FROM THE CULTURAL-HISTORICAL RELANTIONS OF GEORGIA AND ANTIOGH ON-THE-ORONTE IN THE 11TH-12TH CENTURUES

Abstract

This article discusses the motives underlying the literary activity of the Georgian monasticism  in the Greek and Georgian monasteries of Black Mountain, Admirable Mountain and Cassius Mountain in the 11th-12th centuries in Antioch on the Orontes, in particular, the steps taken by the Georgian royal court (Bagrat IV, David IV the Builder) and famous church figures ( George the Hagiorite, Ephrem Mtsire, Arsen of Iqalto) to strengthen the autocephaly of the Georgian Church.

Georgian liturgical, hagiographic collections and biblical books created in this multicultural space of Christianity in the 1031-1216 are used as research material. Both the literary sources (Greek, Syriac, Arabic) of the works included in these manuscripts, as well as the colophons attached to the manuscripts, are discussed. The aim of the research is not to focus on the literary significance of manuscripts, but to consider them as sources reflecting the cultural and historical situation of a specific era.

In the process of research, the study of the codicological and editorial features of the manuscripts made it clear that the Georgian manuscripts copied in Antioch On-the-Orontes during the second Byzantine rule provide us with important information about the close ties of Georgian monasticism with the largest monastic center of Eastern Christianity Mar Saba, as well as with Greek and Arab scribes active in this region of Eastern Christianity, with Nikon of the Black  Mountain,  the reformer of Byzantine monastic life, as well as with the spiritual circles of Alexandria Minor (present-day Iskanderuni).

The results of the research made it clear that the activities of Georgian scribes and the royal court (David IV the Builder) aimed at restoring the historical ties between the Georgian Church and the Patriarchate of Antioch, which was manifested in the translation of works dedicated to the saints of Antioch, the use of Greek-language Syriac sources in the history of the conversion of Kartli by Ephrem Mtsire, and the regulation of life at the Shiomghvim Monastery in Kartli based on the  Typicon of the Monastery St.Symeon Stilites the Younger.

Keywords:  Georgia; Antioch On - the – Orontes; Manuscripts; Historical Relations.