We are excited to announce that our growing Dual Language Series will soon be available in paperback. Our Dual Language Series, containing the greatest works of antique and medieval Armenian literature, places the original Classical Armenian (Grabar) text and the corresponding English translation side-by-side. The following paperbacks will be published on October 26, 2021 and are available for preorder now.
Aristakes Lastivertc'i's History. Aristakes Lastiverts’i was an eleventh century Armenian cleric and historian. His History was written between 1072 and 1079, and describes the events of 1000-1071, including information about Byzantine-Armenian relations, the Seljuk invasions, and the Tondrakian movement in the Armenian Church. The work opens with a poetic summary of the disasters befalling the Armenian people in the eleventh century. Subsequent chapters describe Byzantine attempts to subjugate the Armeno-Georgian district of Tayk’ (1000 to 1022); conflicts and cooperation among Armenian and Georgian princes; and the Seljuk invasions from 1047 to the capture of the city of Ani (1064) and the Battle of Manzikert (1071).
History of Vartan and the Armenian War (Volume 1) by Yeghishe. One of the masterpieces of Classical Armenian literature and a major source for the Battle of Avarayr, its antecedents and aftermath. The History covers the thirty-five year period from 428 to 464 AD in seven chapters. Volume 1 contains the first four chapters of the work, and covers the period from the fall of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia (428 AD) to the antecedents of the Battle of Avarayr (450/451 AD).
Smbat Sparapet's Chronicle (Volume 1). Smbat Sparapet’s Chronicle is a major source for the history of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Roughly three-quarters of the work consists of a summary of Matthew of Edessa’s Chronicle which describes the period from 951 to 1136 and its continuation by Gregory the Priest, covering the period from 1136-1162. Given that Matthew’s work has survived, by far the most important part of Smbat Sparapet’s Chronicle is its original contribution, devoted to the period from 1163 to 1272. Volume I covers the period from 1136 to 1150. As a statesman and general, Smbat Sparapet (“the Constable”) was a major participant in Cilician civil, military, and diplomatic affairs of the second half of the 13th century. An educated and literate individual, Smbat translated the Assizes of Antioch from French into Armenian, and probably also had some familiarity with Greek, Arabic, Turkish and Persian. He visited the Mongol court in Karakorum in 1248 and recorded some of his observations in a short letter in French to his brother-in-law Henry I of Cyprus. Such an individual certainly was uniquely well-informed to write a chronicle of his times.
History of the Armenians (Volume 1) by Ghazar P’arpec’i. Ghazar P'arpec'i's History of the Armenians was written at the end of the fifth or beginning of the sixth century. The first book of this three-book work begins with information concerning the division of Armenia between the Byzantine and Sasanian empires (in 387), and describes the invention of the Armenian alphabet and the abolition of the monarchy in the Iranian-controlled eastern sector (428) to the death of Catholicos Sahak (439). Book II describes the anti-Iranian Armenian uprising of 450/451 (the battle of Awarayr) led by Vardan Mamikonean, while Book III describes another anti-Iranian uprising led by Vardan's nephew, Vahan Mamikonean, and known as the Vahaneanc' (481-84). Volume I contains Books I and II.
History of the Aghuans, by Movse's Dasxurants'i (Book 1, Book 2). A major source for the history of the indigenous Aghuan people of Caucasia from the earliest times to about A.D. 988. Aghuania (also Arran, Aghbania, Caucasian Albania) comprised parts of modern Dagestan and Azerbaijan, Armenia’s eastern neighbor. Its ancient peoples and their numerous languages were noted occasionally by classical Greek and Latin authors. Like the neighboring Armenians, the Aghuans were part of the Iranian-Zoroastrian culture-world for at least a millennium. Their royalty and nobility had marriage ties with their counterparts in Iran and Armenia. Also, like Armenia, Aghuania was among the countries early visited by the Apostles; and the Aghuan and Armenian churches were frequently united. Book 1, in 30 chapters, gives a brief summary of Armenian and Aghuanian history reaching to the end of the 5th century. Book 2, in 52 chapters, describes events from the 5th-7th centuries reaching the year 683.
