ქართული თარგმანების მნიშვნელობა ქრისტიანული არაბული მემკვიდრეობის შესწავლისათვის

Abstract

Georgia had a direct contact with the Arab world for more than 400 years. Tbilisi was an emirate governed by the Jafarides. During that period, Arabic words took root in Georgian through translations. Together with this, Arabic words were adopted by the Georgians from oral speech. On the territory of Georgia, many Arabic inscriptions were found. It is also important that in the 11th and 12th centuries the names of the Georgian Kings on their golden coins were written in Arabic. Georgia is fully described by Arab historians and geographers. Educated Georgians knew Arabic very well. It was not regarded by them only as the language of Islamic civilization, as is proved by several Georgian manuscripts with additions and notes in Arabic, which were found in Sinai Monastery. The scribes of that period had perfect command of both (Georgian and Arabic) languages alongside Greek. The Georgians began to develop their literary activities especially intensively from the 8th century, during the rise of Christian Arabic literature. The Arabic-Georgian literary contacts were mainly made in the monasteries of St. Sabas, St. Chariton and the monastery of the Mother of God at Sinai. Among the texts translated from Ar abic into Georgian, one can fi nd hagiographical and homiletical works, ascetic monuments, the so-called “teachings” by John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Ephraim the Syrian and others. The present paper will deal in detail with the hagiographical works, The Martyrdom of Romanos the Younger, The Life of Anthony Ravach, The Life of Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite, The Martyrdom of Pansophius of Alexandria, The Martyrdom of Elianos, The Life of Kyriakos, etc. Sometimes the Greek or Arabic versions of these works are not known to the public (e.g. Vita of St. Romanos). The translation from Arabic into Georgian proves the prestigiousness of Christian Arabic literature in Palestine. The Georgian versions played an important role in discovering the history of the appearance of the Arabic language in the literature of the Holy Land monasteries in the 1st Abbasid century.