- Armenian Renaissance
The Armenian Renaissance was roughly from the
Crusades to present-day. [Frederic Macler, La nation armenienne (Paris, 1923)] The changing of theArmenian language and the rise of Armenian literature in the nineteenth century played a big part. [The Armenian Renaissance, 1500-1863, by Harry Jewell Sarkiss, p.534] The Renaissance inArmenia was very similar to that inEurope .In this time when
Europe was "being flooded with the light of New learning" Armenia was in the darkest age of its history. A third factor which accounts for the Armenian renaissance was the rediscovery of the Armenian classical literature. [Zarphanalian, II, 171.]History
During the second half of the eleventh century certain "Turanian" tribes appeared on the horizon of western
Asia . [Arisdagues de Lasdivert, History of Armenia by the Michitarists of Venice.] The invasion byTartars andMongols in the following two centuries laid waste the whole ofAsia minor . [Hethoum, Prince of Gorigos, History of the Tartars, 1076-1307 p.89] Armenia was devastated by these onslaughts the loss of Armenia's political independence, and her culture life collapsed. [The Armenian Renaissance, 1500-1863, by Harry Jewell Sarkiss p.435]The Kingdom of
Lesser Armenia , which made notable progress regeneration inCilicia , did not fare much better at the hands of the Mamelukes ofEgypt . [Leo Alishan, Cilicia, (in Armenian; Venice, 1885) p. 129]After the collapse of the last dynasty in
Major Armenia in 1064, a large number of Armenians moved toPoland .The future of Armenia laid on these colonists. In 1240 the first
Armenian church was erected atRome , and 1434 the date of the founding of the Holy Cross at Venice, no fewer than eleven Armenian churches were built in Italy alone.An attempt is made in the following sketch to point out that the Renaissance in Armenia was strikingly similar to that in
Europe . [The Journal of Modern History - Page 434]ee also
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Apkar Tebir
*Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia References
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