Church of Caucasian Albania
Encyclopedia
The Albanian Apostolic Church or the Church of Caucasian Albania was an ancient autocephalous
church under the religious jurisdiction of the Armenian Apostolic Church
that existed from the fifth century to 1830 and was centered in Caucasian Albania
, a region mostly located in present day Azerbaijan
. It was one of the earliest national Christian
churches.
In the early eighth century, the church tried to break away from the Armenian Church and embrace Chalcedonianism, but this attempt was foiled by the Armenians with the help of the Arabs. In medieval times, the monastery of Gandzasar served as the See of the Caucasian Albanian Catholicate, which continued its existence till 1828 (or 1836) when it was formally abolished by the Russian authorities
.
, who travelled to the region in the 1st century B.C., the local tribes practised polytheism
. Among the worshipped deities, Strabo names the gods of the sun, the sky, and above of all, the moon, and equates them to the Greek gods
Helios
, Zeus
, and Selene
respectively. The skeleton of a human bound in fetters found in 1950, during the archeological excavations in Mingachevir
, indicates that the ancestors of Caucasian Albanians practised human sacrifice
.
in Jerusalem, and travelled eastward through Persia to preach Christianity in the land of the Maskout, one of the Caucasian Albanian tribes (hypothetically related to the ancient Massagetae
of Central Asia). From there he travelled to Utiķ
, to the city of Saharn, but was chased from there by the pagans. After this he arrived at a place called Gis where he built a church - the first in the Caucasus
, today commonly believed to be the Church of Kish
north of Shaki, Azerbaijan. The church founded by St. Elisæus was regarded by Caucasian Albanians as their "mother-church" that laid the foundation of institutionalised Christianity in the kingdom.
On his way through the Zerguni Valley, St. Elisæus was martyred, and his remains were buried in a place named Homenķ. They were later exhumed and reburied in the Jrvshtik Monastery (in the present-day Tartar Rayon, Azerbaijan).
or Derbent
, both located by the Caspian Sea
. St. Bartholomew managed to convert even members of the local royal family who had worshipped the idol Ashtaroth, but was later martyred by being flayed
alive and crucified head down on orders from the pagan king Astyages. The remains of St. Bartholomew were secretly transferred to Mesopotamia
. At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Russian Orthodox Church
had established itself in the South Caucasus
, a chapel was built at the site of an old Caucasian Albanian church in Baku, by the Maiden Tower
believed to be the place of St. Bartholomew's martyrdom. The chapel was demolished in the Soviet
times, in 1936, in the heat of the Bolshevik
campaign against religion.
adopted Christianity as its state religion (301/314 AD), the Caucasian Albanian king Urnayr went to the See of the Armenian Apostolic Church
to receive baptism from St. Gregory the Illuminator
, the founder and first Catholicos of Armenia
. According to historian Igor Kuznetsov, this determined the Armenian Apostolic Church's notion of its superiority to the Church of Caucasian Albania. However Caucasian Albanians, in contrast, may have believed in the seniority of their church due to the role of St. Elisæus who according to the tradition presented by Movses Kaghankatvatsi
built a church on their lands "earlier than in Armenia." After Urnayr's death, the Caucasian Albanians requested that St. Gregory's grandson, St. Gregoris, lead their church. St. Gregoris had been ordained bishop of Caucasian Albania and Iberia at age 15 and travelled through those lands preaching Christianity. He built Caucasian Albania's third known church in the city of Tsri, in Utiķ. During his stay in the land of the Maskout in northeast Caucasian Albania, St. Gregoris was attacked by an angry mob of idol worshippers, tied to a horse and dismembered. His remains were buried near the Amaras Monastery
(presently in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan) built by his grandfather in the Albanian province of Haband.
In the mid-5th century, under Vache II, Caucasian Albania shortly adopted Zoroastrianism
due to Persian influence. The return to Christianity resulted in a war between Persia and Caucasian Albania, during which Vache II lost his heir. Neither side won; eventually Peroz I
of Persia offered Vache II peace and the right to adhere to Christianity, if Vache's mother and wife who were Persian and Zoroastrian by birth were returned to their homeland. Vache complied, and lived the rest of his life in solitude.
