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Revisiting the Question of the Time and Place of Writing of the Caucasian Albanian Palimpsest According to Numismatic Data (Part II)
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Revisiting the Question of the Time and Place of Writing of the Caucasian Albanian Palimpsest According to Numismatic Data (Part II)
Annotation
PII
S086919080021669-2-1
DOI
10.31857/S086919080021669-2
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Alexander V. Akopyan 
ORCID: 0000-0001-6846-0685
Occupation: Senior Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Affiliation: Institute of Oriental Sciences of RAS
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Edition
Issue 5
Pages
146-159
Abstract

This article concerns the dating of the Caucasian Albanian palimpsest (Gospel of John) on the basis of a refined interpretation of the monetary term **zaizowzńa. In the second part of paper, based on the refined denotation of the coin term **zaizowzńa, the question of the possible place of writing of the Albanian palimpsests is discussed. The area where the coins denoted by this term circulated for the longest time is identified; it geographically coincides with the Kingdom of Heretʽi (late 8th – early 11th centuries) in the upper valley of Alazani River. A conclusion is drawn that the Albanian palimpsest could have been created in the Kingdom of Heretʽi, where Armenian Christianity was prevalent until the first half of the 11th century.

Keywords
Caucasian Albania, Gospel, Hereti, imitations, Islamic numismatics, Sasanian numismatics, zuza
Received
27.10.2022
Date of publication
30.10.2022
Number of purchasers
13
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338
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1 In memoriam Jim Farr (1948–2018), first reader of this article
2 As it was shown in the first part of the work [Akopyan, 2021], based on the analysis of the time of existence of the Albanian coin term **zaizowz-ńa, which denoted a set of various imitations of the coins of Hormizd IV and pre-reform Arab-Sassanian coins, the time when Sinai edition of the Albanian Gospel was completed, is necessary to limit from the beginning of the 6th century and until the beginning of the 10th century (herein the publishers attribute the writing of the manuscript from the end of the 7th century to the 10th century, leaning towards a later date) [CAPS 1, p. I–32]. In the development of this analysis, in the second part of the work, an attempt is made to identify the area of ​​writing the Albanian palimpsest.

II. ON THE PLACE OF WRITING OF THE ALBANIAN PALIMPSEST: PECULARITIES OF THE MONETARY CIRCULATION IN THE KINGDOM OF HERETʽI (LATE 8TH – EARLY 11TH CENTURIES)
3 The place where the Albanian palimpsest was written is never discussed by its publishers – by default it’s assumed to be in Caucasian Albania, and a special part of the publication is devoted to this geographical and political concept [CAPS 1, p. vii-xix]. However, taking into account the publishers’ opinion already quoted above that the manuscript was written in the period “between the late 7th century and the 10th century, with a later date being a bit more probable than an earlier one” [CAPS 1, p. I-32], such general geographical definitions can only be used for delineating the historical territory of the Caucasian Albania (and even more broadly – the historical territory of the Albanian world), since at the specified time its territory was occupied by several states with various levels of independence and with different state religions – Orthodox or Armenian Christianity and Islam. Is it possible to determine more accurately the political formation in which the liturgical Albanian (for purposes of the Albanian Church of Armenian Christianity) could be used in the indicated time period up to the end of the 10th century on the basis of a refined reading and etymology of a hapax? In this regard, it seems appropriate to point to one observation which may shed light on the location where the Albanian manuscripts were written.
4 The Sasanian zuzas started to circulate intensively in Armenia and Caucasian Albania in the 3rd-4th centuries [Mousheghian, 1997, p. 78-79] and somewhat later in Kʽartʽli. The observed vector of their penetration is logical – from Araxes to the north, so in the Caucasian Albania the Sasanian drachmas started to prevail by the mid-5th century [Pakhomov, 1959b, p. 9], and in Eastern Georgia from the second half of the 5th century [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 27-28]. A significant number of hoards and individual finds of the Sasanian coins evenly cover the entire region, so that the numismatic data in East Transcaucasia cannot be a basis for defining a particular area of ​​ the Sasanian drachma-zuz circulation. As already mentioned, the beginning of Islamic coinage in Transcaucasia did not change the monetary supply overnight – for quite some time, up to the 10th century, mixed hoards consisting of Sasanian drachmas and Arab dirhams (including Sasanian-type Arab-Sasanian coins and drachmas of Ṭabaristān) have been discovered in the Transcaucasia.
