Movses Kaghankatvatsi

Movses Kaghankatvatsi (Old Armenian: Մովսէս Կաղանկատուացի Movsēs Kałankatuacʻi 'Moses of Kaghankatuk'), or Movses Daskhurantsi (Մովսէս Դասխուրանցի Movsēs Dasxurancʻi 'Moses of Daskhuran'), is the reputed author (or the alias of several authors) of a tenth-century Classical Armenian historical work on Caucasian Albania and the eastern provinces of Armenia, known as The History of the Country of Albania (Պատմութիւն Աղուանից Աշխարհի, Patmutʿiwn Ałuanicʿ Ašxarhi).

Authorship

In the works of earlier Armenian authors no name is attached to The History and early in the 13th century, however, Mkhitar Gosh names a Movses Dasxurants'i as the author. The earliest extant manuscript of The History, also of the 13th century (1289), bears no author's name; nor do other manuscripts. The earliest manuscript to bear the name of Movses Kalankatuaci is that copied by the scribe Lunkianos in 1761. The date of the compilation known as The History is based on the fact that the last person to have a hand in The History wrote at the earliest at the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century.

The first historian to mention Movses' work was the medieval Armenian legal scholar Mkhitar Gosh, referring to him as "Movses Daskhurantsi." A later historian, Kirakos Gandzaketsi, referred to a statement in the History itself, to attribute the name of the author as Movses Kaghankatvatsi. The statement in question (Book II, ch. 11) says:

When the enemy became aware of what had happened, they pursued them and overtook a group of them at the foot of the mountain opposite the large village of Kaghankatuik, which is in the same province of Uti where I too am from.

Movses narrates the Khazar invasion of Transcaucasia and other events up to the seventh century in Book I and II of his History. Book III of his History differs from the previous ones in style of writing and date.