Christianity reached its golden age in the late 5th century under Vachagan the Pious (ruled 487–510), who launched a campaign against idol worship and witchcraft
in Caucasian Albania and discouraged Zoroastrianism. Those who propagated idol worship were physically punished, enslaved or ostrasised. King Vachagan would personally arrange for their children to be taken to schools and raised Christian. He took an active part in Christianising Caucasian Albanians and appointing clergy to monasteries throughout his kingdom. On his orders, the site of St. Gregoris' burial was discovered and venerated.
In 488, King Vachagan convoked the Council of Aghuen in his summer residence near present-day Aghdara. During the council, a twenty-one paragraph codex was adopted formalising and regulating the important aspects of the Church's structure, functions, relationship with the state, and legal status.
on Caucasian Albania, the seat of the archbishop was transferred to Partaw
.
In various sources, the dioceses of Partaw, Amaras, Syuniķ (temporary transferred over from the Armenian Apostolic Church in 590), Utiķ
, Balasakan
, Gardman
, Shaki, Kabalaka, Hasho, and Kolmanķ are listed as denominations of the Church of Caucasian Albania.
manuscript dating back to no later than the 7th century discovered in 1997 in St. Catherine's Monastery
in Egypt
by Georgian historian Zaza Aleksidze. Towards the abolition of the Church's autocephaly, it was increasingly becoming linguistically Armenised. Among the factors that might have contributed to that are constant raids of the Khazars and the "lawless" who burned churches and with them much of Caucasian Albanian religious literature. In 1898–1902, for the first time since 705, the Gospels were translated by Simon Bezhanov of Vartashen into the Udi language
, a direct descendant of one of the tribal languages of Caucasian Albania.
had established themselves in the North Caucasus
, in what is now Dagestan
. At the time of Javanshir
's rule (635–669), they maintained friendly relations with Caucasian Albania. Javanshir's assassination in 669 provoked the Huns to launch raids into the country in retaliation for their ally's death. The new ruler Varaz-Tiridates I, who was Javanshir's nephew, delegated Israel
, Bishop of Mets Kolmanķ, to persuade the Hunnic ruler Alp Iluetuer
to put an end to military actions, as the people of Caucasian Albania could not be held responsible for a deed committed "by the hand of one treacherous and vile man." During his stay in the land of Huns in 681—682, Israel condemned their pagan beliefs and practices, and preached Christianity. His converts offered him to establish and lead a patriarchate there through a special request sent by Alp Iluetuer to Eliezer, Catholicos of Caucasian Albania. The request was turned down due to Israel already having been assigned a congregation in Mets Kolmanķ. Despite Israel maintaining further contact with the Huns, Christianity probably did not survive among the latter for long.
(a doctrine condemning monophysitism
and propagating the dual nature of Jesus Christ) adopted at the Council of Chalcedon
in 451, viewing it as a return to Nestorianism
.
In the late 7th century Catholicos Nerses attempted to install the Chalcedonian
rite in Caucasian Albania. According to Kaghankatvatsi, Nerses was the bishop of Gardman who adhered to diophysitism, as did the queen-consort of Caucasian Albania, Spram, the wife of Varaz-Tiridates I. In 688, with Spram's help, Nerses managed to be appointed to patriarchy planning to convert the country into Chalcedonianism eventually. Many members of the ruling class and clergy accepted his ideas, whereas those that remained loyal to the original teachings of the Church (including Israel, Bishop of Mets Kolmanķ), became subject to repression. The growth of diophysitism was contrary to the interests of the Arabs
who had taken over most of the Caucasus
by the early 8th century, because diophysitism was regarded as Greek in essence and thus associated with territorial aspirations of the Byzantine Empire
. In 705, the anti-Chalcedonian clergy of Caucasian Albania convoked a council and anathema
tised Nerses and his supporters. Elias, Catholicos of Armenia, followed up by writing a letter to Caliph Abd al-Malik notifying him of the political threat that Chalcedonianism was posing to the region. Abd al-Malik arranged for the arrest of Nerses and Spram, who were then bound in fetters and exiled.
