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Mesrop Mashtots

Mesrop Mashtots
This 1882 painting by Stepanos Nersissian (now kept at the Pontifical Residence at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin) is a commonly reproduced image of Mashtots.
Born	c. 361 Hatsekats, Taron, Greater Armenia (modern-day Güven, Korkut, Muş Province, Turkey)
Died	February 17, 440 (traditional date) Vagharshapat, Sasanian Armenia
Resting place	Saint Mesrop Mashtots Church, Oshakan, Armenia
Nationality	Armenian
Occupation(s)	Court secretary, missionary, militaryman, inventor
Era	Armenian Golden Age
Known for	Inventing the Armenian alphabet

Mesrop Mashtots (Armenian: Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց; c. 361 - 440), also known mononymously Mashtots,

He has been canonoized by the Armenian Apostolic Church as it known Saint Mesrop (Mesrob).

Sources

The first publication of Koriun's Life of Mashtots, San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice, 1833

A collection of twenty-three homilies and a few hymns have been traditionally attributed to Maštoc' himself. 
Koriwn, a pupil of Maštoc, details the efforts of his tireless teacher in The Life of Maštoc, the first work composed in Armenian (c. 443). The work conforms to the requirements for encomium in the classical tradition (a later, shorter version omits the essential proem).

LAST, FIRST (2018). "CHAPTER". In Evans, Helen C. (ed.). Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press. ISBN 9781588396600. OCLC 1028910888. write original works in Armenian, of which Koriwn's biography is probably the first.

The chief sources for the life and work of Mashtots are Koriun, Ghazar Parpetsi, and Movses Khorenatsi. The Life of Mashtots (Վարք Մաշտոցի) a hagiography by Koriun, a disciple of Mashtots, is the primary and most reliable source. Hrachia Acharian, who authored the most comprehensive study on Mashtots and the Armenian alphabet, defended Koriun's work as the only accurate account. It was commissioned by Catholicos Hovsep I, also a student of Mashtots, and written c. 443-450/451. The work has two versions: long and short. The former is considered by most scholars to be the original. Parpetsi and Khorenatsi largely relied upon Koriun's work.

The oldest extant manuscript of Koriun's Life of Mashtots has been dated to the 12th century. It was first translated into Latin by Voskan Yerevantsi circa 1644. Koriun's Life was first printed in Armenian by the Mekhitarists in San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice in 1833. Besides the Latin translation, it has been translated into German (1841), French (1869), Russian (1962), English (1964 [Norehad] and 2022), Italian (1998), Georgian (2019). It has also been translated from Classical Armenian into Modern Armenian thrice.

Name

A depiction of Mashtots in Kapan's St. Mesrop Mashtots Church

Koruin, once Mesrop in title, error by later copyists

While Koriun, his chief biographer, only refers to him as Mashtots, Movses Khorenatsi and later Armenian historiography predominantly calls him Mesrop. It was not until the 20th century that he came to be referred to by both names, sometiems spelled with a hyphen. Some scholars, including Malachia Ormanian, maintain that Mashtots was his birth name, while Mesrop was his ecclesiastical name by which he was ordained. Anton Garagashian believed the opposite to be true. Accoring to James R. Russell, Mashtots was his primary name, while Mesrop a secondary one, "possibly an epithet."

The etymologies of both Mesrop and Mashtots have been widely debated. In his authoritative dictionary of Armenian names, Hrachia Acharian described Mashtots to be of uncertain origin. Nicholas Adontz believed it stemmed from Iranian mašt (from mazd), which is also the origin of the name Mazdak. Asatur Mnatsakanian suggested an origin from the name of the Urartian goddess Bag-Mashtu. Russell argued that the original form of Mashtots may have been Maždoc‘, originated from Middle Parthian mozhdag and means "bearer of good news or reward". Today, Mesrop (Mesrob) is a common male name and Mesropyan (Mesrobian) a common last name among Armenians.

There is more agreement about Mesrop. Acharian considered it to be of unknown origin, but noted that it is usually thought to have originated from "serovbe", Armenian for "seraph", a word of Biblical Hebrew origin. Russell described Mesrop a mysterious word, seemingly Syriac, "perhaps an epithet meaning 'seraphic'." Some scholars maintain that Mesrop is a blend of "Mar" ("lord" in Syriac) and "Serob", a version of "Serovbe".

Background and early life

A Sovet-era sculpture of Mashtots in Yerevan

The date of birth of Mashtots is not well-established, but recent scholarship accepts 361. Others give 361–364 as the likely range. He was born in the village of Hatsekats (Հացեկաց) in the canton of Taron, to a father named Vardan, who may have been a priest or a nobleman. Some scholars believe he was affiliated with the Mamikonian dynasty since Taron was their feudal domain. Others suggest he may have belonged to the lesser nobility or reject his noble origin at all. Leo believed he was the son of a peasant. According to Anania Shirakatsi, Vardan was an azat. Some scholars, including Stepan Malkhasyants, have identified Vardan with Vrik, mentioned by Pavstos Buzand. Vrik was the illegitimate son of Catholicos Pap (not King Pap), the grandson of Gregory the Illuminator (through Husik). Mashtots, thus, may have been a second cousin to Catholicos Sahak Partev. Acharian outright rejected this theory, but it has been cited by Elizabeth Redgate. Other scholars, including Ormanian, believed Mashtots was the son of Vardan Mamikonian (not the better known one), the older brother of sparapet Vasak Mamikonian. This theory has been rejected by Hakob Manandian and Garnik Fntglian. James R. Russell writes that Mashtots' father was "probably a member of the Mamikonean clan."

Another point of contention is whether Mashtots was a student of Nerses the Great, first mentioned by Khorenatsi. Both Acharian and Leo rejected it. Acharian noted that Mashtots probably studied at the prominent Surb Karapet Monastery, not far from his birthplace. Koriun tells that Mashtots received "Hellenic education," i.e. education in the Greek language. Besides his native Armenian, Mashtots knew Greek, Persian (Middle Persian), and Syriac (Aramaic).

In late 380s Mashtots moved to Vagharshapat, Armenia's capital, where he began a career at the court of King Khosrov III. While Khorenatsi says that he worked as a royal secretary, both Koriun and Parpetsi assign him other positions as well, especially in the military. He was initially royal chancellor (ark’uni divanapet), then moved on to serve in the military after receiving training.

In c. 394 Mashtots became a clergyman and was ordained as a monk and lived in a monastery, in Goghtn. He, thereafter, became an ascetic hermit to live in the mountains and uninhabited areas. Mashtots then gathered a group of 40 disciples and began missionary work among Armenians, many of whom were still pagan. He begin his first mission in Goghtn around 395. He successfully spread Christianity in the area and expelled the pagans.

Invention of the Armenian alphabet

Mashtots with disciples on the Armenian Cathedral of Moscow (2013)

A modern statue of Mashtots and King Vramshapuh at the Alphabet Park near Artashavan.

During his missionary work Mashtots came to the realization that it was impossible to spread Christianity among the masses without translating the Bible. At the time, Armenia was divided between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire and priests served mass either in Greek (in Byzantine Armenia) or Syriac (in Sasanian Armenia)—languages that were not commonly understood. Upon his return to Vagharshapat, Mashtots shared his idea for an Armenian alphabet with Sahak. A general ecclesiastical council was called in the capital to discuss the idea. After learning about the idea, King Vramshapuh stated that Daniel, a Syriac bishop, possessed an Armenian alphabet. Upon the king's orders, Daniel's Armenian letters were sent to Armenia and Mashtots began teaching the letters to a group of disciples. However, after putting the letters into practical use for one or two years, Mashtots believed that they were not suitable for writing Armenian. King Vramshapuh and Sahak thereafter sent Mashtots, with a group of students, to the major Syriac cities to the south of Armenia.

Mashtots traveled to Amida and Edessa with a group of students. According to Koriun, he met two bishops named Babilas and Akanios. Acharian believed that they were the Syriac and Greek bishops of Edessa, respectively. In Amida and Edessa Mashtots possibly looked for the original book that apparently contained Daniel's Armenian letters, however, he did not find anything. Acharian believed Daniel's letters to have been an old Aramaic alphabet that was mistakenly attributed to the Armenians.

Most scholars believe that Mashtots invented the Armenian letters in Edessa, with a minority placing it in Samosata. Mashtots later traveled to Samosata, where he collaborated with Řup′ianos, a Greek scribe and calligrapher, to draw the letter he had invented. Acharian and Abeghian believed that Řup′ianos had no role in inventing the letters. He simply gave shape to the letters invented by Mashtots.

...the name Rufinus is rendered as Rup’anos

According to Acharian, the invention of the Armenian letters was preceded by a Greek-Armenian dictionary of 50,000 words that Mashtots had created to map out all letters in use in Armenian. Acharian noted that of the 36 letters Mashtots created, 21 also occurred in Greek, while 15 did not.

followed Greek alphabet

And although he cites an article on Mashtots' and his script by this reviewer, he seems to fail to have taken adequate account of its principal argument that the non-Greek letters come from local Aramaic types. Certainly no serious researcher regards these other letters as inventions ex nihilo of Mashtots' himself.

Աստվածաշնչից հայերեն թարգմանած աոաջին նախադասությունն էր՝ «ճանաչել գիմաստութիւն և զխրատ, իմանալ զբանս հւսնճարոյ»։ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը ստեղծել է նաև Վրաց և Աղվանից գրերը և անմիջական գործակցությամբ նպաստել դրանց տարածմանը և դասավանդություններին։

Mashtots’s efforts were directed to preaching the gospel in remoter parts of the country. Although King Trdat (Tiridates in Greek) had been converted to Christianity at the beginning of the century, and St. Gregory the Illuminator had established the first organized Armenian bishoprics—the main episcopal see being at Ashtishat in Taron, Mashtots’s native province—the whole country was by no means converted overnight. Another early historian, Pavstos (P'awstos) Buzand, describes in some detail the struggle of the church in fourth-century Armenia; there was much opposition from the old noble families with their pagan traditions and basically Iranian-oriented outlook. And from Koriun we learn that many areas were still entirely untouched by the Christian message. Mashtots set to work to eradicate “ancestral habits and the diabolical worship of demons.’

It was in the course of his missionary activity that MashtUs realized the potential value of having the appropriate religious texts written in the Armenian language. Although the educated clergy used Greek or Syriac for the liturgy and could read biblical and theological books in those languages, that was of little help to the mass of the Armenian people. In concert with Catholicos (supreme patriarch) Sahak, Mashtots turned his attention to the development of a native script so that Armenians could have the requisite Christian books in their own language. The original impetus, therefore, in the development of Armenian written culture came from church authorities. And ecclesiastical concerns remained predominant in the literature of later generations.

