Special Background · Skills Development

Byzantium and Armenia: From the Arshakuni to the Het’umids (4th-14th Centuries)

Postgraduate Programme — Level 7

10 ECTS Credits
3 hrs / week
English Language
Open to Erasmus
None Prerequisites

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon completion, students will be able to:

1)

Demonstrate a critical understanding of the historical development of medieval Armenian political formations.

2)

Explain the geopolitical importance of the Armenian world for the Byzantine Empire.

3)

Analyse and evaluate the evolution of Constantinople’s relations with Armenian political entities.

4)

Analyse the shared historical experiences of Armenians and Byzantines within a broader medieval context.

5)

Apply digital tools and methods to support research in Byzantine and Armenian studies.

COURSE SYLLABUS

13 Modules

Week 01 | Byzantium and Armenia: An Introduction

Overview of the geographical, cultural, and political landscape of the Caucasus; Introduction to key concepts, sources, and historiographical debates.

Political structures of the Arshakuni dynasty; Conversion to Christianity and its cultural implications; Relations with Byzantium and Sasanian Persia.

Diplomatic, military, and ecclesiastical interactions; Integration of Armenian elites into Byzantine structures; Conflicts and alliances.

The impact of Arab expansion; Transformation of political authority in Armenia; Continuity and change in regional dynamics.

Re-emergence of Armenian political power; The Bagratid Kingdom and regional lordships; Relations with Byzantium.

Expansionist policies of Byzantium; Annexation strategies and administration; Consequences for Armenian elites and society.

Migration and state formation in Cilicia; Political institutions and foreign relations; Interaction with Byzantium, Crusaders and neighbouring powers.

Analysis of Byzantine policy under the Komnenian Dynasty; Political alliances, tensions and negotiations with Armenian leaders.

Examination of the role and contribution of Armenians within the Byzantine army; Analysis of patterns of recruitment, integration, and advancement of Armenian military elites; The significance of Armenian military presence in frontier defense and imperial strategy; Assessment of cultural interaction and identity within the Byzantine military framework.

Overview of primary sources (chronicles, documents, material culture); Key historiographical debates.

Introduction to digital tools supporting academic research and writing, including Zotero, Scrivener, and Nota Bene; Management of bibliographic data and references; Organization of research materials and note-taking; Tools for structuring and drafting academic essays and theses.

Practical information on the written essays.

Presentation of students’ essays.

ASSESSMENT

Student Evaluation

10%

Participation in class discussion

30%

Public presentation

60%

Research Eassay

Workload — ECTS Distribution

250 Hours Total

Lectures

26

Seminar Discussions

13

Study and analysis of bibliography

60

Independent study

70

Essay writing

75

Preparation for presentation

6

Course Total

250

Recommended Bibliography

Suggested bibliography:

