In-person lecture by Dr. Claude Mutafian, organized by the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, and co-sponsored by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) and the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute.

Sunday, January 15, 2023
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Pacific Time)

The event will take place in-person at the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Sheen Chapel, 15105 Mission Hills Road, Mission Hills CA 91345.

Livestream: Ararat Eskijian Museum YouTube channel. 

In the fourfold division of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Christian and the Armenian Quarters are contiguous but independent. This situation corresponds to the ancientness and the importance of the Armenian presence. The relations of the Armenians with the Holy City have never ceased, and they culminated at the time of the Crusades. Jerusalem became the seat of an Armenian Patriarchate and the cultural activity was intense: inscriptions, sculptures, mosaics, and manuscripts decorated with miniatures which are among the masterpieces of Armenian art. Today, Jerusalem is the most important repository of Armenian culture outside Armenia. 

Claude Mutafian’s most recent book, Jérusalem et les Arméniens: Jusqu’à la conquête ottomane (1516), presents the relations between Armenia and Jerusalem in their historical and artistic context with an abundance of maps, genealogical charts, and images. Mutafian has published many books about various topics concerning Armenia, among which the Atlas Historique de l'Arménie (2001) which covers thirty centuries, L’Arménie du Levant (2012), and La Saga des Arméniens de l'Ararat aux Carpates (2018). He also organized many exhibitions, including “The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia” (Paris, Sorbonne, 1993), “Roma-Armenia” (Vatican, Great Sistine Hall, 1999), and “Armenia, the Magic of Writing” (Marseilles, 2007).