SALMIN A.K. The Armenian Tracks in the History of the Chuvash

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.2.2

Anton K. Salmin,

Doctor of Sciences (History), Leading Researcher,

Center of European Research,Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences,

Universitetskaya Emb., 3, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ,

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1072-9933


Abstract. The introduction provides brief information to acquaint the reader with the history of the study of the topic in the title. It points to the difficulties in identifying the original homeland of the historical ancestors of the Chuvash. It also provides an ethnonymic picture.

With regard to the methodology of the study, the author gave preference to a complex, cross-genre approach. This is most suitable for tackling questions of ethnic history because it makes it possible to draw on conclusions provided by allied disciplines. In this way, new knowledge emerges. Such a methodology also helps to get away from stagnated views.

The materials subjected to analytical examination were primary sources (the authors of al-Kūfī, a - abarī, al-Beladsori/al-Balā urī, Łewond (Leontius), Zacharias Rhetor, Xenophon, and Apollonius of Rhodes), as well as the works of prominent 20th- and 21st-century scholars (A.V. Golovnev, M.S. Gadjiev, A.S. Kassian, M.L. Khachikian, and A.K. Shahinyan).

Analysis. Attention is chiefly devoted to an examination of historical and geographical facts, ethnographic matters, and linguistic analogies. The paper includes a series of lexical correspondences between Chuvash and Armenian. For example, Armenian dzor/tsor and Chuvash çyr mean “bank, steep slope”; kh”yar and khăyar mean “cucumber.” There are instances when Chuvash and Armenian homophones have similar meanings. Kin refers to “daughter-in-law” in Chuvash and “wife, woman, lady” in Armenian.

Results. The author’s previous publications as well as the present paper make it possible to conclude that the ethnonym of the Chuvash has undergone a lengthy course of transformation through history in the form of Savir (Saspir/Sapir, Savar, Sabir) Suvar (Suvas, Suvan) Suvash (Săvaš) T’šăvaš. In the 9th to the 1st centuries BC, the Saspirs occupied a territory from Media to Colchis, between the Medes and the Colchians, with the former to the south and the latter to the north by the River Phasis, i.e., the territory of the Armenian Highlands.

Key words: prehistory, Chuvash, Armenians, South Caucasus, history, geography, ethnography, language.

Citation. Salmin A.K. The Armenian Tracks in the History of the Chuvash. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2024, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 27-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.2.2.

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The Armenian Tracks in the History of the Chuvash by Salmin A.K. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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