Journal | Armeniaca
Journal issue | 3 | 2024
Research Article | Anania Širakac‘i's k‘nnikon Reconsidered
Anania Širakac‘i's k‘nnikon Reconsidered
Abstract
Armenian medieval sources record that the seventh-century mathematician Anania Širakac‘i was commissioned with the creation of a perpetual calendar for the Armenians. These include Step‘anos Tarōnec‘i (eleventh century), who uses the term k‘nnikon in reference to Širakac‘i’s work, the exact meaning of which has been matter of debate. Scholars have suggested that it was a synonym of ‘chronicle’, and that it may have been used to indicate Širakac‘i’s perpetual calendar. The present article explores this idea further, comparing evidence in Armenian, Syriac and Georgian that had not been taken into account before in this context, showing that k‘nnikon was used to refer to an era based on an Easter cycle, a computus, and its use in Tarōnec‘i’s History may indicate Easter tables attributed to Anania Širakac‘i.
Submitted: March 21, 2024 | Accepted: July 10, 2024 | Published Oct. 31, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Calendar-making • K‘nnikon • Seventh century • Anania Širakac‘i • Classical Armenian • Roman Era • Armenian Era • Easter cycle • Computus • Paschal cycle • Time-reckoning
Copyright © 2024 Stephanie Pambakian. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2024/01/003
