WATERTOWN — Dr. Sergio La Porta will present a lecture titled “When Things Fall Apart: Disentangling Christian-Muslim Relations in Medieval Armenia” at the Baikar Center for the Tekeyan Cultural Association Boston Chapter on Tuesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. The talk is organized with the support of Dean Shahinian and cosponsored by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research.
The Turkish invasions of the late eleventh century created disruptions to political and social life in Armenia. The disappearance of the kingdoms of the Bagratuni and Artsruni created a political vacuum, and the departure of Armenians for other lands and the emergence of Turkish and Kurdish populations shifted the demographics of the region. Besides the conflicts waged between the major geopolitical actors of the time, rulers and communities had to manage relationships between competing interests on more local levels as well.
Over the course of the twelfth century, relationships between many Christian and Muslim communities in Armenia began to break down. This talk will present Armenian narratives of the period that point to the entanglement of Armenian Christian and Muslim communities, the deterioration of relations between them, and the pressures that exacerbated the decline. In addition, it will analyze a set of 12th-century martyrologies and argue that they provide unique insights into strategies promoted to negotiate the rapidly changing socio-political context.
Dr. Sergio La Porta is currently the Acting Dean of the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno. Prior to assuming this role, he was the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and the Haig and Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies. His most recent book publication, co-authored with Dr. Alison Vacca, is entitled An Armenian Futūḥ Narrative: Łewond’s Eighth-Century History of the Caliphate (Chicago: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2024). In addition, Dr. La Porta has published on the Armenian commentaries on the works attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, and numerous articles on medieval Armenian intellectual history and cultural interactions with the Islamicate, Byzantine, and Latinate worlds.
Admission is complimentary, and the lecture will be followed by a reception. The Baikar Center is located at 755 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown (please use the Norseman Avenue side entrance). For more information, contact Sossy Yogurtian at syogurtian@comcast.net or call 617 281-1647.
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