There are some minor discrepancies in the accounts of Koriun and of other early writers concerning the precise details of the invention of the Armenian script. However, it is clear that Mashtots was the driving force, that the patriarch Sahak lent his full support and was later active as a translator himself, and that the king Vramshapuh was directly involved. Koriun says that the king, when informed of Mashtots’s zeal,

told him about a Syrian bishop Daniel who had put together a script for Armenian. That a Syrian should have taken the initiative is a good indication of the importance of Syrian missionary work in southern Armenia. The influence of Syriac vocabulary on Armenian ecclesiastical usage, and of Syrian writers on developing Armenian literature, also point to the strong ties that existed between these two Christian lands.

Naturally enough Daniel’s alphabet was based on a Semitic script. The latter, as used for Hebrew and Syriac, had twenty-two letters, which rendered the consonants, but the vowels were not clearly indicated. The structure of the Semitic languages does not make this too grave a disadvantage. But Daniel’s system—no trace of which has survived— was inadequate to cope with the richer consonantal structure of Armenian; nor could it render vowels, whose patterns in an Indo-European tongue are less predictable than in Semitic. So that attempt came to naught, and Mashtots went himself to Syria “in the fifth year of Vramshapuh,” according to Koriun (1964). But since the beginning of Vramshapuh’s reign has been variously dated, from 389 to 401, the precise date is uncertain.

Particularly important was Mashtots’s visit to Edessa, for this was the center of Syriac-speaking Christianity on the Roman side of the border with Iran. He had taken a group of young pupils with him. These he divided into two groups and set to learning Syriac and Greek. Mashtots himself with his closest associates went on to Samosata on the Euphrates. There, in concert with a scribe competent in Greek literature, he worked out a script for Armenian that rendered all the nuances. This time it was based on a Greek model, with a separate sign for each vowel as well as for each consonant. The only exception was the vowel /u/; in this case Mashtots retained the diphthong of the Greek ou. The script invented by Mashtots has remained in use down to the present day; modem uppercase letters have hardly changed from the form given them more than 1,500 years ago, while the lowercase letters are based on medieval scribal hands. There is, however, one interesting anomaly. The most common vowel in Armenian is the short /£/ f/?J. But this is practically never written except at the beginning of words. So one finds in written Armenian clusters of consonants, perhaps as many as five or six, which in pronunciation must be grouped into appropriate syllables containing the vowel /£/. It is difficult not to suppose that here the influence of Syriac was at work, for even when vowel signs were later introduced, the short/e/was not rendered.

Once the script had been fashioned, Mashtots immediately set to work to translate texts into Armenian. The first such effort was a rendering of the Proverbs of Solomon. Armenians enjoyed fables, proverbs, and pithy sayings; many such texts of a secular nature were translated in later centuries, and in medieval literature the genre of the fable was popular. But Mashtots was concerned with books appropriate for the church and its missionary efforts, so he began with a biblical text. Koriun adds the personal comment that he himself used that first translated text when teaching writing to pupils.

The patriarch Sahak and Mashtots now directed a massive effort to render into Armenian as much Christian literature as possible in as short a time as possible. Groups of young men were gathered—since this was an ecclesiastical operation, we must suppose that these were the “seminarians” of the time. First they were instructed in the script, then they were sent abroad to the main centers of Christian culture in order to learn Greek or Syriac, or both. Koriun gives us some details. He mentions the names of several pupils in the entourage of Mashtots and indicates that some were sent to Edessa to learn Syriac, others to Melitene, or as far as Constantinople, to learn Greek. But he does not name precisely the texts that were translated. Only in vague terms does he refer to the Armenians now having in their own tongue “Moses who taught the law, with the prophets, Paul and the band of the apostles, and the gospel of Christ” (Koriun, 1964).

Most of Mashtots’s own energies were devoted to missionary activity in the provinces to the east and north. But he did make one extended visit to the Armenians on the Roman side of the border, proceeding as far as Constantinople. There he greeted the emperor Theodosius II (408-440) and the patriarch Atticus (405-425) and received official permission (sacra) to carry on his educational work among Armenians in the eastern provinces of the empire. At this point Koriun refers to Mashtots collecting “many books of the church fathers” (1964). After 431 some of his pupils brought back from Constantinople other texts, including copies of the canons of the ecumenical councils held at Nicaea (325) and Ephesus (431). This new influx of texts prompted the patriarch Sahak to revise some of the earlier translations of “ecclesiastical books” and also to translate numerous commentaries on the scriptures. Koriun adds that Mashtots began himself to compose homilies with material taken from the prophets

and gospels in order to wake people up to the truth of the Christian message. Though several collections of homilies survive from the early period, none of them can be securely identified as Mashtots’s own woik. But if he put into writing examples of his lifelong preaching, he was the first original writer in Armenian.

Mashtots, also called Mesrop by writers after his own time, and was accomplished around the year a.d. 400.

Օրմանյանը բացատրել, որ Դանիելյան նշանագրերը ասորական կամ սեմական հիմք ունեին: Սահակն ու Մեսրոպը՝ հունական դպրության հմուտ անձինք, հետամտում էին ստեղծել հունալատին այբուբենի նման ձայնավորներով գրեր, ուրեմն Մ. Օրմանյանը հաստատում է, որ Մաշտոցի գյուտը եղել են 7 ձայնավորները: Հռոփանոսի օգնությամբ տառերին գեղագրական ձև տալուց հետ Մեսրոպը վերադառնում է Հայաստան:

Missionary work

Amaras

Mashtots then returned to Armenia. He was greeted by King Vramshapuh, Sahak Partev and nakharars in the vicinity of Vagharshapat. He then traveled to "Media" (i.e. Paytakaran) for missionary and educational purposes. Mashtots then returned to Vagharshapat, where he and Sahak established an Armenian-language school next to the patriarchal seat. Students from all over Armenia flocked into the school to learn the new alphabet. The nakharar class was well-represented. Vardan Mamikonian, the commander of the Christian Armenian forces at the Battle of Avarayr of 451, was among his students.

Mashtots continued missionary work in Goghtn and Syunik, while Sahak focused on the central province of Ayrarat. In Goghtn, Mashtots may have lived in Mesropavan(k’) (modern Nəsirvaz), although it is dismissed as a later tradition. Mashtots continued his work in Syunik, where he was assisted by the local prince named Vaghinak. The latter was succeeded by Vasak Siuni, whom Koriun praised as a smart man.

Georgian and Caucasian Albanian alphabets

According to Koriun, Mashtots invented the Georgian alphabet in Syunik, then moved to Georgia with several students. Movses Khorenatsi writes that Mashtots created it in Georgia, not Syunik, however, Acharian dismissed it and reiterates Koriun's version. Acharian suggested that Mashtots did not adhere to "narrow chauvinism in enlightenment and respected other nations". Koriun wrote that Mashtots invented it during the reign of King Varaz-Bakur of Georgia, who along with the bishop Moses and the Georgian military welcomed Mashtots and provided him young children to teach the new alphabet. Koriun also claims that Mashtots founded the first Georgian school. He was assisted by an educated man named Jagha, who certainly knew Armenian and Greek. In Khorenatsi's account, Mashtots was assisted by Jagha, Bakur and Moses, though Acharian believed they only helped him gather students.

Georgian king was Varaz-Bakur, alphabet invented in 406-409.

Bible Georgian translation in 409

Koriun claimed that Mashtots's invention of a Georgian alphabet united various Georgian tribes under one culturally united Georgian nation.

Acharian dismissed Georgian sources as not contemporary, later fictional inventions and defended Koriun as a very reliable and trustworthy source. Many scholars believe Koriun was Georgian or Georgian-Armenian

modern Georgian scholars dismiss Mashtots

knowledge of Caucasian Albanian language, Georgian language http://serials.flib.sci.am/Founders/Hayoc%20grer-%20Acharyan/book/index.html#page/81/mode/1up

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Glen Warren Bowersock; Peter Robert Lamont Brown; Oleg Grabar, eds. (1999). Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-51173-5.

Rayfield, Donald (2000). The Literature of Georgia: A History (2nd rev. ed.). Surrey: Curzon Press. p. 19. ISBN 0700711635.

Grenoble, Lenore A. (2003). Language policy in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht [u.a.]: Kluwer Acad. Publ. p. 116. ISBN 1402012985.

Bowersock, G.W.; Brown, Peter; Grabar, Oleg, eds. (1999). Late antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. p. 289. ISBN 0-674-51173-5.

Jost, Gippert (2011). "The script of the Caucasian Albanians in the light of the Sinai palimpsests". Die Entstehung der kaukasischen Alphabete als kulturhistorisches Phänomen: Referate des internationalen Symposions (Wien, 1.-4. Dezember 2005) = The creation of the Caucasian alphabets as phenomenon of cultural history. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. pp. 39–50. ISBN 9783700170884.

Der Nersessian, Sirarpie (1969). The Armenians. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 85. After the Armenian alphabet Mesrop also devised one for the Georgians and another for the Caucasian Albanians.

Йост Гипперт, один из дешифровщиков найденного в 1996 году албанского палимпсеста, на основе анализа букв приходит к выводу, что в основе албанского письма очевидно лежит армянский алфавит, что в свою очередь свидетельствует в пользу исторической традиции, приписывающей создание албанского алфавита Месропу Маштоцу.

https://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/personal/jg/pdf/jg2011b.pdf „The script of the Caucasian Albanians in the light of the Sinai palimpsests“ Jost Gippert

Telfer, John Buchan (29 May 1891). "Armenia and Its People". Journal of the Society of Arts. XXXIX (2, 010). London: Royal Society of Arts: xxx. 572

Mesrob, the great divine and missionary of the early part of the 5th century, who invented the alphabet for the language of his country, which is traced to the Iranic of the Aryan family, was also the first to introduce a system of written characters, the ecclesiastical alpha- bet* for the Georgian tongue.

