THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

 This article was published on the website of Le Journal des Musulmanes et Musulmans en France

Christian cult architecture of Caucasian Albania (4th century BC - 8th century AD) and Albanian principalities (9th-14th centuries) – the states that existed on the territory of ancient Azerbaijan – is one of the most important sources that contributed to the Azerbaijani religious architecture.

The first stage of its development is the apostolic period of Christianity in Caucasian Albania. The 7th century Albanian historian, Moses of Kalankatuk, noted of this period: “In Jerusalem, Elisha was ordained by Saint James, brother of Jesus, who was the first Patriarch of Jerusalem. Elisha received the East as an appanage... He arrived in Guis (now the village of Kish in northern Azerbaijan), founded a church and offered a bloodless sacrifice. This place is the primary source of our churches, the source of ancient capitals and the source of enlightenment". That’s how the first Christian church was built in ancient Azerbaijan, that is in Caucasian Albania in the 1st century AD.

After the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of Caucasian Albania in 313 AD, the construction of religious buildings intensified. It was the beginning of the second stage in the development of Christian architecture, which spanned from the 4th to 7th centuries AD.

Christianity thus became an important factor in the unification of the multi-tribal Albanian state. Sites of ancient cults served as foundations for the construction of basilicas and churches. Domed temples are characteristic of the religious architecture unique to Caucasian Albania. They are the markers of architectural evolution from the ancient pagan temples to the Christian church, from circular eight-column vaults to Tetraconch. Simplicity and primitivity of forms were the key words of that period.

While being a state religion of Caucasian Albania, Christianity has been in close contact with other religious systems and cults. Soviet scientist and expert in the history of this region, Kamilla Trever, notes that “Albania has become fertile ground for many religions and cults, including Christianity introduced in the 4th century and adopted primarily by the royal court and the nobles, Zoroastrianism introduced by the Sassanids, various Christian and Zoroastrian sects, and Islam since the 7th century AD."(K. Trever, Essays on the History and Culture of Caucasian Albania. 4th century BC - 7th century AD, 1959).

This religious diversity influenced the development of unique architectural style of Albanian temples. For example, the Albanian architects creating Christian temples borrowed construction plans from the Zoroastrian Fire Temple, inspired by the popular dwelling with four pillars and a domed wooden ceiling resting on a square in the centre of construction.

But it wasn't just a period of interaction. The Albanian clergy had to struggle with the local pagan sects, Zoroastrianism of the Sassanid Empire, as well as the policy of assimilation maintained by the Armenian Church in an attempt to subdue the Albanian Church. This ideological struggle has eventually influenced the appearance of religious buildings. Asceticism and simplicity of interior design that characterised the religious architecture in other countries of the region during the early Christian period have been preserved in Caucasian Albania throughout the 4th-8th centuries AD.

In the middle of the 7th century AD, Caucasian Albania was conquered by the Arab Caliphate. During the Arab rule, which ended in the late 9th century, the construction of Christian churches declined sharply. After the Arab conquest, Albanian churches preserved their sober and concise appearance.

It was only from the 12th century that the renaissance of Christian architecture began in Azerbaijan. The principality of Khatchen of Caucasian Albania rose in power, while its ruler Hasan Jalal (1215-1261) extended his influence over the majority of Christian lands of the former Caucasian Albania, including the provinces of Artsakh (now Garabagh) and Syunik (also known as Zangezur). It is a period of economic, political and cultural renewal in Ancient Garabagh.

The greatest number of religious buildings, including monasteries, churches, basilicas, temples, testify to the high level of Christian architecture in this region in 12th-14th centuries AD. This period witnesses the construction of new churches, renewal of the old ones, the development of new architectural models, complex buildings, a new system of domes, as well as the birth of rich stone decorations. Monastic complexes of Khudavang (1214, located in the present-day Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan), Gandjasar (1216-1238, Terter district of Azerbaijan), Khatiravang (1204, Kalbajar), etc. became centres of religious construction. Many of them were constructed as family vaults of major feudal dynasties of the period. Religious archives and the libraries of Albanian literature are also concentrated here. This place gives birth to new directions of architectural thought and construction techniques. This is the period of the renaissance of Albanian religious architecture and literature, which lasted until the 17th century.

