Object
Title: A Gusan Gestalt Shift
Publication Details:
Journal or Publication Title:
Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS)
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Volume:
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Other title:
Differing Perceptions of the Bard in Movsēs Daskhurants‘i’s History of the Caucasian Albanians
Contributor(s):
Editor-in-Chief Aram Topchyan ; Managing Editor Ani Shahnazaryan
Coverage:
Abstract:
This paper seeks to reinscribe the debate regarding the Christianisation of the gusans (bards), from one concerned with an essentialised notion of “Christian-ness” to one which better accounts for the multifarious notions of “Christian” in medieval Armenia. That is, the contrary conceptions of the gusan, in literary and material sources, are surveyed and taxonomised. By way of a close reading of Movsēs Daskhurants‘i’s History of the Caucasian Albanians, supplemented by an exegesis of the gusan in other canonical Armenian histories, the gusan, as a polemical category in clerical literature, is shown to represent the antithesis of Christian piety. However, the spoor of a more general assimilation of the gusan into Christian society, specifically that of the gentry and laypeople, is evidenced by other material sources and texts. The intention of this paper is to offer a new approach with which to think about the gusan, and Armenia’s pre-Christian heritage writ large.
Publisher:
Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts
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Identifier:
oai:arar.sci.am:422377
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Last modified:
Nov 6, 2025
In our library since:
Nov 6, 2025
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1
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https://arar.sci.am/publication/454897
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Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS)
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Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS), 2024, Vol 1, N 1
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Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS), 2024, Vol 1, N 2
- Editorial board
- Contents
- The Original Text Form and Chapters Order of the Physiologus, with an Edition of the Chapter on the Lizard
- A New, Critical Edition of Armenian Deuteronomy, Forty Years after Its “Diplomatic” Predecessor
- A Note on Armenian-Caucasian Albanian Contacts
- Translation of the Genitive Absolute in the Armenian Alexander Romance
- Diplomatic Correspondence of Armenian King Levon I with Egyptian Sultan al-Malik al-Adil (1208–1209)
- La Livorno degli Armeni
- “Medieval Violence” and Legal Issues of Everyday Life in Cilician Armenia (Late Twelfth–Fourteenth Centuries)
- A Gusan Gestalt Shift
- Armenian Amulet Scrolls in the Collections of Paris
- "Don't Forget about the Silver Covers!"
- Azat A. Bozoyan (ed.), Պատկերապաշտության և պատկերամարտության խնդիրը Հայաստանում և Բյուզանդիայում (ազգային ինքնության պահպանման համատեքստում). հոդվածների ժողովածու ; [The Problem of Iconoclasm and Iconolatry in Armenia and Byzantium (in the Context of Identity Preservation): Collection ofArticles], Yerevan: “Gitutyun” Publishing House of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, 2024.
- A List of Armenological Publications of 2024
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Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS), 2024, Vol 1, N 1
| Edition name | Date |
|---|---|
| Walk, William, A Gusan Gestalt Shift | Nov 6, 2025 |
