Celebrating Armenian Alphabet's 1600 Years

[MosJan]

Celebrating Armenian Alphabet's 1600 Years

 

LOS ANGELES--In 405 AD, Mesrob Mashdots, a cleric of the Armenian royal court, invented the letters of the Armenian alphabet to celebrate the beginnings of a written Armenian literary tradition.

 

The Hamazkayin Educational and Cultural Society's Regional Executive has formed a council to specifically organize events commemorating the 1600th Anniversary of the Creation of the Armenian Alphabet.

 

The Armenian alphabet has occupied an essential role in preserving not only history, but also a large part of the Armenian cultural identity.

 

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Hamazkayin has planned various events, including written and visual competitions, a conference, exhibitions, and a major public event at the Alex Theater in Glendale.

 

A one day conference directed by Professor Peter Cowe will be held September 24 at 10:00 AM at the UCLA campus' Rolfe Hall. Cowe, a professor of Armenian language and culture at the University of California, Los Angeles, will be one of the keynote speakers, along with Professor Stephan Astourian, Director of Armenian Studies at UC Berkeley. Celebrated author Mark Arax of "In My Father's Name," along with Ani Hovanessian, will serve as co-master of ceremonies.

 

A major public event at the Alex Theater will be held on October 2, featuring performances by Hamazkayin's Ani Dance Group, a theatrical performance collaboratively staged by Elly Award-winning director Aram Kouyoumdjian and original music composer Sebu Simonian of the band Aviatic, musical performances by Element (formerly known as In Progress…), poetry recitations by students from all Armenian schools in California, and other artistic performances. The program will begin at 4:30 PM and will conclude at 6:00 PM.

 

For more information please visit www.Hamazkayin.net or write to USAwest@Hamazkayin.net.

[Arpa]

Here is a tribute to Mesrop by Siamanto.

I could not find the Armenian text to Գիւտին Փառքը

We can't even tell who the translator is.

Can someone please type the Armenian text that goes;

Մեսրոպ, Հայ դարերու դիմաց կեցող

Դուն, ադամանդիա ապարաժ....

 

 

The Glory of Invention

Siamanto

 

Mesrob! you stand an unshatterable

diamond rock against time,

against the Armenian centuries.

You, an undiscovered lighthouse

illuminating the unformed brains

of children, and igniting the genius.

You, the clatter of the chisel,

whose hours, whose minutes carve statues

for the museum of the intellect.

You, the sleepless watchman,

you, the visionary titan of

each word of ours, each utterance

from the cradle to the grave.

You, the creator of dialect and dialogue,

prince of words,

You, the permanent watermark,

the generating father of substance,

you, wheel of light, invitation to faith,

boundless forest, a forest rising on our native soil,

sudden as a storm rising, a forest of solid trees,

each of whose branches is a harp for our breath.

Each one a trumpet for our battles, each

a barricade against scourges.

You, inexhaustible field of wheat, you, free bread.

 

You, a rich harvest, you a glowing hot wine press,

you, a golden vat of wine into which

even I, mad with thirst for the sun,

plunge a golden pitcher.

 

You, apostle with eyes that cut and cleave,

you, whose future glorifies the past,

you, who with vision, invention and ardor,

freed the Armenian offspring

from the clever Greeks and fire-worshipping Persians.

And from the world-conquering Romans.

You kept them intact with the ruby

cornerstone of your language.

You, a second god and

first creator of thought.

You, fertile source of goodness

and heart,

treasurehouse of color, and throne

of compassion,

you, a bride without toll,

arching the flying centuries,

a bridge over which your peoples

cross, your millions cross

in glory, marching in pride

or dragged in sorrow, from life to death.

 

You, the titled prophet

forecast by the Greeks,

you, the solitary magistrate

to whom Armenians roar Hosannah!

Hosannah! they cry also

to Sahag of Parth, your contemporary

pontiff of Vagharshabad.

Hosannah to King Vramshabouh

for supporting like two buttresses

your discovery,

one with his cross, one with his sword.

Pace by pace, they walked with you,

to open the door of literature,

to let in the dawn of Ararat.

 

Ah, with what fevers of the blood,

were you carried,

from what chill,

from what hellish twisting,

from what hesitation,

from what hypothesis,

what undulation of the brain,

what transfiguration of balance,

with which molecule of the spirit,

which ray of the eyes,

with how many drops of sweat,

and inspiration, how many

panting breaths, flights of flying dreams,

through how many vortices of prayer

in those forty days and nights

in that solitude, quiet as death,

were you lifted toward your vision?

 

And from which germinating seed

which unsprouted flower,

from what air, what voiceless accent,

what colorless word, which rootless

stripling did you create

the harmonious alphabet?

Thus, from the golden threshold

of the Fourth Century until now,

the Armenian spirit fuses

with Armenian blood.

 

Oh, riddle without solution,

oh lightning bolt of fiery nerves,

oh pulse and impulse of blood,

spotless multiplication of dreams.

Amazing and lyric chimera!

