Shirinian Silk Hereke Rugs (Exhibit)

Armenian inscribed rugs of Yester year (Exhibit B)

Golden Age of Armenian Literature. After the conversion of the Armenians church services were held in Greek or Syriac, depending on the district. The Holy Scriptures were read in church in one or the other of these languages, with an immediate translation into Armenian made by a special order of clerics called "translators." This lack of a native writing system was seen by the ecclesiastical and political leaders as inimical to both the nurturing of Christianity and national cohesion. Consequently Catholicos Sahak (Isaac, r. c.390-438) and King Vramshapuh (r. 401-409) appointed the learned monk Mesrob to devise an alphabet, which was finished in approximately 400 to 404. 
The invention of the Armenian alphabet, consisting of 36 letters, brought the golden age of Armenian literature. Students were sent to the centers of classical and Christian learning in Edessa, Caesarea, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Athens to prepare themselves to translate the Bible, the liturgy, the important writing of Greek and Syrian church fathers, and Greek and Latin classical literature into Armenian. The Bible, translated from the Septuagint, was finished in a few years. It and most of the church fathers were translated within thirty years, but the whole process, including the translation of secular books, lasted some two hundred years. The Armenian translation of the Bible was the fifth to be made. The first known translation of the Old and New Testaments was the Syriac (Beshito) in the second century. The second was the Latin Vulgate (392). Then came the Coptic and Abyssinian translations in the early fifth century. The Georgian translation, also by Saint Mesrob and his assistant, was sixth, after the Armenian, in the late fifth century. 
The "holy translators" are revered highly in the Armenian church. Many of the works which they translated into Armenian have been lost in their Greek and Syriac originals but have been preserved in the Armenian. 
Original works also were composed during the golden age, including works of history, philosophy, hagiography, homilies, hymns, and apologetics. Later, works on the sciences were written. While much has been lost due to the ravages of war and time, many are preserved today in the great library of the Matenadaran of Erevan, in which, for example, there are almost three hundred manuscripts of Aristotle, and in the Armenian monasteries at Jerusalem, Venice, and Vienna. Thus the Armenian church provided the Armenian people with a strong national culture just at the time the Armenian state was losing its political independence. It was the church, indeed, that preserved Armenian national consciousness during the many centuries in which there was no Armenian state. 
War for Religious Freedom (451). The newly aggressive Iran under the Sassanids sought to bring the Armenians closer to its orbit by imposing the religion of Mazdaism (Zoroastrianism) on the Armenians in its sector. A national resistance movement led by the flower of the Armenian nobility under the hero Saint Vardan Mamigonian (d. 451), the hereditary commander in chief of the Armenian armed forces, met physical disaster on the plain of Avarayr in 451. The war was immortalized by the national historian Eghishe (Elisha). The battle of the Vardanantz still is commemorated by the Armenians as the preeminent national contest for religious independence and freedom of conscience. Some thirty years later the nephew of Vardan, Vahan Mamigonian, and the Armenian nobles wrested the treaty of Nvarsak (484) from the Persians, in which the Armenians were granted freedom of conscience. 
Arab, Seljuk, Mongol Invasions. The rise of the Arabs once more shows how the Armenians were affected dramatically by a major political change in the area. Along with most of the Near East, Armenia soon fell (c. 650) to the Arab forces coming from the south, motivated by the new religion of Muhammad (570?-632). Armenia alternately suffered or prospered depending on who held the caliphate (political and religious successor of Muhammad), which after 762 was in Baghdad, and the condition of public order. The Armenian catholicosate was transferred from Dvin, where it had been moved from Echmiadzin to be near the king, to the more secure city of Ani, capital of the Bagratid Armenian princes. Finally in 886, after much effort, Ashot Bagratuni secured his appointment as king of Armenia by the caliph and the emperor in Constantinople. The royal house of the Bagratids (885-1045) was divided into two branches, the Georgian Bagratunis, who passed into the Russian nobility as the Bagrations, and the Armenian branch, which ruled during the tenth and eleventh centuries the glorious medieval Armenian kingdom of Ani (885-1045) 
This period witnessed a renaissance in trade, art, architecture, translations, church and secular literature, and scientific studies. Histories such as those of Moses of Khoren, John of Draskhanakert, Thomas Arzruni, and Stepanos of Taron were written. Special distinction belongs to Moses of Kalankatui's History of Albania, an important source for the history of Caspio-Albania. The revered Saint Gregory of Narek (951-1003) wrote ecclesiastical poetry and hymns which still are used in church offices. After the collapse of Ani most of western Armenia fell to Byzantium. 
The defeat of the Byzantines by the Seljuks at the battle of Manzikert (Manazgerd) in Armenia (1071) brought all Armenia under Seljuk rule. The devastating Mongol invasion began in 1220 and ended with the occupation of Armenia in 1236. Unlike the Russians, the Armenian elites eventually prospered under the Mongols, serving as agents and engaging in international trade via the newly secured routes through Central Asia to India and China. Furthermore, cordial relations developed between the Mongols and the Armenian nobility. As the Mongols declined in power, Armenia was devastated by raiding bands of nomadic tribes. The final destruction came with the invasion of the hordes of Timur (Tamerlane, 1336-1405) around 1400. Beginning in the tenth century many Armenian noblemen with their armies and their people fled southwest to Cilicia to take refuge in the mountain fastnesses there. 

