The History of Vardapet Aṛakʻel of Tabriz, Volume II

by Arakel Davrizhetsi, George A. Bournoutian (Translator, Introduction)

The History or Book of Histories by Arak‘el of Tabriz is the most important seventeenth-century Armenian source on the history of Persia and Armenia. Volume II ends in the year 1668 and deals with the establishment of important monastic schools in Armenia, the list of prominent vardapets, the biographies and martyrdom of various Armenian clerics, the genealogy of the Ottoman and Safavid monarchs, the names and properties of gemstones, as welt as, various earthquakes and eclipses. An important part of Arak‘el’s work is the order of succession of the kat‘oghikoi and the appearance of numerous coadjutors at the Holy See of Ejmiatsin from 1441 to 1655. Arak‘el devotes two chapters to the Jewish communities living in the Persian and Ottoman Empires. The first deals with the Jews of Isfahan and other cities of Persia. The second concerns the unique messianic movement of Sabbatai Sevi, which took place in Izmir. One of the most important and lengthiest chapters is a chronology of significant events, which occurred in Armenia, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire from 561 to 1668. This, the first English translation of Arak‘el’s History, will enable students to better understand the history of Persia, Georgia, eastern Armenia, and the Ottoman Empire during a crucial period.

Paperback

Published January 1, 2006

About the author

Arakel Davrizhetsi (Armenian: Առաքել Դավրիժեցի), or Arakel of Tabriz, (b. circa 1590s in Tabriz, Iran – d. 1670 in Vagharshapat, Armenia) was an Armenian historian of the seventeenth century and the author of an important work which chronicles Armenian history from 1602 to 1662, including the Ottoman-Persian wars and the resulting deportations of Armenians under Safavid Shah Abbas I. Davrizhetsi was a distinguished scholar-priest (vardapet) of the Armenian Church, being the abbot of the Hovhannavank Monastery in 1636–37 and later a missionary of the Church.