Death of Paruyr Muradian (July 20, 2011)

Paruyr Muradian was an influential name in the field of Armenian Studies, especially in the medieval and early modern periods.

He was born on March 25, 1933, in the village of Papar in Javakhk. He graduated from the high school of Azavreti in 1952 and then he moved to Armenia, where he studied at the Oriental (Persian) section of the Faculty of Philology of Yerevan State University. He pursued graduate studies at the Academy of Sciences of Armenia in 1960-1962, fulfilling the study requirements at Tbilisi State University. He obtained his first doctorate in 1963 with a dissertation on Armeno-Georgian literary relations in the eighteenth century. He worked at the section of ancient literature of the Institute of Literature Manuk Abeghian of the Academy of Sciences (1963-1970). In 1970, he went to work at the Faculty of History of Yerevan State University, where he would remain for the next forty years. Starting in 1976, he also worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences, where he organized and headed the section of Caucasian and Byzantine Studies. He defended his second Ph.D. in 1986 with a dissertation entitled “The Armenian Inscriptions of Georgia: Kartli and Kakhet.” He earned the title of full professor in 1989 and obtained the Mesrop Mashtots Prize. In 1991-1992, he gave courses of Caucasian Studies at the University of Trier, in Germany, and he taught at the Hrachia Ajarian University of Yerevan in 2002-2003. He passed away in Yerevan on July 20, 2011.

Paruyr Muradian had a huge impact on Armenian Studies in the fields of medieval literature and culture, architecture, historical sources, and epigraphical monuments. He published several important works, such as The Georgian Inscriptions of Armenia, The Armenian Inscriptions of Georgia (two volumes), The Ancient Georgian Versions of Agatangelos, The Armenian and Georgian Versions of Shushanik’s Witness. He also translated the Georgian Chronicle from Ancient Georgian into Armenian. He published more than 300 scholarly works, including the edition of collections of studies by famous Armenologists such as Nikolai Marr, Hovsep Orbeli, Levon Khachikian, Levon Melikset-Bek, Yervand Ter-Minasian, Mkrtich Nersisian, and others.