The Arab conquest and the Chalcedonian crisis led to severe disintegration of the Church of Caucasian Albania. Starting from the 8th century, much of the local population underwent mass Islamisation. By the 11th century there already were conciliar mosques in Partaw, Chabala and Shaki; the cities that were the creed of Caucasian Albanian Christianity. These Islamised groups would later be known as Lezgins
and Tsakhurs or mix with the Turkic
and Iranian
population to form present-day Azeris
, whereas those that remained Christian were gradually absorbed by Armenians
or continued to exist on their own and be known as the Udi people
.
The Caucasian Albanian tribes of Hereti
(the former country's northern province that was temporarily independent and in the late ninth to mid-11th century claimed to be the political successor of Caucasian Albania but had been subject to Georgian cultural influence) were converted to Eastern Orthodoxy by Dinar, Queen of Hereti in the 10th century. The religious affairs of this small principality were now officially administered by the Georgian Orthodox Church. In 1010, Hereti became absorbed into the neighbouring Georgian kingdom of Kakheti
. Eventually in the early 12th century, these lands became part of the Georgian Kingdom under David the Builder finalising the process of their Georgianisation
.
The Albanian or Gandzasar Catholicate of the Armenian Apostolic Church
continued to exist well into the 19th century as a separate diocese of the church. There were attempts to restore the autocephaly of the Church of Caucasian Albania in the mid-10th century but they were averted by the Armenian clergy with the support of King Ashot III
. After the transfer of the seat of the Armenian patriarch to Rumkale, Cilicia
, in the 12th century, the Albanian bishops no longer appealed to the former to ordain their catholicos. The original order was restored in 1634 after the seat of the Armenian patriarch returned to Echmiadzin
. The See of the Albanian Catholicate remained in Partaw for a while. Around 1213, it was transferred to the Khamshi Monastery south of Gadabay
. Beginning in 1240, the Gandzasar Monastery
was becoming increasingly consolidating, and in the 15th century it took up the status of the seat of the Albanian Catholicos. From that period on, the Catholicoi also belonged to the resident Armenian princely family of Gandzasar, the House of Hasan-Jalalyan; the seat would be passed down from uncle to nephew. In addition to the former jurisdiction of the Church of Caucasian Albania, the Catholicate maintained control over the Armenian diocese in the Golden Horde
in the thirteenth and 14th centuries, centered in its capital city of Sarai
. In the mid-18th century, the religious life of the Armenian community of Astrakhan
was also supervised by the Albanian Catholicate. Beginning in the early 18th century, the Hasan-Jalalyans actively contributed to the Russian
conquest of the South Caucasus
. In 1815, two years after the Russian conquest of Karabakh
, the office of the Albanian Catholicate was abolished, and the congregation was now led by a metropolitan bishop
. In 1836, under the decree of Nicholas I
which regulated the status of the Armenian Apostolic Church within the Russian Empire, the Albanian Metropolis was abolished completely. Its jurisdictions were subordinated directly to the Armenian Apostolic Church as the Dioceses of Artsakh
and Shamakhy, as well as the Vicariate of Ganja
of the Armenian Church's Tiflis Consistory.
As a result of the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani military confrontation
, the Armenian Apostolic Church has not had official representation in Azerbaijan
outside Nagorno-Karabakh
since the early 1990s. As of 1997, the churches in Udi-populated locales remained closed since the Bolshevik anti-religious campaign of the 1930s. However, in 2003, the Albanian-Udi Christian Community based in Nij was registered in the Azerbaijan State Committee for Religious Organisations.
Autocephaly
Autocephaly , in hierarchical Christian churches and especially Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, is the status of a hierarchical church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop...
church under the religious jurisdiction of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
that existed from the fifth century to 1830 and was centered in Caucasian Albania
Caucasian Albania
Albania is a name for the historical region of the eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of...
, a region mostly located in present day Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. It was one of the earliest national Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
churches.
