Armenian Studies

An Unknown Danielic Pseudepigraphon from an Armenian Fragment of Papias (manuscript, forthcoming)

by Basil Lourié

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha June 2012 21: 323-339

(the file attached here is a draft still containing some minor errors).

A Danielic Pseudepigraphon is recovered from a little-studied Armenian fragment of Papias. A Danielic Pseudepigraphon is recovered from a little-studied Armenian fragment of Papias.

Why the EU is failing in its Neighbourhood: The case of Armenia

by Lieve Van Hoof

As the Arab Spring has made clear, the EU's strategic aim of being surrounded by a ring of secure, democratic, and... more As the Arab Spring has made clear, the EU's strategic aim of being surrounded by a ring of secure, democratic, and prosperous friends has not yet materialized. Whilst most previous analyses have found fault with inconsistent application of conditionality, this article locates the root of the problem with the EU's institutional set-up. Starting from interviews and documentary analysis, it uses Armenia as a case study to demonstrate how competition within and between the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission has led to internal, horizontal, and vertical inconsistencies that have seriously hampered the EU's capacity to promote reforms. If recent institutional reforms have been designed to address precisely these problems, sociological, rational-choice, and historical institutionalism suggest that it remains to be seen to what extent these recent reforms and initiatives will be able to bring about a change substantial enough to make the EU more successful in its neighbourhood.

The EU’s Two-Track Promotion of Democracy in its Eastern Neighbourhood: Examining the Case of Armenia

by Nicholas Ross Smith

Asia-Pacific Journal of EU Studies (forthcoming issue)

This paper examines the EU’s effectiveness in promoting democracy in its Eastern Neighbourhood through engaging with... more This paper examines the EU’s effectiveness in promoting democracy in its Eastern Neighbourhood through engaging with the case study of Armenia. In evoking Pridham’s two-track approach to democratization, the EU’s democratic strategy in its European Neighbourhood Policy is evaluated through empirically examining electoral reform (2008 presidential election) and EU interaction with domestic civil society organizations (specifically domestic NGOs)  in Armenia.  Ultimately, it is argued that the EU represents an inefficient agent of democratization through its European Neighbourhood Policy, comparatively to previous neighbourhood strategies which were based on enlargement, where reform is now more modest and the EU’s mechanisms and strategies require modification and reinvigoration.

Comercio exterior del Reino de Sevilla a través de los manuales de mercaderías italianos bajomedievales

by Raúl González Arévalo

In "Historia. Instituciones. Documentos" 38 (2011), pp. 219-253

The evolvement of the pratiche di mercatura in the Italian Peninsula permitted access to information relating to the... more The evolvement of the pratiche di mercatura in the Italian Peninsula permitted access to information relating to the principal commercial and financial centres in medieval Europe, which were located mainly on the Mediterranean and in the Low Countries. This article analyses the relevance of the Kingdom of Seville in these texts. We will see that the Italians considered Seville the main centre of trade in the Crown of Castile, and to be the hub of an extensive commercial network that stretched from Byzantium and the Maghreb to Flanders, including Italy and the Crown of Aragon.

SETA Türkiye-Ermenistan İlişkileri Çalıştay

by Muharrem EKSI

<Մանուկի> կերպարը ուշմիջնադարյան հայ տապանաքարային քանդակում (15-18-րդ դարեր) // Թուխ մանուկ, Երևան, 2001, էջ 68-84։ Образ “юноши” в позднесредневековом армянском надгробном рельефе (15-18 века) // Черный юноша, Ереван, 2001, с. 68-84 (на армянском). An Image of a “Youths” in the Late Medieval (15-18cc.) Armenian Tombstone Relief.

by Hamlet L. Petrosyan

Published in “Tookh Manook” (Black Youth), Yerevan, 2001, pp. 68-84 (in Armenian).

Одним из характерных проявлений культуры Армении 15-18-ого веков является фигуративный рельеф на надгробных плитах,... more Одним из характерных проявлений культуры Армении 15-18-ого веков является фигуративный рельеф на надгробных плитах, где в большинстве случаев представлен идеальный образ покойника в идеальной обстановке. В статье подробно рассматриваются образы юношей, часто встречающихся в подобных рельефах и имеющих, как правило, причудливые прически, косички и челки. Но основе подробного анализа нарративных, эпиграфических и иконографических материалов восстанавливаются три образа юношей: воина, учащегося, виночерпия - и три возраста: младший, средний и старший.

