saqarTvelos mecnierebaTa erovnuli akademiis moambe ,,,,, 17 17 17 17 1755555, , , , , ½½½½½11111, , , , , 20020020020020077777BULLETIN OF THE GEORGIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 175, ½½½½½11111, 200, 200, 200, 200, 20077777

© 2007 Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci.

Albania, together with Georgia and Armenia, was an-other civilized country on the territory of present Azerbaijanin the Caucasus in antiquity and early Middle Ages. From10th century, due to the strong influence of neighbouringcountries, nomadic tribes and the Caliphate, this state dis-appeared, so that only vague memories about its writing,literature and language were left in the sources.

On September 28, 1937 among the Echmiadzin(Yerevan) manuscripts Ilia Abuladze discovered a 15thcentury manuscript that represented a textbook of differ-ent languages and writings. Albanian writing was foundin this manuscript [1]. The very alphabet was studied byA. Shanidze. He concluded that the successors of theAlbanians must have been a small nation, living on theterritory of Azerbaijan and by that time even on the terri-tory of Georgia, known as Udis whose language belongedto the Southern Dagestanian group of Languages of theCaucasus [2]. In 1948-1949, during the Mingechaur ex-cavations several inscriptions and graphites were found.However, they failed to be deciphered by means of thealphabet given in the manuscript.

In 1975 fire crashed the floor of one of the chapels ofthe St. Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai and numer-ous (1100) manuscripts, being sunk into oblivion for morethan two centuries, written in different languages, werediscovered in the lower depository, among them 141 Geor-gian manuscripts and large numbers of fragments werefound [3].

Among the newly discovered manuscripts two itemsare of special importance for international scholarship(N/Sin-13, N/Sin-55), which represent a Georgian-Alba-nian palimpsest (with two layers of writing). One of them(N/Sin-13) is better preserved, while the other one is se-verely damaged by fire. The sheets of the second manu-script (N/Sin-55) stuck together due to the intense heat,and only with the effort of the team of restorers of theInstitute of Manuscripts were separated without any loss.It has been ascertained that the lower text of the manu-script could be better detected due to the fire impact [4].

The lower, Albanian text of the two manuscripts dis-covered on Mount Sinai (the two manuscripts might con-stitute two parts of the same manuscript) was washed off

History & Philology

Discovery and Decipherment of Caucasian Albanian Writing

Zaza Alexidze

Academy Member, K. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts, Tbilisi

ABSTRACT. Albania, together with Georgia and Armenia, was another civilized country on the territory ofpresent Azerbaijan in the Caucasus in antiquity and early Middle Ages. From the 10th century this state disap-peared, so that only vague memories about its writing, literature and language were left in the sources. In 1975 fireruined the floor of one of the chapels of the St. Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai and numerous (1100) manu-scripts, being sunk into oblivion for more than two centuries, written in different languages were discovered in thelower depository. Among them 141 Georgian manuscripts and large numbers of fragments were found. Among thenewly discovered manuscripts two items are of special importance for international scholarship (N/Sin-13, N/Sin-55), which represent Georgian-Albanian palimpsest. The lower, Albanian text of the manuscripts (might comprisetwo parts of the same manuscript) was washed out in the 10th century and overlapped by Georgian alphabeticalPatericon. Below follows the story of the discovery and deciphering of the Caucasian Albanian Lectionary. © 2007Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci.

Key words: Albanian script, palimpsest, Sinai.

162 Zaza Alexidze

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Discovery and Decipherment of Caucasian Albanian Writing 163

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164 Zaza Alexidze

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Discovery and Decipherment of Caucasian Albanian Writing 165

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Fig. 2. Photo. II Corinthians 11, 26-27.

166 Zaza Alexidze

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istoria da filologia

kavkasiis albaneTis mwerlobis Zeglis aRmoCena dagaSifvra

zaza aleqsiZe

akademiis wevri, k. kekeliZis xelnawerTa instituti, Tbilisi

albaneTi iyo kavkasiis teritoriaze mesame civilizebuli saxelmwifo antikur xanasa da adreSuasaukuneebSi daaxloebiT Tanamedrove azerbaijanis teritoriaze. X s-dan mokidebuli, mezobeliqveynebis, momTabare tomebisa da arabTa saxalifos Zlieri gavlenebis Sedegad igi sruliad gaqraistoriis asparezidan.