In the early eighth century, the church tried to break away from the Armenian Church and embrace Chalcedonianism, but this attempt was foiled by the Armenians with the help of the Arabs. In medieval times, the monastery of Gandzasar served as the See of the Caucasian Albanian Catholicate, which continued its existence till 1828 (or 1836) when it was formally abolished by the Russian authorities
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Background
According to StraboStrabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
, who travelled to the region in the 1st century B.C., the local tribes practised polytheism
Polytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
. Among the worshipped deities, Strabo names the gods of the sun, the sky, and above of all, the moon, and equates them to the Greek gods
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
Helios
Helios
Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
, Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
, and Selene
Selene
In Greek mythology, Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon"....
respectively. The skeleton of a human bound in fetters found in 1950, during the archeological excavations in Mingachevir
Mingachevir
Mingachevir , sometimes spelled Mingecevir, is the fourth-biggest city in Azerbaijan with a population of about 100,000. It is known as city of lights because of its hydroelectric power station on the Kur River, which splits the city in half....
, indicates that the ancestors of Caucasian Albanians practised human sacrifice
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
.
St. Elisæus
According to a local tradition, Christianity entered Caucasian Albania in the 1st century through St. Elisæus, a disciple of St. Thaddeus of Edessa. St. Elisæus was ordained bishop by James the JustJames the Just
James , first Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 62 AD, was an important figure in Early Christianity...
in Jerusalem, and travelled eastward through Persia to preach Christianity in the land of the Maskout, one of the Caucasian Albanian tribes (hypothetically related to the ancient Massagetae
Massagetae
The Massageteans or Massagetaeans were an Iranian nomadic confederation in antiquity known primarily from the writings of Herodotus. Their name was probably akin to Thyssagetae.-Name:...
of Central Asia). From there he travelled to Utiķ
Utik
Utik was a historic province of the Kingdom of Armenia and a region of Caucasian Albania. Most of the region is located within present-day Azerbaijan immediately west of the Kura River while a part of it lies within the Tavush province of present-day northeastern Armenia.-History:According to...
, to the city of Saharn, but was chased from there by the pagans. After this he arrived at a place called Gis where he built a church - the first in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, today commonly believed to be the Church of Kish
Church of Kish
The Church of Kish , also known by different sources as Church of Saint Elishe or Holy Mother of God Church , is a 12th or 13th century church located in the village of Kiş approximately 5 km north of Shaki, Azerbaijan...
north of Shaki, Azerbaijan. The church founded by St. Elisæus was regarded by Caucasian Albanians as their "mother-church" that laid the foundation of institutionalised Christianity in the kingdom.
On his way through the Zerguni Valley, St. Elisæus was martyred, and his remains were buried in a place named Homenķ. They were later exhumed and reburied in the Jrvshtik Monastery (in the present-day Tartar Rayon, Azerbaijan).
St. Bartholomew
According to the 6th century archbishop and historian St. Sophronius of Cyprus, in 71, St. Bartholomew the Apostle was preaching Christianity in the city of Albana or Albanopolis, associated with present-day BakuBaku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
or Derbent
Derbent
Derbent |Lak]]: Чурул, Churul; Persian: دربند; Judæo-Tat: דארבּאנד/Дэрбэнд/Dərbənd) is a city in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia, close to the Azerbaijani border. It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second most important city of Dagestan...
, both located by the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. St. Bartholomew managed to convert even members of the local royal family who had worshipped the idol Ashtaroth, but was later martyred by being flayed
Flaying
Flaying is the removal of skin from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact.-Scope:An animal may be flayed in preparation for human consumption, or for its hide or fur; this is more commonly called skinning....
alive and crucified head down on orders from the pagan king Astyages. The remains of St. Bartholomew were secretly transferred to Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
. At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
had established itself in the South Caucasus
South Caucasus
The South Caucasus is a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Trans-Caucasus...
, a chapel was built at the site of an old Caucasian Albanian church in Baku, by the Maiden Tower
Maiden Tower (Baku)
The Maiden Tower or also known locally as Giz Galasi located in the Old City, Baku in Azerbaijan is an ancient tower with cultural affinity corroborating the presence Zoroastrians, Sassanians, Arabs, Persians, Shirvanis, Ottomans, and Russians...
believed to be the place of St. Bartholomew's martyrdom. The chapel was demolished in the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
times, in 1936, in the heat of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
campaign against religion.