  • Arutjunova-Fidanjan, Viada. “L’image de l’empire byzantin dans l’historiographie arménienne médiévale (Xe-XIe s.).” In L’Arménie et Byzance. Histoire et culture, edited by Nina G. Garsoïan, 7–17. Byzantina Sorbonensia 12. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1996.
  • Atamian Bournoutian, Ani. “Cilician Armenia.” In Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. 1 The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, 273–91. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
  • Augé, Isabelle. Byzantins, Arméniens & Francs au temps de la Croisade. Politique religieuse et reconquête en Orient sous la dynastie des Comnènes : 1081-1185. Paris: Geuthner, 2007.
  • Bartikian, Hratch M. “The Religious Diplomacy of Byzantium in Armenia During the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.” In Etudes arméniennes in memoriam Haïg Berbérian, edited by Dickran Kouymjian, translated by Arra Avakian, 55–62. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1986.
  • Bedrosian, Robert. “Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods.” In Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. 1 The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, 241–71. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
  • Beihammer, Alexander D. Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040-1130. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies 20. London: Routledge, 2017.
  • Bozoyan, Azat. “Armenian Political Revival in Cilicia.” In Armenian Cilicia, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian and Simon Payaslian, 67–78. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2008.
  • Bromige, Toby. Armenians in the Byzantine Empire: Identity, Assimilation and Alienation from 867 to 1098. London: I.B. Tauris, 2023.
  • Canard, Marius. “Le Royaume d’Arménie-Cilicie et Les Mamelouks Jusqu’au Traité de 1285.” Revue Des Études Arméniennes n.s. 4 (1967): 217–59.
  • Charanis, Peter. “The Armenians in the Byzantine Empire.” Byzantinoslavica 22 (1961): 196–240.
  • Chevalier, Marie-Anna. Les ordres religieux-militaires en Arménie cilicienne : Templiers, hospitaliers, teutoniques & Arméniens à l’époque des croisades. Paris: Geuthner, 2009.
  • Cheynet, Jean-Claude. “Les Arméniens dans l’armée byzantine au Xe siècle.” Travaux et Mémoires 18 (2014): 175–92.
  • Cowe, S. Peter. “The Armenians in the Era of the Crusades 1050-1350.” In The Cambridge History of Christianity. 5: Eastern Christianity, edited by Michael Angold, 404–29. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  • Dadoyan, Seta B. The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World. Paradigms of Interaction Seventh to Fourteenth Centuries. Volume 1. The Arab Period in Arminyah Seventh to Eleventh Centuries. New Brunswick-London: Transaction Publishers, 2011.
  • Dédéyan, Gérard. Les Arméniens entre Grecs, musulmans et croises : Étude sur les pouvoirs arméniens dans le Proche-Orient méditerranéen (1068-1150). 2 vols. Lisbonne: Colouste Gulbenkian, 2003.
  • Dorfmann-Lazarev, Igor. Arméniens et byzantins à l’époque de Photius : deux débats théologiques après le triomphe de l’orthodoxie. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 609. Lovanii: Peeters, 2004.
  • France, John. “La stratégie arménienne de la première croisade.” In Les Lusignans et l’Outre-Mer : actes du colloque : Poitiers-Lusignan, 20-24 octobre 1993, auditorium du Musée Sainte-Croix Poitiers, 141–49. Poitiers: Université de Poitiers, 1994.
  • Garsoïan, Nina G. “The Byzantine Annexation of the Armenian Kingdoms in the Eleventh Century.” In Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, 1: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, 187–98. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
  • Garsoïan, Nina G., and Bernadette Martin-Hisard. “Unity and Diversity in Medieval Caucasia, 4th-11th Centuries.” In Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Georgian, edited by Stephen H. Rapp and Paul Crego, translated by Abigail Jamet, 49–96. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300-1500 5. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2012.
  • Ghazarian, Jacob G. The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades. The Intergration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins 1080-1393. London: Routledge, 2000.
  • Greenwood, Tim. “Armenian Neighbours (600-1045).” In The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c. 500-1492, edited by Jonathan Shepard, 333–64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  • Hewsen, Robert H. Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  • Jinbashian, Manuel M. Church-State Relations in Armenia During the Arab Domination: From the First Invasion to the Time of the Early ’Abbasids. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2000.
