Chernorizets Hrabar

Chernorizets Hrabar (, Črьnorizьcь Hrabrъ) was a Bulgarian monk, scholar and writer who is credited as the author of On the Letters. He worked at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century.

Name and historicity His appellation translates as "Hrabar, the Black Robe Wearer" (i.e., Hrabar the Monk), chernorizets being the lowest rank in the monastic hierarchy (translatable as "black robe-wearer", see čьrnъ and riza), "Hrabar" ("Hrabr") supposed to be his given name. However, sometimes he is referred to as "Chernorizets the Brave", "the Brave One" or "Brave" which is the translation of Hrabar assumed to be a nickname.

The authorship of his work and his identity have been a matter of scholarly debate. His name has been theorized as a pseudonym used by some of the other famous men of letters such as Constantine, John the Exarch, Clement of Ohrid or even by Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria himself.

On the Letters

Chernorizets Hrabar is the credited author of only one literary work, "On the Letters" (, O pismenehь), a popular medieval treatise written in Old Church Slavonic. The work was written in the late ninth or early tenth century.

He also provided information critical to Slavonic paleography with his mention that the pre-Christian Slavs employed "strokes and incisions" (, črъty i rězy), a form of writing that was, apparently, insufficient to properly reflect the spoken language. It is thought that this may have been a form of runic script but no authentic examples are known to have survived. The dominant view among scholars is that Hrabar was defending Slavonic in response to Greek criticism, while others have argued that his text was a defense of Glagolithic against Cyrillic. The work has also been printed in Vilnius (1575–1580), Moscow (1637), Saint Petersburg (1776), Supraśl (1781). It is the earliest printed work of an early Bulgarian author, included as part of the 1578 version of Ivan Fеdorov's East Slav primer. with additional reference to Vondrák, , and the original manuscript.

Transliteration (with adapted punctuation, removed diacritics, resolved abbreviations): Prěžde ubo slověne ne iměhǫ knigъ, nǫ črъtami i rězami čьtěhǫ i gataahǫ pogani sǫšte; krъstivše že sę, rimьskami i grъčьskymi pismeny nǫždaahǫ sę [pisati] slověnьsky rěčь bezъ ustroenia. Nǫ kako možetъ sę pisati dobrě grъčьskymi pismeni b[og]ъ, ili živōtъ, ili ʒělō, ili cr[ъ]kovь, ili čaanie, ili širōta, ili jadь, ili ǫdu, ili junostь, ili ǫzykъ, i inaa podbnaa simь? I tako běšǫ mnoga lěta. Po tom že čl[ově]koljubec b[og]ъ [...] posla im s[vę]tgo Kōstantina filosofa naricaemago Kirila, mǫža pravedna i istinna, i sьtvori imъ pismena i osmь, ōva ubō po činu grъčьskyhь pismenъ, ōva že po slověnьstěi rěči.

Translation: In the past, the Slavs did not have books, but read and divined by means of strokes and incisions, being pagans. Having been baptised, they had to write the Slavic speech with Roman and Greek letters without any system. But with Greek letters how can one write words such as God, or life, or very, or church, or waiting, or width, or meal, or where, or youth, or tongue, and other similar ones? And so it was for many years. Then the mankind-loving God [...] sent them Saint Constantine the Philosopher, called Cyril, a just and upright man, and he created thirty-eight letters for them, some in the manner of Greek letters, and some in accordance with Slavic speech.

Legacy

Hrabar Nunatak on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, is named for Chernorizets Hrabar.