 

You are a rainbow of divine love,

the bearer of the fire of reconciliation,

the carrier of the hesitant,

ruler of the irresolute.

You are a fantastic dome of perfect design.

 

You, a passionate monk, man of God,

brother of the mind, sister of the harp,

allow me to drink from your cup.

 

Today, nourished by your holiness

I, a tardy harpist, undeserving but

grateful, bring you the soul

of your people as a mirror.

The fire in my eye is from the fiery eye

of your people. My words are harvested

from their hearts.

Whatever you read on my forehead

and in my smile, I have written with their hope.

Therefore, allow me to climb your gold ladder

step by step, crown by crown, as your son,

the son of your thought

to sing this song.

 

About The Poet

 

 

Siamanto

(1878-1915)

 

Siamanto, or Adam Yerjanian, in his work and life personifies the ideal poet-as-hero. He was a popular activist and critically acclaimed poet. born in Akn, Western Armenia, Siamanto was educated in Istanbul and Paris, at the faculty of philosophy of Sorbonne. He traveled to Switzerland, Egipt, London, Vienna, and the United States before returning to Istanbul. Two of his collections of poetry, In the manner of a Hero (1902) and The Invitation from the Fatherland (1903), show his own interpretation of European poetic trends at the turn of the century. His indignation at the fate of his people, plus his incantational, ceremonial style, made him one of the most beloved writers of his day. He was among the intellectual leaders killed right before the massacre of the population in 1915.

Edited August 27, 2005 by Arpa

[MosJan]

ՆՇՎՈՒՄ Է ՀԱՅՈՑ ԳՐԵՐԻ ԳՅՈՒՏԻ 1600-ԱՄՅԱԿԸ

 

Գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիայի նիստերի դահլիճում այսօր աշխատանքը կսկսի հայոց գրերի 1600-ամյակին նվիրված միջազգային գիտաժողովը, որը կշարունակվի մինչեւ սեպտեմբերի 17-ը: Գիտաժողովը կընթանա 3 մասնաճյուղերով` «Հայոց գրերի գյուտը եւ նրա պատմական նշանակությունը», «Հայոց գրերի գյուտը եւ հայոց մշակույթը», «Հայոց գրերի գյուտն ու հայ եկեղեցին»: Խորհրդի կազմում ընդգրկված են ԳԱԱ նախագահ Ֆադեյ Սարգսյանը, Մատենադարանի տնօրեն Սեն Արեւշատյանը, Կալիֆոռնիայի համալսարանի հայ ժողովրդի արդի պատմության ամբիոնի վարիչ Ռիչարդ Հովհաննիսյանը եւ ակադեմիկոս Գեւորգ Ջահուկյանը, որը, ցավոք, այլեւս մեր կողքին չէ:

[Yervant1]

B B C

UK - Feb 8 2024

How a 1,600-year-old alphabet shaped Armenian identity

By Sugato Mukherjee8th February 2024

The Armenian alphabet is not just a writing system: it's also a numerical system used for mathematical calculations and recording calendar dates, as well as a national point of pride.

I

It was a late autumn morning when we set off from Yerevan, Armenia's capital city. After driving for about half an hour through the Armenian highlands, the driver stopped the car and Sofya Hakobyan, my guide, signalled for me to come out of the vehicle.

On my left, the snow-capped, four-peaked massif of Mount Aragats loomed in the distance, its contours indistinct in the hazy sun. Grassy uplands rolled out from the edges of the highway right up to the base of Armenia's highest mountain. The landscape looked bleak – a sandy-brown stretch of wind-pummelled uplands dotted with withering bushes – but a number of human-sized stone sculptures set on the gentle slopes lent a mysterious touch to the desolate expanse.

"We're at Alphabet Park. This was constructed in 2005 to mark the 1,600th anniversary of our Armenian alphabet," Hakobyan said.

The statues, carved out of faded pink, pastel yellow and light black stone, were etched with flowers and symbols. Some of them were in clusters, others were in solitary stances, and Hakobyan led me to a U-shaped statue with a dainty flourish on the bottom right. "This is our Armenian 'A' in uppercase," she said with a sweeping movement of her hand. "What you see around us are the other letters of our alphabet, which was invented by that man – Mesrop Mashtots – [a little more than] 1,600 years ago.

I followed her gaze to a stately sculpture of a bearded old man. Draped in a flowing robe, the rose-tinted, larger-than-life statue wore the _expression_ of an ascetic: tranquil, and slightly jaded. I remembered the man. Two days ago, I had seen his statue at the entrance of Matenadaran.

Perched on a hill at the northern edge of Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan, the imposing basalt structure of Matenadaran has a fortress-like appearance, but it is actually a scriptorium (a library of ancient manuscripts) that doubles as a research institute. I had tiptoed through the hushed solemnity of the halls that showcased permanent exhibits arranged in thematic divisions, including translated literature, philosophy, theology, trivium and quadrivium with mathematical sciences and humanities, poetry, law, history and the arts.

