The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

If the history of 13-l4tfa century Armenia is not
well known in the West, the opposite situation prevails
among Armeniata. Far from being under-etudied, the
13-14th centuries have attracted considerable interest.
The abundance of source material explains this in part.
Armenists have been interested primarily in various
aspects of the socio-economic and political life of
Armenia during a period when the Mongols figured as
conquerors and overlords, but not as creators of that
distinctive culture. The first Araenist to deal with
the 13-14th centuries was the Mxit'arist father M. $am$ean,
in the third volume of his History of Armenia (Venice,
1736). $am$ean*s account, in addition to being clerical
and patriotic is also episodic. When faced with insufficient
sources for late 13th century Greater Armenia (no published
corpora of colophons or inscriptions existed in his day)
£am$ean moved his focus to Cilician Armenia. The history
of Greater Armenia in the 14th century is entirely omitted.
Scholarly activity on the period of interest done
during the 19th century may be divided into two main
categories. First, the 19th century saw the beginning
of the publication of the classical Armenian texts and
their translations into European languages, especially
into Russian and French. In the absence of critical
editions—which have begun to appear only recently—- the