Arakel Babakhanian
Arakel Babakhanian | |
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File:Leo (Arakel Babakhanyan).jpg | |
Born | Shusha, Nagorno Karabakh, Russian Empire |
14 April 1860
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Yerevan, Armenian SSR |
Fields | Armenian studies |
Institutions | Yerevan State University |
Known for | History of Armenia (Hayots' Patmut'yun) (3 volumes) |
Arakel Grigori Babakhanian (Armenian: Առաքել Գրիգորի Բաբախանյան, commonly known as Leo (Armenian: Լեո); 14 April [O.S. 2 April] 1860 – 14 November 1932) was an Armenian historian, publicist, writer, critic and professor of Yerevan State University. He was born in Nagorno Karabakh and is recognized as an authoritative historian on Armenia and is best known as the author of the multi-volume History of Armenia.[1] Leo addressed the difficult issues of Armenian history, history of literature and many key issues of the early 20th century.[2]
Biography
Leo was born on 14 April 1860 in the city of Shusha, then a part of the Russian Empire. He graduated from the local school there in 1878. Due to the death of his father Grigor, Leo was unable to attend university to receive higher education and stayed in the region to support his family.[3] He took up several jobs in Shusha and Baku as a notary clerk, telegraphist, and the manager of a publishing press called Aror (Wooden Plough).[2] From 1895 to 1906, Leo worked as a journalist and secretary in Tiflis for the influential Armenian-language newspaper Mshak (Tiller). Leo would later become the editor of Mshak in 1918. In 1906, he began teaching at the Gevorkian Theological Seminary at Echmiatsin, although he returned to Tiflis a year later, dedicating himself to academic work.[2]
Politically, Leo was opposed to the policies of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun political party and was a member of the Populist (Zhoghovrdakan) Party, joining it in 1917.[4] Other prominent positions Leo held include being an adviser to the delegation of the Seim of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, which held negotiations with the Turks in Trebizond in March 1918, and the president of the Karabakh Armenian Patriotic Association from 1918 to 1920.[5]
Academic career
Leo's education and knowledge was based almost solely on self-erudition.[6] He had welcomed the sovietization of Armenia in 1920 and offered his services to the newly established state. Though he had lectured there during the fall term of 1919,[7] it was only in 1924 that he was formally offered a position of professor at Yerevan State University in the field of Armenian studies. He already had worked for numerous publishing houses and published several books on Armenian history but his three volume work, History of Armenia (Patmut'yun Hayots', vol. I, Tiflis, 1917; vols. II and III, Yerevan, 1946–1947), is the most notable.[2][8] After Soviet Russian writer Andrei Bitov visited Yerevan in 1960, he remarked that "he did not enter any house which did not have the familiar three volumes of Leo's History of Armenia."[9] His work traces Armenian history from its beginnings until the end of the nineteenth century, with the exception of the period stretching from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries (the third volume begins with the sixteenth century, whereas the second volume had ended in the eleventh).[10] It devotes particular importance to the political, cultural and social issues that surrounded Armenian life and the role that Armenia's neighbors played in the country's history.
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 (Armenian) Harutyunyan, Shmavon R. and Ashot K. Ohanyan. «Լեո» (Leo). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1978, vol. iv, pp. 566-567.
- ↑ Hacikyan et al. Heritage of Armenian Literature, p. 506.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Soviet sources, however, do not list Leo as belonging to any political party.
- ↑ Walker. Armenia, p. 430.
- ↑ (Armenian) Nersisyan, Mkrtich. "Professor Leo's Legacy in Historiography" in Երկերի ժողովածու [Collected Works]. Grigoryan, Z., H. Tamrazyan, et al. (eds.) Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing, 1966, vol. i, pp. iv-vii.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Hacikyan et al. Heritage of Armenian Literature, p. 507.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Nersisyan. "Professor Leo's Legacy", p. viii.
Additional reading
- (Armenian) Ohanyan, Ashot K. Լեոյի գեղարվեստական ստեղծագործությունը (Leo's Artistic Work). Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1969.
- (Armenian) Leo. Երկերի ժողովածու (Collected Works). 10 volumes. Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing, 1966-1973.
External links
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- Articles with Armenian-language external links
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- 1860 births
- 1932 deaths
- People from Shusha
- Armenian historians
- Armenian writers
- Armenian academics
- Armenian educators
- Yerevan State University faculty
- Imperial Russian Armenians
- Soviet Armenians