Ethnographic materials from the Muslim Hemshinli

by Bert Vaux

ՋՈՒՂԱՅԻ ԽԱՉՔԱՐԵՐԻ ՊԱՏԿԵՐԱԳՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ ICONOGRAPHY OF JUGHA'S CROSS-STONES.

by Hamlet L. Petrosyan

Published in Patma-banasirakaan handes (Historical-Philological Journal of Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Yerevan), 2004, № 1 . pp. 63-80.

In this article common architectural-ornamental and detailed iconographical characteristics of
Jugha's... more In this article common architectural-ornamental and detailed iconographical characteristics of
Jugha's cross-stones of the 15th-17th centuries is given, basic types, images and themes of cross-stones' compositions arc depicted. It is shown, that church-canonic themes and images (Christmas, Crucifixion, Deisus, Last Judgment, apostles, Adam, Golgotha and etc.) are compared here with themes and images, connected with the folk perceptions about overcoming death (mortals with crosses, sphinxlike myth creatures, feasts and so on). Together with pure Armenian iconographic traditions Jugha's cross-stones depict innovational tendencies, conditioned by economical growth and wide trade-cultural links of settlement. So, Jugha's cross-stones, the last 3000 samples of which were destroyed barbarously by Azerbaijani authorities at the end of 2002, were a valuable source in the study of not only Armenian, but Persian, Indian and Far-East arts and their interinfluences.

Temps Entrelacés de Deux Villes Pluricommunautaires

by Hervé Georgelin

Joint article with Bernard LORY (INALCO, EHESS), « Les temps entrelacés de deux villes pluricommunautaires : Smyrne et Monastir » in François GEORGEON, Frédéric HITZEL (ed.), Les Ottomans et le temps (E. J. Brill, Leiden & Boston: 2012), pp. 173-201.

Between Rome and Ctesiphon: the problem of ruling Armenia

by Leonardo Gregoratti

in Армения — Иран: История. Культура. Современные перспективы развития: Сборник статей [научный редактор Иванов В. Б., научный редактор, составитель Зулумян Б. С.]. Институт стран Азии и Африки МГУ, Proceedings of the Conference Armenia – Iran: History. Culture. The modern perspectives of progress, June 28, 2010, Moscow, 2012 (In Press)

Werner Seibt, The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

Paper, read in Tbilisi on September 8th, 2011, by Prof. Werner Seibt

A scenario: Fugitives from Kanesh and the origins of the Old Hittite Kingdom

by Joost Blasweiler

Bir senaryo : Kaniş’in yerinden olmuş halkı ve Antik Hitit Krallığı’nın kökeni.
İçerik:
M.Ö. yaklaşık 1710 yılında Kaniş Krallığı’nın, belkide o zamanlar Alahzina adını taşımakta olan başkenti yıkılmış ve akabinde yüzyıllar boyunca bir daha şehir olarak inşa edilmemiştir. İki yüzyıl boyunca Anadolu’da Asur ticaretinin merkezi konumundaki, kale surlarının hemen yanında kurulmuş bulunan Kaniş’in Karum Şehri de aniden terk edilerek harabeye dönmüştür. Yıkıldıktan sonraki dönemde Kaniş ülkesinde Anadolu ve Asur tüccarlarına ait kalıntılara bir daha hiç rastlanamamıştır. Hattuşa Şehri M.Ö. yaklaşık 1750 yılında Kral Anitta tarafından yıkılmış, ancak muhtemelen küçük bir yerleşim birimi varlığını sürdürmeye devam etmiştir. Arkeolog Andreas Schachner, Hattuşa (2011 – 71) adlı etkileyici kitabında şunları bildirmektedir: “Wahrscheinlich bestand dort trotz der Eroberung durch Anitta eine funktionierende Siedlung, deren Ausbau sich fur einen ambitionierenden Herscher lohnte”. M.Ö. 17. ve 16. yüzyıllar arasındaki asır değişimi civarında, büyük yeraltı tahıl silolarının ve büyük savunma duvarlarının yapımı gibi önemli inşaat faaliyetleri hayata geçirilmiştir. Bunu 16. yüzyılın başında küçük yerleşim birimlerinin büyük ve planlı genişlemeleri takip etmiştir. Bu makalede Kaniş ve Hattuşa’daki bu tarihi olayların birbirleriyle doğrudan bir bağlantısı olup olmadığı incelenmiş ve aynı zamanda Kaniş ve Kussara Krallıkları’nın Antik Hitit Krallığı ile tarihi bağı tanımlanmıştır. Bir senaryo şeklinde Kaneşli mültecilerin kil tabletlerdeki Nesili’nin gelişimi üzerindeki muhtemel etkileri ve Antik Hattuşa Krallığı’nın doğuşu kaleme alınmıştır.