1937 wlis 28 seqtembers eCmiaZinis (erevanSi) xelnawerebs Soris i. abulaZem miakvlia XV s-issomxur xelnawers, romelic warmoadgenda sxvadasxva enebisa da damwerlobis saxelmZRvanelos.am xelnawerSi aRmoCnda albanuri anbanic. anbani Seiswavla a. SaniZem da daaskvna, rom albanebismemkvidreebi unda yofiliyvnen azerbaijanis teritoriaze da nawilobriv saqarTveloSi mcxovrebimcirericxovani xalxi udiebi, romelTa ena kavkasiuri enebis samxreT daRestnur enaTa jgufsekuTvnis. daaxloebiT aTi wlis Semdeg azerbaijanis teritoriaze mingeCauris gaTxrebis drosaRmoCnda albanuri damwerlobiT Sesrulebuli ramdenime warwera. imedi, rom i. abulaZis mieraRmoCenili anbaniT gaiSifreboda es warwerebi, ar gamarTlda.

1975 wels sinas mTaze, wm. ekaterines monasterSi erT-erT saTavsoSi gaCenili xanZris CaqrobisSemdeg aRmoCnda 1.100 xelnaweri da uamravi fragmenti. 1982 wlidan cnobili gaxda, rom maT Sorisiyo qarTuli xelnawerebic. 1990 wlidan dRemde maT Sesaswavlad xelnawerTa institutma xuTieqspedicia moawyo. dafiqsirda 141 qarTuli xelnaweri da didi raodenobis fragmentebi.

to this kind of Lectionaries? Was it created in Palestin-ian environment? Are there any indications in the textto back up the idea?

The Albanian church regarded St. Elise (Elishe), oneof Christ’s 70 Apostles who came to Albania from Jerusa-lem and was ordained by Our Saviour’s brother Jacob, asits Enlightener. The sources report that there were nu-merous Albanian churches and cloisters in early medi-eval Jerusalem.

In the Albanian Lectionary the proper name «John» isused in its Jewish-Syriac form «Iohanan» only that mayindicate the pronunciation of it used by the Albanian com-munity of Palestine. The Albanian manuscript was dis-covered in Palestinian environment, on Mount Sinai. Basedon this, I assume that the Albanian Lectionary was createdin the Palestinian environment and belongs to the earliesttype of Jerusalem Lectionaries [5].

* * *Soon after the involvement of well-known special-

ists of Udi language and language typology (Jost Gippertand Wolfgang Schulze) in the study of the Albanian textsand after Volkswagenstiftung purchased for the Instituteof Manuscripts equipment for reading the lower texts ofthe palimpsests with the relevant program installed(MuSIS), it was made possible to completely read theAlbanian text, fully identify the graphemes and recon-struct the grammatical structure of the Albanian language.The facsimile of the Albanian manuscript, text given inAlbanian graphemes with transliteration, transcription,translation, parallel texts in Greek, Georgian, Armenian,etymological vocabulary, study and comments will bepublished in 2008 by Brepols Publishers in the Ibero-Caucasica Series (Editors: Z. Alexidze, J. Gippert, J.-P.Mahé, and W. Schulze).

Discovery and Decipherment of Caucasian Albanian Writing 167

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axlad aRmoCenil xelnawerTa Soris saerTaSoriso mecnierebisaTvis gansakuTrebuli mniSvnelobaaqvs or xelnawers, romlebic warmoadgens qarTul-albanur palimfsests (orjer dawerili teqsti).