Christianisation of Caucasian Albania
Shortly after ArmeniaArmenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
adopted Christianity as its state religion (301/314 AD), the Caucasian Albanian king Urnayr went to the See of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
to receive baptism from St. Gregory the Illuminator
Gregory the Illuminator
Saint Gregory the Illuminator or Saint Gregory the Enlightener is the patron saint and first official head of the Armenian Apostolic Church...
, the founder and first Catholicos of Armenia
Catholicos of Armenia
The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...
. According to historian Igor Kuznetsov, this determined the Armenian Apostolic Church's notion of its superiority to the Church of Caucasian Albania. However Caucasian Albanians, in contrast, may have believed in the seniority of their church due to the role of St. Elisæus who according to the tradition presented by Movses Kaghankatvatsi
Movses Kaghankatvatsi
Movses Kaghankatvatsi , or Movses Daskhurantsi , is the reputed author of a 10th-century Old Armenian historiographical work on Caucasian Albania, known as The History of the Country of Albania .- Authorship :...
built a church on their lands "earlier than in Armenia." After Urnayr's death, the Caucasian Albanians requested that St. Gregory's grandson, St. Gregoris, lead their church. St. Gregoris had been ordained bishop of Caucasian Albania and Iberia at age 15 and travelled through those lands preaching Christianity. He built Caucasian Albania's third known church in the city of Tsri, in Utiķ. During his stay in the land of the Maskout in northeast Caucasian Albania, St. Gregoris was attacked by an angry mob of idol worshippers, tied to a horse and dismembered. His remains were buried near the Amaras Monastery
Amaras Monastery
Amaras Monastery is one of the oldest Christian sites in the world and in Nagorno-Karabakh, and is an Armenian Apostolic monastery located near the village of Sos in the Martuni county of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.- History :...
(presently in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan) built by his grandfather in the Albanian province of Haband.
In the mid-5th century, under Vache II, Caucasian Albania shortly adopted Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
due to Persian influence. The return to Christianity resulted in a war between Persia and Caucasian Albania, during which Vache II lost his heir. Neither side won; eventually Peroz I
Peroz I
Peroz I Peroz I Peroz I (also Pirooz; Peirozes (Priscus, fr. 33); Perozes (Procopius, De Bello Pers. I. 3 and Agathias iv. 27; the modern form of the name is Perooz, Piruz, or the Arabized Ferooz, Firuz; Persian: پیروز "the Victor"), was the seventeenth Sassanid King of Persia, who ruled from 457...
of Persia offered Vache II peace and the right to adhere to Christianity, if Vache's mother and wife who were Persian and Zoroastrian by birth were returned to their homeland. Vache complied, and lived the rest of his life in solitude.
Christianity reached its golden age in the late 5th century under Vachagan the Pious (ruled 487–510), who launched a campaign against idol worship and witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
in Caucasian Albania and discouraged Zoroastrianism. Those who propagated idol worship were physically punished, enslaved or ostrasised. King Vachagan would personally arrange for their children to be taken to schools and raised Christian. He took an active part in Christianising Caucasian Albanians and appointing clergy to monasteries throughout his kingdom. On his orders, the site of St. Gregoris' burial was discovered and venerated.
In 488, King Vachagan convoked the Council of Aghuen in his summer residence near present-day Aghdara. During the council, a twenty-one paragraph codex was adopted formalising and regulating the important aspects of the Church's structure, functions, relationship with the state, and legal status.
Jurisdiction
The archbishop was considered the head of the Church of Caucasian Albania, and he had traditionally been ordained by the Armenian Catholicos until 590, when Caucasian Albania proclaimed its own locally ordained patriarchy. This continued until the abolition of the Church's autocephaly in 706. The city of Chola (possibly present-day Derbent, Russia) had originally been chosen to be the See of the Church of Caucasian Albania. However in 551, due to plundering raids of KhazarsKhazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
on Caucasian Albania, the seat of the archbishop was transferred to Partaw
Barda, Azerbaijan
Barda is the capital city of the Barda Rayon in Azerbaijan, located south of Yevlax and on the left bank of the Terter river. Once an Armenian town, and later the capital of Caucasian Albania perhaps since the end of the fourth century, Barda became the chief city of the Islamic province of Arran,...
