The Armenians

351 Pages·1610·8.22 MB·English

The Armenians
The Peoples of Europe
General Editors James Campbell and Barry Cunliffe
This series is about the European tribes and peoples from their origins in
prehistory to the present day. Drawing upon a wide range of archaeolo­
gical and historical evidence, each volume presents a fresh and absorbing
account of a group’s culture, society and usually turbulent history.
Already published
The Etruscans The Franks
Graeme Barker and Thomas Edward James
Rasmussen
The Russians
The Lombards Robin Milner-Gulland
Neil Christie
The Mongols
The Basques David Morgan
Roger Collins
The Armenians
The English A.E. Redgate
Geoffrey Elton
The Huns
The Gypsies E. A. Thompson
Angus Fraser
The Early Germans
The Bretons Malcolm Todd
Patrick Galliou and Michael Jones
The Illyrians
The Goths John Wilkes
Peter Heather
In preparation
The Sicilians The Spanish
David Abulafia Roger Collins
The Irish The Romans
Francis John Byrne and Michael Timothy Cornell
Herity
The Celts
The Byzantines David Dumville
Averil Cameron
The Scots
The First English Colin Kidd
Sonia Chadwick Hawkes
The Ancient Greeks
The Normans Brian Sparkes
Marjorie Chibnall
The Piets
The Serbs Charles Thomas
Sima Cirkovic
The Armenians
A. E. Redgate
Copyright © Anne Elizabeth Redgate 1998,2000
The right of Anne Elizabeth Redgate to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 1998
First published in paperback 2000
2468 10975 3 1
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
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Oxford OX4 1JF
Blackwell Publishers Inc.
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Malden, Massachusetts 02148
USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
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Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or
otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding
or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A. E. (Anne Elizabeth)
The Armenians I A. E. Redgate.
p. cm. - (Peoples of Europe)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-14372-6 (hb : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-631-22037-2 (pbk)
1. Armenia-History. I. Title. II. Series.
DS 175.R43 1998
956.6’2-dc21 98-24617
CIP
Typeset in 10 on 12pt Sabon
By Pure Tech India Ltd, Pondicherry
http://www.puretech.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
List of Plates viii
List of Figures X
List of Maps xi
Preface xii
Names and Transliteration xiv
Notes, Citations and Bibliography xvi
Note on Maps xvii
Acknowledgements xix
Origins 1
The place 6
Origins 13
The first kingdom 18
Names and identities 21
Early History: The ‘Armenian’ Environment, c. 1165-590 вс 25
The rise and fall of Urartu 29
Government and society in Urartu 33
Religion 45
Debts and legacies 48
Foreign Rule: Medes, Persians and Greeks, 590-190 вс 50
Armenia after the fall of Urartu 50
Armenia in the Achaemenid empire 55
Society 57
Economy 59
Contents
Religion 61
Armenia and Greek rule 61
Armenia under the Orontids 62
Autonomy and Empires: Artaxias I to Tiridates I,
189 bc-ad 63 65
Empire 68
Royal government 71
Decline 76
Culture and religion 81
Economic resources 83
Arsacid Rule: Tiridates I to Tiridates ГѴ, ad 66-ad 298/9 88
Reconstructions 89
Government and society: continuity or change? 96
Royal resources 102
Culture: contacts and comparisons 104
Religion: continuity and challenge 107
The Establishment of Christianity and the End of the
Monarchy, C.300-C.428 113
Conversion and its consequences: early medieval Armenian
Christianity 119
Crown, Church and aristocracy 132
The end of royal power 136
Culture and Repression: Partitioned Armenia, c.428-c.640 140
Christian teaching c.400-50 140
Persecution and resistance, 428-84 142
Leadership c.400-c.500: Mamikoneans, patriarchs and
historians 146
Social change: aristocracy, heresy, intellectual life
C.428-C.570 149
Roman revival c.500-c.640 153
Literature, art, architecture c.570-640 158
Arab Rule and the Revival of Kingship, c.640-884 166
The Arab-Byzantine struggle, 640-C.700 166
Arab rule and Armenian response, c.700-c.800 170
Armenian revival, c.800-84 173
Power and its foundations 175
The Church: politics and problems 184
The Paulician heretics 193
Cities and commerce 195
Contents vii
9 Kings and Migrants, 884-C.1071 197
The early Bagratuni kings 200
Political society, 884-C.925 205
Urbanization 209
The Church 211
Literature and scholarship 219
Ecclesiastical problems 222
Byzantines, Bagratunis and Turks: revival, decline and
annexation, c.925-1071 224
10 Armenians and Europe, to c.ad 1100 230
Armenians west of Armenia 231
Armenians and Byzantine history 236
Armenians and western culture 241
Armenian-European parallels: problems, perceptions and
peculiarities 244
Armenian-European divergences 248
Armenian identity in the early Middle Ages 249
11 The Third Millennium, 1071 to the Present 255
The aftermath of Manazkert 255
Armenians in the time of the Crusades, 1097-1375 256
The twilight years, c. 1400-1828 262
Awakenings, dreams and nightmares: c. 1820-1918 266
Armenians in the modern world 273
Epilogue: the future 278
Bibliography 280
1 Primary sources: texts and translations 280
2 Secondary sources 283
Index 303
List of Plates
1 Ara-kha, the ‘Armenian’ Babylonian pretender, from
Darius the Great’s rock relief at Behistun 3
2 Coin of Tigranes II ‘the Great’ of Armenia 5
3 View from a mountain pass, north-western Armenia 9
4 The island of Altcamar, Lake Van, southern Armenia 12
5 Seventh-century вс Urartian bronze models of a turret
and part of a city probably from the same model 35
6 Upper half of sculpted enthroned Virgin and Child,
(sixth or seventh century) set in the interior of the north
wall of a seventh-century church at Ödzun, but possibly
originally a cult object 124
7 The Adoration of the Magi (sixth-seventh century) from
the Ejmiatsin Gospel, Erevan, Matenadaran, no. 2374,
fo. 229 161
8 The south-west façade of the early seventh-century
Church of St Hripcsime at Va|arshapat 164
9 The khachckcar of Prince Gregory Atrnersehean from
the village of Mets Mazrik, 881 191
10 Sculpted decoration on the exterior of the south wall of
the early tenth-century Church of the Holy Cross on the
island of A|tcamar, Lake Van 214
11 The apostle James and another apostle, from an interior
wall painting on the north side of the main apse of the
early tenth-century Church of the Holy Cross on the
island of Altcamar, Lake Van 215
12 The mid-tenth-century Church of the Holy Apostles, Kars 217
13 The Gates of Paradise, from a Gospel of 1587 illustrated
at Julfa, the John Rylands University Library of
Manchester, Arm. 20, fo. 8 265
List of Plates IX
14 The town of Van in the mid-nineteenth century, east side,
from C. Texier, Description de I’Armenie, la Perse, et la
Mesopotamie 2 vols, (Paris, 1842-52) 267