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CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA 277
faith of Islam, likewise dispensed with images. This aver
sion from images left a deep impression upon the history of
Byzantium, where the controversy about images (726-843)
raged like a purifying storm in an atmosphere of much
discreditable superstition. The controversy was fomented
by Armenian influences, and was carried on more particularly
by the emperors whose ancestors came from Asia Minor and
Armenia. It represents a movement in the Christian Church
which leads right on to Luther and the Puritans.
To Gothic architecture, the greatest creation of the Middle
Ages, the Armenians appear also to have contributed inspira
tions of fundamental importance. It can no longer be denied
that many of the features which are most characteristic of
Gothic architecture were used in Armenian churches and other
buildings several centuries before the Gothic style was evolved
in Europe. This is particularly well illustrated by the cathedral
at Ani,1 a long church with three aisles, the walls and roof of
which are still standing, unless the last earthquake has destroyed
them. It was completed in the reign of King Gaghik I, in
a.d. 1 001, by the noted builder Trdat, who also erected the
cathedral of Argina, farther to the north by the Kars-chai,
in the same style.2 In 989 Trdat was summoned to Constanti
nople by the Emperor Basil to restore St. Sophia, which had
been damaged by an earthquake.
As regards the cathedral at Kutais, mention has already been
made (p. 96) of its resemblance to the later Gothic churches in
Europe ; and the same thing applies even more to the cathedral
at Ani, which was built at a somewhat earlier date. The style
of the latter appears to be transitional from typical Armenian
to Romanesque Gothic, and it has several of the most charac
teristic features of Gothic, including pointed arches and
clusters of columns. The resemblance is so striking that
some authorities on the history of art, convinced that Gothic
is entirely European in origin, argue that this cathedral must
have been restored in the thirteenth century by builders from
Western Europe. But the facts cannot be explained away in
this fashion. Even if wc had not convincing evidence of
1 See Lynch, Armenia, vol. i, pp. 371 ff. ; Strzygowski, op. eit., vol. i, pp. 184 ff.
3 Cf. Strzygowski, op. eit., vol. ii, pp. 590 ff.
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