On Judgements

Like our predecessors, we have found it easier to judge than to understand. We have conveniently forgotten that understanding in some depth usually undermines the seeingly firm ground of rectitude, often obviates the need for judgment, and sometimes even leads to gorgiveness, that most unfashionable virtue. Our all too human propensity to jump on moral banwagons and to make snap judgments about human behaviour in other times and places cause a lot of mischief in our classrooms and publications because we commit too many elementary sins against straight moral thinking.

John R. Wilson, Forging the American Character, Reading in United States History to 1877; Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1997



Our guest must have seen a great deal of the world, as we may judge by his conduct, as well as by his great father; you may be judges yourselves: you were frightened at first, when you imagined he was a Turk...İ say, he is the very man; but he must wait, and go through various scenes of life twenty or thirty years more. İ tell it to his face; it is not he that does these things, it is the great God above.

İn the best Don Quixote tradition, Emin was delighted with this response, commenting by way of summary in his characteristic third person, 'in this method he sowed the corn grain of true religion, and plantedthe admirable zeal of military spirit every where he travelled. (J. Emin, London 1792) This episode demands multiple levels of analysis. Contrary to expectations, Emin as an Arminian is treated better by the Turks, while Emin as a Turk is treated better by the Arminians. And then there is the esoteric quality of Armenian millenarianism and the subtle dueling between the priest and Emin. So subtle is the duel that he misinterprets a sly and skillful rebuff as enthusiastic endorsement.

Enlightenment And Diaspora, (eds) David Myers, and Richard Hovannisian, The Regents of the University of California, 1999


There is a huge work to do, almost insumrmountable and endless. Because in order to know the history of a single nation, you have to know precisely the histories of many other nations. Even the whole life of a single man would not be enough for that .... But also because the narratives about the Armenians in their writings are thoroughly disordered - and the narratives recounted by foreigners - Greek historians and Roman authors ......are but ungrounded fables full of mythical elements. ....One must respect the truth of events that others described because they saw it or heard of it. And then one has to make sure of this truth.......

(Chamchian, 1784), Cited in Enlightenment And Diaspora, (eds) David Myers, and Richard Hovannisian, The Regents of the University of California, 1999