Symbol of this renaissance is the Gandjasar Monastery with the Church of Saint John the Baptist built in 1216-1238. For six centuries, until 1836, it was the spiritual centre of the independent Albanian principality, the residence of the last Albanian Catholicoses. It stands out among other Albanian temples for the purity of forms, richness of decorative elements, multi-faceted architecture, ingenious stone carving, high quality of construction works. Architecturally and constructively, it takes the forms of the cathedral church of the Khudavang Monastery.

However, despite the increased interest in interior design, the appearance of Albanian religious architecture during this period remained sober and concise, unlike the grand and rich decor of Gregorian Armenian and Georgian churches. With the exception of large monastic temples - Gandjasar, Khudavang - other churches and religious monuments in ancient Azerbaijan are small in size, sparsely decorated, and do not show any tendency for ornamentation. In Albanian architecture, artistic expressiveness is a product of more slender and light forms unlike in Armenian constructions characterised by massive blocks.

This modesty of the Albanian architecture is compensated by the great variety of dome shapes and construction materials (limestone, sandstone, paving stones, rough stones, pebbles, baked bricks), which distinguishes the Albanian architecture from the Armenian (with tuff stone as the only building material) and Georgian ones (bricks have been used since the 16th century only).

In the 12th-14th centuries, interaction between Christian and Muslim architectural styles in Azerbaijan continued. Patterns of decorated portals of Albanian temples bear analogies with the Muslim architecture of Azerbaijan. In some churches, there are clear signs of borrowings from the religious architecture of the Muslim regions of neighbouring countries, including richly decorated portals, decorations around the bases of domes with rectangular niches raised to the summits, polychrome masonry. Light and warm colours of the majority of Albanian temples are close to the Georgian architecture than to the Armenian religious buildings characterised by dark colours, heavy and grounded bodies of temples.

This close connection and interaction between pre-Christian, Christian and Islamic architectures is a distinguishing feature of Azerbaijani religious architecture. Christian architecture of Caucasian Albania was born on the basis of ancient construction techniques, as well as the architectural forms of Zoroastrianism and pagan cults. With the emergence of Muslim religious architecture in Azerbaijan, it became a basis for the development of architecture of the first mosques. In the 12th-17th centuries however, it was the architecture of the Muslim regions of Azerbaijan that influenced the composition and decoration styles of monuments of the Albanian religious architecture.

At the beginning of the 19th century, following the Russo-Persian and Russo-Turkish wars won by the Russian Empire, the process of settling Armenians from the Ottoman and Persian Empires began on the territory of the khanates of Garabagh, Irevan and Nakhchevan of the Russian Empire. Armenians transferred to these territories begin to settle on the Muslim territories, to get acquainted with the cultural heritage of Caucasian Albania, to restore and to renovate the Albanian monuments, introducing elements of Armenian architecture not characteristic of the Albanian architecture. Armenian inscriptions appear on medieval Albanian monuments, and the process of armenisation of the cultural heritage of Caucasian Albania is initiated.

After April 1836, when the Tsarist government of the Russian Empire decided to abolish the Autocephalous Church of Albania and to subordinate it to the Gregorian Armenian Church to strengthen the positions of the Armenian population and the Armenian clergy in the Muslim territories of Transcaucasia, this process has greatly accelerated. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gregorian Armenian Church, with the permission of the Russian Holy Synod, destroyed the archives of the Albanian Church as well as the Library of the Patriarchs of Albania in Gandjasar, which contained valuable historical documents, as well as the originals of Albanian literature.

Destruction (or concealment) of archives allowed the Armenian historians and archaeologists to deny the autocephalous nature of the Albanian Church, Albanian origins of the temples, monasteries and Christian churches located in the present-day Garabagh, and claim that they belonged to the cultural heritage of the Armenian people and are the property of the Armenian Church. In this regard, Armenian scientists pay special attention to the main cult site in Garabagh - the Gandjasar monastery, mistakenly presenting it as Armenian. Unfortunately, the French media continues to distribute these erroneous conclusions of Armenian scientists and politicians.

