Sahakdukht

Who is Sahakdukht?

Sahakdukht was an Armenian composer of hymns, poet, and pedagogue who lived in the 8th century. An ascetic, she lived in a cave in the Garni Valley, near present-day Yerevan; there she produced ecclesiastical poems as well as liturgical chants. Of these, the only one to survive is Srbuhi Mariam, a nine-stanza acrostic verse. It is believed that many of her hymns were dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Some of them are supposed to have helped to further shape the genre in subsequent centuries. Sahakduxt is also known to have taught lay music lovers and clerical students a number of sacred melodies; this she did while seated behind a curtain, as the mores of the period required.

Her brother was the music theorist Stepannos Syunetsi.