sinas mTaze aRmoCenili ori xelnaweris qveda, albanuri teqsti gadarecxes X s-Si da zevidandaaweres qarTuli anbanuri pateriki. albanuri xelnaweris kodikologiuri saxis gansazRvraadgilzeve moxerxda. aman, zog SemTxvevaSi, SesaZlebloba momca orad gakecili da sxvadasxvaadgilas moxvedrili furceli warmosaxviT gameerTianebina da Semdeg kompiuterSi misi pirvandelisaxe aRmedgina. gamoirkva, rom albanuri teqsti naweria or svetad, vertikalurad da TiToeulsvetSi 22 striqonia. gairkva furclebis formati, areebis farTobi da ganisazRvra areebze gakeTebuliminawerebis adgili.

gabmulad naweri teqstis sityvebad daSlis SesaZleblobas maZlevda sxva Zveli mwerlobebismsgavsad mozrdili abzacebis dawyeba sazedao asoTi, daqaragmebuli sityvebi, garkveuli monakveTebiserTmaneTisgan gamoyofa gankveTilobis ori wertiliT, gameorebuli erTi da igive sityvebi da mTelifrazebi.

Teoriulma gaTvlebma da teqstis garegnuli saxis tipologiurma analizma mimiyvana daskvnamde,rom albanuri teqsti unda yofiliyo mTeli wlis saRvTismsaxuro wigni „leqcionari”. amis Semdegdadga amocana sxva enebze arsebuli leqcionarebis Sesatyvisi adgilebis moZebnisa albanurSi.xangrZlivi da teqnikurad rTuli samuSaos Sesrulebis Sedegad moxerxda im, SedarebiT wvriliasoebiT naweri winadadebebis gadmowera, romlebsac Teoriulad leqcionarebis sakiTxavTasaTaurebad miviCnevdi. erT-erTi aseTi saTauri gaiSifra da igi aRmoCnda pavle mociqulis epistoleTesalonikelTa mimarT.

saTaurebis amokiTxvisa da gaSifvris Semdeg saWiro iyo sakiTxavebis identifikacia nacnobenebze arsebuli leqcionarebis sakiTxavebTan. albanuri teqstis is monakveTi, romelSic erTi daigive fraza cxrajer meordeboda, aRmoCnda nawyveti pavle mociqulis meore epistoleebidan(axali aRTqma) me-11 Tavis 25-27-e muxlebi. gamoirkva, rom qarTul, somxur da berZnul SesatyvisteqstebSi gamoyenebuli leqsika zog SemTxvevaSi Tanxvdeba albanurs. aseT sityvebSi gamoyenebulgrafemaTa (asoTa) fonemuri (bgeriTi) mniSvnelobis zustad dadgena Zneli aRar iyo. paralelurmateqstebma saSualeba momces, agreTve, damedgina albanuri enis ramdenime gramatikuli kategoria,ramac kvlav didi siaxlove maCvena Tanamedrove udiurTan. gamoirkva, rom albanuri anbani grafikuladaxlos aris qarTulTan, somxursa da eTiopurTan.

albanuri leqcionari Sedgenili unda iyos palestinur samyaroSi. axali aRTqmidan sakiTxavebiuCvenebs gansxvavebebs sxva enebze arsebul axali aRTqmis teqstebTan da adasturebs, romamierkavkasiis xalxTa enebze arsebuli bibliis teqstebis gareSe wmida werilis arqetipis aRdgenaar iqneba srulyofili.

REFERENCES

1. I.V. Abuladze. K otkrytiu alfavita Kavkazskikh Albantsev, Izvestiya Instituta yazyka, istorii material’noi kultury, N4, vyp.1, 1938 (Russian).

2. A.G. Shanidze. Novootkrytyj alfavit kavkazskikh albantsev i ego znachenie dlya nauki, Izvestiya Instituta yazyka, istoriimaterial’noj kul’tury, N4, vyp. 1, 1938 (Russian).

3. Catalogue of Georgian Manuscripts discovered in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, Prepared by ZazaAlexidze, Mzekala Shanidze, Lily Khevsuriani and Michael Kavtaria, Athens, 2005.

4. Z. Alexidze. Georgian-Albanian Palimpsest on Mt.Sinai and its Relevance to Caucasian Studies, Tb. 1998.5. Z. Alexidze. The Caucasian Albanian Script, Language and Literature: Discovery in St. Catherine Monastery on Mt. Sinai,

Tb. 2003.

Received February, 2007