The Crossing Place: A Journey Among the Armenians

by Philip Marsden

Book Overview

A revised and updated edition of Philip Marsden's classic travel book, published to coincide with the centenary of the Armenian massacres. After centuries of prominence as a world power, Armenia has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006376673
• ISBN13: 9780006376675
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Flamingo
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Quest for Ararat

Philip Marsden clearly harbors a special interest in eastern Christian traditions, for they run like a red thread through his three travel books. In "A Far Country: Travels in Ethiopia" he visits this sole surviving Christian nation in the Horn of Africa, surrounded by Islamic countries. "The Spirit Wrestlers" explores a plethora of religious movement springing up in Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus in the wake of the Societ Union's downfall..In "The Crossing Place" Marsden sets out to investigate the tragic fate of the Armenians, an ancient Christian people from the Caucasus. This mountainous region tugged in between the Black and Caspian Seas lies on the crossroads of the old Persian, Turkish and Russian realms. It is also the place were six of the world's twelve tectonic plates meet, making it one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the world. Because of this geographical position Armenia's fate is permeated with disaster, both natural and man-made. These experiences have made dislocation a continuous theme in Armenian history and provide the book with a double travel motif: not only the author is constantly on the move, but so is his subject.Marsden became interested in the Armenians through a chance encounter in eastern Turkey. There he stumbled on some fragmentary remains of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Intrigued by what he had found he decided to work his way back to the Armenian heartland.The first part of the book is situated in the Near East, where Armenia had almost ceased to exist, "pushed down one of history's side-alleys and murdered". Or so it seemed, had they not been such a resilient people. Marsden picks up the trail in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem. He learns that the Armenians first appeared on the Anatolian plains in the sixth century BC. Eight hundred years later their king became the first ruler to accept Christianity. A first glimpse of the `essential Armenia" is caught during a visit to a famous center for Armenian Studies, the San Lazzaro monastery in Venice (where Armenians had been resident well before the city's rise to commercial and political prominence in the 12th century). According to one of its scholars the unique Armenian script developed by Mesrop Mashtot embodies an idea that can not be explained but only expressed in one word "Ararat", the mountain that is the heart of Armenia.Marsden continues his quest in Lebanon -- by way of Cyprus -- and poses himself the question how such a mobile nation, consisting of merchants, pilgrims and adventurers, had been able to maintain its distinctiveness. Nowhere better to get a sense of that than in Beirut, which has just emerged from a brutal civil war. Here the Armenians had staunchly stuck to their neutrality but also maintained a basis for their commando-type liberation movements, operating with surgical precision in sixteen countries. Only by tapping into the efficient Armenian network of connections is Marsden able to move swiftly and inconspicuously thro

Excellent travel/history book about the Armenians

Mardsen's book is a unique combination of present travel storytelling and history. Few books have explained the Armenian people, how they think (and why), what they have been through, and what they hope for, so well. By visiting different Armenian Diaspora groups, he gets a unique perspective from Armenians everywhere, not just Armenians from the Republic or the United States. The reader can tell that Mardsen is entranced by the Armenians and their culture and this creates an extremely interesting and good read. It is also filled with quite a few interesting and little known facts about Armenians. This is a great book for anyone interested in Armenians and their culture, past and present.

An Encyclopedia of the Armenian Spirit

"An encyclopedia of the Armenian spirit", "a classic in Western literature about the Armenians" - this is how The Crossing Place is defined by Armenian scholars. Such praise from the very people it describes is enough evidence of the outstanding nature of Marsden's physical and spiritual journey. As the Armenian translator of this marvellous travelogue, I can say, that it is a monumental work, radiating with the pulse of a true Armenian and echoing with the eternal values of this nation. One measure of a people is its hold on the imagination of others. An unusual force drives this Englishman to come out of Cornwall and to walk along the paths of the Armenians from their ransacked ancestral homeland in Eastern Anatolia, towards the Syrian deserts, where they perished in the first genocide of the 20th century. Yet there were survivors of this stubborn people who were resurrected in various parts of the world and there were tough natives still struggling on the southern heights of Armenia's border. Marsden encounters these elusive people in 1991 - at a time of great change in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, only to find out that such changes, the collapse of empires have always seen Armenians both in front of and behind the scenes. What is it that keeps the Armenians Armenian? Bearing in his eyes the light to see the truth, Marsden looks like a devoted pilgrim, who totally ignores his personal comfort to reach the ultimate destination of his journey - he covers long distances feeling cold, hungry, thirsty, tired, numb or baffled - revealing and wisely evaluating the fundamental qualities of the Armenians. He realizes that an enigmatic language and a distinctive church, an instinctive wildness, and a creative genius - those invincible characteristics, have insured the survival of Armenians from time immemorial to modern ages. One can feel that Marsden is not an ordinary "pilgrim", but an "architect" building his "own" Armenian church. The basis of this meticulously crafted narration is the dark depths of the historical landscape he evokes, while the network of communities form the vaulted "niches" of its vision. All along Marsden tries to capture the whirling spirit of the Armenians in a tangible form, and in the end he metaphorically raises the "solid rock" of the Armenian existence - the "crenellated dome" of the mountaineers defending their land.This is more than just a travel book, since the author digs into the soul and roots of a people capable of recreating itself through devastating predicaments. He plows the mystical realms of its ancient culture and history, penetrates into the chaos that generates its philosophy, and comes out with a clutch of primeval human values. A writer of high principles, Marsden achieves this through his communicative talent, through the warm immediacy of a live experience, the deep research of an ethnologist and the searching eyes of an intent observer. His mag

First person account of a journey of discovery

Charming and well written book of a young Englishman's voyage of discovery among the middle eastern diaspora of Armenians and then through the Balkans and across the Caucasus to Armenia itself. Weaves in the history and present situation of Armenians and projects a powerful and sympathetic image of perhaps the most resilient culture and people in history. Easy and enjoyable to read.