Papers by Alison M . Vacca
Caucasian Albania: An International Handbook, 2023
The goal of this Chapter is to analyze Abbasid-era Arabic histories about the many rebellions in ... more The goal of this Chapter is to analyze Abbasid-era Arabic histories about the many rebellions in Caucasian Albania (Arran) at the end of the Umayyad and start of the Abbasid periods, up to the reign of the caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 170/ 786-193/809). Organizing geographically around the three rebellious cities of Baylaqan, Tbilisi, and Derbent, each fighting against the caliphal capital at Barda, it showcases the diversity of interests among Muslim communities in Albania. In particular, this provincial approach yields two interventions, one historiographical and the other historical. First, the Arabic sources chronicle Abbasid power. The details preserved about the rebellions are therefore about their suppression, thus celebrating caliphal might and inscribing the contours of caliphal control both geographically and militarily. Second, the reports about the quelling of rebellions in Albania also demonstrate the ways that Albania was an integral part of the Caliphate: the rebels did not advocate for the overthrow of the Abbasids and they frequently claimed connections with rebellious groups in other regions across the Caliphate. The many rebellions in Abbasid Albania demonstrate the region's inclusion in the Caliphate, rather than the desire of its inhabitants to redefine imperial borders.
Islam on the Margins: Studies in Honor of Michael Bonner, 2022
vi contents part 3 Geography and Ethnography 7 Al-Jāḥiẓ and Identity 201 John P. Turner 8 The Bou... more vi contents part 3 Geography and Ethnography 7 Al-Jāḥiẓ and Identity 201 John P. Turner 8 The Boundaries and Geographies of Medieval Blackness 220 Kristina Richardson 9 Ptolemaeus Triumphans, or: Maps, Knowledge, and Ottoman Patronage 235 Gottfried Hagen part 4 Books, Coins, and Titles 10 Titles of Honor and Status in the Fatimid Realm 271 Paul E. Walker 11 Sikka Denied: A Numismatic Appraisal of al-Qādir billāh's Reception 289 Eric J. Hanne 12 Mongol Money in Seljuk Sivas 307 Rudi Paul Lindner 13 A Library in Fragments: An Inventory of the al-Baʿṭūrī Family &
Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies, 2022
This article centres gender as an important analytical category to explore regionally-specific ex... more This article centres gender as an important analytical category to explore regionally-specific expressions of religiosity that bridge the pre-Christian and Late Antique periods. It relates the story of a sixth-century noblewoman who reportedly entered an exclusively male monastery dedicated to John the Baptist, known in Armenian as the Karapet. Her challenge to the monastery is mapped spatially, where male order separates homosocial, sacred from heterosocial, mundane space, while female disorder threatens to dissolve that divide. Her death at the hand of a heavenly apparition establishes the militant model of the Karapet as intermediary in lieu of the nourishing motif developed about the Virgin Mary throughout the text. This story demonstrates how Late Antique motifs find very different iterations in local contexts. It must be understood in its Tarōnec'i particularities, drawing on traditions specific to Tarōn to envision Christian cultic competition as continuation from a pre-Christian past.
The Umayyad World, 2021
In the seventh century Armenia and Caucasian Albania formed the Umayyad North, a province that st... more In the seventh century Armenia and Caucasian Albania formed the Umayyad North, a province that stretched from Erzurum in modern Turkey to the Caspian Sea, and as far north as Darband in modern Daghestan and Tbilisi, in Georgia (see Figure .). After the Islamic incursions in the s, early caliphs followed Sasanian and Byzantine precedent to install presiding princes over Armenia, Albania, and Georgia. This suggests a model of rule whereby the caliph presided from afar but allowed the local elite to rule themselves. At first glance, it seems possible to project Armenia and Albania as 'external challenges', tributary neighbors, or loosely a liated allies, not invested or integrated into the Umayyad Caliphate in the way we might see in the 'lowland provinces'. Yet, despite the considerable autonomy allowed to Armenians, Arabs, Georgians, and Albanians who inhabited the North, the Umayyads were not absentee rulers. They sent governors to the North and fought extended wars against the peoples of the Caucasus, namely the Khazars and Alans. Modern scholars catalogue post-reform coinage and collect evidence of censuses, taxes, and treaties. Armenian sources tell of the princes and nobles who headed to the royal court as diplomats or hostages. Further, the Umayyad family itself was heavily involved in governing, settling, building, and defending the North. Muhammad b. Marwan, Maslama b. Abd al-Malik, and Marwan b. Muhammad served as governors over Armenia and Albania. The presence of these scions of the Umayyad house in the provincial capitals of the North and on the battlefields of the Caucasus challenges the idea of a far-flung empire only nominally ruled by the Umayyads. Umayyad control of the North was not an idle claim or delusion of empire. This chapter introduces the Umayyad North by focusing specifically on the involvement of the Umayyad family in governance, diplomacy, and military campaigns. This adds the perspective of a periphery province to broader discussions about the Umayyads, such as regionalism, centralization, and source criticism. In order to read the Umayyads as part of Armenian and Albanian history in this way, we need to understand the content and concerns of Armenian, Albanian, and Georgian sources. Armenian sources predominate here due to their relative abundance, though Georgian sources also o er interesting perspectives. Most importantly, one Albanian history survives, that attributed to Movses Daskhurants'i
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , 2021
This paper explores the medieval Armenian understanding of the city of Balkh as a capital of the ... more This paper explores the medieval Armenian understanding of the city of Balkh as a capital of the Arsacid Empire. Medieval Armenian sources employ four strategies of remembrance: scriptural geography, genealogy, folk etymology, and origin stories. These strategies invest the city of Balkh as the source of power of both Armenian royalty and nobility, through their connections to the Great Arsacids. There are two main themes in the descriptions of Balkh. First, the Arsacids of Balkh consistently decimated Sasanian armies in ways that the Armenian Arsacids could not emulate. Second, Balkh emerges as a refuge for (usually Parthian) rebels against the Chinese and Persian Empires. This paper explores the significance of Balkh as a site of memory by placing Armenian constructions of the Great Arsacid past (with some potential echoes of Great Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian history) into dialogue with the history of the city as it appears in Arabic.
