Philology, Documentary Research, and Channels of Cultural Diffusion from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The age of Turkmen domination and the period that lasted throughout the sixteenth century, in which the Safavid and Ottoman empires were engaged in continual conflicts, were one of the darkest eras for Armenia. The art of printing would continue to compete with that of handwritten text throughout seventeenth century, and would only definitively establish itself around middle of eighteenth century. Armenian settlements outside the homeland had existed for more than a millennium, the conquering and pillaging by Turkmen and Ottoman forces gave the Armenian people a further stimulus to move away. The Armenians who lived in Transcaucasia and in the territories located in the Russian Empire also started to come into contact with modernity in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, through both the influx of the Armenian colonies in India, and the Russian influence. Keywords: Armenia; modernity; Ottoman empires; Russian Empire; Safavid empire; Transcaucasia; Turkmen domination