5 However, it is indicative that half (thirteen out of twenty-seven or twenty-five) of the known mixed Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards were found on a small area in the upper course of the Alazani River (Arm. Lop‛nas [Hewsen, 2001, p. 45], Lowbnas [Movsēs Kałankatvacʽi, 1984, p. 69]) up to the confluence of the Muxax River (mod. Qaraçay), above the beginning of the proper Alazani (Arm. Ałowan) [Hewsen, 2001, p. 45] (the topography of hoards from the upper Alazani is outlined in fig. 9; their catalogue is given in the Table 1, where coins are divided into the following types: zūzās – Sasanian coins and a Sasanian-type Islamic coins and dirhams – purely epigraphic Islamic coins; a methodologically important grouping of Arab-Sasanian coins together with Sasanians, and not with epigraphic Islamic dirhams continues the tradition established by I.L. Dzhalagania [Dzhalagania, 1979]). In its turn, the topography of the other fourteen (or twelve?) hoards reveals a high dispersion and is not reducible to any historical and cultural area.1
1. Other 14 (or 12) Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards from the rest territory of Transcuacasia: Askeran (1934 and 1935; maybe these are two parts of one hoard), Barda (1940), Dilipʽi (1949), Gaṙni (1930), Gedabey (1964), Karchag (1903), Manglisi (2017), Martuni (1962) and Nerkʽin Getašen (1961) (maybe these these are two parts of one hoard), Paṙavakʽar 1970, Qazax 1961, Syunikʽ 1986, Yardımlı 1967.
6 The outlined territory in the upper Alazani was occupied by the northern part of the historical region of Lpinia (Geo. Heret‛i, Arm. Lp‛ink‛, ašxarh Lp‛noc‛, Arab. Lībān), more precisely – Lpinia in the narrow sense [Gadzhiev, 1998]. Lpinia occupied the area between the Gates of Dido and the Gates of the Šakʽi, mentioned by Ibn al-Faqīh as abwāb al-Dūdāniya and abwāb al-Šakkī [Ibn al-Faqīh, 1902, p. 15], the latter, apparently, were in the area of the Zaqatala Wall [Pakhomov, 1950], also known as sadd al-L.b.n. Lpinia in the west (which was not a part of the First Albanian kingdom, nor part of the Albanian marzpānate) and the region of Čor/Derbent in the east were two very special regions on the western and eastern “ends” of Caucasian Albania. Both of them occupied strategically important “regions of border walls”, keeping Transcaucasia from the mountaneers of Caucasus. Their geographical position indicates that they were the outer parts not of proper Albania, but rather of the polyethnic Albanian world of the 5th–7th centuries (or Albania in the broadest sense by M.S. Gadzhiev [Gadzhiev, 2015, p. 39]), which was opposite to the ethnically Armenian or Georgian regions of Transcaucasia. A simple comparison of the titles of the Transcaucasian Catholicoi of the 6th century serves as a clear illustration of this – the detailed and triple title Catholicos of Ałuankʽ, Lpinkʽ and Čor [Movsēs Kałankatvacʽi, 1984, p. 91, 121, 171] contrasted with the short titles like Catholicos of Greater Armenia or Catholicos of Kʽartʽli.
7 The singularity of the Lpinia territory from the numismatic point of view was also discussed earlier [Dzhalagania, 1979, p. 13], however, without clarifying the political status of the region, whereas when restoring political boundaries of the states it is absolutely important to allocate areas with the same type of monetary management and, consequently, a single fiscal practice.
8 Ten out of twelve Sasanian-Islamic mixed coin hoards of Lpinia were found in the northern part of the left-bank of the Alazani Valley (which is proper Lpinia or the Duchy2 of Štori), two hoards from its southern part (the region of Geo. Eliseni or Duchy of Mačʽeli, Arm. Ełni or Xeni), hoard No. 5 found on the right bank village Kondoli (Duchy of Veǰini). With the exception of hoard No. 13, all these finds contain only whole coins. Hoards Nos. 1, 4 and 11 are concentrated in the northernmost area of the region, which is reasonable to attribute to the area of ​​the alleged localization of the Dido Gates and, possibly, the fortress of Naxčevani [Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 126-127].3 In terms of numismatics, there is also a very remarkable area between the Šorosxevi and Areši rivers in which five hoards were found. In this region, the concentration of the mixed Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards is exceptional: two of the same-type hoards were found during the last two centuries in the village of Mtʽisjiri (Nos. 2 and 6) and three within 7 km from it, in the microregion of adjacent villages of Leliani and Apʽeni (Nos. 8, 9 and 12); it is quite possible to connect the place of these findings with the fortresses of Kartʽubanis-cʽixe or Goriscʽklis-cʽixe [Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 121]. The places where the “accidental” monetary finds were concentrated clearly signal the need to search for their archaeological context [Sedykh, 2008, p. 13-16].
2. These Duchies reflects administrative division of 11th century and based on fortress’ names but not on historical region names. Their list was described only in 18th century by Vaxušti Bagrationi [Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 126-127].

