Khachatur Abovian (Armenian: Խաչատուր Աբովյան, romanized: Khach’atur Abovyan; October 15 [O.S. October 3] 1809 – disappeared April 14 [O.S. April 2] 1848) was an Armenian polymath, educator, scientist, philosopher, writer, poet and an advocate of modernization. He mysteriously vanished in 1848 and was eventually presumed dead. Reputed as the father of modern Armenian literature, he is best remembered for his novel Wounds of Armenia. Written in 1841 and published posthumously in 1858, it was the first novel published in the Modern Armenian language, based on the Yerevan dialect instead of Classical Armenian. Abovian was far ahead of his time and virtually none of his works were published during his lifetime. Only after the establishment of the Armenian SSR was Abovian accorded recognition and stature. Abovian is regarded as one of the foremost figures not just in Armenian literature, but Armenian history at large. Abovian's influence on Western Armenian literature was not as strong as it was on Eastern Armenian, particularly in its formative years.
Early life and career
Abovian was born in 1809 in the village of Kanaker, then part of Qajar Iran, and now a district of Yerevan, Armenia. Abovian's family were descendants of the Beglaryan melik family in Gulistan, one of five Armenian families who ruled around the current-day region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Abovian family held the position of tanuter (a hereditary lordship) in Kanaker; Abovian's uncle was the last tanuter of Kanaker. His aunt was the wife of Sahak Aghamalian, the last melik of Yerevan at the time of the Russian annexation in 1828. His social origins and descent imbued him at an early age with a sense of responsibility to his people. He was born six years after his parents, Avetik and Takuhi, married. He had a brother, Karapet, who died at the age of three. At age 10, Abovian was taken by his father to Echmiadzin to study for the priesthood. He dropped out after five years and moved to Tiflis in 1822 to study Armenian studies and languages at the Nersisyan School under the guidance of Harutiun Alamdarian. Abovian graduated in 1826 and began preparing to move to Venice to further his education. However, the outbreak of the Russo-Persian War (1826–28) curtailed his plans. For the following three years he taught briefly at Sanahin and then worked for Catholicos Yeprem of Armenia as his clerk and translator. While working for the Catholicos, the twenty-year-old Abovian met many notable foreigners, including the diplomat and playwright Alexander Griboyedov, who was stuck in Echmiadzin en route to Tabriz in September 1828. Griboyedov's weekly Tifliskiye Vedemosti became the first paper to publish an article on Abovian.
Conquest of Ararat The turning point in Abovian's life was the arrival of Friedrich Parrot in Armenia in September 1829, a professor of physics from the Imperial University of Dorpat in Livonia (in present-day Tartu, Estonia). Parrot traveled to Armenia to climb Mount Ararat to conduct geological studies and required a local guide and a translator for the expedition. The Catholicos assigned Abovian to these tasks. With Abovian's assistance, Parrot became the first explorer in modern times to reach the summit of Mount Ararat. The project received full approval from the emperor Nicholas I, who provided the expedition with a military escort.
Abovian and Parrot crossed the Arax River into the district of Surmalu and headed to the Armenian village of Akhuri situated on the northern slope of Ararat 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level. Following the advice of Harutiun Alamdarian of Tiflis, they set up base camp at the Monastery of St. Hakob some 2,400 feet (730 m) higher, at an elevation of 6,375 feet (1,943 m). Abovian was one of the last travelers to visit Akhuri and the monastery before a disastrous earthquake completely buried both in May 1840. Their first attempt to climb the mountain, using the northeast slope, failed as a result of lack of warm clothing. Six days later, on the advice of Stepan Khojiants, the village chief of Akhuri, the ascent was attempted from the northwest side. After reaching an elevation of 16,028 feet (4,885 m), they turned back because they did not reach the summit before sundown. They reached the summit on their third attempt at 3:15 p.m. on 9 October 1829. Abovian dug a hole in the ice and erected a wooden cross facing north. Abovian picked up a chunk of ice from the summit and carried it down with him in a bottle, considering the water holy. On 8 November, Parrot and Abovian climbed up Lesser Ararat. Years later, in 1845, the German mineralogist Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich climbed Ararat with Abovian. Abovian's third and last ascent of Ararat was with the Englishman Henry Danby Seymour in 1846.
The Dorpat years
Impressed with Abovian's thirst for knowledge, Parrot arranged for a Russian state scholarship for Abovian to study at the Imperial University of Dorpat in 1830. He entered the university directly without additional preparation and studied in the Faculty of Philosophy of the Philological-Historical Department from 3 September 1830 to 18 January 1836. The years in Dorpat (present-day Tartu, Estonia) were very fruitful for Abovian who studied social and natural sciences, European literature and philosophy, and mastered German, Russian, French and Latin. At this time Abovian fell under the influence of German Romanticism. In addition, Abovian established numerous contacts with European intellectuals of the time. At the university he became friends with the sons of Nikolay Karamzin who studied with him. In 1834 Abovian visited his cousin Maria (daughter of melik Sahak Aghamalian) in Saint Petersburg, who then married to the Georgian prince Alexander. Prior to graduation, Abovian learned that his mother Takuhi had died.
Return to Armenia
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