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Caucasia and Byzantine Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Cyril Toumanoff*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
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Extract

All too slowly, but nevertheless, it is to be hoped, steadily, Byzantine scholars are becoming aware of the special importance of studies dealing with Christian Caucasia — principally Armenia and Georgia — for the studies ex professo their own. That this claim of Caucasiology to a place of special importance in Byzantine studies is no empty boast, an examination of the nature of the Byzantine-Caucasian relations will make amply clear. In the domain of Geistesgeschichte, Caucasia experienced a profound influence of Byzantine civilization. It came, in fact, to form to a very considerable extent a part of that civilization. But, quite unlike Byzantium's younger dependencies, Caucasia's soil had been previously irrigated by waters from other cultural streams, the Iranian, the Syrian, and, together with Byzantium though independently of it, the Hellenistic. The cultures of medieval Armenia and of medieval Georgia were, moreover, rich, vigorous, and original — Armeno-Georgian architecture was, above all the other arts, a thing of originality and beauty; — and what they, in turn, contributed to that of Byzantium is still far from being adequately appraised.

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Type
Bibliographical Studies
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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