History of Armenia (book)

The History of Armenia (Old Armenian: Պատմութիւն Հայոց, romanized: Patmut’iwn Hayoc’), attributed to Movses Khorenatsi, is an early account of Armenia, covering the legendary origins of the Armenian people as well as Armenia's interaction with Sassanid, Byzantine and Arsacid empires down to the 5th century.

It contains unique material on ancient Armenian legends, and such information on pagan (pre-Christian) Armenian as has survived. It also contains plentiful data on the history and culture of contiguous countries. The book had an enormous impact on Armenian historiography. In the text, the author self-identifies as a disciple of Saint Mesrop, and states that he composed his work at the request of Isaac (Sahak), the Bagratuni prince who fell in battle in 482.

The traditional 5th-century dating of this work of Armenian literature has elicited much discussion and a recent, plausible proposal places the final version after 775. Khorenatsi's History, then, predates the end of the 8th century. Armenian historians date ten fragments earlier than the manuscripts with the full text but do not provide any of their readings. A fragment kept in Venice is dated to 9th century or earlier, a fragment kept in Vienna is dated to 9th-10th century, fragments kept in the Matenadaran are dated to 10th-11th century and one fragment on paper is dated to 14th century. Approximately twenty manuscripts of Khorenatsi's History of the Armenians have reached us. The majority of these date from the 13th and 14th centuries. The scribe of one manuscript mentions that his was copied from the manuscript of Nerses Lambronatsi. It is assumed that this copy is the oldest, as it dates from the 12th century.