inai – the very name evokes a sense of mystical ambience enveloping one of our
planet’s most fascinating, onerous and forbidding spots. Yet the intrepid explorer from
Jerusalem had no qualms about venturing into its underbelly and unfathoming the
mysteries that lay hidden under the shifty dunes and unsteady rocks.
Here,
in
the
unyielding
wilderness,
is
where
thousands
of
years
ago
humanity
received
divine
instructions
to
guide
their
steps
along
the
path
of
righteousness,
and
here
history
scattered
its
pages
on
the
sands,
some
filled
with
gore,
and
others
with
glory,
like
the
incomparable
rock
inscriptions,
some
in
languages
that
are
lost
in time.
Among
them,
Armenian,
still
pretty much alive.
The
inscriptions
had
remained
an
enigma,
but
not
for
long,
thanks
to
the
indefatigable
efforts
of
Armenologists
like
Michael
Stone,
professor
emeritus
of
Armenian
studies
at
the
Hebrew
University
of Jerusalem.
He
had
known
of
the
inscriptions
years
before
he
launched
the
first
of
five
expeditions
into
Sinai,
but
had
an
inkling
there were many more still undiscovered.
He
was
in
for
a
very
pleasant
surprise.
For
his
doggedness
and
tenacity
yielded
him
more
than
he
had
aspired
to,
rewarding
him,
and
the
academic
world,
with
confirmation
that
Sinai
was
undeniably
the
site
of
the
oldest
Armenian
writing
of
any
sort,
carved
onto
rocks
mere
decades
after
the
invention
of
the
Armenian
alphabet
in
401,
only
about
a
hundred
years
after
Armenia
became
the
first
nation
on
earth
to
adopt
Christianity
as
its state religion.
“They
are
the
oldest
known
Armenian
writing
anywhere,”
Stone
declares
in
his
newly
published
book,
“Uncovering
Ancient
Footprints:
Armenian
inscriptions
and
the
pilgrimage
routes
of
the
Sinai”
(2017,
SBL
Press, Atlanta, Georgia, USA).
Armenian
pilgrims
were
among
the
first
to
flock
to
the
Holy
Land,
in
the
Fourth
Century
CE,
after
their
adoption
of
Christianity:
many
left
tangible
evidence
of
their
sojourn,
but
inadvertently
omitted
to
sign the messages they carved on the rocks of the desert.
Eutaktos,
from
Satala,
in
Anatolia,
remembered,
and
left
us
his
name:
he
is
the
first
Armenian
pilgrim whose name we know. He apparently he visited the Holy Land in 360 CE.
The
pilgrims
embarked
on
their
travels
from
their
mountainous
terrain
in
the
Caucasus,
travelling
on
the
backs
of
camels
and
donkeys,
to
kiss
the
sacred
ground
of
Jerusalem
where
their
messiah
Jesus
lived
and
died,
and
then
trekked
to
Mount
Sinai
in
the
desert
to
witness
for
themselves
the
site
where
Moses
received the Ten Commandments.
Along
the
way,
many
of
them
dutifully
recorded
their
sense
of
awe
and
great
joy,
interspersed
with
details about their journeys, and carved in their prayers, thanking God and asking for divine protection.
“I saw Jerusalem,” reported one pilgrim. “I went around Sinai,” reported another.
But it was not only for themselves that they sought the grace of God.
“Lord,
have
mercy
on
my
camel
and
my
guide,”
beseeched
another,
in
a
touching
epistle
he
inscribed
on the peak of Mt Sinai.
Stone's
latest
174-page
opus
is
hard
to
put
down.
One
of
the
world's
leading
Armenologists,
Stone
is
also
a
poet,
and
punctuates
his
account
of
the
expeditions
with
poetic
nuggets,
reflecting
not
only
his
personal reaction to the ambience of the desert, but also to the march of history.
"The quiet is affirmation,
"Not sound's cessation,
"to touch, to feel.
"The soul responds to silence's stolidity,
"Touchable."
And gazing at the galleries of deadpan rocks, he asserts
"They are all still there
"Romans, Greeks, Nabateans
"Armenians, Jews, Arabs
"Bedouins, Sabeans, Egyptians.
