Identifier: illustratedarmen01gaid (find matches)
Title: Illustrated Armenia and the Armenians
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Gaidzakian, Ohan, 1837-1914. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, B. H. Aznive
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
He was a lamb in nature,but when he came to defend his religion he was a lion. Prince Vartan, the Mamigonian, was unanimously ap-pointed the commander-in-chief of the Armenians, againstthe Persians, and the multitude was formed into three divisions,intrusted to three princes: Vartan, Nershebuh and Vasag.The latter, however, proved treacherous and perfidious, andwith his almost entire division sided with the Persians, and be-gan to devastate the provinces, where he was stationed to en-counter the foe. His treachery decided the fate of the Ar-menians. But brave Vartan and the rest were not dismayed,though they knew that they alone could not conquer an im-mense army of the enemy with a small force of their own. Yetthey were not fighting for victory, but for their convictions andthe religion of Christ. Finally the forces were arrayed for battle on the banksof the Dughmood river, on the plains of Avaraye, near thepresent city of Van. Prince Varton had 66,000 men, the Persians several times
Text Appearing After Image:
VARTAN MAMIGONIAN. AND THE ARMENIANS. I33 as many. Before beginning war Vartan Mamigonianknelt down and prayed to God for help, and to Christ forhis own salvation, then he made an address to his soldiers, insubstance as follows: Soldiers, as Christians, we are averse to fighting, but todefend the Christian religion and our own freedom we have tofight. Surely our lives are not as valuable as Christs, and ifHe was willing to die on the cross for us we ought to be will-ing to die in battle for Him. I have been, said he, in manybattles, and you also with me; we have sometimes bravely van-quished the foe; sometimes they vanquished us, but on allthese occasions we thought only of worldly distinction, andvve fought merely at the command of a mortal king. Behold,we have all many wounds and scars upon our persons, andgreat must have been our bravery to have won these greatmarks of honor. But useless and empty I deem these exploitswhereby we have received these honorable marks, for they passawa

Note About Images