Zaza Aleksidze on Caucasian Albanian [2] Aramaic wouldn't fit, because the alphabet follows Greek-style - a,b,g,d,e. Zaza Alexidze certainly believes the Mesrobian tradition:

Later missions and last years

Mashtots and St. Sahak teaching disciples, 1730 book of Mkhitar Sebastatsi.[1]

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/2833/ Baghasakan

The fourth mission of Mashtots was to Aghvank, Baghasakan, Gardman, and Gugark. He then traveled to Byzantine Armenia: Bardzr Hayk and Tsopk in 420.

his second and third missions took place in 405-409

between 409-420: Turuberan (Taron), Aghdznik, Mokk, Vaspurakan, Parskahayk per Acharian

per Short Koriun, Sahak and Mashtots moved to Byzantine Armenia to translate the Bible from Greek, because the Greek Bible was banned by the Sassanians and Greek Bibles were burnt. however, Mashtots was sent by Sahak to Byzantium with Sahak's grandson Vardan Mamikonian. They had 3 letters: one to Anatol, sparapet of Byzantine Armenia; Attikon, palatine bishop of Byzantium; and emperor Theodosius II, asking to allow Mashtots to preach in Byzantine Armenia per Acharian, the letters were made up by Xorenaci

Anatolios, sparapet of Byzantine Armenia, stopped Mashtots when he wanted to open Armenian schools, to ask the emperor. Mashtots was awarded the title of ակումիտ by Byzantine court,

he then traveled to Melitene (Malatia) with a group of students, whom he gave to the Greek bishop named Akakios; Acharian thinks Akakios is a later addition

Mashtots travels were funded by Byzantine court, per Acharian. all land travel in Asia Minor, to Constantinople. welcomed in the imperial palace imperial titles: akumit, ekklesiastikos; per Torosian akumit = simply "hermit",, the second a high church title imperial court allows Mashtots to operate in the empire, gather students, open Armenian schools, and establish churches. Mashtots traveled from Chalcedon to Antioch, where Anatolios began implementing royal decree, children from parts of Armenia sent to Mashtots to learn Armenian

Mashtots fought against barbarianos sect, fire- and sun-worshippers, borborianos, persecution

Beniamen, an Aghvan priest; Mashtots did not know Aghvan, wanted to invent an alphabet for them and invented with the help of Beniamen in Constantinople

Beniamen, possibly an Armenian from Syunik

Mashtots travels to Vagharshapat, then to Aghvank

mission to Byzantine Armenia helped linguistically unite Armenians on both sides

travels to Aghvank, to Չողա, not Partav; bishop Eremia, King Arsvagh(en), Aswagen

Mashtots founded schools, later tradition said that he was based near Shamakhi, St. Stepanos monastery

Aghvan Bible translation in 423

then moved to Baghasakan, Northern Caucasus

missions to Gardman then again to Georgia, King Archil (Ardziugh) welcomed him;

Archil of Iberia

moved to Gugark, Tashir canton

devoted last years to Bible study with Sahak, made new translations, numerous ճառեր, continues preaching

may have possibly made pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Mashtots and Sahak translated the Bible and other church-related works. Mashtots had began in Samosata with the Book of Proverbs, then the Gospels. Mashtots had completed translation of the Bible when he returned to Vagharshapat from Parskahayk.

Most scholars believe translation was done from Syriac, namely Peshitta Acharian believed from Greek in 405-406 Sakak had a greater role

in the latter decades, new books were translated and numerous Armenian schools were founded, while monasteries became educational centers

monasteries became educational centers

after the death of Sahak, Mesrop was locum tenens Catholicos for six months.

Փաստորեն, ինչպես Հստակ վկայում է Կիրակոս Գանձակեցին, Մաշտոցը Սահակի մահից հետ ոորոշ ժամանակ զբաղեցրել է կաթողիկոսական աթոռը: Սա կարեւոր մի տեղեկություն է, որն անտեսվել է Մաշտոցի կենսագիրների եւ ուսումնասիրողների կողմից: Միայն Մ արք. Օրմանյանն է նկատել, որ Մաշտոցը «ՍաՀակի ժամանակէն Վաղարշապատի մէջ անոր փոխանորդութիւնը կըվարէր, միեւնոյն կերպով իր պաշտօնը շարունակեց»:

Death and burial

The church of Mashtots in Oshakan (left) and the grave of Mashtots inside the church (right).

Mashtots died in Vagharshapat on mehekan 13

13 Mehekan = Feb. 17

According to Movses Khorenatsi, when Mesrop Mashtots died in 440, three options were discussed for his burial place: his native Taron; Goghtn, where he had begun his missionary work; and next to the graves of other saints in Vagharshapat, Armenia's capital and seat of the Catholicos. His body was eventually taken by Hmayeak Mamikonian, a military commander and the brother of Vardan Mamikonian, and Vahan Amatuni, Armenia's Persian-appointed hazarapet (chief of finances), to Oshakan, the latter's native village. This is attested by both Koriun and Ghazar Parpetsi.

Մաշտոցը վախճանվել է 440 թվականի փետրվարի 17-ին Վաղարշապատում և թաղվել Օշական գյուղում:

Saint Mesrop Mashtots Church

hy:Հայոց այբուբենի հուշակոթող (Օշական)

Works

first work is Book of Proverbs, first in Armenian literature.

Sahak and Mashtots are traditionally believed to have authored five books of the Armenian Church: 1) Ժամագիրք 2) Պատարագամատույց 3) Շարակնոց 4) Մաշտոց կամ Ծիսական; most significant ritual book of the Armenian Church. Acharian noted that it is not written by Mashtots, but by 10th century catholicos

next most significant is Sharakan, traditionally attributed to Mashtots

The Story of Nerses [Shnorhali], traditionally attributed to Mashtots, but remains questionable

Աստվածաշնչի հայերեն թարգմանության պատմությունից http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/3519/

Music

http://www.matenadaran.am/ftp/data/Banber7/9.N.Tahmizyan.pdf

A Brief Historical Overview of Armenian Sacred Music and Neumes. Source: Musicology Today . Oct-Dec2015, Issue 24, p11-20. 10p. Author(s): Shahnazaryan, Artur http://www.musicologytoday.ro/BackIssues/Nr.24/studies1.php

Veneration

Mashtots on a 1776 miniature (left) and a painting by an unknown 18th century Armenian artist (right).

Mashtots is a saint of the Armenian Apostolic and Armenian Catholic churches. He is sometimes referred to by Armenian churchmen as "The Saint of Oshakan" (Օշականի Սուրբը). There are at least two chants (sharakan) and several canticles (gandz) dedicated to Mashtots and Sahak. A number of churches in modern and historical Armenia and the Armenian diaspora are named after St. Mesrop, Sts. Mesrop and Sahak or the Holy Translators.

He is regarded as the first great vardapet.

The Armenian Apostolic Church has two major days of feast dedicated to Mashtots. The first is the Feast of the Holy Translators (Սուրբ Թարգմանչաց, Surb T’argmanchats), which is celebrated on the second Saturday of October. It was declared a national holiday in 2001. Acharian postulates that it was established no earlier than the 12th century. It is dedicated to Mashtots, Yeghishe, Movses Khorenatsi, David the Invincible, Gregory of Narek and Nerses Shnorhali. Today pilgrimages to the grave of Mashtots in Oshakan are made on this feast. In the Soviet period it became a secular festival.

The second, the Feast of Sahak and Mashtots, is celebrated on the 33rd day after the Pentecost, on Thursdays, between June 11 and July 16. Acharian considered it the continuation of the original feast dedicated to Mashtots. It was on this feast that pilgrimages to Mashtots' grave in Oshakan were made until the mid-20th century. With the rise of national consciousness in the 19th century, it came to be celebrated in large Armenian communities in Tiflis and Constantinople.

Commemorations

The celebration of the 1500th anniversary of the Armenian alphabet in Etchmiadzin in 1912 with Catholicos George V in the middle and Stepanos Nersissian's portrait of Mashtots hanging overhead (left) and a 1962 Soviet stamp celebrating the 1600th anniversary of the birth of Mashtots (right).

Mashtots on a 1,000 dram bill.

The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrated the 1500th anniversary of the Armenian alphabet in 1912–13[3] and the 1600th anniversary of the birth of Mashtots in 1961.

In May 1962 the 1600th anniversary of the birth of Mashtots was marked with "massive official celebrations" in Soviet Armenia, which had a "powerful impact on Armenian national pride." Vahakn Dadrian noted that Yerevan became an "arena of nationalist fervor and outburst." The statue of Mashtots was ceremonially opened in front of the Matenadaran on May 26. The Matenadaran, established three years earlier, was named after Mashtots on that day according to a government decree.

In a speech at the Yerevan Opera Theater, Soviet Armenian Prime Minister Anton Kochinyan proclaimed that it was the Soviet government that made "Mesropian literature the property of the whole nation and opened the alphabet for every Armenian child." Viktor Ambartsumian, president of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, declared that while Mashtots' invention formerly served Armenian national interests, it now serves communist ideas, fraternity of peoples, world peace and progress. It was also celebrated in Moscow's House of the Unions where Armenian (Silva Kaputikyan and Nairi Zarian) and Soviet (Vadim Kozhevnikov, Marietta Shaginyan, Mykola Bazhan, Andrei Lupan) writers gave speeches. In 1962 the Soviets put into circulation a stamp commemorating Mashtots.

The Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots was established by the Armenian government in 1993. It is awarded for "outstanding achievements in the spheres of science, invention, education, health, culture and social activities in the Republic of Armenia, as well as for activities aimed at promoting scientific-technical, economic and cultural cooperation with foreign states." The St. Sahak-St. Mesrop award was established by the Armenian Church in 1978.

Mashtots and the Matenadaran were featured on the 1,000 Armenian dram banknote of the first series, put into ciculation in 1994.

The widest street in central Yerevan, called Stalin, then Lenin Avenue in the Soviet period, was renamed after Mashtots in 1990. Between 1985 and 1996, one of Yerevan's eight districts, what are now the districts of Ajapnyak and Davitashen, was called Mashtots.

Institutions named after Mashtots include the Matenadaran, the central library of Stepanakert, the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University, the Mesrop Center for Armenian Studies at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, a number of schools and universities in Armenia, Artsakh and educational and cultural institutions in the Armenian diaspora.

Legacy and recognition

Modern Armenian scholarship recognizes Mashtots as the founder of Armenian literature and education and as the "greatest enlightener and first teacher" of the Armenian people. The figure of Mashtots has become a "symbol that embodies the Armenian language, church, and school system, connecting each to one another." In Armenian narratives, Mashtots is portrayed as the key figure who preserved the national language and the nation against cultural absorption.

James R. Russell describes Mashtots as "the culture-hero of Armenian civilization." Anthony D. Smith noted that Mashtots, with his invention, helped "convert and unite Armenians as a chosen people." Gerard Libaridian argued that Mashtots and the alphabet "constitute the most important symbols of cultural identity and regeneration."

Koriun, his biographer, compared Mashtots' return to Armenia after the invention of the alphabet to Moses' descent from Mount Sinai. In another passage, Koriun compared the work of Mashtots and Sahak to the work of the Four Evangelists. Modern scholars have compared Mashtots to Gregory the Illuminator, often describing the former as the "second illuminator." Russell argues that both were visionaries, found a champion for their program in the king, looked to the West, had very strong pro-Hellenic bias, trained the children of pagan priests and assembled their own disciples to spread the faith through learning. Levon Ter-Petrosyan, philologist and Armenia's first president, postulates that Mashtots and Gregory the Illuminator had the most influence on the course of Armenian history.

Later historical figures have been compared to Mashtots, including Mkhitar Sebastatsi (1676–1749), Khachatur Abovian (1809-1848), and Komitas (1869–1935).

Historical assessment

A panel painting of Mashtots by Van Khachatur (1958–59) at the entrance hall of the Armenian Academy of Sciences headquarters in Yerevan.

