. Shapira, “The Jews of Central Asia and the Caucasus,” in A. Kulik (ed.), History of the Jews in Eastern Europe /​Russia (Jerusalem: Gesharim, 2010), 47 (in Hebrew). An earlier form of the present section is found in M. E. Stone with A. Amihai and V. Hillel (eds.), Noah and His Book(s), SBLEJL 28 (Atlanta, Ga.: SBL, 2010), 307–316. 2. See, for example, M. J. Mellink, “Ararat,” in George Arthur Buttrick (ed.), IDB (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1962), 1.194–195; R. D. Sullivan, “Armenia,” in David N. Freedman et al. (eds.), ABD (New York: Doubleday: 1992), 1.395–397. Sullivan stresses the Ararat-​ Urartu connection and uses the name of “modern Mount Ararat” to “preserve the name (i.e., Urartu, MES) in a restricted sense.” The linguistic connection with Urartu is certain, but the identification of Mount Ararat with Masis needs qualification: see the discussion by Hewsen cited in n. 18. V. Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, Studien zur armenischen Geschichte 7 (Vienna: Mekhitarist Press, 1935), 13–23 discusses the Masis identification, which is connected with the tradition about the descent from the Ark and the supposed etymology of Naxiǰewan that are presented later (p. 10–11). He concludes, based on the lack of any evidence before the eleventh or twelfth century known to him, that only at that time did the Masis tradition arise among the Armenians; see particularly Armenien in

116 Notes der Bibel, 21–22. However, in the Commentary on Genesis attributed to the fifth-​century author Ełišē, it is remarked that, despite various traditions, the true tradition “makes it Masis. There is (an Ararat) in Palestine and in Cimmeria, but our Ayrarat is it.” See L. Khachikyan, Եղիշեի «Արարածոց մեկնութիւնը» Ełišē’s “Commentary on Genesis” (Erevan: Zvart‘noc‘ Press, 1992), 148 in the commentary on Genesis 8:3–4. This passage is translated by M. Papazian: “Some say that the mountain of Ararat is in Gordyene, but the truth clearly makes it to be Masis. There is in Palestine and in Cappadocia an Ararat, but our Ayrarat is to be understood.” L. Khachikyan (study), H. Kyoseyan (ed.), and M. Papazian (trans.), Եղիշէ, Մեկնութիւն Արարածոց Eghishe, Commentary on Genesis (Erevan: Magałat Press, 2004), 96–97. If this passage is genuine, and that has not been contested, then the identification of Ararat with twin-​peaked Masis is to be dated back to the fifth century, thus quite confounding Inglisian’s conclusion. Yet perhaps a modicum of doubt should be entertained since this is a catena-​ like fragment. 3. See T‘. X. Hakobyan, S. T. Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and H. X. Barsełyan, Հայաստանի և հարակից շրջանների տեղանունների բառարան

Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia and Adjacent Territories, 5 vols. (Erevan: Erevan State University Press, 1991–2001), 3.704. 4. B. Piotrovsky, The Ancient Civilization of Urartu, trans. J. Hogarth (New York: Hogarth, 1969), 41 and 43. See also J.-​P. Mahé and A. Mahé, Histoire de l’Arménie des origines à nos jours (Paris: Perrin, 2012), 21–26 for a clear summary of the information. 5. See N. G. Garsoïan (trans. comm.), The Epic Histories Attributed to P‘awstos Buzand (Buzandaran Patmut‘iwnk‘), HATS 8 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 252–253. She considers this variant as witness to an alternative vocalization tradition, closer to “Urartu” (252). The initial hē remains unexplained, and the variant ‫​א‬/‫ ה‬is no more or less difficult than that of ā/​ū. The same reading hwrrṭ also occurs in 1QGen Apoc 10.12, 4Q252 CommGen A 1,10, and 4Q196 Tobita ar 2,4 (Ararat). Philo, Quaestiones in Genesin 31 and 32 does not mention the name of the mountain. Josephus, AJ 1.90 speaks of “a mountain-​top in Armenia.” 6. See M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences, 1974), 1.150. Stern notes that “the Babylonian tradition, which was contaminated with the Jewish account in the Hellenistic period, records that many people were saved on Mount Ararat” (1.151). He refers, of course, to Berossus, a historian of Babylonia of the fourth to third centuries bce, whose work is discussed later (pp. 4, 5, and 7).

Notes  117 7. The English citations from Josephus’s works throughout the present book are from Josephus, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray et al., 10 vols., LCL (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1926–1965). The Greek citations are from Flavii Iosephi opera, ed. B. Niese, 4 vols. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1885–1895). 8. A good summary of the material relating to Mount Qardo is given by A. Harrak, “Tales about Sennacherib: The Contribution of the Syriac Sources,” in M. M. Daviau, J. W. Wevers, and M. Weigl (eds.), The World of the Aramaeans III: Studies in Language and Literature in Honour of Paul-​ Eugène Dion, JSOT Supplement Series 326 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 168–189, and particularly 170–175. 9. References to Mount Qardu are also found in Syriac sources; see P. Peeters, “La légende de saint Jacques de Nisibe,” Analecta Bollandiana 38 (1920), 285–373. 10. On the exegesis lying behind “Qardo,” see L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia, Pa.: JPS, 1968), 5.186. 11. Later (p. 5), I consider the twin peaks of Qardoniya and Armeniya that are mentioned in the Palestinian Targum. The identification of Ararat =​Armenia =​Qardo is discussed by Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 7–9, and he musters support from patristic sources for this equivalation. 12. See M. Stern’s remark on Jewish traditions penetrating Hellenistic ideas about the flood (n. 6). Moreover, Josephus cited other ancient pagan authors holding a similar view in the following passage from AJ 1.94: “These matters are also mentioned by Hieronymus the Egyptian, author of the history of Phoenicia, by Mnaseas and by many others. Nicolaus of Damascus in his ninety-​sixth book relates the story.” In Against Apion 1.130 he repeats the assertion and adds Manetho, Mochus, and Hestiaeus the Egyptian to the authorities cited, and repeats the attribution to Berossus. 13. We have followed William Adler and Paul Tuffin’s annotated translation in The Chronography of George Synkellos (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 40–41. 14. See R. H. Hewsen, Armenia: A Historical Atlas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), map 1, where the varying borders of Historical Armenia are clearly pictured. On p. 15, he has a description and discussion of Masis, accompanied on p. 17 by a map of the mountain. 15. Sextus Iulius Africanus (second to third centuries ce) speaks of the Mountains of Ararat, “which we know to be in Parthia, but some say

118 Notes they are in Celanae in Phrygia”: M. Wallraff (ed.), W. Adler (trans.), et al., Iulius Africanus Chronographiae: The Extant Fragments, GCS Neue Folge 15 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007), 5. The connection of Noah’s Ark with Phrygia occurs in other Late Antique sources: see the discussion by R. A. Clements, “A Shelter amid the Flood: Noah’s Ark in Early Jewish and Christian Art,” in Stone, Amihai, and Hillel, Noah and His Book(s), 277–299. She discusses the connection of Mount Ararat with Phrygia on 279–284. 16. This is, for example, the view of Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 25–26. He would then consider that in ancient Armenia there were two different places: Ararad and Ayrarat. Similarly, this reading is accepted by R. B. Ter Haar Romeny, A Syrian in Greek Dress: The Use of Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac Biblical Texts in Eusebius of Emesa’s Commentary on Genesis, Traditio Exegetica Graeca 6 (Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 272–273. In his Commentary on Genesis, preserved in manuscript Matenadaran M1267, fol. 43b, col. 1, the learned Vardan Arewelc‘i‘ (ca. 1200–1271) says, “[S]‌ome say (it was) Ararat of Gordyeneans, but the truth makes it evident that it (the Ark) is on Masis. There is an Ararat in Palestine and in Gamir, but ours (is) in Ayrarat‘.” Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 24–29 adduces a number of further attestations of Sararad. In §22 of a medieval Armenian text called Questions and Answers from the Holy Books, the answer to the question “Where did they put the Ark?” is “In the mountain of Sararad in high Mazis”: see M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha: Relating to Angels and Biblical Heroes, SBLEJL 45 (Atlanta, Ga.: SBL, 2016), 99. The text Questions and Answers from the Holy Books is preserved in Matenadaran M1654 of the year 1336. This manuscript, just like many of those texts to which Inglisian refers, may not incorporate an independent tradition but might draw on P‘awstos. Nonetheless, in this case, its appearance in a fourteenth-​century manuscript in clumsy conjunction with Masis (Mazis) shows the survival of some knowledge of the Gordyenean location for the mountain among the Armenians down to the later Middle Ages. 17. See the important discussion by Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 252–253 and in her gazetteer on p. 489 with further references there. This name is corroborated by Eusebius of Emesa’s (ca. 300–ca. 359) Commentary on Genesis, 47 and the note on that verse in Françoise Petit, Lucas van Rompay, and J. J. S. Weitenberg, Eusèbe d’Emèse: Commentaire de la Genèse, Traditio Exegetica Graeca 5 (Leuven: Peeters, 2011), 96–97. Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 23–33 assembles quite a substantial amount of evidence for the Qardo identification, as early as the fifth century.

Notes  119 18. Hewsen, Atlas: see his discussion on p. 15. This mountain is called Judi Dag, and Hewsen remarks that Masis is Ararat for the Armenian and European tradition, while Judi Dag (Sararad) was Ararat for the Semitic tradition (15, col. 2). This is, however, an oversimplification. 19. See Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, 1.56, 58. 20. See also the traditions discussed by Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 7 vols. (Philadelphia, Pa.: JPS, 1909–1938), 5.186, n. 48. The city built by Noah is discussed in further detail later (pp. 10–15). 21. See M. E. Stone, “The Book(s) Attributed to Noah,” DSD 13 (2006), 4–23. See further R. C. Steiner, “The Mountains of Ararat, Mount Lubar and Har Haqedem,” JJS 42 (1991), 247–249. Mount Lubar is also discussed by Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 9. 22. The Aramaic text reads, ‫ונחת תיבותא בירחא שׁביעאה הוא ירחא דניסן‬ ‫בשׁבסרי יומין לירחא על טוורי דקרדון שׁום טוורא חד קרדוניא ושׁום טוורא‬ ‫חד ארמניא ותמן מתבניא קרתא דארמניא בארע מדינחא‬ 23. See section 1.4. For alternative Noah traditions, see Movsēs Xorenac‘i (Moses of Xorēn), 1.6; P‘awstos’s versions were mentioned earlier. In EJ 1.474 it is remarked, “The Palestinian Targum is presenting a later geographical situation than that of the Jewish Hellenistic sources.” In my opinion, here it is overlaying the Jewish Hellenistic sources with later geographical terminology. See also J. Lewis, A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood in Jewish and Christian Literature (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), 98. 24. See Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 28–29. The biblical text has a plural, not a dual, and not the number 2. 25. See pp. 16–18. 26. R. Petaḥiah of Regensburg, a twelfth-​century traveler, describes the Mountains of Ararat as having a unique configuration: “R. Petahiah says that the Mountains of Ararat are five days’ travel distant from Babylon. And the Mountains of Ararat are high, and one mountain is high and above it are four peaks, two opposite two. And Noah’s Ark entered between those mountains and could not go out from there.” E. H. Grünhut, The Travels (Sibbub) of R. Petaḥiah of Regensburg (Frankfurt am Main: J. Kaufmann, 1905), ch. 4 (my translation [MES]). This could, of course, be a mangled form of the Targumic or the Masis tradition. 27. This last observation was proposed to me by Abraham Terian, to whom thanks are expressed. 28. See also Georgius Syncellus, Chronography §47 and Adler and Tuffin, George Synkellos, 61. 29. See Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 83–100.

120 Notes 30. See Mellink, “Ararat,” 194. Observe that the Minni seem to be the Manneans, a people associated in the Assyrian inscriptions with the Urartians, whose territory was south of Lake Van: see I. J. Gelb, “Minni,” in IDB, 3.392. 31. W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah 2, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1989), 427. See p. 1317 for further discussion. 32. On Amos 4:3 and the translation of ‫ הַ הַ ְר ֖מוֹנָה‬sometimes as “Armenia,” see H. W. Wolff, Joel and Amos, Hermeneia (Philadelphia, Pa.: Fortress Press, 1977), textual note “o” on 204 and also 207. Wolff suggests an emendation to “toward Hermon.” These varied translations proposed for Jeremiah 51:27 are reflections not of the historical context but of the difficulty the translators encountered in comprehending the Hebrew text. 33. I do not, of course, suggest that “Armenia” derives from “Hārmȋnē,” although this suggestion is a strategy employed in the Peshitta and the Targum to Jeremiah 51:27. For a detailed exposition, see Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 77–78. 34. M. Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York: Pardes, 1950), 1.368. 35. S. M. Paul, Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1991), 135–136 does not translate this word, but gives an overview of suggestions in his commentary. The options raised by commentaries on Amos are varied, and the question is, as Paul rightly concludes, moot. He himself is unwilling to choose between the proposals. 36. Naturally, this understanding is relevant to the period of the Targum and not that of the composition of the books of Amos and Micah. 37. As an example of a noncommital, fourth-​ century Christian understanding of Ararat, in Book 3.8 of Philostorgius’s Ecclesiastical History we read, “As for the Euphrates River, it appears to take its rise in Armenia, where Mount Ararat is. The mountain is still called by that name by the Armenians. It is where, according to scripture, the ark came to rest, and they say that considerable remnants of its wood and nails are still preserved there. From there the Euphrates starts as a small stream at first, growing ever larger as it advances and sharing its name with the many rivers that empty into it.” Philostorgius lived between 368 and ca. 439 ce. See P. R. Amidon (trans.), Philostorgius, Church History, Writings from the Greco-​Roman World 23 (Atlanta, Ga.: SBL, 2007), 44. It is hard to build upon this statement a support for Masis as Ararat, as either Masis or Qardo could be meant.

Notes  121 38. The Greek for “Landing Place” is Ἀποβατήριον. Inglisian denies the connection between Naxiǰewan and Apobaterion because of his parti-​pris on the matter of Naxiǰewan and its etymology (Armenien in der Bibel, 32–33). What he denies is the existence of an early Armenian tradition that Masis is the Mount Ararat of Genesis and correlatively the identity of the Naxiǰewan tradition with the etymology “first place of descent” and Josephus’s Apobaterion. I am concerned at this point with shared traditions rather than historical geography. 39. Naxčawan, an older name of Naxiǰewan, is connected with Noah’s descent from the Ark; see Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 3.951. There is another village called Naxčawan, and according to Armenian tradition, the tomb of Noah’s wife is in that village (3.956). On this tradition, see M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha: Relating to Adam and Eve, Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha 14 (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 122. On the name of Noah’s wife, see 91 and 96. 40. Personal communication from R. Hewsen, 25 April 2005. 41. The exactness of the etymology as well as its persuasiveness and antiquity are doubted by Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 17–19. I believe that historical grammatical precision is not relevant to folk etymologies if we are tracing traditions. His argument for the late appearance of this identification of Noah’s mountain with Masis, however, is somewhat stronger. Nonetheless, it remains an argument e silentio and is now challenged by the tradition attributed to Ełišē (fifth-​century ce), discussed in n. 2. 42. On Nicolaus of Damascus, see B.-​Z. Wacholder, Nicolaus of Damascus, University of California Publications in History 75 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962). See also Stern, Greek and Latin Authors, 1.236–237. Later, within two pages, Georgius Syncellus (died after 810 ce) locates it both in Phrygia (§22) and in Armenia (§23): see Adler and Tuffin, George Synkellos, 30–31. 43. See also Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 15–17. 44. This is discussed in detail later (p. 13). 45. F. García Martínez and E. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Study Edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 1.32–33. 46. See, in detail, D. A. Machiela, “Some Jewish Noah Traditions in Syriac Christian Sources,” in Stone, Amihay, and Hillel, Noah and His Book(s), 243, n. 25. 47. In the Genesis antediluvian tales that we shall present, city-​building was regarded negatively, as were ironworking and other civilized crafts. See the next note.

