A Gusan Gestalt Shift

Differing Perceptions of the Bard in Movsēs Daskhurants'i’s History of the Caucasian Albanians

Abstract

This paper seeks to reinscribe the debate regarding the Christianization of the gusans (bards), from one concerned with an essentialized notion of "Christian-ness" to one which better accounts for the multifarious notions of "Christian" in medieval Armenia. That is, the contrary conceptions of the gusan, in literary and material sources, are surveyed and taxonomised. By way of a close reading of Movsēs Daskhurants'i’s History of the Caucasian Albanians, supplemented by an exegesis of the gusan in other canonical Armenian histories,the gusan, as a polemical category in clerical literature, is shown to represent the antithesis of Christian piety. However, the spoor of a more general assimilation of the gusan into Christian society, specifically that of the gentry and laypeople, is evidenced by other material sources and texts. The intention of this paper is to offer a new approach with which to think about the gusan, and Armenia’s pre-Christian heritage writ large.