Cilician Armenian Kingdom. In time these immigrants grew so numerous and so powerful that they established a principality which eventually became a kingdom. The medieval Armenian kingdom of Cilicia (1080-1375) under the Rubenids (a junior branch of the Bagratids) was located among the Taurus and Amanus mountains and along the Mediterranean coast to Alexandretta. It enjoyed a high culture and great prosperity at a time when the Armenian homeland was falling slowly to ruin. In 1293 the catholicos, who had taken refuge in the castle of Romkla on the Euphrates, moved to Sis, the capital of Cilicia. The Cilician Armenians fraternized with the European crusaders, and members of their nobility and royal house intermarried with the "Latin" nobility. This last Armenian kingdom fell in 1375, and the last Armenian king, Leo V (Levon VI), died in exile (1393) in France and is buried in the abbey church of Saint Denis next to the tombs of the French kings to whom he was related. 
The Cilician period produced great wealth, substantial learning, and a high culture. Specifically, it produced the most glorious period of Armenian ecclesiastical manuscript illumination, particularly under the school of Toros Roslin. It was also a period of almost continuous negotiations for reunion between the Armenians and both the Greek and Latin churches. The records of these negotiations reveal a great deal about Armenian church doctrine and practice. Special attention must be called to the correspondence of Bishop Nerses surnamed "the Grace-filled" (Shnorhali ), later catholicos (1166-1173), particularly his Apologia directed to Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180) of Byzantium, who at the same time was flirting with the Latins in the hope of military support, and his Endhanrakan (encyclical), both of which are documents which stand as authoritative sources on Armenian ecclesiastical doctrine and practice. 
Latin influence was strong in Cilicia during the thirteenth century, due particularly to the great military expeditions of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250) in 1228 and of King Louis IX (1214-1270) in 1248 and the desire of the Armenian princes to acquire political and military support. It was during this period that Italian colonies were established in Cilicia and Armenian colonies were founded in Italy. Venetian power, in particular, grew considerably. 
While the head of the Armenian church lived in Cilicia (1294-1441) ecclesiastical policies were tied closely to the well-being of the Armenian kingdom, which meant seeking a political and religious accommodation with Rome and Byzantium. But with the failing power of the Armenian kings the "eastern divines" (anti-Greek and Roman theologians from Armenia) fought for a return of the catholicosate from its "Babylonian Captivity" in Sis back to its home in Echmiadzin. They realized a victory in 1441. Yet without political independence and a strong central state power in the homeland the church gained little advantage save to avoid union. 
One bright light in this otherwise dark picture was Catholicos Mikael of Sebastia (1542-1570), who inaugurated Armenian printing by establishing presses in Venice, Echmiadzin, Isphahan, and Amsterdam, and who raised educational standards. The first printing of the Bible in Armenian was done in Amsterdam in 1666. 
Another pioneer of the reform movement was Catholicos Movses of Tatev (1629-1632) who also obtained protection from the shah of Persia against local Muslim chieftains. His successors carried on his work. A new vitality showed itself in the church during the eighteenth century. Catholicos Simon of Erevan (1763-1780) was one of the most capable personalities of the period. He established a college in Echmiadzin, expanded the use of printing in his educational activities, and established the first regular contacts with the Russian government. 
The Ottoman Turks. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, who earlier had accepted Islam. Muslims make little distinction between the functions of "church" and state as is done in the West. It was the prophet Mohammad himself who first instituted the treaty (dhimma) defining the relationship between the "people of the Book" defeated in a holy war (jihad), who were the tolerated people (dhimmi), and the power of Islam. Such a treaty usually specified that the conquered people of the Book (i.e., Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians) would have protection for their lives, religion, and property in return for submission and the payment of a tax (jizya). This protection was denied to pagans. 
Accordingly, Sultan Muhammad II the "Conqueror" (1451-1481) established the non-Muslim religious communities in the Ottoman empire as domestic self-governing entities under the hegemony of the sultan and his court officials. The Greeks were organized into a community (millet or flock) and their patriarch was granted social and civil governing privileges over his millet in those areas which were connected with the Muslim concept of societal responsibilities, such as contracts within the community, family life, marriage, public instruction, charities, worship, clergy, and ecclesiastical administration. 
The Armenians had been among the more favored subject peoples in the empire, and now Muhammad II sought to use them as a counterbalance to the Greeks in the capital. He expanded the Armenian colony in Constantinople by bringing Armenians en masse from Brusa and nearby Asia Minor, and then he appointed (1461) their bishop, Hovakim, Armenian patriarch with privileges over his millet similar to those accorded the Greek patriarch. 
All the Orthodox dyophysites, including the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Syrians (Syriacs), Melkites, and Arabs, became associated through their respective religious heads with the jurisdiction of the Greek (ecumenical) patriarch, while the Orthodox monophysites, including Armenians, Syrians, Chaldaeans, Copts, Georgians, and Abyssinians, became subject through their respective heads to the jurisdiction of the Armenian patriarch. The Armenian patriarch of Constantinople became per force the most influential ecclesiastic in the Armenian church, and he presided over the Armenian catholicoi of Sis, Aghtamar, and Jerusalem, while acknowledging formally the spiritual primacy of the catholicos in Echmiadzin. 
The Armenian church in the homeland, denied political security and economic support, had fallen into a lamentable state. While Armenian communities prospered in metropolitan trade centers in the Ottoman empire, Iran, India, Russia, Poland, and later in Egypt, the vast Armenian peasantry in the Caucasus and especially eastern Anatolia suffered great privation and personal insecurity. While individual clerics and church leaders did heroic work keeping alive the Armenian Christian consciousness and a spark of learning in Armenia and eastern Turkey, there is no splendid story to tell. Constantinople became the preeminent center of Armenian social, economic, religious, cultural and religious life in the empire, while the provinces suffered under grinding poverty and increasingly horrifying misrule. 