122 Notes 48. Intriguingly, all these cities were built by primordial figures that the Bible viewed negatively, while cities built by figures not of the Cainite line occur only in extrabiblical and postbiblical sources and traditions. 49. This tradition, which Jubilees extends to all three sons of Noah (Jub. 7:13–17, cf. Jub. 7:35), the corresponding notions in 1QapGen 12.8–9 and 4Q244 fg. 8 as well as relevant Syriac traditions are discussed by Machiela, “Some Jewish Noah Traditions,” 237–252. 50. The name derives from the Syriac word for “eight”: see E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Cave of Treasures (London: Religious Tract Society, 1927), 116. 51. D. de Bruyne, “Epistula Titi Discipuli Pauli De Dispositione Sanctimonii,” Revue Bénédictine 37 (1925), 47–72, and particularly 67. 52. T. A. Bergren assisted me initially with the translation of this passage, in which there are a number of grammatical difficulties. The translation here is by Gohar Muradyan and Aram Topchyan, to whom my thanks are extended. 53. Concerning the Good Tidings of Seth in W. L. Lipscomb, The Armenian Apocryphal Adam Literature, UPATS 8 (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars, 1990), 205–206. Cited by permission. 54. In fact, the ending -​evan or -​avan is widely used in Armenian with the meaning “village.” On the city of Naxiǰewan, see Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 3.951–953. 55. Parts of this tradition that relate to the toponym Ararat, are discussed on p. 11. 56. “Mountains of Ararat” occurs, as we have said, in Genesis 8:4, Jeremiah 51:27, and compare Tobit 1:21. It is interesting that Tobit is citing the incident found in 2 Kings and Isaiah, but there “land of Ararat” is found, not “Mountains of Ararat,” as in Tobit. 57. The cemetery itself is discussed in detail in c­ hapter 3. 58. In the second line of Ełegis, Inscription no. 16, which is on the same tombstone and apparently by the same hand, a similar miscalculation may be observed. 59. Amit and Stone, “The Second and Third Seasons,” 99–135, especially 107 and fig. 6. 60. I have not succeeded, however, in interpreting the third and last line of the inscription. Perhaps a more acute reader will succeed. Unfortunately, Dr. Amit passed away before he could publish this interpretation. I do so here, in his name.

Notes  123 61. M. E. Stone, Fourth Ezra: A Commentary on the Book of Fourth Ezra, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1990), 394. 62. The readings are discussed in Stone, Fourth Ezra, 393, n. o. 63. See also t Sanh 13:12, b Sanh 110b, j Sanh 29b. 64. Compare the description of the rise of the Euphrates by Philostorgius, quoted in n. 37. 65. See pp. 30–46. 66. See Adler and Tuffin, George Synkellos, 30 =​§22. Kelainai is another name for Apamaea. 67. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and R. Scott, The Chronicle of John Malalas, Byzantina Australiensia 4 (Sydney: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1986), 4. This formulation could refer either to Mount Masis or to Mount Sararad, depending on the borders of Armenia. 68. Clements, “A Shelter amid the Flood,” 277–299.

Chapter 2 1. The reference is to the exiles from the Land of Israel to Mesopotamia, of both the eighth and the sixth centuries bce. Evidence has recently been found in the Al-​Yahudu tablets for a Jewish community in southern Mesopotamia dating to the sixth and fifth centuries bce. Those Jews may have been mostly descendants of those exiled by Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century bce. Many of the texts are published in L. E. Pearce and C. Wunsch, Documents of Judean Exiles and West Semites in Babylonia in the Collection of David Sofer, Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2014). 2. James R. Russell in an unpublished lecture on “Jews in Armenia.” 3. Tigran (Tigranes) II, also known as Tigran the Great, was king of Armenia at its greatest extent. He was born circa 140 bce and died in 55. 4. On Judaizers, see pp. 27–30. 5. See n. 33 concerning Movsēs Xorenac‘i. 6. K‘. Patkanean (ed.), Փաւստոսի Բուզանդացւոյ Պատմութիւն Հայոց The History of Armenia by P‘awstos Buzandac‘i (St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1883; repr. Delmar, N.Y.: Caravan Books, 1984). The English citations are from Garsoїan’s translation in Epic Histories. 7. In Step‘an Malxasyanc‘’s opinion, the work was most likely written in the 470s: see P‘awstos Buzand, Պատմություն Հայոց History of Armenia, Modern Armenian translation, introduction, and commentary by S. Malxasyanc‘ (Erevan: Haypethrat, 1947), 37. Garsoїan shares this view

124 Notes (Epic Histories, 11). Manuk Abełyan gives a more general dating: the second half of the fifth century ce: M. Abełyan, Երկեր Studies, 8 vols. (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1966–1985), 3.191. 8. See J. Marquart (Markwart), “Untersuchungen zur Geschichte von Eran 5: Zur Kritik des Faustos von Byzanz,” Philologus 55 (1896), 220; H. Manandian, Քննական տեսություն հայ ժողովրդի պատմության A Critical Survey of the History of the Armenian People, reprinted in vols. 1–3 of Երկեր Studies, 8 vols. (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1977–2011), 2.205–206. 9. Ammianus’s Rerum gestarum libri is quoted from the following edition: Ammianus Marcellinus, trans. J. C. Rolfe. 3 vols., LCL (London: Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935–1940). 10. In March 363; Ammianus Marcellinus accompanied Julian on this expedition. 11. In Ammianus’s narrative of Julian’s campaign, there is a piece of noteworthy information on Jewish population in Persia. He says (24.3.14–4.1) that the Romans “came to a place where the main body of the Euphrates is divided into many small streams.” Here, not far from the town of Maiozamalcha (taken by the Romans soon afterward), the soldiers burned “a city which, because of its low walls, had been abandoned by its Jewish inhabitants” (civitas ob muros humiles ab incolis Iudeis deserta). For this and other towns around the Euphrates and the Tigris mentioned by Ammianus, see L. Dillemann, “Ammien Marcellin et les pays de l’Euphrate et du Tigre,” Syria 31 (1961), 87–158. 12. On June 26, 363. 13. He suddenly died on February 17, 364, having ruled only for eight months. 14. That is, to the surrender of five provinces and two cities to the Persians. 15. “A fruitful region of Media” (Ammianus 23.3.5). 16. R. T. Ridley, Zosimus, New History, Byzantina Australiensia 2 (Canberra: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, 1982). 17. The Roman emperor. 18. The Armenian name for Nisibis. 19. Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 2.184. 20. According to P‘awstos Buzand (5.7) and Movsēs Xorenac‘i (2.35), Aršak committed suicide in prison. 21. See Ammianus Marcellinus, 17.12.1–3 and 12. 22. It covers a period of about fifty-​seven years (ca. 330–387).

Notes  125 23. See, for example, Garsoїan’s introduction in Epic Histories, 22–35. The Armenian script was created in 405 ce, and there are no earlier written sources in Armenian. 24. Ammianus means the Persians. 25. The fact of the deportation itself seems not to be open to doubt, for it was characteristic of the Sāsānian kings not to massacre the inhabitants of conquered cities one and all, but to move many of them to Persia as a labor force; see A. Christensen, L’Iran sous les Sassanides, 2nd ed. (Paris: Dussaud René, 1944), 126–127 and 251. 26. After the imprisonment of Aršak II (4.54). 27. Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 175–178. 28. There may be a lacuna in the text where, possibly, P‘awstos had mentioned the numbers of Armenians and Jews separately; cf. M. Abełean, Հայ ժողովրդական առասպելները Մովսէս Խորենացու «Հայոց պատմութեան» մէջ The Armenian Myths in Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s History of Armenia (Vałaršapat: Catholicosate, 1899), 560. 29. K‘. Patkanean (ed.), Թովմայի վարդապետի Արծրունւոյ Պատմութիւն Տանն Արծրունեաց The History of the Arcruni House by T‘ovma vardapet Arcruni (St. Petersburg: I. N. Skorokhodov Press, 1887); R. W. Thomson (trans. comm.), Thomas Artsruni, History of the House of Artsrunik‘, Byzantine Texts in Translation (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1985). Notably, T‘ovma divides Van’s dwellers into two large religious, not ethnic, groups, “Jews” and “Christians.” For the religious meaning of հրեայ “Jew,” see pp. 27–30. 30. Manandian, Trade and Cities, 64–65. 31. N. G. Garsoїan, “The Early Medieval Armenian City: An Alien Element?,” JANES 16–17 (1984–1985), Ancient Studies in Memory of Elias Bickerman, eds. Edward L. Greenstein and David Marcus. (New York: Ancient Near Eastern Society, 1987), 81. 32. Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 380–381. 33. M. Abełean and S. Yarut‘iwnean (eds.), Մովսէս Խորենացի. Պատմութիւն Հայոց Movsēs Xorenac‘i, History of Armenia (Tiflis: N. Ałaneanc‘ Press, 1913; repr. Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1991 [with additional collations of MSS by A. Sargsean]). The English citations are from R. W. Thomson (trans. comm.), Moses Khorenats‘i, History of the Armenians, 2nd ed. rev. (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Caravan Books, 2006). Movsēs was presumably writing in the early 80s of the fifth century ce. He says he was the pupil of Maštoc‘, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet. Unlike the other early medieval Armenian historians who wrote about a certain period, Movsēs

126 Notes attempted to embrace in his work the comprehensive history of Armenia, beginning with the events of earliest antiquity. His traditional date has been challenged by a number of scholars who have regarded him as a later writer (seventh, eighth, or even ninth century). The debates on this issue continue. Comparatively recent studies discussing the matter are N. G. Garsoїan, “L’Histoire attribuée à Movsēs Xorenac‘i: Que reste-​t-​il à en dire?,” REArm, NS 29 (2003–2004), 29–48 (she claims, “C’est dans le demi-​siècle qui suit la défaite de Bagrewand [775 ce] . . . que l’on peut placer . . . l’Histoire de Movsēs Xorenac‘i”) and A. Mušełyan, Մովսես Խորենացու դարը The Century of Movsēs Xorenac‘i (Erevan: Erevan State University Press, 2007), who argues for the traditional date. Discussion of this issue lies beyond our immediate concern. However, the problem of Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s date is closely connected with his methods of using sources; see A. Topchyan, The Problem of the Greek Sources of Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s History of Armenia, HUAS 7 (Leuven: Peeters, 2006). 34. Felix Ter-​Martirosov’s supposition that in ­chapter 4.55 by “Jews” P‘awstos meant “the citizens proper” (собственно горожан) while “Armenians” signify “the inhabitants of the rural district belonging to the city” (жителей сельской округи, принадлежащей городу) is unsupported by any evidence: F. Ter-​ Martirosov, “Преддверие христианства в Армении” “The Threshold of Christianity in Armenia,” in P. Muradyan (ed.) Proceedings of the Conference on Armenia and Christian Orient in Erevan, 1998 (Erevan: Gitut‘yun Press, 2000), 65. 35. This passage of Josephus is also mentioned on p. 45. 36. Cf. L. H. Feldman, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 350, and S. J. D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 184–185. Cohen regards “Judaizers” and the “ambiguous” element as different subgroups. 37. The studies on this topic are numerous: see, for example, Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 342–415, including ­chapters 10, “The Success of Jews in Winning ‘Sympathizers,’ ” and 11, “Proselytism by Jews in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Centuries,” and Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness, 129–197, particularly ­chapters 4, “From Ethnos to Ethno-​religion,” 5, “Crossing the Boundary and Becoming a Jew,” and 6, “Ioudaïzein, ‘to Judaize.’ ” 38. Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 340–382. In n. 1 to his c­ hapter 10 (569–570), Feldman gives a bibliography on “God-​fearers.” 39. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness, 69–106 (­ chapter 3: “Ioudaios, Iudaeus, Judean, Jew”).

Notes  127 40. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness, 70. 41. Compare Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness, 79. 42. Cf. H. Ačaṙyan, Հայերեն արմատական բառարան Etymological Dictionary of Armenian (Erevan: Erevan State University Press, 1971–1979), 3.134, s.v. հրեայ. 43. The Bible was the first work translated into Armenian, immediately after the invention of the Armenian script in 405 ce. 44. E. Ter-​Minasyan (ed.), Եղիշէի Վասն Վարդանայ և Հայոց պատերազմին Ełišē’s On Vardan and the Armenian War (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1957). 45. The citation is from R. W. Thomson (trans. comm.), Eḷishē, History of Vardan and the Armenian War, HATS 5 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982), 112. 46. That is, Manichaean; see Thomson, Eḷishē, History of Vardan and the Armenian War, n. 4. 47. We cite the Teaching and the History from Thomson’s translations: R. W. Thomson (trans. comm.), The Teaching of Saint Gregory, rev. ed., Avant 1 (New York: SUNY Press, 2001) and R. W. Thomson (trans. comm.), Agathangelos, History of the Armenians (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1976). See also G. Tēr-​Mkrtč‘ean and S. Kanayeanc‘ (eds.), Ագաթանգեղայ Պատմութիւն Հայոց Agat‘angełos’s History of Armenia (Tiflis: Mnac‘akan Martiroseanc‘ Press, 1909). 48. His narrative is partly based on Movsēs Xorenac‘i III.35. 49. An attempt has been made to refute the fact of deportation of Jews to Armenia by Tigran: see R. Manaseryan, “К вопросу о вероисповедании населения городов Армении (I в. до н.э.–IV в.н.э.)” “On the Problem of the Religion of the Inhabitants of Armenian Cities (first c. BCE–fourth c. CE),” Patma-​banasirakan Handes, no. 2 (1989), 198–204. Manaseryan argues that Greco-​Roman sources do not mention Jews among the peoples taken captive by Tigran, so the numerous հրեայք living in Armenia and referred to by P‘awstos Buzand and Movsēs Xorenac‘i were in general proselytes. This view would need further argumentation, for the Greco-​ Roman authors (see later discussion) do not specify other nations either (with the exception of Greeks), giving only the names of the countries or cities from which they were deported. According to the well-​known Greco-​Roman usage, they speak only of Greeks and oἱ βάρβαρoι, and the “barbarians” could well include Jews. Besides, such a mass proselytization would not be possible if a significant number of ethnic Jews did not live in Armenia.

128 Notes 50. Cf. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness, 25–67, c­ hapter 2, “Those Who Say They Are Jews and Are Not,” where he discusses the question of how Jews in the ancient world could have or have not been distinguished from other peoples and comes to the following conclusion: “How, then, did you know a Jew in antiquity when you saw one? The answer is that you did not. But you could make reasonably plausible inferences from what you saw.” Thus, a “Jew” was “someone associating with Jews, living in a (or the) Jewish part of town, married to a Jew, and, in general, integrated socially with other Jews,” or “someone performing Jewish rituals and practices.” However, this was not certain, because “gentiles often mingled with Jews and some gentiles even observed Jewish rituals and practices” (67–68). As a result, some gentiles were called Jews and others called themselves Jews. 51. Those who, according to this source, were exiled from seven Armenian cities by Shāpūr II in about 368/​9 ce. See pp. 20–25. 52. Translation from Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 176. 53. John Hyrcanus II was high priest in the first century bce, and briefly king of Judea. 54. H. A. Manandian, The Trade and Cities of Armenia in Relation to Ancient World Trade, trans. N. G. Garsoïan, Armenian Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon: Livraria Bertrand, 1965), 64–65. 55. See pp. 37–46. 56. See Josephus, AJ 14.330–367 and 15.14; BJ 1.248–273. 57. See, for example, Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 305 and 380. 58. For example, in BJ 1.362–363, Josephus writes that Antony campaigned “against the Parthians.” Josephus says this while actually referring to the Roman general’s campaign against Armenia, in consequence of which the Armenian king Artawazd II was captured. Then, as Josephus writes, returning from Parthia (ἐκ Πάρθων), Antony presented “the Parthian” (ὁ Πάρθoς) Artawazd to Cleopatra. Consequently, we may conclude that Josephus sometimes used “Parthian” as a general term to include Armenians. Considering the Iranian influences on Armenian society and that the Arsacid dynasty was a cadet branch of the Parthian royal house, this is not surprising. See further N. G. Garsoïan, “Prolegomena to a Study of the Iranian Elements in Arsacid Armenia,” Handēs Amsoreay 90 (1976), 177–234. 59. Perhaps those Jews, unlike Hyrcanus, took up their residence in Armenia. 60. Tigran II conquered Ptolemaïs in 70 bce: cf. Josephus, BJ 1.116 and AJ 13.419–421.

Notes  129 61. See pp. 46–52 on this and the other Armenian cities mentioned here. 62. See p. 20 and elsewhere. 63. There is an anachronism in Movsēs’s information because Eruand the Last probably reigned in the third and early second centuries bce, long before Tigran II. 64. Artašat was founded circa 185 bce. 65. Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 288–289. 66. See pp. 33–36. 67. See, for example, G. Xalatjanc (Xalat‘yanc‘), Армянские Аршакиды в Истории Армении Моисея Хоренского The Armenian Arsacids in Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s History of Armenia, 2 vols. (Moscow: Varvara Gatc‘uk Press, 1903), 1.65–66 and 2.17–19. 68. Cf. Manandian, The Trade and Cities, 65 and Հայ ժողովրդի պատմություն History of the Armenian People, 8 vols. (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1967–1984), 1.613–614. 69. A comprehensive study of Africanus is H. Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus und die byzantinische Chronographie, 2 vols. (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1885–1888; repr. New York: B. Franklin, 1967). A new edition of the surviving passages of Africanus’s Chronicle is Martin Wallraff (ed.), William Adler (trans.) et al., Iulius Africanus Chronographiae: The Extant Fragments, GCS Neue Folge 15 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007). 70. It is notable that George Syncellus (eighth-​ninth centuries) has preserved a very abridged form of Africanus’s information concerning these and the ensuing events; see A. A. Mosshammer (ed.), Georgii Syncelli Ecloga Chronographica, Biblioteca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana (Leipzig: Teubner, 1984), 371–373. That section in Syncellus bears the following title: Ἀφρικανoῦ περὶ τῶν Ὑρκανῷ καὶ Ἀντιγόνῳ συμβάντων καὶ περὶ Ἡρώδoυ τoῦ τε Σεβαστoῦ καὶ Ἀντωνίoυ καὶ Κλεoπάτρας ἐν ἐπιτόμῳ, “Africanus’s [information] about what happened to Hyrcanus and Antigonus, and about Herod, Sebastus and Antony and Cleopatra, in brief.” See also Adler and Tuffin, George Synkellos, 442–443. 71. One of those parallels relates to Pacorus. Africanus says that the Parthian king’s son Pacorus acted as a mediator in the bribing of his father. According to Movsēs Xorenac‘i, “Pacaros” is the mediator, but the bribe is offered to the Armenian commander. This implies that Movsēs used Africanus as a source but interpreted him in his own way. For a detailed discussion of this subject, see A. Topchyan, “Julius Africanus’ Chronicle and Movsēs Xorenac‘i,” Le Muséon 114 (2001), 153–185 and Topchyan, The Problem of the Greek Sources, 84–97.

