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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2022.85.46.016

ARMENIAN SOURCES ABOUT CHRISTIANITY OF THE ALANS

Tuallagov, Alan A.
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2022. IIS 46 (85).
Abstract:
In part of the medieval Armenian sources, information on the history of Christianity among
the Alans is recorded. However, until now they in their totality remain outside the attention and
analysis of specialists. On the other hand, separate reports of sources caused contradictory decisions
of researchers, which objectively affect the overall picture of the scientific study of the issues of
Christianization of the Alans. This provision determines the relevance of the problem under
consideration. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the direct appeal both to the relevant
data of Armenian written sources and to the historiography of the problem itself. The study is based
on the methods of textual research, inductive and logical analysis, while observing the principle of
systematic presentation. The first information about the adoption of Christianity by the Alans is
contained in the Armenian Lives. They tell about the Alans who arrived in Armenia and founded
a special religious direction. Historically, the information is related to the events of the last quarter
of the I–beginning of the second third of the II centuries AD. They are, as it were, the prehistory
of the spread of Christianity in Armenia. These hagiographic monuments were created in the V
century. They are based on legends dating back to the first centuries of our era, and direct sources,
apparently, to the IV century. At that time, Armenia claimed the role of the most ancient center of
Christianity, founded by the disciples of Jesus Christ, which justified the right to autocephaly. In this
dispute, Armenia used the legends about the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, which include the
aforementioned Lives. Some of the interpretations of other evidence about the subsequent conversion
of the Alans to Christianity seem to be either insufficiently substantiated or clearly erroneous.
More reliable information about the introduction of the Alans to Christianity is contained in later
evidence from Armenian sources. They already belong to the period of indisputable official adoption
of Christianity in Alania itself.
Keywords: Christianity, Alans, Armenia, written sources, archaeological data
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