The History of the Caucasian Albanians is an Armenian compilation of the tenth century that preserves much older material. Its second book carries the reign of Varaz-Trdat and, with it, the one narrative any source gives of the Huns who held the passes north of Derbent in the later seventh century.[1]

The passage that matters here

In the winter of 681 the prince of those Huns came down into Albania.[2] The text calls him the general and great prince of the Huns, Alp Ilitʿuer, and says he assembled his soldiers and those who came to join him from many places, with generals and ensigns and troops bearing halberds, archers and cataphracts, armoured and helmeted, and invaded Albania at the foot of the great Caucasus.[2] The following winter the Albanian prince sent Bishop Israyēl of Mec Kuēankʿ to his court, and the bishop’s preaching is reported at length: the prince and his army heard him, the sacred trees were cut down, and crosses were set up where the altars had stood.[3]

The name and the title

The manuscripts do not agree on the name. The editor of the English text lists what they give — Alpi Litʿuir, Alpiali Tuer, Alpʿilitʿwer, Alpʿ hoł tʿuel, Ilu-Tʿvel and more — and reads through them to Alp the ǝl-tǝbǝr, the brave ilteber.[4] That reading is not new with him: it was set out in 1903, where the Armenian forms were placed beside the title of the Bulgar ruler in Ibn Faḍlān and beside Łewond’s litʿber, and all three were traced to one word.[5]

The article on the title carries the argument and the objection to it. What belongs here is the date: whatever the word turns out to be, this is where it is first written down outside China, in an account of the year 681 written in Armenian.[2]

Value as a witness

The work is late and composite, and its seventh-century material has passed through at least one hand before reaching the compiler. Against that stands its isolation: for the Huns of the north Caucasus under Khazar overlordship there is nothing to set beside it, and nothing that could be abridging it.

References

  1. ^ Dowsett 1961
  2. ^ a b c Movsēs Dasxurancʿi, juan 2
  3. ^ Movsēs Dasxurancʿi, juan 2
  4. ^ Dowsett 1961, p. 150
  5. ^ Marquart 1903, p. 114

Sources

Literature

  • Charles J. F. Dowsett (Übers.), The History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movsēs Dasxuranci (1961)
  • Josef Marquart, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge (1903)

Articles resting on this source 1

Ilteber

Related

What links here1

Institutions and Titles
Ilteber

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Movsēs Dasxurancʿi.” Turkic Atlas, revised 13 September 2026. https://turkicatlas.business-5d4.workers.dev/sources/movses-dasxuranci/

Last revised: 13 September 2026