3. Contra mapping of R. Hewsen Λούβιον Κώμη, “the village of Lubins,” was not located here [Hewsen, 2001, p. 67] but lying on the Iberian-Albanian border according to Ptolemy. It is reasonable to associate this Λούβον Κώμη with the “city of Heretʽi” (an early medieval Geo. Xorantʽa) at the confluence of Alazani and Iori [Vaxušti Bagrationi, 1976, p. 125; Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 103; Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, 2013, c. 14].
9

Fig. 9. Topography of the finds of mixed Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards within the boundaries of the Heretʽi Kingdom (late 8th – early 10th century) and in Transcaucasia (on the inset). The highlighted areas are the corrected boundaries of the Heretʽi Kingdom in the late 8th – early 10th century (▬) and the territory of Lpinia-Heretʽi in a broader sense ().6 Marked the places of finding of the Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards (, 1–13), single finds of Sasanian coins (, a–b) and hoards that haven’t been completely described, but contained Sasanian coins (, c–d), as well as centers of four Duchies of Heretʽi of the beginning of the 11th century ().
10 Hoard No. 13, which is the latest concealed in terminus post quem (tpq) comes from Aliabad (located in Eliseni) and reflects the terminal stage of circulation of the Sasanian coins which contained in it only in the form of secondary morphogenesis – small fragments of coins and ingots. Its composition reflects the organization of a completely new way of monetary tradition and the beginning of circulation of silver by weight in the form of broken coins and ingots, which sharply differs from the earlier Sasanian-Islamic coin haords of Lpinia.
11 The time of production of the coins contained in the hoards (except for the very late hoard No. 13) covers the period from the beginning of the 7th to the end of the 9th century, whereas the tpq of these hoards (from 766 to the end of the 9th century) span a period of over one and half centuries. A small number of solely Sasanian coin finds in this area – one coin from Qvareli [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 43, no. 36] (on fig. 9 – a) and from Šroma [Dzhalagania, 1979, p. 29-30] (b) and not completely described hoards from Baisubani4 (c) and Katex [Pakhomov, 1938, p. 20, no. 379]5 (d), which could be Sasanian-Islamic, forces us to refrain from the opinion of I.L. Dzhalagania [Dzhalagania, 1979, p. 30], about the early time of the penetration of the Sasanian drachmas into this region. So far, the numismatic data strongly support the appearance of silver coins in this region only along with the flow of Islamic dirhams, and the beginning of this process should be dated no earlier than from the tpq of the earliest hoard (hoard No. 1, tpq 766), which pushes the beginning of circulation of silver coins in the region to the last quarter of the 8th century. Fig. 9. Topography of the finds of mixed Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards within the boundaries of the Heretʽi Kingdom (late 8th – early 10th century) and in Transcaucasia (on the inset). The highlighted areas are the corrected boundaries of the Heretʽi Kingdom in the late 8th – early 10th century (▬) and the territory of Lpinia-Heretʽi in a broader sense ().6 Marked the places of finding of the Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards (, 1–13), single finds of Sasanian coins (, a–b) and hoards that haven’t been completely described, but contained Sasanian coins (, c–d), as well as centers of four Duchies of Heretʽi of the beginning of the 11th century ().
4. Only 3 coins from the hoard are described: two of them are identified as from one hoard [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 66, no. 10], and one more separatly from them, but makred as found at the same year and place [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 41, no. 30].

5. We only have the information that several coins from this hoard were identified as Sasanian.

6. The boundaries of Lpinia-Heretʽi in the wide sense given according to M.S. Gadzhiev [Gadzhiev, 1998, p. 16].
12 According to the late and only Georgian chronicles, from precisely this time (from 787, by Vaxušti Bagrationi) [Vaxušti Bagrationi, 1976, p. 127] and up until the beginning of the 11th century, the territory of the northern part of Lpinia-Heretʽi (Lpinia-Heretʽi in the narrow sense) was occupied by the independent Kingdom of Heretʽi, separated by the actions of the nephews of the Adarnase I the Blind of Tao/Taykʽ (r. 742–780) [Vaxušti Bagrationi, 1976, p. 128]. Heretʽi existed as a kingdom until the beginning of the 10th century, when king Kwirike I of Kaxetʽi (r. 893–918) amassed enough power to force the Heretʽi ruler Adarnase to restrict his title only to a patricius [Essays on the History of Georgia, 1988, p. 272]. However, the later rulers of Heretʽi, such as Išxanik († beg. of the 10th c.), again called kings. As for the religious life of the Heretʽi Kingdom, it practiced Armenian Christianity from the 7th century (both before Išxanik and after, since having rejected it, the latter returned back to the Armenian faith) [Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, 2013, p. 144; Vaxušti Bagrationi, 1976, p. 128] with Albanian as its liturgical language.
