ARMENIAN LITERATURE. The Armenians had a tem ple literature of their own which was destroyed in the 4th and 5th centuries by the Christian clergy so thoroughly that barely 20 lines of it survive in the history of Moses of Khoren (Chorene). Their Christian literature begins about A.D. 400 with the inven tion of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop. The alphabet once perfected, the catholicus Sahak formed a school of translators who were sent to Edessa, Athens, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea in Cappadocia, and elsewhere, to procure cod ices both in Syriac and Greek and translate them. From Syriac were made the first version of the New Testament, the version of Eusebius' History and his Life of Constantine (unless this be from the original Greek), the homilies of Aphraates, the Acts of Gurias and Samuna, the works of Ephrem Syrus (partly published in four volumes by the Mechitharists of Venice). They include the commentaries on the Diatessaron and the Paulines, Laboubna and History of Addai, the Syriac canons of the Apostles.
From the original Greek were rendered in the 5th century many authors and works including Eusebius' Chronicon, and Josephus on the Jewish War.
An asterisk (*) is prefixed to the names of works which have been printed.
The Armenians were so busy in this century translating Greek and Syriac fathers that they have left little that is original. Still a number of historical works survive : *Faustus of Byzantium re lates the events of the period A.D. in a work instinct with life and racy of the soil. It was perhaps first composed in Greek, but it gives a faithful picture of the court of the petty sovereigns of Armenia, of the political organization, of the blood feuds of the clans, of the planting of Christianity. Procopius preserves some fragments of the Greek. The *History of Taron, by Zeno bius of Glak, is a somewhat legendary account of Gregory the Illuminator, and may have been written in Syriac in the 5th, though it was only Armenized in a later century.
*Elisaeus Wardapet wrote a history of Wardan (Vardan), and of the war waged for their faith by the Armenians against the Sassanids. He was an eye-witness of this struggle, and gives a good account of the contemporary Mazdaism which the Persians tried to force on the Armenians. *Lazar of Pharp wrote a his tory embracing the events of the 5th century up to the year as a continuation of the work of Faustus.
*A long volume of rhetorical exercises, based on Aphthonius, is also ascribed to Moses of Khoren, and appears to be of the 5th century. The *geography which passes under his name may be long to the 7th century. Various homilies of Moses survive, as also of Elisaeus.
Goriun wrote in this century a *Life of Mesro p, and Eznik a *Refutation of the Sects, based largely on antecedent Greek works. The sects in question are Paganism, Mazdaism, Greek Philosophy, and Manichaeism.
Of the 6th and 7th centuries few works survive. To the late 7th century belong the *calendarial works of Ananiah of Shirak, who also has left a *chronicon compiled from Eusebius, Andreas of Crete, Hippolytus, and other sources. The chief literary mon ument of the 7th century is the *history of the wars of Heraclius and of the early Mohammedan conquests in Asia Minor, by the bishop Sebeos, who was an eye-witness. The *history of the Albanians of the Caucasus, by Moses Kalankatuatzi, also be longs to the end of this century. To this century also seems to belong the Armenian version of a *history of the Iberians, by D j uansher, a work full of valuable information.
The early 8th century was a time of great literary activity. Gregory Asheruni wrote an important *commentary on the Jeru salem Lectionary, and his friend *John the catholicus (717-728) commentaries on the other liturgical works of his church; he also collected all existing canon law, Greek or Armenian, respected in his church, wrote *against the Paulicians and Docetae, and corn posed many beautiful hymns. *Leoncius the priest has left a his tory of the first caliphs.
In the gth century Zachariah, catholicus, the correspondent of Photius, wrote many eloquent homilies for the various church feasts. Shapuh Bagratuni wrote a history of his age, now lost. Mashtotz, catholicus, collected in one volume the Armenian rituals.
In the loth century (c. 925) the catholicus ohn VI. issued his *history of Armenia, and Thomas Artsruni a *history of his clan carried up to the year 936. Ananias of Mok (943-965) wrote a great work against the Paulicians, unfortunately lost. Chosroes wrote a *commentary on the eucharistic rites and breviary, *Mes rop a history of Nerses the Great; *Stephen of Asolik wrote a history of the world, and a commentary on Jeremiah ; *Gregory of Narek his famous meditations and hymns.
