In the same period, the matter of the
excommunications of Aght'amar became a question. Holding a very
solemn meeting, [Grigor] freed all [from the excommunications]
of our ancient kat'oghikoi [ew metsahandes
zhoghov arareal ardzakeats' zamenesean
(i kapanats')-- inserted by editor Shahnazarean in
parentheses-- hnots' kat'oghikosats'n merots'.].
The overseer and provider was the blessed, [g52] venerable, ascetic
vardapet Yovhannes of Metsob monastery who supervised the
multitude of brothers, clothed all, and fed them with bread. Our
vardapet Yovhannes, the wonderful man of God, lived in
great glory. This occurred in the year 868 A.E. [1419]. Now after
one year, his students came to him, [42] remained a short while,
then secretly took him to the Araratean district, to the great
vardapet Yakob of Saghmosavank', his spiritual brother.
We, all the vardapets and students, went to him. Again
[Grigor's] students came from Siwnik's [monastery of the] blessed
Apostle Stat'eos. The learned bishop and vardapet, lord
Arak'el, took him. Eight days after his departure, he grew ill
and passed from this life to the next. Blessed be his memory and
may Christ have mercy on all of us through his prayers. Now our
wonderful vardapet and man of God, Yovhannes, reposed in
Christ on the same day. We took him and buried him in the glorious
monastery of Hayots' T'ar, between the neo-martyr Yovsep' and
Eghia their vardapet. An inconsolable grief descended over
our country, over us and all the inhabitants of the retreat and
district, for we were [g53] not worthy of [receiving] his blessed
remains, although his prayers and intercession penetrate every
crevice of the country. Amen.
Yovhannes, this blessed, God-pleasing
vardapet, a model of all virtue and [a model] to the vardapets
of the Church, was from the district of K'ajberunik', the town
(giwghak'aghak') of Zarishat, the son of pious, God-loving
parents [his] father's name was Nerses, a saint-loving priest.
He beseeched God, promising that should he have a son, he would
devote him [43] to God in his stead. Benevolent and humane God,
Who works the will of those who fear Him, gave [Nerses] a good
son, and [Nerses] gave him over to study of the Bible at the blessed,
heavenly retreat, the beautiful congregation of the Mother of
God, the renowned monastery of Metsob, with the ascetic man of
God, Nahapet, a cleric of angelic worship. He studeid and grew
learned in the Psalm of David, and the minor studies (manr
usumn) of the Church. The meek and blessed archbishop (arhi
episkopos) lord Nerses saw [Yovhannes] and called him [to
assume] the station of priest. He gave himself as a gift to God.
He taught the habits of asceticism especially from the books and
works of Scripture [in a manner] superior to all of his comrades.
Moved by the Holy Spirit, he wished to aspire to the vardapetal
learning, but there was no vardapet to be found in coastal
Vaspurakan. [g54]
So he joined with a saint-loving and
kind priest named Step'annos who had studied with the vardapet
Movses from the same retreat. They went to the great professor
Yovhannes, nicknamed kaxik (suspended) in Orotn district,
Siwnik' country who shined like the sun amidst all the Armenian
people, illuminating everyone with divine knowledge. He also resisted
the diophysite Aght'arma [Roman Catholic] heretics. And they were
greatly loved by him like an angel of God, and his [44] companion
Step'annos, studying for three years, gave him the scepter of
authority to go and comfort the multitude of Christians and monks
who had been without counsel, for that district was lordless.
Now the venerable man of God, Yovhan, stayed with him for twelve
years, having for fellow-students the great vardapet Grigor
and many vardapets and students. He vowed with his life
that should God grant him the authority of the rank of vardapet,
the Only Begotten Son would be a witness that he would construct
a marvellous church to His Mother, the Virgin Mother of God.
Now in the year 835 of the Armenian
Era [1386], the great vardapet Yovhannes gave him the divine
writings of the doctrinal order to learn by heart, so that he
receive the diploma of [g55] authority (hraman ishxanut'ean).
