Armenian Heritage
Overview
Armenians have inhabited a highland region, called the Armenian plateau, in northern part of the Middle East between the Black, Caspian, and Mediterranean seas for nearly 4000 years. Geographically situated on the crossroads of East and West and having a distinct socio-religious infrastructure, Armenians have created one of the oldest civilizations and a unique national culture that thrives today in the Republic of Armenia, a small easterly portion of ancient Armenia.
The following books may be found at Armenian Bookstores and on Amazon and primarily focus on the Armenian History and its implications. Descriptions were taken from Amazon and other similar sources
Armenia: A Journey through History
Arra S. Avakian, contributed by Ara John Movsesian
Armenia: A Journey through History contains a wealth of information about the Armenian people, history, significant events, important places, and individuals who did much to make the Armenian nation what it is.
The Armenians: Art, Culture, and Religion
Nira Stone and Michael Stone
This volume takes as its starting point the internationally important collection of Armenian illuminated manuscripts in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. The authors have selected over 20 of the rarest and most beautiful manuscripts to tell the history of the Armenian people, their art and literature.
The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity
to the Fourteenth Century (Volume I)
Richard G. Hovannisian
Edited by the leading historian of the Republic of Armenia, this is the definitive history of an extraordinary country – from its earliest foundations, through the Crusades, the resistance to Ottoman and Tsarist rule, the collapse of the independent state, its brief re-emergence after World War I, its subjugation by the Bolsheviks, and the establishment of the new Republic in 1991. Written by the foremost experts on each period in Armenia’s history, this book is a major contribution to understanding the complexities of Transcaucasia. Armenia is a cradle of civilization situated on one of the world’s most turbulent crossroads. This volume examines the question of Armenian origins and traces domestic and international relations, society and culture through the five dynastic periods, spanning nearly two thousand years. The challenge facing the Armenian people was to maintain as much freedom as possible under the shadow of powerful neighbouring empires. The adoption of Christianity had a permanent impact on the course of Armenian history and culture. These were the heroic, colourful and harsh feudal centuries of Armenia.
The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to The Twentieth Century (Volume II)
Richard G. Hovannisian
Edited by the leading historian of the Republic of Armenia, this is the definitive history of an extraordinary country – from its earliest foundations, through the Crusades, the resistance to Ottoman and Tsarist rule, the collapse of the independent state, its brief re-emergence after World War I, its subjugation by the Bolsheviks, and the establishment of the new Republic in 1991. Written by the foremost experts on each period in Armenia’s history, this book is a major contribution to understanding the complexities of Transcaucasia. Armenia is a cradle of civilization situated on one of the world’s most turbulent crossroads. This volume examines the question of Armenian origins and traces domestic and international relations, society and culture through the five dynastic periods, spanning nearly two thousand years. The challenge facing the Armenian people was to maintain as much freedom as possible under the shadow of powerful neighbouring empires. The adoption of Christianity had a permanent impact on the course of Armenian history and culture. These were the heroic, colourful and harsh feudal centuries of Armenia.
The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars
Razmik Panossian
The Armenians traces the evolution of Armenia and Armenian collective identity from its beginnings to the Armenian nationalist movement over Gharabagh in 1988. Applying theories of national-identity formation and nationalism, Razmik Panossian analyzes different elements of Armenian identity construction and argues that national identity is modern, predominantly subjective, and based on a political sense of belonging. Yet he also acknowledges the crucial role of history, art, literature, religious practice, and commerce in preserving the national memory and shaping the cultural identity of the Armenian people.
Panossian explores a series of landmark events, among them Armenians’ first attempts at liberation, the Armenian renaissance of the nineteenth century, the 1915 genocide of the Ottoman Armenians, and Soviet occupation. He shows how these influences led to a “multilocal” evolution of Armenian identity in various places in and outside of Armenia, notably in diasporan communities from India to Venice. Today, these numerous identities contribute to deep divisions and tensions within the Armenian nation, the most profound of which is the cultural divide between Armenians residing in their homeland and those who live in the United States, Canada, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Considering the diversity of this single nation, Panossian questions the theoretical assumption that nationalism must be homogenizing.
Based on extensive research conducted in Armenia and the diaspora, including interviews and translation of Armenian-language sources, The Armenians is an engaging history and an invaluable comparative study.
