Sargis (Sergius) Hasan-Jalaliants was the last Catholicos of the church of Aghvank (1794-1815), the region encompassing in his time the khanates of Karabagh and Ganje (ancient Artsakh and Utik) in Eastern Armenia. He picks up the history of this region from the end of the reign of his grandfather’s cousin, Yesai Hasan-Jalaliants (1702-1728), and carries the story down to the final triumph of the Russians over the Persian Empire just over a century later.
This work is an important primary source for the period and the history of the region, and confirms the presence of the Armenians in Karabagh long before the Russian occupation, while providing many useful details of a hundred-year history. It was discovered by Robert H. Hewsen—who edited the translation and wrote an introduction—in a manuscript in the library of the University of Tubingen, Germany, in 1984, and translated into English by Karen V. Ketendjian.
