Movses Kaghankatvatsi – Early Medieval Armenian Historian

Movses Kaghankatvatsi was a 7th-century Armenian historian and the author or editor of “The History of the Country of Aghvank.”

This work tells about the historian’s native lands. “The History of the Country of Aghvank” is a unique work, in fact – it is the only source on the history of Caucasian Albanians.

Kaghankatvatsi’s work has been published and translated several times in several languages:

• “The History of the Country of Aghvank of Movses Kaghankatvatsi”, K. Shahnazaryan, Paris, 1860 (in the ancient Armenian language).
• “The Story of Aghvank of Moses Kaghankatvatsi, Writer of the 10th Century”, translation of K. Patkanyan, St. Petersburg, 1861.
• “The History of the Caucasian Albanians”, translated by C.J.F. Dowsett, London, 1961.
• “History of the country of Aluank”, translated from ancient Armenian by Sh. Smbatyan, Matenadaran, Yerevan, 1984.

Aside from that, the first Armenian secular collection of laws “Constitutional Canons” was fully preserved in the work of Kaghankatvatsi. It has been translated into Russian (1860, 1984), English (1961), Georgian (1985), and modern Armenian (1969).