Dadoyan to Speak at CUNY on Armenians in Medieval Islamic World

On Thurs., Oct. 13, Dr. Seta Dadoyan will give a lecture entitled “Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World” at the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The lecture will be co-sponsored by MEMEAC and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World (Transaction Publishers) is the first of a large three-volume work by Dadoyan. The book chronicles the Armenian experience in the medieval Islamic world and takes the reader through the paradigmatic interactions with other populations in the region. Being an Armenian, Dadoyan argues, means having an ethnic ancestry laden with narratives drawn from the vast historic Armenian habitat. Contradictory trends went into the making of Armenian history, yet most narratives fail to reflect this rich texture, which Dadoyan addresses by linking Armenian-Islamic history.

Armenians in The Medieval Islamic World outlines revolutionary elements in the making of Armenian ideologies and politics. This extensive work captures the multidimensional nature of the Armenian experience in the medieval Islamic world. Dadoyan asserts that every piece of literature, including historical writing, is an artifact. It is a composition of many elements arranged in certain forms: order, sequence, proportion, detail, and intensity. She arranged the larger subjects and their sub-themes in such a way as to create an open, dynamic continuity to Armenian history that is intellectually intriguing, aesthetically appealing, and close to lived experiences.

Seta B. Dadoyan taught at the American University of Beirut for several decades. Recently, she was visiting professor of Armenian studies at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. In 2011-212, she will be visiting professor of history at Yerevan State University. Dadoyan is a specialist in Islamic-Armenian interaction from the 7^th-14^th centuries and has done pivotal work on developing criteria for understanding the cultural, political, and philosophical penetration of each group. She is the author of The Fatimid Armenians: Cultural and Political Interaction in the Middle East, as well as five other books and numerous papers.

The talk begins at 6:30 p.m. at the MEMEAC, on 365 Fifth Ave. at 34th St. in New York.            For more information about Dadoyan’s lecture, contact NAASR by calling (617) 489-1610, e-mailing hq@naasr.org, or writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478; or contact Dr. Anny Bakalian at MEMEAC by calling (212) 817-7571 or e-mailing ABakalian@gc.cuny.edu.