2024-07-25 23:49:38
The newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the only official printed organ of the Holy See, published an article entitled “At the origins of Christianity. In the footsteps of the Albanian Apostolic Church in Azerbaijan. A journey to ancient Caucasian Albania.”
As reported by Day.Az with reference to AZERTAC, the newspaper’s journalist Rossella Fabiani, who visited Azerbaijan, talks about Christianity in Azerbaijan, the ancient Albanian heritage, the state of religious communities living in our country, and also cites historical facts in her article. The publication states that in 1836, Tsar Nicholas I decided to abolish the Albanian Church and subordinate it to the Armenian Gregorian Church.
It is noted that the emergence of the Albanian Apostolic Church in the Caucasus dates back to the 4th century AD. It is emphasized that ancient Caucasian Albania stretched from the mountains in the north to the Araz River in the south, from the Caspian Sea in the east to the borders of Georgia (then Iberia) in the West. Today, Azerbaijan is located on this territory.
Caucasian Albania was one of the first countries in the world to accept Christianity, preached by Elisha, a disciple of the Apostle Thaddeus. Sent to the Caucasus by Saint James, the first Patriarch of Jerusalem, Elisha, inspired by the life of Jesus, in his own words, sowed the “seeds” of the ancient Albanian Apostolic Church of the Eastern Rite in the Caucasus.
Elisha’s journey was long. He left Jerusalem, crossed several countries and, arriving in the village of Kish in the Sheki region, founded the first church of Caucasian Albania. Written sources and examples of material culture testify to the existence of 26 tribes here since the 1st century, the dominant ethnic group of which were Albanians. The presence of this civilization and church remained unknown for a long time, until in 1937 the Georgian linguist Ilia Abuladze, examining an Armenian manuscript, discovered a number of unusual alphabets. In 1947, during the construction of a large dam in the Azerbaijani city of Mingachevir, new inscriptions were discovered identical to those found in the Armenian manuscript.
A few years later, in 1952, a new manuscript was found, consisting of the same alphabet as the previous ones. In May 1975, after a fire destroyed a number of places in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai in Egypt, a surviving room was discovered under the collapsed floor. There, 1,100 manuscripts had been stored since the 18th century, of which 140 were of Georgian origin.
Among them, two played a decisive role: N Sina 13 and 55, codices written on parchment. The two manuscripts from the 10th century were palimpsests (in ancient times, this was the name given to a manuscript written on parchment that had already been used in this way) with text in Albanian, arranged in two columns without spaces between words.
After comparing the script of two palimpsests with the alphabet of Matenadaran MS, 7117 and tombstone inscriptions discovered in Azerbaijan in 1947 and 1952, German scholars Jos Gippert and Wolfgang Schulz came to the conclusion that the two Georgian manuscripts N Sina 13 and 55 were composed in Albanian and were part of a manuscript that has not reached us. But above all, the Sinai palimpsests proved the continuity between the liturgical language of Albanians and the modern Udi language.
The article also notes that based on these findings, one can conclude that the medieval written sources that claimed that the first churches in Caucasian Albania date back to the 1st century were right. In this regard, the thoughts written by Moses Kalankatuysky (7th century) in his book “History of Albania” are irreplaceable: “In Jerusalem, Elisha was appointed by Saint James, the brother of Jesus, the first patriarch of Jerusalem. Elisha accepted the East as a gift. He came to the village of Gis (Kish), located in the north of Azerbaijan, founded a church here, sacrificed an animal. This place is the source of our churches, the foundation of ancient capitals and the beginning of a place of greatness.”
But it was only in the middle of the 4th century (after the Edict of Milan in 313) that the Albanian rulers officially adopted Christianity and began minting coins in Gabala, the first capital of Caucasian Albania. This marked the beginning of the second stage of development of Christian architecture, which lasted from the 4th to the 7th centuries. Thus, Christianity became an important factor in the unification of the multinational Albanian state. The spaces where the monuments of ancient beliefs are located served as the basis for the construction of basilicas and churches. In the 12th century, the Albanian Church experienced a revival. During this period, new churches were built, the oldest ones were restored, and new examples of architecture were created. An example is the Hatiravang Monastery, built in 1204 and located in the Kalbajar region, as well as the Khudaveng Monastery, built in 1214 and included in the UNESCO list of monuments of world significance. In addition, the Ganjasar Monastery, located in the Agdere region and founded in 1216. One of its epigraphs reads: “Built for the Albanians by order of the Albanian Patriarch.”
This monastery was the spiritual center of the Albanian Principality, which remained independent until 1836, when Tsar Nicholas I decided to abolish the Albanian Church and subordinate it to the Armenian Gregorian Church.
It is emphasized that with the signing of the Turkmenchay Treaty in 1828, which provided for the resettlement of Armenians from the Ottoman and Persian Empires to the territories of the Karabakh, Irevan and Nakhchivan Khanates, the gradual decline of the Albanian Church had already begun. After that, the process of Gregorianization of the heritage of Caucasian Albania began. However, during an archaeological expedition to Karabakh in 1918-1919, the president of the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia, orientalist Joseph Orbeli examined and described more than a thousand epigraphs engraved on the walls of churches and monasteries of Karabakh, in particular Ganja. Based on the results of the study, the Armenian archaeologist in his book “Inscriptions of Ganjasar and Avotsptuk” came to the conclusion that the cultural architectural heritage is the heritage of the Caucasian Albanian Church, which is an integral part of the world heritage, especially Christian.
It should be noted that this is the first article in a whole series prepared by the journalist about her trip to our country.