Church of the Holy Apostles (Ani)

The Church of the Holy Apostles, also Arak’elots (Armenian: Սուրբ Առաքելոց եկեղեցի, Surb Arakelots yekeghets’i),[1] is an important ecclesiastical monument of the ruined city of Ani, modern Turkey, on the border with Armenia.

[2] The plan of the church is essentially classical Armenian, forming an inscribed quadriconch, with the four cardinal axes each terminating in an apse.

[8] In 1064, the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan took the city of Ani from the Byzantines (who had themselves taken it from the Bagratids barely twenty years earlier in 1045).

[14] In many of these examples, muqarnas vaults are recurring features in the gavits (narthexes) of the churches, which were the locus of much innovation and experimentation in medieval Armenian architecture.

The Il-khante managed taxation, and there are several inscriptions at the Church of the Holy apostle, dealing with tax edicts in the name of the Il-khan.

[17] From around 1260, with the Mongol Il-Khanate control of the city and suzerainty over the local Zakarid dynasty, the gavit seems to have been use as some sort of legal office in charge of taxes and import duties.

By the grace of God, we, customs officers, for the longevity of our masters, Sahip-Divan, Sahmad and Qarimadin, have removed from Ani the tax for priests that this city did not pay not originally; we confirm (this exemption again).

(In the name) of the Il-khan.For the longevity of the Padishah and the Saïp-Divan,[19] we, customs officers of Ani: Hindutchakh, (who) is the son of the lord judge, Oussup from Za[ta], Gorg from Nouât, and the mercer Baulé, and the gdrik of the oven, we gave this writing to the controllers (?)

); we, the aforementioned customs officers, have abolished (this) for the longevity of the Padishah.Also in the name of the Il-Khan, an inscription by Bishop Mkhithar, dated to circa 1276, under the authority of dom Sargis and Malik Phakhradin, prohibiting commerce on Sundays in the street, following an earthquake that year (located in one of the alcoves of the gavit).

By the grace of God, under the government of this city, under the superiority of Dom Sarguis, and under the authority of the melik Phakhradin, I Bishop Mkhithar, originally from Teglier, because of the earthquake that took place these days, we have eliminated the Sunday trade in the street.