Armenian Catholics and Protestants. Francis I (1494-1547) of France was the first western ruler to acquire a treaty of concessions, called capitulations, with the Ottoman empire (1535). This treaty of extraterritoriality attached to individuals, like diplomatic immunity, gave the Latins, or Franks as they were called, unique political and civil protection within the empire. Certain Armenians, some with high motives, accepted union with Rome in order to enjoy French protection. Thus the Armenian Eastern Rite (Uniate) church came into existence. Fewer than one percent of Armenians belong to this church today. 
The most famous of the Uniate clerics, Mekhitar Petrosian of Sebastia (16761749), founded the Mekhitarist religious order in 1717, which even now has important monastic centers of leaming in Venice (San Lazar Island) and Vienna. The political status of the Armenian Catholics was regularized in 1831 by the sultan, who established a Catholic millet in the Ottoman empire. 
Beginning in the 1830s American Protestant missionaries were sent to the Ottoman empire by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Since they were prohibited by law from converting Muslims they began to work among the indigenous "degenerate Christians of the East." Totally rejected by the proud Greeks, who by then had an independent state of their own, they began to work among the Armenians, who welcomed western learning. Some Armenians converted. In 1847 the sultan, this time encouraged by the American Protestants, established a Protestant millet. By 1891 the Americans had founded nine colleges in the Ottoman empire, six of which served primarily Armenians. While both of these new millets were nominally for all Ottoman subjects in these confessions, they consisted primarily of Armenians. 