In his 1904 book on Mashtots, the historian Leo called him the greatest of all Armenia's historical heroes and contrasted the continued legacy of Mashtots with the legacy of Tigranes the Great's brief empire. Similarily, historian Ashot Hovhannisyan described Mashtots as the "greatest benefactor" of the Armenian people, while the linguist Eduard Aghayan called him simply the "greatest Armenian", a view that has been expressed by others as well. Aghayan further described Mashtots as the "greatest linguist of his time in the broadest sense of the word." Catholicos Vazgen I stated that "everything truly Armenian" was born out of the vision and genius of Mashtots. Viktor Ambartsumian, the long-time president of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, stated in 1962։ "The history of our culture has given many outstanding figures, but of all these figures, the Armenian people owe the most to Mashtots."

Soviet Armenian historiography portrayed Mashtots as a secular figure, in line with the official Marxist-Leninist interpretation of history. In a 1991 book Catholicos of Cilicia Karekin I complained that his work was being "depicted with colours of purely political, nationalistic and secular nature." The prominent Soviet-era historian Hakob Manandian argued in a 1940 pamphlet that although the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mashtots was primarily aimed at spreading Christianity, in the long-run it was also politically significant. Armenians entered the "family of ancient cultured peoples" and developed an original culture and rich literature.

At the height of the Karabakh movement in 1989, Rafayel Ishkhanian characterized Mesrop Mashtots as "our most genuine, our greatest independentist [...] who, at the moment of the disintegration of the Armenian state, gave us the Armenian alphabet, language and literature, gave us Armenian schools and, as a result, although without political independence, we kept our moral and cultural sovereignty." Catholic Armenian Archbishop and scholar Levon Zekiyan further argued that Mashtots "was our greatest political thinker." Zekiyan argues that Mashtots laid the foundations of a national ideology, "which gave the Armenians a qualitatively new self-awareness [...] in the wider cultural-anthropological sense of a vision of the world, or Weltanschauung."

Artistic depictions

Paintings of Mashtots by 18th century Italian artists Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Francesco Maggiotto.

The fresco inside the Oshakan church. Mashtots is depicted standing, to the left of the window.

Paintings

No contemporary portraits of Mashtots have been found. The first artistic depictions appeared in Armenian illuminated manuscripts (miniatures), primarily in sharakans and haysmavurks, starting from the 14th century. These manuscripts, around 20 in total were created in Constantinople, Etchmiadzin, Sanahin, Haghpat and elsewhere, depict Mashtots with a halo.

In the 18th century Mashtots was portrayed by two Italian painters. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo portrayed Mashtots with a pseudo-Armenian alphabet on the frescoes on the ceiling above the staircase of the Würzburg Residence in Bavaria, while Francesco Maggiotto's Italianate portrait of Mashtots hangs at the Armenian Catholic monastery of San Lazzaro degli Armeni near Venice.

Stepanos Nersissian's 1882 painting of Mashtots, commissioned by a wealthy Armenian from Elisabethpol, is considered the most widely recognized artistic depiction of Mashtots.

During the Soviet period, numerous Armenian artists portrayed Mashtots. Some of the more prominent paintings of Mashtots kept at Armenian galleries include portraits by Mher Abeghian (1930), Tigran Tokmajyan (1959–60), Yervand Kochar (1962), Rudolf Khachatrian (1962), Ashot Zorian (1962), and Suren Safarian (1962). At a 1962 Yerevan exhibition paintings of Mashtots by as many as 50 Armenian artists were displayed.

Van Khachatur (Vanik Khachatryan) created a panel painting of Mashtots in 1958–59 for the entrance hall of the Armenian Academy of Sciences in Yerevan. Hovhannes Minasian and Henrik Mamian created a fresco, in 1961–64, for Saint Mesrop Mashtots Church in Oshakan, where he is buried. In 1981 a tapestry titled The Armenian Alphabet, where Mashtots is the central figure, was completed by French weavers based on a painting by Grigor Khanjyan. It is kept at the Pontifical Residence at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. In 1992–94 Khanjyan created a large mural of the same painting inside the Yerevan Cascade (now the Cafesjian Center for the Arts).

Statues and sculptures

The statue of Mesrop Mashtots in front of the Matenadaran (1962).

The statue of Mashtots and Sahak in front of Yerevan State University, erected in 2002.

The most recognizable statue of Mashtots, depicted with his disciple and biographer Koriun, is located in front of the Matenadaran and was erected by Ghukas Chubaryan in 1962. Although it was not immediately well-received, it is now a Yerevan landmark. A statue of Mashtots and Sahak, erected by Ara Sargsyan in the 1940s, was put up in front of the main campus of Yerevan State University in 2002. Yervand Kochar created two sculptures of Mashtots in gypsum (1952) and plasticine (1953), which are now displayed at his museum (???). Ara Sargsyan created a bronze plaquette in 1957/59.

A statue of Mashtots and Koriun, by Levon Tokmajyan (1978–79), was erected near the central square of Ejmiatsin (Vagharshapat).

A tuff statue of Mashtots and King Vramshapuh was erected at the Alphabet Park near the village of Artashavan in 2005 (???). Another statue was erected in Kapan in 2018.

Statues, busts and sculptures of Mashtots have been erected in the Armenian diaspora, including in historical communities such as at the seminary in Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter, the library of the Vank Cathedral in New Julfa, Isfahan, Iran, the Melkonian Educational Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus and in newly-established communities, such as on the Armenian Cathedral of Moscow (2013) and in Alfortville, Paris (2015). In Akhalkalaki, the center of the Armenian-populated Javakheti (Javakhk) region of Georgia, the statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin was replaced with that of Mashtots in 1992. In 2009 a replica of the Matenadaran statue was erected in Altmets (Nor Luys), an Armenian village near Sochi, Russia.

Literature and music

Mashtots has featured prominently in Armenian poetry. In one poem («Սուրբ Մեսրովբի տոնին»), the mid-19th century poet Mikayel Nalbandian ranked him above Moses. In another, Nalbandian lamented the state of the church in Oshakan where Mashtots is buried. In his 1912 poem "St. Mashtots", Siamanto compared him to Moses and called him "God of Thought." In a 1913 poem, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenia's national poet, praised Mashtots and Sahak as luminaries. Paruyr Sevak, a celebrated Soviet Armenian poet, characterized Mashtots as a great statesman who won a "bloodless battle, which cannot be compared to any of the victories of our glorious commanders" in a 1962 poem. It was set to stage in 2011. A popular poem by Silva Kaputikyan, "Words for my Son", reads: "By Mesrop's holy genius, it [the Armenian language] has become letter and parchment; it has become hope, become a flag."

In the early 1970s, the popular song "Glorious Nation" («Ազգ փառապանծ»), written by Arno Babajanian and Ashot Grashi, and frequently performed by Raisa Mkrtchyan, included the line "The powerful language of Mashtots is the bright hope of every Armenian."

https://archive.org/details/illustratedarmen00gaidrich/page/nundefined/mode/1up?view=theater as young priest [4] as high priest [5]

Raw

The idea of being the first Christian nation, and a chosen people, was propagated throughout the centuries by Armenian historians (many of them priests) and the church itself. Once the Armenian alphabet was invented in early fifth century (by the monk Mesrop Mashtots), it added another layer of uniqueness to identity. It was seen as a God-inspired alphabet to translate the sacred texts of the new religion. A cultural ‘golden century’ began with the production of religious and secular texts, including manuscripts on history. Many of these texts combined the religious and the ‘national’. For example, the fifth- to sixth-century historian, Eghishe, stressed both the importance of fighting for Christianity or Truth, and the need to protect ancestral customs; he combined personal salvation with ‘national’ survival.

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Levon Zekiyan

the invention of the Armenian alphabet by St. Mesrop Mashtots with the blessing and collaboration of the Catholicos St. Sahak and King Vramshapuh.

Among the various dates advanced (392–8 by Nikoghos Adontz, 392 by H. Manandian, 405 by Artashes Martirosyan, 406 by Ashot Abrahamian, 407 by Manouk Abeghian, 407–8 by Nerses Akinian, 413 by Galoust Ter-Mkrtchian), that of 404, proposed by Hrachia Adjarian, Norayr Bogharian, Poghos Ananian and Artashes Matevosian, seems to me to be the most probable.

It is no exaggeration to characterize this invention as the most important and emblematic event in the life of the Armenian people.

The first great consequence of the creation of the alphabet was the profound rooting of the Christian faith in the Armenian spirit.
It also started a strong, polyvalent and fecund process not simply of alphabetization, but also and primarily of acculturation. 
It gave birth to a great period in Armenian letters, a period whose splendour would accompany the Armenian people as a source of inspiration, light and support all through their history. 
Third – and this is, I believe, its most original and creative feature, one that explains the depth of impact of the previously mentioned effects – it gave the Armenian people not merely a self-awareness sufficient to distinguish them from the neighbouring nations, but also an ‘ideology’, in the wider cultural-anthropological sense of a vision of the world, or Weltanschauung.

Thus the invention of the alphabet opened to the Armenian people a new path, a distinctive way of being, feeling, thinking as a nation, and in the given case as a Christian nation. ‘Nation’ in the given context has a peculiar meaning, different from the idea of ‘nation’ as developed in Western modernity in the frame of the nation-state ideology following the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

Historians and thinkers of outstanding stature, such as Koriun, Eghishe (Elisaeus), Ghazar (Lazarus) of Parpi, Sebeos (Eusebius) and above all Movses (Moses) Khorenatsi, became the great interpreters of that invention, of its meaning and message in the life of the Armenians. Without going into the enduring controversies about the precise chronology of some of these, we can consider the period of the fifth through to the seventh century not only as a golden era in the Armenian culture, but also as the high point in the formation of the Armenian ‘ideology’, both as a nation and as a Christian nation. It is also in this golden age of Armenian culture that the foundations of other outstanding achievements in architecture, sculpture and miniature painting were laid.

After a long period of gestation in the pre-Christian era, the man who laid the foundations of what I called above the ‘Armenian ideology’, which gave the Armenians a qualitatively new self-awareness, was Mesrop Mashtots with his great invention of the alphabet. Movses Khorenatsi, honoured as the ‘father of Armenian historiography’, has been its most ingenious interpreter. I shall try to sum up here the essence of this vision.

Besides this new theological vision of ethno-cultural identity and the consequent ‘incarnation’ in it of the Christian faith, Mesrop’s invention implied at once a profoundly new vision of ethnic/national identity even in its immanent and earthly dimensions.

