The History of Sebeos

ON TRANSLATIONS

The preface to the "History of Sebeos" (from the words "And it happened at the waning of the times of the Arsacid reign in the land of Armenia" to the end, including the words "I wished to narrate all this to you briefly through this book"), as well as the third and fourth chapters of the Anonymous writer (from the words "Now, if it is necessary for you, O reader, I shall repeat from the historians Movses Khorenatsi and Stepannos Taronatsi" to the end of the Mamikonian discourse, including the words "From this, he is the sparapet commander-in-chief") were translated into French as early as 1848, when the manuscript was only just becoming known and had not yet been printed. While providing a general description of the manuscript, M. Brosset translated the mentioned passages and included them in his "Rapports" Reports [^19]. These are the first samples of a translation of the "History of Sebeos."

Subsequently, after the publication of the book, the Armenian historian's work began to be cited in translation by numerous Armenian and foreign specialists who studied the history of the Caucasus, the East, and Byzantium during the period described in the "History of Sebeos." In this way, the author was translated in excerpts in numerous studies, beginning with E. Dulaurier’s French excerpts [^20]. "So that the History of Sebeos became a necessary book in a short time for those dealing with the history of the East of the VI—VII centuries" [^21].

It is remarkable that the "History of Sebeos" was also cited in excerpts in Latin at a time when that former international scientific language was already falling out of circulation [^22]. Among the recent excerpted translations of the Armenian source, the most extensive are found in an article published in New York, whose author translated various passages from the last seven chapters of the "History of Sebeos" into English [^23].

In the Mashtots Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Lazarev Fund, file 100, doc. No. 51), there is currently kept an unpublished fragment translated into Russian by Patkanyants in the middle of the last century, which covers chapters 32 through 36 of the "History of Sebeos" in their entirety. The translation was made from Mihrdatyan’s edition, certainly before 1862, that is, before the publication of Patkanyan's Russian translation.

19 M. Brosset, Rapports sur un voyage archéologique, p. 49—52.

20 E. Dulaurier, Recherches sur la chronologie Arménienne, Paris, 1859, t. I. After Dulaurier, the chapter regarding the appearance of the Arabs in the "History of Sebeos" was translated into Russian by M. Emin in the notes section of his Russian translation of Vardan Areveltsi.

21 "History of Emperor Heraclius," SPb., 1862, K. Patkanyan’s Preface, p. 5.

22 P. Peeters, Pasagathes—Persogenes:—"Byzantion", t. VIII, fasc. 2(1933), Bruxelles, 1933, p. 410—412.

23 H. R. Hewsenian, The coming of the Ishmaelites:—"Ararat", New York, vol. III, № 4, 1962, pp. 6—10. Among the recently published English excerpts, the excerpts by Armen Hovhannisyan ("Cilician Armenia and the Crusades", Detroit, 1958) are also worth mentioning.