13 Numismatic mapping, based on a positive interpretation of the archaeological void as an indicator of complete absence of a particular phenomenon, but not as meaningless silence, indicates a unique and uniform economic zone of joint existence of Sasanian and Islamic coins at the late 8th – late 9th century developed on the discussed territory which supports the following conclusions:
14 a) The Heretʽi Kingdom had its own way of monetary circulation that sharply differed from that in the adjacent regions – Kaxetʽi, Kʽartʽli-Iberia and proper Albania.
15 b) Based on the numismatic data, the northwestern boundary of the Heretʽi Kingdom should be moved away from the river Štori (contra [Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 127]) to the Štori and Alazani watershed, i.e. the eastern border of the Pankisi Gorge. This is indicated by the finds of hoards in Zemo Alvani (No. 1) and Pʽičʽxovani (No. 10) above the river Štori.
16 c) The southeastern border of the Heretʽi Kingdom, according to the topography of the mixed Sasanian-Islamic coin hoards, must be limited to the gorge of the Muxax River, excluding further southern regions Beł (Geo. Сukʽetʽi) and Šakʽi. In addition to the hoard data, this assumption is also confirmed by the list of Duchies of the Heretʽi Kingdom that were enumerated in Matiane kʽartʽlisa [Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, 2013, p. 155]7 and repeated by Vaxušti Bagrationi [Vaxušti Bagrationi, 1976, p. 129] including only the areas of Štori, Xornabuǰi, Veǰini and Mačʽeli. This list does not mention any point south of the Eliseni region, and areas like the important Šakʽi and the extensive Xunzaxi (Sarir on the northern side of Caucasus range) are depicted as if they are managed from the small near-border fortress of Mačʽeli, which of course is only animus possidendi.
7. D.L. Muskhelishvili’s comment list in Matiane kʽartʽlisa is surprising: “the Kingdom of Heretʽi included the well-known territory of the cantons Šakʽi, Kambečʽani and the proper Heretʽi” [Muskhelishvili, 1982, p. 36] – but there is no information either about Šakʽi or Kambečʽani on the list!
17 Therefore, based on the description of Vaxušti Bagrationi, it is necessary to strictly delineate the territories:
18 i) the Kingdom of Heretʽi until the beginning of the 11th century – the upper Alazani Valley (perhaps, only its left-bank), meaning Lpinia or Heretʽi in the narrow sense,
19 ii) Heretʽi in a broad sense – the eastern region of the Kaxetʽi Kingdom,
20 iii) The territory south of them, which was later occupied by the Second Albanian Kingdom (the areas of Eliseni and Šakʽi) with its center at Šakʽi.
21 Since the Second Albanian Kingdom (Arm. tʽagaworutʽiwn Ałwanocʽ, the Kingdom of Albania, Arab. al-mamlakat Šakkī, the Kingdom of Shakki, ruled by al-ṣāḥib Šakkī, the Lord of Shakki) was also called Heretʽis samepʽo – the Kingdom of Heretʽi in Georgian, such homonymy was the reason for its frequent confusion8 with the former Kingdom of Heretʽi, which existed earlier and was located further north – both in Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, and modern researches, for example, by D.L. Muskhelishvili.
8. D.L. Muskhelishvili justly noted that the Georgians generated “the name of this kingdom [the Kingdom of Šakʽi or Heretʽi] using the names of their closest neighbors, the ancient Albanian tribe of the Hers, while the Arabs – using the name of the capital, the city of Šakkī. The Armenians and the Byzantines called it this way because it arose in the territory of the former Albanian kingdom,” while “the Georgian sources also sometimes use the term Šakʽi, instead of the term Heretʽi”, indicating the confused toponyms in Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba [Muskhelishvili, 1982, p. 37-38].
22 According to the narrative and numismatic data, the external boundaries and internal territorial division of the Kingdom of Heretʽi kingdom are the following. Since its formation in the second half of the 8th century it was divided into four Duchies [Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, 2013, p. 155; Muskhelishvili, 1982, p. 45], known by the Georgian names of the central fortresses of the 11th century – the left bank Štori (the historical Lpinia, from the area where Alazani River flows out of the Pankisi Gorge to the Mačʽisxevi Gorge) and Mačʽeli (the historical Eliseni/Ełni/Xeni, from the Mačʽisxevi Gorge to the Muxax River), and the right bank Veǰini (from the Tʽurdo River to the Kʽiziqi River) and Xornabuǰi (from Kʽiziqi to the inflow of Alazani into the Kura River). The Kingdom of Heretʽi was surrounded by the Caucasian Range from the northeast and the Kaxetʽi Range from the southwest.
