Yeghishe

Yeghishe
Born	AD 410
Died	475
Occupation	Historian
Known for	History of Vardan and the Armenian War

Yeghishe Vardapet (Armenian: , pronounced [jɛʁiˈʃɛ], AD 410 – 475; Eliseus, spelled alternatively Yeghisheh, Yeghishé, Eghishe, Egishe, Elishe, or Ełišē) was an Armenian historian from the time of late antiquity. He was the author of a history documenting the successful revolt of the Armenians in the fifth century against the rule and religion of the Sassanid Persians.

According to ancient and medieval sources that have trickled down to historians, Yeghishe was one of the younger pupils of Sahak Partev and Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian Alphabet. In 434, he, along with several other students, were sent to Alexandria to study Greek, Syriac and the liberal arts. He returned to Armenia in 441 and entered into military service, serving as a soldier or secretary to the Sparapet Vardan Mamikonian. He took part in the war of religious independence (449-451) against the Persian King, Yazdegerd II.

Following their defeat at the battle of Avarayr, he renounced military life, became a hermit and retired to the mountains south of Lake Van (Rshtunik'). In 464-465, he was asked to write the history of the events leading up to and after the battle of Avarayr by a priest named David Mamikonian. Following his death, his remains were removed and taken to the Surb Astvatsatsin Monastery, located along Lake Van's shoreline. All ancient authorities speak of Yeghishe as a vardapet (church doctor).

Beginning with Babgen Guleserian in 1909 and Father Nerses Akinian, a member of the Mkhitarian Congregation, in the 1930s, the dating of Yeghishe's work was cast into doubt and moved a century or two forward. One point from their argument was predicated on the assumption that the Armenian translation of Philo's works, which Yeghishe uses, was not made until around 600 AD. However, the translation of Philo's works had taken place during the early "Hellenizing" period of the Golden Age of Armenian literature (the fifth century AD). Scholars argue that neither the dating of the Hellenizing phase nor the presence of Hellenizing vocabulary are necessarily dependent on Yeghishe’s dating. Furthermore, there are no verbal literal parallels between the two authors, since Yeghishe directly translated Philo's work from its original Greek into Armenian.

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