BY REV. DR. VAHAN H. TOOTIKIAN
One of the greatest milestones in the Armenian history was the invention of the Armenian alphabet in 406 A.D. It was a turning point that offered a new character to the Armenian civilization.
Before the 5th century, although Armenians had a vernacular, every day spoken language, they did not have an alphabet and could not write their own language. They used the alphabet of the neighboring countries to record their historical events and official documents. They had to use alien letters to express themselves. In a sense, they were culturally handicapped.
Furthermore, before the invention of the Armenian alphabet, Armenians were also religiously handicapped; they had to use Syriac and Greek languages in their worship services and in their liturgy. The Bible was read, and the hymns were sung in these foreign languages. They were to be translated into Armenian. Thus, the worshiping congregations remained illiterate.
In 387, Armenia was divided between the Roman/Byzantine and the Persian/Sassanid empires. Both of these superpowers were pursuing a policy of assimilating the Armenians and gradually eliminating their culture. The internal situation was equally dangerous because of the disunity of the Armenian nobles.
In this critical period, divine providence granted Armenia three titanic personages: Catholicos Sahag Bartev (389-439), Priest St. Mesrop Mashdots (361-440) and King Vramshabouh. This dedicated trio initiated a cultural revolution and caused a new civilization uniquely Armenian.
King Vramshabouh and Catholicos Sahag realized that in order to maintain some religious and political control over the partitioned nation and preserve and perpetuate the cultural and spiritual heritage there had to be a unifying factor. They came up with the idea that this decisive factor was the Armenian language. They believed language is a strong indicator of a people’s culture. The problem, however, was that although Armenians had a language, they did not have an alphabet. Both the King and the Catholicos decided to commission one of the most erudite intellectuals in Armenia, Mesrop Mashdots, to invent an Armenian alphabet.
Mesrop, formerly a royal secretary, had become a monk. He was an expert in Greek, Syriac and Persian languages. In his intensive search for an alphabet, he learned that an Assyrian bishop named Daniel was in possession of an Armenian alphabet from ancient times. After putting this alphabet to the test, Mesrop found out this was inadequate and flawed, because it had no vowels and would not satisfy the sound symbols of the Armenian vernacular language.
For several years, Mesrop traveled to the cultural centers of the Near East and experimented with sets of variations and finally in 406, he developed a type of letters that would satisfy the phonetic complements and sound systems of the Armenian language. He created a set of 36 characters (two more letters were added in the twelfth century).
Following the invention of the Armenian alphabet, foreign languages were removed from Armenian churches, schools were opened and a nationalistic atmosphere and hope filled the life of the Armenian people.
After the creation of the Armenian alphabet, by order of King Vramshabouh, around one hundred intelligent and promising youth and young adults were recruited from every region of Armenia; they learned the Armenian alphabet from St. Mesrop and were trained in Armenian studies; they were also sent to Athens, Caesarea, Byzantium, Edessa, Antioch and Alexandria, in order to become fluent in Greek and Assyrian languages and scholarship.
These students brought not only mental storehouses back to Armenia with them, but also numerous manuscripts, which they began to translate into Armenian under the patronage of St. Sahag and St. Mesrop. Of these students, those who were to become the most famous were: Goriun (Koriun) the Wondrous, Yeznig (Eznik) of Goghp, and Moses of Khorene (Khorenatsi). These, and other scholars, were named by their posterity “Holy Translators.”
With the invention of the alphabet, the Holy Translators began to translate the Bible. The translation was made from the Syriac and Greek versions. The Armenian translation was first based on the Syriac version and was revised later on the basis of the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
The Holy Translators were stirred to put into writing their knowledge in theology, history, law, philosophy and liturgics. They translated the important writings of the then civilized world. A cultural renaissance took place in the fifth century which later generations called The Golden Age.
By inventing the Armenian letters, St. Mesrop Mashdots did not only secure a victory for Christianity in Armenia, but he put a valuable tool in the hands of the Armenian people with which they could form their unique culture. From that day forward, the Armenian people began to have their own intellectual life, and knowledge and learning became the property of the Armenian people as a whole. Also, from the standpoint of national preservation and national unity, this became a powerful means to those ends.
Rev. Dr. Vahan H. Tootikian is the Minister Emeritus of the Armenian Congregational Church of Greater Detroit and the Executive Director of the Armenian Evangelical World Council.