130 Notes 72. “The city of Semiramis” was Van in Armenia. 73. Cf. S. Krkyašaryan, «Սինոյկիսմոսը հելլենիստական Փոքր Ասիայում և Հայաստանում» “Synoecism in the Hellenistic Asia Minor and Armenia,” Patma-​banasirakan Handes, no. 1 (1964), 107–118. 74. However, Movsēs witnesses (3.35) to the conversion of some of them to Christianity (see later discussion). 75. Cf. G. Sargsyan, «Աղբյուրների օգտագործման եղանակը Մովսես Խորենացու մոտ» “Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s Method of Using Sources,” Banber Matenadarani 3 (1956), 34. 76. For this reason, it has been asserted that the information in Armenian sources about Jewish captives from Palestine is false: J. Obermeyer, Die Landschaft Babylonien im Zeitalter des Talmuds und des Gaonats. Geographie und Geschichte nach talmudischen, arabischen und anderen Quellen, SGFWJ 30 (Frankfurt: Kaufmann Verlag, 1929), 296. 77. The English citations are from Plutarch’s Lives, trans. B. Perrin, 10 vols., LCL (London; Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914–1926). 78. So far, due attention has not been paid to this evidence in Plutarch. 79. The English citations are from Appian’s Roman History, trans. H. White, 4 vols., LCL (London: Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1912–1913). The Greek reads, ὁ Tιγράνης ἦρχε Συρίας τῆς μετ’ Εὐφράτην, ὅσα γένη Σύρων μέχρις Αἰγύπτoυ. 80. See H. Manandian, Tigrane II & Rome: Nouveaux éclaircissements à la lumière des sources originales, trans. H. Thorossian, Bibliothèque arménienne de la Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1963), 25–29. See also History of the Armenian People, 1.561. 81. Justini M. Juniani, Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompeii Trogi, ex recens. Fr. Ruehl, repr. (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1972). 82. “Pactique inter se sunt, ut urbes agrique Mithridati, homines vero et quaecunque auferri possent, Tigrani cederent.” 83. Mazaca, the capital of Cappadocia. 84. For this noteworthy information in Movsēs, see Topchyan, The Problem of the Greek Sources, 85–86. 85. Manandian discusses the date of this campaign, between 78 and 74 bce; see Manandian, Tigrane II & Rome, 122 and cf. 46. 86. The English citations are from The Geography of Strabo, with an English translation by H. L. Jones. 8 vols. (London: Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1917–1932). 87. ἐς τριάκoντα μυριάδας ἀνθρώπων.

Notes  131 88. Plutarch (Lucullus 32.4–5) and Cassius Dio (36.6.2) speak about the conquest of Nisibis, capital of Mygdonia, by Lucullus. Dio says that Tigran “had seized it from the Parthians . . . and had stationed his brother as guard over it.” The English citations are from Dio’s Roman History, trans. E. Cary, 9 vols., LCL (London: Heinemann; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914–1927). Plutarch mentions the name of Tigran’s brother, Gouras. There was a considerable Jewish population in Nisibis: cf. J. Neusner, “The Jews in Pagan Armenia,” JAOS 84 (1964), 237. 89. Cf. A. H. M. Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937), 202. 90. Manandian, Tigrane II & Rome, 45–46. 91. Cf. Plutarch, Lucullus, 26.4. 92. That is, Nineveh. 93. The capital of Adiabene. 94. Perhaps one of the twelve cities was the Cilician Soli mentioned by name in Plutarch (Pompey 28.4) and Cassius Dio (36.37.6). 95. The location of the capital Tigranocerta (the main one among several cities called thus), somewhere around the upper Tigris, is disputed by scholars. See, e.g., Manandian, Tigrane II & Rome, 56–58. See also the following detailed study: T. Sinclair, “The Site of Tigranocerta I–​II,” REArm, NS 25 (1994–1995), 183–254 and NS 26 (1996–1997), 51–111. For general information on the city, see Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 5.92–94. 96. See Appian’s description of Tigranocerta in the Mithridatic Wars 12.84. 97. History of the Armenian People, 1.573. 98. This probably happened in 359 ce; see J. Markwart, Südarmenien und die Tigrisquellen nach griechischen und arabische Geographen (Wien: Mechitharisten-​Buchdruckerei, 1930), 95–101. 99. For this passage by Strabo and similar evidence in Greco-​Roman sources, see Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness, 75–76. 100. According to Salo W. Baron’s estimate, “over 4,000,000 Jews lived within the boundaries of the Roman Empire outside Palestine. There must have been at least 1,000,000 more in Babylonia and other countries of dispersion not subjected to Roman rule. A Jewish world population of 8,000,000 is, therefore, fully within the range of probability,” so “every fifth ‘Hellenistic’ inhabitant of the eastern Mediterranean world was a Jew.” S. W. Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews: Ancient Times, 2nd ed. rev. (New York: Columbia University and JPS, 1952), 1.170–171. See also Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 293.

132 Notes 101. Neusner, “The Jews in Pagan Armenia,” 233–234 even supposes, based on the Targum, that “the Ten Tribes were exiled to a point near the borders of Armenia,” from where further migration into Armenia could have taken place. The Targum, he states, understands Ararat in Genesis, Isaiah 37:38, and Jeremiah 51:27 to be Gordyene, not Armenia, but, on the other hand, the Targum on Amos 4:3 says that the Ten Tribes or some of them would be exiled to Armenia, and the Targum of Micah 7:12 mentions Armenia as the place from which the exiles would return. See the discussion in c­ hapter 1, pp. 1–10. 102. αἱ δὲ δέκα φυλαὶ πέραν εἰσὶν Εὐφράτoυ ἕως δεῦρo, μυριάδες ἄπειρoι καὶ ἀριθμῷ γνωσθῆναι μὴ δυνάμεναι. 103. See other reflexes of the importance of the Euphrates in antiquity on pp. 16–17 and chapter 1, n. 37. 104. Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 129. 105. H. Koester, Introduction to the New Testament (Philadelphia, Pa.: Fortress Press; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1982), 1.222. 106. Baron, A Social and Religious History, 168; Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 328. 107. Recently published documents show a Jewish settlement in southern Mesopotamia in the last centuries bce. See chapter 2, n. 1. 108. Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 330. 109. See Koester, Introduction, 1.222. 110. See Obermeyer, Die Landschaft Babylonien, 132. 111. That is, Georgia. See C. B. Lerner, The Wellspring of Georgian Historiography: The Early Medieval Historical Chronicle, The Conversion of K‘art‘li and the Life of St. Nino (London: Bennet & Bloom, 2004), 60–61. 112. L. Cohn and S. Reiter (eds.), Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt, repr. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1962), 6.155–223. 113. Cf. Feldman, Jew and Gentile, 349. 114. See p. 27. 115. On Antioch, see W. A. Meeks and R. L. Wilken, Jews and Christians in Antioch in the First Four Centuries of the Common Era, SBLSBS 13 (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1978); P. W. van der Horst, “Jews and Christians in Antioch at the End of the Fourth Century,” in S. E. Porter and B. W. R. Pearson (eds.), Christian-​Jewish Relations through the Centuries (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 228–238. 116. Cf. Koester, Introduction, 1.223; Jones, The Cities, 244. 117. History of the Armenian People, 1.565. 118. Cf. Baron, A Social and Religious History, 1.176–177.

Notes  133 119. Compare Movsēs Xorenac‘i (2.33): “the Jews who live in the provinces of Palestine.” 120. See H. Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen (Strasburg: Karl J. Trubner, 1904; repr. Amsterdam: Orinetal Press, 1969), 340, 469; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 87, 156 (map); History of the Armenian People, 1.517; T‘. X. Hakobyan, Հայաստանի պատմական աշխարհագրություն Historical Geography of Armenia, 4th ed. (Erevan: Erevan State University Press, 1984), 168–170; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 499; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 4.748–751. 121. C. Müller (ed.), Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia, vol. 1 (Paris: A. Firmin-​ Didot, 1901). 122. We should remember that the commander who, according to Movsēs Xorenac‘i, brought Jewish captives and settled them in Van, was from the Ṙštuni family. 123. For detailed information on Armawir, see G. Tirac‘yan, “Armawir,” REArm, NS 27 (1998–2000), 134–300. From 1970 until his death in 1993, Tirac‘yan supervised the archaeological excavations in Armawir. See also Manandian, Trade and Cities, 36–38; History of the Armenian People, 1.517–518; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 1.467–468. 124. Presumably, in the fifth to fourth centuries bce: Tirac‘yan, “Armawir,” 174. 125. Tirac‘yan, “Armawir,” 136. 126. History of the Armenian People, 1.503–516. 127. One of the allies of Darius I (reigned 522–486 bce) who made him king; see Herodotus 3.70. 128. According to his erroneous chronological system, Movsēs thinks that Eruand lived after Tigran II. Despite that, one need not doubt the essence of his information, namely, that there were Jewish settlers in Armawir, who were moved later to Eruandašat. Like the Greeks, those settlers could have come to Armawir before the time of the last Eruand; alternatively they could have been deported by Tigran to Armawir and afterward transferred to Eruandašat by another king. See the discussion on pp. 32, 35. 129. This is corroborated by Movsēs: 1.20; 11.8, 12, 40, and 49; see Manandian, Trade and Cities, 36–37. 130. Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, 46, 455; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 85, 87, 111 map, 133–134, 156 map, 158 map, 184; History of the Armenian People, 1.542, 808–809, 813; Hakobyan,

134 Notes Historical Geography of Armenia, 175; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 482; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 3.951–953. 131. See pp. 10–14. 132. Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, 363, 426; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 37–38, 64, 85, 96, 155; History of the Armenian People, 1.515–516, 519; Hakobyan, Historical Geography of Armenia, 117–118; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 462–463; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 2.249–251. 133. Artašat was built soon after the battle of Magnesia (190 bce), where the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great (reigned 223–187 bce) was defeated by the Romans; Armenia Major became an independent state no longer subject to the Seleucid rule, and Artašēs I ascended the throne in 189 bce. Cf. Strabo, 11.14.15. 134. See p. 47–48. 135. Manandian, Trade and Cities, 37–38. 136. Manandian, Trade and Cities, 37–38. 137. See Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, 362, 408–409; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 44–46, 90–93, 95–96, and see further there Index s.v. Artxata; History of the Armenian People, 1.539–542; Hakobyan, Historical Geography of Armenia, 136–138; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 448; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 1.493–494. 138. K. F. T. Mayhoff (ed.), Plinii Secundi Naturalis historiae, Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1906). 139. For new archaeological finds in Artašat, see, for example, Ž. Xač‘atryan, «Մոնումենտալ կառույցի մնացորդներ և ուշագրավ ծեսով թաղում Արտաշատից» “Remains of a Monumental Building and an Interesting Ritual Burial from Artašat,” Patma-​banasirakan Handes, no. 2 (2005), 218–239. 140. Escaping from the Romans and then from his compatriots, the famous Carthaginian general had been hosted by Antiochus III the Great. According to Plutarch, following Antiochus’s final defeat by the Romans in the battle of Magnesia (190 bce), Hannibal made his abode in Armenia. 141. Trdat I reigned from 66 to ca. 88 ce, and Vologeses I from ca. 51 to 80 ce. 142. See Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, 427–428; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 64, 86–87, 96, 155; History of the Armenian People, 1.542, 574, 657; Hakobyan, Historical Geography of Armenia, 64,

Notes  135 80, 122; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 503–504; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 2.277. 143. See Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, 428; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 64, 86–87; History of the Armenian People, 1.542, 574, 657; Hakobyan, Historical Geography of Armenia, 80, 156; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 504; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 2.280. 144. In his Aramaic inscriptions, Artašēs I calls himself “son of Zareh”; see, for example, A. Périkhanian, “Les inscriptions araméennes du roi Artashès,” REArm, NS 8 (1971), 169–174. 145. See Hübschmann, Die altarmenischen Ortsnamen, 279, 456, 469; Manandian, Trade and Cities, 64, 79, 83–86; History of the Armenian People, 1.519, 539, 657, 779, 784–785, 787–789, 808; Hakobyan, Historical Geography of Armenia, 130–133; Garsoïan, Epic Histories, 498–499; Hakobyan, Melik‘-​Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia 2.350–352; Քրիստոնյա Հայաստան հանրագիտարան Christian Armenia: An Encyclopedia (Erevan: Armenian Encyclopedia Press, 2002), 952–956. 146. According to a famous legend, Jesus Christ appeared to Gregory the Illuminator in Vałaršapat and showed him the place where the “Mother Church” was to be built. 147. See Cassius Dio (55.10.5). By “barbarians” Dio probably means Caucasian highlanders (Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 1.293). Queen Erato again reigned briefly in Armenia after 6 ce, when Tigran V was dethroned; see Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 295, 297; cf. also Tacitus, Annales II.4. 148. Ernst Diehl (ed.), Res gestae divi Augusti, 3rd ed. (Bonn: A. Marcus und E. Weber, 1918). 149. A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb (trans.), Complete Works of Tacitus (London: Macmillan, 1864–1877; repr. New York: Modern Library, 1942). 150. For these three kings, see also Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 1.293–297. 151. Neusner (“The Jews in Pagan Armenia,” 234 and n. 12) erroneously mentions Tigran V as “Tigran IV” and, on the basis of unknown sources, writes that this king reigned in 10–26 ce. In the corresponding footnote, for Tigran V he refers to Josephus and Tacitus, Annales 2.3, but in that passage Tacitus speaks of Artašes II’s (reigned 30–20 bce) successor, Tigran III (reigned 20–ca. 8 bce), not of Tigran V.

