ჰაგიოგრაფიული ლიტერატურა არაბულ ენაზე
Loading...
Date
2024-02-14
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
In Christian Arabic literature, as well as in the religious writings of
other peoples, translations of biblical texts and hagiographical works
were created first of all. This is natural, since the mentioned material
was needed for worship.
In the Arabic tradition we find practically all the types of hagiographic
collections that were common in the East. In this case, we are particularly
interested in the Melkite Menologion and the Synaxaria, coming
out of the Greek Orthodox circle. The first of them fully contains the martyrdoms or lives of the saints. A classic example of such a collection is
the work created by Simeon the Metaphrast. It contains revised, embellished
redaction texts, most of which have been translated into Arabic.
As for the Synaxaria, there is relatively brief information about each saint.
As an example, we can mention the Synaxarion of Constantinople.
Most of the texts included in it have been translated into Arabic.
We should also pay attention to the Typicons, which contain information
about the saints whose day it is. In the Orthodox tradition, there
are several such collections in circulation, on the one hand, of the Great
Church, and, on the other, of the monastic needs – Monastery of Stoudios
and Monastery of Mar Sabas. We have all this material in the Arabic
language almost completely. References reflected in the mentioned liturgical
books are based on hagiographical literary documents.
In the early period, the main centers of hagiographic writings were
Palestine, Egypt and Syria. The merits of those who were martyred for
Christianity were described, as well as the life and activities of the monks
who settled in the desert. Arabic-speaking Christians showed great interest
in the collections created during that period, and also got acquainted
with the works of Palladius, Theodet of Cyrus and Cyril of Scythopolis,
where there is extensive information on the activities of Palestinian
monks.
In the 7th-9th centuries, compared to the first centuries of Christianity,
fewer hagiographic works were written, although some innovations
still appear against the background of this relative scarcity. The most important
of these is the development of the cult of neo-martyrs, that is,
new martyrs. These were people who had been executed by the hands of
Muslims. Naturally, these writings attracted special attention of Arabicspeaking
Christians. For this circle of readers, who fell within the framework
of the Islamic empire and had to defend their faith every day, the
martyrs punished by the Muslims were an ideal example for Christianity.
On the other hand, neo-martyrs are also those who sacrificed themselves
to the persecution organized by iconoclasts. Among these saints
there were many Greeks. There were frequent cases when the iconophile
Greeks turned away from Byzantium and took refuge in the East. At that
time, the literature created about the neo-martyrs also spread unhindered
in Eastern Christianity, moreover, it seems that some writings did not
even exist in the Greek language. As an example, we can name the Martyrdom of Romanus the Neo-martyr. Romanus was Greek and was executed
by the hands of Saracens, although the writing clearly shows how
hostile the iconoclast Greeks, who were captured with him by the Arabs
in the Baghdad prison, were towards him. Today, the work has survived
only in the Georgian language. It is apparently translated from Arabic, although
the original Arabic text is lost.
As far as the Greek tradition is concerned, Romanus New is not even
mentioned in the calendars. From this it is clear that in some cases the
martyrdoms of certain saints were described only in the Arabic language.
Also, Georgian translations, which in fact carry the function of the original,
gain special importance. It is significant that in the 8th-10th centuries
Georgians often translated hagiographic works from the Arabic language,
even when parallel Greek texts, i.e. originals, were known. It is clear
from this that already at that time, at the earliest stage of the development
of Christian Arabic literature, this writing was considered highly
prestigious. Georgians paid special attention to hagiographic texts in
Arabic.
The well-known German scholar, Georg Graf, who has a fundamental
monograph on Christian Arabic literature, notes with regard to hagiographic
monuments that the Arabic language preserves narratives about
the saints of all denominations of Christianity. First, there are the so called
“Saints of the world”, which all churches refer to, secondly, there are
texts in Arabic about Greek Orthodox, Syriac Melkites, Syriac or Coptic
Monophysites, Nestorians. It is possible that there were data about Georgian
saints in Arabic, the point is that close relations between Arabicspeaking
Christians and Georgians were established in the Sinai-Palestine
area in the 8th-10th centuries. It was there that translations from Arabic
were completed, and the technical cooperation between Arabic-speaking
Christians and Georgians is also clearly visible. Later, in the 17th
century, Patriarch Makarius of Antioch, even before he traveled to Georgia,
in his calendars mentions and provides information about Georgian
saints. These saints are Nino the Illuminator, the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers,
Euthymius and George of Mount Athos. Perhaps, these Georgian saints
were mentioned in Arabic calendars even before that.
The reflection of the traditions of different denominations led to a
remarkable abundance of hagiographic texts in Arabic (translations from
Greek, Syriac, Coptic, as well as original works).
Description
Keywords
Citation
თბილისის უნივერსიტეტის დაარსებისადმი მიძღვნილი სამეცნიერო კონფერენცია. თსუ 106, თეზისები, 2024, გვ.: 77-82 / Scientific conference dedicated to the foundation of Tbilisi University. TSU 106, Abstracts, 2024, pp.: 77-82