The Geography of Ananias of Širak by Anania Shirakatsi

A moderate Julianist position, acceptable to both parties, was elaborated at a Council convoked at Mantzikert in 726 at the joint-initiative of the Armenian Catholicos and the West-Syrian Patriarch, the legal chiefs of two communities of dhimmi: this would remain the official doctrine of the Armenian Church to this day.This chapter analyses the activity of one of the major figures of this period, Stephen of Siwnik‘, and especially the circumstances of his travel to Constantinople (712–18), where he translated numerous Patristic texts into Armenian. Yet the Armenian Church acquired a new authority within Armenian society its official Miaphysite faith received support from the Caliphate against the Chalcedonian, pro-Byzantine, tendencies significant especially in Siwnik‘. The inclusion and the examination of a number of written, archaeological, and pictorial data (descriptions of royal and governmental feasts, stamped jars' belts, tombstones depicting the feast of the dead) make it possible to restore the environment of medieval feast and to prove that the Armenian intellect of the Middle Ages tried to combine 'innovations' with traditional worldviews, customs and rituals in order to spread spiritual and moral ideas, which, as in the case of Širakaci’s xraxčanakans, gave these initiatives a special image and procedure.īetween 693 and 701, the Umayyad Caliphate established direct political control over Armenia and definitively suppressed the Armenian princes’ autonomy. A comparative examination of the medieval feast and xraxčanakans reveals that Širakaci’ changed the principle of the Greek symposium (which he was obviously well acquainted with) with the details of the Armenian feast, giving to his problems feast name and appearance in order to spread mathematical knowledge in Armenia. They must have presented a serious challenge even if the respondent tried to solve them in a fully sober state. It should be noted that the essence of the xraxčanakans is only arithmetical there are no mysterious-allegorical or formal-logical problems, and two of the xraxčanakans (second, fifth) are no less complex than Širakaci’s Mathematical Problems. It is noteworthy that the purely arithmetic part of the three xraxčanakans is composed on the theme of a feast and wine, which makes it possible to compose a certain idea about the atmosphere of the feast. Unlike other arithmetic problems by Širakac‘i, the xraxčanakans are accompanied by special instruction-advices: when, where and how to use them, what behavior to display.

The Xraxčanakankʻ of Anania Širakac‘i is a small collection of arithmetic problems (for now, we can confidently talk about six xraxčanakans) which are united by the theme of the feast.

The Geography of Ananias of Širak by Anania Shirakatsi