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Raffi, The Five
Melikdoms of Karabagh,
translated from Armenian by Ara Stepan Melkonian (London: Taderon
Press, 2010), ISBN
978-1-90-3656-57-5,
paperback, GB£14.00/US$22.00.
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Raffi was one of
the most influential Armenian writers and political commentators of
the 19th century. His works included social and political
commentaries, as well as epic novels. The Five Melikdoms of
Karabagh (Khamsayi Melikoutiunneru) is one of Raffi’s scholarly
works, where he drew on a range of manuscripts, books and oral
sources, to write a detailed history of Karabagh. The focus of his
study were the five Armenian melikdoms (noble houses) that ruled
this region, as Karabagh passed from Persian to Russian rule. Full
of great detail and astute observations, The Five Melikdoms of
Karabagh allow us to better understand this region today.
This is the first English translation of The Five Melikdoms of
Karabagh, and it joins four other English translations of
Raffi’s work undertaken by the Gomidas Institute and Taderon Press.
The other works are The Fool, Jalaleddin, The Golden Rooster
and Tajkahayk.
About the Author
Raffi (né Hakob Melik-Hakobian) was
born in 1835 in Bayajuk, near Salmas, in northwestern Persia. He
died in Tiflis in 1888. He was a prolific and popular writer who
contributed to Krikor Ardzrouni’s Tiflis-based liberal periodical,
Mshak (Cultivator). Among his other principal works of
fiction are Jalaleddin, Gharib Mshetsi (The exile from
Moush), Khachagoghi Hishatakarane (The diary of a
cross-stealer), Kaitzer (Sparks), Davit Bek, and
Samuel.
About the Translator
Ara Stepan Melkonian is
a British based Fellow at the Gomidas Institute.
His translations also include Tajkahayk (Taderon Press, 2008)
by Raffi, and Accursed Years by Yervant Odian (Gomidas
Institute, 2008).
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