But that same year he suddenly grew weak and ill, and it was the
Creator's will that he go to Him. He summoned the great vardapet
and his comrades, blessed them with a completely spiritual and
divine blessing, and designated Grigor as the chief and teacher
of them all. He entrusted [to Grigor] vardapet Yovhannes,
so that he be given doctoral (vardapetakan) authority and
be sent to his own land.
Now [Grigor], after the great Yovhannes'
death, convened a very solemn meeting and gave [to Yovhannes]
the vardapetakan [45] scepter and sent him to his country
with vardapetakan wealth and students, after the destruction
of the upper region [of Armenia] by the wicked tyrant Timur Chaghatai.
[Yovhannes] came to his own district with joy and gladness. Then
the great vardapet Sargis from the grand congregation of
Xarhabast came before him, with his students and the entire multitude
of believers. Next [Yovhannes] came to his paternal home, the
blessed congregation of Metsob monastery on New Sunday.
Here one could observe the joy of the
blessed retreat and of all of [Yovhannes'] comrades who looked
upon him [g56] as Gregory the Illuminator or Christ's beloved
Lazarus, risen from the dead. At the start of the second year,
[Yovhannes] commenced construction of the blessed church [to fulfill]
the pledge and oath he had made. However, there was no skilled
architect in his district. He patiently waited awhile for the
Lord to aid the work, meanwhile he embellished the blessed congregation
with services, prayers, and masses, with reading Scripture and
studying and with the beautiful arrangement of trees and plants,
[making Metsob] like unto the Garden of Eden. Believers came and
were moved to goodness, saying: "Lo, we have seen Jerusalem".
Preaching the doctrine of the Gospel, he illuminated the Vaspurakan
district and its environs. He spent his life in asceticism and
in sleepless vigils, and he [46] never laid his head on a pillow.
Rather, book in hand, he passed through the exile of this bitter
world. Thereafter lord Jesus bestowed upon [Yovhannes] the gift
of healing, for he drove away pains and sicknesses from the ill
by reading the Gospel and by the laying of his hands on the weak;
and not only on believers, but on unbelievers, too. Christ granted
his requests because of the firm faith which he had in Christ
[g57] and the hope in believers. For this reason he became dear
to unbelievers and believers alike, as an honest man of God. But
his soul was greatly concerned about constructing the blessed
church.
Now [God] works the will of those who
fear Him and He hears their prayers. A man named Faradj (Farach),
of Roman nationality (azgaw Horom) who [was free]
from the captivity of Timur came to the city of Mardin. He was
an extremely skilled and competent builder. [Yovhannes] sent for
him and began constructing the blessed church in the days of Chaghatai
who had razed to their foundations all the churches of Armenia.
Despite the fact that many unbelievers bore ill will and once
wanted [to demolish] the initial foundation in the city of Archesh,nonetheless
Chaghatai came and personally bore rocks, bringing them and placing
them on the foundation of [47] the blessed church. And God vanquished
and confounded the enemies. In seven years God completed it, with
the prayers of the vardapet and the unwavering hope which
he had in Christ with the unity of the blessed congregation [whose
members] gave their lives to God and the holy church of the Virgin
Mother of God. [The church] was begun in the year 851 of the Armenian
Era [1402] and completed in 858 A.E. [1409], in [g58] seven years.
to the glory of Christ our God. Amen.
In the same year professor Grigor came
with vardapets and and students. [Yovhannes] went before
his spiritual father, brought him to his retreat and recruited
him into his numerous projects. Many vardapets and students
gathered about him, eleven vardapets and eighty clerics,
as was written above. He radiantly illuminated all with divine
doctrine, like our Savior Jesus Who sat on the Mount and taught
the Beatitudes. Now the holy vardapet Yovhannes rejoiced
with indescribable joy and attended to providing what was needed.
