522 



On the Invention of the Armenian Alphabet, By Jghannes Avdall, 

 Esq. M. A. S. 



If ancient Hellenic writers assign the palm to Cadmus for having 

 been the inventor or introducer of the Greek letters, Haican historians 

 of antiquity do bestow an equal distinction on St. Mesrop as the 

 author or originator of the Armenian alphabet, the invention of which 

 took place in the commencement of the fifth century, when this emi- 

 nent divine flourished in Armenia, during the reign of Viramshapuh. 

 Anterior to this period the Armenians used the Greek, Syriac and 

 Persian characters. All their ecclesiastical and historical books were 

 written in the two former, while the transactions of their courts of jus- 

 tice, as well as of their civil administration, were recorded in the latter. 

 Although it is true, as it will appear from what I shall have to state 

 hereafter, that about a score of rude letters existed among the Arme- 

 nians long before the day of St. Mesrop, yet their imperfection and 

 consequent inutility was an insuperable bar to the cultivation of Ar- 

 menian literature and to the advancement of knowledge among the 

 sons of Haic. The disadvantage, attendant on the non-existence of a 

 perfect and systematic alphabet, was deeply felt by the Armenian lite- 

 rati of that period. Lazarus Parphensis, a reputed historian of the 

 fifth century, tells us that the books used in the national schools, 

 were written in Syriac characters, and that the Armenian youths 

 were, in consequence, subjected to great toil, perplexity and expense 

 in the prosecution of their studies. The pious and the devout expe- 

 rienced similar difficulties in attending divine service, which was read 

 and performed in books written in Greek or Syriac characters. This 

 was certainly a source of great discouragement both to the pastors 

 and the congregation, and at this the godly spirit of St. Mesrop was 

 deeply grieved. The foregoing statement is fully borne out by the 

 authority of Moses Chorenensis, who is justly termed the Armenian 

 Thucydides, and is familiar to the learned of Europe by a Latin and 

 French translation of his history of venerable antiquity. " b L 'b 



tlutpr^.ujuikinbi_ bpiuhtri^nth \ybupndpiijj ) n£_ i[:n^p fypkp i[tnuifbi^u t ^.luJii^p 

 [thj'b tr,p jrrbfttrp^oi^ L [^lupt^Jlul'ft^ » L IrRk "HL"-^ ^> u * h 'hl} u i^P "V lf}>P^"-- 

 'liijjp ni~p 'but i'i£ J> t b^p* i£ufb[vnn_'(i cf nqjiilpq.njfu (fo/Lp jiaquiq.u n> ll^^UD 



pajptj.tru/itp^t " " Beatus autem Mesrobes non parvam molestiam 



