YEREVAN, Armenia — The American University of Armenia (AUA) is pleased to announce a new publication by Tigran Matosyan, assistant professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The article was published in the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, a prestigious and a leading academic journal publishing original research articles in Asian, Near, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Studies, challenging scholars to integrate cultural and intellectual history with economic, social, and political analysis.
The article, titled “Knocking in the Night: an Armenian Rite of Church Calling and Its Social Dimensions in Late Ottoman Van” attempts to reconstruct a nocturnal church-calling ritual practiced by the Armenian Church in the late Ottoman Van. During the ritual, church summoners struck their kochnaks (semantrons) while walking through the town’s streets to awaken the faithful and call them to worship.
A remarkable part of night calling was the acoustics it produced, including the sounds of knocking on wooden semantrons and metallic door knockers, as well as the noises made by awakened animals and human commotion. The intriguing aspect of the rite was that the sounds of the summons invaded the aural space of the Muslim neighbors, complicating our conventional understanding of the traditional power relations between the Sunni Turks and the subject Christian Armenian community. The article argues that this highly audible practice transcended its religious function and became a communal asset for both the Armenians and Muslims by contributing to the town’s economy and security.
Reflecting on the publication Matosyan remarked “By examining this underexplored and distinctive ritual, I hope to advance our understanding of the diversity of everyday life in Armenian communities in the Ottoman Empire, as well as of the ways in which the Armenians were able to pursue their communal interests within a mixed Armenian-Turkish urban setting.”
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.