Il tempo e la storia. Considerazioni sul prologo della Storia di Tamerlano e dei suoi successori di T‘ovma Mecop‘ec‘i

The vardapet T‘ovma Mecopec‘i (1378-1446) played an important role in the history of the Armenian Church. He was a supporter of the transfer of the Catholicate from Sis to Êoemiacin in 1441. Although he wrote a number of works of linguistic, hagiographic, and exegetical content, he is mostly known for his History of Tamerlane and his successors. Scholars were mostly interested in the political and military content of this work, which is considered among the most significant sources for the study of the Timurid conquest of Southern Caucasus and Armenia and the subsequent expansion of the Qara Qoyunlu tribal confederation. No attention has been paid to the reason why T‘ovma Mecopec‘i wrote a Patmut‘iwn. The paper examines T‘ovma’s conception of history and shows the close connection existing between the composition of this work and his teaching activity as a vardapet. In fact, according to the prologue of the History, dealing with time (i.e., past, present and future) is part of the teaching of a vardapet. However, the educational value of history does not reside in transmitting a knowledge of facts, but rather in warning the disciples about their future conduct in tune with lessons learned from historical events.