.
In various sources, the dioceses of Partaw, Amaras, Syuniķ (temporary transferred over from the Armenian Apostolic Church in 590), Utiķ
Utik
Utik was a historic province of the Kingdom of Armenia and a region of Caucasian Albania. Most of the region is located within present-day Azerbaijan immediately west of the Kura River while a part of it lies within the Tavush province of present-day northeastern Armenia.-History:According to...
, Balasakan
Paytakaran
Paytakaran was the easternmost province of the Kingdom of Armenia. The province was located in the area of the lower courses of the rivers of Kura and Araks, adjacent to the Caspian sea. Today, the area is located in the territory of modern day southeastern Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran.-...
, Gardman
Gardman
Gardman was one of the eight districts of the ancient province of Utik' in the Kingdom of Armenia and simultaneously, together with the district of Tush, an Armenian principality. In the Early Middle Ages a feudal state of Gardman emerged on the area of Caucasian Albania...
, Shaki, Kabalaka, Hasho, and Kolmanķ are listed as denominations of the Church of Caucasian Albania.
Liturgy
The liturgical language of the Church was one of the local tribal tongues, possibly Gargarian, which was mentioned by Movses Kaghankatvatsi as having its own literary tradition from the 5th century A.D. In his letter to Persian Christians in 506, Babken I, Catholicos of Armenia, stated that all three churches of the Caucasus are ideologically united despite each having its own language. This is proven by a bilingual Georgian-Caucasian Albanian palimpsestPalimpsest
A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος originally compounded from πάλιν and ψάω literally meaning “scraped...
manuscript dating back to no later than the 7th century discovered in 1997 in St. Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in the city of Saint Catherine in Egypt's South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
by Georgian historian Zaza Aleksidze. Towards the abolition of the Church's autocephaly, it was increasingly becoming linguistically Armenised. Among the factors that might have contributed to that are constant raids of the Khazars and the "lawless" who burned churches and with them much of Caucasian Albanian religious literature. In 1898–1902, for the first time since 705, the Gospels were translated by Simon Bezhanov of Vartashen into the Udi language
Udi language
The Udi language, spoken by the Udi people, is a member of the Lezgic branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family. It is believed an earlier form of it was the main language of Caucasian Albania, which stretched from south Dagestan to current day Azerbaijan.The language is spoken by about...
, a direct descendant of one of the tribal languages of Caucasian Albania.
Proselytism among the Huns
In the 6th century A.D. the HunsHuns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
had established themselves in the North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
, in what is now Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
. At the time of Javanshir
Javanshir
Javanshir , in old Albanian Our Lion, in Persian young lion, was the prince of Caucasian Albania from 643 to 681, hailing from the region of Gardman. His deeds are the subject of legends and epic...
's rule (635–669), they maintained friendly relations with Caucasian Albania. Javanshir's assassination in 669 provoked the Huns to launch raids into the country in retaliation for their ally's death. The new ruler Varaz-Tiridates I, who was Javanshir's nephew, delegated Israel
Israel (Bishop of Caucasian Albania)
Israel was the bishop of Caucasian Albania in the latter part of the seventh century. In 682 he led an unsuccessful delegation to convert Alp Iluetuer, the ruler of the North Caucasian Huns, to Christianity. Israel wrote about the customs of the Huns, including the local cult of Tengri....
, Bishop of Mets Kolmanķ, to persuade the Hunnic ruler Alp Iluetuer
Alp Iluetuer
Alp Ilutuer was the Ilutuer of the North Caucasian Huns during the 680's CE.He is mentioned in the account of Bishop Israel of Caucasian Albania, who travelled to Alp Ilutuer's court in an unsuccessful attempt to convert him and his people to Christianity.Alp is an Old Turkic word meaning "hero",...
to put an end to military actions, as the people of Caucasian Albania could not be held responsible for a deed committed "by the hand of one treacherous and vile man." During his stay in the land of Huns in 681—682, Israel condemned their pagan beliefs and practices, and preached Christianity. His converts offered him to establish and lead a patriarchate there through a special request sent by Alp Iluetuer to Eliezer, Catholicos of Caucasian Albania. The request was turned down due to Israel already having been assigned a congregation in Mets Kolmanķ. Despite Israel maintaining further contact with the Huns, Christianity probably did not survive among the latter for long.