Transregional and Regional Elites—Connecting the Early Islamic Empire, 2020
This chapter examines the relationship between Armeniaa nd Khurāsāni nt he early ʿAbbāsid period ... more This chapter examines the relationship between Armeniaa nd Khurāsāni nt he early ʿAbbāsid period by focusingo nt he Khurāsānī governors (ostikans) placed in the north between the rise of the ʿAbbāsidsa nd the Samarranperiod. It argues that the presenceofKhurāsānī governors and troops in Armenia challenges the idea that Armenia was separated or isolated from the broader concerns of the Caliphate. After ab rief introduction to the ostikanate,the chapter discusses the Khurāsānī governors chronologicallya long five main periods: (1) the ʿAbbāsid Revolution; (2)t he Battle of Bagrewandi n7 75;(3) Hārūna l-Rashīda nd al-Amīn; (4) the fourth fitna;(5) the rise of Transoxanian ostikans. This discussion demonstrates that ʿAbbāsid rule relied heavilyonKhurāsānī ostikansand troops in Armenia. It further establishes the caliphal north as ar egion where ʿAbbāsid power and at times intra-Khurāsānī conflictp layedo ut.
From Albania to Arran: The East Caucasus between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds , 2020
for reading disjointed drafts of this paper and offering such thoughtful responses. The remaining... more for reading disjointed drafts of this paper and offering such thoughtful responses. The remaining faults are entirely my own.
The Church of the Holy Cross of Ałt‘amar: Politics, Art, Spirituality in the Kingdom of Vaspurakan, 2019
Thank you for using ILLiad and UT's electronic document delivery service. Attached, please find a... more Thank you for using ILLiad and UT's electronic document delivery service. Attached, please find a portable document format (PDF) version of an item you requested through Interlibrary Services. This item will remain in your ILLiad account for thirty (30) days. After 30 days, ILLiad will automatically delete the file, removing it from your account. You may delete and/or reinstate this file at any time prior to the end of the 30 day expiry period Interlibrary Services may not see this file before it's sent to your account, so they are delivered "as is." ILS cannot control the quality of the initial imaging performed by the lending library, we pass along what was provided to us. If the quality of this document fails to meet your needs please contact us and we'll try to find a solution.
The Armenian Mediterranean: Words and Worlds in Motion, 2018
Modern historians frequently imagine Armenia as balanced between two worlds, sitting at times pre... more Modern historians frequently imagine Armenia as balanced between two worlds, sitting at times precariously at the crossroads between Sasanian Iran and the Roman Empire, then between the Islamic Caliphate and Christian Byzantium. Yet despite the remarkable tenacity of the model "l'Arménie entre Byzance et l'Islam," 1 few have explored the ramifications of frontier theory on the study of Armenia from the perspective of Islamic history. 2
Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā , 2017
In the 230s/850s, the caliph al-Mutawakkil sent his general, Bughā al-Kabīr, to assert control ov... more In the 230s/850s, the caliph al-Mutawakkil sent his general, Bughā al-Kabīr, to assert control over the wayward
northern frontier of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate. This campaign typically appears in modern scholarship as a
moment that pitted Armenian Christians against tačiks (Arab Muslims). This paper complicates this binary by
(1) placing T‘ovma Arcruni’s History of the Arcruni House in dialog with Arabic accounts of the campaign and
(2) locating the campaign in the broader context of fragmented political power in the Caucasus as a whole.
It reviews Bughā’s main allies and adversaries in the conflict with close attention to the descriptors (or lack
thereof) of their identities in medieval texts. From there, it challenges the oversimplification of the campaign in
ethnoreligious absolutes as Arab v. Armenian or Muslim v. Christian as a product of T‘ovma’s own agenda. This
article posits the narrative use of ethnic and religious signifiers, despite the apparent flexibility of communal
identities in the medieval period, and focuses specifically on the experience of women in the campaign to signal
the close relations between groups of different ethnicities and religions.
