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.

Keywords

• Anania Širakac‘i. Armenian Era. Calendar-making. Classical Armenian. Computus. Easter cycle. K‘nnikon. Paschal cycle. Roman Era. Seventh century. Time-reckoning