TY - JOUR
T1 - A neglected Armenian source of the late Umayyad era
T2 - the Martyrdom of Vahan of Gołt‘n
AU - Greenwood, Tim
AU - Grant, Alasdair
AU - Hagan, Kieran
AU - Pecorini Goodall, Leone
AU - Read, Lewis
N1 - Funding: Alasdair Grant acknowledges the funding of the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) at the Universität Hamburg, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft project number 437229168. Leone Pecorini Goodall acknowledges the funding of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Training Partnership. Lewis Read acknowledges the funding of the ERC Project “Re-Evaluating the Eleventh Century through Linked Events and Entities” (RELEVEN) at the University of Vienna, Grant Agreement 101002357.
PY - 2025/1/15
Y1 - 2025/1/15
N2 - The Armenian Martyrdom of Vahan of Gołt‘n, composed in 744 CE, offers a fresh perspective from which to study the Umayyad caliphate. A sophisticated literary composition assembled in a monastic context, the Martyrdom traces contemporary networks of power, communication, and knowledge within and beyond Armenia. As a product of the late Umayyad world, it constitutes a work of major significance for the study of the Umayyad caliphate at large and the caliphal North in particular during the first half of the eighth century. The Martyrdom reveals contemporary Armenian perceptions of Umayyad hegemony, including ʿaṭā (stipend) payments, public executions, conversions, apostasy, contemporary apologetics, and the nature of Caliph Hishām’s court at Ruṣāfa. At the same time, it portrays members of the Armenian elite, lay and clerical, reacting in different ways to new political circumstances. The present article provides the first annotated English translation and extensive thematic introduction to the Martyrdom of Vahan of Gołt‘n, with the aim of making the text accessible to Islamicists and thereby integrating this rich source into discussions of the late Umayyad era.
AB - The Armenian Martyrdom of Vahan of Gołt‘n, composed in 744 CE, offers a fresh perspective from which to study the Umayyad caliphate. A sophisticated literary composition assembled in a monastic context, the Martyrdom traces contemporary networks of power, communication, and knowledge within and beyond Armenia. As a product of the late Umayyad world, it constitutes a work of major significance for the study of the Umayyad caliphate at large and the caliphal North in particular during the first half of the eighth century. The Martyrdom reveals contemporary Armenian perceptions of Umayyad hegemony, including ʿaṭā (stipend) payments, public executions, conversions, apostasy, contemporary apologetics, and the nature of Caliph Hishām’s court at Ruṣāfa. At the same time, it portrays members of the Armenian elite, lay and clerical, reacting in different ways to new political circumstances. The present article provides the first annotated English translation and extensive thematic introduction to the Martyrdom of Vahan of Gołt‘n, with the aim of making the text accessible to Islamicists and thereby integrating this rich source into discussions of the late Umayyad era.
KW - Armenia
KW - Captivity
KW - Conversion
KW - Hagiography
KW - Martyrdom
KW - Ruṣāfa
KW - Umayyads
U2 - 10.52214/uw.v33i.12456
DO - 10.52214/uw.v33i.12456
M3 - Article
SN - 1068-1051
VL - 33
SP - 30
EP - 106
JO - Al-'Usur al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists
JF - Al-'Usur al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists
ER -