136 Notes 152. Archelaus was the king of Cappadocia from 36 bce to 17 ce. From 20 bce on, he also was the king of Armenia Minor. See, Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 1.303. 153. Herod the Great ruled in Judea from 37 to 4 bce. 154. See, for example, Josephus, BJ 1.552: “For Alexander had by Glaphyra two sons, Tigranes and Alexander.” 155. Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 1.295. 156. In addition to “son of Zareh”; see n. 144. 157. “Ne Tigranes . . . supplicia civium effugit.” 158. For this and other coins of the Artašesid dynasty, see P. Z. Bedoukian, “A Classification of the Coins of the Artaxiad Dynasty of Armenia,” in Museum Notes 14 (New York: American Numismatic Society, 1968), 41–66. 159. Josephus AJ 7.226–227; 20.158 and BJ 2.221–222; 252; Tacitus, Annales 13.7, 14.26. 160. Manandian conjectures (A Critical Survey in Studies, 2.12) that Armenia Minor was attached to the Roman Empire in the same year as Commagene (72 ce), but he says nothing about the probable sequence of events: since Josephus calls Aristobulus king of Chalcis, it is likely that he had been deprived of the kingdom of Armenia Minor before supporting the Romans in their incursion into Commagene. For Vespasian’s military activities of the year 72 ce in Cilicia Tracheia, Commagene, and Cappadocia, see also Suetonius, Vespasian 8.4. 161. See also Manandian, A Critical Survey in Studies, 1.332–336, 346–347. 162. Mar Abas, according to Movsēs (I.8), was a Syrian, “a diligent man versed in Chaldaean and Greek.” His nonextant work was also used as a source in the anonymous writing attached to the seventh-​century History attributed to Sebēos; see G. V. Abgaryan (ed. comm.), Պատմութիւն Սեբէոսի The History of Sebēos (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1979), 224. See also Thomson et al., The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, and his translation of Anonymous in the appendix to Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 357–368. In Anonymous, Mar Abas Catina is called Maraba Mcurnac‘i. The existence of his writing, independently utilized by two authors, was deemed doubtful and rejected, as is the view, for example, of A. Carrière, Moïse de Khoren et les généalogies patriarcales (Paris: Librairie Léopold Cerf, 1891), 46. Carrière concluded that Movsēs and Mar Abas are the same person. However, Mar Abas Catina’s existence was subsequently acknowledged as a fact; see G. Sargsyan, Մովսես Խորենացու «Հայոց

Notes  137 պատմության» ժամանակագրական համակարգը The Chronological

System of Movsēs Xorenac‘i’s History of Armenia (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1965), 13–15, 128–129, and G. Sargsyan, Հելլենիստական դարաշրջանի Հայաստանը և Մովսես Խորենացին Armenia in the Hellenistic Epoch and Movsēs Xorenac‘i (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1966), 82–83. 163. For Hananiah-​Shadrach, who was saved by God when King Nebuchadnezzar threw him into a furnace, see Daniel 3:19–30; for the martyrdom of Eleazar, see 2 Maccabees 6:18–31. 164. H. Ačaṙyan, Հայոց անձնանունների բառարան Dictionary of Armenian Personal Names, 5 vols. (Erevan: Erevan State University Press, 1942–1962; repr. Beirut: Sevan Press, 1972) etymologizes those names as follows: “Bagarat” =​Old Persian “Bagadāta,” meaning “given or created by the god (Mithra)” (1.355); the origin of the Armenian “Ašot” is unknown: the name “Asud” deemed to be Jewish by Movsēs is otherwise unattested (1.180 and 229); “Varaz” =​Iranian “varāz,” meaning “wild boar,” from which “Gurāz” (“Gouras,” see n. 88) is derived, and the origin of “Vazaria” is unknown (5.5 and 62). Ačaṙyan does not equate “Vazaria” with the Hebrew “Azariāh,” the Armenian equivalent of which is “Azaria,” 54; “Šambat” =​Syrian “Šabbəθā,” from which also the Armenian “Šabat‘” (“Saturday”) is derived (vol. 4 [1948], 137). Actually, the addition of “m” in such contexts is not uncommon in Greek transliterations of Hebrew names. Compare the Greek and Armenian forms of the name of the prophet Habbakuk =​Ambakum. 165. N. Adontz, Armenia in the Period of Justinian: The Political Conditions Based on the Naxarar System, ed. and trans. N. G. Garsoïan (Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1970), 319–320. 166. J. Marquart, Erānšahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xorenac‘i (Berlin: Weidmann, 1901), 174. 167. Compare n. 164. 168. See n. 162. 169. C. Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1963), 327–328. 170. Ž. Ēlč‘ibekyan, «Հովսեպոս Փլավիոսը Մովսես Խորենացու աղբյուր» “Josephus Flavius as a Source of Movsēs Xorenac‘i,” Lraber hasarakakan gitut‘yunneri, no. 5 (1975), 71–82. 171. It is the Greek form of ḥannan-​el, which is the same as ḥannan-​yah that becomes Anania (the Greek lost the initial laryngeal). They each use a different theophoric element meaning “God.” There is also a possibility

138 Notes that Enanos goes back to the same Hebrew ḥānān, which is a personal name found in the Bible; see, e.g., 1 Chronicles 8:23, where the Armenian Bible has Անան < Greek < ḥānān, ḥannan simply being the hypochoristic of ḥannanya. 172. Toumanoff himself thinks that “if not by Pseudo-​Moses, this theory must have been developed at the time of Pseudo-​Moses”; in his opinion, Movsēs Xorenac‘i was a late eighth-​century author. See C. Toumanoff, “On the Date of Pseudo-​Moses of Chorene,” Handēs amsōreay 75 (1961), 467–475. 173. Neusner, “Jews in Pagan Armenia,” 236–239. 174. Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 29–31. 175. Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, 197 characterizes them as follows: “The Princes Amatuni were a Caspio-​Median, or Mannaean, dynastic house from Artaz, with the city of Shavarshan (later Maku, in northeastern Vaspurakan), situated between lakes Van and Urmia (Mantiane), which subsequently ruled a State in Aragatsotn, in Ayrarat, on the western shore of lake Sevan, centred in the castle of Oshakan.” 176. For Manue (Manoah), Samson’s father, see Judges 13. 177. Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 199–200 and n. 2 on 199. 178. H. Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, Erster Teil: Armenische Etymologie (repr.; Hildesheim: Olms, 1962), 17. 179. That is, in 98–117 ce. 180. Neusner, “Jews in Pagan Armenia,” 239–240. 181. Neusner himself says to have offered his conjecture “very hesitantly.” 182. Cf. Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 293–294 and nn. 7–9. 183. For Jews in Isfahan, see Marquart, Erānšahr, 29. 184. Hübschmann, Altarmenische Grammatik. He discusses 133 words on 281–321. In some cases, he rejects proposed Syriac derivations, and so he actually ends up with over 100 firm instances. In addition to a long section dealing with Persian words, in that book he also presents lists of borrowings from Greek and of words of unknown origin. The work of Norayr Vrouyr, Répertoire étymologique de l’Arménien (Anvers: Vrouoyr Publisher, 1948), 89–104 is not convincing. 185. In the Medieval Armenian scholastic tradition, transliterated Hebrew words and sentences of particular importance to Bible study are encountered. Most of these were borrowed from Greek sources, into which language they were transliterated from Hebrew. There is no evidence, however, showing that learned Armenians of ancient and

Notes  139 medieval times studied the Hebrew language. See M. E. Stone, “The Armenian Apocryphal Literature: Translation and Creation,” in Il Caucaso: Cerniera fra Culture dal Mediterraneo alla Persia (Secoli IV– XI) (Spoleto: Presso la Sede del Centro, 1996), 611–646 and M. E. Stone, “The Transmission and Reception of Biblical and Jewish Motifs in the Armenian Tradition,” in Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and Armenian Studies, OLA 145 (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), 2.725–730. Some sort of literary contact, however, is witnessed by two short rabbinic texts that have turned up in Armenian; see M. E. Stone, “An Armenian Translation of a Baraitha in the Babylonian Talmud,” HTR 63 (1970), 151–154 and Signs and Wonders of the Temple, published in M. E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha: Relating to Biblical Heroes, SBLEJL 49 (Atlanta, Ga.: Society of Biblical Literature, 2019), 137–142.9. 186. The absolute, definite, and construct states of nouns are forms used when nouns are in differing syntactical relations. They are represented by morphological differences some of which are particular to each language. 187. Theodor Nöldeke, Compendious Syriac Grammar (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2001), 58. Ačaṙyan, Etymological Dictionary of Armenian, 1.505 suggests Syriac galuta, apparently positing a loss of the emphatic ending, -​a, and similarly in 2.331 for ḥanuta. This is possible, and some Syriac words appear in Armenian without -​a. 188. Nöldeke, Compendious Syriac Grammar, 48–49. 189. The only example of a borrowing of a construct form in Hübschmann’s list is gzat‘, meaning “fleece,” which is construct in both Hebrew and Syriac. He also seems in this case to assume a loss of a final -​a (definite ending), as in the two instances cited earlier, rather than a construct. We assume that com “a fast,” though identical in Syriac and Hebrew, being ṣom, is borrowed from Syriac, from which other religion-​related words are borrowed. 190. Hṙač‘ya Ačaṙyan supposed that after being deported to Armenia by Tigran, the Jewish settlers probably began speaking Aramaic (“that is, Syriac”) instead of their mother tongue, because Syriac was a well-​established language in Armenia. They probably continued using Hebrew within their religious institutions, but that was not enough for their own language to have any influence on Armenian; see H. Ačaṙyan, Հայոց լեզվի պատմություն History of the Armenian Language, part 2 (Erevan: Haypethrat, 1951), 55. There has been an objection to Ačaṙyan’s opinion, but the arguments proposed by the author of the

140 Notes article are weak, and he does not offer any list of borrowed Hebrew words in Armenian. Instead, he cites a Hebrew-​Armenian dictionary from a thirteenth-​century Armenian manuscript, which contains 421 words and proper names (mainly biblical). He also assumes, against the general view, that the Armenian script was influenced not only by the Greek but also by the Hebrew alphabet; see K. Durgaryan, «Հայերենի եբրայական փոխառությունների մասին» “On Hebrew Borrowings in Armenian,” Banber Erevani hamalsarani, no. 3 (1989), 63–69. For a short list of Hebrew words found in Middle Armenian texts, see M. H. Muradyan, «Բառագիտություն» “Lexicology,” in Ē. B. Ałayan (ed.), Ակնարկներ միջին գրական հայերենի պատմության Essays on the History of Middle Armenian, vol. 1 (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1972), 296. 191. See D. D. Y. Shapira, “Aramaeo-​Judaeo-​Armeniaca,” Xristianskij Vostok, NS 4.10 (2006), 340–346, especially 342–345. 192. Shapira, “Aramaeo-​Judaeo-​Armeniaca,” 346. 193. Ačaṙyan, Etymological Dictionary of Armenian, 3.144. 194. See also Shapira, “Aramaeo-​Judaeo-​Armeniaca,” 340–346, especially 340–341. He considers this to indicate that the Jews in Armenia first “became known through speakers of Iranian.” If so, then there were Jews in Armenia before Christianization, which would concord with the evidence already considered. 195. We should remember that the Classical Armenian Old Testament contains books commonly called in English “Apocrypha,” including Maccabees, and thus the stories of Hannah and Eleazar that highlight the ban on idol worship and on forbidden foods, as well as the problems of fighting on the Sabbath. 196. See c­ hapter 3 section 4. See also Amit and Stone, “Report of the Survey,” 66–106, and Amit and Stone, “The Second and Third Seasons,” 99–135.

Chapter 3 1. See H. Manandian, Հայաստանի գլխավոր ճանապարհները ըստ Պևտինգերյան քարտեզի The Main Routes of Armenia according to the Peutinger Table (Erevan: E. Melk’onyan Foundation, 1936; repr. in Studies, vol. 5, Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1984), 7–33; B. Aṙak‘elyan, Քաղաքները և արհեստները Հայաստանում (IX–XIII դդ.) The Towns and Handicrafts in Armenia (Ninth–Thirteenth Centuries), 2 vols.

Notes  141 (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1958, 1964), 2.31–33, 91–92; History of the Armenian People, 3.226–240. 2. See H. T. Nalbandyan (ed.), Արաբական աղբյուրները Հայաստանի և հարևան երկրների մասին Arabic Sources about Armenia and the Neighboring Countries (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1967), 62. 3. See B. Xalat‘eanc‘ (ed. and trans.), Արաբացի մատենագրեր Հայաստանի մասին Arab Writers on Armenia. (Vienna: Mekhitarist Press, 1919), 44. 4. See Garegin I Catholicos Yovsēp‘ean (ed.), Յիշատակարանք ձեռագրաց Colophons of Manuscripts, vol. 1 (Fifth Century–1250). (Antelias: Cilician Catholicosate), 1951, no. 74, 175. 5. See Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 2.145–147, for a detailed study on the ancient city, see K. Łafadaryan, Դվին քաղաքը և նրա պեղումները The City of Dvin and Its Excavations, 2 vols. (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1952, 1982). 6. Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 357–358. 7. See in detail section 2.7. 8. See p. 74–75. 9. See section 3.1. 10. See A. S. Matevosyan (ed.), Հայերեն ձեռագրերի հիշատակարաններ (ԺԳ դար) Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts (Thirteenth Century) (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1984), 772–773. 11. See Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 3.596–597 and 4.726. 12. Thomson, Thomas Artsruni, 329. 13. See Step‘annos Ōrbelean, Պատմութիւն նահանգին Սիսական արարեալ Ստեփաննոսի Օրբելեան Արքեպիսկոպոսի Սիւնեաց The History of the Region of Sisakan Composed by Step‘annos Ōrbelean, Archbishop of Siwnik‘ (Tiflis: N. Ałaneanc Press, 1910), 334; cf. History of the Armenian People, 3.561. 14. See Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 2.946–947. 15. Aṙak‘elyan, Towns and Handicrafts, 2.93. 16. See G. Grigoryan, Очерки истории Сюника IX–XV вв. Essays on the History of Siwnik‘, Ninth–Fifteenth Centuries (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1990), 65. 17. See Grigor Aknerc‘i, Պատմութիւն վասն ազգին նետողաց History of the Nation of the Archers, ed. K‘. Patkanean (St. Petersburg: Typography of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1870), 23–25. An English translation is to

142 Notes be found in R. P. Blake and R. N. Frye, “The History of the Nation of the Archers,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 12.3 & 4 (1949), 269–400. 18. See Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 1.852. 19. The results of the excavations are published in two articles: Amit and Stone, “Report on the Survey,” 66–106; Amit and Stone, “The Second and Third Seasons,” 99–135. Henceforth these are referred to respectively as “First Report” and “Second Report.” 20. General histories of Armenia give an overview of this period; see G. Dédéyan, Histoire des Arméniens (Toulouse: Privat, 1982), 327–375; cf. rev. edition, with a slightly different title: Histoire du people arménien (Toulouse: Privat, 2007); J. P. Mahé and A. Mahé, Histoire de l’Arménie des origines à nos jours (Paris: Perrin, 2012), 175–267. 21. “Second Report,” 121; surveyed by archaeologist Husik Melkonyan in September 2002. 22. Overviews of the Seljuk period in Armenia are presented in Dédéyan, Historie des Arméniens, 327–331 and Mahé and Mahé, Histoire de l’Arménie, 179–180, 205–206, n. 21. 23. This inscription is discusssed on pp. 84, 95–96. 24. Avedis K. Sanjian describes in some detail the political events overtaking Siwnik‘ in this period: “The Historical Setting,” in T. F. Mathews and A. K. Sanjian (eds.), Armenian Gospel Iconography: The Tradition of the Glajor Gospel (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1991), 4–31. Particularly valuable for our discussion here is his detailed outline of the historical setting from the Seljuk period down to the time of Mongol supremacy, 8–17. 25. Grigoryan, Essays on the History of Siwnik‘, 65. 26. See Mahé and Mahé, Histoire de l’Arménie, 214–216. 27. G. Yovsēp‘ean, Խաղբակեանք կամ Պռոշեանք Հայոց պատմութեան մէջ The Xałbakeans or Pṙošeans in the History of Armenia (Vałaršapat: Catholicosate, 1928; repr. Antelias: Cilician Catholicosate, 1969), 438. This is a very fine work on the history of Vayoc‘ Jor and its chief families and also contains a detailed description of the antiquities and historical topography of the region. 28. Sanjian, “The Historical Setting,” 8. 29. An Armeno-​Georgian noble family, of which Zak‘arē and Ivanē were the most prominent members. They reached the apogee of their power in the time of Queen Tamara (1184–1212/​3), when they were renowned military leaders. Part of their activities extended to Siwnik‘. 30. This was originally a Seljuk title resembling “regent, king’s father.”

