Abstract In the nineteenth-century South Caucasus, hundreds of local farmers and nomads petitioned Russian authorities to allow them to become Christians. Most of them were Muslims and specifically requested to join the Armenian Apostolic Church. This article explores religious conversions to Armenian Christianity on Russia's mountainous southern border with the Ottoman Empire and Iran. It demonstrates that tsarist reforms, chiefly the peasant reform and the sedentarization of nomads, accelerated labor migration within the region, bringing many Muslims, Yazidis, and Assyrians into an Armenian environment. Local anxieties over Russian colonialism further encouraged conversions. I argue that by converting to Armenian Christianity many rural South Caucasians benefited from a change in their legal status, which came with the right to move residence, access to agricultural land, and other freedoms. Russia's Jewish communities, on the other hand, saw conversion to Armenian Christianity as a legal means to circumvent discrimination and obtain the right to live outside of the Pale of Settlement. By drawing on converts’ petitions and officials’ decisions, this article illustrates that the Russian government emerged as an ultimate arbiter of religious conversions, evaluating the sincerity of petitioners’ faith and how Armenian they had become, while preserving the empire's religious and social hierarchies.

中文翻译：

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成为亚美尼亚人：南高加索帝国晚期的宗教皈依

摘要 在 19 世纪的南高加索地区，数百名当地农民和游牧民族向俄罗斯当局请求允许他们成为基督徒。他们中的大多数是穆斯林，并特别要求加入亚美尼亚使徒教会。本文探讨了在俄罗斯与奥斯曼帝国和伊朗接壤的南部山区边界上皈依亚美尼亚基督教的宗教信仰。它表明沙皇改革，主要是农民改革和游牧民族定居，加速了该地区的劳动力迁移，将许多穆斯林、雅兹迪人和亚述人带入了亚美尼亚环境。当地对俄罗斯殖民主义的焦虑进一步鼓励了皈依。我认为，通过皈依亚美尼亚基督教，许多南高加索农村人受益于他们法律地位的改变，随之而来的是迁居权、使用农地的权利和其他自由。另一方面，俄罗斯的犹太社区将皈依亚美尼亚基督教视为规避歧视并获得在定居点之外生活的权利的合法手段。通过借鉴皈依者的请愿书和官员的决定，本文说明俄罗斯政府成为宗教皈依的最终仲裁者，评估请愿者信仰的诚意以及他们成为亚美尼亚人的程度，同时保留了帝国的宗教和社会等级制度。将皈依亚美尼亚基督教视为规避歧视和获得在定居点之外生活的权利的合法手段。通过借鉴皈依者的请愿书和官员的决定，本文说明俄罗斯政府成为宗教皈依的最终仲裁者，评估请愿者信仰的诚意以及他们成为亚美尼亚人的程度，同时保留了帝国的宗教和社会等级制度。将皈依亚美尼亚基督教视为规避歧视并获得在定居点之外生活的权利的合法手段。通过借鉴皈依者的请愿书和官员的决定，本文说明俄罗斯政府成为宗教皈依的最终仲裁者，评估请愿者信仰的诚意以及他们成为亚美尼亚人的程度，同时保留了帝国的宗教和社会等级制度。