Some of the essays and papers written by Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian during his years of service to the Armenian Church have been brought together in this volume, which is of value to both specialists and laymen interested in the history of the Armenian Church.

The story of Christianity in the West has often been told, but the history of Christianity in the East is not as well known. The seed was the same: the good news of Jesus Christ for the whole world, which Christians call "the gospel." But it was sown by different sowers; it was planted in different soil; it grew with a different flavor; and it was gathered by different reapers. It is too often forgotten that the faith moved east across Asia as early as it moved west into Europe. Western church history tends to follow Paul to Philippi and to Rome and on across Europe to the conversion of Constantine and the barbarians. With some outstanding exceptions, only intermittently has the West looked beyond Constantinople as its center. It was a Christianity that has for centuries remained unashamedly Asian. A History of Christianity in Asia makes available immense amounts of research on religious pluralism of Asia and how Christianity spread long before the modern missionary movement went forth in the shelter of Western military might. Invaluable for historians of Asia and scholars of mission, it is stimulating for all readers interested in Christian history. --

Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia offers a comparative approach to understanding the spread of Islam and Muslim culture in medieval Anatolia. It aims to reassess work in the field since the 1971 classic by Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization which treats the process of transformation from a Byzantinist perspective. Since then, research has offered insights into individual aspects of Christian-Muslim relations, but no overview has appeared. Moreover, very few scholars of Islamic studies have examined the problem, meaning evidence in Arabic, Persian and Turkish has been somewhat neglected at the expense of Christian sources, and too little attention has been given to material culture. The essays in this volume examine the interaction between Christianity and Islam in medieval Anatolia through three distinct angles, opening with a substantial introduction by the editors to explain both the research background and the historical problem, making the work accessible to scholars from other fields. The first group of essays examines the Christian experience of living under Muslim rule, comparing their experiences in several of the major Islamic states of Anatolia between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, especially the Seljuks and the Ottomans. The second set of essays examines encounters between Christianity and Islam in art and intellectual life. They highlight the ways in which some traditions were shared across confessional divides, suggesting the existence of a common artistic and hence cultural vocabulary. The final section focusses on the process of Islamisation, above all as seen from the Arabic, Persian and Turkish textual evidence with special attention to the role of Sufism.

Available in English for the first time, Modern Armenian Drama presents seven classic works from the Armenian stage. Spanning over a century (1871–1992), the plays explore such diverse themes science and religion, socioeconomic injustice, women's emancipation, and political reform through the medium of all the major European dramatic genres. Nishan Parlakian and S. Peter Cowe provide a comprehensive introduction to the history of Armenian drama, giving a valuable overview of its importance and development in Armenia, as well as a brief biography for each playwright. A preface to each play helps in placing the work within the context of historical and cultural issues of the time. Like the plays of Ibsen and O'Neill, the plays presented in this anthology are considered modern classics. They have an enduring quality and appeal to audiences who see them today. The editors have collected translations of the best examples of Armenian theater from its renaissance in the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

Cultural interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam - such was the title of a combined research project of the Universities of Leiden and Groningen aimed at describing the various ways in which the Christian communities of the Middle East expressed their distinct cultural identity in Muslim societies. As part of the project the symposium "Redefining Christian Identity, Christian cultural strategies since the rise of Islam" took place at Groningen University on April 7-10, 1999. This book contains the proceedings of this conference. From the articles it becomes clear that a number of distinct "cultural strategies" can be identified, some of which were used very frequently, others only in certain groups or at particular periods of time. The three main strategies that are represented in the papers of this volume are: (i) reinterpretation of the pre-Islamic Christian heritage; (ii) inculturation of elements from the new Islamic context; (iii) isolation from the Islamic context. Viewed in time, it is clear that the reinterpretation of older Christian heritage was particularly important in the first two centuries after the rise of Islam, the seventh and eighth centuries, that inculturation was the dominant theme of the Abbasid period, in the ninth to twelfth centuries, whereas from the Mongol period onwards, from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, isolation more and more often occurs, although inculturation of elements from the predominantly Muslim environment never came to a complete standstill.

In his Letter to the Armenians, Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, draws on local tradition to respond to queries by the nascent Armenian Church regarding baptism and the Eucharist. He addresses his letter to Vrt`anes, elder son and second successor to Gregory the Illuminator as head of the Armenian Church, and reveals much about the nature of pre-Nicene Armenian Christianity and its affinities with East Syrian baptismal and eucharistic traditions thought to stand in need of reform. Terian's study of Macarius - Letter to the Armenians establishes the date of this earliest document bearing on the history of the Armenian Church, and highlights the document's place in the baptismal and eucharistic liturgy of Jerusalem prior to Cyril's Catechetical Lectures and in the travel diary of the nun Egeria later in the fourth century.

Vols. for 1907/1908-1936/1937: no. 1, Commencement issue, no. 2, Necrology report, no. 3, News, no. 4, Catalogue; v. for 1937/1938-1938/1939: no. 1, 3, News, no. 2, Bulletin of courses, no. 4, Catalogue; v. for 1939/1940-1944/1945: no. 1, 4, News, no. 2, Bulletin of courses, no. 3, Catalogue; v. for 1945/1946: no. 1, Bulletin of courses, no. 2, 4, News, no. 3, Catalogue; v. for 1946/1947-1952/1953: no. 1, 3, 4, News, no. 2, Catalogue.

Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History 5 (CMR 5), covering the period 1350-1500, is a continuing volume in a general history of relations between the two faiths from the seventh century to 1900. It comprises a series of introductory essays and also the main body of detailed entries which treat all the works, surviving or lost, that have been recorded. These entries provide biographical details of the authors, descriptions and assessments of the works themselves, and complete accounts of manuscripts, editions, translations and studies. The result of collaboration between numerous leading scholars, CMR 5, along with the other volumes in this series, is intended as an indispensable tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations.