Dr. Armen M. Ayvazyan (Aivazian) has written an excellent military history text entitled:
The Armenian Military in the Byzantine Empire: Conflict and alliance under Justinian and Maurice – see also Flyer in pdf (click here…)
ISBN : 978-2-9173-2939-9
128 pages, 15x21cm,
With full colour battlefield map 21x27cm
Price: € 14,50 / $19,95
Language : English
Release date: June 22, 2012
The foreword of the text has been written by Dr. Ilkka Syvanne, Vice Chairman for the Finnish Society of Byzantine Studies. Below are highlights from Dr. Syvanne’s review:
“When I was asked to write a foreword for this book, I was very pleased to comply becuase there is a definite need for the kind of study Dr. Ayvazyan has written…Dr. Armen Ayzazyan’s…dense study of Byzantine, Armenian and Iranian military relations is a pioneering piece of scholarhsip, indeed capable of triggerring a renewed interest by Western military historians inot the too-often ignored Armenian material. Not coincidentally, this is one of the author’s stated objectives in his Preface, which represents, in effect, a well-developed investigative draft plan for future students of Armenian military history.”
For the entire foreword by Dr. Ilkka Syvanne, kindly click here…
CLICK TO ENLARGE– A photocopy of a miniature which has been used in Dr. Ayvazyan’s book – the image depcits a military scene from a fourteenth-century Armenian manuscript (source: La Storia di Alessandro il Macedone. Codice armeno miniato del XIV secolo (Venezia, San Lazzaro, 424), a cura di Giusto Traina, con la collaborazione di C. Franco, D. Kouymjian, C. Arslan, Padoue, 2003.)
Dr. Ayvazyan is in fact the author of several monographs, book chapters, and many articles in Armenian and international journals.
Dr. Ayvazyan is the Director of the “Ararat” Center for Strategic Research and Senior Researcher in the Matenadaran, the Yerevan Institute of Medieval Manuscripts. He holds doctoral degrees in History (1992) and Political Science (2004). For more information on Dr. Armen M. Ayvazyan and his accomplishments, kindly consult his official website (click here…)
Dr. Armen Ayvazyan in Lyons, France. He was a recipient of an International Security Studies grant provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, working in affiliation with the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (1995). During the 1997-1998 academic year, he was a Visiting Senior Fulbright Scholar, affiliated with the Center for Russian and East European Studies, Stanford University, USA. He was a Visiting Alexander S. Onassis Foundation Fellow at ELIAMEP, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (2000-2001, Athens).
Dr. Ayvazyan’s recent textbook on Armenian military history has also referred to Kaveh Farrokh’s first text entitled Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-651 –اسواران ساسانی– in reference to the importance and honor granted by the Sassanian dynasty’s military to Armenian knights in the prestigious ranks of the Sassanian elite knights or Savaran (or Asvaran).
CLICK TO ENLARGE- The court of Khosrow II in the early 7th century AD. From left to right – Guiw Nobleman, Queen Shireen, Khosrow II “Parveez” and the legendary Sassanian general from Armenia, Smbat Bagratuni. The latter defeated a massive Turco-Hun force from Central Asia in 619 AD – he then drove the remnants of the invaders back into the depths of Central Asia. Bagratuni achieved this success just as General Shahrbaraz was invading Egypt in that same year (619 AD) (for more information consult: pp. 255-257, Farrokh, –سایههای صحرا-Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War-Персы: Армия великих царей, 2007; pp.53-54, Farrokh, Elite Sassanina Cavalry, 2005). Picture source: Farrokh, Plate G, -اسواران ساسانی- Elite Sassanian cavalry, 2005.