The ancestral tradition of the Armenians considers the alphabet – composed originally of thirty-six letters, though in the late Middle Age two additional letters were added – as the ‘soldiers’or the ‘bastion’of Armenian self-defence against assimilation or extinction, in other words as one of the main secrets of Armenian survival, which itself has something of a miraculous character. But to ascribe this ‘miracle’onl y to the fact that in giving the alphabet Mesrop gave the Armenians some very clear sign or instrument to distinguish themselves from the neighbouring peoples – as is sometimes suggested – would be quite reductive and would not exhaust, I think, the deeper meaning and stronger influence of the alphabet’s function in the life of the Armenian people. At a more profound level Mesrop invented a new vision of ethnic/national identity by detaching it from its connection with political power and displacing it radically on to a new plane, that of culture. Khorenatsi even goes so far as to introduce Mesrop in his history with the following words: ‘Seeing that the Kingdom of Armenians had come to an end … Mesrop … ’.7 This certainly may be seen as an interpretation with the benefit of hindsight – while the 387 AD division of the Armenian kingdom between Byzantines and Sasanians may be said to have marked its effective demise, its actual extinction in Eastern Armenia occurred only in 428 with the deposition of the last Arshakuni king, Artashes IV – but is nevertheless a perceptive reading of events in that Mesrop’s invention with all its ‘ideological’ implications supposed, no doubt, some ingenious and far-reaching intuition about the destiny of the Armenian people.

The leading idea in Mesrop’s invention, its nerve centre, from an ethnocultural viewpoint, is the keen self-awareness that he inspired in the Armenian people, supported by a new and organic vision of language, culture, ethnic identity and related questions. The lack of such a developed ‘national ideology’ in this early Middle Age, between the fifth and seventh centuries, or in simpler terms the absence of a Mesrop Mashtots figure, may explain how and why the Syriac and Coptic populations, who already possessed a developed literary heritage, allowed themselves to be culturally arabized to a very large extent. It may also explain why the subsequent history of the two other Caucasian cultures – the Georgian and the Albanian – to develop their own alphabet, almost simultaneously with the Armenian in the first half of the fifth century, was so different from that of the Armenians. Georgian culture experienced its first great literary fluorescence only in the early seventh century, while Albanian culture never reached such an achievement, and indeed left behind a very sparse written legacy. The fact that, according to the Armenian tradition, Mesrop was also responsible for the formation of the Georgian and Caucasian Albanian

alphabets is indicative of the role ascribed to him in establishing Armenian cultural ascendancy. While it will be difficult, if not impossible, to establish the veracity or otherwise of this tradition on the basis of philology and textual criticism, it is nevertheless difficult to understand and contextualize the fourth and fifth-century developments in Caucasian Christian history without recognizing Armenia’s role as a model or pattern.

Movses Khorenatsi was, as noted above, the keenest and deepest interpreter of Mesrop’s idea and ideals. He elaborated them, drawing on the Greek and Jewish traditions, into an original synthesis. Among many key ideas, borrowed from ancient Greece, that of politeia assumes a peculiar importance in his synthesis. From Jewish thought he borrowed the idea of ethnos, ‘nation’, but at the same time he detached it from its strictly religious content. In fact, he had to face the thorny problem of how to put together within the same concept of nation the old pre-Christian, pagan ancestors of the Armenians and their actual Christian reality. He resolved the problem by formulating an idea of nation whose unity is based mainly on its language, its culture, its common feelings and values, common struggles and hopes. I think it would not be misleading or exaggerated to say that, in the context of Mediterranean culture, Khorenatsi is the first to propose a secular concept of the nation, if we do not understand secular to denote ‘ignoring religion’, much less ‘rejecting religion’.

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Redgate

The story of the last years of Arsacid kingship in Armenia, c.384—428, was one of weakness, decline and foreign domination, culminating in abolition. But there was one glimmer of light in the gloom. The partnership between king and patriarch was renewed, evangelization was extended, and the church was equipped for the role which Tiridates IV had envisaged and which it was to play, albeit without a royal partner, over the next centuries. This achievement was the work of Sahak, Patriarch Nerses’ son, himself appointed patriarch, probably in 387, by Khosrov IV, and of Mesrop, possibly Sahak’s second cousin, an ascetic and scholar.

Under Sahak’s patronage and with royal backing, Mesrop formulated an Armenian alphabet, probably in 400. The details and dating of this invention have prompted much discussion, especially with regard to the testimony of Mesrop’s biographer and pupil, Koriwn, that for two years letters of Syrian origin, learnt from a Syrian bishop, Daniel, and then perfected, were used, but that after these letters had proved deficient, Mesrop fashioned a new alphabet, in Edessa, and perfected it in consultation with a Greek scribe, in Samosata. Modern studies indicate that a twenty-sign code did indeed undergo two stages of development, under the influence of Greek, and that Mesrop’s changes were to improve legibility and to represent sounds particular to Armenian.1 He introduced only one new letter, -f (kc), a form of the Greek monogram for Christ, placing it last, so that the alphabet begins with (a) representing God, and ends with Christ.

The motivation behind Mesrop’s creations was concern for his people’s salvation rather than for its worldly prospects, but their timing may nevertheless have been related to the contemporary political situation. In the late fourth century Persia was probably tolerant of Armenian contacts with Christians in Mesopotamia, but suspicious of any sign of Roman influence or sympathy. Mesrop’s rejection of the ‘Syriac’ letters may have been facilitated by the accession to the Persian throne of Yazdgard I (399-421), who in his early years was sympathetic to the Christian West.

Once the alphabet was settled, Armenian scholars embarked on a programme of translating and teaching. Their first translation of the Bible betrays the influence of Syria but its revision, after 431, shows that of the Greek church. Instruction was provided, at court and in the provinces. Students of Mesrop left Armenia to study Syriac and Greek and to translate patristic works. Many of these translations have been identified, by analysis of style and language, and they suggest that a large number of translators with a common training was involved. Mesrop’s circle also produced original works. His pupil Eznik composed a treatise on God, dealing with the origins of evil and with free will, known as the Refutation o f the Sects. Koriwn wrote a biography of Mesrop in about 443. The Teaching of St Gregory, a long exposition of the faith incorporated in the History of Agathangelos, is, probably, a representation of Mesrop’s preaching, by one of his group. It betrays the influence of works of John Chrysostom (patriarch of Constantinople 39 8 -4 0 4 ), of Basil of Caesarea (c.330-79) and of Cyril of Jerusalem (313-86).2 The influence of Jerusalem is also apparent in the Lectionary used in the Armenian church until the eleventh century. Based upon one used in fifth-century Jerusalem, it was probably adopted in Armenia, under the aegis of Sahak, between 417 and 439.

This dynamic educational programme was not restricted to Persian Armenia. Sahak and Mesrop obtained permission from Constantinople (capital of the Roman Empire since the time of Constantine I), to include Roman Armenia, where schools were set up. Mesrop’s missionary work also took him to Siwnikc, and to the kingdoms of Iberia and Albania, for both of which he invented alphabets. There has been debate about whether a vernacular Albanian literature ever came about, but it seems that it did not and that it was Armenian language and culture which predominated in Albania.

These ecclesiastical-political tensions may partially explain why Koriwn, in his biography of Sahak’s partner, Mesrop, parades biblical references to legitimize Mesrop, as a new Moses, as a follower of the apostle Paul in his educational work, and as an example to be emulated. Koriwn’s purpose was, presumably, to defend Sahak’s party.4

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Panossian

It is likely, as George Bournoutian suggests, that the King of Armenia (Vramshapuh) and its religious leader (Catholicos Sahak) were conscious of this need for cultural unity for the survival of their people. They therefore commissioned a learned clergyman-scholar, Mesrop Mashtots, to create an alphabet for the Armenian language.23 He accomplished this between 400 and 405 and soon afterwards, along with his students, opened schools throughout Armenia to teach the new script.

For Mashtots and the church leaders, teaching the new Armenian alphabet (and therefore religious texts) was inextricably tied to their Christian missionary zeal. They wanted to convert the entire Armenian population, especially the mass of the people who had not yet heard the Christian message, to the new faith. But through this religious conversion church leaders were also producing a uniform literary tradition—and vice versa. In a crucial respect they were ‘creating’ Armenians. It is important to note the centralised and planned manner in which this was done at this juncture of Armenian history. At a stroke, again, a unique textual basis was established with the invention (rather than evolution) of a new script. It seems that the work of eighteenth-century nationalist intellectuals was being done in the fifth.For Mashtots and the church leaders, teaching the new Armenian alphabet (and therefore religious texts) was inextricably tied to their Christian missionary zeal. They wanted to convert the entire Armenian population, especially the mass of the people who had not yet heard the Christian message, to the new faith. But through this religious conversion church leaders were also producing a uniform literary tradition—and vice versa. In a crucial respect they were ‘creating’ Armenians. It is important to note the centralised and planned manner in which this was done at this juncture of Armenian history. At a stroke, again, a unique textual basis was established with the invention (rather than evolution) of a new script. It seems that the work of eighteenth-century nationalist intellectuals was being done in the fifth.

With the new religion on the one hand and the new alphabet on the other the fifth century became the ‘golden’ period of Armenian learning and language. The Bible was of course immediately translated/ transcribed into Armenian, as were other religious works, Greek scientific texts and philosophical treatises (including Aristotle). A rich tradition of manuscript writing began. Mashtots’s entrusted pupil, Koriun, wrote the first original composition in Armenian (midfifth century): a biography of his master. Soon thereafter Armenians started to write their own history in their own language.24

The alphabet gave Armenians a unique textual-literary basis for their language and linguistic identity. Greek, Latin, Aramaic or Syriac scripts were no longer needed for written communication. This further isolated Armenians from external cultural influences as it made their written language even more inaccessible to people outside the community, while it standardised written communication among Armenians themselves, particularly at the elite and religious levels. The ‘divinely inspired’ script25 eventually acquired the aura of a ‘secret code’—specific only to those who spoke Armenian. Language, script and religion all complemented each another in emphasising the distinctness of the Armenians vis-à-vis others, while further binding them together through common cultural markers.26

According to myth (propagated by some of the early teachers themselves) the alphabet was revealed to Mashtots in a divine vision. This made the actual script the product of Godly intervention and therefore more acceptable to the newly converted Christians. Consequently, it is interesting to note, the sacred basis of the Armenian alphabet has made it more important than the language itself in many instances. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was not uncommon for Armenians who did not speak Armenian to write other languages which they did speak, particularly Turkish in the Ottoman empire, in the Armenian script.Books were published in this format (mostly religious texts) and there were even Bibles (printed by Catholic and Protestant missionaries for Armenians) that were in Turkish but in the Armenian alphabet.The actual script is often revered more than the language itself. This remains true to this day, with the symbolic value of the alphabet. Its image, along with Mount Ararat and other such symbols, adorns many homes both in Armenia and in the diaspora— even in households where Armenian is not necessarily spoken. Since its inception the alphabet has not changed, except with the addition of two new letters nine centuries later.

The celebration of the alphabet and the literary work of the fifth century is sanctioned by the Armenian church as an official holiday (in October) called Surb Tarkmanchats (Holy Translators). It is noted both by the church and the laity in Armenia and in the diaspora as a celebration of Armenian literature and books. It was also celebrated by cultural-literary organisations in Soviet Armenia.

