"Mariam of Vaspurakan: the Political Profile of the Key Female Figure in the Kingdom of Georgia in the 9th century", paper by Dmitri Kosourov
Event ended
27 February 2020, 3.10 pm: second session of the research&learning group "History and Personalities of the Medieval South Caucasus" is to go forward with the paper "Mariam of Vaspurakan: the Political Profile of the Key Female Figure in the Kingdom of Georgia in the 9th century" by Dmitri Kosourov, graduate student at the Doctoral School of History, HSE.
Mariam, the daughter of the last king of Vaspurakan Senekirim-Hovhannes (1003–1021), the first wife of the Georgian king George I (1014–1027) and the mother of Bagrat IV (1027–1072) is chiefly known in existing studies as Mariam of Vaspurakan. She is deservedly credited with being an outstanding leader in the foreign policy of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 9th century. Mariam, however, is typically approached in scholarship, especially Georgian, unilaterally, as a passive vehicle of the "Byzantine political and cultural influence" onto the Kartvelian territories that had only started to morph into a single state at the dawn of reign of Mariam's family in the early 9th century. I will argue that the opposite is true and Mariam was one of the central figures behind the indepentent and and self-standing political vector of the Kingdom of Georgia away from the Byzantine empire, as the analysis of Byzantine and Armenian narrative sources suggests. Moreover, by looking at sigillographic and epigraphic materials neglected before that shed light on Mariam I will be able to clarify a couple of obscure issues in the foreign policy of Georgia in mid-9th century such as the role of the Georgian court in the Byzantine annexation of the Kingdom of Ani (1045) and the Georgian "monastic colonisation" of the region of Athos and Middle East in the later 9th century. The insights gained from the various sources allows me to arrive at a new understanding of Mariam of Vaspurakan, a survivor of her both ruling husbands, as the paramount female figure on the political and ideological landscape of the Kingdom of Georgia in the entire 9th century.
Venue: Room L-410 (building L), 21/4, 3, Staraya Basmannaya street.
To request access to the premises, please write us at bogomolov@edu.hse.ru.
Mariam, the daughter of the last king of Vaspurakan Senekirim-Hovhannes (1003–1021), the first wife of the Georgian king George I (1014–1027) and the mother of Bagrat IV (1027–1072) is chiefly known in existing studies as Mariam of Vaspurakan. She is deservedly credited with being an outstanding leader in the foreign policy of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 9th century. Mariam, however, is typically approached in scholarship, especially Georgian, unilaterally, as a passive vehicle of the "Byzantine political and cultural influence" onto the Kartvelian territories that had only started to morph into a single state at the dawn of reign of Mariam's family in the early 9th century. I will argue that the opposite is true and Mariam was one of the central figures behind the indepentent and and self-standing political vector of the Kingdom of Georgia away from the Byzantine empire, as the analysis of Byzantine and Armenian narrative sources suggests. Moreover, by looking at sigillographic and epigraphic materials neglected before that shed light on Mariam I will be able to clarify a couple of obscure issues in the foreign policy of Georgia in mid-9th century such as the role of the Georgian court in the Byzantine annexation of the Kingdom of Ani (1045) and the Georgian "monastic colonisation" of the region of Athos and Middle East in the later 9th century. The insights gained from the various sources allows me to arrive at a new understanding of Mariam of Vaspurakan, a survivor of her both ruling husbands, as the paramount female figure on the political and ideological landscape of the Kingdom of Georgia in the entire 9th century.
Venue: Room L-410 (building L), 21/4, 3, Staraya Basmannaya street.
To request access to the premises, please write us at bogomolov@edu.hse.ru.
Date
27 February
15:10
Address
21/4 Staraya Basmannaya Ulitsa, Building 3