JERUSALEM AND THE ARMENIANS: UNTIL THE OTTOMAN CONQUEST, 1516

By: Claude Mutafian,

Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2022 518 p. + 940 images

In the fourfold division of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Christian and the Armenian Quarters are contiguous but independent. This situation corresponds to the ancientness and the importance of the Armenian presence. The relations of the Armenians with the Holy City have never ceased, and they culminated at the time of the Crusades. Jerusalem became the seat of an Armenian Patriarchate and the cultural activity was intense: inscriptions, sculptures, mosaics, and manuscripts decorated with miniatures which are among the masterpieces of Armenian art. Today, Jerusalem is the most important repository of Armenian culture outside Armenia. Claude Mutafian’s most recent book, Jérusalem et les Arméniens: Jusqu’à la conquête ottomane (1516), presents the relations between Armenia and Jerusalem in their historical and artistic context with an abundance of maps, genealogical charts, and images.