STUDIES ON THE ORIENTAL SOURCES AND HISTORIOGRAPHY IN ARMENIA (EARLY Ծր․Ամփ․վերջն1 a5 | Page 64

точников акты Вазелонского монастыря в Мацуке — конти-
нентальном регионе, лежавшем южнее столицы империи Тра-
пезунда. Базируясь на данных антропонимики, автор попы-
тается проанализировать численность и социальную роль ар-
мянской общины в сельских районах византийского Понта.
Весьма интересной также представляется группа этнических
армян, переселившихся в Понтийский регион из Великой Ар-
мении, которая тогда находилась под мусульманской властью.
Չեչերե Ջուզեպպե - Cecere Giuseppe -
Чечере Джузеппе
“The Caliph of the Armenians”: Images of the Catholicos of
Hṙ omkla in Arabic Mamluk Sources
The city of Hṙ omkla, in Arabic Qal‘at al-Rūm («Castle of
the Romans/Byzantines» but also «Castle of the Christians» tout
court), was very important in the context of the Mamluk-Armenian
Wars, both strategically (due its position on the Euphrates) and
symbolically, as it was the seat of the Armenian Catholicos.
Therefore, its conquest (1292), which resulted into the capture of
the Catholicos, was celebrated enthusiastically by Mamluks, and
the Sultan emblematically changed the city’s name from Qalʻ at al-
Rūm into Qal‘at al-Muslimīn («Castle of the Muslims»).
Arabic and Armenian sources proposing different represen-
tations of this crucial episode, the present paper focuses on Ma-
mluk narratives on the attitudes and fate of the Catholicos during
the battle and after it. In this framework, special attention is paid to
the expressions by which the notion of catholicos was “translated”
into Arabic by different authors. This terminological item seems to
be highly relevant from an ideological viewpoint. In this regard,
one point seems to be particularly interesting: the use of so striking
an expression as “Caliph of the Armenians” (khalīfat al-Arman),
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