SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This volume is one of the few collections of studies that looks at the South Caucasus - from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east - as a shared cultural space. It explores contacts between Armenians, Georgians, Kurds and Muslims of the former Caucasian Albania, as expressed in texts, figurative arts and rituals. While focusing on the ancient Christian civilisations of Armenia and Georgia, it also investigates the interactions of Christianity with the ancestral religions of the South Caucasians, with Zoroastrianism, Islam and Yazidism. Apocryphal traditions represent a particularly convenient lens through which to observe cultural exchanges and blending. The first two chapters analyse the perception of sacred objects and sanctuaries in Armenia and Georgia and the representation of fabulous animals in the iconography of both countries. The next six investigate the contacts between Armenians and Georgians in the transmission of hagiographic texts relating to Christ's Nativity, the early Christian saints and their images, as well as the Evangelisation of the Armenian and Georgian kingdoms. The penultimate two chapters study places of worship shared by diverse religions, the role of religious syncretism in the Islamisation of the south-eastern Caucasus and the function of apocrypha in the resistance to Islam. The final chapter examines the contextualisation of Islamic legends of Biblical origin in the topography of the Caucasus. The volume ends with a detailed index.