  • Kazhdan, Alexander. “The Armenians in the Byzantine Ruling Class Predominantly in the Ninth through Twelfth Centuries.” In Medieval Armenian Culture, edited by Thomas J. Samuelian and Michael E. Stone, 439–51. Chico: Scholars Press, 1984.
  • Laurent, Joseph. L’Arménie entre Byzance et l’Islam depuis la conquête arabe jusqu’en 886. Edited by Marius Canard. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1980.
  • MacEvitt, Christopher. The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
  • Mahé, Jean-Pierre. “L’Église arménienne de 611 à 1066.” In Histoire du christianisme, v. IV, Evêques, moines et empereurs (610-1054), edited by Gilbert Dagron, Pierre Riché, and André Vauchez, 457–547. Paris: Desclée, 1993.
  • Mutafian, Claude, ed. La Méditerranée Des Arméniens: XIIe-XVe Siècle. Orient Chrétien Médiéval. Paris: Geuthner, 2014.
  • Ntavonis, Christodoulos G. “Further Thoughts on the Byzantine Crown of Lewon I the Magnificent.” Byzantiaka 37 (2022): 149–61.
  • Ntovas, Evangelos. “The Aims of Byzantine Foreign Policy in Armenia (685-705): A New Approach.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 118, no. 3 (2025): 751–68.
  • Papageorgiou, Angeliki. Ο Ιωάννης Β’ Κομνηνός και η εποχή του (1118-1143) [John II Komnenos and his Era (1118-1143)]. Athens: Irodotos, 2017.
  • Pogossian, Zaroui. “Locating Religion, Controlling Territory: Conquest and Legitimation in Late Ninth-Century Vaspurakan and Its Interreligious Context.” In Locating Religions: Contact, Diversity and Translocality, edited by Reinhold F. Glei and Nikolas Jaspert, 173–233. Dynamics in the History of Religions 9. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
  • Preiser-Kapeller, Johannes. “Central Peripheries. Empires and Elites Across Byzantine and Arab Frontiers in Comparison (700-900 Ce).” In Die Interaktion von Herrschern und Elitengruppen in imperialen Ordnungen des Mittelalters, edited by Wolfram Drews, 91–113. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018.
  • Seibt, Werner. “Die Eingliederung Vaspurakans in das Byzantinische Reich (etwa Anfang 1019 bzw. Anfang 1022).” Handes Amsorya 92 (1978): 49–66.
  • Seibt, Werner. “Philaretos Brachamios- General, Rebell, Vasall?” In Captain and Scholar. Papers in Memory of Demetrios I. Polemis, edited by Evangelos Chrysos and Elizabeth A. Zachariadou, 281–95. Andros: Kaïreios Vivliothēkē, 2009.
  • Seibt, Werner. “Stärken und Schwächen der byzantinischen Integrationspolitik gegenüber den neuen armenischen Staatsbürgern im 11. Jahrhundert.” In The Empire in Crisis (?) Byzantium in the 11th Century (1025-1081), edited by Vasiliki N. Vlyssidou, 331–47. Διεθνή Συμπόσια 11. Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation, 2003.
  • Seibt, Werner. “The Byzantine Eastern Frontier in the 1070s.” In Studies in Byzantine Sigillography 14, edited by Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou-Seibt and Christos Stavrakos, 69–80. Turnhout: Brepols, 2022.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos. “Ashot II Yerkat and the Byzantines: Allies to the End or Ultimately Enemies?” Bulletin of Matenadaran 32 (2021): 317–28.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos. “John II Komnenos’ Campaign in Cilician Armenia.” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 114, no. 3 (2021): 1329–49.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos. “The Armenians in the Byzantine and Fatimid Militaries in the Eleventh Century: Similarities and Differences in Their Operational Roles.” In War in Eleventh-Century Byzantium, edited by Georgios Theotokis and Marek Meško, 196–217. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos. “The Case of Mleh (1170–1175): Cilician Armenia Between Nūr Al-Dīn and Manuel I Komnenos.” Medieval Encounters 29, no. 4 (2023): 340–57.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos. “The Legitimation of Armenian Rule in Cilicia in Hetʿumid Promotional Narrative: The Case of the Colophon of Hetʿum ΙΙ’s Lectionary (1286).” Bulletin of Matenadaran 39 (2025): 202–20.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos. Η Αρμενία μεταξύ Βυζαντίου και Χαλιφάτου (885-929). Athens: Irodotos, 2018.
  • Takirtakoglou, Konstantinos, and Jesse Siragan Arlen. “Paterazmunk’ Het’anosats’: Byzantine Propaganda and Holy War, Recipients and Objectives.” In Nikephoros II Phokas and Warfare in the 10th-Century Byzantine World, edited by Georgios Theotokis and Mamuka Tsurtsumia, 321–45. History of Warfare 152. Leiden: Brill, 2025.

Related academic journals:

  • Dumbarton Oaks Papers
  • Byzantinische Zeitschrift
  • Medieval Encounters
  • Bulletin of Matenadaran
  • Revue des études arméniennes
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