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 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 1JF Blackwell Publishers Inc. 350 Main Street Malden, Massachusetts 02148 USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. 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 o f 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 b c - a d 63 65 Empire 68 Royal government 71 Decline 76 Culture and religion 81 Economic resources 83 Arsacid Rule: Tiridates I to Tiridates ГѴ, a d 6 6 - a d 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.a d 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 List of Figures 4.1 Partial genealogical table: the Artaxiads and their connections 77 8.1 Partial genealogical table: the Artsrunis, Bagratunis and Siwnians in the ninth century 180 9.1 Partial genealogical table: Artsrunis and Bagratunis in the tenth and eleventh centuries 198-9 List of Maps 1.1 Europe and west Asia 4 1.2 Armenia and her geography 8 1.3 The east Mediterranean and west Asia 15 2.1 Armenia 26 2.2 The east Mediterranean and west Asia 28 3.1 Armenia 52 3.2 The east Mediterranean and west Asia 53 4.1 Armenia 66 4.2 The east Mediterranean and west Asia 70 5.1 Europe and west Asia 90 5.2 Armenia 92 6.1 Europe and west Asia 114 6.2 Armenia 118 7.1 Europe, west and south Asia 143 7.2 Armenia 145 7.3 Armenian churches 163 8.1 Europe and west Asia 167 8.2 Armenia 171 9.1 The east Mediterranean and west Asia 201 9.2 Armenia 203 10.1 Europe and west Asia 232 10.2 Africa and Eurasia 234 Preface A generally accepted definition of the extent of Europe, whilst excluding much of historic Armenia, does include the present-day Republic of Armenia, the boundary between Asia and Europe being regarded as running along the Caucasus. Neither Armenia nor the Armenians how­ ever are routinely associated, by most people, with Europe and Eur­ opeans. European history has traditionally been narrowly conceived, concentrating particularly on western Europe, and an interest, in this context, in Armenia, is often expected to be explicable in terms of some personal connection, in a way which would not be expected of an interest in, say, France, Germany or Russia. I have no such connection, but as our world becomes more a global village and comparative history and world history more illuminating, a conviction that Armenian history is just as relevant to the history of the lands and peoples which have shared the heritage of Graeco-Roman civilization and of Judaeo-Christian religion as that of the Anglo-Saxons, though the latter is, for a west European, far easier of access, and vice versa.