Chalcedonian Creed
The Church of Caucasian Albania was represented in the early œcumenical councils but similarly to a number of other Oriental Orthodox churches, it did not accept the Chalcedonian CreedChalcedonian Creed
The Confession of Chalcedon , also known as the Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union or the Two-Nature Doctrine, was adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 in Asia Minor. That Council of Chalcedon is one of the first seven Ecumenical Councils accepted by Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and many...
(a doctrine condemning monophysitism
Monophysitism
Monophysitism , or Monophysiticism, is the Christological position that Jesus Christ has only one nature, his humanity being absorbed by his Deity...
and propagating the dual nature of Jesus Christ) adopted at the Council of Chalcedon
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...
in 451, viewing it as a return to Nestorianism
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus...
.
In the late 7th century Catholicos Nerses attempted to install the Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ...
rite in Caucasian Albania. According to Kaghankatvatsi, Nerses was the bishop of Gardman who adhered to diophysitism, as did the queen-consort of Caucasian Albania, Spram, the wife of Varaz-Tiridates I. In 688, with Spram's help, Nerses managed to be appointed to patriarchy planning to convert the country into Chalcedonianism eventually. Many members of the ruling class and clergy accepted his ideas, whereas those that remained loyal to the original teachings of the Church (including Israel, Bishop of Mets Kolmanķ), became subject to repression. The growth of diophysitism was contrary to the interests of the Arabs
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
who had taken over most of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
by the early 8th century, because diophysitism was regarded as Greek in essence and thus associated with territorial aspirations of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. In 705, the anti-Chalcedonian clergy of Caucasian Albania convoked a council and anathema
Anathema
Anathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean:...
tised Nerses and his supporters. Elias, Catholicos of Armenia, followed up by writing a letter to Caliph Abd al-Malik notifying him of the political threat that Chalcedonianism was posing to the region. Abd al-Malik arranged for the arrest of Nerses and Spram, who were then bound in fetters and exiled.
Abolition of the Church
After the overthrow of Nerses in 705, the Caucasian Albanian elite decided to reestablish the tradition of having their Catholicoi ordained through the Patriarch of Armenia, as it was the case before 590. This event is generally regarded as the abolition of the Church of Caucasian Albania, and the lowering of its denominational status to that of a Catholicate within the body of the Armenian Apostolic Church.The Arab conquest and the Chalcedonian crisis led to severe disintegration of the Church of Caucasian Albania. Starting from the 8th century, much of the local population underwent mass Islamisation. By the 11th century there already were conciliar mosques in Partaw, Chabala and Shaki; the cities that were the creed of Caucasian Albanian Christianity. These Islamised groups would later be known as Lezgins
Lezgins
The Lezgians are an ethnic group living predominantly in southern Dagestan and northeastern Azerbaijan and who speak the Lezgian language.- Historical concept :While ancient Greek historians, including Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder, referred...
and Tsakhurs or mix with the Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
and Iranian
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
population to form present-day Azeris
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
, whereas those that remained Christian were gradually absorbed by Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
or continued to exist on their own and be known as the Udi people
Udi people
The Udis are one of the most ancient native peoples of the Caucasus.Currently they live in Azerbaijan, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and many other countries. The total number is about 10,000 people. They speak the Udi language. Among them are distributed also Azeri, Russian,...
.
The Caucasian Albanian tribes of Hereti
Hereti
Hereti was a historic province in the medieval Caucasus on the Georgian-Albanian frontier. It roughly corresponds to the southeastern corner of Georgia's Kakheti region and a portion of Azerbaijan's northwestern districts.-History:...
(the former country's northern province that was temporarily independent and in the late ninth to mid-11th century claimed to be the political successor of Caucasian Albania but had been subject to Georgian cultural influence) were converted to Eastern Orthodoxy by Dinar, Queen of Hereti in the 10th century. The religious affairs of this small principality were now officially administered by the Georgian Orthodox Church. In 1010, Hereti became absorbed into the neighbouring Georgian kingdom of Kakheti
Kakheti
Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...
