Dr. Alison Vacca, Gevork M. Avedissian Associate Professor of Armenian History and Civilization at Columbia University and Dr. Sergio La Porta, interim Dean of the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at Fresno State, presented a lecture titled “An Armenian Futūḥ Narrative: Łewond’s Eighth-Century History of the Caliphate” on Fri-day, December 5, 2025, at the University Business Center at Fresno State.
The lecture encompassed Vacca and La Porta’s new, translated book, which primarily focuses on eighth-century Armenia’s influence on the events, traditions, and politics of the time, specifically referring to Armenia’s situation within the caliphate and between the Roman and Khazar spheres of influence.
“One of the reasons it’s particularly interesting is because of Armenia’s position between the three empires at the time,” Vacca said.
Since Łewond’s accounts had been translated before, La Porta explained why he and Vacca felt the need to translate it again.
“[Historians] understood the words, but didn’t know how to use them,” La Porta said. “They understood Łewond’s importance as an eighth century historian, but didn’t feel comfortable relying upon him or assigning him in classes.”
This way, Łewond’s records are much more accessible to the average person.
The authors’ edition attributes this sect of Armenian history to Łewond, and treats his accounts as notable insight into the Islamic Caliphate.
Notably, Vacca said that Łewond’s documentation suggests that Armenia saw the Islamic Caliphate as a more suitable ally than the Roman Empire at the time due to the Roman’s inconsistencies – a surprising perspective for Armenians.
“We do not actually find an attempt or an argument that the Armenians should go work with a Christian empire,” Vacca said.
Since Łewond’s accounts were written from within the caliphate, historians can see real, boots-on-the-ground documentation of the inner workings of Armenian life – including conflicts, which Vacca said is one of the main points of discussion in the documents.
“A common assumption in modern literature is that Łewond recounts the ongoing struggles of the Armenians against the caliphate,” Vacca said.
“However, we notice that Armenians fighting against the caliphate actually constitutes a relatively small proportion of the contention that is described in the text.”
Part of Łewond’s docu-mentation focuses on the political and military events in the eighth century.
La Porta said that there are three types of conflict present in Łewond’s writing: invasions/battles on Armenian territory, conflicts that do not fall on Armenian land but involve its people, and conflicts that have no relation to Armenians at all.
“These accounts serve rather to illustrate the conduct, and particularly, the military failures of Arab generals who held important positions in Armenia,” La Porta said.
Interestingly, these accounts suggest that Armenians’ relationship with its surrounding Islamic institutions at the time was quite interconnected (though there was, indeed, conflict) unlike its relationship with the Christian empires.
La Porta also spoke about the economic and military reforms that took place from 685-705 under the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, known as the Marwanic reforms.
“These changes attempted to regularize the administrative structure of the caliphate,” La Porta said.
“I found this lecture really interesting, talking about the rise and rule of the Islamic Caliphate,” said Lara Habib, public relations officer for the Fresno State Armenian Students Organization. “It gave me a unique perspective on early Islamic rule showing how a Caliphate governed a frontier region and how Armenians resisted this system.”