23 After the Kingdom of Heretʽi was incorporated into the Kingdom of Kaxetʽi, the territory of the Heretʽian duchies somewhat changed: the areas above the Štori River on the left bank and the Tʽurdo River on the right bank of Alazani were excluded from Heretʽi and added to the districts of Tušetʽi [Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 125-127], while the Duchy of Mačʽeli nominally included the regions of Šakʽi (and Beł lying between Mačʽeli and Šakʽi) and Xunzaxi (Avaria), to which the Kaxetʽian king Kwirike III laid his claim. The contemporary sources did not retain any direct information about the extension of the power of Kwirike III over Avaria (Vaxušti Bagrationi, who mentioned it, worked in 18th century), while the struggle between the Kaxetʽian kings and Šīrwānšāhs for Šakʽi continued during the first half of the 11th century, which was directly indicated by Müneǧǧim-Bašï. Thus, he writes about the independent actions of Šakʽi infidels in 992 [Minorsky, 1953, p. 22], and records that the Kaxetʽian king Axsitʽan II (1058–1084) began to rule in Šakʽi only in 1067 [Minorsky, 1953, p. 20]. Exactly because of the struggle for Šakʽi V. Minorsky refrained from directly identifying the toponym “Šakkī” of that time with the Heretʽian or the Kaxetʽian kingdoms in general.9
9. See [Minorsky, 1963, p. 94] contra [Muskhelishvili, 1982, p. 48]. Contrary to the doubts of V. Minorsky [Minorsky, 1953, p. 28], Müneǧǧim-Bašï does not mean Kaxetʽi under Šakkī at all, when he lists the fortresses of Ṭaṭiyān, Mūǧkank/Mūḫkang (the “Mūġān fortress”?) and al-Bayḍa (the “White fortress”), which Anūšīrwān Šaddādid planned to give to Šakkī [Minorsky, 1953, p. 18]. It is quite possible that these fortresses were located on the northern (Kʽoǰašen, mod. Axarbaxar) or southern (mod. Bozdağ) mountain ridges, bordering the Kura in the area of ​​the modern Mingachevir reservoir, where the Ǧanza-Šakkī border was actually supposed to be. Naming of the Kaxetʽian kings as the “Kings of Šakkī” in Tāriḫ-i Bāb al-Abwāb [Minorsky, 1963, p. 118] or Zubdat al-Tawāriḫ [Al-Ḥusaynī, 1980, p. 54] dates back to the time only after they annexed Šakʽi, which happened during the reign of Axsitʽan II (r. 1058-1084) or constitutes an extrapolation of these events to earlier situations – like when Arčʽil “transferred Šakʽihi” to Adarnase the Blind [Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, 2013, p. 112; Vaxušti Batonišvili, 1904, p. 134].
24 The fact that the upper part of the Alazani Valley upheld a marginal position towards the regions under the Arab or Georgian authority and was geographically clamped10 became the reason why the high-quality silver coins, like Sasanian zūzās-drachmas and Islamic dirhams kept here during the longest period of time. Analyzing their mixed hoards, it is necessary to pay attention to the following two facts.
10. It is difficult to agree with the opinion of M.D. Lordkipanidze and D.L. Muskhelishvili that “one of the main routes that connected Georgia with the residence of the Arab governor in the Transcaucasus – Bardavi was running through Heretʽi” [Essays on the History of Georgia, 1988, p. 275]. The direct and fastest way from Tiflīs to Barḏaʿa in Arrān passed via Kura valley, and was used so often, that the Arabs considered Tiflīs as a city situated in Arrān [Al-Istakhrí, 1927, p. 17; Minorsky, 1953, p. 6]. At the same time, the geographically closed position in the valley surrounded by mountain ranges from the three sides, back then allowed the Kingdom of Heretʽi to get separated from Kʽartʽli and remain independent for several centuries.
25 First, the Sasanian coins are featured in the form of an admixture in the hoards of the late 8th–10th centuries of any size (from nine coins to few kilograms), which indicates the penetration of coins into all classes of the Heretʽian society. Only after the 9th century the circulation of silver fragments and silver ingots replaced them. In the numismatic typology, the hoards consisting of coins with such a wide interval between the dates of their issues can be interpreted in two ways. In the case of coin economies, with the prevailing share of coin payments and a high level of coin circulation, these kinds of hoards reflect an “instantaneous face” of circulation, while their appearance signals that all the coins that got into the hoards were current at the same time and place. In case of more archaic situations (for example, in monetary or mixed coin-monetary economies), these kinds of hoards can actually be called the “hoards of long accumulation,” as the coins received in the form of imports were not used immediately, but rather held for a long period of time.11 Undoubtedly, the analysis of numismatic data allows referring the Kingdon of Heretʽi to the number of those monetary economies that developed in the 8th–9th centuries in the territories adjacent to the Islamic regions, where silver coins were issued, or the territories contacting and trading with them (the Khazaria, Rus’, Scandinavia).
