A Concise History of the Armenian People: From Ancient Times to the Present

517 Pages·2002·17.714 MB·English

by  George A. Bournoutian

A Concise History of
the Armenian People
A CONCISE HISTORY OF
THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE
Other Books by George Boumoutian
Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule:
1807-1828 (out of print)
The Khanate of Erevan under Qajar Rule, 1795-1828
A History of Qarabagh (out of print)
A History of the Armenian People,
I: From Prehistory to 1500 AD (out of print)
A History of the Armenian People
II: From 1500 to the Present (out of print)
Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796
Russia and the Armenians of Transcaucasia, 1797-1889
The Chronicle of Abraham of Crete
Abraham of Erevan: History of the Wars, 1721-1738
The Journal of Zak'aria of Agulis
The Chronicle of Zak'aria ofK‘anak‘er
Two Chronicles on the History of Karabagh
The History of Arak'el of Tabriz (2 vols.)
The Travel Notes of Simeon of Poland (forthcoming)
A Concise History of
the Armenian People
(From Ancient Times to the Present)
Fifth Edition
Completely Revised
George A. Boumoutian
Mazda Publishers, Inc. Costa Mesa California 2006
The publication of this volume was made possible by a
generous grant from Harry and Suzanne Toufayan in
memory of their parents
Haroutiun and Siranoush Toufayan
Mazda Publishers, Inc.
Academic Publishers since 1980
P. O. Box 2603
Costa Mesa, California 92628 U.S.A.
www. mazdapub .com
Copyright© 2006 George A. Boumoutian
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boumoutian, George A.
A Concise History of the Armenian People/ George A. Boumoutian.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 1-56859-141-1
(Hardcover/softcover, alk. paper)
1. Armenian—History. 2. Armenians—History. I. Title.
DS 175.B65 2003
909’.0491992—dc21
2002021898
109 8 7
CONTENTS
Preface
Explanatory Notes
Part I: From Independence to Foreign Rule
Introduction
1. Highlands and Crossroads: The Land of Armenia
2. Ara and Semiramis:
Urartu, the First Kingdom in Armenia
3. From the Ark to Archeology:
The Origins of the Armenian People
4. From Satraps to Kings: The Yervandunis,
the First Armenian Autonomous Rulers
5. Between Roman Legions and Parthian Cavalry:
The Artashesians and the Foundation of the
Armenian Kingdom
6. The Arsacid/Arshakuni Dynasty
I: Parthian Body, Roman Crown:
The Arsacids in Armenia
II: The Cross and the Quill:
The Arshakuni Dynasty
7. Fire Temples and Icons:
Armenia under Persian and Byzantine Rule
8. A People of the Book:
Armenia under Arab Domination
9. A Land of Many Crowns: The Bagratuni Dynasty
and the Armenian Medieval Kingdoms
10. East Meets West: The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia
11. From Majority to Minority: Armenia under Seljuk,
Mongol, and Turkmen Domination
Time-Lines
Maps
Plates
Part II: From Foreign Rule to Independence
Introduction 185
12. Amiras and Sultans:
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 187
13. Khojas, Meliks and Shahs:
Armenians in Iran 207
14. From the Mughals to the Raj:
Armenians in South Asia 219
15. Protected Minorities:
Armenian Communities in the Arab World
and Ethiopia 227
16. Promises of Deliverance:
Armenians in the Russian Empire 235
17. Between Orthodoxy and Catholicism:
The Armenian Dispersion in Eastern
and Western Europe 245
18. The Armenian Question and Its Final Solution:
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey 259
19. Subj ects of the Tsar:
Armenians in Transcaucasia and Russia 281
20. A Thousand Days:
The First Armenian Republic 299
21. From NEP to Perestroika:
Soviet Armenia or the Second
Armenian Republic 317
22. The New Diaspora:
The Armenian Global Community
in the Twentieth Century 337
23. From Ideological Conflicts to Partisan Politics:
Diasporan Politics and Organizations 363
24. Growing Pains of Independence:
The Third Armenian Republic 371
Time-Lines 389
Maps 400
Plates 426
Selected Bibliography and Suggested Readings 459
Index 485
Preface to the Fifth Edition
Between 1992 and 1994, at the suggestion of Louise Manoogian
Simone, the former President of the Armenian General Benevolent
Union, I wrote a two-volume study, A History of the Armenian Peo­
ple. The purpose of the work was to enable the Armenians of the
United States to view their past objectively, as well as to familiarize
non-Armenians with the history of an ancient people who had lost
most of their historic territory and were scattered around the globe.
Lecture tours sponsored by the AGBU, as well as the assistance
of Armenian leaders such as Raffy and Vicki Hovanessian and
Hrant Bardakjian brought the book to the attention of the Armenian
communities in the US, Canada and Australia and the first printing
was soon sold out. Additional printings appeared between 1995 and
