Father Zaven ARZOUMANIAN
( n. 1933 )

This book is the second in the series of the Studies published by the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, presenting totally revised and updated analysis of the Histories, texts and authors, of the leading Armenian historians, all of them clerics, who wrote their respective books from the Fifth through the Thirteenth centuries.
The study on Eznik Goghpatsi and his Refutation of Sects was read during the 1971 International Conference on Patristic Literature at Oxford University, England, with emphasis on the doctrine of the "Free Will" of our 51 century philosopher.
Bishop Sebeos' History of Heradius was prepared for the Conference on Classical Armenian Culture, 5lh-8lh centuries, sponsored by the Chair of Armenian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania during November 4-6, 1979.
The study on Ghevond the Priest and his History of the Arab Invasions was read at the 1980 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, convened in Washington, DC, during December 28-30. It also served as part of the Introduction of my translation of Ghevond's History from the classical Armenian to English, the first ever, with additional notes. The published volume was presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University, New York, as doctoral dissertation in 1983.
Ukhtanes is known as our 10th century historian, whose History in two parts was published only once, and was translated into French only. I took upon myself to re-edit the entire text and translate it into English for the first time, after making all the corrections in the 1871 edition of Vagharshapat.
The History of Armenia by Aristakes Vardapet of Lastivert, the History of the Armenians by Kirakos Vardapet of Gandzak, 1 l'h and 13th century historiographies respectively, as well as the 10th century imperial document De Administrando Imperio of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus of Byzantium are discussed in the last three studies of the present book.

Burbank
The Author

Concurrent with the English translation of the History of Lewond, the work of an 8th century Armenian historian of the Arab invasions, published in Philadelphia (1982), this edition of Part II of Bishop Ukhtanes' History of Armenia, again for the first time in this most widely read of Western languages, emerges as a necessary addition to the recently translated and edited Armenian historiographies. This too, undoubtedly, will fill a serious lacuna in the as yet unexplored area of the history of the two Caucasian countries - Armenia and Georgia -particularly in what is known as the severance of the Georgian church from the unity with the Armenian church, which happened at the dawn of the 7th
Part II of Ukhtanes' History, which we are presenting herewith in its entirety is definitely important and represents an indispensable addendum to the main contemporary source of the event known as Girk' T'k'oc' (Book of Letters), survived only in one manuscript text, published only once:in 1901 and translated only partially into French by M. Tallon. Part I of Ukhtanes' work is more elementary and, as explained in the Introductions of this edition, reflects a rough summary of the history of the Armenian people, written by leading Armenian historians of the 5th century.
For the two most unusual proper names which occur so often and repeatedly in the text, it is helpful to list them here with their approximate pronunciations in Armenian: Curtav - Tsurtav K'ert'ol = Kertogh. Unfortunately, for technical reasons proper diacritical marks are not provided to meet the requirements of the standard transliteration a system which we have principally complied with nevertheless.
THE AUTHOR

The translator's art is one that is all too often unappreciated. So much do we value the original work of an author that we overlook the time, patience and skill necessary to a successful rendering of it into another tongue. It is meet that we acknowledge our growing debt to the increasing number of individuals who have labored long and arduously to make the heritage of Armenian literature available in English. In particular we owe an especial thanks and appreciation for the scholars who, one by one, have made an increasing number of Armenian historical texts accessible in this, the most widely read of western languages.
The past twenty years have been rich in works of this kind. From C.F.J. Dowsett's rendering of Moses of Daskhuran's History of the Caucasian Albanians through the magisterial translations of Agathangelos, Moses of Khoren and Eghishe by R. W. Thomson, the riches of Armenian historical literature have steadily been brought to the attention of the academic community of the English-speaking world. At this writing, translations of the histories of John the Catholicos (by Krikor Maksoudian), Thomas Artsruni (R.W. Thomson), and Faustus of Buzanda (N. Garsoian) are in preparation, while manuscript translations of the Ashkharhatsouyts, Zenob of Glak, Cyriacus of Ganja and Thomas of Metsop' already exist, and will doubtless find their way into print as well.
The present translation of the History of Lewond, "the Eminent Vardapet of the Armenians", is from the pen of Reverend Zaven Arzoumanian, who, in the time-honored Armenian tradition, combines the demanding office of active clergyman with the no less exacting role of the scholar. An important source for the Arab period in Armenian history, Lewond's text begins with the death of Muhammad in 632 and continues to the death of the Catholicos Isaiah in 778, and thus forms a continuation of the historical work of Pseudo-Sebeos. A contemporary and often an eye-witness narrator of much that he describes, and a reliable reporter of information gleaned from older contemporaries, Lewond is particularly interested in the relations between the Armenian nobles and their Arab overlords, and gives valuable information upon these. Well-educated and well-read, he had a keen understanding of the situation which existed in Armenia and in the Middle East in general in his time. His chronology is accurate, his facts are found to be reliable whenever they can be verified from outside sources, and he has wisely enriched his history with copies of inscriptions, letters, and other supportive documentation. It is significant, I believe, that Western Europe offers no contemporary of Lewond whose work is of the same calibre. Reverend Arzoumanian's lucid and readable translation, enriched by historical and textual notes which draw upon the latest Western and Soviet scholarship, is all the more valuable for the only previous translations into French (G. Chah-nazarian, Paris, 1856) and Russian (K. Patkanov, St. Petersburg, 1862) are rare and, of course, obsolete. Drawing upon previous editions, unpublished manuscripts, and the earlier translations and commentaries, his work will fill a serious lacuna in the publication of the separate links which together form the chain of Armenian historical literature, a chain which has continued without serious interruption since the fifth century, and whose collective translation into English should do much to enhance the quality, not only of modern Armenian historiography, but of that of the Byzantine Empire and of the Caliphate as well.
ROBERT H. HEWSEN