1921.] Oldest Christian Tomb. 321 
There have been several translations of the Persian inscrip- 
tion since 1876, but none of them has given a correct rendering 
of the original into English as will be seen presently. The 
Armenian inscription is being translated here for the first time 
and is as follows :— 
“In this tomb rested the pilgrim Martyrose son of 
PHEERBASHI of Julfa. Died at the city of Agra and gave 
his goods to God for his soul. 1060 of the Armenian era.” 
There could not have been any slab over the grave of the 
Armenian Martyrose as the Archeological Department have 
recently placed a white marble slab on the grave wit 
following inscription which is likewise a translation though not 
a correct one, of the Persian inscription at the foot of the grave ; 
us :— 
man whatever he had he gave in charity to the poor in 
token of fidelity to his adored master. In the year One 
Thousand, Six Hundred and Eleven from the birth of 
Christ.” 
First and foremost the name of the deceased which is the 
most essential part of the epitaph has been wrongly translated, 
for instead of the Persian ‘‘ Martinus, ’* the Latin for Martin or 
Martyrose, the erudite translators have got—I cannot understand 
how or from where—the jaw-breaking name “‘ Mortenepus”’ which 
is certainly not an Armenian name. Then again, the word 
“ Moqdesi ” (,~ which in Armenian means a pilgrim (one who 
has visited the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem) has been wrongly 
translated as ‘‘ Moqaddasi’’ meaning oly man,” and in 
the same arbitrary way the Persian Word ‘“ Gholam ” pile (a 
slave) has been wrongly translated as a “disciple.” What a 
faithful translation !_ As there are several glaring inaccuracies 
in thes aid translation, I shall therefore give a correct rendering 
of the original Persian inscription :— 
‘Here lies interred the Armenian Khwaja Martinus the 
pilgrim, who called himself the slave of Christus, and as he 
a 
gave in charity to the poor as a gift to that Master. 
One Thousand Six Hundred and Eleven from the birth 
Jesus.” — 
Now a person who humbly called himself the “ slave of 
Christus’ (Pphomw) the Armenian for Christ, would turn in 
his grave if he were called a “ holy man,” so that the worthy 
‘translators have done a great injustice to his memory by call- 
ing him “holy.” I would in this connection humbly suggest to 
