On March 21, 2024 ISEC hosted the Second Annual “The Grace and Paul Shahinian Armenian Christian Art and Culture Lecture Series.” We hosted Zara Pogossian (University of Florence). “[This] valley was a ring without a gem. I built this [church] and put a gem on it”. These were the words left in an inscription on the wall of the Gndevank‘ monastery in Syunik‘ built by lady Sophia (Sop‘i) in the 10th century. She was an Artsruni noblewoman married into the princely house of Syunik‘. Anyone interested in the history of Armenia will know Sophia’s brother – king Gagik Artsruni of Vaspurakan – and his name may immediately conjure up his image on the façade of Gagik’s most famous foundation – the Church of the Holy Cross on the Aght‘amar Island. On the contrary, it is safe to imagine very few people having ever heard of Sophia. Yet, Sophia, like her mother, aunts, cousins, nieces, and many more non-related Armenian noblewomen, was an active patron of monastic establishments, endowed them with landed estates and, by doing so, played a key economic role at least on the local, if not pan-Armenian, level.
In this lecture, Prof. Pogossian will put back on the historical stage the many peers of Sophia – Armenian élite women – who have rarely received due attention in traditional historiography. Yet, they were crucial political actors and exerted a vital cultural, economic, and thus political influence not only in their traditional roles of cementing dynastic ties through matrimonial alliances, but also by possessing and disposing of their own wealth, and actively shaping the very landscape where they lived and ruled. For a video of the lecture, see https://www.youtube.com/