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Epics and Romances

History of Taron The History of Taron attributed to John Mamikonean is a short historical romance in five parts, purporting to describe significant events in the district of Taron in the Byzantine-Iranian wars during the reign of Xosrov II, when Taron was frequently invaded by the Iranians. The History describes the actions of five generations of Mamikoneans (Taron’s princely house)...

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Smbat Sparapet & Hetum the Historian

Smbat Sparapet and Hetum the Historian By Karekin Zarbanalian (1865) The valiant deeds of Smbat Sparapet are less known to us than his compositions. Only about 30 years ago did a manuscript of his Chronicle first appear and quickly begin to exchange hands, on which basis several editions of the text were soon published in Moscow and Paris.             Born...

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The History of the Vartanants Saints

Yeghishe's History of the Vartanants Saints(Translated by Beyon Miloyan) Translator's Preface The History of the Vartanants Saints is a major source for the Battle of Avarayr, its causes and aftermath. The History covers the thirty-six-year period from AD 428 to 464 in seven chapters. Volume I contains the first four chapters and covers the period from the fall of the Armenian Arsacid dynasty (428...

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Ghewond

Ghewond by Karekin Zarbanalian (1865) Although our chronicles do not provide definitive information about the span of Ghewond’s life, it is clear that he lived as an eyewitness to events taking place in the late 8th century.             His History, which has made it down to us, describes the Muslim conquest of Armenia of the 7th-8th centuries. There is no mention...

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Aristakes Lastivertc'i

Aristakes Lastivertc'i by Karekin Zarbanalian (1865) Aristakes Lastivertc'i can be considered as preeminent among Armenian authors of the 11th century, although we do not have any biographical information whatsoever about him. We can only say from his discourse and literary style that he appeared to be a cleric, and that he displayed ample knowledge of the Holy Scripture: For everything...

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Ghazar P'arpec'i

Ghazar P'arpec'i by Karekin Zarbanalian (1865)   Ghazar P’arpec’i flourished at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century. It was a miserable period, after the dissolution of the Arsacid throne, when Armenia was under the political rule of the marzbans. Discord had started to rear its ugly head among the nakharars, putting the country in...

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Prohaeresius and the Missing Source

In his last novella, Raffi takes the reader to late antiquity to introduce the Armenian philosopher and 4thcentury Athens’ leading professor of rhetoric, Prohaeresius. Part biography and part historical fiction, the plot of the book bends the rules of time to imagine a meeting between Prohaeresius and Movses Xorenats’i (“The Father of Armenian Literature”), in which Movses implores Prohaeresius to...

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Dual Language Series Now in Paperback!

We are excited to announce that our growing Dual Language Series will soon be available in paperback. Our Dual Language Series, containing the greatest works of antique and medieval Armenian literature, places the original Classical Armenian (Grabar) text and the corresponding English translation side-by-side. The following paperbacks will be published on October 26, 2021 and are available for preorder now. Aristakes Lastivertc'i's History. Aristakes Lastiverts’i was an...

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Smbat Sparapet’s Letter to King Henry I of Cyprus

The author of the History of the Tartars, Het’um the Historian, was the nephew of King Het’um I and Smbat Sparapet (commander-in-chief) of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, both of whom were knowledgeable informants by virtue of having made the multi-year journey to the Far East (Smbat in 1247-51, and Het’um in in 1254-55). Smbat described some of his observations...

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History of the Rubenian Dynasty

The History of the Rubenian Dynasty by Vahram Rabuni is a remarkable work of medieval Armenian literature. It was commissioned by King Leo (Levon) III (1270-1289), who requested from Vahram a continuation of Vipasanutyun, which was composed in the first half of the 11th century by Nerses Shnorhali (“the Gracious”) in verse. Little is known about Vahram except that he served in the royal court of King...

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The True Story of Musa Dagh

As we have described previously, Franz Werfel’s 1933 classic, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, helped to raise awareness for the plight of the Armenians on Musa Dagh who had managed to resist the deportation orders of the Ottoman Government and escaped the genocide in 1915. Despite the novel’s importance, the line between fact and fiction was often blurred in its portrayal...

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The Forty Days of Musa Dagh

In 1930, well-known novelist and playwright Franz Werfel made a fateful trip to the Near East. It was there that he first encountered Armenian orphans, many of whom were crippled or maimed, working in a carpet factory in Damascus. Haunted by the images of these children, Werfel went on to further investigate the deportations and massacres of the Ottoman Armenians...

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Garshunography

Armeno-Turkish When I was a child, my father told me that his grandfather (an Armenian from the Ottoman Empire) spoke only in Turkish and wrote only in Armenian, meaning he wrote Turkish in Armenian script. It turns out that this was pretty common in the Ottoman Empire, and not only among Armenians. The Greeks had a word for Greco-Turkish – karamanlidika...

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The Armenian Serialized Novel of the 19th Century

Raffi’s readers experienced reading the novella in serialized form when it was first published in 1878.  In the 19th century, readers consumed books in the same way that we watch television today. Instead of “tuning in” each week for the next episode of the latest addictive TV drama, readers would turn to the next issue of their favourite literary periodical. Even...

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