11. A well-researched example of this situation is the Vikings’ hoards of the 9th-10th centuries from Scandinavia.
26 The Sasanian-Islamic mixed coin hoards from Heretʽi represent a rather long period (no less than a century), which testifies to their “natural” archaeologization, not related to the external aspects, so that the hoards themselves can be considered as personal accumulations handed down from generation to generation, which were gradually falling out of circulation. Moreover, it is necessary to associate the widespread use of silver coins in the Kingdom of Heretʽi with the coinage by the Kaxetʽian king Kwirike III the Great precisely after the annexation of Heretʽi (and perhaps in Heretʽi, as predominantly all coin finds of the Kaxetʽian coins originate from the modern Azerbaijani part of the historical territory of the Heretʽi) [Akopyan, Vardanyan, 2013; Akopyan, Vardanyan, 2015] and precisely in the form of Georgian-Arabic bilingual coinage that is known to us. The importance of Heretʽi was unquestionable – if earlier Kwirike III was the king of Kakhs, then after the annexation of Heretʽi he became the king of Rans and Kakhs, and the newly added region was put first in his title. Secondly, we don’t know any hoard of the 8th-9th centuries from the territory of the Kingdom of Heretʽi that does not contain at least one Sasanian coin, which directly testifies to the firm and deep penetration of the Sasanian zūzās-drachmas into the everyday life of the region. In order to summarize all of the above, it should be noted that the analysis of the numismatic material unambiguously indicates the saturation of the economy of the Kingdom of Heretʽi with silver coins in the period of its independence from the late 8th century to the early 10th century. The reasons which triggered this process maybe follow.
27 The narrative sources keep silent about the exact exports which the Alazani Valley could possibly offer the Arabs in the 8th – 10th centuries and cause the flow of silver coins from them. The complex archaeological and historical-economic study of the region in the 8th – 10th centuries has not yet been conducted, so we can only assume that the local exports did not contain agricultural products traditional for this fertile region since they were not different from the products of the neighboring regions of Transcaucasia. In terms of agrarian conditions, the Alazani Valley did not exceed (and does not exceed up to the present) the neighboring Kura-Araxes lowland, which was firmly controlled by the Arabs from Barḏaʿa since 752 and through which the silver coins were coming into the Kingdom of Heretʽi.
28 On the other hand, the regular finds of the Islamic dirhams outside dār al-Islām or out of the Arab trade routes with the North look extraordinary considering their complete absence in the territories with the dār al-ḥarb or dār al-daʿwa status – for example, in the Bagratid kingdom of Ani, which haven’t become a transit route for the Islamic silver [Akopyan, 2016], or the non-mainstream areas of the Christian kingdoms of Transcaucasia.
29 When trying to explain this phenomenon, it is necessary to reject two well-known economic models that could be used by analogy with other regions where the Islamic dirhams circulated in the 8th – 9th centuries. These are the models of the Islamic silver transit through the Kingdom of Heretʽi or the plunderage of the Islamic regions by the Heretʽians. A complete absence of monetary silver in the regions lying behind the Kingdom of Heretʽi (in Kaxetʽi, Tušetʽi, Didoetʽi or Avaria) testifies contrarily the first model. The second model is impossible due to the fact that there is no information about such events in the Arab sources, which regularly reported on wars with the infidels, as well as by Vaxušti Bagrationi’s direct reference to the aloof way of life of the kingdom before the beginning of the 11th century: “up to now [i.e. 11th century], the names of the kings of Heretʽi and their deeds are neither represented nor mentioned, because they lived for peace and for themselves [highlighted by me – A.A.]” [Vaxušti Bagrationi, 1976, p. 128].
30 Weak archaeological research of the region, followed by the absence of information from the narratives, does not yet allow us to suggest a solid explanation of the situation outlined by numismatic analysis. However, the typological uniqueness of the numismatic situation (the finds of silver coins outside the transit routes and outside dār al-Islām, as well as the dead end of the region for the flow of silver coins) along with the geographical position of the Kingdom of Heretʽi between the two “gates” (Dido and Šakʽi) and between the two ridges (Caucasian and Kakhetian) seem to make the following assumption enable. It is quite possible that the regular finds of Sasanian-Islamic mixed coin hoards from the territory of the Kingdom of Heretʽi of the 8th-10th centuries reflected payments from the Arabs to the Heretʽians for providing the protection of the mountain passes from the South-Western Daghestan to the Alazani Valley and further to the Kura-Araxes mesopotamia, which could be invaded by the highlanders of Didoetʽi, Tušetʽi, Avaria and the Samur Valley.
