"COUNTRIES SOUTH OF THE CAUCASUS IN MEDIEVAL MAPS – ARMENIA, GEORGIA AND AZERBAIJAN" BOOK PUBLISHED
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.03.2009 20:28 GMT+04:00
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.