The Armenian Cathedral and the so-called Church of St. George in Fifteenth-Century Diyarbakır

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Leube, Georg:
The Armenian Cathedral and the so-called Church of St. George in Fifteenth-Century Diyarbakır.
In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica. Bd. 91 (2025) Heft 1 . - S. 135-168.
ISSN 3041-6450

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Abstract

This article discusses the available evidence for the two best-documented churches in Aqquyunlu-ruled Diyarbakır during the fifteenth century. The introduction sketches the trajectory of the town under Aqquyunlu rule, focussing on architectural patronage at Muslim and non-Muslim sites of worship, as well as the linguistic landscape of the town.
In the first part of the article, the Armenian Christian cathedral rebuilt by the Armenian bishop and poet Mkrtičʻ Nałaš is reconstructed based on Armenian narratives contemporary to its rebuilding. These are complemented by the ‘spatial footprint’ of the former cathedral preserved by the Kurşunlu Cami erected in its stead by the first Ottoman governor of Diyarbakır. This reconstruction motivates the opposition against the rebuilding overseen by Mkrtičʻ Nałaš by local and transregional Muslim elites, indicating that this monument must have navigated the very limits of public visibility and splendour accessible to non-Muslim patrons at non-Muslim sites of worship.
The second part of this article is dedicated to the Aqquyunlu appropriation of a preexisting building within the palatial grounds of the pre-Ottoman citadel. By presenting hitherto unpublished textual spolia and para-textual epigraphy referencing Aqquyunlu involvement, this section corroborates the suggestion of Korn that parts of this building, including the internal gateway between its two domed halls, constitute Aqquyunlu interventions. Together with the orientation of its main axis to the east, these Aqquyunlu interventions make the identification of this monument with a ‘church of St. George’ plausible, in which an early sixteenth century Italian travelogue situates the resting place of the Christian Aqquyunlu queen Despina khātūn.
Methodologically, these two case studies demonstrate the potential of reconstructing architectural patronage in its social context based on the close reading of narrative descriptions pertaining to the rhetorical genre of ekphrasis and a collation of the material evidence of extant remains and urban structure.
I conclude with two political suggestions. The first underlines the importance of systematically integrating the history of Christian and other non-Muslim monuments and communities in scholarly work on the political and urban history of Diyarbakır. Against the ongoing disruptive and partially violent erasure of large parts of the inner city, the second suggestion calls for archaeological documentation and, as far as possible, archaeologically informed rebuilding to preserve the unique patrimony of Diyarbakır.