History of the Armenians (Volume 1) by P’awstos Buzand. The History of the Armenians, attributed to P'awstos Buzand, describes episodically and in epic style, events from the military, socio-cultural, and political life of fourth century Armenia. This work is perhaps the most problematical of the Armenian sources, and one of the most tantalizing. Controversy surrounds almost every aspect of this History: the format of the extant (versus the original) text; the author's identity; and where, in what language, and when it was written. There is an extensive body of scholarly literature devoted to these and other questions. P'awstos' History is a treasure of early Armenian literature, invaluable for historians, anthropologists and linguists, for Armenists and Iranists. The present text of P'awstos exists in four “Books,” beginning with Book III. Volume I contains Books III and IV.
Sebeos' History (Volume 1). Sebeos' History is a 7th century document of special importance for the study of Armenia and the Middle East in the sixth-seventh centuries. It was during this period, when Iran and Byzantium were wrestling for control of the Armenian highlands, that Armenian culture became more individual, independent, and distinctively national. While Sebeos focuses his attention primarily on Armenia's lay and clerical naxarars(lords), he also provides extensive and valuable information on events taking place in the neighboring societies of Byzantium, Iran, and among the Arabs. Volume I includes the first 24 chapters of Sebeos’ History, appended to which is another short work known as the Primary History of Armenia.
Ghewond’s History. The sole 8th century Armenian history describing the Arab domination, covering the period from ca. 632 to 788, and describing the Arab invasions of Armenia in the mid 7th century, the wars fought by the caliphate against Byzantium and the Khazars, the settlement of Arab tribes in Asia Minor and the Caucasus, and the overthrow of the Umayyads, as well as information on Arab tax policies, the status of the Armenian Church, and the Armenian and Arab nobilities.
Matthew of Edessa's Chronicle (Volume 1, Volume 2). A valuable source for this history of the Near East in the 10th – 12th centuries. Matthew’s work describes the period from 952 to 1129. Appended to it is a continuation by Gregory the Priest, which describes events from 1137 to 1162. Western scholars have used the Chronicle primarily for its unique information on the Crusades. It contains, additionally, invaluable information on Byzantium, the Arabs, Seljuks, Iranians, and especially the Armenians, both secular and clerical, both lords and louts. Along with this, Matthew describes such diverse phenomena as urban mobs, siege warfare, and confessional disputes, and he presents a welter of remarkable material of interest to many disciplines, including folklore and anthropology. Volume 1 was written over eight years (1102 to 1110), and covers the period from 952 to 1052. Nothing certain is known about Matthew’s life. Volume 2 was written over fifteen years (1110 to 1125), and covers the period from 1053 to 1102.
History of the Nation of Archers, by Grigor Aknerts'i. The History of the Nation of Archers is a brief history of the Mongols and their arrival and conquests in the Near East over a period of 44 years (1229 to 1273). Little is known about Gregory and his sources, but he is thought to have based his History on the reports of knowledgeable informants and manuscripts that are now lost. The History is a valuable source for thirteenth century Armenian and Mongol studies. Gregory of Akner (1250 to 1335 CE) was an Armenian historian and abbot of the monastery of Akner in Cilicia.
History of Tamerlane and His Successors, by T'ovma Metsobets'i. The History of Tamerlane begins with the devastations wreaked on the district of Syunik by the northern Tatars in 1386, and goes on to describe events taking place in the Armenian highlands and in Georgia during the Turco-Mongol invasions of Tamerlane. These invasions were made upon a society which already had been gravely weakened by the preceding decades of warfare and persecution from Turkmen, Kurdish, and Ottoman groups now resident in the area, and from Mongols of the Golden Horde in the north Caucasus. Tamerlane's invasions are described with the blood-curdling immediacy of a terrified eye-witness. The account is more detailed for the first three decades of the 15th century, describing the impact on Armenian economic, intellectual and religious life of this dismal period.
