Thread by @517design

I'm reading British merchant John Newberry's travel memories to our region of 1581.

"At the time of the last warres in Persia, there were many Christians taken slaves in Errewan, and other places"

He must mean events when in 1579 Ottoman army captured 60,000 Armenians, 2 yrs b4

"In Errewan are very many Christians, and yet there is a Church standing of the
Christians".

So he stays 3 days in #Yerevan, mentions very many Christians, but only 1 church (standing churches must have been at least a dozen at the moment). I suppose he didn't walk around a lot.

Another good source - Don Juan of Persia, publishing memoirs of traveling to region in 1599-1602. His 17th c. map republished in 1926. Azerbaijan just as it has always been, Kurdistan to south of Van, only Albania is strangely close to Black sea :)

So Revan Qulu khan myth appears to be older, than modern Azerbaijan propaganda. Don Juan takes construction of fortress as date for city foundation, ignoring its confirmed 9 centuries history under name "Yerevan" prior to that, let alone ties w/ Kond/Kozern, Erebuni, Shengavit…

According to prominent historian on Yerevan history Meruzhan Karapetyan, out of est. 500K #Armenia|ns forcefully deported to Persia in 1604, only est. 300K reached safe.

According to Garcia de Silva Figueroa, Armenians located in Mazandaran, converted to Islam by 1620s

Interesting: #Yerevan population once migrated/captured in 17-19cc, founded new districts in #OldJugha (Yerevani tagh), #Tbilisi (Havlabar), Ganca (Armenia quarter), Dilijan (core city). List not definitely complete. While Armenian population of Yerevan was decreasing drastically