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Armenian Language

Why Study Armenian?

Armenian is an important witness to almost all aspects of the Middle East in the past two millennia. Armenian has its own, unique script, and a vast repository of texts in Classical, Middle and Modern Armenian for students of Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern and Contemporary eras. Very briefly, Classical Armenian is for students interested in Armenia’s relations with Iran, Rome, Byzantium, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Arabs and Islam. Classical and Middle Armenian are for students of the Crusades, the Roman Catholic Church and missions, Europe, the Seljuks, the Mongols, the Persians and Islam. Middle and Modern Armenian is for the early Modern era, mainly the Ottoman and Persian empires. Modern Eastern and Western Armenian are for the Ottoman, Persian and Russian empires and contemporary (southern) Caucasus. Only Modern Western Armenian (MWA) is offered on a regular basis; the other expressions of Armenian are taught as tutorials, chiefly to graduate students.