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Abstract
The 18th-century translations of the Shajara-yi Turkī played an important role in shaping Enlightenment-era Europeans’ perceptions of Islamicate Central Asia, and had a significant impact on the wider European intellectual landscape of the time; yet, as of today the complex history of these translations is still largely unstudied. In seeking to go some way towards filling this gap, the present contribution attempts a reconstruction of this history insofar as the current state of the documentary record allows it; moreover, it seeks to address a number of misconceptions which still persist in the secondary literature on the subject.
Абстракт
Рассказы путешественников, посещавших Золотую Орду (Улус Джучи), говорят о культурной и особенно исламской доминанте в городах Хорезма, которые имели развитые правовые институты, политические, религиозные и социальные сети, идентифицирующие себя с исламом или обладающие статусом «богословской бюрократии», не говоря о мусульманской архитектуре, ясно символизирующей идеологию. Религиозными маркерами архитектурного ландшафта городов были мавзолеи, мечети, медресе и др. Их монументальные масштабы и сложные в конструктивном отношении пропорции, великолепный декор свидетельствуют о выдающейся зодческой школе, а профессиональная эпиграфика этих памятников отражает богатые лингвистические и богословские традиции, которые не могли появиться «ниоткуда» и явно продолжили прежние домонгольские традиции. Поэтому мы исходим из того, что ислам и культурные традиции городов после монгольского завоевания остались «на своем месте», продолжая эволюционировать, сообразно социальным и иным изменениям в обществе того времени. Этот тезис находит свои «материальные подтверждения» при изучении наиболее показательных символов «исламскости» архитектурного ландшафта городов и загородных комплексов Хорезма – мавзолеев святых (вали/аулийа’, кадам-джа), которые обычно исследуются в качестве архитектурных объектов, а их эпиграфика выполняет лишь вспомогательную функцию для установления имени донатора и даты строительства. В этой статье мы постараемся расширить телескопию исследовательских подходов, имея в виду те исторические условия, в которых эти объекты стали центрами культовых практик (зийарат) и площадками для обширных коммуникаций разных страт общества, а значит, становились частью глобального процесса социальной исламизации в Золотой Орде.
Abstract
The ancient correspondence allegedly between the Toparch Abgar V of Edessa and Jesus of Nazareth is usually treated in modern scholarship as legendary, though possession of it was important for the legitimation of Armenia as the first Christian kingdom in ca. 314 A.D. (prior to Constantine’s ‘Christian’ rule of a united Roman Empire from 324, and well before Theodosius I’s Edict of Thessalonica in 380). This paper attempts to create a demythologized space in which to reconsider the historical probability that Jesus, widely reputed as a healer in the chief (Near Eastern) Jewish centre of influence, was asked for help by an ailing eminent and replied to his request. Along the way, questions will be raised for further research (italicized) and so in this sense the article takes the form of an Agenda.
Abstract
While much ink has been spilled on the Armenian-American Lobby’s efforts to achieve the formal recognition of the tragic events in Anatolia of 1915–1918 as a Genocide, little is known about how the Turkish Lobby sought to prevent such recognition. This article is the first in the literature to offer a systematic account of how the Turkish Lobby advocated in the United States to prevent the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the worship of Anāhitā in Western Asia examining some of the ideas put forward by James R. Russel in his volume on Zoroastrianism in Armenia in the light of more recent discussions about the role played by the goddess in Armenian religion before the conversion of the country to Christianity. While the evidence from more ancient periods has also been briefly presented, specific attention is given to Anāhīd’s worship in the Sasanian period and to the devotion of Narseh to this divinity. Finally, Middle Persian personal names containing the theonym Anāhīd are briefly introduced and discussed, showing that this important divinity is underrepresented in Sasanian and post-Sasanian onomastics.
Abstract
Luigi Villari’s book Fire and Sword in the Caucasus, published in London in 1906, is widely quoted by the scholars who study the history of South Caucasus at the time of the first Russian Revolution in 1905. After a short introduction about the interesting figure of this author, the first part of the article will take into consideration Villari’s peculiar attitude toward the Armenians. The larger part of the article will consider his first-hand description of the massacres perpetrated by the Azeris (Tartars) in the region of Nakhichevan. As a matter of fact, Luigi Villari’s testimony of the tragic events of 1905 is more interesting than ever to understand the origins of a contrast that continues—even if in a deeply different situation—to stain with blood the relationship between Armenians and the South Caucasian Turks.
Abstract
In this article I focus on thirty toponyms from the Swāt Valley, Pakistan, that incorporate the concepts of ‘big’ and ‘small’. In this context, ‘big’ is represented by three different adjectives, loy, luth, and mahā, while for ‘small’ we find two different suffixes, -ṛay and -g/k/xay, as well as the adjectives woṛ and waṛukay. Among other things, I also propose a new analysis of one of the toponyms already studied in my 2020 work on the Toponymy of the Swāt Valley, Altangurai.