However, it is impossible to conceal the historical truth completely. During an archaeological expedition to Garabagh in 1918-1919, Armenian orientalist and archaeologist Joseph Orbeli studied and described more than 1,000 inscriptions on the churches and monasteries of Garabagh, in particular on the Gandjasar monastery. Based on the results of his research, in 1919 he published in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) a book entitled Inscriptions of Gandjasar and Havotsptuk, in which he described the inscriptions on the walls of the Gandjasar monastery. What were the conclusions of the Armenian scientist?

First, he discovered to his surprise that most of the previous descriptions of the Garabagh monasteries and churches made by Armenian scientists in the 19th century were fake. "I disagree with them on the reading, and I do this deliberately”, “I have tried to correct the errors in old researches," Orbeli openly noted in his book.

Secondly, thanks to the correct description of the main inscription of the Gandjasar monastery, Orbeli confirmed the thesis that at the beginning of the 13th century the Albanian Apostolic Church was independent of the Armenian Church, namely it was autocephalous. Main inscription in the temple clearly shows the title of the Albanian spiritual leader: “under the Patriarchate of Nerses, Catholicos of Albania”. According to the well-known tradition of the Christian Church, a patriarch is the highest clerical rank, the head of the independent (autocephalous) church of the country. Knowing this, Armenian scientists have deliberately omitted the word "patriarchate" when translating this phrase for the past 160 years. In other words, the monastery has nothing to do with the Armenian Church.

Thirdly, Orbeli revealed that the inscriptions on the slabs of the outer walls of the Gandjasar Monastery contained a large number of Turkic words, Turkic names of the rulers of the region, names of their wives, the clergy. Orbeli believed that this indicated the important role of Turkic culture in the medieval Albanian heritage, on the role of the Turkic element in the history of ancient Garabagh and of the monastery itself.

Finally, and most importantly, when describing the inscriptions on the walls of the monastery, Orbeli did not find the words "Armenia" or "Armenian". The inscriptions translated by Orbeli confirm that the land of the Gandjasar Monastery and the temple itself belonged to the independent Albanian principality. In particular, the sentence that he found and translated as “on the sacred throne of Gandjasar of the Albanian country” (p. 18, para. 37) confirms the historical fact that this monastery was the spiritual centre of the Albanian country, of the Ancient Azerbaijan, not Armenia. The phrases "this is the tomb of Sarkis, the Catholicos of the Albanian people" (p. 29, para. 65) and "Catholicos Sarkis from Albania for the people of Hasan Jalal" (p. 33, para. 81) show that this territory was inhabited by Albanians, ruled by Albanian princes and their spiritual leaders.

What can be more convincing than the conclusions on Gandjasar's non-Armenian origin made by the prestigious Armenian scientist, who also was the first president (1943-1947) of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR?

Remarkably, the comparison of mural inscriptions discovered and translated by Orbeli in 1918-1919 with modern photographs of the walls of the Gandjasar monastery posted online by tourists shows that during the 20th century, especially during the occupation of Garabagh in 1993-2020, up to half of the outer stones and interior slabs of the temple with original inscriptions were replaced with new slabs with completely new inscriptions. Certainly, the objective was to armenize the history of the temple, destroy the inscriptions testifying to its non-Armenian origin and the independence of the Albanian church and state.

This raises an important question. What if the Armenian clergymen and pseudo-scientists replaced the original slabs and historical inscriptions not only in the 19th-20th centuries, but throughout the 13th-19th centuries? World historiography has already irreparably lost the precious religious archives and literature of Caucasian Albania destroyed by the Armenian Church in the mid-19th century. How much priceless mural evidence on the history of the Ancient Azerbaijan has been lost so far?

That is why I would like to address the French supporters of the Armenian pseudoscientific version of the history of Garabagh and the defenders of the so-called Armenian Christian monuments in the region. You should combat a real threat, that of the armenization of the Christian architecture of Ancient Azerbaijan, Caucasian Albania, which is a significant and integral part of the global Christian heritage.