More Armenia

Having come across Armenia a couple of weeks ago, as noticed at reference 1, it so happened that the paper at reference 2 was brought to my attention a couple of days ago, having made some progress with reference 4 in the meantime.

Reference 2 is something of a celebration of the distinctive alphabets of a family of languages from the north Caucasus, that is to say Armenian, Albanian and Georgian. Quite different from the Albania to the north of Greece. And the Iberia to the west of this Albania is quite different from the one to south of France. All very confusing.

At the time the Armenian alphabet was invented in the fifth century, Armenia was split between Byzantine and Sassanian zones, the language situation was rather confused and the church in its wisdom decided that a new alphabet was the answer, something to hold the nation together through the difficult times ahead.

All three alphabets are rather longer than ours and are apt to have a special letter which as well as being a letter symbolises Christ.

All in all, a complicated and interesting region. Which I must try not to spend quality time on!

Notwithstanding, I have already learned that the Sassanian Empire, the original Iran, was once very extensive, including, inter alia, the whole of what is now Iraq. And a large chunk of what is now Turkey. And with the other great power in that part of the world being Byzantium. In the snap above, the stripey part left was the greatest extent, not long held. But the larger part right lasted for hundreds of years.

It seems that the Sassanians and Byzantines wore each other out in their continual wars, leaving both vulnerable to the Arab onslaught from the south, the Arabs having by then been energised by their acquisition of the Quran.

So maybe our present troubles with Iran stem from their stepping down from great power status with bad grace. An elephant trap which few empires seem to avoid. Thinking here of the UK, France, Turkey and the Soviet Union. And in a slightly different way, of the US.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/problems.html.

Reference 2: The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History - W. Seibt - 2011. A short paper, puffing the book at reference 3.

Reference 3: Die Entstehung der kaukasischen Alphabete als kulturhistorisches Phänomen  - W. Seibt, J. Preiser-Kapeller - 2011.

Reference 4: A shameful act - Taner Akҫam - 2006.