And he said to Christ: "Lord Jesus, I honored Your Mother
and You honored me with vardapets and my spiritual fathers
with the writing of students, with scribes, ascetics, and true
scholarship and You sent them on the occasion of the consecration
ceremony of the church of Your Mother. What shall I give You in
return and recompense? For I am a poor man and have nothing; but
[48] we shall only bless and praise the most holy Trinity and
the Mother of the Only Begotten since You made me worthy of achieving
the completion of the church. But it is not enough just to bless
You, for You are exalted by angels and archangels. [g59] I have
given my life to You and furthermore I have gone and preached
to the unbelievers that 'Your leader is false and you, having
become fanatics with him [are travelling] the road to unequaled
destruction. Turn to my Christ and you will see with what gifts
He will reward you'".
It was not solely in old age that he
preached to the unbelievers about their falseness and deception,
but throughout his entire life he insulted them and their destructive
leader boldly and intrepidly. But no one dared touch him, neither
prince nor subject. Rather they were terrified by his venerable
face for he had martyred his body alive with fasting and prayer
and all holiness. The great vardapet Grigor blessed our
lands then took his students and went to the Araratean district.
Vardapet Yovhannes and we, all of the students, went along.
Departing thence we went to his gracious seat [the church] of
the Apostle Stat'eos. He remained healthy for eight days. Then
he was summoned by the supreme Caller so that he be given wages
for his labor. This was on the day of the feast of the great [49]
Apostle, the proto-martyr Step'annos. As for that marvellous man
of God, vardapet Yovhannes, he remained in the Araratean
district. [g60] And during the feast of Resurrection, Easter,
when [the prayer] "Uncreated God" is recited, on the
day of Resurrection itself, he passed to Christ. For this reason
his death took place there, for he had gone to worship before
the picture of the Savior of All which, at the request of the
Mother of God had been imprinted above holy Golgotha by the prayers
of the blessed evangelist John. Subsequently this had been given
as a gift to king Ashot by the king of Rome [Byzantium] and was
brought by the curopalate prince. [Yovhannes] being there to worship,
passed to the life eternal, to Christ whom he sought. We, his
students who were also his spiritual sons, Mkrtich' and T'ovma
and the great martyr vardapet of Rshtunik', Yakob, and
vardapet Mkrtich' from Berkri and numerous brothers assembled
and placed him in the tomb (hangstaran) of the neo-martyrs
Yovsep' and vardapet Eghia, in the grand congregation of
Hayots' T'ar. Numerous healings took place because of [Yovhannes']
bones, to the glory of Christ, our God. May his memory be blessed
and may Lord Jesus grant mercy through his prayers, amen.[g61]
Let us return to the story we commenced
with. In the year 850 of the Armenian Era [1401], Timur, that
dragon with the breath of death, moved from Samarqand, came against
our [50] land, went against Syria, and destroyed Aleppo and all
its environs. Thence he went to Damascus, to the city of Dmshx
(Damascus), and destroyed the entire territory south of it until
they nearly reached the [holy] places of the city of Jerusalem.
[Timur] remained a full winter in Damascus. Now the wives of the
leaders [of the city], the teachers, [namely] the qadi
(ghadi), mufti (Miwft'i), mudarris
(miwtariis) [ mudarris, head of a madrasa
or religious college] imam and danishman came [to
Timur] and said: "You are the padishah (p'atishah)
of the entire world who came at the command of God to interrogate
those who had trampled the command of God. There was no inquirer
like yourself; and you made those who were evil descend alive
into hell. In this city all are criminals and sodomites, especially
the false and deceptive mullahs (mollek'n)".
[Timur] said to them: "If you are lying, I shall kill you".
They replied: "May women not lie; summon our leaders and
we shall testify in their presence".
He issued a severe and dreadful order
for all the leaders of the evil teaching throughout the entire
city to be summoned to him. Forthwith all the qadis and
mudarris assembled. [Timur] asked: "Whose city is
this"? They responded: "The Prophet's [P'eghamber],
padishah". He asked: "Do you have the Book of
P'eghamber [the Quran] with you"? They said:
"Our life and death are written by him, but we do not read
it". [51] [Timur] said to them: "Did the Prophet command
you to commit crimes"? They said: "Have mercy".
