[72] See Brosset, Ruines d’Ani, pp. 18 and 144. It may belong to the Tartar period (Mongol) and have reference to the restoration of Ani after the earthquake of A.D. 1319. Texier (op. cit. p. 94) commits himself to the statement that it is in Arabic characters; but see Khanikoff, op. cit. p. 135. [↑]
[73] On the authority of Samuel of Ani. See supra, p. 354. [↑]
[74] See Brosset, Ruines d’Ani, pp. 16, 17, 58, 59; and Voyage Arch., livr. 1, rapp. 3, p. 143. One of these inscriptions indicates that the name of the reigning prince of the Beni-Cheddad in A.D. 1160, just before the Georgian conquest, was Phatl (Fathlun). Several belong to the reign of Thamar, and exhibit the name of the Georgian ruler, Zakare-Shahanshah, who is styled “chief of the mandatories” and son of Sarkis Shahanshah. See Brosset (Voyage Arch., livr. 1, rapp. 1, pp. 92–94, and Ruines d’Ani, p. 18) for an explanation of this title. Two of these inscriptions of Zakare belong to the years 1206 and 1215 respectively. [↑]
[75] Ani is said to have contained not less than 100,000 inhabitants in the eleventh century. Yet the circumference of the city has been estimated at not more than 3½ miles. I am inclined to think that a large proportion of the population lived without the walls. [↑]
[76] The conjecture which Brosset throws out that the mosque referred to may be the cathedral is not, I think, a happy one. For this minaret see especially Khanikoff (op. cit. pp. 135–36), Brosset (Ruines d’Ani, p. 31), and Abich (Aus kauk. Länd. vol. i. p. 191). The inscription describes Kei-Sultan as “son of Mahmud, son of Chawir, son of Manuchar, Cheddadi.” Kei-Sultan is not otherwise known. We must conclude that the Beni-Cheddad were still powerful in Ani as late as the end of the twelfth century. [↑]
[77] The dimensions of the interior are as follows, according to my measurements:—Length, 105 feet 6 in. (viz. 76 feet 6 in. to the daïs of the apse, and 29 feet from the daïs to the extremity of the recess); breadth, 65 feet 6 in.; breadth of apse, 29 feet 7 in. [↑]
[78] Texier reminds us that at the time when this cathedral was built (early eleventh century) the Romanesque style was universal in Europe (op. cit. p. 112). Yet in this building we have the characteristics of a style which might be found in Southern Europe in the thirteenth century—the pointed arch, the coupled piers. See also Fergusson, op. cit. p. 473. [↑]
[79] I must caution my reader against the drawing of this apse in plate ix. of Brosset’s Atlas to the Ruines d’Ani. [↑]
[80] The cathedral has been recently constituted into quite a little museum, all fragments of sculptured stone found at Ani being preserved there. I photographed one of the most remarkable, which displays the familiar subject of the eagle and the hare (Fig. 75). Another contains a bas-relief of three saints and was probably placed above a doorway. [↑]
[81] Brosset, Voyage Arch. livr. 1, rapp. 3, pp. 93–95, and Ruines d’Ani, pp. 22–28. [↑]