"Layered human traffic of the wasteland."
Stone's extensive research has shown that Armenians began writing at the start of the 5th CE.
"The
oldest
dated
manuscript
that
survives
is
a
copy
of
the
four
Gospels,
now
in
Venice,
written
in
862 CE, centuries after the invention of Armenian writing," he notes.
The
sanctity
of
the
holy
places
often
led
pilgrims
to
settle
in
them,
so
some
of
the
Armenian
pilgrims
chose to stay, helping set the foundations of one of the holy land's most vibrant communities.
The
denizens
of
the
Old
city
of
Jerusalem,
particularly
the
"kaghakatsi"
(native
city
dwellers),
are
direct descendants of those hardy pioneers.
Sinai
is
perforated
by
valleys
called
Wadis,
with
Wadi
Hajjaj
(valley
of
pilgrims),
the
most
bountiful.
It
was
there
that
the
expedition
stumbled
upon
some
of
the
most
elaborate
graffiti,
most
of
which
were
short and merely gave names, such as those of Mesrob and Nathan.
One
major
find
that
differed
significantly
from
the
others,
was
a
badly
eroded
inscription
that
originally
contained
nine
lines
of
writing,
a
unique
phenomenon
in
itself.
It
contained
a
name
and
a
recording of the writer's experience including a visit to Saint Catherine's monastery.
Unfortunately
some
inscriptions
were
superimposed
one
on
the
other,
making
it
difficult
if
not
impossible to decipher them.
Stone
admits
he
is
astounded
"beyond
anything
else,
by
the
number
of
inscriptions
and
the
volume
of
the pilgrim traffic to which they bore witness."
But
the
expedition
was
not
all
toil
and
tears.
There
were
sufficient
light
moments
to
ease
the
burden
the
sheer
fatigue
of
climbing
up
slopes
or
slipping
under
rocks,
not
to
mention
the
bitter
cold
of
desert nights.
Among
the
scattered
and
windcrafted
rocks,
there
lived
a
sparse
population
of
Bedouins,
and
on
the
few
occasions
their
paths
crossed,
the
men
would
treat
them
to
their
special
blend
of
coffee,
so
strong
it
could
know
down
a
camel
while
the
women
would
ask
for
cigarettes:
alas,
they
would
return
to
their
camel
hair tents empty handed and forlorn for none of the expedition team members smoked.
One
of
the
most
exciting
inscriptions
recorded
by
Stone
is
the
one
on
Jebel
Musa,
near
Saint
Catherine's
monastery,
near
another
exceptionally
large
and
clear
one
that
had
been
published
by
one
of
the
world's
leading
manuscript
experts,
Archbishop
Norayr
Bogharian
of
the
Armenian
Patriarchate
of
Jerusalem.
The excitement dispelled whatever fatigue he felt, he says.
"That
first
inscription
dated
from
the
year
1463.
Archbishop
Bogharian's
research
showed
that
its
authors
with
a
group
of
clerics
who
belonged
to
the
Armenian
Patriarchate,
two
of
whom
subsequently
became
Patriarchs.
This
inscription
is
different
from
all
the
other
inscriptions
that
we
found
on
Mount
Sinai
or
elsewhere
in
the
Sinai
Peninsula.
it
is
dated,
easily
read
and
we
can
identify
the
persons
involved,"
he
notes.
But
this
story
is
not
finished,
Stone
warns,
for
he
is
still
unclear
about
the
routes
the
pilgrims
took,
and
about
the
extraordinary
concentration
of
epigraphs
at
Wadi
Hajjaj,
and
about
what
may
or
may
not
be
at other locations.
Stone
is
retired
now,
and
won't
be
contemplating
any
further
forays
into
the
wilderness.
That,
he
will leave to younger and fresher seekers.
This project has been supported by the Gulbenkian philanthropic Foundation, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and members
of the worldwide Armenian community. Reproductions of the genealogical documents [domar’s] are courtesy Photo Garo, Jerusalem.
© Copyright 2007 Arthur Hagopian