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Payaslian

In Persian Armenia, the Arshakunis remained in power for several more years. During that time, under Vramshapuh (r. 389–417), in reaction to the partition of Armenia, they inaugurated another policy—the invention of the Armenian alphabet—which proved to be pivotal to the course of Armenian history and national identity. Both the crown (Vramshapuh) and the church (Catholicos Sahak) viewed the partition of Armenia as a formula for assimilation and as a loss of their respective juridical, political, and administrative sovereignty, with potentially fatal consequences for their institutional and financial survival.50 The oral tradition, they believed, was insufficient for the demarcation of distinct national cultural identity. The church was particularly sensitive to this threat since paganism and Zoroastrianism had not been completely eradicated. Taking advantage of a relatively more tolerant political environment, they commissioned Mesrop Mashtots, a clergy, to develop an alphabet. The following years witnessed enormous efforts by learned religious leaders and scholars to translate Greek and Syriac Christian texts into Armenian and to strengthen the new national culture through Armenianization. The church gradually gained control over Armenian culture, literature, and education and, with the support of the state, instituted a Christian hegemonic, “totalizing discourse.”51 Armenian culture, identity, and history came to be viewed nearly exclusively through the prism of Christian theology.

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Walker

As if in defiance of the great-power partition of Armenia in AD 387, and of the feuding nobility, within two decades there had occurred an event which was to unite the Armenians at a profound level. This was the invention in 404 of the Armenian alphabet by the scribe Mesrop-Mashtots. His alphabet precisely reflected the sounds of the Armenian language; it was written from left to right, initially with 36 letters. Armenian rapidly progressed from being a marketplace vernacular – for Greek and Syriac were the languages of scholarship and of the liturgy – to the status of a literary tongue. The alphabet is still in use today, and has unquestionably assisted the survival of the Armenians as a people.

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Nersessian

The Armenian alphabet, known as aybuben (a term coined on the Greek model by combining the names of the first two letters of the Armenian script), was created in 406 by the priest Mesrop Mashtots(died 17 February 440). This alphabet,comprising 36 characters, has been the medium for the expression of all three phases of the evolution of the Armenian language: Classical (Grabar), Middle Armenian (Mijin) and Modern (Ashkharhabar). In devising the Armenian alphabet, Mesrop was guided by the principle that each letter should represent only one sound, and that all sounds in the language should be represented by one symbol each.

In Armenian tradition King Solomon is credited with parts of the book of Proverbs and the first verse of his book 'Chanatchel zimastut'iwn ew zkhrat,imanal zbans hancharoy' (To knowwisdom and advice, and perceive the words of the wise) was the first line of text translated into Classical Armenian with the Armenian letters invented by Mesrop Mashtots in AD 406.

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Kurkjian

Mesrop-Mashtotz The wise and beneficent reign of Vramshapouh was made particularly illustrious through the agency of a man of exceptional ability and merit named Mesrop-Mashtotz.b A native of the rural community of Taron, Mesrop had studied in one of the schools established by the Katholikos Nerses, acquiring among other things, a mastery of the Greek, Syrian and Persian languages. After several years' service in the army, he was appointed royal secretary. But he was not satisfied in this routine position; his soul was stirred by ideas. He resigned his post and entered into the service of the Church.

But in assuming clerical garb, Mashtotz could not be content with passive virtues. Intellectual pursuits in those days centered in the Church. Since Rome under Constantine had adopted Christianity, science, literature, benevolence and lawmaking had all come into the field of the clergy. Enthusiastic, yet serene and serious, Mesrop had chosen such a career — to preach, to serve, to enlighten, to educate. He was forty years old in 394 when he took over his first field in Goghten, modern Agoulis, in the province of Ararat, where he began teaching and preaching with several associates. Thereafter, he moved to other areas, finding spiritual darkness in the mountain districts in the north and east of the country, where paganism had numerous followers.

Katholikos sees need for Alphabet After the adoption of Christianity by Armenia in apostolic days, its spread was slow, because Church and community remained far apart. Readings, prayers and chants were conducted in Syriac or p132 Greek. Clergymen were mostly aliens who were not acquainted with the Armenian language. Occasional translations did not avail. Congregations could not memorize "anything, not half," exclaims Phaustus Buzandatsi, "not even a trifling trace nor gleam." By a happy coincidence, the Patriarchal See at this time was occupied by Sahak Partev, a scholarly and zealous leader.c To him Mesrop confided his concern, and found that the mind of the Katholikos had long been occupied by the same problem. What was the remedy? They agreed that sermons, prayers and chants should be heard in the people's vernacular; yes, and more than that, a translation of the Scriptures. But there could be no written word, because Armenians had no alphabet with which to write it. The old cuneiform or hieroglyphic, once used in temples and in courts, had been discarded and replaced by Persian or Greek or Syriac. An alphabet was necessary.

Work on Alphabet begun Another happy coincidence was that so wise a King as Vramshapouh sat upon the throne. He became interested in the project at once, and was its great patron, materially and morally. He told Mesrop that he had heard of an ancient set of Armenian characters in the library of a Syrian bishop named Daniel, in Edessa, and Mesrop, in company with several younger men, hurried to that place to obtain the precious treasure. It was brought to Armenia, but after two years of experiment, proved defective and inadequate. Other clues were followed by Mesrop's young men, all devoted to research — noble pilgrimages, not for commercial or military purposes. There were two centers, Samosat, on the Euphrates in Byzantine territory, and Edessa (Urfa), Syrian under Persian rule, between which the young students were divided, some in each. One of Mesrop's disciples, Korioun, his biographer, tells us how tirelessly his master worked, day and night, how eagerly he traveled everywhere in the hope of obtaining some advice or new idea, how feverishly he toiled and worried and prayed.

Alphabet and Grammar completed, 405 At last, in the year 405, his efforts were crowned with success. According to some ancient Armenian chroniclers, by the addition of twelve letters to those of Daniel — seven vowels and five consonants — p133 Mesrop had created what became the present Armenian alphabet6 (the letters "o" and "f" were added in the twelfth century). A Greek expert in penmanship, Rhupanus, arranged the letters, 36 in all, after the Greek order.d The alphabet answers perfectly the phonetic requirements of the mother tongue, and through its use, one can give the exact sound of almost every word in any other language. Mesrop also produced a grammar. The Armenian language had of course always had its fixed grammatical forms, unwritten rules, and Mesrop now reduced these to writing.

Legend of miraculous origin The tradition that the alphabet was a miraculous creation was permitted to spread in order to pacify the Greek ecclesiastics and the Emperor Theodosius II, who saw in it a new weapon by which the national spirit might be strengthened. And yet it was indeed a miracle! The invention of the alphabet which has assured to this day the preservation of the nation, despite centuries of tribulation and the vicissitudes of fortune, was little short of wonderful in that critical period of Armenia.

Translations Let us consider the factors which helped the miracle to take form. Two objectives prompted Mesrop — the diffusion of the Christian faith in his country and the emancipation of the Armenians from the influence of foreign preachers. He and Sahak had perceived the ominous signs of an oncoming torrent, and hastened to construct a bulwark against it. The saintly Katholikos busied himself in translating the Old and New Testaments into Armenian, and encouraged the younger clerics to translate the works of the early Church fathers — the writings of Ephrem the Syrian, the Hexameron (six days of creation) of Basil of Caesarea, the homilies of John Chrysostom, the Ecclesiastic History of Eusebius, History of the Conversion of Edessa, the (apocryphal) correspondence of Jesus with Abgar by the Syrian Laboubna, the Syriac Liturgy and that of St. Basil. There are hymns attributed to Mesrop and Sahak.

Mesrop spreads knowledge Mesrop, the first apostle of Armenian education, now traveled through the country from province to province, from Vagharshapat to Goghten and thence to Vaspurakan, Sewniq, Artsakh, Kartman and even to remote mountain recesses inhabited by the most backward groups, whom Korioun describes as "beastly in habits, barbarians and monstrously inclined." Mesrop preached to these almost forgotten folk in their own dialects, instructed them and opened schools for them. The results were little short of phenomenal. A whole population began to feel the thirst for knowledge and was able to satisfy it. The country boy was taught, together with the offspring of nobility, the grandson of the pagan priest in company with the scion of the Illuminator's house. As time went on, men began to write originally in Armenian — Korioun, Eznik, Agathangelos, Phaustus. "Thus," writes Korioun, "the happy and most desirable country of Armeniaº became an object of admiration, indeed."

Oppression checked by the Emperor But the intellectual dawn was soon to be darkened by gloomy political clouds, These first appeared on the western horizon, where the Greek Governor of Western Armenia forbade the teaching of Armenian letters. A deputation composed of Mesrop and Vardan was dispatched to Constantinople to protest this ruling, and was successful. Emperor Theodosius II and his joint ruler Pulcheriae not only granted permission for the teaching of Armenian, but even provided appropriations from the civil list to finance the instruction. Finally, Mesrop was honored with the title "Akumit," ("a man of high learning") while Vardan was created a "Stratelat" or General.

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Abrahamian

Georgians deny Mashtots introduced the first version of the Georgian alphabet; Georgians consider this informationt oe be a later addition of the copyists; see Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze 1989, pp. 258-306; S. Muraviev's attempt to prove Mashtots' authorship by releaving a common constructing principle in the three Transcaucasian alphabets (1985). Azerbaijani scholars in their don't want Mashtots to be the inventor of the Albanian script (Mamedova, 1986, 6-7, 40)

The dispute between Armenians and Georgians may often be based on feelings of national pride, as in the dispute regarding Mashtots's invention of the Georgian alphabet

After all, the notion that an Armenian invented the Georgian script ipso facto reduces the national "prestige" of this script.

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Bournoutian

Both Catholicos Sahak and King Vramshapuh realized that in order to retain any measure of ecclesiastical and political control over a partitioned nation, the unifying factor of the Armenian language would be crucial. They asked Mesrop Mashtots, a learned scholar and clergyman, to create an alphabet, which would distinguish Armenia, linguistically and liturgically, from the powers surrounding it. Mashtots, who was bom in the province of Taron, had studied Greek and Syriac, and was employed by the hazarapet in the royal secretariat. According to his student, Koriun, who wrote a biography of his master in the mid-fifth century, Mashtots had been well versed in secular law and military arts before devoting himself to the religious life. He had traveled all over Armenia and fully recognized the threat of assimilation. Mashtots and a number of his students traveled, examined different alphabets, including samples of earlier attempts at an Armenian alphabet (most prominent the work of a Syrian bishop, Daniel), and consulted calligraphers. Using Greek, Syriac, and letters from other scripts, Mashtots, sometime around the year 405, shaped the thirty-six letters of the Armenian alphabet. To give the new alphabet a divine aura and make it more acceptable, legends were circulated which claimed that the alphabet, like the Ten Commandments, was bestowed on Mashtots in a divine vision. The miracle, however, was the alphabet itself, which represents the many distinct consonant sounds of Armenian and which has remained virtually unchanged for 1600 years. Mashtots’ students opened schools throughout the Armenian provinces to teach the new alphabet. Fortunately, the Sasanid monarchs during these years happened to be extremely tolerant, as was Emperor Theodosius II, who permitted Mashtots’ pupils to run schools in Byzantine Armenia as well. According to Armenian tradition, Mashtots then went on to develop alphabets for the Georgians and the Caucasian Albanians as well.