In the i ith century John Kozerhn wrote a history, now lost, as well as a work on the Armenian calendar; Stephen Asolik a *history of Armenia up to the year 1004; *Aristaces of Lastiverd a valuable history of the conquest of Armenia by the Seljuk caliphs.
The 12th century saw many remarkable writers mostly in Cili cian Armenia, viz., Nerses the Graceful (d. 1165), author of an *Elegy on the taking of Edessa, of *voluminous hymns, of long *Pastoral Letters and Synodal orations of value for the historian of eastern churches. *Samuel of Ani composed a chronicle up to 1179. Nerses of Lambron, archbishop of Tarsus, left a *Synodal oration, a *Commentary on the liturgy, etc., and his contempo rary Gregory of Tlay an *Elegy on the capture of Jerusalem and various *dogmatic works. In this century the *history of Michael the Syrian was translated; Ignatius and Sargis composed *com mentaries on Luke and *the catholic epistles, and *Matthew of Edessa a valuable history of the years 952-1136, continued up to 1176 by Gregory the priest. Mechithar (Mekhitar) Kosh (d. 1207) wrote an elegant *Book of Fables, and compiled a *corpus of civil and canon law (partly from Byzantine codes).
14th century : *history of Siunik, by Stephen Orbelian, arch bishop of that province (1287-1304) ; *Sempat's chronicle of Lesser Armenia (952-1274), carried on by a continuator to 1331; *Mechithar of Airivanq, a chronography; *Hethoum's ac count of the Tatars, and chronography of the years 1076-1307. John of Orotn (d. 1388) compiled commentaries on John's gospel and the Paulines, and wrote homilies and monophysite works; his disciple Gregory of Dathev (b. 1340) compiled a *Summa theologiae called the Book of Questions, in the style of the Summa of Aquinas, which had been translated into Armenian (c. 1330), as were a little later the *Summa of Albertus and works of other schoolmen.
I 5th century : *History of Tamerlane, by Thomas of Medsoph, carried up to 17th century : Araqel of Tabriz wrote a *history of the Persian invasions of Armenia ix . the years 1602-1661.
18th century : the catholicus Abraham of Crete wrote the his tory of his own times (1734-1736), and his relations with Nadir, shah of Persia, at whose coronation he was an eye-witness.
In the above list are not included a number of medical, astro logical, calendarial, and philological or lexicographic works, mostly written during or since the Cilician or crusading epoch. Since the I5th century a certain number of profane poets have arisen, whose work is less jejune on the whole than that of the hymn and canticle writers of an earlier age. Gregory Magistros (d. 1058) abridged the whole of the Old and New Testaments in a *rhyming poem, and set a fashion to later writers. Such works as *Barlaam and Josaphat, the *History of the Seven Sages, the *Wisdom of Ahikar, the *Tale of the City of Bronze, were freely turned into verse in the 13th and following centuries.
The 16th century saw the first books printed in Armenian. The press which has done most in printing Armenian authors is that of the Mechitharists of Venice. There in 1836 was issued a mag nificent thesaurus of the Armenian language, with the Latin and Greek equivalents of each word.
Journalism has a prominent place in modern Armenian litera ture, to such an extent that, in spite of the present scattered and unsettled condition of the people, and notwithstanding the great economic and numerical loss during and after the World War, there are more than 7o newspapers and periodicals published in various parts of the world in the modern literary language.
(F. C. C. ; S. T.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Sukias Somal, Quadro della Storia Letteraria di Bibliography.-Sukias Somal, Quadro della Storia Letteraria di Armenia (Venice, 1829) ; H. Hubschmann, Armenische Studien and Grammatik (Leipzig, 1883 and 1895). Grammars by Petermann (in Porta Orientalium Linguarum series), by Prof. Meillet of Paris, by Prof. N. Marr of Petrograd (in 'Russian), by Joseph Karst (of the Cilician dialect) ; Langlois, Collection d'historiens armeniens (1867) ; Dulaurier, Recherches sue les chronologie armenienne (1889) and His toriens armeniens des Croisades; H. F. B. Lynch, Armenia, 2 vols. (1902) ; Brosset, Collection d'historiens armeniens (1874) , and numer ous other works by the same author; C. F. Neumann, Geschichte der armenischen Literatur (1836) .