Landscape and Myth in North-Western Europe
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Book Series
Borders, Boundaries, Landscapes, vol. 6
Rethinking Armenia in the Middle Ages
Exploring a Christian Frontier and its Neighbouring Peoples
Yervand Margaryan, Lusine Margaryan (eds)
- Pages: approx. 237 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:13 b/w, 5 col., 5 maps b/w
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2026
- € 95,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-62238-5
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Nov/26)
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Subject(s)
BIO
Dr Margaryan, Y., is a professor of the Department of World History and Area Studies, Russian-Armenian University, Yerevan and Chief Editor of the peer-reviewed scientific journal Urbis et Orbis: Microhistory and Semiotics of the City. His research focuses on History of Hellenism and World-System Civilization Analysis. Several of his recent works on frontier studies are mentioned.
Dr Margaryan, L., is a lecturer in University College Cork. She is currently working on the MSCA project Christian Frontiers which focuses on research and comparative analysis of the history of Early Christianity beyond Eastern and Western borders of the Pax Romana, that is, in Armenia and Ireland. Her published articles are dedicated to gender and frontier studies in Medieval world and the epoch of Enlightenment.
Summary
During the medieval period, Armenia occupied a distinctive position at the crossroads of major empires — Byzantine, Arab, Mongol, and Persian. Rather than pursuing territorial expansion, Armenian society developed a civilizational strategy grounded in cultural resilience and intellectual creativity. Through Christianization, the invention of a unique alphabet, and extensive translation movements, Armenians fashioned themselves into a learned culture capable of mediating between competing political and cultural worlds.
This volume explores how Armenia navigated life on the borders of successive empires by deploying what may be described as soft power avant la lettre — mobilizing religious identity, literacy, and cultural production as a means of survival and influence. The collected essays examine three interconnected themes: Armenian self-understanding at the margins of empire; the ways in which imperial centres perceived and engaged with Armenian difference; and comparative perspectives on Armenia alongside other frontier societies confronting similar historical pressures.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Author’s Preface
1. Introduction
2. Language and Writing as Political Tool: ‘Smart Power’ Against Barbarism
Yervand Margaryan
3. Paradoxes in the History of Christianity in Abkhazia in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Beniamin Mailyan
4. Main Characteristics of Frontier Missionaries in Armenia and in the Other Peripheries of the Roman World
Lusine Margaryan
5. Missionary Activities of Ulfila and Mesrop Mashtoċ in the Peripheries of the Roman Empire: Translation of the Holy Texts into National Languages
Lusine Margaryan
6. Cilician Armenia: The Frontier of the Mediterranean World in the Thirteenth-Fourteenth Centuries
Zohrab Gevorgyan
7. Qarābāgh as a Breaking Point of the Contact Zone in the Middle Ages
Gor Margaryan
8. Composite Monarchy: An Applicable Concept for Medieval Armenia?
Yervand Margaryan and Anastasia Palamarchuk
