Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS OF THE PAST AGES.
After conversion to Christianity the history of the Armenian nation has become largely the history of the church; for, being situated beyond the frontiers of christendom, they suffered constant persecution from the surrounding heathen nations, and the State was obliged to defend the church at any cost.
1. Persecution From Persians. Towards the middle of the fifth century as it was mentioned in the first chapter, Armenia had lost its national independence, and one part of it was ruled by Persians, though in a provincial system. The Persians who were bigoted Zoroastrian fire worshipers, aimed at this time the conquest and the conversion of the world. Accordingly, in 450 A.D. the Persian King dictated a letter to the Armenian princes setting forth the superiority of fire worship to Christianity, and inviting the whole nation to accept it. Upon this threatening invitation a great council was held, in which clergy and laymen sat together and a unanimous reply of refusal was decided upon. The exact copy of that remarkable answer was preserved by one of the bishops who signed it. After intelligibly refuting the false arguments of the Persian King against Christianity, they said in conclusion: "From this faith no one can move us, neither angels nor men, neither sword nor fire, nor water nor any deadly punishment. If you allow us our faith we will accept no other lord in place of you, but we will accept no God in place of Jesus Christ; there is no other God beside him. If after this solemn confession you ask anything more of us, lo, we are before you and our lives are in your power; from you torments, from us submission; your sword, our necks; we are not better than those who are gone before us, who gave up their possessions and their life for this testimony."
The haughty King of Persia, being enraged by the boldness of this reply, ordered an army of 200,000 men against this small country, which stood alone in front of a vast power. The battle, often called the Armenian Marathon, was fought on the plain of Avarair under Mt. Ararat. In this desperate struggle the much smaller army of the Armenians was defeated, and their leader Vartan, the Brave, was killed, but the surprising resistance offered by rich and poor, by men, women and children, convinced the King of Persia that he might crush the Armenians, but could never make fire-worshipers of them; and was obliged to admit the declaration of the High Priest of fire worship, that "These people have put on Christianity, not like a garment, but like their own flesh and blood. They are not afraid of fetters and torments, nor care for property, and choose death rather than life. Who can stand against them?"
2. The Bravery of the Armenian Women During This Persecution. The above mentioned historian Bishop, who was an eye-witness of this terrible warfare that reduced the country almost to a desert, describes the condition of the Armenian women at that time, saying: "I cannot enumerate all the wives of the heroes, both of those who were in fetters and those who had fallen in battle. All of them being kindled by a holy ambition, put on the same virtue of fidelity. The delicately reared women went untiringly to the houses of prayer on foot and bare-footed, asking by vows that they might be enabled to endure their great affliction. The everlasting Psalms were the words of their lips, and their complete comfort was in the reading of the prophets. With their eyes they saw the spoiling of their goods, and with their ears they heard the moans of suffering of their dear ones. With prayers they opened the closed doors of heaven, and with holy petitions caused the angels of redemption to descend. With their hands they worked and were fed, and the pensions granted then by the court they sent year by year to their husbands and sons for their comfort. The snows of many winters melted, the springs came, the life-loving men saw and rejoiced; but they never could see those for whom they longed. To outsiders they appeared mourning and sorrowful widows, but in their own souls they were adorned with heavenly love. Their desires and prayers to God were only that they might finish their course with faith and courage, filled with heavenly love, even as they had begun."
3. Persecutions From the Mohametans. After the fall of the Persian kingdom in the seventh century Armenia was invaded by the Saracens, the Mohametan warriors, for about 200 years. The history of this time was not brighter than any period of religious persecutions the Armenians had suffered. In the choice of Islam, or sword, or low subjection, Armenians have always chosen one of the last two proposals. While the fury of Islam was overwhelming Persia, Turkey and India were progressing with wholesale conversions of races and tribes. The Armenians proved themselves to be the only exception, and to break off these rapid and sure conquests. If they could not be permitted to live for their friends and country they would prefer death to Islam, hence the saying prevailed among Mohametans as a proverb that, "The old obstinate Armenian will not become Musliman."
After the withdrawal of the Saracens, owing to the fall of the caliphate in Bagdad, the Armenians gained their independence under the third period of their kingdom. But the land could not gain her rest from the repeated invasions of proselyted Moslem tribes, especially the Tartars. By the short-sighted policy of the Greek emperors, the Armenian kingdom was overthrown in 1045 A.D., and thus the whole eastern frontier was laid open to the invasion of the Seljouk Tartars, who might have been successfully resisted by the hardy mountaineers of Armenia. The result was fatal, both to Armenia, which was overrun, and to the Greek empire; for in the battle of 1071 A.D. the Emperor Romanus IV. was defeated and made prisoner by Alp Arslan, and the whole of Asia Minor was left to the mercy of the merciless Seljoukian Tartars, who, as most bigoted Mohametans, scourged the country for 200 years.
Genghis Khan, the Mongolian invader, early in the thirteenth century, dealt comparatively better with the Armenians, which the Mohametans attributed to the influence of his wife, who was a Christian. But after the overthrow of his temporary dominion the Armenians suffered more from the vengeance of the Egyptian caliphate. The exact cause of this vengeance was the hospitality the Armenians showed to the Crusaders, sheltering and feeding them a whole winter on their way to the Holy Land to recover it from the hands of Mohametans. The cruelties of Timourlane, the Tartar, devastated Armenia at the close of the fourteenth century; his bloody soldiers being tired of killing, buried many Armenians alive, or drove them into the rivers, and many children and women together were drowned. In 1605 Shah Abbas, of Persia, forcibly transplanted 12,000 Armenian families to his country as slaves to serve the good pleasure of the Mohametan Persians. From that time on the Armenians have suffered continuous and severer persecutions from the Kurds and the Turks, the description of which is given in subsequent chapters.
Armenia, owing to its geographical situation, has always been the battlefield of the eastern and western invasions. Her importance in the history of civilization and the Christian church was that, she being at the frontier of Christendom, has done much in checking checking the fury of the barbarous invaders, and more perhaps in suffering for the freedom and religion of their western brothers, who, had it not been for this providential stronghold, would not be able to have time and facility in developing their civilization, both secular and ecclesiastical.