He asked: "Were there such and such a [wicked] man, what
would be a just verdict for him"? They answered:"He
should be tortured with the most wicked torments and destroyed
together with his entire family". [Timur] said: "That
man is you". They said to him: "Xondk'ear [Khunkiar(khudawendigiar)
a title given to the Ottoman sultans.], this is the city of Mustafa.
Such a thing has not and will not happen". Then [Timur] called
the leaders' wives who came and in the presence of the men testified
to the impious deeds they had wrought.
He ordered the 7000,000 men with him
to bring him 700,000 heads that day and the next, to build seven
fortresses and to decapitate anyone not bringing a head. Those
who were Christians were not to be approached. Many soldiers put
their swords to work and destroyed the entire city. [Eventually],
they were unable to find any more men; so they decapitated women,
and the whole army fulfilled the command. An example [g63] of
the universal Judgement could be witnessed here: the cries, clamor,
weeping and sighing. Those unable to get a head paid 100 t'anks
to the counter, while those many who were unable to do this even,
had their own heads chopped off and they made a mountain of wicked
meat. Our spiritual son Mxit'ar from the city of Van related the
events of the clamity and about their deaths.[52] He himself escaped
from their hands by a hairsbreadth. This occurred in Damascus.
[Timur] again ordered his troops to go to the city of Baghdad
where they similarly created a mountain of the flesh of 700,000
men. The melik of Ostan and our spiritual son Mxit'ar were
with them. As a result of that terror and dread, the cenobite
Mxit'ar came and dwelled with us for three years and then departed
to Christ. Taking his troops the next year, [Timur] came against
the city of Sebastia, which belonged to Yildirim (Iltrum) xonghear
[Ottoman sultan Bayezid I] (1389-1403)], the tyrant of the Rum
area. [The people] did not surrender the city immediately to the
implacable tyrant [Timur]. Tricking them, [Timur] said: "Fear
not, for whoever slays you by the sword will have your swords
in their hearts". Opening up the city, [the people] came
before him with joy [g64] and gladness, as if freed from prison.
He immediately sent a foul command to his troops to take captive
the poor, to torture the rich and to seize their hidden treasures,
to tie the women to the tails of horses and let the horses run,
and to assemble the countless, numberless sons and daughters in
the middle of the plain and to mercilessly trample them like sheaves
of grain.
One could see here the calamitous anguish
of believing and unbelieving youths caused by the wicked tyrant.
Those [53] troops which emerged from the city (whom he had promised
not to kill) he had dig up the earth. Then he had them bound hand
and foot--4,000 souls-and buried them alive, covering them with
water and ash. Their cries reached to heaven. Who can write down
the bitter tortures which this precursor of the antichrist, this
merciless tyrant occasioned? However, we have briefly recorded
for those who will come after us, [things] which we heard and
things we saw, [information] from Christians, captives, and lords
(ters) of captives who came to us.
Then [Timur] with numerous troops went
against Xondk'ear Yildirim, son of Murad Beg (Murat Pek).
The latter assembled four times more soldiers than the many troops
which Timur had, and came before him. But [Timur] tricked him,
[g65] eluding him at night, capturing his land, and turning back.
In battle [Timur] seized (and killed) [Yildirim] and many troops
[Editor Shahnazarean (p.66 n.29) observes that Yildirim (sultan
Bayazid I) was killed in 1403 by Aq-Shahir.]. He took booty, and
more captives than there are stars in the sky or sand in the sea,
as many as 60,000 households (tuns); Qara-tatar (Gharat'at'ar)
with his tun and sons went as captives to Khurasan. But
there was much more, unrelatable and unspeakable. When [Timur]
was coming against those parts of Rum belonging to Yildirim, he
first went against [54] Georgia to enslave and destroy the people.
Now the king of Georgia, Gorgi [George VII, 1395-1405] and his
two brothers Kostantin [Constantine I, king of Georgia 1405-1412]
and Dawit' , learning about [Timur's] wicked intentions, quickly
held a mustering of troops and sent all the people of Georgia
and Armenia to fortresses where they were kept. They themselves
possessed a narrow close spot. But satan, the slanderer,entered
three wicked, godless, infidel azat sons (ch'arazat)
who secretly separated from the king, went to the evil tyrant
and pointed out the road leading to their forest. [Timur] sent
many troops in from above them, and captured the entire Christian
multitude. The grandees they killed, and the lowly ones they took
captive--more than 60,000 souls.
