The List of Hayren Manuscripts and Life Period of Nahapet Kuchak
The List of Hayren Manuscripts and Life Period of Nahapet Kuchak
Yeghiazaryan Vano
Summary
Key words: հayrens, Aristakes Tevkantz, gusans, Congregation of the Vienna Mekhitarists, Matenadaran, Khachatur Kecharetsi
The ashugh songs of Nahapet Kuchak have reached us in manuscripts compiled after his death in 1592, mainly in the 17th century, and some hayrens attributed to Kuchak were written down before his birth, in 1492. Artashes Tevkants attributed the hayren with the beginning ‘’This my sea night’’ to Kuchak on the basis of only one manuscript as if the latter was transcribed in 1583 in Sebastia, after that in 1746, Priest Petros copied it, though that hayren was actually preserved within other manuscripts: No 671 in the Matenadaran of the Mkhitaryan Congregation in Vienna, before 1668, in Palati St. Archangel Church, No. 30 manuscript (all the mentioned were versions of the same hayren mistakenly attributed to Kuchak).
According to the mancript facts, during Nahapet Kuchak’s lifetime and before that the gusan-folk hayrens transcribed in manuscripts as anonymous songs and individual hayrens were attributed to Hovhannes Plus Erznkatsi and Khachatur Kecharetsi. Meanwhile, the songs under the name of Kuchak, were not hayrens, but simply gusan songs that have reached us in the manuscripts of the 17th and later centuries.