The Black Sea seen through the eyes of an Armenian pilgrim: Simeon of Poland and his journey between Lviv and Constantinople
Abstract
The work of Simeon - his travelogues, chronicles and colophones - coincides in time between the tradition of vołb (medieval lamentation) and between Zart'onk'; or a period of the Armenian Enlightenment of the second third of the 17th century. The author, as a Christian belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church (and a strong opponent of conversion to Catholicism), was particularly interested in the conditions of Armenians and other Christians living in cities controlled by the Ottomans.
Their situation. was specific and it could be described as dhimmi ("protected" non-Muslims). Their conditions were different in comparison to Armenians in Poland.
The Armenian diaspora flourished there the most in the 14th-16th centuries. The Armenian community in Lviv was well established; other migration targets were cities like Kamianets Podilskyi, Suceava, Stanislaw (Ivano-Frankivsk), Lutsk, Zamość etc.