Now king Gorgi, taking one hundred people with him charged through [Timur's] forces, recalling the name of [g66] Jesus Christ; and he killed many of them and went to a secure spot, escaping by a hairsbreadth. With fire and sword [the Timurids] destroyed the entire land of Georgia and demolished the churches, bringing the captives to our land naked, barefoot, hungry and thirsty, every five Chaghatai [troops] having twenty captives. Many died enroute, while [the Timurids] smashed the heads [of the fallen] with rocks so that they would not live; and [the enemy] themselves went on their way. We saw this with our own eyes and heard it [with our own ears]. Lamentation and woe befell the Christian [55] peoples. We saw the captives, but were unable to help. Choking with weeping and lamentation, we eluded and fled from them.
Taking the captives, they went to Khurasan.
The loathsome tyrant [Timur] set up his son named Miran-Shah over
parts of Atrpatakan, [with his residence] in the shahastan
of Tabriz, while he set up his son named Omar, a hater of Christians.
During the first year of his reign, he forcibly made to apostasize
three princes of our people who had remained like a tiny cluster
of grapes among us: the son of Ivane and grandson of Burt'el,
Burt'el ter of Orotan, of the Orbelean family; his brother
Smbat, [g67] whom they took with his family to Samarqand (but
subsequently, through divine mercy and their prayers they returned
to their patrimony);the ter of Eghegis named Tarsayich,
son of Gorgon they caused to apostasize; the ter of Maku
they removed from the false and diophysitic [beliefs] of Aght'armayut'iwn
[Roman Catholicism], and the son of an azat (azatordi)
named Azitan from Aghts'uats' village in the Ayraratean district.
Later, however, [the apostates] repented and became true believers
in Christ and heirs of the Kingdom.
Again that wicked dragon, that precursor
of the antichrist, the abominable Timur, took his troops, entered
the land of the Huns, conquered their king Tokhtamysh, and subjugated
the entire land. He made Idika their king, seated him in Sarai,
and [56] conquered land eastward for a six months' journey. Then
he went east again to India and captured the city of Delhi (Dili)[
Editor Shahnazarean notes (p.68 n.30) that Metsobets'i's chronology
is awry. Timur took India only once, six years before battling
Yildirim (Bayazid).]. They say that he besieged it for forty days
with his troops and did not know the limit of the city (? ew
ezr k'aghak'in och' giter).
Further, he subjugated the entire land of the Amazons, which is
the country of women, and he took K'eshubahra and Balashxan, the
country of the Indians as well as that ocean whence pearls are
removed by diving down to the sea bottom. [g68]
Timur's son, Miran-Shah, was an extremely
merciful and benevolent ruler. He received with love the great
vardapet Grigor, as though he were an angel of God. They
spoke ill to him about the emir of the city of Baghesh( Bitlis),
Ibrahim, who ruled as emir after his brother Amir-Sharaf, saying,
"He does not want to submit to you". This Ibrahim was
a very great hater of Christ and Christians, unlike his brother
who loved all Christians. Instead, [Ibrahim] wanted to destroy
our faith and had it cried out in the city that God is One, without
Son or Spirit--such a God with neither wisdom nor spirit. [Ibrahim]
did not want peace, but plundered the city, and the Christians
grew extremely bitter. Then merciful God [57] moved [Miran-Shah]
to anger. In 845 of the Armenian Era [1396], [Miran-Shah] came
to the city of Archesh with his troops and worshipped at the holy
church. He did not enter the Tachiks' mosque, but rather treated
them with contempt and disrespect. He suddenly came against Baghesh
(Bitlis) and emir Ibrahim came to him. [Miran-Shah] seized and
killed him, looting the entire city and district. Then the lord
of Ostan, emir 'Izz al-Din (Ezdin), came among them and effected
a reconciliation. [Miran-Shah] made emir the son of emir Sharaf,
a little boy named Shamshatin, and then [g69] he went to Tabriz.
