Book excerpt: On the far edge of the Christian world, often isolated or overwhelmed by Muslim cultures, the Armenians have produced a distinctive artistic tradition unlike any other. The collection in this book opens with objects from the great medieval periods in Greater Armenia and the Kingdom of Cilicia and later centuries are represented by paintings and books. The artists, including Ghazar, Arak'el of Gegham, Yovanes Gharietsi, Markos "The Illuminator," and Nagash Hovnat'nan, demonstrate to us how they were able to enrich their works by taking the best elements of Persian, Turkish, Greek, and Western European art and absorb and fuse them into a particular Armenian art.