Eastern Armenia Research Articles

Eastern Armenia in the Last Decade of Persian Rule, 1807–1828, by George A. Bournoutian. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society 5.) 315 pages. Undena Publications, Malibu1982. $34.50/129.00.

Eastern Armenia in the Last Decade of Persian Rule, 1807–1828, by George A. Bournoutian. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society 5.) 315 pages. Undena Publications, Malibu1982. $34.50/129.00.

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

George A. Bournoutian: Eastern Armenia in the last decades of Persian rule. 1807–1828: a political and socioeconomic study of the Khanate of Erevan on the eve of the Russian conquest. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, 5.) xxii, 290 pp. Malibu, California: Undena Publications, [1982]. $34 (paper $29).

George A. Bournoutian: Eastern Armenia in the last decades of Persian rule. 1807–1828: a political and socioeconomic study of the Khanate of Erevan on the eve of the Russian conquest. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, 5.) xxii, 290 pp. Malibu, California: Undena Publications, [1982]. $34 (paper $29).

Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807–1828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the eve of the Russian Conquest. By George A. Bournoutian. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, 5.) pp. xxii, 290. Malibu, Calif., Undena Publications, [1982]. $34.

Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807–1828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the eve of the Russian Conquest. By George A. Bournoutian. (Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, 5.) pp. xxii, 290. Malibu, Calif., Undena Publications, [1982]. $34. - Volume 116 Issue 1

Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807–1828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the Eve of the Russian Conquest. By George A. Bournoutian Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, Vol. 5. Malibu: Undena Publications, 1982. 290 + 22 pp. $34.00 (cloth), $29.00 (paper).

Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807–1828: A Political and Socioeconomic Study of the Khanate of Erevan on the Eve of the Russian Conquest. By George A. Bournoutian Studies in Near Eastern Culture and Society, Vol. 5. Malibu: Undena Publications, 1982. 290 + 22 pp. $34.00 (cloth), $29.00 (paper).

Alexander and the Mongols

The association of Alexander the Great with the Mongols begins with the identification of the latter with the peoples of Gog and Magog. The evolution of this legend, which has its origin in the Book of Genesis, is curious in the extreme. In Genesis Magog is mentioned as one of the sons of Japhet, his name occurring between those of Gomer and Madai. Since Madai is clearly intended as the eponym of the Medes and Gomer has been located in Cappadocia and Phrygia it has been plausibly suggested that Magog at this stage corresponded to the territory in between, i.e. the region immediately south of the Caucasus in Eastern and Northern Armenia. In Ezekiel we hear for the first time of Gog “of the land of Magog”, who will come from his place out of the uttermost parts of the north, he and many peoples with him, “all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.” It will be seen that the “land of Magog” can no longer be located south of the Caucasus, and indeed Ezekiel's prophecy of the invasion of Gog has been interpreted as an echo of the invasions of the Cimmerians, who came southwards from the steppes through the Darial pass towards the end of the eighth century B.C.; or more probably of the invasion of the Scythians which took place in the following century by way of Darband. Finally we are told in Revelation that “when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea”.

Husayn Qulī Khān Qazvīnī, Sardār of Erevan: A Portrait of a Qajar Administrator

Having lost Transcaucasia to the Russians some one-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Persian scholars have ignored the history of this region which once was a part of Iran under the Qajars. Russian and Armenian sources, although numerous, have tended to emphasize Russian rule in the area. They have also failed to utilize primary sources, such as those in archives, have neglected to record the favorable aspects, and instead have concentrated on a blanket condemnation of Persian rule in the Caucasus. Although it is true that Muslim rule, especially in the Qajar era, was particularly oppressive towards the Christian population of Transcaucasia, some bright moments did exist. This study, based on primary and archival sources, focuses on one such period in a specific area: the governorship of Ḥusayn Qulī Khān Qazvinī in the Khanate of Erevan (Eastern Armenia) during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Before discussing the khān's twenty-year tenure in Erevan, a biographical and historical sketch is in order.

Armenia and the Caucasus in the Genesis of the Soviet–Turkish Entente

On 26 April 1920, three days after the opening of the Grand National Assembly in Angora (Ankara), Mustafa Kemal addressed his first officially confirmed message to the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) of Russia. Shortly thereafter, Bekir Sami Bey (Kundah), Turkish foreign minister, departed for negotiations in Mosocow.A draft treaty was initialed in August and delivered to Angora in September, and in March 1921 the governments of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic established formal bonds by concluding the Treaty of Moscow. During the few intervening months the small Caucasian Armenian republic, which had been created in May of 1918 and which had become the fulcrum of Armenian aspirations for an independent state encompassing both the Russian Armenian provinces and the contiguous Turkish Armenian provinces of eastern Anatolia, was crushed by the invasion of General Kazim Karabekir's XV Army Corps. The offensive, begun after attainment of a vague Soviet-Turkish understanding, not only overturned the Allied-imposed Treaty of Sévres, which had awarded to the Armenian republic much of the four eastern vilayets of Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, and Erzurum, but also restored to Turkish dominion the sanjaks of Kars and Ardahan, since 1878 parts of Russian or Eastern Armenia. What was more, Nationalist Turkey annexed the Surmalu district, embracing Mount Ararat, the historic symbol of the Armenian people.