Historic Armenia After 100 Years: Ani, Kars and the Six Provinces of Western Armenia
Matthew Karanian
HISTORIC ARMENIA AFTER 100 YEARS is the product of several years of research and photography by Matthew Karanian. The book is illustrated with 125 color maps and photographs, and includes antique photos from 100 years ago that are juxtaposed with images of the same locales as they appear today. One hundred years after the Armenian Holocaust, the homeland of the Armenians remains unknown to much of the world. During the 100 years since the Genocide of 1915, most of the cultural monuments of the Armenian nation in the lands of historic Armenia have been eliminated or repurposed for other uses. But there is much that still remains. Author Matthew Karanian celebrates the Armenia that has avoided destruction, as well as the hidden Armenians who have struggled to carry on in the face of persecution. He shines a light on the remnants of Western Armenia that are at greatest risk of being lost forever, and he leads us on a journey of rediscovery in this groundbreaking guide, HISTORIC ARMENIA AFTER 100 YEARS. For the first time since the Genocide, the cultural wealth of the Armenian nation in Western Armenia is presented in one readable and beautifully illustrated volume. This book will guide you to the history and culture of the ancient Armenian homeland– whether you intend to travel there in person, or only through the pages of this book.
Looking toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History
Ronald Grigor Suny
As a new independent Republic of Armenia is established among the ruins of the Soviet Union, Armenians are rethinking their history―the processes by which they arrived at statehood in a small part of their historic homeland, and the definitions they might give to boundaries of their nation. Both a victim and a beneficiary of rival empires, Armenia experienced a complex evolution as a divided or an erased polity with a widespread diaspora.
Ronald Grigor Suny traces the cultural and social transformations and interventions that created a new sense of Armenian nationality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Perceptions of antiquity and uniqueness combined in the popular imagination with the experiences of dispersion, genocide, and regeneration to forge an Armenian nation in Transcaucasia. Suny shows that while the limits of Armenia at times excluded the diaspora, now, at a time of state renewal, the boundaries have been expanded to include Armenians who live beyond the borders of the republic.
A History of Armenia
Vahan M. Kurkjian
The volume is an easy reading and a must for the beginner student and interested party of the history of Armenia as well as for those more familiar with Armenian and its history. The author, an expert on Armenian history, has masterfully covered all aspects of the Armenian history such as Armenian literature, Armenian Church, the history of Armenian old and modern language, architecture, sculpture, music etc. along with all the historical events, starting from the beginning of the human civilization and that of Armenian one to the modern era of Armenia.
The Armenians
John M. Douglas
“This monumental, comprensive work covers a span of 3,000 years from the Urartians to the Azeris, from the Assyrians to the Turks, depicting heros, villians, the glory, and the suffering of an ancient race.” It is “…one of the most authoritative ever written in English on the Armenian people.”
The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present
Simon Payaslian
There is a great deal of interest in the history of Armenia since its renewed independence in the 1990s and the ongoing debate about the genocide – an interest that informs the strong desire of a new generation of Armenian Americans to learn more about their heritage and has led to greater solidarity in the community. By integrating themes such as war, geopolitics, and great leaders, with the less familiar cultural themes and personal stories, this book will appeal to general readers and travellers interested in the region.
Armenian Communities of Asia Minor
Richard G. Hovannisian
The Armenian communities of western Asia Minor were far removed from the historic Armenian territories on the great highland plateau far to the east and the fertile Cilician plain bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the south. These communities were relatively new, dating to the later centuries of the Byzantine Empire and the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian movement into this area near the Sea of Marmara and Constantinople was prompted primarily by the turbulence in the traditional Armenian homelands by the Turkic and Mongol invasions in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, the fall of the Armenian Cilician kingdom to the Mamluks in the fourteenth century, and the ruin and devastation caused by the Ottoman-Persian wars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In time, scores of Armenian villages and small towns sprang up in a broad arc of about 100 miles around Constantinople.
From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa
Sebouh David Aslanian
This study explores the emergence and growth of a remarkable global trade network operated by Armenian silk merchants from a small outpost in the Persian Empire. Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is now Iran, these merchants operated a network of commercial settlements that stretched from London and Amsterdam to Manila and Acapulco. The New Julfa Armenians were the only Eurasian community that was able to operate simultaneously and successfully in all the major empires of the early modern world—both land-based Asian empires and the emerging sea-borne empires—astonishingly without the benefits of an imperial network and state that accompanied and facilitated European mercantile expansion during the same period. Among other topics, it explores the effects of long distance trade on the organization of community life, the ethos of trust and cooperation that existed among merchants, and the importance of information networks and communication in the operation of early modern mercantile communities.
Armenian Constantinople (UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series)
Richard G. Hovannisian and Simon Payaslian
From early antiquity, the Armenian people developed a rich and distinctive culture on the great highland plateau extending from eastern Asia Minor to the Caucasus. On that crossroad, they interacted on many levels with civilizations of the Orient and Occident. The Armenian community in Constantinople, dating back to the fourth century, contributed to the cultural and material development of the imperial city, the City of Constantine –Kostandnupolies or Bolis, today’s Istanbul. This is the ninth of the series to be published. Scholars from various disciplines offer the story of the Armenian presence in Constantinople across the centuries until the early decades of the twentieth century.