Kirakos Gandzaketsi

The opening page of a 1664 manuscript copy of History of Armenia by Kirikos (Matenadaran MS 2561)[1]

Kirakos Gandzaketsi (Armenian: Կիրակոս Գանձակեցի; c. 1200/1202–1271) was an Armenian historian of the 13th century[2][3][4][5] and author of the History of Armenia, a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days.[1] The work concentrates primarily on the history of Medieval Armenia and events occurring in the Caucasus and Near East. The work serves as a primary source for the study of the Mongol invasions and even contains the first recorded word list of the Mongolian language.[6] The work has been translated into several languages including Latin, French and Russian.[7]

  1. ^ a b Khanlaryan, L. «Կիրակոս Գանձակեցի». Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. v. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1979, p. 450.
  2. ^ Steven Runciman. A History of the Crusades. — Cambridge University Press, 1987. — Vol. I. — P. 335. "Later Armenian chroniclers, such as Samuel of Ani and Mekhitar of Airavanq, writing at the end of the twelfth century, and Kirakos Gandzaketsi and Vartan the Great, in the thirteenth century, treat only briefly of the First Crusade."
  3. ^ René Grousset. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. — Rutgers University Press, 1970. — P. 282. "Mongka gave a warm welcome to this faithful vassal and handed him a yarligh of diploma of investiture and protection, "a diploma", says the Armenian chronicle of Kirakos, "bearing his seal and explicitly forbidding any action against the person or states of Hethum. He also gave him a charter enfranchizing churches everywhere." Another Armenian historian, the monk "Hayton", in his Flor des extoires d'Orient, states in addition that Mongka gave his visitor an assurance that a great Mongol army under his brother, Hulagu khan, would attack Baghdad; destroy the caliphate, their "mortal enemy"; and restore the Holy Land to the Christians."
  4. ^ S. Peter Cowe. Kirakos Ganjakec'i or Arewelc'i // Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History / Edited by David Thomas & Alex Mallet. — BRILL, 2012. —vol. IV. — p. 438: "Kirakos is one of the most important Armenian historians of the 13th century. He was born in the region of Ganja and received his early formation at the monastic school of Nor Getik under the eminent savant Vanakan Vardapet."
  5. ^ Abaqa — Encyclopædia Iranica. Peter Jackson
  6. ^ Zgusta, Ladislav, Franz J. Hausmann and Oskar Reichmann (eds.). An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1991, p. 2368. ISBN 3-11-012421-1.
  7. ^ Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S. (2005). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Modern Times, vol. 3. Detroit: Wayne State University. p. 494. ISBN 0-8143-3221-8.