Genocide. At its zenith the Ottoman empire was well governed, and religious and national minorities were treated as well as any place in the world. With its decline the empire became a corrupt and backward state. Christians were treated as infidels (gavours) and denied basic civil, religion, and human rights and at times they suffered dire persecutions. 
In the nineteenth century, when much of Europe was being inspired by the ideas of the French revolution, liberty, equality, and fraternity, reforming sultans in the Ottoman empire sought to bring about progressive change under the banner of the Tanzimat. The Armenian church was able to take advantage of the reform atmosphere under AbdulMejid (r. 1839-1861) and Abdul-Aziz (r. 1861-1876) to establish the Armenian national constitution (1863), a liberal document by which the church and the community were governed. 
The coming to power of Abdul-Hamid II (r. 1876-1909) marked the end of the Tanzimat, especially after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Abdul-Hamid, who had witnessed the empire disintegrate in the Balkans and the Caucasus under Russian pressure, decided to punish his Christian subjects through periodic massacre, whose plight served as an excuse for European intervention. 
It was the Young Turks (1908-1917), finally, inspired by national and pan-Turkic ideologies, who decided to rid themselves, under the cover of World War I, of the Armenians. The Armenian genocide of 1915-1916 virtually wiped out the Armenian population of Turkey, claiming some 1.5 million victims. Perhaps 75,000 Armenians endure in Turkey today, most of them in Istanbul. With the demise of the Armenian population of Turkey, the Armenian patriarchate, like the Greek patriarchate, became a melancholy anachronism. 

Armenian Churches in Russia. Russian expansion into Transcaucasia and eastern Anatolia (the Armenian homeland) brought large numbers of Armenians into the Russian empire. In 1836 Emperor Nicholas I (r. 1825-1855) promulgated the statutes (polozhenie) which governed the administration of the Armenian church and, by extension, Armenian community affairs. It gave the Armenians some autonomy and established a synod to share power with the catholicos. The circumstances of the Russian Armenians were far superior to those of their coreligionists in Turkey. 
The russification policies of Alexander III (r. 1881-1894) and Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917) caused smoldering resentment in the Armenian church, particularly as governmental policies affected Armenian parochial schools. During the reign of Nicholas II Armenian schools were closed, Armenians were removed from the civil service, and church properties were placed under governmental management. It is also suspected that the Russian governor general was behind the pogroms in the Baku oil fields in 1905 which left hundreds of Armenians dead. Yet by 1913 government policies towards the Armenians changed in a positive direction, and a new era seemed to be dawning for the Armenians and the Armenian church in Russia. 
Mention must be made in this context of the Armenian national and church hero Mkrtich Khrimian (1820-1907), endearingly called "Hayrik" (little father), who was Armenian patriarch of Constantinople (1869-1873) and catholicos in Echmiadzin (1892-1907). He was deposed as patriarch by the sultan for his enthusiastic support of the Armenian cause in Turkey, and he led the resistance against the tsar over the issue of church properties in 1903. His life was dedicated totally to the protection of the Armenians both in Turkey and in Russia. 

