The History of Sebeos

The appendices are followed by the aforementioned 53 notes, after which the History of Mkhitar Anetsi is printed. It consists of a preface (2 pages), the text (52 pages), and a 19-page appendix, which contains the passages from the works of Movses Kaghankatvatsi, Tovma Artsruni, Samvel Anetsi, Kirakos Gandzaketsi, and Vardan Areveltsi that relate to Muhammad.

3. History of Bishop Sebeos on Heraclius, Tiflis, 1912—1913.
This is a literal reprint of K. Patkanian’s 1879 publication. An index of names has been added.

4. History of Bishop Sebeos, fourth publication, compared with manuscripts, with preface and notes by St. Malkhasyants, Yerevan, 1939.

It is printed based on the oldest manuscript of the "History of Sebeos" that has reached us (No. 2639).

Here, the famous passage that was copied out of order in the manuscript is rearranged (see note 161). Manuscripts No. 2867, 3122, 6454 kept in the Matenadaran named after Mashtots, the Vienna No. 86 manuscript, as well as previous publications, have also been used. Only the Anonymous section was compared with the aforementioned manuscripts copied in the 19th century.

It also differs from previous publications in that the "Writings A and B" of the predecessors have become chapters A, B, G, and D here. In addition, the name of Heraclius, which was in Mihrdatyan’s and Patkanian’s publications, has been removed from the title of the book. "The name Heraclius," writes Malkhasyants, "does not correspond to the content of the History... The name Heraclius in the title of the book obscures the true essence of Sebeos’s writing, which is a History of the Armenians, starting from early times until his own days. But we were cautious about calling this writing 'History of the Armenians' because the main events in the history contemporary to the author are the wars of the Persians and Greeks, the stage for which was Armenia, as well as the Arab invasions. Therefore, Armenia and the Armenian princes take a secondary place here. Hence, we chose the title 'History of Bishop Sebeos,' which causes no dispute" (p. HE).

Instead of the 38 chapters of the previous publications, Malkhasyants divided the History into 50 chapters, believing that it was also divided into 50 chapters in the manuscript. "We placed the chapter division," he writes, "and the chapter numbers, following Mihrdatyan’s instructions on one hand (regarding chapters A—Z), and Akinean’s instructions on the other (p. 27)13, at the same time taking into account the marks placed in the margin of the manuscript without numerical letters and the words starting with red ink at the beginning of the lines" (same place). In reality, however, judgments based on words starting with red ink can only be made within the limits of the first chapters of the "History of Sebeos" manuscript, and later...

13 Mihrdatyan’s and Akinean’s instructions are based not on manuscript No. 2639, but on its copies, in which the manuscript is incorrectly divided into 50 chapters.