Animation demonstrating the empires that wielded influence over the Middle East throughout history.
The title is sort of a joke since watching a 90 second flash animation (well, at the very least this specific flashimation!) will not teach you about the actual history of the Middle East. What it does do pretty well though is give you a rough idea of how many different groups of people have controlled or had lots of influence on the area and its people. Then, while keeping in mind the kind of complex cultural situation this kind of history would give rise to, take a moment to examine the ridiculously simplistic and “black or white” approach many people in politics and the media use to try to characterize this area and its people with.
Although the topic of the Middle East is, well, very topical (when has it not been in the last umpteenth years?), another cool thing you can see in this animation is what’s happening to Armenia throughout this same time period: about 2500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.
You’ll notice that Armenia and the Armenian people, who primarily lived in the area marked in the animation as the Hittite Empire (some argue this was an Armenian society, different story) are pretty much on the edges of most of the empires that came to rule over it. What this meant for us was that we had the wonderful opportunity to be the battlegrounds for superpowers at war at the outskirts of their empires, trying to extend the reaches of their influence. I don’t think I need to explain how being the area where eastern (Persian mostly), western, and Arabic powers fought for influence might have left the people there a bit weary.
On the other hand, what is pretty cool and interesting is that throughout this time, and to a lesser degree after the takeover of the Ottoman Turks, the Armenians did two things which most others who fell under these powers didn’t:
- Armenians remained Christian. This despite being ruled by lots of people who were *not* Christian. This wasn’t easy and the trouble started when the Armenian king Trdat declared Christianity to be the “state” religion of Armenians before any other, in 301 or 314 A.D. depending on who you ask.
- Armenians typically retained high levels of autonomy even though throughout much of this time period they were “under” the hand of another king or ruler. Ultimately most “emperors” found that it was much easier and more beneficial to them to sort of leave the Armenians to themselves and not try to interfere too much. It should be noted however that Armenians had their independence from these empires, and dynasties of their own, for hundreds of years at a time. With the exception of about a hundred years however under Tigran the Great, Armenian power never really extended beyond their own people; which is why you never see the Armenian Empire anywhere in the flash animation.
Well, now that I turned a simple animation about the Middle East into a lesson on Armenian history, I think my crazy rambling is done. And thanks to Professor Astourian at Berkeley for making sure that none of this stuff was really new to me.
