St. Tikhon’s University Review . Series III: Philology

The paper examines the social status and administrative activities of Chalcedonian Armenians in the service of the empire in IX–X centuries according to the treatise of Constantine Porphyrogennetos “On the Governance of the Empire”. The information on Trans-Caucasian matters in the treatise is characterised by accuracy and precision because it was provided by immediate participants of events — Chalcedonian Armenians in the service of the Byzantine Empire. he imperial orthodoxy guaranteed Constantinople the loyalty of its Armenian diplomats, military leaders and interpreters, while their belonging to the Armenian ethnicity, language and culture made it possible for them to orient themselves in the Armenian world with ease unattainable to their Greek colleagues. Armenian aristocracy, naturally incorporated into the Byzantine ruling class (the milieu from which Constantine’s advisers originated), represents a phenomenon of synthesis, the result of interaction and mutual infl uence of the two worlds and the two cultures. These particular people created the deological component in the formation of the integrated contact zone.

interaction of Byzantine and Armenian civilisations, Constantine Porphyrogennetos, political ideology, military leaders, diplomatic agents.

Arutiunova-Fidanian Viada

The paper deals with the problem of reception of Origen’s principle of threefold interpretation of Scripture by St. Ambrose of Milan (ca. 339–397). Though straightly associating and obviously confounding the Origenian trichotomy of senses with popular models of triple division of philosophical disciplines, St. Ambrose systematically applies to the biblical texts the method of consequent exposition of moral and mystical senses in a mode, corresponding in general to the novel exegetical practice initiated by Origen.

biblical exegesis, St. Ambrose of Milan, Origen, Philo of Alexandria

Nesterova Ol'ga

The article is devoted to an execution of the Christians from the settlement Qara in Central Syria in 1266 by Mamluk Sultan Beybars, who blamed the local people in slave trading and contacts with the Crusaders. The events are reconstructed according to the information of various Arabic chronicles of the 14th and 15th centuries. The case of Qara is incorporated into the broad context of the history of the Christian Orient of the Late Middle Ages.

Christian Orient, Crusaders, Mamluks, Beybars

Panchenko Konstantin

The paper deals with some features of the Coptic literature of 7–8th centuries, which was one of the key periods in the history of Egypt. The author gives particular attention to the genre of encomium and examines issues that became topical due to the historical situation of the period. The mutual infl uence of Coptic and other traditions is explored as well, and there is a conclusion about characteristics of copto-centrism, typical of Egyptian Christians of the period in question.

Coptic literature of 7–8th centuries, literary traditions and their mutual infl uence, encomium, martyrdom, literary cycles

Frangulian Liliia

Dans le présent article on a donné une description codicologique détaillée et une analyse du contenu du manuscrit B.A.R. Mss orientale 365, daté de 1786, qui fait partie de la collection de la Bibliothèque de l’Académie Roumaine et en défi nitive on l’a identifi é pour la première fois avec un recueil hagiographique orthodoxe arabe. On a réussi à établir que la place essentielle y est réservée aux vies des saints d’origine byzantine, mais dans certains cas l’hagiographie copte et la tradition locale des Arabes chrétiens de Syrie ont exerçé leur infl uence. Une attention particulière est prêtée à la promesse donnée au saint dans la Vie de St Cyriaque et Ste Juliette ainsi qu’aux demandes de l’accorder adressées à Dieu dans les Vies de St Georges et de St Serge et St Bacchus. Auparavant on attribuait l’origine copte à une pareille promesse qui a été largement répandue dans la tradition éthiopienne, mais les matériaux de ce recueil permettent de supposer qu’il faudrait chercher ses racines dans l’hagiographie byzantine.

tradition manuscrite arabe chrétienne, hagiographie orthodoxe arabe, Vies de St Cyriaque et Ste Juliette, de St Georges, de St Serge et St Bacchus, promesse donnée au saint

Frantsuzov Sergei

The publication contains entries beginning in the letter “G” (Russian “Г”). Characteristic features of the edition of the Dictionary, lists of abbreviations as well as explanatory notes were given in detail in the preceding issues of the journal. The present publication gives lists of sources and notation forms because some alterations have been made in them.

Kaluzhnina Nadezhda

The paper discusses the issues of compiling the entry list for the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Russian Christian Words. It presents a fragment of the classifi cation of the terminology in the domain and suggests to use the frequency of a lexical item in relevant texts as a criterion of its terminologization. The paper also considers whether proper names should be included in the Dictionary.

lexicography, dictionary entries, terminological lexicaography, religious terminology

Dobrushina Ekaterina

The publication presents the third part of entries beginning in the letter «A», the fragment of the dictionary of Christian words in Russian, which is being compiled by staff members of the Department of Philology and the Department of Theology of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities. The introductory article setting out the main principles of the work was published in Issue 3 (25), 2011, the second part of entries in Issue 2 (28), 2012.

Dobrushina Ekaterina