About 1710 BC the capital of the kingdom of Kanesh, probably ruled at that time by Zuzu, the Great King of Alahzina, was laid waste and no longer inhabited as a town for hundreds of years Also suddenly abandoned and sacked was the karum of Kanesh, situated alongside the citadel and established for a good two hundred years as the centre of Assyrian trade in Anatolia. From the period after the destruction no Assyrian mercantile artifacts have been found in the land of Kanesh. The city of Hattusa was similarly devastated about 1750 BC by King Anitta. Nevertheless it is plausible that a small settlement persisted there. The archaeologist Andreas Schachner reports in his impressive book Hattusha (2011: 71): ‘’Wahrscheinlich bestand dort trotz der Eroberung durch Anitta eine funktionierende Siedlung, deren Ausbau sich für einen ambitionierenden Herrscher lohnte’’. Around the turn of the 17th to the 16th century important constructions were carried out, namely the building of large underground grain silos and a large defensive wall. At the start of the 16th century large and well planned enlargements to the small settlement followed. Whether these historical events in Kanesh and Hattusa are directly linked with each other is investigated in this article, and the historical relationships of the kingdoms of Kanesh and Kussara with the Old Kingdom of the Hittites are described. The possible significance of fugitives from Kanesh in the development of the Nesili language of the clay tablets and in the origins of Old Kingdom Hattusa is laid out in scenario form

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Kaysr, tun und asabiyya. Der armenische Adel und das Byzantinische Reich im späten 6. Jh. in der Darstellung des Sebēos zugeschriebenen Geschichtswerks (Kaysr, tun and asabiya. The Armenian Aristocracy and the Byzantine Empire in the late 6th Century in the History attributed to Sebeos)

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

published in: M. Popović - J. Preiser-Kapeller, Junge Römer – Neue Griechen. Eine byzantinische Melange aus Wien. Beiträge von Absolventinnen und Absolventen des Instituts für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik der Universität Wien, in Dankbarkeit gewidmet ihren Lehrern Wolfram Hörandner, Johannes Koder, Otto Kresten und Werner Seibt als Festgabe zum 65. Geburtstag [articles in German, with abstracts in English]. Vienna 2008, p. 187-202.

Although the works of Robert W. Thomson and Tim Greenwood in the last years have created a more realistic picture of... more Although the works of Robert W. Thomson and Tim Greenwood in the last years have created a more realistic picture of the quality and reliability of the Armenian History attributed to Sebēos, it is still one of our most valuable sources for the history of Armenia, the neighbouring regions and the relationship between Byzantium and the Sasanian Empire in the late 6th and early 7th century. This article concentrates on the first period of direct Byzantine rule over most of Armenia after the treaty of 591, when Xusrō II. conceded the larger part of Persarmenia to emperor (kaysr) Maurikios, until the emperor’s fall in 602. It should become evident that the repeated insurrections against Byzantine and Sasanian authorities described in Sebēos may not shape our picture of these decade too much, because their protagonists, targets and achievements were of minor relevance within the framework of Armeno-Byzantine-Sasanian relations. The more prominent houses (tun) and the majority of the Armenian nobility obviously accepted their status of service (caṙayut‛iwn) and supported imperial measurements as the recruitment of Armenian troops for the war on the Balkans. Still, some aristocrats prefered to change the imperial caṙayut‛iwn for the Sasanian and crossed the border to the east as in previous centuries. One traditional option – trying to stir the other great power to intervene like the Armenians did in 570 against the Sasanians – could not be employed due to the special relationship between Maurikios and Xusrō II.; it became effective again with Maurikios’ death in 602. The change of caṙayut‛iwn and the support of one great power or the other defined the framework for the policy of the individual houses also in the following decades of Byzantine-Sasanian und Byzantine-Arabic power struggles. Only in few cases one can observe the ability of the Armenian nobility for “collective action” (or ‛asabīyya to use Ibn Khaldūn’s Arabic term which became prominent again partly due to its use in the theories of Peter Turchin in the last years), whereas a more prominent motif of Sebēos (and earlier Armenian historiography) is anmiabanut‛iwn, the disunity of the Armenian nobles; anmiabanut‛iwn did not only restrict the possibilities of Armenian state building, but also the stability of foreign domination.