Notes  143 31. K. A. Melik‘-​ Ōhanjanyan (ed. comm.), Կիրակոս Գանձակեցի, Պատմութիւն Հայոց Kirakos Gandzakec‘i, History of Armenia (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1961), 240. Cf. Psalm 79:3 and Jeremiah 14:16. 32. Ačaṙyan, Dictionary of Armenian Personal Names, 4.556, citing Ł. M. Ališan, Սիսական. տեղագրութիւն Սիւնեաց աշխարհի The Topography of the Land of Siwnik‘ (Venice: Mekhitarist Press, 1893), 154 and 190. 33. Sanjian, “The Historical Setting,” 9, 12. 34. This pattern is the same as that of Kapan and its fortress Bałaberd. See the discussion of Smbataberd in Yovsēp‘ean, Xałbakeans or Pṙošeans, 36. 35. See, e.g., L. Khachikyan, A. Matevosyan, and A. Ghazarosyan, Հայերէն ձեռագրերի հիշատակարաններ. ԺԴ դար, մասն Ա (1301–1325) Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, Fourteenth Century, Part One (1301–1325), ed. K. A. Matevosyan (Erevan: Nairi Publishers, 2018), colophon no. 99 on pp. 106–108, in a manuscript of the Four Gospels copied in Ełegis in 1306; no. 266 on pp. 285–287 is another manuscript of the Four Gospels copied in Ełegis in 1315. 36. Patrick Donabédian, “L’École de sculpture arménienne du Vayots-​ Jor (XIII–XIVme siécles),” in The Second International Symposium on Armenian Art: Collection of Reports (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1981), 3.129–139. 37. See Yovsēp‘ean, Xałbakeans or Pṙošeans, 432–433. 38. For the major trade routes passing through Armenia, see the discussion in section 3.1. 39. See Hakobyan, Melik‘-​ Baxšyan, and Barsełyan, Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia, 1.183. 40. See, for example, the reference to Persians in Dvin on p. 75 41. S. G. Barxudaryan, Դիվան հայ վիմագրութեան Corpus Inscriptionum Armeniacarum, vol. 3 (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1967), inscription no. 275, p. 98 and fig. 110 on plate 34. This inscription is further discussed on pp. 95–96. 42. On the date, see the remarks in Barxudaryan, Corpus Inscriptionum Armeniacarum, 3.98. 43. “First Report” and “Second Report.” 44. A. Topchyan, “English Translation of a Letter of N. Marr to Xristianskij Vostok (Christian Orient), 1912, about a Tombstone Found in Ełegis (Alyakaz),” JJS 57 (2006), 121–122. Diligent searches in the course of our expeditions failed to turn up the actual stone. 45. This element is also present in the name of the town Ełegnajor that is now the regional capital. Ełegnajor also means “valley of the reeds.” The reed

144 Notes is featured in the fragment of pre-​Christian Armenian epic that describes the birth of the god Vahagn from a “reed.” 46. See M. E. Stone, “The Ōrbelian Family Cemetery in Ełegis, Vayoc‘ Jor, Armenia,” REArm, NS 33 (2011), 211–235. 47. See “Second Report,” 103–105. 48. “Second Report,” 101–103. 49. “First Report,” 71. 50. On the Ōrbelean cemetery in Ełegis, see Stone, “The Ōrbelian Family Cemetery.” 51. “Second Report,” 103. 52. “First Report,” 75–84; “Second Report,” 105–112. 53. “First Report,” 85–87; “Second Report,” 114–115. 54. See Tombstone no. 6 and the discussion in “First Report,” 85. 55. See Yovsēp‘ean, Xałbakeans or Pṙošeans, fig. 51 on p. 72. He discusses the eagle image on pp. 93–94. 56. Yovsēp‘ean, Xałbakeans or Pṙošeans, 45. 57. The preceding paragraph is adapted from “First Report,” 86–87, where fuller documentation is presented. 58. Of course, the meaning attributed to any iconographic element lacking a verbal description is a subjective decision of the interpreter, only made in light of overall plausibility. So, I (Stone) am loath to be dogmatic on the whirl rosette, while holding my reading of it to be extremely likely. 59. It was, one may surmise, composed of poorer and richer members, and the tombstones were, naturally, erected by the richer members of the community, whereas graves not bearing a tombstone were of the less affluent. 60. “First Report,” 87. 61. It was translated by Aram Topchyan: see “Second Report,” 121–122. 62. “Second Report,” 108–110. 63. See further A. Netzer, “Rashid al-​Din and His Jewish Background,” in Shaul Shaked and Amnon Netzer (eds.), Irano-​Judaica III (Jerusalem: Ben-​Zvi Institute, 1994), 118–126. 64. See History of the Armenian People, 3.646. 65. Yovsēp‘ean, Xałbakeans or Pṙošeans, 186–187. 66. See History of the Armenian People, 3.641. For example, the taxes imposed are bewailed in a colophon of 1307 (Matenadaran M3074, 80v); see Khachikyan, Matevosyan, and Ghazarosyan, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, 117, and translated by A. K. Sanjian, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts 1301–1480, HATS 2 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Notes  145 Press, 1969), 52. Again, in 1310, in the colophon of manuscript M380, fol. 311v, the forced sale of children is reported; see Khachikyan, Matevosyan, and Ghazarosyan, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, 170; Sanjian, Colophons, 55. Colophons are often a contemporary witness to the events they relate and, though their language is on occasion somewhat florid, historical details mentioned, particularly referring to the author’s contemporary context, can generally be assumed to be trustworthy. On the importance of colophons, see the remarks of K. Matevosyan, “Editor’s Preface,” in Khachikyan, Matevosyan, and Ghazarosyan, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts. 67. See Khachikyan, Matevosyan, and Ghazarosyan, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, colophon no. 238 on p. 257. 68. Khachikyan, Matevosyan, and Ghazarosyan, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, 232; see also Grigorian, Essays on the History of Siwnik‘, 148. 69. Sanjian, “The Historical Setting,” 14. 70. Sanjian, “The Historical Setting,” 9. 71. See Barxudaryan, Corpus Inscriptionum Armeniacarum, vol. 3, inscription no. 275, p. 98 and fig. 110 on plate 34. 72. See Barxudaryan, Corpus Inscriptionum Armeniacarum, vol. 3, inscription no. 275, p. 98. This inscription was also mentioned earlier, on p. 84.

Chapter 4 1. On the Caucasian Christian Communities in the Land of Israel, see the excellent study Yana Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archeology of the Holy Land, Handbuch Der Orientalistik 1.123 (Leiden: Brill, 2018). 2. N. Akinean, «Երուսաղէմի դպրոցը» “The School of Jerusalem,” in Դասական հայերէնը եւ վիեննական Մխիթարեան դպրոցը Classical Armenian and the Vienna Mekhitarist School (Vienna: Mekhitarist Press, 1932), 9–73 and X. S. Gurian’s review in an Aleppo Armenian newspaper, «Երուսաղեմեան դպրոցը» “The Jerusalemite School,” Arew, 14 September 1940. 3. M. E. Stone, “Holy Land Pilgrimage of Armenians before the Arab Conquest,” RB 93 (1986), 93–110; Tchekanovets, The Caucasian Archeology. 4. To Tchekhanovets’s study mentioned in n. 1, we should add A. Terian, “Rereading the Sixth-​Century List of Jerusalem Monasteries by Anastas Vardapet,” in M. D. Findikyan, D. Galadza, and A. Lossky (eds.), Sion, Mère

146 Notes des Églises: Mélanges liturgiques offerts au Père Charles Athanase Renoux, Semaines d’études liturgiques Saint-​ Serge 1 (Münster: Aschendorff, 2016), 273–288. See further A. Terian, Macarius of Jerusalem: Letter to the Armenians, AD 335, Avant 4 (Crestwood, N.Y.: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008). 5. Recently N. Garibian—​ and she is not the first—​ proposed a powerful influence of Holy Land patterns on early Christian geography of Armenia: Nazénie Garibian de Vartavan, La Jerusalem Nouvelle et les premiers sanctuaires chrétiens de l’Arménie: Methode pour l’étude de l’église comme Temple de Dieu (Fribourg: Isis Pharia, 2009). Observe also a broadly analogous argument for a similar process in Georgia put forward by C. B. Lerner, The Wellspring of Georgian Historiography: The Early Medieval Historical Chronicle, the Conversion of K’art’li and the Life of St. Nino (London: Bennett and Bloom, 2004). Concerning the very considerable role attributed to Jews in the Georgian traditions of Christianisation, see D. D. Y. Shapira, “Gleanings on Jews of Greater Iran under the Sasanians (according to the Oldest Armenian and Georgian Texts),” Iran & Caucasus 12 (2006), 191–216. Moreover, Irma Karaulashvili analyzes the phenomenon of Translatio Hierosolymi and the differing roles various national stories of conversion assign to Greek and Syriac, and consequently to Judeo-​Christian elements in this process; see, with some reservations, I. Karaulashvili, “Jérusalem selon l’Ancien et le Nouveau Testament dans les récits georgiens et arméniens portant sur la Christianization,” in I. Augé et al. (eds.), L’Arménie et la Géorgie en dialogue avec l’Europe, du Moyen Âge à nos jours (Paris: Geuthner, 2016), 439–491. 6. In general, there were relations between Jews and Christians in Palestine in the Byzantine period. See, for example, M. Murray, “Jews and Judaism in Caesarea Maritima,” in T. L. Donaldson (ed.), Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in Caesarea Maritima (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2000), 127–152; R. A. Clements, “Origen’s Hexapla and Christian-​ Jewish Encounter in the Second and Third Centuries,” in Donaldson, 303–329, especially 306–316. Somewhat later, as de Lange points out, Origen and Jerome had access to extensive Jewish material; see N. R. M. de Lange, Origen and the Jews: Studies in Jewish-​ Christian Relations in Third-​Century Palestine, University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 25 (Cambridge: CUP, 1976), and particularly 76–94. Admittedly, these sources refer particularly to Caesarea Maritima

Notes  147 in the second to fourth centuries, but the existence of contacts and interchange is clear. 7. See in general Stone, “Holy Land Pilgrimage,” 93–110 and the introduction to M. E. Stone, The Armenian Inscriptions from the Sinai with Appendixes on the Georgian and Latin Inscriptions by M. van Esbroeck and W. Adler, HATS 6 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982) as well as the evidence of the Sinai inscriptions themselves. For overall evidence from the Holy Land, see Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archeology, passim. See further M. E. Stone, “The Oldest Armenian Pilgrim Inscription from Jerusalem,” Sion: Bogharian Memorial Volume 71 (1997), 340–350 and M. E. Stone, “Armenian Pilgrimage to the Mountain of the Transfiguration and the Galilee,” St. Nersess Theological Review 9 (2004), 79–89. 8. The text has been published recently, with an extensive discussion, translation, and notes; see Terian, Macarius. Previous editions and studies include [n.a.], Գիրք թղթոց Book of Letters (Tiflis: Printing House T. Ṙōtineanc‘ and Sharadzē, 1901), 407–412 and N. Bogharian, Գիրք թղթոց, երկրորդ հրատարակութիւն Book of Letters: Second Edition, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Armenian Library (Jerusalem: St. James Press, 1994), 333–334; M. Ōrmanean, Ազգապատում National History (Constantinople: Tēr Nersēsean Press, 1913), vol. 1, §§87–100; Stone, “Holy Land Pilgrimage,” 94. 9. See Terian, Macarius, 76–77 (§§217.13–218.1); Book of Letters, 407–412; Bogharian, Second Edition, 1–9. 10. The synchronism shows that, if the epistle is genuine, and to date no one has argued otherwise, this must have taken place in 333–334 ce. See Ōrmanean, National History, vol. 1, §93, who discusses this in detail. 11. ի ձեռն երկիւղածաց քահանայից (Bogharian, Second Edition, 2). 12. To the evidence in n. 21 for Greek-​speaking Armenian pilgrims, we may add a Greek inscription mentioning Armenian nuns, which was discovered by C. Clermont-​Ganneau on the Mount of Olives and published in 1899. Further evidence may be found in C. Clermont-​Ganneau, Archaeological Researches in Palestine during the Years 1873–1874, repr. (Jerusalem: Raritas, 1971), 1.329–337. In addition, Terian, Macarius, 24–27 sets forth the philological evidence for Greek as the original language of the Letter of Macarius. Of course, the Armenians played an important role in the early monasteries in Palestine, which were also basically Greek-​speaking.

148 Notes 13. Terian discusses these issues of authority at some length: see Macarius, passim and particularly 46–54. See also Ōrmanean, National History, vol. 1, §93. Note that in the fifth century, the Bible text translated into Armenian did not come from Jerusalem or anywhere else in the Holy Land. Claude Cox discusses the translation of the Bible in a number of works, beginning with his book The Armenian Translation of Deuteronomy, UPATS 2 (Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1981), 6–13. A more recent writing on that topic is C. E. Cox, Armenian Job: Reconstructed Greek Text, Critical Edition of the Armenian with English Translation, HUAS 8 (Leuven: Peeters, 2006). See also L. Ter Petrosyan, “Introduction” to A. Zeyt‘unyan, Գիրք Ծննդոց The Book of Genesis, Monuments of Ancient Armenian Translation (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1985). 14. See C. A. Renoux, “Les čašoc‘ typicon-​ lectionnaire: Origines et évolutions,” REArm, NS 20 (1986), 123–151. He argues convincingly (125–126) for a date between 417 and 438/​9. 15. See B. Coulie, “The Armenian Version of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus: Armenian Philology at the Crossroads,” lecture at AIEA Congress, Wurzburg, 2002, typescript; and, most recently, B. Coulie, “Jérusalem et la diffusion des œuvres de Grégoire de Nazianze,” in V. Somerset and P. Yannopoulos (eds.), Philokappadox: In Memoriam Justin Mossay, OLA 251 Bibliothèque de Byzantion 14 (Leuven: Peeters, 2016), 19–47. 16. On this topic, see further Akinean, “The School of Jerusalem,” 69–73 and Gurian, “The Jerusalemite School.” 17. See W. H. Freemantle, G. Lewis, and W. G. Martley (trans.), Jerome, series 2, vol. 6 (London: Aeterna Press, 2016), letter 46, “To Marcella in the name of Paula and Eustochium,” 60–65, which mentions Armenians as inhabitants of Jerusalem. They feature first in a list, preceding Persians, Indians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and other peoples. 18. Stone, “Armenian Pilgrimage, 79–89, especially 82–83. 19. M. E. Stone, “An Armenian Pilgrim to the Holy Land in the Early Byzantine Period,” REArm, NS 18 (1984), 173–179. The visit to Egypt is probably to be understood as a pilgrimage to see the holy men, monks and ascetics who by then populated the Egyptian desert. See D. J. Chitty, The Desert a City (London: Mowbrays, 1966), 20–64. The phenomenon of holy men has been studied incisively by Peter L. Brown. See his work The Cult of Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Haskell Lectures on the History of Religions 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981) and particularly his well-​known paper, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” JRS 61 (1971), 80–101.

Notes  149 20. For our purposes, it is irrelevant that Eutaktos became a Gnostic heretic while in the Holy Land. It is the fact of his pilgrimage to the Holy Places and the holy men of Palestine and Egypt that is significant. 21. A detailed analysis of Eutaktos’s activities is to be found in Stone, “An Armenian Pilgrim,” 173–179. Some evidence for Greek-​ speaking Armenian pilgrims of a later period is assembled in M. E. Stone, “The Greek Background of Some Armenian Pilgrims to the Sinai and Some Other Observations,” in T. J. Samuelian and M. E. Stone (eds.), Medieval Armenian Culture, UPATS 6 (Chico, Calif.: Scholar’s Press, 1984), 194–202. There is certain further evidence, Armenian names in Greek forms, to be observed in the inscriptions from Hammat Gader, Choziba, and Mount of Olives. See, for example, L. Di Segni, “The Greek Inscriptions of Hammat Gader,” in Y. Hirschfeld (ed.), The Roman Baths of Hammat Gader (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1977), 185–266. The Armenian-​Greek papyrus from Egypt was most carefully studied by J. Clackson, “A Greek Papyrus in Armenian Script,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 129 (2000), 223–258; see also Avihai Shivtiel, “A Judaeo-​ Armenian and Judaeo-​ Arabic Word-​ List from the Cairo Geniza,” in Philip S. Alexander, et al. (ed.), Studia Semitica: The Journal of Semitic Studies Jubilee Volume (Oxford: OUP, 2005), 139–142. For the possible function of the word list, see J. R. Russell. “On an Armenian Word List from the Cairo Geniza,” Iran and Caucasus 17 (2013), 189–214. It preserves part of an Armenian-​Greek vocabulary and dates from before the eighth century. This document witnesses to travel between Armenian-​speaking and Greek-​speaking areas and was prepared for a literate Armenian who did not know Greek. However, its relevance to our topic is only glancing. 22. Vita sancti Euthymii in A.-​M. Festugière, Vie de S. Euthyme, Moines d’Orient 3.1, Moines de Palestine (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1962), 81. 23. This is the Armenian inscription from Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa) that was published by N. Bogharian, “A Sinai Inscription,” Sion 40 (1966), 538–539 (in Armenian). Its existence is not significant for our analysis. I discovered the other graffiti and published them in Stone, The Armenian Inscriptions from the Sinai; in M. E. Stone, “Four Further Armenian Epigraphs from the Sinai,” JSAS 2 (1985–1986), 73–83; and in M. E. Stone and T. M. van Lint, “More Armenian Inscriptions from Sinai,” in Baruch A. Levine, Philip J. King, Joseph Naveh, and Ephraim Stern (eds.), Eretz Israel: Cross Volume, Vol. 29 (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1999), 195*–203*. Because we can date the Nazareth inscriptions and because certain of the

150 Notes individuals who wrote graffiti in Nazareth were also in the Sinai and left graffiti there as well, we can also date the oldest Sinai inscriptions. 24. See B. Bagatti, Gli Scavi di Nazaret (Jerusalem: Franciscan Publishing House, 1967), and in English, The Excavations in Nazareth (Jerusalem: Franciscan Publishing House, 1969). We refer to the English-​language edition of this work. 25. Joan E. Taylor carefully reassessed the evidence for dating the floor under which the graffiti were deposited: J. E. Taylor, “A Critical Investigation of Archaeological Material Assigned to Palestinian Jewish-​Christians of the Roman and Byzantine Periods” (PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1989), 147. 26. I had heard rumors of these inscriptions many years ago, but am indebted to Dr. Joan E. Taylor, who reawakened my interest in them. She published an article on one of them: J. E. Taylor, “A Graffito Depicting John the Baptist in Nazareth?,” PEQ 119 (1987), 142–148. She kindly sent me a copy of the chapter dealing with Nazareth in her unpublished doctoral thesis written for the University of Edinburgh: Taylor, “A Critical Investigation,” ­chapter 12, “Nazareth,” 316–375. See further J. E. Taylor, Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-​Christian Origins (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), especially 258–264. 27. These inscriptions were published in M. E. Stone, “Armenian Inscriptions of the Fifth Century from Nazareth,” REArm 22 (1990–1991), 315–332; M. E. Stone, T. M. van Lint, and J. Nazarian, “Further Armenian Inscriptions from Nazareth,” REArm, NS 26 (1996–1997), 321–337. 28. See Stone, “Fifth Century Inscriptions from Nazareth,” 325, reprinted in Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and Armenian Studies, 2.775; Taylor, “Critical Investigation,” 147. 29. The archaeological dating to before the middle of the fifth century makes these the oldest dated Armenian inscriptions in the world. See Stone, “Inscriptions from Nazareth,” 325. 30. Ełišē, 1859, §2, p. 22 (see n. 32); Koriwn, ch. 14; and Movsēs Xorenac‘i, 3.54. 31. Stone, “Inscriptions from Nazareth,” 328, citing a personal conversation of 7 June 1990. Observe the connection of both these individuals with Siwnik‘. 32. Ełišē, Սրբոյն Հօրն մերոյ Եղիշէի վարդապետի մատենագրութիւնք The Writings of Our Holy Father Ełišē Vardapet (Venice: S. Lazaro, 1859), 212–239. The relevant section was translated into English by R. W. Thomson, “A Seventh-​Century Armenian Pilgrim on Mount

