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Document Details : Title: Le premier professeur d'arménien à Paris (1798-1826) Subtitle: Errances et généalogies diasporiques Author(s): MAHÉ, Jean-Pierre Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 42 Date: 2023-2024 Pages: 209-226 DOI: 10.2143/REA.42.0.3293645 Abstract : The authenticity of the letter from Chahan de Cirbied to Yovakim Lazareanc‘, dated 3 December 1815, is guaranteed by a chain of witnesses and successive purchasers of the document. It tells how General Bonaparte met Cirbied in Livorno in 1796 and had him appointed professor of Armenian at the School of Oriental Languages, created in Paris by the Convention in 1794. Cirbied tells how he was born in Edessa, into a family of notables, hereditary overseers of the distribution of irrigation water (ǰrpet, ǰrbašx or ǰrpan). Added to this are extravagant claims to a Pahlawuni origin, based on the 'Ani myth' widespread in the Armenian diaspora. Despite his poor linguistic skills, Cirbied was a remarkable political analyst who pinned his national hopes on the Russian conquest of Eastern Armenia. In fact, in 1836, he was one of the authors of the Tsar’s Regulations for the Armenian Church. His publications, in French, on Persia and the Armenia of his time, are of great interest. |
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