Raffi (poet)
| Raffi | |
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| Born | 1835 Payajouk, Qajar Persia |
| Died | 25 April 1888 (aged 53) Tiflis, Russian Empire (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia) |
| Occupation | writer, poet, novelist, essayist, Statesman |
| Nationality | Persian-Armenian |
| Spouse | Anna Hormouz |
Hakob Melik Hakobian (Armenian: Յակոբ Մելիք-Յակոբեան (classical); Հակոբ Մելիք-Հակոբյան (reformed); 1835 - 1888), better known by his pen name Raffi (Armenian: Րաֆֆի; Persian: رافی), was an Armenian author and leading figure in 19th-century Armenian literature.
Raffi was the eldest son in a family of hereditary Persian-Armenian gentry and was born in 1835 in Payajuk, a village of northwestern Iran. His father was a wealthy farmer, merchant and the highest civil authority of the village. Thus, Raffi’s economic background and special status within the family eventually made it possible for him to acquire a privileged education, one in which he was exposed to the full spectrum of classical, Russian and Western European masterpieces of literature.
His education began in the home of the village priest, Father Mser. There, in a small room adjacent to the barn, boys of all ages and levels of learning were taught under pressure of corporal punishment for failing in their lessons. In his novel called Kaytser ("Sparks"), Raffi gives a vivid description of these punishments and denounces them. At the age of 12 his father sent him to Tiflis [Tbilisi], at that time a major center of Armenian intellectual life, to continue his secondary education at a boarding school run by a distinguished Armenian teacher.
Raffi was on the verge of beginning his studies at a Russian university when he had to return home to help his ailing father with the family business. This was the end of his formal education. He subsequently took teaching posts in Armenian language and history at the Armenian schools in Tabriz, Akoulis and Tiflis.
Throughout his life, Raffi made many trips to the villages and provinces of Eastern and Western Armenia. Wherever he visited, he became aware of the daily misery experienced by the unarmed Armenian population, who lived in constant terror of the Turks and Kurds. Raffi, like other Armenian intellectuals, was convinced that it was not viable to continue living thus. He would thereafter seek to deeply transform Armenian society. In order to do so, it was necessary for him to make the people themselves aware of the tragic reality in which they lived.
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Wikipedia