1997 and eventually some 10,000 copies were printed. A revised
one volume edition was published in 2001 and new editions were
printed in 2002, 2003, and 2005.
This study, the first comprehensive survey of the history of the
Armenians from ancient times to the present in English, was soon
adopted as a textbook for high school seniors and college freshmen.
Some historians and geographers assigned it to their students, and
made use of the maps and the timelines. I am grateful to the students
and their professors for their comments and suggestions, which have
been incorporated in this revised edition.
Dwindling supplies, errors pointed out by friends and reviewers,
the absence of relevant material in some chapters, and the need for a
more comprehensive bibliography and index encouraged me to pre­
pare a revised edition. I have added new material on literature and
have included additional details absent from the previous editions.
The book, once again, examines the history of Armenia and its
people in relation to that of the rest of the world. The timelines and
the maps will help the reader to correlate Armenian history with that
of other nations. The present work contains some fresh interpreta­
tions of traditional views of Armenian history. Its main purpose is
to familiarize Armenians and non-Armenians with a people and cul­
ture that is absent from most history courses and texts.
George Boumoutian
Explanatory Notes
Dating System
In an effort to provide a global perspective and eliminate a seeming
Christian or Western bias, some college texts have decided to sub­
stitute BCE (Before the Common Era) for BC (Before Christ) and
CE (Common Era) for AD (Anno Domini). I have retained the BC
and AD designations in the text, but have used BCE and CE in the
timelines. It is important to note, however, that various cultures
have different calendars. The Armenian Church calendar, for exam­
ple, differs by 551 years from the calendar used in the Western
world today. Chinese, Hebrew, Arab, Iranian, and pre-
Revolutionary Russian calendars, among others, also differ from our
calendar. To simplify matters, all dates have been converted to the
dating system used in the West.
It should be noted that there are no exact dates for some histori­
cal occurrences or reigns of some rulers in ancient times. In such
cases an approximate date is used. Dates following the names of
kings or catholicoi refer to their reigns; in all other cases they refer
to life spans.
Geographical Terms
Another attempt to correct any Eurocentric bias has been to alter
some, but not all, commonly used geographical terms. Thus instead
of Middle East, Near East, or the Levant, some historians now use
the more accurate term, Western Asia; Far East or the Orient has
sometimes been replaced by East Asia; the Indian subcontinent is
referred to as South Asia; Transcaucasia is occasionally called the
eastern Caucasus. The concept has not been universally accepted
and I shall, therefore, retain traditional geographical terms or, in
some instances, as they are currently used in the news media. The
term Middle East or the Arab World, therefore, includes the present
day territories of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Pal­
estine, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the various Gulf States.
Asia Minor or Anatolia refers to the territory of present-day Turkey.
Western Armenia refers to the eastern part of present-day Turkey,
while eastern Armenia refers to present-day Armenia plus parts of
Azerbaijan and Georgia. Transcaucasia refers to the present-day re­
publics of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Mesopotamia refers
to the territory of present-day Iraq. The Balkans refers to the pre­
sent-day states of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and
Yugoslavia. The Levant encompasses mainly Lebanon and parts of
the coastal lands of Syria. The term Azerbaijan, used prior to the
twentieth century, refers to Persian Azerbaijan, or the territory in
northwestern Iran south of the Arax River. The term Persia will be
replaced with Iran in the second part of the book.
Transliteration
Armenian terms, with the exception of some noted authors who
used western Armenian, have been transliterated according to east­
ern Armenian. The Persian words are transliterated according to the
sounds of modem Persian. A simplified transliteration system with
no diacritical marks or ligatures has been utilized in both instances.
Some of the foreign names and terms, particularly those included in
the Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, have been Anglicized, while
others have retained their original form. Finally, the Romanized ver­
sion, if any, of Armenian names or variations of common names
will appear in parentheses.