BOOK: “Countries South of the Caucasus in Medieval Maps – Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan” book published (panarmenian.net)

PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to the author Rouben Galichian, the intent of this work is to familiarize the reader with medieval cartography on Armenia, Georgia and Arran (Caucasian Albania, or present Republic of Azerbaijan), situated south of the Caucasus range. It is arranged in four chapters: Introduction to Early Medieval Maps, Early [European] Medieval Maps, Islamic Maps, and Late Medieval Maps. List of Maps appears at the beginning of the book, Conclusion, Bibliography and Index of Toponyms and People at the end. The author has investigated collections of medieval maps in several European major libraries and those of Yerevan, Istanbul, Teheran etc., trying to give the reader a broad historical background on medieval maps, both European and Islamic. The author depicts and describes 82 main maps (mappa mundi. European and Islamic), with 26 details, mainly showing Armenia and the neighboring territories in three well-balanced chapters (two to four). Chapter two includes 32 European medieval maps (Nos1-32) and nine details, beginning with a simple T-O map by Caius Crispus Sallustius, known as Sallust (86-34 BCE), a Roman senator and historian. This pictured manuscript copy dates from the 9'h or 10'h century, drawn on vellum and kept at the University of Leipzig.

Chapter four contains images and descriptions of 27 later [European] medieval maps (Nos 56-82) and 15 details.

The author concludes that in medieval times, due to lack of border demarcations and the rule of force, few borders were fixed for long, or could be even approximately determined. Consequently, most medieval maps lack bordering lines between countries which are shown just by mentioning their names somewhere in the area they occupied. Armenia appears in almost every map showing some sort of detail, and in many cases both Greater and Lesser-Armenia (Armenia Major and Minor) are depicted. Perhaps a more prominent position given to Armenia is due to the fact that it was the oldest and easternmost Christian nation, which proclaimed Christianity as the state religion in 301 CE, and due to the Biblical account of the Flood and Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark came to rest, Komitas Institute reported.

more: centralasiaharvard.blogspot.com

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