Emma Horopyan, Matenadaran's head of PR, told me that the manuscript library is one of the world's largest repositories of valuable archival documents and early printed books. A diverse array of medieval manuscripts in languages including Greek, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Latin, Ethiopian, Georgian and Hebrew have been carefully preserved here.

"This is hallowed ground for us," said Grigor Stepanian.

I'd run into Stepanian while marvelling at a hand-drawn map of the ancient Armenian kingdom in Matenadaran's grand Central Hall, and now the affable architect from Yerevan was walking me around the rectangular facade of the five-storey structure, adorned with statues of medieval philosophers, poets and scholars who have collectively shaped Armenia's literary and cultural legacy.

"But he remains the most important of them all," Stepanian said.

The immaculately carved stone statue of Mashtots stood at the entrance, his hands raised in the timeless posture of a master elucidating a point to his disciple – a smaller stone statue – listening attentively at his feet.

I was curious to know why Mashtots' invention of the Armenian alphabet is among the most important events in Armenian history. "Mashtots designed the alphabet so that it could be used to translate the Bible into Armenian," Stepanian explained, as we sipped on thick and strong Armenian coffee at a nearby cafe.

In 301 CE, Armenia became the first nation in the world to embrace Christianity as its official religion. But almost for a century after that, the methods of converting its citizens, who had a long nature-worshipping past, were often vicious, Stepanian said. Mashtots was working as a translator in the Armenian royal chancellery in the final years of the 4th Century CE. He had witnessed the coercive and often violent ways to force the people of this Caucasian nation to adopt the state-sponsored faith that was markedly different from their polytheistic belief system.

"What Mashtots did was fairly ingenious," Stepanian said. The linguist understood that his countrymen's aversion to Christianity stemmed from unfamiliarity: the Greek and Syriac translations of the Christian liturgy and theology, including the New Testament, were very foreign to the Armenians, who had been introduced to the Bible and the liturgy orally during religious services held by targmanicks (a term that meant translator and commentator).

The letters were designed in very distinctive shapes, with an independent character, very dissimilar to the lettering of other written languages of the time

Mashtots created his new alphabet in a phonetic style so it was easy for the Armenians to adapt to the written form of a language they were already speaking, Stepanian explained. "The letters were designed in very distinctive shapes, with an independent character, very dissimilar to the lettering of other written languages of the time," he added.

Their language thus gave a new identity to the Armenians.

Over the next 1,500 years, the alphabet would remain a national point of pride at the core of Armenian cultural identity, an emblem of solidarity for the war-torn land that was almost continually ruled and colonised by foreign forces – the Romans, the Byzantines, the Persians and the Ottoman Turks. This almost-continuous and unrelenting saga of oppression and subjugation would finally end in 1991, when the 69-year-old Soviet regime collapsed and Armenia became an independent republic.

"We would have been a lost race without our alphabet," Stepanian said.

 

Hakobyan agreed. "Our country has been encroached upon, fragmented and plundered, over and over again," she told me as she steered me through the maze of letters laid out amid the wilderness like a giant, haphazard jigsaw puzzle. "But one of the reasons we could hold on was perhaps because we always knew that we have a beautiful language, encased by a beautiful set of letters."

As we walked through Alphabet Park, the mid-morning sun shone bright on the delicate curves of the letters, hand-carved from volcanic tuff rock. Together, Hakobyan told me, the richness and flexibility of this beautiful set of letters has helped sustain an uninterrupted literary tradition since the inception of its written form.

I knew that the aesthetically eloquent shapes of Armenian letters, with their long usage in folk art and calligraphy, have made it onto Unesco's Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage. But I had no idea that the dainty, artistic designs are also imbued with secret codes and cryptographs, and endowed with hidden properties.

"To start with, the alphabet formed the structure of a complex, but sophisticated numerical system," Hakobyan said, explaining how the Mashtotian letters were also used for mathematical calculations.

As well as being part of the alphabet, all the original 36 letters also have an assigned numerical value based on their order in the alphabet. When arranged in four columns and nine rows, the letters in each column respectively represent digits in singles, tens, hundreds and thousands. They can even be used to determine dates according to the Armenian calendar, Hakobyan said.

 

We ended up back near the statue of Mesrop Mashtots. Raised on a small mound, the wise old man was looking at his feet, his kind, contemplative gaze remarkably life-like.

It was time to resume our journey. A strong wind blew in over the sun-lit valley and we slowly retraced our steps towards our car parked on the side of the highway. Before getting in, I looked back, thinking about the incredible legacy of this ancient alphabet. Thick puffs of clouds were clambering up the snowy slopes of Mount Aragats. An Armenian family had just arrived at the park. Two young girls, dressed in lemon-yellow jackets, flitted playfully amid the giant letters – a linguistic and cultural legacy they have inherited from a sagacious polymath, whose statue stood just a few metres away from them in the wind-swept landscape.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240208-how-a-1600-year-old-alphabet-shaped-armenian-identity

[MosJan]