292 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
work by Father Arakiel, the Armenian historian of Tabriz in 
Persia, and published at Amsterdam in 1669, an account 
of the life and works of the translator of the Koran from a 
Latin version. With this valuable information, I was at last 
able to discover the age of the present Manuscript. 
The laconic colophon at the end of the Manuscript is as 
follows :— 
Qe phgae Vac pul {harp ediob bay fA jwenftbaig: ng Paurp pag h 
Swyny pagan = Qeaw dp [Jub putbovf hyad begun, fpSiuniiry Prolewult np he 
\Qvbfpod {uppuuykmnf : 2° SF tS fupdursumnay g igh: {Luke : 
It may be translated as follows :— 
** Here endeth the Koran translated from the Latin into 
the Armenian language by Stephanos of Ilov,a profound 
schoiar and an erudite doctor. whom the Lord God may 
reward. Amen.” 
Arakiei, the Armenian historian of Tabriz in Persia. who 
was a contemporary of ‘“‘ the profound scholar and erudite 
doctor,”’ after relating the literary activities of the inmates of 
the great Armenian Monastery at Etchmiatzin (the Vatican of 
the Armenians) near Erivan in Armenia, speaks of the learned 
translator of the Koran in his ‘ Historical Miscellany, 
(pp. 398-400) as follows :— 
“ After them, we shall now relate the literary attainments 
of another person who led a very pure life and whose name 
was Stephanos. 
e was a native of Ilov in Poland, the son of pious 
of that town and was harassing them, the pious parents of 
Stephanos, for the sake of orthcdoxy, sent him from Llov to the 
Armenian Monastery at Etchmiatzin in Armenia in the days 
of the Catholicos Phillippos in 1635.! , 
at Etchmiatzin, Stephanos learnt the classical 
Armenian language committing to memory the Psalms and all 
the chants and services of the Armenian Church. He then 
commenced reading the Holy Bible in classical Armenian and 
as he knew Latin thoroughly, he would philologically eom pare 
the two versions and then contemplate, whereby he surpasse 
is companions in literature. He possessed a sharp and crea- 
tive intellect anda receptive and retentive memory and was 4 



| The Catholicos is the supreme head of the orthodox Armenian 
hu reh whose See is at Etchmiatzin in Armenia. 
te 
