Aristakēs Lastivertc‘i and Armenian urban consciousness

Abstract

One Armenian historian of the early twelfth century, Matthew of Edessa, certainly believed that the Byzantine annexation of territory and its corollary, the displacement of the Armenian nobility from their hereditary districts, had contributed directly to Seljuk success. The Byzantine expansion eastwards over the previous century had necessarily entailed the displacement of the Armenian princely elite and the episcopal leadership. Fortunately there is another body of evidence that supports this notion of Armenian urban community and identity. There is, however, one historical composition which does begin to shed some light on this phenomenon, and from which the description on religious festivals in urban spaces was derived, and that is the History of Aristakes Lastivertcʿi. More important is the editorial decision taken by Aristakes to represent the raids in the terms, contemplating both the impact of the devastation on the urban populations one by one and trying to understand why they had suffered this fate.