31 The fact that this kind of invasion of the highlanders did happen is indicated by rare reports preserved in the chronicles. Thus after the end of the governorship of Yazīd b. Usayd in Arminiyya (in 780 according to coins) [Vardanyan, 2011, 118], the city of Šamkur was destroyed by the Siyavordis, which Ibn al-Āṯīr characterized as “the people who gathered from all around” [Ibn al-Āṯīr, 1940, p. 19].12 The last phrase would have been unclear without the narrative of Müneǧǧim-Bašï, dating back to the time somewhat later than 967, when more than 400 Saririans including horsemen, descended to Ǧanza, where they merged with the Siyavordis, settled on the banks of the Kura River and started their raids [Minorsky, 1953, p. 13]. Undoubtedly, here we have the fixation of a certain model, which existed as the union of the Siyavordis, who lived on the right bank of the Kura, with the people of the southern Daghestan. Other information dates back to 1049, when Anūšīrwān Šaddādid, who ruled on the right bank of the Kura River from Ǧanza, wanted to surrender some fortress of K.rmstān to the “Didos” [Minorsky, 1953, p. 18, 28], most likely, to reduce their pressure on the Amīrat of Ǧanza. The above mentioned “Didos” can be considered as a metaphorical generalization of the threat from the north, but not as the avant-garde, which consisted of the ancestors of the modern Tsez and moved so far to the south (Anūšīrwān Šaddādid wanted to transfer the boundary fortresses to Šakʽins, Abkhazians and Byzantines – in this situation the appearance of proper Didos seems doubtful). The process of formation of such metaphorical ethnonyms is widely known; we find another example in Ibn al-Āṯīr, who named Georgians as Khazars because of the threat behind them [Ibn al-Āṯīr, 1940, p. 123].13
12. M.I. Artamonov dates the destruction of Šamkur by the Siyavordis in 750’s, a hundred years before the resettlement of 300 families of Khazar Muslims here [Artamonov, 2002, p. 333].

13. Leonti Mroveli writes that the Khazars began to use Dar-i Alān and Kʽartʽli for penetration into Transcaucasia: “they opened up ... the Aragvi gates, which are the [gates] of Darial” [Kʽartʽlis cʽxovreba, 2013, p. 17].
32 It should be noted that the kings of Heretʽi maintained the tranquility of the border of dār al-Islām, which was lying along the Kura for almost a two centuries between the first two invasions of highlanders (after 780 and after 967); and the archaeologization of twelve of the thirteen hoards (Nos. 1-12) dates back almost exactly to that time. Apparently the liquidation of the Kingdom of Heretʽi by Kwirike III violated the balance of forces in the region and opened the way from the south-western Daghestan to the Kura, which was used by the highlanders who forced Amīrat of Ǧanza to give up a certain (borderline?) fortresses in the middle of 11th century.
33 This way, the analysis of the hoard materials shows that the Kingdom of Heretʽi was the region of the most prolonged use of the Sasanian zūzās-drachmas until the end of the 9th century. If the future lexico-statistical analysis can reveal a certain obsolete layer of the Albanian lexis closer to the assumed date of the Gospel writing (from the end of the 7th to the 10th century, with the preference towards the end of this period), it will be necessary to postulate the creation of the Sinai version of the Albanian Gospel exactly in the Kingdom of Heretʽi, which practiced the Armenian Christianity with the Albanian liturgical language up until its annexation by the Kingdom of Kaxetʽi in the early 11th century.
34 In this perspective, it is also quite logical that the Albanian texts of palimpsests were written over with the Georgian ones: since the reign of the Kaxetʽian king Kwirike III, who annexed Heretʽi, the Georgian language became the liturgical and official language (which is indicated, for example, by the epitaphies and coins), and the next 11th – 12th centuries saw the active linguistic and religious assimilation of the Heretʽi population from the side of the Kaxetʽian kingdom, and then the united Georgian kingdom [Gadzhiev, 1998, p. 30].
35 TABLE 1. LIST OF SASANIAN-ISLAMIC MIXED COIN HOARDS FROM THE TERRITORY OF KINGDOM OF HERET‛I (8TH – 11TH CENTURIES)14
14. Abbreviated names of dynasties and coin groups in the Appendix: ʿAbb. – ʿAbbāsids, Aġl. – Aġlābids, Arab.-Sas. – pre-reform Islamic coins of Sasanian type, Idr. – Idrisids, Kuf. – Islamic epigraphical (Kufic) coins in general, Tāh. – Tāhirids, Ṭab. – spāhbeds of Ṭabaristān, Um. – Umayyads (incl. Spanish Umayyads). The asterisk indicates the descriptions of the hoards with essential inaccuracies.
