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The original was posted on /r/armenia by /u/firreflly on 2024-11-10 13:27:27+00:00.
I went down a really random rabbit hole (will mention in the end how) and came across Friedrich von Bodenstedt’s anthropological observations of the Caucasus region. The book "A Thousand and One Days in the Orient" is pretty long and only in German . However the whole text is online and with google translate it is understandable for the most part. the things he talked about were some things I’ve never heard about before. If you like random historical tidbits you may enjoy these random observations.
Some highlights
Singing Battles featuring Bible or Quran verses, and about the admirable blind Armenian singer Keschisch-Oglu (could find nothing of him in English but did find some Armenian reference using Քեշիշ օղլու)
He was the son of a poor priest and as a child received some instruction in Armenian and Tartar, but had the misfortune of losing his sight to smallpox at the age of twelve, a loss which was only partially compensated for by the fact that an inner light arose within him: the light of poetry. His poetic talent developed so early that by the age of twenty he had already achieved a certain fame in the country. At this time he left his homeland, where he had fared very poorly despite his fame as a poet, to seek his fortune far away. With his purse in his hand he made a pilgrimage from town to town, from village to village, enjoyed a brilliant reception at the court of Teheran, later travelled through the whole of Asia Minor and came to Constantinople, where he was appointed court poet to the Sultan and found a carefree and peaceful home in his old age.
The wanderings of Keshish-Oglu were glorified by a number of small triumphs, as he almost always emerged victorious in the singing contests he held wherever he went.
Even today it is the custom among the Persians, Armenians, Tartars, etc. for the bards of the country to publicly challenge one another to battle and to hold formal singing tournaments, usually in the presence of a large crowd. One sings a few verses off the cuff and forces the other to respond in the same meter. Among the Armenians it is usually the Bible, among the Tartars the Koran, from which the material for the first attacks is drawn. There are no rules in this respect, however, and everyone can take his material from wherever he likes, only the person attacked must immediately respond to the subject raised, and only then, if he has done so successfully, is he free to treat a new topic.
The contest often lasts for hours in this way, and the bystanders follow the singing with rapt attention; every mistake on one side or the other causes a noisy interruption. But only when one of the two literally comes to a standstill and is no longer able to follow his opponent is he declared defeated and the other is proclaimed the winner amid loud applause.
The victor has the right to smash the defeated singer’s stringed instrument, but this rarely happens. Usually he generously returns the seat he has won through singing to his opponent , which somewhat restores the latter’s reputation, because without this magnanimity on the part of the victor, the defeated singer would never be allowed to pick up his stringed instrument again.
Those who are literate take it upon themselves to write down the verses, which are usually sung very slowly and with frequent repetitions; but, as far as my experience goes, it is only seldom that there are any significant things among these impromptu poems. As a small example of such improvisational skills, I will give here a fragment from a contest which Keshish-Oglu once had to endure with another Armenian singer, Allahwerdy. I owe this fragment, as well as all information relating to Keshish-Oglu, to my excellent friend Abowian of Erivan, who was unfortunately prevented by his untimely death from providing me with a continuation of his interesting reports.
The author was friends with Khachatur Abovian , and while the Wikipedia says many doesn’t think he committed suicide (he disappeared randomly one day) , Bodenstedt shares an opposite take saying Abovian seemed rather depressed
He probably committed suicide, because even at the time I met him he was in a very gloomy and hopeless mood, which was made worse by his sad encounters with Professor Abich of Dorpat, whom he accompanied as a guide on his ascent of Ararat . The haughty behavior that Abich felt justified in believing because he was a few steps higher on the Russian ladder than Abowian gave rise to disagreements, the consequences of which brought the poor Armenian to the brink of despair. Abowian later sent me his diaries from that time, with the request that I publish them under the title “Addendum and Explanations on the Ascent of Ararat by Professor Abich.”
With the best of intentions, I did not comply with this request, because I am convinced that the personal matters which form the main content of those diaries do not belong in the public forum, and because I would have only harmed both of them by publishing them. So the diaries have remained in my hands to this day, since no safe opportunity has been found to send them back to Erivan. . .
In his last letter, Abovian wrote to me that he had decided to leave the Russian civil service in order to retire to the interior of Armenia and live there from agriculture after the manner of his ancestors, since his small income did not suffice for the needs of the city and a longer wait for any improvement in his situation would only plunge him deeper into misery.
It was terrible experiences that had brought this talented and ambitious man to this decision. His life story is too remarkable for me to omit to share some of its details.
On Armenian Weddings and modesty (pertaining to women)
There (on every festive occasion sat thirty to forty Armenian women with their legs crossed on a large carpet that covered the entire room, in a colorful circle, all dressed in heavy, expensive fabrics, their necks covered by a white veil, and their bodices cut so wide in a double crescent shape that the better part of their breasts was open to view.)
I may add here that in the East women are much less secretive about their breasts than we are. The strictest sense of modesty is satisfied there by covering the face. All other parts of the body are given less consideration.
The sense of propriety and decency (which is inherent in all peoples, but which manifests itself in the most varied of ways is a peculiar thing. A Scottish woman may faint from sheer modesty when she sees a man with a beard, but finds it entirely in keeping with her notions of propriety for men to walk around without trousers, a situation which would bring shame to the cheeks of women in other countries. A European woman bathing will, if she knows that she is being spied upon by men’s eyes, cover everything else rather than her face. An Asian woman, under similar circumstances, will reveal everything else rather than her face to strangers’ gaze. These few examples may suffice to show how difficult it is to draw the line between the serious and the comic, between wisdom and foolishness, in what we call manners and decency. The narrow-minded person is always most inclined to smile at what extends beyond his narrow horizon; the wider the view, the milder the judgment .)
It was my first time seeing that covering a woman’s face is more important/modest than the body , however in combination with other aspects of antique Armenian culture such as Harsneren which some have linked to Taraz mouth coverings it doesn’t seem farfetched.
These were some of the more interesting things I read, but there were other things. I’m mostly sharing cause there isn’t really much sources in English sharing the info and who knows it may be valuable to some research.
My random rabbit hole was learning about how a certain banned book in India was unbanned > learning about banned books in India> seeing The Scented Garden: Anthropology of the Sex Life in the Levant and seeing them reference Bodenstedt as covering Armenian culture.
If anyone has any other recommendations to read from an outside perspective of Armenians pre-1990 please share :)