Immediately thereafter, Armenians entered upon a period of translating the major Christian and philosophical texts into Armenian. The first work to be translated was, not surprisingly, the Bible. The translation was made from the Syriac and Greek versions and is highly regarded by Biblical scholars. The catholicos and king enthusiastically supported the efforts of priests and scribes to translate and copy the writings of the early Christian fathers, the canons of Church councils and various liturgical works.

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Hovhannissian

աշտոցի ժամանակ և' պարսիկներր, և' հույներր Հայաստանի ու Հայերի նկատմամբ Հետամուտ Էին Համեմատաբար մեղմ քաղաքականության։ Նրանո համ աձուլողական ուղեգիծ ր տակավին չէր մտել սանձազերծված գործողությունների շրջանը։ Թեպետ և սրանք հետևում էին հայ կյանքի ամեն մի խէրր՜ տում ր նա խանձով ու կա и կածա մտ ությամ ր՝ այնուամենայնիվ հայոց գրերի նկատմամբ նրանք չունեցան խափանարար միջամտություն։ Կարելի է կարծել նույնիսկ, որ հույների և պարսիկների փոխադարձ ներհակությունը և Հայաստանի մասին ունեցած նրանց սուր կասկածամտությունը որոշ իմաստով Նույնիսկ նպաստեցին հայ գրերի ո լ գրականության արմատավորմանը։

Հայալեզու եկեղեցական գրականությունն ու քարոզչությունը հնարավորոլթյուն տվեց հայ եկեղեցականներին հրաժարվելու ասորի և հույն դասակիցների գործակցությունից և ծավալել իրենց գործունեությունը բացառապես ազգակից եկեղեցականների վրա հենված։ Հետագայում հայ եկեղեցին ազգային բնույթ ստացավ անգամ իր դավանաբանությամբ՝ սահմանելով ասորական եկեղեցու նե ստ որա կանութ յունի ց և հույն եկեղեցու քաղկեդոն ակ ան ութ յունից։

Ակներև է, որ Հարևան ժողովուրդների գրերի Հարցր կապված էր Մաշտոցի գործունեությունը զսպանակող քրիստոնեության պրոպագանդման ու տարածման խնդրի ներկա դեպքում Հեթանոսության դեմ Հարևան քրիստոնյա ժողովուրդների Հետ միասնական գաղափարական ճակատ Հարդարելու մտաՀոգության Հետ։

Կտրելով հազարամյակների ճանապարհը մաշտոցյան հանճարի շառայլը միայն լենինյան մեր դարաշրջնում Է} որ հասավ ամբողջ հայ աշխատավորության գիտակցությանր և լուսավորեց նրա պայքարի ու ստեղծագործության ուղին։ Միայն Մեծ Հոկտեմբերից հետո և Մեծ Հոկտեմբերի շնորհիվ Է, որ մեր երկրռւմ իրողություն դարձավ հայ ժ ոԴովրգի համատարած գրագիտությունը և հայ մտքի ու գրչի վաստակր դարձավ հայ աշխատավոր մարդու սեփական ու֊ թ յունր

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Vardazaryan, Olga (2016). "Ինչպե՞ս Մաշտոցը դարձավ «ակիմիտ» [How Mashtots Became Acoimetos]" (PDF). Banber Matenadarani (in Armenian). 23. Matenadaran: 219–230. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-06.

Sanjian, Avedis K. (1996). "The Armenian Alphabet". In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. pp. 356-363. ISBN 9780195079937.

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Dalalyan, Tork (2001). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի գործունեության դիցաբանական հայեցակետերը, պաշտամունքը և սրբավայրերը". Հայոց սրբերը և սրբավայրերը [Armenian Saints and Sanctuaries] (PDF) (in Armenian). Yerevan: Hayastan. pp. 103–108. ISBN 5-540-01771-4.

p.103 Հայոց եկեղեցու առաջին «ազգային» սուրբն է Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը։ (Այս փաստը հատուկ ընդգծում է Կարապետ Սասնեցին. տես Հր.Աճաոյան. Հայոց գրերը. Եր.. 1984. էջ 147)

p.107 Մաշտոցի իսկական անունը հայտնի չէ. Սեսրոպ ձեն առաջին անգամ գործո ծում է Մով սես Խորենացին այն հավանաբար, սեմական ծագում ունի, թեն վերջնական ստուգաբանությունը պարզ չէ: ժողովուրդը Սեսրոպ անունը բացատրում է «մեծ րաբուն» կամ «Մշո րաբի» («տարոնցի) իմաստներով: Մինչդեռ հնագույն աղբյուրում Կորյունի գրքում, հայ մեծագույն քարոզիչը կոչվում է միայն ու միայն Սաշթոց, Փարպեցու երկում հայացվեծ ձևով Սաշտոց: Այս անվան առավել հաճախ հանդիպող տարբերակաները (Սաժդոց, Մաշդոց, Մաշթոց) իրա- նական ծագում են ակնարկում: Սրանցից հնագույնն է Սաժդոց, որն, ըստ և. Ադոնցի, ծագում է

p.108 32 իրան. 'mazda- «իմաստություն» հասկացությունից - ոց վերջածանցով22: Մեսրոպ Սաշտոց ասելով ժողովուրդը, փաստորեն, հասկացել է «մեծ ուսուցիչ իմաստությանց»: Իրանական դիցաբանության մեջ ' mazda -s «իմաստուն» անունով կոչվել է գերագույն 34. 35 աստվածը' A (h)ura - mazda - ն («Այր իմաստության»)22, որի հայերեն զուգահեռն է մեծ և 36 արի Արամազդը (Արամասդ, Արամաստ) Այսպիսով, Սաշտոց անունն ունի դիցաբանական ծագում և միանգամայն համապատասխանում է նրա գործունեության վիական տարրերին: 37 Ասորական մի աղբյուրում Մաշտոցն անվանված է Սազդոստ (Mazdost)", որը պատմագրի կողմից բացատրվում է որպես «Աստվածակոչ» (հուն. OeoxAnos): Մեսրով Սաշտոցն, ըստ էության, համարվել է Հայր Աստծո մարմնավորումը երկրի վրա, նրա կամակատարն ու ներկայացուցիչը:

Moses

Koriun, Nalbandian, Siamanto

The perception of Mashtots as culture-hero has only grown through the ages: when in 1962 the Soviet Armenians celebrated the 1,600 anniversary of his birth, he was shown in sculpture and painting bearing a tablet rather like one of the two Moses brought down from Mount Sinai-but instead of the flaming words of the Decalogue appear the 36 letters-sacred, talismanic, the truth language given by heaven and inscribed in stone. 

Մաշտոցն այստեղ նույնպես հիշեցնում է, ինչպես իր վարքագիր Կորյունն է վկայում, Հին Ուխտի Մովսես մարգարեին՝ տասնաբանյա պատվիրանները ձեռքին

on walls of the two sides of the altar of Saint Sarkis Cathedral, Tehran in central Tehan, two massive frescoes: fresco on the left displays Saint Mesrop Mashtots presenitng the Armenian alphabet to his people. It is reminiscent of Moses descending Mount Sinai brining the Law to the Hebrews.

English

Koriwn, The Life of Mashtots, translated by Bedros Norehad (New York: GoldenJubilee Publication, 1964).

Koriun (1964). The Life of Mashtots. Translated by Bedros Norehad. New York: Armenian General Benevolent Union of America.

Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). "Koriun". The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 149-181. ISBN 9780814328156.

Norehad, B. 1964, The Life o f Mashtots (New York). Text of M . Abelean’s 1941 modern Arm. trans., and Engl, trans. thereof. Repr. of Engl, trans. with Arm. text and Russian trans., Erevan, 1981.

Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Armenian_Language_and_Literature

Vaschalde, Arthur Adolphe (1911). "Mesrob". The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company. online view

Nersessian, Vrej (2001). The Bible in the Armenian Tradition. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. ISBN 9780892366408.

Kurdian, Harry (1956). "The Newly Discovered Alphabet of the Caucasian Albanians". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 88 (1–2): 81–83. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00114492.

https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/mesrop-mastoc-COM_336459 MESROP MAŠTOCʿ Encyclopaedia Iranica

[Politics in Georgia & Azerbaijan] The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia https://dokumen.pub/the-value-of-the-past-myths-identity-and-politics-in-transcaucasia-0824835298-9780824835293.html

James Russell, "On the Origins and Invention of the Armenian Alphabet," Le M uséon 107 (1994): 317-333.

• Russell, James R. (1987). Zoroastrianism in Armenia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-96850-9.

[6]

Mashtoc / Mastoc, 9,133,135,156,169, 299,300,305,485

https://archive.org/details/JamesRussellZoroastrianismInArmenia/page/n83/mode/1up?view=theater

Armenian

...........read all...

Abeghian, Manuk (1980). "Mesrop Mashtots, the Inventor of the Armenian Alphabet and the Origin of Literature

Koriun; Matevosyan, Artashes [in Armenian] (1994). Վարք Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի [The Life of Mesrop Mashtots] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing.

Ishkhanian, Rafayel (1981). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց [Mesrop Mashtots]". Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia Vol. 7 (in Armenian). pp. 469–471. 469, 470, 471

Martirosian, Artashes [in Armenian] (1982). Մաշտոց: Պատմա-քննական տեսություն [Mashtots: Historical-Critical Theory] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences Publishing.

Aghayan, Eduard (1976). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց [Mesrop Mashtots]". Հայ մշակույթի նշանավոր գործիչները V-XVIII դարեր [Famous figures of Armenian culture V-XVIII centuries] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences Press. pp. 7-18.

Khachikian, Levon [in Armenian] (1964). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի ծննդյան 1600-ամյակը [The 1600th anniversary of Mesrop Mashtots]" (PDF). Banber Matenadarani (7): 11–24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-01-16.