Notes  151 Tabor,” JTS, NS 18.1 (1967), 27–33. See further Stone, “Armenian Pilgrimage,” 79–89. 33. Abgaryan, The History of Sebēos, 116–121. Sebēos includes a copy of the correspondence. See also R. W. Thomson et al. (trans. comm.), The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, 1: Translation and Notes; 2: Historical Commentary, by J. Howard-​ Johnston, assistance from T. Greenwood, Translated Texts for Historians 31 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999), 170–172. 34. See in further detail Stone, “Holy Land Pilgrimage,” 97–99. 35. Stone, “Holy Land Pilgrimage,” 97–99; Thomson et al., The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, 116–118. 36. On travel conditions for pilgrims, see J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (Jerusalem: Ariel, 1977), 16–20 and E. D. Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312–460. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 50–82. 37. For a detailed summary and further references, see M. E. Stone, “A Reassessment of the Bird and Eustathius Mosaics,” in M. E. Stone, R. R. Ervine, and N. Stone (eds.), The Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, HUAS 4 (Leuven: Peeters, 2002), 203–219. See further M. E. Stone, D. Amit, J. Seligman, and I. Zilberbod. “A New Armenian Inscription from a Byzantine Monastery on Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem,” IEJ 61 (2011), 230–235; M. E. Stone, D. Ben-Ami, and Y. Tchekhanovets, “A New Armenian Inscription from the City of David, Jerusalem,” JSAS 23 (2014), 145–148; M. E. Stone, D. Ben-​Ami, and Y. Tchekhkanovets, “An Armenian Graffito from the City of David, Jerusalem,” REArm, NS 37 (2016–2017), 283–286. For a detailed inclusive report up to 2018, see Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archaeology. 38. Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archeology, 119; see also Stone, “The Oldest Armenian Pilgrim Inscription,” 340–350. 39. Stone, “The Oldest Armenian Pilgrim Inscription.” 40. The Armenian text was published by V. Aṙak‘elyan (ed. comm.), Մովսէս Կաղանկատուացի, Պատմութիւն Աղուանից աշխարհի Movsēs Kałankatuac‘i, History of the Land of Albania (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1983), 280–282. The document was translated into English by C. J. F. Dowsett, The History of the Caucasian Albanians, by Movses Dasxuranc‘i, London Oriental Series 8 (London: OUP, 1961), 181–183. I analyzed these pilgrim narratives in Stone, “Holy Land Pilgrimage,” 99–105. A fragment of this text was published many years ago by R. N. Bain, “An Armenian Description of the Holy Places in the Seventh Century,” PEQ 28, no. 4 (1896): 346–349.

152 Notes 41. The date has been debated in the past, but the reading of the text is unambiguous. 42. It would be most interesting to know more about the mode and character of the infrastructure supporting this pilgrimage. There must have been individuals who organized such groups, had great familiarity with the Holy Land, and could make all necessary arrangements. A hint at what this might have been like may be found in C. J. Kraemer, Excavations at Nessana: vol. 3, Non-​Literary Papyri (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958), papyri 72–73, 89. These do not relate to Armenians but do stem from the seventh century. Recently an Armenian pilgrim inscription of this vintage from Nessana has been published: O. Pogorelsky, Y. Tchekhanovets, and M. E. Stone, “Armenians in the Negev: Evidence from Nessana,” Le Muséon 132 (2019), 123–137. An expansive account from a much later period is that of Felix Fabri; see A. Stewart (trans.), Felix Fabri (ca. 1480–1483), PPTS vol. 1.1 (London: PPTS, 1896); H. F. M. Prescott, Once to Sinai: The Further Pilgrimage of Felix Fabri (New York: Macmillan, 1958). 43. There exist many more early inscriptions than those mentioned, and a substantial number have been published. See H. M. Cotton et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/​Palaestinae, Volume 1: Jerusalem, Part 2 705–1120 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012). On Jerusalem Armenian inscriptions, see Stone, “A Reassessment of the Bird and Eustathius Mosaics”; Stone, Amit, Seligman, and Zilberbod, “A New Armenian Inscription”, 230–235; Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archaeology, 55–136. 44. The list of seventy Armenian churches and monasteries in the Holy Land attributed to Anastas vardapet of the seventh century seems to preserve a core of reliable information, which is to some extent corroborated by archeological discoveries. Anastas’s List, a document written in Armenian, survived only in later copies; the earliest known version dates to 1589. Sanjian regards the list as unreliable: A. K Sanjian, “Anastas Vardapet’s List of Armenian Monasteries in Seventh-​Century Jerusalem,” Le Muséon 82.3–4 (1969), 265–292. Terian reviews Sanjian’s study, concluding, “[T]‌he extant list is a heavily distorted version of an original of considerable antiquity: it is a witness to the collective participation by the churches of the Lesser Caucasus in the monastic establishments of Byzantine Jerusalem, with an early redaction that reflects the traumatic separation of the Miaphysites from the Diophysites” (“Rereading the Sixth-​Century List,” 287). Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archaeology 20–21, like Terian and the present writer, considers it to include a core of

Notes  153 ancient material. Terian’s analysis brings so far ignored considerations to bear and is the latest and most firmly based study to date. 45. We have not discussed the Armenian mosaics themselves, which are to be dated from between the late fifth to the seventh century for they relate more to the settlement of Armenians in the land of Israel than to travel between Armenia and the Holy Land. Nor have we adduced here in detail the role of Armenians in the monasteries, as witnessed particularly by Cyril of Scythopolis and also by other hagiographers. This is also true of the tomb inscriptions, both from the Mount of Olives and from Musrara. Armenian inscriptions from the Jerusalem area are published on various pages in H. M. Cotton et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/​Palaestinae vol. 1: Jerusalem (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), Part 2, 705–1120. They are all discussed by Tchekhanovets, The Caucasian Archaeology, 55–136. 46. These place names all designate areas north of the Euphrates; cf. also the names in Jeremiah 51:27, discussed on pp. 8–10. 47. Neusner, “Jews in Pagan Armenia,” 230–240, especially 235. 48. Note, however, the view of A. Poliak, who says, “The reference in Lamentations Rabbah 1:14, no. 42, does not refer to the passage of the Tribes through Armenia as is usually claimed, but more probably to the Jerusalem exiles’ easy (harmonyah, ‘harmonious’) route.” A. N. Poliak, “Armenia,” in EJ, 2nd ed. (Detroit, Mich.: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), 2.473–474. 49. Some scholars think that the name Ashkenaz in fact designated populations west of the Volga, often identified as the Scythians. Inglisian, Armenien in der Bibel, 83–90 argues for this position. 50. Ačaṙyan, Dictionary of Armenian Personal Names, 1.251. 51. A. K‘yoškeryan (ed.), Գրիգոր Նարեկացի, Տաղեր եւ գանձեր Grigor Narekac’i: Hymns and Canticles (Erevan: Academy of Sciences, 1981), 173–183, especially 178, line 93. 52. Aṙak‘elyan, Movsēs Kałakantuaci, 32; see the English translation by Dowsett, The History of the Caucasian Albanians, 19. Thanks are expressed to A. Terian for this reference. 53. Ačaṙyan, Dictionary of Armenian Personal Names, 1.251. See also Thomson, Moses Khorenats‘i, 72, n. 39 and further, M. E. Stone, “The Transmission and Reception of Jewish and Biblical Motifs in Armenian Traditions,” in Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and Armenian Studies (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), 1.79–93, especially 82–84. See also the discussion of the activity of Armenian noble families in seeking Jewish roots in section 2,12 above. On the phenomenon, see R. W. Thomson, “The

154 Notes Maccabees in Early Armenian Historiography,” JTS 26 (1975), 329–341 and compare p. 106. 54. See n. 49. 55. See p. 9 and IDB 1.254; ABD, s.v. “Ashkenaz.” 56. All references to this work are taken from D. Flusser, The Josippon [Joseph Gorionides] (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1981), in Hebrew. Josippon’s main source is Josephus, of which it is a rewritten form. Arminīya was the administrative name given to the Caucasian province by the Arabs after their conquest of the area in the eighth century. On this regional name, see p. 75 On the Arab rule of Armenia, see A. Ter-​Ghewondyan, The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia, trans. N. G. Garsoïan, Armenian Library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon: Livraria Bertrand, 1976). 57. In Josippon 60.134 Armenia is mentioned, but in a rhetorical context. In Jossipon 85.80–82 reference is made to the Alans in “the Land of Ararat” and their being restrained behind gates by Alexander the Great. Mithridates “King of Ararat” opposed them (85.91). Alexander’s conquest of Armenia is related in the History of Alexander, a medieval Hebrew translation of the Alexander Romance, which is associated with Josippon in 1.15. On this tradition overall, see E. van Donzel and A. Schmidt, Gog and Magog in Early Christian and Islamic Sources: Sallam’s Quest for Alexander’s Wall (Leiden: Brill, 2010). 58. Obermeyer, Die Landschaft Babylonien, 131–133 argues that for the Talmudic sages “Armenia” was the mountainous area beyond the Euphrates. There he discusses the province known in Aramaic as “Beth Kardu,” a neighbor of Adiabene. It is, of course, Gordyene. 59. Targum Qama in loc. There is another tradition, cited by a late commentator on Lamentations, author of ‫לחם דמעה‬, that “the land of Uz” in Lamentation 4:21 is the city of Costantina (i.e., Constantinople) “in the land of Armenia.” Since this commentator, R. Samuel de Ozida (sixteenth century, Safed), lived under Ottoman rule and his books were published in Constantinople or nearby, it is possible that this identification is influenced by his own situation. 60. The details of the “Amalek” identification are drawn from Poliak, “Armenia,” 2.472–474. 61. Poliak, “Armenia,” reads this passage as the point at which Jews adopted the Byzantine characterization of Armenians as Amalek. Certainly, one (but not the only) stream of Byzantine thought was characterized by violent anti-​Armenian sentiment. See the balanced presentation by S.

Notes  155 Vryonis, “Byzantine Images of Armenians,” in R. G. Hovannisian (ed.), The Armenian Image in History and Literature (Malibu, Calif.: Undena Publications, 1981), 65–81. A clear summary of the Armenian role in the Byzantine ruling class is A. Kazhdan, “The Armenians in the Byzantine Ruling Class Predominantly in the Ninth through Twelfth Centuries,” in T. J. Samuelian and M. E. Stone (eds.), Medieval Armenian Culture, UPATS 6 (Chico, Calif.: Scholar’s Press, 1984), 439–451, who provides further bibliographic indications. To pursue this, however, would lead us into a diversion that, though interesting, contributes nothing to the history of Jews in Armenia. 62. E. Horowitz, “From Moses’ Generation to the Messiah’s: Jews versus ‘Amalek’ and Its Vicissitudes,” Zion 60 (2008), 425–454, especially 431 (in Hebrew). He can only suggest that Esau is regarded as symbolizing Christianity, Amalek is a son of Esau, and Armenians are Christians. 63. A. Epstein, ‫ ספוריו והילכותיו‬.‫אלדד הדני‬, Eldad the Danite: His Stories and Halachot (Pressburg: Abraham Alḳalai Press, 1891), part 2, p. 24. Eldad’s origins are unclear. 64. I am much indebted to Dr. David Sklare, who has guided my steps in the study of this document. Dr. Sklare remarks that “almost all of the Firkovitch Judeo-​ Arabic manuscripts were taken from the Geniza of the Karaite synagogue in Cairo” (personal communication, 24 November 2019). 65. D. Sklare, “Ninth-​Century Judeo-​Arabic Texts of Biblical Questions and Answers,” in M. L. Hjälm (ed.), Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 113–115. 66. Personal communication, 24 November 2019. His reasoning is that a list of cities in Arminīya would have been far less telling if written in Egypt. Armenia was close to northern Mesopotamia. See now in Sklare, “Ninth-​ Century Judeo-​Arabic Texts,” 115–119 where he demonstrates this hypothesis convincingly. 67. Initially in personal communication, 8 August 2005. Dr. Sklare has now published most of it in “Ninth-​Century Judeo-​Arabic Texts,” 115. He does not give the toponyms in this translation. He also published translations of selected passages from this manuscript in D. Sklare, “A Ninth-​Century Text of Questions and Answers on Biblical Contradictions,” in M. Polliak and A. Brenner-​Idan (eds.), Jewish Biblical Exegesis from Islamic Lands (Atlanta, Ga.: SBL, 2019), 215–227 (non vidi).

156 Notes 68. On the status of Armenia under Arab rule, see Ter-​Ghewondyan, The Arab Emirates, 19–22. There the province of Arminīya is discussed in detail together with other related topics. 69. “It seems to me unusual that the author chose to use Armenia as his example, giving sample place names. I would have thought that if he came from Iraq or Egypt (which are not in his list of far-​away lands a few lines later), he could have used names of villages from there” (D. Sklare, personal communication). 70. On the Armenian papyrus, a Greek-​Armenian word list in Armenian characters, see n. 21 on p. 149. 71. On the Jewish Khazars, see K. A. Brook, The Jews of Khazaria (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aaronson, 1999). 72. See the fine, detailed, and annotated edition of this document (and some others) by N. Golb and O. Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982). 73. On his diplomatic correspondence, see Golb and Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century, 75–100. 74. Golb and Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century, 106. Golb’s conclusions were challenged, on basically the same grounds, in Kevin Alan Brook, “The Unexpected Discovery of Vestiges of the Medieval Armenian Jews,” Los Muestros: The Sephardic Voice, no. 45 (2001): 5–16. This article, though for a general audience, was a significant step in the development of thought on this topic and an important contribution. Indeed, he had already expressed this view, treating it as a communis opinio in Kevin Alan Brook, The Jews of Khazaria (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1999), 117–118. 75. In fact, the Khazars came on the scene several hundred years later. 76. On this province, see G. Dédéyan (ed.), Histoire du peuple arménien (Toulouse: Privat, 2008), 223–225. An excellent study of the whole period is Ter-​Ghewondyan, The Arab Emirates see also n. 56 on p. 154. 77. It is clear that the author of the document knew very well what both Christianity and Islam were. That he would have called Christianity “idolatry” seems unlikely. 78. See pp. 91–92. 79. See section 3.1.

