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

are essentially left out in the narration. Nor, in this
ease, do the non-Armenian sources come to the rescue.
Possibly extensive archaeological excavation will one
day partially right this imbalance, although it is doubtful
if the details of everyday life of the lower classes will
ever be known. The literary sources therefore contain
a class bias.
Finally, the quantity and type of the sources is
likewise not constant. The quality of the sources also
deteriorates over time. Kirakoe, Yardan, and Step'annos
lived through the Mongol conquest and domination of Armenia.
Kirakos, though taken.captive by the invaders, and forced
to serve as their secretary, had grudging praise for. nis
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new overlords. Vardan and Step'annos both were befriended
by the II-Khans and died blessing their wisdom and
religious tolerance. But as the Khans Islamized in the
early 14th century, the situation changed dramatically.
The unsettled, intolerant 14th century produced no major
Armenian historian. Only the humble authors of chronicles
and colophons, many of them anonymous, detail the persec-
utions, plunderings of churches and famines. Finally, with
T'ovma Mecop'ee'i's life and History the results of the
breakdown of a corrupt and fanatically intolerant Mongol
state as observable, for T'ovma was a poorly educated,
superstitious cleric who wrote his sorry and disorganized
account while literally fleeing from his Muslim persecutors.
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