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Document Details : Title: Nersēs IV Shnorhali Subtitle: The Legacy in Political Perspective Author(s): DADOYAN, Seta B. Journal: Le Muséon Volume: 137 Issue: 1-2 Date: 2024 Pages: 171-206 DOI: 10.2143/MUS.137.1.3293319 Abstract : The purpose of putting the legacy of Nersēs IV Shnorhali (b. 1100, r. 1166-1173), a saint of the Armenian Church, in political perspectives is to create a hermeneutical horizon for re-thinking his career and legacy in the context of regional and Armenian political circumstances during the Armenian Intermezzo from the late tenth to the late twelfth centuries. It was at this time that the vast Armenian world, which included the homeland and a growing habitat or oikumene (following massive migrations), was divided into Eastern and Western worlds. Armenian Cilicia came about during this phase, as the first body politic in the Western Armenian World. The third of five consecutive Pahlawuni catholicoi (r. 1066-1198), Shnorhali witnessed grave developments in the process of shaping of Cilicia amid rival Christian and Muslim powers. Ecumenism, pragmatism, and a unique realpolitik were the only choices before Shnorhali and the Cilician political and religious institutions and figures to redefine national and regional legitimacy, identity and persistence. Shnorhali played a significant role in these processes. From the second decade of the twelfth century, before and after settling at Hṛomkla (in 1150) on Muslim controlled lands, with his unique diplomacy, he responded to extraordinary challenges and dealt with contradictory projects for an Armenian land between Muslim and Christian sides, also pressures even by then a defeated Byzantium through Church Union processes. Shnorhali encountered the latter challenges alone, with no political or moral support. The study provides brief yet significant parallel strands of information on the predecessors of Shnorhali and their policies in connection with powers and communities in the Islamic world, such as Ani in the northeast oscillating between invaders, and Fāṭimid Egypt in the southwest. These circumstances during the Intermezzo are grounds for this initiative to trace and evaluate the legacy of Shnorhali in political context and perspectives. |
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