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Index of Personal, Ethnic, and Geographical Names* * Where proper names are used to denote historical sources discussed in the book, they are not included here. Names of religious groups are not included. The corrupted city names in the document cited on p. 110–​111 are not included. Abarbanel, Dom Isac, 106 Abełyan, Manuk, 124–​125 Abennerig, 44 Abgaryan, G. V., 136, 151 Abū l-​ʿAbbās Aḥmad al-​Balādhurī, 73 Abu Sa’id, khan, 94 Ačaṙyan, Hṙač‘ya, 67, 105, 127, 137, 139, 143, 153 Achaemenids, 47, 54 Adiabene, 9, 19, 28, 38–​40, 44–​46, 56, 63, 104, 106, 131, 154 Adiabenoi, 18, 42 Adler, William, 117–​119, 121, 123, 129, 147 Adontz, Nicholas, 60, 62, 137 Adrammelech, 6 Agat‘angełos, 29 Akhurean, River, 49 Akinean, N., 145, 148 Akoṙi, place, 14 Aladin, villages called, 111 Alans, 154 Ałayan, Ē. B., 140 Alexander the Great, 154 Alexander 1, son of Herod, 53–​55 Alexander 2, grandson of Herod, 53–​54 Alexander 3, son of Alexander 2, 56, 136 Alexander, descendant of Herod, 136

Alexander, Philip S., 149 Ałiovit, district, 25 Ałstev, River, 71 Ałuank‘ (Caucasian Albania), 73, 76, 108–​109 Amalek, 155 Amatuni, noble family, 63–​64, 68, 138 Amida, 71 Amidon, P. R., 120 Amihai, Aryeh, 115, 118, 121 Amit, David, 15, 115, 122, 140, 142, 151–​152 Ammianus Marcellinus, 21–​23, 124 Anahit, goddess, 65 Ananelus, High Priest, 60–​61 Anania, 137 Anania, Bishop of Siwnik‘, 101 Anania, Jewish martyr, 58 Anania, pilgrim, 101 Ananias, Jewish merchant, 44 Ananus, son of Bagadus, 60, 61 Anastas Vardapet, 152 Anastasius Sinaïta, 103 Angeł tun (Angelene), province, 60 Ani, city, 70–​73, 76 Anisi, 91 Annunciation, Basilica of, 100–​101 Antigonus, High Priest and king, 31, 33, 129 Antioch, city, 38, 45, 71

174  Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names Antiochus III, king, 134 Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king, 45, 55 Antiochus the Great, 107 Apamea (Kelainai), city, 18, 66 Apobaterion, (Landing-​place), 10–​11, 14, 121 Apollo, temple of, 48 Apollonius Molon, 2 Appian, 35–​37, 40, 131 Arabs, 28, 48, 51–​52, 70, 76, 114, 154 Aragatsotn, region, 138 Aṙak‘elyan, B., 140–​141 Aṙak‘elyan, V., 151, 153 Aramayis, legendary hero, 47 Ararad, place, 118 Ararat, land of, 7–​9, 15–​17, 117, 122, 132 Ararat, Mt. or Mountains of (Ararad), 1–​6, 8, 10–​11, 14, 18, 115–​117, 119, 120–​122 Ararat, province, 73 Araxes, River, 47–​50, 74, 76, 86 Arbela, city, 39, 44 Arčeš, place, 71–​73 Archelaus, king, 54, 136 Archelaus, son of Magadates, 60 Arcn, city, 70–​71, 73 Ardabil, 71 Arewik‘ Mountains, 78 Arghun, khan, 92 Argišti, king, 47 Ariobarzanes, 53 Aristobulus, brother of Alexander, 54 Aristobulus, son of Herod, king of Chalcis, 55, 136 Armawir, city, 11, 32, 34, 47–​49, 133 Armenia, passim Armenia Major, 37, 44, 55, 100, 134, 136 Armenia Minor, 53, 55, 57, 99, 100, 136 Armenia, Republic of, 69 Armenian Highlands, 2 Armenians, passim

Armeniya, city, 5, 12 Armeniya, mountain, 5–​6, 12, 117 Armenīya, prefecture, 75, 107, 110, 114, 154, 156 Arp‘a (Areni), village, 79–​81, 83–​84 Arp‘a, River, 83 Arsacid (Aršakuni) dynasty, 26, 51, 53, 56, 58–​59, 128 Aršak I (Arsaces I), king of Parthia, 63 Aršak II (Arsaces II), king of Armenia, 21–​24, 51, 58, 125 Aršam, king, 59 Artanes, of Sophene, 38 Artašat, city, 11, 20, 23–​24, 26, 34, 41, 47–​50, 64–​65, 74–​75, 129, 134 Artašes I, king, 32, 49–​51, 54, 134–​135 Artašēs II, king, 135 Artašesid dynasty, 47, 52–​54 Artavan, king of Armenia, 107 Artavazdes IV, 53 Artavazdes, son of Ariobarzanes, 53 Artawazd II, king, 30–​35, 68, 128 Artaxata, city. See Artašat Artaz, province, 138 Artemis, goddess, 48 Artešesid dynasty, 136 Artogerassa (Artegers), fortress, 22–​24, 33 Aruestan, 22. See also Mesopotamia Arzareth, land, 16 Ashkenaz, 8–​9, 105–​106, 107, 153 Asia, 28, 43, 45 Aslan, Mongol commander, 82 Ašmušat, 72 Ašot, Bagratid name, 59, 137 Ašot, king, 74 Assyria, 33, 39–​40, 44 Assyrians, 42, 106 Asud, Jew, 58, 61, 137 Atropatene (Atrapatakan), 38–​39, 53, 70, 73, 80 Augustus Caesar, 53–​54

Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names  175 Axalc‘xa (Akhaltsikhe), 71 Ayrarat, 74, 76–​77, 116, 118, 138 Ayrarat, valley, 47 Azaria, son of Enanos, 59 Azariah, 137 Azat, River, 74   Babel, Tower of, 12 Baberd, 71 Babgen, pilgrim, 101 Babgen, Prince of Siwnik‘, 101 Babylon, 9, 17, 31–​32, 43–​44, 57, 119, 131 Babylonians, 45 Bagadates, viceroy of Syria, 61 Bagadia, Bagratid name, 59 Bagarat, Bagratid, 58, 68, 137 Bagarat, derivation, 60, 62 Bagatti, B., 100, 150 Baghdad, 71 Bagratid (Bagratuni), family, 57–​58, 68, 75 Bagratids, Georgian, 61, 81 Bagrewand, province, 25, 51 Bain, R. N., 151 Bałaberd, fortress, 78–​80, 143 Bałaku, fortress, 78 Bałeš, city, 73 Bałk‘, province, 80 Baris, Mountain, 11 Baron, Salo W., 131–​132 Barsełyan, H. X., 111, 116, 121–​122, 131, 133–​135, 141–​143 Barxudaryan, S. G., 143, 145 Barzap‘ran Ṙštuni, 33–​35, 59, 64. See also Barzapharnes Barzapharnes, satrap, 31, 34 Bedoukian, Paul Z., 136 Beit-​Arié, Malachi, 109 Ben-​Ami, D., 151 Benjaminites, 108 Bergren, T. A., 122 Berkri, city, 71, 73

Bernice, niece of Herod, 55 Berossus, 5, 7, 116, 117 Bethlehem, 101 Bickerman, Elias, 125 Bǰni, province, 71 Black Sea, 50, 71 Blake, Robert P., 142 Bogharian, Abp. Norayr, 101, 147, 149 Boloraberd, fortress, 90 Brenner-​Idan, A., 155 Brodribb, W. J., 135 Brook, Kevin A., 156 Brown, Peter L., 148 Bruyne, D. de, 122 Bubak, nobleman, 81 Budge, E. A. Wallis, 122 Buttrick, George Arthur, 115 Byzantium, 110–​111, 113   Caesarea Maritima, 146 Caesarea of Cappadocia, 72 Cain, 12 Cairo, xi, 109, 112, 149, 155 Čakatk‘, province, 76 Cambyses, king, 107 Cappadocia, 28, 36–​38, 40, 54, 57, 116, 130, 136 Cappadocians, 39, 42 Carrhae, 71 Carrière, A., 136 Cary, E., 131 Caspian Sea, 71 Cassius Dio, 36–​37, 40, 42 Caucasian Albania, 73, 75, 78, 103, 110, 114 Caucasian Albanians, 38, 145 Caucasus, 67, 81, 112, 114 Central Asia, 71, 114 Charax-​Spasinou, kingdom, 44 Chiliocomum, area in Media, 22 China, 71, 110–​111 Chitty, D. J., 148 Chort‘man, Seljuk commander, 78

176  Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names Choziba, place, 149 Christensen, A., 125 Church, A. J., 135 Cilicia, 36, 39–​40, 52, 60 Cilicia Pedia, 38 Cilicia Tracheia, 136 Cilicians, 40, 42 Cimmeria, 116 Clackson, J., 149 Claudius Ptolemy, 46 Clements, Ruth A., 18, 118, 123 Cleopatra, queen, 128, 129 Clermont-​Ganneau, C., 147 Cohen, L., 132 Cohen, Shaye D., 28, 126–​128, 131 Commagene, 38, 55, 136 Constantinople, 108, 154 Constantius, emperor, 100 Cop‘k‘, region, 73 Cordova, 113 Cordyaeans, 3–​4 Cotton, H. M., 152–​153 Coulie, Bernard, 148 Cox, Claude E., 148 Cretans, 28 Crimea, 106 Ctesiphon, 21 Cyrene, 28 Cyril of Scythopolis, 153   Damascus, city, 46, 107 Darius I, 54, 133 Daviau, M. M., 117 de Lange, Nicholas R. M., 146 Dédéyan, Gérard, 142, 156 Derbend, 71 Di Segni, Leah, 149 Diehl, Ernst, 135 Dilleman, L., 124 Dmanisi, place, 71 Domitius Corbulo, 50 Donabédian, Patrick, 90, 143 Donaldson, T. L., 146

Donzel, E. van, 154 Dowsett, C. J. F., 151, 153 Durgaryan, K., 140 Dvin, city, 50, 70–​77, 143   Ecbatana, city, 48, 63 Ecdippon (Achziv), 31 Edessa, city, 45, 59, 62, 71 Egypt, 28, 37, 60, 99, 106, 108–​109, 112, 148–​149, 155–​156 Egyptians, 148 Ēǰmiacin, 52. See also Vałaršapat Elamites, 28 Ēlč‘ibekyan, Ž., 137 Eldad Had-​Dani, 109 Eleazar, Jewish martyr, 44, 58, 68, 137 Ełegis, River, 86–​87 Ełegis, village, 15–​18, 69, 76, 79–​81, 83–​87, 89–​93, 95–​96, 114, 143–​144 Ełegnajor, town, 96, 143 Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin), 100 Elikum II Ōrbelean, 82, 94 Ełišē, historian, 116, 121 Enanos, Bagratid, 59, 61, 138 Enoch, Cainite, 12 Epiphanius of Salamis, 99, 100 Epstein, Abraham, 155, 160 Erato, queen, 52, 135 Erevan, 52, 71 Eruand the Last, king, 32, 47, 49, 54, 129, 135 Eruandašat, city, 20, 23–​25, 35, 41, 48–​49, 51, 133 Eruandid (Orontid) dynasty, 47 Ervine, Roberta R., 151 Erznka, city, 73 Esar-​haddon, king, 07 Esau, 155 Ethiopia, 110–​111 Ethiopians, 148 Euphrates, River, 16–​17, 21, 37, 39, 43, 45, 60, 105, 108, 120, 123–​124, 132, 153–​154

Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names  177 Europe, 43 Eusebios Pamphyliou (of Caesarea), 18, 34 Eustochium, St., 99 Eutaktos, pilgrim, 99–​100, 149 Euthymius, St., 100   Feldman, Louis H., 28, 44, 126, 131–​132 Felix Fabri, pilgrim, 152 Festugière, A.-​J., 149 Findikyan, Daniel, 145 Flavius Jovian, Emperor, 21–​22 Flusser, David, 154 France, 106, 109 Freemantle, W. H., 148 Frye, Richard N., 142   Gagik I Arcruni, king, 77 Galadza, D., 145 Gamir, region, 111, 118 Gamir‘k, town, 118 Gandzak, town, 71 García-​Martínez, Florentino, 121 Garibian, Nazénie, 146 Garsoïan, Nina G., 26, 116, 118, 123, 125–​126, 128, 133–​135, 137, 154 Gełark‘unik‘, region, 81, 83 Gelzer, H., 129 George Syncellus, 3, 18, 34, 119, 121, 129 Georgi III, king, 81 Georgi V, king, 84 Georgia (also Iberia), xiii, 38, 45, 46, 75, 76, 81, 84, 101, 110, 111, 114, 132, 142, 146 Georgians, 38, 45, 46 Geret‘in, monastery of, 79 Ghazan khan, 76, 94 Ghazarosyan, A., 143–​145 Ginzberg, Louis, 117, 119 Gladzor (Glajor), monastery, 95 Glaphyra, wife of Alexander, 54, 136

Golb, Norman, 112–​114, 156 Gomer, 105 Gordyene, region, 3–​7, 38–​40, 42, 45–​46, 116, 118, 132, 154 Gordyene, Mountains of, 3, 6 Gordyeneans, 42 Gouras (Guraz), name, 137 Gouras, brother of Tigran II, 131 Greenstein, Edward L., 125 Greenwood, Timothy, 151 Gregory of Narek, 105 Gregory, Nazianzus, 99 Gregory, St., the Illuminator, 62, 64–​65, 135 Grigor Derenik, Arcruni, prince, 77 Grigorēs, mentioned in the Spitakawor inscription, 96 Grigoryan, G., 141, 142 Grünhut, E. H., 119 Gugark‘, province, 73 Gurian, X. S., 145, 148   Ḥabib ibn Maslama as Fihrī, 73, 75 Hakobyan, T. X., 111, 116, 121–​122, 131, 133–​135, 141, 142–​143 Hamadan, city. See Ecbatana Haman, 108 Hammat Gader, place, 149 Hannah, Jewish martyr, 68 Hananiah-​Shadrach, 137 Hannibal, 50, 134 Harmon, place, 9, 10 Harrak, W., 117 Ḥasdai ibn Shaprut, 113 Hat‘erk‘, city, 71 Hayk, mythical ancestor of the Armenians, 57, 105 Helene, queen, 44 Her, province, 71–​73 Hermon, place, 120 Herod of Chalcis, 55 Herod the Great, king, 31, 52–​55, 59–​61, 129, 136

178  Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names Herodian dynasty, 53 Hestiaeus the Egyptian, 117 Hewsen, Robert, 4–​5, 10–​11, 111, 115, 117, 119, 121 Hieronymus the Egyptian, 117 Hillel, Vered, 115, 118, 121, 159 Hirschfeld, Yizhar, 149 Holladay, William L., 120 Holy Land, vi, xiv, 97–​99, 102–​103, 146–​149, 152–​153 Holy Sepulcher, Church of, 101 Horowitz, E., 155 Horst, Piet W. van der, 132 Hovannisian, Richard G., 155 Howard-​Johnson, J., 151 Hṙač‘ea, king, 57 Hübschmann, Heinrich, 65, 133–​135, 138 Hunt, E. D., 151 Hurarat, land of, and mountains of, 2, 12 Hūrmînî, place, 9 Hydarnes. Persian nobleman, 47, 54 Hyrcanus (Hiwrkandos), High Priest, 30–​35, 59–​61, 68, 128, 129   Iǰewan, city, 11, 14 Ilkhanid Empire, 94, 95 Ilkhanids, dynasty, 84, 92 India, 71, 110–​111 Indians, 148 Inglisian, V., 115–​121, 153 Iran, 9, 71, 76, 114. See also Persia Iraq, 106, 112 Isfahan, 64 Israel, kings of, 77 Israel, Land of, xiv, 5, 17, 97, 102–​103, 123, 153 Israelites, 105 Ivanē Zak‘arean, prince, 81, 142 Izates, king, 28, 44–​45, 63   Jacob Adiabene, Rabbi, 104 Jacob Armenīya, Rabbi, 104

Jacob Mina’a, Rabbi, 104 Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, 102 Jagik, prince, 78 Japheth, 105 Jawakh (Jawakheti), place, 111 Jeffreys, Elizbeth, 123 Jeffreys, Michael, 123 Jericho, 100 Jerome, 99 Jerusalem, 27, 31, 37, 57, 97–​103, 145, 148, 152–​153 Jeselsohn, David and Jemima, xi Jesus Christ, 135 Jews, passim John Hyrcanus II, High Priest, 128 John the Baptist, 103 Jones, A. H. M., 131 Jones, H. L., 130 Jordan, River, 102 Joseph of Arc‘ax, 103 Josephus Flavius, 2, 4, 12, 18, 20, 31–​32, 34, 37, 61, 107 Judea, 28, 31, 36, 59, 107, 128, 136 Judean desert, 100 Judean hills, 100 Judi Dag, Mountain, 6, 119 Julian, Emperor, 21, 22 Justin, 36–​38 Justinus M. Junianus, 130   Kanayeanc‘, S., 127 Kapan (Łapan), city, 73, 78–​80, 84, 86, 93, 143 Karaulashvili, I., 146 Karin (Erzerum), city, 71–​73, 76 Kars, city, 70–​71, 73, 76 Kartli, 114. See also Georgia Kayghatu khan, 94 Kazhdan, A., 155 Kelainai. See Apamea Khachikyan, Levon, 116, 143–​144, 145 Khazaria (Qazaria), region, 110–​113 Khazars, 112, 113, 154, 156

Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names  179 Khul, Mongol, 79 Khurasan, region, 110–​111 King, Philip J., 149 Koester, Helmut, 132 Komitas, Catholicos, 102 Konya (Iconium), 111 Koriwn, historian, 101, 106 Kotayk, region, 81, 83 Kraemer, C. J., 152 Krkyašaryan, S., 130 Kulik, Alexander, 115 Kurdistan, 3 Kurds, 47 Kutaisi, 71 Kyoseyan, Hakob, 116 K‘yoškeryan, A., 153   Łafadaryan, K., 141 Lerner, Constantine B., 132, 146 Levine, A., 149 Lewis, G., 148 Lewis, J., 119 Libya, 28 Lint, Theo M. van, 149–​150 Liparit Ōrbeli, nobleman, 81 Lipscomb, W. Lowndes, 122 Loṙi, region, 71 Lossky, A., 145 Lubar, Mount, 4–​6, 8, 12, 119 Lucullus, general, 37, 39–​41, 43 Lysanias, king, 31   Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, 98, 100, 102 Macedonian, 54 Machiela, Dan A., 12, 121–​122 Magadates, general, 60 Maghreb, 110, 111 Magnesia, 134 Mahé, A., 116, 142 Mahé, Jean-​Pierre, 116, 142 Mainz, city, 107 Maiozamalcha, town, 124 Malxasyanc‘, Step‘an, 123

