Byzantine, Western Medieval, and Islamic Art & Architecture, Medieval Art and Architecture of the South Caucasus, Late Antique and Medieval Visual Culture

Abstract: This essay provides a selected bibliography on the history and cultures of the Caucasus region. A great part of this study consists of books, articles, symposiums papers, undergraduate and postgraduate thesis and Ph.D dissertations written in Turkey. This study reveals that, although there are numerous studies on the region, the Caucasian history and cultures still calls for scholarly attention due to its geo-strategic importance.

Keywords: Caucasus, Bibliography, Culture, Historiography, Turkey

Öz: Bu makale çalışması dünyanın en önemli coğrafyalarından biri olan Kafkasya’nın tarihi ve kültürü üzerine hazırlanmış bir bibliyografya denemesidir. Bibliyografya denemesinin büyük bir bölümünü Türkiye’de, Kafkasya tarihi üzerine hazırlanmış kitap, makale, sempozyum, bildiri, lisans, yüksek lisans ve doktora tezleri
oluşturmaktadır. Tarihin ilk dönemlerinden günümüze çok önemli olaylara sahne olan bu zorlu topraklar günümüzde de tarihçilerin ve sosyal bilimcilerin ilgisini çeken bir alandır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Kafkasya, Bibliyografya, Kültür, Tarihçilik, Türkiye

Islamic inscriptions in the context of other epigraphic traditions: Mesopotamian, Egyptian, pre-Islamic Arabian, Graeco-Roman and Byzantine. The varied frames, panels, cartouches, roundels and bands that they occupy. Their content and the predominant role of the Qur'an.  How important is it that inscriptions are legible? The relevance of Qur'anic inscriptions to the purpose of a building and the formulae employed for historical inscriptions. The role of inscriptions in articulating architecture, and their use in clothing a building. Mazar of Ibn Hasan in Mosul (‘Aun al-Din) and its inscription in the name of Badr al-Din Lu’lu’. Saljuq and Ghurid inscriptions. Inscriptions as decoration and their aesthetic impact. Epigraphic games and riddles. The 99 Names of God.

The filigree on the Bessarion Cross is comparable to objects attributable to Russia and Sicily and was probably inspired by Islamic
goldsmiths’ works, as can be shown by the example of the Trier Casket. The genesis of the particular filigree is traceable to Mamluk Egypt as well as the art of the Golden Horde, and it is probably not a Byzantine invention. On the other hand, the ornaments on the sides of the Bessarion Cross (and on the frame of the famous Esztergom
Staurotheke, which should be dated to the same time as the Bessarion Cross) take up a Western motif that developed in the first half of the 14th century and can be followed back to Gothic tracery. From the
1330s or 1340s, ornaments similar to the Bessarion Cross appear in Western goldsmiths’ works.
At first glance, the historical dating of the cross to 1347-1354
seems too early, as researchers usually tend to allow a couple of decades for a motif to migrate. That means that the ornament on the sides of the cross would have probably been dated stylistically rather towards the end of the 14th century, if there were no other clues for dating.
Nevertheless, it is possible for the ornament to appear at this point in time in Byzantium, i.e., the mid-14th century. As demonstrated here, ornaments are not as ‘elusive’ as has often been assumed and can be used as an important means for dating and attribution, as well as an indicator for the complex processes of cultural exchange in the Middle Ages. An important result of this paper is that, on the basis of the historical dating of the Bessarion Cross, it can be concluded that new fashions from the West, Islamic neighbours as well as the East, can be shown to have been assimilated rapidly in Byzantium.
It remains to conclude that the Bessarion Cross is an important object that provides evidence for the vivid transfer of taste and fashions between the leading Mediterranean and Asian cultures in the 14th century.

Here we present a small selection of papers presented at the 4th Annual Late Antique, Islamic, and Byzantine Conference hosted by the University of Edinburgh in November of 2020.  The LAIBS Conference Committee (Bilal Adiguzel, Nasser Alfalasi, Defangyu (Charles) Kong, Joaquin Serrano del Pozo, and Sarah Slingluff in conjunction with Diogenes editors selected papers by Lubna a al-Shanquitiy, Blake Lorenz, Arie Neuhauser, Haggai Olshanetsky and Lev Cosijns.

Հոդվածում ներկայացված է դամբարանին (գտնվում է Արցախի  Հանրապետության Ասկերանի շրջկենտրոնից 11 կմ հյուսիս՝ Խաչեն-Դորբատլի գյուղի հյուսիսարևմտյան եզրից 500 մ արևմուտք) վերաբերող հիմնական տեղեկությունները  փոխանցող արաբերեն արձանագրությունը, որտեղ նշված են կառուցման թվականը, պատվիրատուի և ճարտարապետի անունները: Այս արձանագրությունը թարգմանաբար հրատարակվել է ադրբեջաներեն և ռուսերեն մի քանի աշխատություններում: Նոր մոտեցում է ձևավորում արձանագրության մեր ընթերցումը, որն էլ ճշտում է կառույցի ճարտարապետի ինքնությունը՝ հայազգի Շահիկ վարդպետ:

Dans le cadre d’un vaste projet de recherche sur les forteresses de Locride et de Phocide, l’Ecole française d’Athènes et l’Ephorie de Phocide, associées { l’Université Paris VIII, { l’Institut de Recherche sur l’Architecture Antique du CNRS, au La3M-CNRS et { l’Aix-Marseille Université ont monté un programme d’étude de la défense de la ville d’Amphissa (Salona) en Grèce de l’Antiquité au XXe siècle. La richesse historique du lieu, sa position stratégique déterminante dans l’histoire régionale, la qualité des vestiges encore en place et le contexte local favorable, faisait de ce site le candidat idéal pour un projet visant à renouveler la méthodologie des études diachroniques de sites fortifiés de grandes dimensions. L’équipe pluridisciplinaire réunie pour la première fois en juillet 2017 à Amphissa, a mis en place le cadre de cette vaste étude et effectuée les premières observations de terrain.

Cantone focuses on a series of virgin martyrs that appear in the well-knows eleventh-century illustrated manuscript, the Menologion of Basil II, and approaches them from the perspective of gendered emotions. She argues that their female gender identity is destabilized by a series of visual and rhetoric devices that they share with male martyrs. Among these devices the most important is dispassion (ataraxia) or the imperviousness to suffering that all martyrs apparently expressed in the face of imminent death. Just like their male counterparts, female martyrs kept a placid and serene emotional façade. Cantone contends that this specific dramatic staging in the manuscript was especially designed to engage its readership emotionally by re-enacting the virgin martyrs’ dramatic moments.