This [episode] was inserted according to the order of the composition.
So much on this matter for now.
The filthy Timur went to his land and
died (satekets'aw) like a dog, howling like one
in the foul xatiray Mashat' (?) Removing him thence,
they placed him in fire and passed him through water, and his
obscene noise did not stop for a long while. Now after the death
of Timur in 857 of the Armenian Era [1408], the Turkmen [Qara]
Yusuf took a few of his broken down and unarmed soldiers, escaped
the prison in Damascus, and once again came to our land, first
to the city of Bitlis. The son of emir Sharaf, Shams al-Din (Shamshatin)
went before him and greatly honored him with bread, donkeys, horses,
weapons, and all military and battle preparations. Taking this,
[58] [Yusuf] went against the land of Rshtunik' and the monastery
[-complex, vanakert] of Varag. Preparing their forces,
[the people of Rshtunik'] came before him with more than 12,000
troops. The treacherous Mar (Marats') people cheated the goodly
Melik' who was fond of and merciful toward Christians--they fled.
Then [Qara Yusuf] destroyed the land with fire, robbing, killing,
and polluting. Then emir 'Izz al-Din (Ezdin) and son Melik' submitted.
In this same year two of our vardapets
died: the great [g70] Vardan, the blessed vardapet and
teacher (rabuni) of the holy Mother of God, of Xarabast
a student of the great Sargis; and Yovhannes, the ascetic vardapet
of Rshtunik' who, like an incorporeal angel stood on his feet
for more than fifty years praying and supplicating. We saw him
with our own eyes and enjoyed his prayers. [Yovhannes] was from
K'ajberunik' from the holy congregation of the Resurrection (Yarut'ean)
which was renamed Aspisnka, from the village of Vaxan. May his
memory be blessed. And may [Vardan's and Yovhannes'] prayers be
upon the whole world. Amen.
This emlr 'Izz al-Din (Ezdin) who opposed
Yusuf [was] the lord of Ostan. In the year 842 A.E. [1393] he
killed the kat'oghikos of Aght'amar named Zak'aria.
His story may be read in the book, Yaysmawurk', by the
blessed vardapet Grigor. [59] The previous year, the abominable
melik Omar of Sis killed lord T'eodoros, the kat'oghikos
of Sis and sixteen tanuters in the persecution of Christians.
Then the sultan of Egypt killed melik Omar wickedly and
with bitter tortures. Glory be to God.
Thereafter Yusuf grew powerful, came
to Tabriz and battled with Timur's son, Amir Miran-Shah Chaghatai.
He captured Tabriz and killed [Miran-Shah], plundering him and
all his [g71] troops. He effected peace in the upper parts of
the land of Armenia. The next year Miran-Shah's son, Abu Bakr
(Apu-Bak'ir), an extremely powerful military commander massed
together countless, numberless troops and came against Yusuf.
They dug in opposite one another for some days. Then one night
Abu Bakr secretly took his troops and fled. He left behind booty
and plunder, tent and sarup'artay all the treasures of
the royal house and of his Turkmen troops. Greatly strengthened,
[Yusuf] came the next year and took the city of Erznka peacefully,
as the prince of the city, named Darxrat, had died. He took the
fortress of Mardin and all of their districts. He went against
Amida and Arghni, besieged them and destroyed that land. The lord
of Erznka, Pir 'Umar (P'ir Omar) came up and reconciled the lord
of Amida named 'Uthman Aghghoyinlu, a great lover of the Armenian
people, a valiant warrior. They saw that he had slain 72 parons
and conquered Diyarbakir himself.
[60] In the same period sultan Ahmat
[Ahmad Djala'ir] came from Baghdad, entered Tabriz and took it.
