Developments between seventeenth and twentieth centuries

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, due to the endless wars and the un- stable political situation in the region, the migration of Armenians to the different parts of the world became more frequent. Ironically, the biggest centres of scholarly activity in the next centuries opened and operated outside the Armenian proper.

The first Armenian printed book was issued in Venice in 1512. It was a collec- tion of prayers and incantations for healing the sick, entitled Urbatagirq (Book of Fridays), and was followed by other five publications of religious nature. Later (mid- 1630), an Armenian printing press was set in Constantinople (1568), Rome (1584), Lvov (1616), New Julfa108

(1638), Livorno (1670) and Marseilles (1673) (Hacikyan et al. 2005b:646). An Armenian publishing press in Amsterdam (established 1660) is noteworthy because it published a number of non-religious books and the first publication of Armenian Bible (1666)109

. In Armenian proper the first printing press was established in the Holy See of Etchmiadzin110

in 1771 by Catholicos Simeion Yerevantsi.

However, despite the hardship, learning and scholarship was revived in the sev- enteenth century in a number of monastic schools, often referred to as universities

107

During the period from 1512 to 1746 there were eleven wars between the Ottomans and the Persians on Armenian soil, resulting in depopulation and devastation (see e.g. Hovhannisian, 2004b; Kurkjian, 2008).

108

Or Nor Jugha, an Armenian settlement in Isfahan, Iran.

109

The first published Bible was based, with some additions, on the Bible of King Hetum II of Cilicia, dating back to the year 1295.

110

(Bardakjian, 2000:47), two of them, the monasteries of Khndrakatar and Amlordi (or Amrdol), located in Baghesh111

, gained relative prominence. Some scholars trace the origin of the learning tradition in these monasteries to the students of Grigor Tatevaci (Akinian, 1952). Many of the old manuscripts of early Armenian historians survived only in the copies made in the monasteries of Baghesh. Another type of learning centre which gained momentum during this period were hermitages. The Great Hermitage of Syunik was founded near Tatev in 1610, in the following years similar Hermitages appeared in Hovhannavank, Etchmiadzin, Sevan and elsewhere. The Amenaprkitsch monastery in New Julfa, founded in 1630, had a scriptorium, a library (which still exists) and a printing press, the first in Iran.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Mkhitar Sebastatsi, an Armenian monk, founded a Catholic order—Mkhitarean Miabanutyun—in Constantinople, which in 1717 moved to the islet of St. Lazarus in Venice. The order, with a branch in Vienna (established 1811), has since become one of the biggest centres of Armenian scholarship and still exists up to this day. Its input into the development of Armenian culture and scholarship is invaluable. The original idea of Sebastaci was to establish a centre to bring a religious and cultural revival among the Armenians, through periodicals, printing, translations, research of Armenian language, literature and history (see e.g. Langlois, 1874). But the influence of Mkhitareakans was much more thorough, and, according to historians, stimulated change and progress in Armenian realities in the eighteenth century and appeared as a forerunner of the Armenian intellectual revival in the nineteenth (Hacikyan et al, 2005c:50-56). Education has been one of the first priorities for the Mkhitarists, and a number of academies were opened first in Europe, then in other continents (in Venice, Padua, Paris, Aleppo, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles). The one in Venice became (and still remains) one of the most prominent centres of Armenian studies, that hosted also well-known European men of letters, among them, Lord Byron, who for some time lived in St. Lazarus, where he studied Armenian under the tutorship of one of the Mkhitarist fathers (see e.g. Djanachian, 1961).

In nineteenth century, as a result of Russian-Iranian wars of 1804-1813 and 1823- 111

1828, some provinces of Armenia came under the control of Russia112

, thus Armenia was divided into Western Armenia (under Turkey) and Eastern Armenia (under Rus- sia).

In the “Russian” part national schools were soon opened though a set of reg- ulations enacted by the Russian Tsar Nicholai I (the so called Polozhenie), which granted autonomy to the Armenian church and, among others, allowed the estab- lishment of Armenian schools under the supervision of the Church. Though the Polozhenie brought a kind of religious, educational and cultural autonomy to the eastern Armenians, its real purpose, by the assumptions of some historians, was to serve as a political tool for the goals of the Russian Tsar (Bardakjian, 2000:149; Hacikyan et al, 2005c:11).

Other two big centres of learning were established in Moscow and Tiflis113

. The Lazarian Academy in Moscow was founded in 1815 by the Lazarian family— educated Armenian businessmen from New Julfa. Originally it offered the full programme of Russian gymnasium, but later it developed into the centre of Eastern and Armenian studies, becoming an attractive research centre with a rich library and its own printing press. It was closed in 1918 with the arrival of communists.