Le Muséon, 2016
This article questions the independence, coherence, and reliability of Near Eastern sources by fo... more This article questions the independence, coherence, and reliability of Near Eastern sources by focusing on the various Muslim and Christian accounts of a single event. Around the turn of the eighth century, Arab forces under Muḥammad b. Marwān defeated an Armenian-led Byzantine army in the Umayyad North. In retribution for their rebellion, Muḥammad subsequently tricked the Armenian nobility into gathering into churches in southern Armenia, then he locked the doors and ordered his men to burn the captives alive. Sources from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries record the fires in Arabic, Armenian, Greek, and Syriac. The first goals of this article are to examine each extant report and to record the discrepancies between the different versions. From there, the article delves into more detail about two accounts, the first in Łewond’s eighth-century Armenian Patmabanut‘iwn and the second in Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ’s ninth-century Arabic Taʾrīkh. This speculates about why the stories concerning the fires were so compelling across linguistic, religious, and cultural divides and why the accounts differed one from the next. This article concludes that questions of reliability are tied to authorial intention, as the details in any given account may not reflect “what really happened” so much as why the author cared about the event. Finally, this article also concludes that, with the exception of the traditions related to Theophilus, there is no evidence of intercultural transmission of accounts of the fires until the thirteenth century.
Arabica, 2015
Recognizing that we know little about Arab settlement and Muslim populations in Armenia and Cauca... more Recognizing that we know little about Arab settlement and Muslim populations in Armenia and Caucasian Albania during the Abbasid period, this article considers the data available in specific biographical compendia in Arabic: the works of al-Samʿānī, Ibn al-Aṯīr, Yāqūt, al-Ṣafadī, and Ibn Ḫallikān. It examines entries of notable Muslims from the fourth/eleventh through the seventh/fourteenth centuries with the nisbas related to the three provinces of the North. These tell of ethnic diversity, but also perceived geographical, scholarly, and ideological connectivity between the North and the more central lands of Islam and, specifically, the Persian cultural sphere. They engage themes and ideas that are key to the study of medieval Islam, such as ethnic diversity, slavery, the geographical definition of Islam, ǧihād, ṯuġūr, Sufism and asceticism, travel fī ṭalab al-ʿilm, and lines of transmission and authority.
Conferences Organized by Alison M . Vacca
Marco Symposium, Knoxville, TN
Books by Alison M . Vacca
Eighth- and ninth-century Armenia and Caucasian Albania were largely Christian provinces of the t... more Eighth- and ninth-century Armenia and Caucasian Albania were largely Christian provinces of the then Islamic Caliphate. Although they formed a part of the Iranian cultural sphere, they are often omitted from studies of both Islamic and Iranian history. In this book, Alison Vacca uses Arabic and Armenian texts to explore these Christian provinces as part of the Caliphate, identifying elements of continuity from Sasanian to caliphal rule, and, more importantly, expounding on significant moments of change in the administration of the Marwanid and early Abbasid periods. Vacca examines historical narrative and the construction of a Sasanian cultural memory during the late ninth and tenth centuries to place the provinces into a broader context of Iranian rule. This book will be of benefit to historians of Islam, Iran and the Caucasus, but will also appeal to those studying themes of Iranian identity and Muslim-Christian relations in the Near East.
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Papers by Alison M . Vacca
northern frontier of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate. This campaign typically appears in modern scholarship as a
moment that pitted Armenian Christians against tačiks (Arab Muslims). This paper complicates this binary by
(1) placing T‘ovma Arcruni’s History of the Arcruni House in dialog with Arabic accounts of the campaign and
(2) locating the campaign in the broader context of fragmented political power in the Caucasus as a whole.
It reviews Bughā’s main allies and adversaries in the conflict with close attention to the descriptors (or lack
thereof) of their identities in medieval texts. From there, it challenges the oversimplification of the campaign in
ethnoreligious absolutes as Arab v. Armenian or Muslim v. Christian as a product of T‘ovma’s own agenda. This
article posits the narrative use of ethnic and religious signifiers, despite the apparent flexibility of communal
identities in the medieval period, and focuses specifically on the experience of women in the campaign to signal
the close relations between groups of different ethnicities and religions.
Conferences Organized by Alison M . Vacca
Books by Alison M . Vacca
northern frontier of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate. This campaign typically appears in modern scholarship as a
moment that pitted Armenian Christians against tačiks (Arab Muslims). This paper complicates this binary by
(1) placing T‘ovma Arcruni’s History of the Arcruni House in dialog with Arabic accounts of the campaign and
(2) locating the campaign in the broader context of fragmented political power in the Caucasus as a whole.
It reviews Bughā’s main allies and adversaries in the conflict with close attention to the descriptors (or lack
thereof) of their identities in medieval texts. From there, it challenges the oversimplification of the campaign in
ethnoreligious absolutes as Arab v. Armenian or Muslim v. Christian as a product of T‘ovma’s own agenda. This
article posits the narrative use of ethnic and religious signifiers, despite the apparent flexibility of communal
identities in the medieval period, and focuses specifically on the experience of women in the campaign to signal
the close relations between groups of different ethnicities and religions.