For generations, the Armenian national epic was transmitted by word of mouth, told and retold in different ways that wove a variety of medieval Armenian experiences into a broad narrative of heroism and rebellion. Although it is impossible to pin down chronologically, the epic includes characters that clearly reflect Armenian memories of Abbasid rule. For example, some of the epic unfurls in Baghdad and the caliph’s henchman is Batmana Bugha, the literary incarnation of the Turk Bugha, a general in the caliph al-Mutawakkil’s army. Focused on four generations of Armenian struggles against caliphal rule, this epic fixates on the protection of Armenianness and Christianness in the face of challenges from the outside. This paper reads the role of the women of Sasna Crer in the context of modern studies about women in the early Islamic and Iranian world. It focuses on three case studies. First, it examines how Covinar Xanum, the proverbially beautiful daughter of the Armenian king, inscribes Armenian Christian identity when she married “the pagan caliph of Baghdad.” Second, it explores the deployment of identity markers in the story of Deghjun Cam, the sorceress daughter of the King of the K‘a?k‘. Finally, it investigates the pivotal role of Ismil Xat‘un, the foster-mother of the Armenian hero Sasunc‘i Dawit‘, in mediating between her Arab son and her Armenian foster son. The stories of these three women demonstrate how gender informed the deliberations about identity, i.e., how women appear at the center of discussions about what makes one own community different from the “other.” In this process, the women of Sasna Crer reprise roles comparable to women in Arabic and Persian popular sources, such as Sirat dhat al-himma and the Shahnameh. This allows us to turn to modern studies of women in popular literature associated predominantly with Muslims in order to formulate questions we should ask of this Armenian source with the recognition that storylines and topoi jumped communal borders of the Abbasid world.