The Nersissian Seminary in Tiflis was founded in 1824 by the archbishop of Tiflis— Nerses Ashtaraketsi (1770-1857). Despite having religious courses, the school had a secular character and a diversified curriculum. Among its students and faculty there were some of the most liberal-minded political activists, such as Khachatur Abovian and Stepan Nazarian. It was open until 1925.

On Armenian proper, a school which deserves special attention, is the Gevorgian Chemaran (Gevorgyan Seminary) of Etchmiadzin, founded by Catholicos Gevorg IV in 1874. The Gevorkian Seminary was designed to train teachers and prepare students for the priesthood, incorporating, among others, such subjects as the science of education, psychology, logic and philosophy. Over the course of time, the study at the Seminary resembled more a lay college and later it became a hotbed for political activism. The Seminary operated until 1917 and was temporarily closed because of

112

In 1828, by the Treaty of Turkmanchai, the regions of Yerevan and Nakhijevan were integrated into an administrative unit called the Armenian Province. Earlier, by the treaty of Gulistan, the Armenian khanates of Ganja and Artsakh (Kharabakh) were already incorporated into Russia. Thus almost all the eastern Armenia, separated by the river Araks from its western part, came under the control of Russia (see e.g. Nersissian, 1972).

113

political situation in the country. There were several unsuccessful attempts to reopen the Seminary in the next years. During the Soviet rule, the Seminary was raided and closed down by the communist government and the manuscripts of the Church were given to Matenadaran—the ancient manuscript repository, which also hosted the Seminary in the period between 1945 and 1991. After the collapse of USSR, the old building of the seminary was returned to the Church and the Gevorgyan Seminary reopened. Since 2002, by the decree of the Ministry of Education of Armenia, the Gevorkian Seminary was granted a status of a Religious University.

In “Turkish” part, Constantinople and Smyrna became the cultural, political and intellectual centre of Armenians. The first Armenian school in Constantinople was founded by the efforts of Cathalicos Hovhannes Kolot in 1715. Its main purpose was to educate seminarians but the curricula also included philosophy, literature and the natural sciences (Hacikyan et al, 2005c). Later, a number of schools for boys as well as girls were founded in Constantinople, Karin (Erzrum), Van, Kharberd and elsewhere. In 1865 there were forty-six schools with over 5500 students in Constantinople alone (Siruni, 1987:310). These were mainly secondary-level schools. Several schools also opened at lycee and college level, for example boys’ Rober College for boys (1840) and Home School in Constantinople for girls; Euphrates College (1878) in Kharberd was a prestigious institution with a rich wide-ranging curriculum; the College of Marash for women, and the Theological Seminary at Ayntap (1855). Unfortunately these schools lived and functioned only until the 1915 genocide, when most of the teachers were killed or deported and the buildings were destroyed. The genocide of 1915 brought the dynamic cultural atmosphere in Western Armenia to an abrupt end.

In these Western and Eastern cultural centres the revolutionary movements gained momentum in the second half of the nineteenth century, bringing a cultural re- vival, named as Zartonk (Awakening). The Armenian intellectuals, who have studied abroad (in Russia and Europe, particularly Germany, Switzerland and France), were influenced by revolutionary ideas, which were sweeping across Europe and were fueled by a longing for an autonomous homeland. Imbued with new ideas and ideals, they were trying to reaffirm their national identity, also through education, by instilling the knowledge of their past, as a nation, and of European revolutionary concepts among common people. As a tool to reach the general public, Armenian newspapers were founded and published in different parts of the world, one of the most suc- cessful was the Arevelian mamul (Eastern Press)—a strong proponent of democratic ideology—issued in Smyrna and edited by Matteos Mamurian (1830-1901).

The educational revival denoted a new era for Armenian literature, as well as, the Armenian language. Until the nineteenth century classical Armenian (grabar ) was the language of religion and scholarship. During the Cilician period a number of literature was written in the so-called “middle Armenian”, which became the formal language that could be comprehended also by common people. However, after the fall of Cilician Kingdom, the “middle Armenian” dispersed into dialects and grabar once more confirmed its position. The nineteenth century witnessed development of a modern literary Armenian (ashkharhabar ). However the modern Armenian, too, became divided into Western Armenian (based mainly on the dialect of Constantinople) and Eastern Armenian (based on the Ararat dialect) (Bardakjian, 2000; Oshagan, 2004b, Hacikyan, 2005c, Boyajian, 2007).