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Between New Jerusalem and the Beast in Human Form. The Picture of the Later Roman and Early Byzantine State in the Armenian Historiography of the 5th to 8th century

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

published in: Pro Georgia. Journal of Kartvelological Studies 19 (2009 = Proceedings of the VII. Annual Caucasus-Conference in memoriam Grigol Peradze, Warsaw, December 4th-8th, 2008), p. 51–95.

Overview on the perception of the Byzantine Empire in Armenian historiography from the 5th to the 9th century. Overview on the perception of the Byzantine Empire in Armenian historiography from the 5th to the 9th century.

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, erdumn, ucht, carayut´iwn. Armenian aristocrats as diplomatic partners of Eastern Roman Emperors, 387-884/885 AD

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

published in: Armenian Review 52 (2010) p. 139–215.

This paper deals with the diplomatic relations between the Armenian aristocracy (as a whole and as individuals... more This paper deals with the diplomatic relations between the Armenian aristocracy (as a whole and as individuals respectively) and the most important neighboring Christian monarch, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor. The study concentrates on the period from the partition of Greater Armenia (387 AD) between Rome and Persia and the end of the Arsacid rule until the renewal of the Armenian monarchy under the Bagratids. During these centuries characterized by the absence of an Armenian King, foreign powers came to terms on the one hand with individual powerful noblemen, who were appointed to represent the entire Armenia, bearing the title of marzpan, sparapet, patrik and others, while on the other hand they negotiated directly with various aristocratic houses (as they did in former times). Based on contemporaneous Armenian, Greek, and other sources the paper aims to analyze the contents of the covenants between Armenian aristocrats and Byzantine Emperors (declaration of allegiance, bestowal of titles, military assistance, etc.), the diplomatic means and customs (oath, presents, charters – the “diplomatics of diplomacy”), the sources’ terminology and the interpretation of the relations between the Emperor and the Armenian aristocracy given by the sources. The description of these relations in the Armenian sources is consequently compared to the depiction of those of the Armenian aristocrats’ to the Sasanian Great King and the Arab Caliph. In that way, a “Byzantinocentric” interpretation of Armenia’s foreign relations during this period should be avoided, while at the same time efforts are made to detect specific elements of the Armeno-Byzantine political relations in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

Werner Seibt, Die Eingliederung Vaspurakans in das Byzantine Reich (etwa Anfang 1019 bzw. Anfang 1022) (The integration of Vaspurakan in the Byzantine Empire, ca. incip. 1019 or incip. 1022)

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

Published in: Handes Amsorya 92 (1978) p. 49-66.

Analysis and dating of the integration of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan into the Byzantine Empire in the 11th... more Analysis and dating of the integration of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan into the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century.

Werner Seibt, Taxiarchos Moxegaz - ein byzantinischer Kommandant in Mokk um die Mitte des 11. Jahrhunderts? (Taxiarchos Moxegaz - a Byzantine commander in Mokk in the middle of the 11th century?)

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

Published in: Handes Amsorya 1993, p. 145-148.

Analysis of a Byzantine lead seal from the 11th cent. Analysis of a Byzantine lead seal from the 11th cent.

Werner Seibt, Kenarios - ein neuer Würdenträger am Hof des byzantinischen Kaisers (Kenarios - a new dignitary at the court of Byzantine Emperor)

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

Published in: Handes Amsorya 88 (1974) p. 369 - 380.

Identification of imperial dignitaries (basilikoi kenarioi) of the 7th/8th century with the help of lead seals and... more Identification of imperial dignitaries (basilikoi kenarioi) of the 7th/8th century with the help of lead seals and Armenian sources.

Werner Seibt, Miszellen zur historischen Geographie von Armenien und Georgien in byzantinischer Zeit (Miscellanea on the historical geography of Armenia and Georgia in Byzantine times)

by Österreichisch-Armenische Studiengesellschaft (ÖASG)

published in: In: Handes Amsorya 90 (1976) Sp. 633-642.

Analysis of Byzantine lead seals from the 11th century and the localities in Georgia and Armenia mentioned on these. Analysis of Byzantine lead seals from the 11th century and the localities in Georgia and Armenia mentioned on these.

Rus Arşiv Belgelerinde Bitlis İsyanı 1914

by Tibet Abak