Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia
Cambridge University Press, 8/19/2021
EAN 9781316618066, ISBN10: 1316618064
Paperback, 480 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 2.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book tells the compelling story of a Christian noblewoman named Tamta in the thirteenth century. Born to an Armenian family at the court of queen Tamar of Georgia, she was ransomed in marriage to nephews of Saladin after her father was captured during a siege. She was later raped and then married by the Khwarazmshah and held hostage by the Mongols, before being made an independent ruler under them in eastern Anatolia. Her tale stretches from the Mediterranean to Mongolia and reveals the extraordinary connections across continents and cultures that one woman could experience. Without a voice of her own, surviving monuments - monasteries and mosques, caravanserais and palaces - build up a picture of Tamta's world and the roles women played in it. The book explores how women's identities changed between different courts, with shifting languages, religions and cultures, and between their roles as daughters, wives, mothers and widows.
1. A new world of encounters
the life of Tamta Mqargrdzeli
2. Tamta's origins
the world of the Mqargrdzelis
3. Tamta, Ivane and Akhlat in 1210
4. Al-Awhad and Tamta's first marriage
5. Women and power
6. Akhlat
identity and life in the medieval city
7. Tamta
Ayyubid wife of al-Ashraf Musa
8. Tamta
a Christian at the Ayyubid court
9. Tamta at court
10. Akhlat, builders and buildings
11. Tamta and the Khwarazmians
12. Tamta and the Mongols
13. Tamta as ruler of Akhlat
14. Afterlife.