Medieval Book Curses: How Armenians Guarded Their Manuscripts

Many medieval Armenian manuscripts come with a warning: harm this book, and face a curse. Scribes, sponsors, or owners of manuscripts often used curses to safeguard manuscripts from theft, damage, pawning, or misuse and, far from being casual additions at the end of the book, these curses reveal how deeply manuscripts were valued. They were not only containers of sacred text and knowledge but also cherished objects tied to community, faith, and survival. By invoking biblical figures like Judas, Cain, or the Serpent as models of punishment, they transformed manuscripts into guardians of memory, giving them an active role in protecting both themselves and the people who were commemorated in them.
This talk explores these vivid, overlooked curses and shows how they made Armenian manuscripts into more than books: they became living witnesses of cultural anxiety, resilience, and hope.

Dr. David Zakarian is the Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair of Armenian Studies at California State University, Fresno. He holds a BA and MA in English Language and Literature from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a Master of Studies in Classical Armenian and a DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. His doctoral thesis focused on the representation of women in early Christian Armenian texts.

You may also like the following events from Armenian Studies Program, Fresno State:

• This month, 17th October, 07:00 pm, A New History-Writing of Late Ottoman-Turkish History: The Impact of Memoirs in Fresno
• This month, 24th October, 05:30 pm, Armenians in Film-Six Short Films by Armenian Filmmakers in Fresno

Also check out other Arts events in Fremont, Literary Art events in Fremont.