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Myth and Reality: Armenian Identity in the Early Middle Ages

Lookup NU author(s): Anne Redgate

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Abstract

A Christian isolationism, adherence to doctrine the Roman/Byzantine Empire deemed heretical, has popularly been assumed to have been integral to medieval Armenian identity. However, Armenians' isolation was only partial: pilgrimage to the Holy Land joined them to the wider Christian world; missionary work was limited rather by politics and internal problems; orthodoxy and desire for church union were strong in Armenian history. 'National' unity was not an ideal, but distinctiveness was asserted by propagating, in literature and sculpture, an Old Testament, Hebraic descent for rival aristocratic families, and an equivalence between their leaders and Old Testament figures.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Redgate AE

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: National Identities

Year: 2007

Volume: 9

Issue: 4

Pages: 281-306

ISSN (print): 1460-8944

ISSN (electronic): 1469-9907

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14608940701737342

DOI: 10.1080/14608940701737342

Notes: 12,625 words, including notes.

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