36
No Coin dates or tpq of the hoard Size of the hoard Composition of the hoard Place and time of finding
zūzās dirhams Other items
Sasanian coins Islamic coins of Sasanian type Islamic post-reform coins
1 604–766 4 coins (part of the hoard) 1 — 3 (2 Um., 1 ʿAbb.) — Mt. Baxtrioni, Zemo Alvani, 1960 [Dzhalagania, 1979, p. 53; Tsotselia, 2003, p. 90, no. 30; Tsotselia, Depeyrot 2010, p. 156, no. 808]
2 590–779 9 coins 7 2 (Ṭab.) — — Mtʽisjiri, 1988 [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 80, no. 21; Tsotselia, Depeyrot 2010, p. 157, no. 811]
3 End of 8th century Unknown Yes Yes Yes — Zaqatala District, 196915
4 592–808 150 coins 12 (Sas., Arab.-Sas.) 138 (90 coins of 8th c., 46 coins of 9th c., 2 coins with unclear dates) — Pʽšaveli, 1937 : description А [Pakhomov, 1940, p. 37, no. 822];
127 coins 1 126 (6 Um., 118 ʿAbb., 2 Aġl.) — description B [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 83, no. 24];
129 coins 1 1 (Arab.-Sas.) 127 (5 Um., 120 ʿAbb., 2 Aġl.) — description C [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 80, no. 21; Tsotselia, Depeyrot, 2010, p. 162, no. 820]
5 589–814 201 coins 5 4 (Arab.-Sas.) 192 (5 Um., 187 ʿAbb.) — Kondoli, 201216
6 593–820 304 coins 3 — 301 (17 Um., 281 ʿAbb., 3 Idr.) — Mtʽisjiri, 1961: description А [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 86, no. 27];
305 coins 3 — 302 (17 Um., 282 ʿAbb., 3 Idr.) — description B [Tsotselia, Depeyrot, 2010, p. 163-164, no. 824]
7 599–820 38 coins (part of the hoard) 1 1 (Tab.) 36 (7 Um., 29 ʿAbb.) — Kavširi, 192117
8 603–829 171 coins 1 7 (1 Arab.-Sas., 6 Ṭab.) 163 (Kuf.) — Leliani, 1924: description А [Pakhomov, 1938, p. 24-25, no. 395];
171 coins 2 169 (1 Arab.-Sas., 168 Ṭab.) — — description *B [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 85, no. 26]18;
171 coins 2 6 (5 Arab.-Sas., 1 Ṭab.) 163 (12 Um., 151 ʿAbb.) — description C [Tsotselia, Depeyrot, 2010, p. 161-162, no. 818]
9 589–834 392 coins 16 24 (4 Arab.-Sas., 20 Ṭab.) 352 (Kuf.) — Apʽeni, 1924: description А [Pakhomov, 1938, p. 25, no. 396];
410 coins 16 — 394 (Um.) — description *B [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 88-89, no. 29];
394 coins (calculation of the parts gives 405) 16 26 (6 Arab.-Sas., 20 Ṭab.) 363 (14 Um., 346 ʿAbb., 2 Idr., 1 Ṭāh.) — description C [Tsotselia, Depeyrot, 2010, p. 160-161, no. 817]
10 591–862 11 coins (calculation of the parts gives 9); whole hoard weights ca. 2 kgs 1 1 (Ṭab.) 8 (ʿAbb.) — Near Čikaani, 1900 [Pakhomov, 1959а, p. 74-75, add. to no. I-81; Tsotselia, Depeyrot, 2010, p. 156, no. 807]
11 592–893 116 coins 3 — 113 (13 Um., 90 ʿAbb., 2 Idr., 8 unknown) — Pʽičʽxovani, 1960 [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 87, no. 28]
12 604 – 9th century 5 coins 1 1 (Ṭab.) 3 (1 Um., 2 ʿAbb.) — Leliani, 2002 [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 85, no. 26, coin no. 1]
13 7th century – final decades of 10th century 713.02g of silver coin fragments (4070 pcs.), 6 silver ingots (total 642.67g) Single fragments — Great bulk of fragments 6 silver ingots (total 642.67g) Aliabad, 1910 [Kuleshov, Orlov, 2015]
15. The hoard is not described; A.M. Radzhabli gave only the general information about it [Radzhabli, 1973, p. 208].

16. Preliminary statement on the discovery of this hoard was made by Dr. Medea Tsotselia (State Museum of Georgia) at the ICON II conference (State Hermitage, 2016), to whom I am deeply grateful for the information about the hoard, kindly provided in a personal message.

17. In the last descriptions of the hoard a Ṭabaristān coins counted amongst of Kufic [Tsotselia, 2003, p. 84, no. 25; Tsotselia, Depeyrot, 2010, p. 160, no. 816]. This descriptions complement each other and do not contradict the primary description of E. A. Pakhomov [Pakhomov, 1938, p. 24-25, no. 393].

18. In the descripton Sasanian coins are Nos. 2 and 3; and Kufic coins counted amongst of Ṭabaristān coins.

References

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