Adontz, Nicholas (1925). Մաշթոց եւ նրա աշակերտները ըստ օտար աղբիւրների [Mashtots and His Students According to Foreign Sources] (in Armenian). Vienna: Mekhitarist Press.

http://serials.flib.sci.am/openreader/Mashtoc_1949/book/content.html Ս. Մաշտոց Վարդապետ: Կեանքն եւ գործունէութիւնը հանդերձ կենսագրութեամբ Ս. Սահակայ /Գրեց Հ. Ներսէս Վ. Ակինեան . - Վիեննա: Մխիթարեան տպարան, 1949.

hy:Իսահակ Հարությունյան http://haygirk.nla.am/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=61398

Amaras

ամարաս site:asj-oa.am

---

Acharian

1956 http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/2449/ http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/2490/ http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/2667/ http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/2948/ http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/3084/

1954 http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/1859/ http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/1882/

Հայ տառերի գյուտի ստույգ թվականը http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/14/

Երեք հարց մեսրոպյան այբուբենի շուրջը http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/239/

http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/4124/ Աճառյան, Հ. (1962) Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց. Էջմիածին

---

Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը և հայ տառերի գյուտը; Գրիգորյան, Հովսեփ http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/85/

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/5428/ Մաթևոսյան, Ա. Ս. (1990) Մովսես Խորենացին մեսրոպյան գրերի մասին

http://basss.asj-oa.am/2164/ Լույս են տեսել Մաշտոցի մասին գրքեր

http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/2098/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/191929/edition/174337/content Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի փիլիսոփայական հայացքները

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/389/ Հայ գրերի և գրության ստեղծող Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը

http://echmiadzin.asj-oa.am/14382/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց. զինուորական ծառայութենէ՝ հոգեւոր ծառայութեան

http://sionj.asj-oa.am/6238/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց

http://basss.asj-oa.am/2154/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը որպես իր դարաշրջանի հանճարեղ արտահայտիչ hy:Գուրգեն Սևակ

Հայագետը եռամաս մենագրություն է գրել Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի կյանքի ու գործունեության, հայ գրերի ստեղծման պատմության և Մեսրոպին ու հայ գրերին վերաբերող աղբյուրների մասին («Ս. Մեսրոպի և գրերու գյուտի պատմության աղբյուրներն ու անոնց քննությունը» (Փարիզ, 1907), «Հայոց գրերը» (Վիեննա, 1928, Երևան, 1968, 1984): «Հայոց գրերը» աշխատության մասին լեզվաբան Էդ. Աղայանը գրում է. «Աճառյանի այս հետազոտությունը լավագույնը և ամբողջականն է մինչև այժմ հրատարակված այն բոլոր ուսումնասիրություններից, որոնք նվիրված են Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի կենսագրությանը, հայ գրերի գյուտին, հայ գրերի պատմությանը, Մաշտոցին ու գրերի գյուտի պատմությանը վերաբերող աղբյուրների քննությանը և նման խնդիրների»

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/1651/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը և նախամաշտոցյան հայ գիրը

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/1430/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի ծննդյան 1600-ամյակի առթիվ

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/4323/ Սուրբ Գիրքը հայերեն թարգմանելու հանգամանքները և Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի համառոտ Աստվածաշունչը

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/183237?language=hye Ստ. Մալխասյանցը Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի և գրերի գյուտի մասին

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/5428/ Մովսես Խորենացին մեսրոպյան գրերի մասին

http://hpj.asj-oa.am/393/ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը և հայոց բառ ու բանը

Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց անվան բաղադրիչներով կազմված բառերի բառարանային մշակումը Գյուրջինյան, Դավիթ (2013

Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի 420-430-ական թվականների լուսավորչական առաքելության շուրջ Վարդանյան, Վրեժ (2006

Հայոց 1600-ամյա այբուբենը editorial 2005

Հայոց մեսրոպաստեղծ այբուբենը Սադոյան, Լիպարիտ (2005

Հայոց գրերի գյուտի թվականի և այլ հարակից խնդիրների մասին Տեր -Մինասյան, Երվանդ (2005

Կորյունի երկը նոր քննությամբ Դևրիկյան, Վարդան (1995

Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը և հայ տառերի գյուտը Գրիգորյան, Հովսեփ (1944

Երեք հարց մեսրոպյան այբուբենի շուրջը Աճառյան, Հ. (1946

Վաղարշապատի Մաշտոցը Հայրապետյան, Հովիկ (1994

Մաշտոց–Մեսրովպը ։ Հայոց տառերի եւ տպագրութեան գիւտը եւ սկզբնաւորութիւնը մեր ազգի մէջ 1912

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/264093/edition/241876/content Հայ առաջին բանաստեղծը՝ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց

Վազեգն Ա կոնդակ, 1961, նաև կեսնագրություն

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/263789/edition/241598/content Սուրբ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց (Ծննդյան 1600-ամյակի առթիվ)

Հայ գրերի 1500-ամեակի առթիւ Տէր-Մկրտչեան, Գալուստ (1912) http://ararat.asj-oa.am/2845/

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/263806/edition/241614/content Սուրբ Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի ծննդյան հազարվեցհարյուրամյակի հոբելյանական հանդիսությունները Մայր Աթոռ Սուրբ Էջմիածնում

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/25549/edition/22884?language=en Կորյունի «Վարք Մաշտոցի» գրքի և «Սեղբեստրոսի վարքի» առնչությունը (Մ. Խորենացու հարցի շուրջը)

https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/70975/edition/64052?language=en Վարք Մաշտոցի եւ Ագաթանգեղոս

Georgian PhD thesis http://press.tsu.ge/data/image_db_innova/%E1%83%92%E1%83%90%E1%83%A4%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%9C%E1%83%93%E1%83%90%E1%83%A8%E1%83%95%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%AE%E1%83%90%E1%83%97%E1%83%A3%E1%83%9C%E1%83%90%20-PhD.pdf archived

Timeline per Acharian

timeline

364? birth
389? enters court
394 leaves court, becomes religious man
398 mission to Goghtn
400 church council in Vagharshapat
401 Daniel's letters sent to Vagharshapat
402 Daniel's letters put into use in Vagharshapat
403 Mashtots to Mesopotamia (Amid, Edessa, Samosata)
404 invents Armenian letters (in Edessa)
405 mission to Paytakaran
406 Bible translated, school opened in Vagharshapat with Sahak
407 mission to Goghtn
408 mission to Syunik, invents Georgian letters
409 mission to Georgia
410-419 mission to Turuberan, Aghdznik, Mokk, Korchayk, Vaspurakan, Parskahayk
420 to Byzantine Armenia and Constantinople (in Byzantine emp. until 422)
422 invents Caucasian Albanian letters (in Bolis?) 
423 mission to Caucasian Albania, Baghasakan, Gardman
424 mission to Georgia, Gugark
432 Bible third translation
438 Sahak's death
439 Mesrop's death 

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394 ordained
404 alphabet invention
438 September 7 Sahak's death
438 February 17 Mesrop's death 

invention date: hy:Գալուստ Տեր-Մկրտչյան (Miaban): 412-416; Adontz: 382-392

Ormanian: born 353, died at 85
Acharian: born 364, died at 75 364-439

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Books on Mashtots

• Acharian, Hrachia (1984). Հայոց գրերը [The Armenian Letters] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing. (archived)
• Leo (1962). Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց [Mesrop Mashtots] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Yerevan University Press.; originally published as: Leo (1904). Ս. Մեսրոպ [St. Mesrop] (in Armenian). Tiflis: Hermes.
• Abeghian, Manuk (1980). "Mesrop Mashtots, the Inventor of the Armenian Alphabet and the Origin of Literature". "The Life of Mashtots" by Koryun. Translated by P. Mesrobian. Yerevan University Press. pp. 224–259.
• Aghaian, Ed. B. (1986). Mesrop Mashtots. Yerevan University Press. p. 14.
• Sholinyan, Mariam (2003). Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց և հայոց գրեր [Mesrop Mashtots and the Armenian Alphabet] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Zangak-97.

Books cited in the article

• Kurkjian, Vahan (1964) [1958]. "Successors of Trdat — Partition of Armenia". A History of Armenia. New York: Armenian General Benevolent Union of America. pp. 131-135.
• Nersessian, Vrej (2001). Treasures from the Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 9780892366392.
• Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231139267.
• Redgate, A. E. (2000). The Armenians. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780631220374.
• Bournoutian, George (2006). A Concise History of the Armenian People (5th ed.). Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers.
• Payaslian, Simon (2007). The History of Armenia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-7467-9.
• Thomson, Robert W. (1997). "Armenian Literary Culture Through the Eleventh Century". In Hovannisian, Richard G. (ed.). The Armenian People From Ancient To Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 199–239.
• Russell, James R. (2004). Armenian and Iranian Studies. Cambrdige, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Abrahamian, Levon (2006). Armenian Identity in a Changing World. Mazda Publishers. ISBN 1-56859-185-3.
• Barry, James (2018). Armenian Christians in Iran: Ethnicity, Religion, and Identity in the Islamic Republic. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108429047.
• Zekiyan, Boghos Levon (2005). "Christianity to modernity". In Herzig, Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina (eds.). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 41–64. ISBN 0-203-00493-0.

Minasyan, Edik [in Armenian] (2020). Մայրաքաղաք Երևանը ՀՀ անկախության տարիներին (1991-2018թթ.) [Capital Yerevan in the Years of Independence of Armenia (1991-2018)] (PDF) (in Armenian). Yerevan: Yerevan State University Press. ISBN 978-5-8084-2464-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2022.

Encyclopedia articles

Journal articles

• Malkhasyants, Stepan (1946). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի ծագման մասին [On the Background of Mesrop Mashtots]". Etchmiadzin (in Armenian). 3 (2–3): 55–58.
• Yeghiazaryan, Vano [in Armenian] (2017). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը՝ Մամիկոնյան տոհմի ազնվական [Mesrop Mashtots as a nobleman of Mamikonyan dynasty]". Etchmiadzin (in Armenian). 74 (1): 51–58.
• Teryan, Vahan vardapet (1963). "Օշականի Սուրբ Մեսրոպ-Մաշտոց եկեղեցին". Etchmiadzin (in Armenian). 20 (3). Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: 22–29.
• Kostandian, Emma [in Armenian] (2005). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցն ու գրերի գյուտը Մաղաքիա Օրմանյանի գնահատությամբ (Գրերի գյուտի 1600-ամյակին) [Assessment of Mesrop Mashtots and the Creation of the Armenian Alphabet by Maghakia Ormanian]". Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri (in Armenian) (2): 109–117.
• Mnatsakanian, Asatur [in Armenian] (1979). "Մաշտոց անվան ստուգաբանությունը [Etymology of the name Mashtots]". Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri (in Armenian) (8): 81–93.
• Simonian, Gevorg (1988). "Մաշտոցի անվան ծագման շուրջը [On the question of the origin of Mashtots' name]". Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri (in Armenian) (5): 62–72.
• Gyurjinyan, David [in Armenian] (2014). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց անվան բաղադրիչներով կազմված բառերի ստեղծման ժամանակը եւ հեղինակները [Time and authors of the creation of words comprised of the components of the name Mesrop Mashtots]". Etchmiadzin (in Armenian). 71 (2): 79–92.
• Ghazarian, M. M. [in Armenian] (1962). "Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցը հայկական կերպարվեստում [Mesrop Mashtots in Armenian Fine Arts]". Patma-Banasirakan Handes (in Armenian) (2): 62–72.
• Hovhannissian, A. G. (1962). "Մաշտոցյան գրերի պատմական նշանակությունը [The Historic Importance of the Mashtots Letters]". Patma-Banasirakan Handes (in Armenian) (2): 3–14.