Local Elites, Empires, and Responses to the Rise of Islam in the Roman-Sasanian Northern Frontier Region, 640-726

This thesis contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the responses of non-Muslim populations to the seventh-century Islamic conquests. It focuses upon historic Armenia and Caucasian Albania—areas which, in the decades immediately prior to the early Islamic conquests, had been situated within a contested ‘northern frontier region’ between the Sasanian and Roman empires. Through a critical examination of sources ranging from well-known works of historiography (including the History attributed to Sebēos) to a range of less well-studied, purportedly contemporary documents (including the so-called Narratio de Rebus Armeniae and the works attributed to Yovhannēs Awjnec‘i), it explores the evolving relationship between local elites and the Roman and early Islamic empires in response to the political transformations of this period. This is approached both in a political sense, through an examination of diplomatic connections and an exploration of ‘hard power’ and ‘soft power’ factors that potentially influenced the relationships of local elites with the external empires, and in an intellectual sense, with consideration of evolving local attitudes towards the major powers and their place in local political discourse. Chapter 1 surveys the local social and administrative geography in late antiquity and considers the legacies of Roman-Sasanian warfare. Chapter 2 re-examines the political history of the region throughout the ‘conquest period’, with emphasis upon the evolution of connections between certain local political actors and the major powers. Chapters 3 and 4 reassess several known episodes of Roman-Armenian doctrinal negotiations and local doctrinal controversies and reconsider their context and implications. Finally, Chapter 5 considers the place of the major empires in near-contemporary local political discourse, as reflected in a range of written materials, and what this might reveal about changing perceptions of the broader world and the shifting external connections of local leaders.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Forrest, Stephanie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sarris, Peter

• Byzantine history
• Byzantium
• Medieval Armenia
• Medieval history

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/0cce0708-c8eb-4bbf-aee6-ff0650a9362b/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.116291

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/380815