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156 Hakalmaz Turaç

quite active in relations with other communities, also giving rise to
substantial plurality. By the latter half of the twelfth century, Arme-
nian populations had already spread throughout central Anatolia, Cri-
mea, Europe, and Iran . Although the Armenians were presented as
15
important allies of the Greeks during Richard the Lionheart’s con-
quest, and while the Latins treated the Armenians in a positive fash-
ion, Greeks perceived them negatively, mostly due to their rites, such
specific ways of fasting, which differed from those of the Greek church.
Bishop Wilbrand of Oldenburg who visited Cyprus in 1211, stated that
the Armenians obeyed the Latins as serfs .
16
One explanation for the very mixed image of the Armenians in our
primary sources might be that although the Armenians had served in
the military under the rule of Isaac Komnenos, they had also adapted
nimbly to the new political situation on the island after its conquest

Society and Culture, p. 165; These groups were also separated into sub-groups; among
the Catholics, French dialect speakers, Catalans from the Iberian Peninsula, and those
of Italian origins such as the Venetians and the Genoese. Muslim groups were predom-
inantly Arabs, Circassians, and Turks while Eastern Christians included groups such
as Jacobite Syrians (also Syrian Melkites of Orthodox rite) and Copts from Egypt, who
were Monophysite Christians: see N. Coureas, Religion and Ethnic Identity cit., p. 13; A.
Nicolaou-Konnari, Greeks, in A. Nicolaou-Konnari, C. Schabel, (eds.), Cyprus Society
and Culture, p. 14. For the multicultural and ethnic structure of Cyprus before and after
1192, see Ivi, pp. 14-21, 157-171; P. Edbury, Kingdoms of the Crusaders from Jerusalem
to Cyprus cit., XX, pp. 1-9; Idem, The 1191 Conquest of Cyprus Revisited, in the Proceed-
ings of the Eighth International Congress of Cyprus Studies, Eastern Mediterranean Uni-
versity Publications, Famagusta, 2013, pp. 1-12.
15 C. Mutafian, La place de L'Arménie Cilicienne dans l’Arménologie, «Iran and the
Caucasus», 10-1 (2006), pp. 7-16; Idem, Migrations Arméniennes des XIe et XIIe Siècles
et Création de Nouveaux Pouvoirs au Proche-Orient, in C. Picard, B. Doumerc, (eds.),
Byzance et ses Péripheries, Mondes Grec, Balkanique et Musulman: Hommage à Alain
Ducellier, Presses Universitaires du Midi, Toulouse, 2020, p. 206; N. Coureas, Famagu-
sta: A Lifeline for the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, in M. J. K. Walsh, (ed.), The Armenian
Church of Famagusta and the Complexity of Cypriot Heritage: Prayers Long Silent, Pal-
grave Macmillan, 2017, p. 44.
16 Wilbrand of Oldenburg, Peregrinatio, in C. D. Cobham, (ed.), Excerpta Cypria, at
the University Press, Cambridge, 1908, p. 180; C. D. Cobham, an Attempt at a Bibliog-
raphy of Cyprus, Nicosia, 1900, p. 13; P. Edbury, Feudal Nobility of Cyprus 1192-1400,
PhD thesis, University of St. Andrews, 1974, p. XVII; C. Schabel, (ed.), The Status of the
Greek Clergy in Early Frankish Cyprus, in idem, Greeks, Latins, and the Church in Early
Frankish Cyprus, Variorum Collected Studies Series 949, Ashgate, Farnham, Burling-
ton, 2010, I, p.185; N. Coureas, The Foundation Rules of Medieval Cypriot Monasteries:
Makhairas and St. Neophytos, Cyprus Research Center, Nicosia, 2003, p. 96; Idem, the
Armenians in Cyprus cit., pp. 75-76; Also see, G. Dedeyan, Regard sur les Communautés
Chrétiennes Orientales, «Arabica: L’Oeuvre de Claude Cahen: Lectures Critiques», 43-1
(1996), pp. 98-115; Idem, Les Arméniens à Chypre de la Fin du XIe au Début du XIIIe
Siècle, in C. Mutafian, (ed.), Les Lusignans et L’outre-Mer: Actes du Colloque, Poitiers,
Lusignan, 1993, pp. 122-131; G. Grivaud, Les Minorités Orientales à Chypre, Époques
Médiévale et Moderne, in Y. Ioannou, F. Metral, M. Yon, (eds.), Chypre et la Meditérranée
Orientale, Maison de l'Orient et de la Meditérranée, Lyon, 2000, p. 45.

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