. Eventually in the early 12th century, these lands became part of the Georgian Kingdom under David the Builder finalising the process of their Georgianisation
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
.
Albanian Catholicate
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
continued to exist well into the 19th century as a separate diocese of the church. There were attempts to restore the autocephaly of the Church of Caucasian Albania in the mid-10th century but they were averted by the Armenian clergy with the support of King Ashot III
Ashot III
Ashot III the Merciful also known as Ashot the Gracious was an Armenian king. He ruled from Armenia's capital city of Ani....
. After the transfer of the seat of the Armenian patriarch to Rumkale, Cilicia
Cilicia
In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...
, in the 12th century, the Albanian bishops no longer appealed to the former to ordain their catholicos. The original order was restored in 1634 after the seat of the Armenian patriarch returned to Echmiadzin
Echmiadzin
Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin is a 4th century Armenian church in the town of Ejmiatsin, Armenia. It is also the central cathedral of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church....
. The See of the Albanian Catholicate remained in Partaw for a while. Around 1213, it was transferred to the Khamshi Monastery south of Gadabay
Gadabay
Gadabay is a rayon of Azerbaijan renowned for its potatoes and its gold fields. The famous Siemens company worked here in the Tsarist era claiming that they were exporting copper. However it has been recently revealed that in fact they were actually secretly exporting gold...
. Beginning in 1240, the Gandzasar Monastery
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
was becoming increasingly consolidating, and in the 15th century it took up the status of the seat of the Albanian Catholicos. From that period on, the Catholicoi also belonged to the resident Armenian princely family of Gandzasar, the House of Hasan-Jalalyan; the seat would be passed down from uncle to nephew. In addition to the former jurisdiction of the Church of Caucasian Albania, the Catholicate maintained control over the Armenian diocese in the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
in the thirteenth and 14th centuries, centered in its capital city of Sarai
Sarai (city)
Sarai was the name of two cities, which were successively capital cities of the Golden Horde, the Mongol kingdom which ruled Russia and much of central Asia in the 13th and 14th centuries...
. In the mid-18th century, the religious life of the Armenian community of Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
was also supervised by the Albanian Catholicate. Beginning in the early 18th century, the Hasan-Jalalyans actively contributed to the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
conquest of the South Caucasus
South Caucasus
The South Caucasus is a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Trans-Caucasus...
. In 1815, two years after the Russian conquest of Karabakh
Karabakh khanate
The Karabakh khanate was a semi-independent khanate on the territories of modern Azerbaijan and Armenia established in about 1750 under Persian suzerainty in Karabakh and adjacent areas. The Karabakh khanate existed until 1805, when the Russian Empire gained control over it from Persia...
, the office of the Albanian Catholicate was abolished, and the congregation was now led by a metropolitan bishop
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
. In 1836, under the decree of Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
which regulated the status of the Armenian Apostolic Church within the Russian Empire, the Albanian Metropolis was abolished completely. Its jurisdictions were subordinated directly to the Armenian Apostolic Church as the Dioceses of Artsakh
Artsakh
Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...
and Shamakhy, as well as the Vicariate of Ganja
Ganja, Azerbaijan
Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...
of the Armenian Church's Tiflis Consistory.
Legacy
In the last chapter of book two, Movses Kaghankatvatsi lists monasteries that were established by Caucasian Albanians in Jerusalem.- Monastery of Pand
- Monastery of Mrouv
- Monastery of St. Theotokos of Partaw
- Monastery of Kałankatouyk
- Monastery of St. Theotokos of Artsakh
- Monastery of St. Gregory of Amaras
- Four other unnamed monasteries repossessed by Arabs at Kaghankatvatsi's time
As a result of the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani military confrontation
Nagorno-Karabakh War
The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
, the Armenian Apostolic Church has not had official representation in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
outside Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
since the early 1990s. As of 1997, the churches in Udi-populated locales remained closed since the Bolshevik anti-religious campaign of the 1930s. However, in 2003, the Albanian-Udi Christian Community based in Nij was registered in the Azerbaijan State Committee for Religious Organisations.