Mesrop Mashtots

Mesrop Mashtots
Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց
This 1882 painting by Stepanos Nersissian (now kept at the Pontifical Residence in Etchmiadzin) is a commonly reproduced image of Mashtots.[1]
Bornc. 361
Hatsekats, Taron, Greater Armenia (modern-day Güven, Korkut, Muş Province, Turkey)[2]
DiedFebruary 17, 440
(traditional date)[3][4]
Vagharshapat, Sasanian Armenia
Resting placeSaint Mesrop Mashtots Church, Oshakan, Armenia
NationalityArmenian
Occupation(s)Court secretary, missionary, militaryman, inventor
EraArmenian Golden Age
Known forInventing the Armenian alphabet

Mesrop Mashtots (listenⓘ; Armenian: Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց Mesrop Maštoc'; Eastern Armenian: [mɛsˈɾop maʃˈtotsʰ]; Western Armenian: [mɛsˈɾob maʃˈtotsʰ]; 362 – February 17, 440 AD) was an Armenian linguist, composer, theologian, statesman, and hymnologist in the Sasanian Empire. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic Church.

He is best known for inventing the Armenian alphabet c. 405 AD, which was a fundamental step in strengthening Armenian national identity.[5] He is also considered to be the creator of the Caucasian Albanian and Georgian alphabets by a number of scholars.[6][7][8][9][10]

  1. ^ Ghazarian 1962, pp. 65, 71.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nişanyan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference ChristEnc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference SaintBio was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 91. ISBN 9780814328156.
  6. ^ Rayfield, Donald (2000). The Literature of Georgia: A History (2nd rev. ed.). Surrey: Curzon Press. p. 19. ISBN 0700711635.
  7. ^ Grenoble, Lenore A. (2003). Language policy in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht [u.a.]: Kluwer Acad. Publ. p. 116. ISBN 1402012985.
  8. ^ Bowersock, G.W.; Brown, Peter; Grabar, Oleg, eds. (1999). Late antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press. p. 289. ISBN 0-674-51173-5.
  9. ^ Jost, Gippert (2011). "The script of the Caucasian Albanians in the light of the Sinai palimpsests". Die Entstehung der kaukasischen Alphabete als kulturhistorisches Phänomen: Referate des internationalen Symposions (Wien, 1.-4. Dezember 2005) = The creation of the Caucasian alphabets as phenomenon of cultural history. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. pp. 39–50. ISBN 9783700170884.
  10. ^ Der Nersessian, Sirarpie (1969). The Armenians. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 85. After the Armenian alphabet Mesrop also devised one for the Caucasian Albanians.