History of Tamerlane and His Successors

T'ovma Metsobets'i (Thomas of Metsoph)'s History describes events taking place on the Armenian highlands and in Georgia during the Turco-Mongol invasions of Timur Leng (Tamerlane). These invasions were made upon a society that had already been gravely weakened by the preceding decades of warfare and persecution from Turkmen, Kurdish, and Ottoman groups now resident in the area, and from Mongols of the Golden Horde in the north Caucasus.

The History begins with the devastations wreaked on the district of Siwnik' by the northern Tatars in 1386. Tamerlane's invasions are described with the blood-curdling immediacy of a terrified eye-witness. The account is more detailed for the first three decades of the 15th century, describing the impact on Armenian economic, intellectual and religious life of this dismal period.

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Translated into English by Robert Bedrosian.