Russian Revolution. The February 1917 revolution, which was welcomed warmly by the Transcaucasians, caused the collapse of the Russian front in Turkey. The native Russian Armenians and the Armenian refugees from Turkey were put at risk of total annihilation by the advancing Turkish army. The Bolshevik revolution in October made matters worse. In May 1918 the Transcaucasian republic disintegrated, and on 29 May the Armenians announced their independence. Military matters went from bad to worse, especially since the Bolsheviks sought and developed a rapprochement with Turkey. On 29 November 1920 the Armenians accepted the status of a soviet socialist republic to secure Russian protection, and in 1922 they were incorporated into the newly formed Transcaucasian SFSR. The Soviet constitution of 1936 dissolved the Transcaucasian republic and made the Armenian SSR one of the union republics of the USSR. 
The Armenian church suffered grievously under Stalin's antireligion policies in the 1930s as did religion in general in the Soviet Union. The situation during and after World War II was only marginally better. In 1955 Vazgen I was elected to the patriarchal throne, and the situation in the Armenian church improved steadily. 
Today there is an active seminary at Echmiadzin, the home of the catholicos (veharan) has been refurbished, ecclesiastical museums built, churches restored, and Armenians of the diaspora from all over the world make frequent pilgrimages to the mother see. The Armenian SSR in general and Echmiadzin in particular are frequented by Soviet and foreign visitors. The catholicos is allowed periodically to make trips to Europe and America to attend international conferences and to visit his flocks. Vazgen even was elected a deputy to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in March 1989. 

Catholicosate of Cilicia. At the time the catholicosate of the Armenians was returned to Echmiadzin in 1441 the tradition of electing a "catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia" continued, as did the tradition of electing a catholicos of Aghtamar (until 1915) with regional jurisdictions. The see for Cilicia was moved from Sis to Antilas, Lebanon, after the Armenian genocide in Turkey. While the catholicos in Echmiadzin is recognized as "catholicos of all Armenians," as a practical matter his jurisdiction over some dioceses in the Middle East is nominal. 
Until 1956 there was no fundamental disagreement between the two catholicosates and at present the disagreement is not doctrinal but administrative. During 1953 to 1956 a dispute over the process by which the new catholicos of Cilicia would be elected was aggravated by the Cold War and the resultant temporary polarization of political division among Armenians the world. In 1956 the catholicos of Cilicia acquired the dioceses of Iran, Greece, and a splinter group in America. This bifurcation now affects many Armenian dioceses throughout the world. Attempts to rectify this disharmony are being made. 

The Diaspora. Since the middle ages Armenians in large measure have been a diaspora people. Today there are perhaps six million Armenians in the world. Some four and a half million live in the USSR, of whom perhaps three million live in the Armenian SSR. The United States has an Armenian population of 500 thousand, Canada has forty-five thousand, and France some 250 thousand, while Iran has 200 thousand, Lebanon the same, Syria seventy thousand, and Argentina sixty-five thousand. The rest are scattered in colonies in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Australia, and Asia. 
Each of these communities has an active church life and retains important ties to the mother see in Echmiadzin. While some dioceses have primary allegiance to the catholicos of Cilicia, constituting about a third of the Armenians in the diaspora, all accept at least the titular primacy of the catholicos of Echmiadzin. 
Armenian seminaries exist in Antilias, Jerusalem, New York, and Echmiadzin. Parochial schools are maintained all over the world outside the USSR. Armenian involvement in the church in the diaspora is very great, and church administration and governance embrace a high percentage of lay people. Lay delegates participate actively in the elections of clerical leaders from the parish level up to the level of the catholicos. There is every indication that the ancient Armenian church will continue to contribute to the richness of the Christian ecumene into the indefinite future. 

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