Books by Stephen Rapp
Languages and Literatures of Eastern Christianity: Georgian (edited) (2012)
Series: The Worlds of Eastern Christianity, 300-1500
Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts and Eurasian Contexts (CSCO 601 Subsidia 113) (2003)
K'art'lis c'xovreba: The Georgian Royal Annals and Their Medieval Armenian Adaptation, 2 vols. (edited) (1998)
Papers by Stephen Rapp
Al-Usur al-Wusta, 2024
This article surveys the medieval coinage minted on Georgian lands to the Mongol age. Aimed at co... more This article surveys the medieval coinage minted on Georgian lands to the Mongol age. Aimed at college-level pedagogy, it underscores the benefits of contextualizing this rich numismatic record regionally, ecumenically, and cross-culturally. The Christianization of the region named for the Caucasus Mountains, which accelerated after the royal conversions of the fourth century, heightened the isthmus' long-standing cross-cultural condition. Meanwhile, Caucasia's traditional socio-cultural orientation southwards, especially towards Iran, did not come to an end with the entrenchment of Christianity. Since the Iron Age, Caucasia has been an active component of the Iranic (Persianate) world. The formation of the dār al-Islām and its extension across Caucasia did not thwart the southwards orientation. In Georgian lands, Islamic types and Arabic inscriptions were commonplace on the local coinage produced by Muslims and Christians alike. The Georgian Bagratids, identifying themselves as a Christian Byzantine-like dynasty, continued to deploy Islamic types on their coinage even during its "Golden Age" in the eleventh to early thirteenth century. At the same time, the nexus of the Iranian and Persianate world, on the one hand, and Caucasia, on the other, endured and evolved. The chronological span investigated here is appropriately bookended by coins embodying imperial hegemonies whose epicenters were located in Iran (i.e., the Sasanians and the Ilkhans).
and Keywords Nestled in one of Eurasia's most energetic crossroads, Georgia has a long and multif... more and Keywords Nestled in one of Eurasia's most energetic crossroads, Georgia has a long and multifaceted history. The remains of Homo georgicus excavated at Dmanisi in southern Georgia belong to the oldest hominids yet discovered outside Africa. They have been reliably dated to 1.8 million years ago. Subsequent Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age sites are distributed throughout the region between the Black and Caspian Seas. But it is not until the early 1st millennium BCE that the immediate ancestors of modern Georgians emerge in the historical record. Their attestation sharpens in the Achaemenid and early Hellenistic epochs.
VI L'art à l'époque de Justinien 59 Jean-Michel Spieser (Université de Fribourg) Dark-Age Literat... more VI L'art à l'époque de Justinien 59 Jean-Michel Spieser (Université de Fribourg) Dark-Age Literature 71 John Haldon (Princeton University) Early Frescoed Icons: a Case of Cultural Divergence between East and West 83 Beat Brenk (University of Basel) Prolégomènes à la littérature byzantine du IXe et du Xe siècle 93 Paolo Odorico (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales) L'art byzantin aux Xe-XIe siècles : témoin des traditions et des relations 109 culturelles au Proche-Orient Marielle Martiniani-Reber (Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève) Komnenian Literature 121
Working paper for the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER).
Working paper for the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER).
Traditionally, scholars have considered extant medieval Georgian historiography as having been pr... more Traditionally, scholars have considered extant medieval Georgian historiography as having been produced exclusively during the millennium of Bagratid rule. This essay identifi es a separate historiographical phase just preceding the rise of Bagratid rule in the Georgian domains in the early ninth century. Pre-Bagratid historiographical texts are distinguished fi rst and foremost by their Iranian fl avor, which is a refl ection of the longstanding membership of the whole of southern Caucasia in the Iranian cultural world.
Upcoming Presentations by Stephen Rapp
Medieval Caucasia and the 'Byzantine Turn': The Fate of a Christianized Persianate Society
To be presented at Armeno-Iranica: A Shared History Conference, Los Angeles, January 2019
The Persianate Bedrock of the Georgian Life of Nino
To be presented at the Byzantine Studies Conference, San Antonio, TX, October 2018.
Persianate Epics at the Christian Bagratid Court: The Iranian Dimension of Caucasian History at the Apogee of Medieval Georgia (Ruhr-Universität-Bochum, Germany, October 2017)
In Pursuit of Eden: Caucasia and the Quest for Ultimate Beginnings (September 2017)
Caucasia in Late Antiquity: Between the Byzantine and Iranian Worlds? (June 2017)
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Books by Stephen Rapp
Papers by Stephen Rapp
Upcoming Presentations by Stephen Rapp