| Boris Adjemian is the Director of the AGBU Nubar Library, France. He holds a PhD in history from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France, and Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale,” Italy. He is the co-editor of the academic journal Études arméniennes contemporaines and his other publications include Les Petites Arménies De La Vallée Du Rhône: Histoire et mémoire des immigrations arméniennes en France. |
| The Brass Band of the King, which is part of the Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World series edited by Dr. Bedross Der Matossian, makes a significant contribution to advancing knowledge about a less-well-known diasporan community with a rich and fascinating history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Adjemian explores the Armenian community of Ethiopia and the astonishing role of the Armenians in their host country, bringing to light the political and cultural importance of a community that has long been ignored and has almost vanished. |
| Adjemian wrote, “I am deeply honoured to have my work acknowledged and awarded the Dr Sona Aronian Book Prize for Excellence in Armenian Studies. The support of NAASR was crucial in enabling me to translate my book into English, and I am grateful for this further recognition. Thanks to this support, the Ethio-Armenian epic, which was essentially transmitted orally and teeming with extraordinary events and characters, has now been made accessible to a wider readership and audience. Seeing this unique Armenian diaspora community’s history recognised for its originality is a tremendous reward for me.” |
| Sergio La Porta is Interim Dean, Kremen School of Education and Human Development, and Senior Advisor for Strategic Planning and Initiatives at California State University, Fresno, as well as the former Haig and Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies at the university. In addition to publishing studies on the Armenian commentaries on the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, he has written articles on medieval Armenian intellectual history and cultural interactions with the Islamicate, Byzantine, and Latinate worlds. Alison M. Vacca holds the Gevork M. Avedissian Chair in Armenian History and Civilization at Columbia University. She is a historian of early Islam focusing on the caliphal provinces of Armenia and Caucasian Albania in the Umayyad and early ʿAbbasid periods. |
| An Armenian Futūḥ [i.e., early Arab-Muslim conquests of Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, etc] Narrative is both an invaluable new translation of an important source for the history of early Islamic rule and the only contemporary chronicle of second/eighth-century caliphal rule in Armenia, and formidable work of scholarship, presenting in-depth commentary and annotations. |
| By email, La Porta and Vacca wrote that “We are honored to receive the Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prize for Excellence in Armenian Studies for our translation and commentary of Łewond’s History. We are grateful to NAASR for this recognition and for the generous support that helped make this work possible. This award is especially meaningful given NAASR’s critical role in advancing research in Armenian Studies and promoting its scholarly significance to a wider public.” |
| The publication of both The Brass Band of the King and An Armenian Futūḥ Narrative were supported by grants from NAASR and the Knights of Vartan Fund for Armenian Studies. |
| NAASR’s Aronian Book Prizes were established in 2014 by the late Dr. Aronian and Dr. Geoffrey Gibbs, to be awarded annually to outstanding scholarly works in the English language in the field of Armenian Studies and translations from Armenian into English. |
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