Mamikonids, family, 62 Manandian, Hakob, 22, 26, 48–​49, 51, 54, 124–​125, 128–​131, 133–​136, 140 Manaseryan, R., 127 Manazkert, 72–​73, 76 Manetho, 117 Mangu Khan, 83 Manneans, 9 Manue (Manoah), 138 Manue Amatuni, 63 Mar Abas Catina (Maraba Mcurnac‘i), 57–​58, 136 Maragha, city, 72 Marand, city, 71 Marcella, 99 Marcus, David, 125 Margarē, vardapet, 96 Mariamne, wife of Herod of Calchis, 54 Marisa, 34 Mark Antony, 107, 128–​129 Markwart (Marqwart), Joseph, 60–​62, 124, 131, 137 Marr, Nicolai, 91 Martley, W. G., 148 Masis, Mountain, 1, 5–​6, 11, 13, 15, 115–​121, 123 Maštoc‘, St. Mesrop, 125 Matevosyan, A. S., 141, 143–​145 Matevosyan, K. A., 143 Mathews, Thomas F., 142–​143 Mayhoff, K. F. T., 134 Mazaca (Mazhak), city, 38, 130 Mazaceni, 38, 40–​41 Mazis, 118. See also Masis Mcbin. See Nisibis Medes, 9, 28, 48, 53 Media, 19, 23, 41, 43, 48, 124 Mediterranean Sea, 71 Meeks, Wayne A., 132 Melik‘-​Baxšyan, S. T., 111, 116, 121–​122, 131, 133–​135, 141–​143 Melik‘-​Ōhanjanyan, K. A., 143 Melitene (Małatia), 71–​72, 100 Melkonyan, Husik, 142

180  Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names Mellink, M. J., 115, 120 Mesopotamia, 4–​6, 17, 19, 22, 28, 33, 36, 38–​39, 41, 43, 45, 76, 104, 123 Mesopotamia, northern, 19, 109, 112, 155 Mesopotamia, southern, 44, 123, 132 Metsamawr, River, 50 Milk Grotto, 101 Minni, people, 8–​9 Minyas, country, 11 Mithra, god, 137 Mithridates Eupator, King, 37–​38, 107, 154 Mnaseas, author, 117 Mochus, historian, 117 Modestus, Bishop of Jerusalem, 102 Mongols, 48, 52, 76, 79, 81–​83, 85, 93, 94–​95, 142 Monobazus, king, 44 Mordechai, 108 Moses, 11 Moses the Preacher, R., 109 Mosshammer, A. A., 129 Mount of Olives, 147, 149, 153 Movsēs Kałankatuac‘i, 103, 106 Movsēs Xorenac‘i, 20, 24, 27, 31–​33, 35, 37–​38, 46–​51, 57, 60–​, 65, 68, 74–​75, 101, 105, 119, 123–​127, 129–​, 130, 133, 137–​138, 150 Mt. Sinai (Jebel Musa), 100–​102, 149 Müller, C., 133 Muradyan, Gohar, 122 Muradyan, H. M., 140 Muradyan, Paruyr, 126 Murray, M., 146 Muš, city, 72 Mušełyan, A., 126 Musrara quarter, Jerusalem, 153 Mxit‘ar, pilgrim, 103 Mygdonia, 38, 45–​46, 131   Nalbandyan, H. T., 141 Narbonne, city, 109

Nativity, Basilica of, 101 Naveh, Joseph, 149 Naxčawan (Nakhiǰawan), city, 11, 14, 23–​26, 35, 41, 48, 52, 71–​72, 83, 115, 121 Nazareth, 100–​101 Nazarian, Julia, 150–​151 Nebuchadnezzar, king, 57–​58, 62, 123, 137 Nehardea, 45 Nero, emperor, 50, 55–​56 Netzer, Amnon, 91–​92, 144 Neusner, Jacob, 61–​63, 104, 131–​132, 135, 138, 153 Nicolaus of Damascus, 117 Niese, B., 117 Nimrod, 12 Nineveh, city, 12, 131 Ninus, 39 Nisibis (Mcbin), city, 21, 45, 124, 131 Nisroch, deity, 4–​6, 11–​12 Noah, 1, 4–​5, 10–​15, 18, 48, 118–​119, 121 Noah, sons of, 122 Noah, wife of, 121 Nöldeke, Theodor, 139 Noravank‘, monastery, 90 Np‘rkert (Martyropolis), 71–​73 Nubia, 110–​111   Obermeyer. J., 130, 132, 154 Oljaytu (Uljetu) khan (Muhammed Khodabandeh), 92, 94 Ołji, River, 78 Ōrbelean, cemetery of, 87 Ōrbelean, noble family, 81–​88, 90, 94, 144 Ōrbelean, Step‘annos, 78–​79, 141 Ōrbeli, noble family, 81 Ōrmanean, M., 147–​148 Oshakan, castle, 138 Osroene, 38, 45–​46

Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names  181 Ostan, province, 74 Ottomans, 154   P‘arandzem, queen, 33 P‘arisos, 71 Pacorus, prince, 31, 33–​34, 129 Palestine, 6, 24, 30, 32, 35, 37, 43, 46, 104, 106, 114, 116, 118, 130–​131, 133, 146–​147, 149 Pamphylia, 28 Papazian, Michael, 116 Partav (Bardha‘a), city, 70–​71 Parthia, 18, 23, 31–​32, 34, 52, 55–​56, 63, 117, 128 Parthian(s), 28, 31, 33, 34–​39, 45, 50, 53, 56, 58, 63–​64, 129, 131 Patkanean, K‘., 123, 125, 141 Paul, Shalom P., 120 Paul, St., 29 Paula, St., 99 Payitu, khan, 76 Pearce, L. E., 123 Pearson, B. W. R., 132 Peeters, P., 117 Pergamos the Pamphylian, 18 Périkhanian, A., 135 Perrin, B., 130 Persia, 20–​22, 92, 124. See also Iran Persian Gulf, 17 Persian Jews, 84, 86, 92–​93, 114 Persian(s), 20–​26, 29, 33, 35, 46–​49, 51–​52, 54, 63–​65, 68, 74–​75, 84, 91, 102, 108, 124–​125, 143, 148 Petaḥia of Regensburg, R., 119 Petit, Françoise, 118 Petronius, governor of Syria, 45 Petus, Roman general, 55 Pharasmanes, 55 Phasaelus, brother of Herod, 31 Philistines, 107 Philo of Alexandria, 45 Philostorgius, 120, 123 Phoenicia(n), 32, 36–​39, 43, 117

Phraates, king, 32 Phrygia, 18, 28, 118, 121 Piotrovsky, B., 116 Pisidia, 18 Plutarch, 20, 36–​37, 40, 42, 130–​131, 134 Pogorelsky, Ofer, 152 Polemo, 55 Poliak, A. N., 153, 154 Polliak, M., 155 Połos, scribe, 95 Pompey Trogus, 37 Pontus, kingdom, 28, 37 Porter, S. E., 132 Prescott, F. M., 152 Pritsak, Omeljan, 112, 156 Proš Xałbakean, prince, 81 Pṙošean (Xałbakean), noble family, 81, 90, 95 Ptolemaïs (Acre), 31–​32, 35–​37, 47, 107, 128   Qardo, Qardon, Qardoniya, 3, 5, 7, 9, 117–​118, 120 Qardoniya, mountain, 12, 117 Quintus Plautius, consul, 54   Rashi (R. Shlomo Yitsḥaki), 106 Rashid al-​Din, 92 Reiter, S., 132 Renoux, Charles Anastase, 148 Rhemman, Mountain, 10 Rhineland, 106 Ridley, R. T., 124 Riphath, 105 Rolfe, J. C., 124 Roman Empire, 131, 136 Roman(s), 21–​22, 27, 30, 32, 34–​35, 39–​41, 43, 51, 55–​56, 107, 124, 128, 134 Rome, 52, 55 Ṙštuni, noble family, 47, 133 Ruehl, F., 130

182  Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names Russell, James R., 67, 123, 149 Russia, 71, 109   Sa’ad al-​Dawla, 92 Saadia Gaon, 106 Safed, town, 154 Salmast, city, 72 Salome, queen, 107 Salome, sister of Herod, 55, 57 Šambat Bagarat, 58 Šambat, Bagratid name, 59, 137 Šambat, Jew, 57 Sambation, land, 110–​111 Samson, 138 Samson Amatuni, 63–​64 Samuelian, T. J., 149, 155 Sanjian, Avedis K., 81, 142–​145, 152 Sap‘tia, son of Enanos, 59 Saquliba, people, 106 Sararad, 123 Sararad, Mountain, 3–​4 Sargsean, A., 125 Sargsyan, G., 130, 136 Saria, relative of Enanos, 59 Sāsānians, 125 Satala, 99 Saul, King, 108 Schmidt, Andrea, 154 Scott, Roger, 123 Scythians, 9, 106, 153 Sebastus, 129 Sedeqetelebab, wife of Shem and city, 13 Sefarad, nation, 106 Seleucid dynasty, 38, 40, 45–​46, 60, 134 Seligman, J., 151–​152 Seljuks, 48, 52, 78, 79, 80, 81, 84, 86, 93, 142 Semiramis, city of, 34, 47, 130. See also Van Semites, 60 Senekia, brother of Enanos, 59

Sennacherib, king, 7 Sevan, Lake, 71, 138 Sextus Iulius Africanus, 18, 34, 36, 117–​118, 129 Sextus Papinius, consul, 54 Shabbethai, Levitical name, 61 Shakē, place, 111 Shaked, Shaul, 67, 144 Shapira, Dan D. Y., 66, 115, 140, 146 Shāpūr (Shapuh, Sapor) II, king, 21–​25, 27, 29, 32–​33, 41, 47, 64–​65, 105, 128 Shāpūr III, 29 Sharaf al-​Din, Khawaja, 91, 92 Sharezer, 6 Shavarshan (Maku), city, 138 Shem, 13 Shivtiel, Avihai, 149 Sidon, city, 31 Simon, 61 Sinai desert, 100–​101, 103, 150 Sinai, Mount, 102 Sinclair, Thomas, 131 Singara, city, 21 Sis, Mountain, 1 Siwnik‘, kingdom of, 78, 80 Siwnik‘, province, 48, 73, 77–​83, 85, 94–​95, 142, 150 Sklare, David, xi, 109–​110, 112, 155, 156 Smbat Bagratid, 62 Smbat I, king, 70, 74 Smbat, name, 59, 61 Smbat Ōrbelean, 83, 94 Smbat, prince of Bałk‘, 80 Smbataberd, fortress, 83, 143 Šnohvor, wife of Grigorēs, 96 Sodk‘, region, 81 Sohaemus, king, 55 Soli of Cilicia, 40, 131 Somerset, V., 148 Sophene, 36–​37, 39, 55 Sophia, wife of Grigor Derenik Arcruni, 77

Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names  183 Ṣorfat, nation, 106 Spain, 106, 108 Speyer, city, 107 Spitakawor Astuacacin, church, 80, 84, 95–​96 St. Catherine, Monastery of, 100, 103 St. Petersburg, 109 Steiner, Richard C., 119 Step‘annos Ōrbelean, 78, 80, 84 Step‘annos, prior of Geret‘in, 79 Stern, Ephraim, 149 Stern, Menahem, 116–​117, 119, 121, 149 Stewart, A., 152 Stone, Michael E., ix, 1, 115, 118–​ 119, 121–​123, 139, 140, 142, 144–​ 145, 147–​149, 150–​153, 155 Strabo, 36–​37, 39–​43, 49, 54 Sullivan, R. D., 115 Šura, place, 111 Surb Mari (Surmari, Surmalu), 76 Syria(n), 2, 11, 19, 26–​27, 31–​37, 39, 45–​46, 56, 60–​61, 76, 110–​111, 136 Syria, Pedias, 38 Syria, Upper, 38, 40, 46 Syriac language, 5–​6, 13, 68, 117–​ 118, 121–​122, 138–​139, 146   Tabor, Mount, 101 Tabriz, city, 86, 92 T‘ačer, landowner, 96 Tamara, queen, 81, 142 Taron, 73 Tat‘ew, monastery, 84 Taurus Mountains, 103 Taylor, Joan E., 101, 150 Tchekhanovets, Yana, 145, 147, 151–​153 Temenus, 54 Ter Haar Romeny, R. B., 118 Ter Petrosyan, Levon, 148 Ter-​Ghewondyan, Aram, 154, 156 Ter-​Martirosov, Felix, 126

Ter-​Minasyan, E., 127 Tēr-​Mkrtč‘ean, G., 127 Terian, Abraham, 119, 145–​148, 152, 153 Teutonic peoples, 106 Thackeray, H. St. J., 117 Thaddeus, apostle, 62, 64 Themânôn, city, 13 Thomson, Robert, 62, 125, 127, 129, 136, 138, 141, 150–​151, 153 Thorossian, H., 130 Tiberius Caesar, 54 Tiflis (Tblisi), 71 Tigran (Tigranes) II, the Great, 17, 19–​20, 24, 26, 30–​48, 58–​61, 64, 68, 107, 123, 127–​128, 129, 131, 133, 139 Tigran III, 135 Tigran IV, 52, 135 Tigran V, 53–​57, 135 Tigran VI, 53, 55–​57 Tigranakert (Tigranocerta), city, 38–​43, 56, 131 Tigris, River, 17, 21, 124, 131 Tirac‘yan, Gevorg, 47, 133 Titus, emperor, 61 Tobias (Tubiay), Jewish prince, Bagratid, 59, 62, 64 Togarma, 105 Topchyan, Aram, 111, 122, 126, 129, 130, 143–​144 Tosp (Tušpa), city, 33, 46, 64. See also Tozb Toumanoff, Cyril, 60, 61, 62, 137, 138 Tozb, district, 25. See also Tosp Trajan, emperor, 63–​64 Transcaucasia, 70 Trapizon (Trebizond), 71 Trdat I Bagratuni, 50, 53, 56, 58–​59, 134 Trdat III, 52 Tuffin, P., 117–​118, 121, 123, 129 Tyre, city, 31

184  Index of Personal, Ethnic, Geographical Names Uljeitu khan, 92 Urartians, 19 Urartu, 2, 9, 46–​47, 115–​116 Urmia, Lake, 9, 72, 138 Ushakova, Maria, xi Uz, land of, 108, 154   Vałaršakert, city, 71–​72 Vałarš, king, 32, 51, 58 Vałaršapat, city, 20, 22, 24–​26, 32, 34, 51, 64–​65, 71, 76, 135 Van, city, 20, 23–​24, 26, 29, 33–​34, 41, 46–​47, 52, 64, 73, 76–​77, 125, 133 Van, Lake, 2–​3, 46–​47, 51, 138 van Rompay, Lucas, 118 Varaz, Bagratid name, 59, 137 Vardan Arewelc‘i, 118 Vaspurakan, region, 48, 73, 76–​78, 138 Vayoc‘ Jor, region, xiii, 69, 76, 79–​81, 83, 85–​86, 90, 95, 142, 144 Vazaria, Bagratid name, 59 Verin Akhta, village, 90 Vespasian, emperor, 55, 136 Volga, River, 71, 153 Vologeses, king, 50, 56 Vrouyr, Norayr, 138 Vrt‘anēs, Catholicos, 98, 99, 100 Vryonis, Speros, 155   Wacholder, Ben-​Zion, 121 Wallraff, M., 118, 129 Weigl, M., 117 Weitenberg, J.J.S., 118 West Asia, 106 Wevers, J. W., 117 White, H., 130 Wilken, Robert L., 132 Wilkinson, John, 151

Wilson, Matthew, xi Wolff, H. W., 120 Worms, city, 107 Wunsch, C., 123   Xač‘atryan, Ž., 134 Xalat‘eanc‘, B., 141 Xalatjanc (Xalat‘yanc‘), G., 129, 171 Xarberd, city, 72, 111 Xisouthros, 3 Xlat‘, city, 72–​73, 76 Xosrov Kotak, king, 74 Xosrov (Khosrow) I Anūširvan, 114 Xosrov (Khosrow) II Parvez, 114 Xosrov’s Forest, 74 Xozan, city, 72   Yannopoulos, P., 148 Yāqūt al-​Hamawi, 73 Yarut‘iwnean, S., 125 Yehuda HaLevi, 112 Yovsēp‘ean, Garegin I Catholicos, 90–​91, 94, 141–​144   Zak‘arē Zak‘arean, prince, 81, 142 Zak‘arean family, 81 Zaki, Khawaja, elder, 91–​92 Zareh, father of Artašes I, 51, 135–​136 Zarehawan, city, 20, 23–​25, 35, 41, 50–​51 Zariadris, 39 Zarišat, city, 20, 23–​25, 34, 41, 50–​51 Zebulun, tribe of, 109 Zeugma, 39 Zeyt‘unyan, Antranik, 148 Zilberbod, I., 151–​152 Zosimus, historian, 22 Zuit‘ay, martyr, 64–​65