Smbat (Ivane's son and Burt'el's grandson), fooled by [Ahmad's]
advice, went to him. [Ahmad] magnified him and gave him the village
of Angeghak'ut' [g72] as a gift. When Yusuf learned about this,
he quickly came against the khan of Tabriz. Warring with the sultan-khan,
they seized and choked him to death, for they were lords of the
place and called khan and son of a khan. By the solicitude of
God there was at this time peace and construction throughout all
the lands(s) of Georgia and Aghbania, while from Archesh to the
Araratean district people dwelled not in desolation, but in a
condition of building (i shens bnakein).
Despite the fact that there were many taxes demanded, nonetheless
the peace was without disturbance. The churches blossomed with
priests and deacons, and those people who had apostasized during
the time of Chaghatai [Timur], returned to the faith, [namely]
Burt'el of Orotan, Tarsayich of Eghegeats', Surghat'mish of Maku,
and Azitan of Aghts'. And at Archesh, the monastery which the
Tachiks had taken, they gave the church; and the believers rejoiced
exceedingly.
Now loathsome satan (Beliar) could not
bear the Church's spiritual joy, so he stirred up a war against
the Persians. There was a boy in the city of Tabriz named Yusuf,
a great curser and hater of Christ's name. Taking the foul bones
of a dog, [Yusuf] pursued [some] Christian boys and threw the
[g73] [61] filthy bones into the Christians' vats, from which
the vardapet Step'annos (a student of the great Grigor)
as well as all the Christians drank water. That same night the
firmament opened, Christ descended from heaven and sat on the
fiery throne, the twelve Apostles with him. He descended on the
spot where Yusuf slept. The Lord said: "Seize that boy, take
him and show him the place of torture of their filthy leader and
all his followers. Then kill him so that he will go to that very
place of their torments". The angels took [Yusuf] to hell
and to the blazing flames of gehenna where their leader and all
of his followers were burning. [Muhammad] had the form of a dog
and a yelping noise was issuing from the inferno's flames; and
there was a chain about his neck. The angel said: "Behold,
your leader and your people". Removing [Yusuf] thence, they
showed him the kingdom of Heaven, its comely beauty, the rank
of all the foremost souls, the delights, and all the leaders of
the Christian people. The angel spoke: "Oh strayer (moloreal),
do you see the believers in Christ our God, the Virgin Mary, Mother
of God, [g74] and do you see the Illuminator of Armenia glorified
with divine splendor? Why do you insult the Armenian people with
curses? Believe in crucified Christ, go, be baptized in the name
of the Most Blessed Trinity so that you go not to that place of
torture which you saw but rather to this place [62] where you
are now. For Christ Himself with His Apostles descended from Heaven
and came to you".
Thence they again brought [Yusuf] to
the terrible fiery throne of Christ. Seeing Christ [Yusuf] bellowed
forth like Thomas: "My Lord and God, I have sinned before
You, I confess and believe in You, fashioner and creator, and
in Your omnipotent Father and Your true Holy Spirit of God, equal
in glory--only free me from my sins so that I will not go to the
place of torture of our wicked leader".
Suddenly the vision of the dream ceased
and his family, mother and brothers, heard a frightful shouting,
the word of doctrine, coming from his mouth. Awestruck, they stayed
there in amazement. For three days and three nights they were
unable to awaken him. Suddenly [Christ's] throne ascended to Heaven
and [Yusuf], awakening from the sleep of that night vision, filled
with the grace of the Holy Spirit, commenced professing Christ
God and the Lord of all, in Persian. After [g75] a few days he
went to vardapet Step'annos, called the weeper (laluk),
and related the frightful vision to him. Baptized by Step'annos,
[Yusuf] became a Christian. The infidel learned that [Yusuf],
drum in hand, was going about the city confessing Christ God.
Multitudes of infidels assembled, and devised various strategems,
persuasion and threats [to check Yusuf]. [63] Then they placed
him on a camel and led him around the entire city. [Yusuf] said:
"Lord Jesus Christ take me soon from this world, for I ride
upon a camel, and they are on foot. [The infidels] dismounted
him and tortured him with such bitter torments such that for forty
days they wrapped him in skin (? i mort' tsrarets'in).
When he recovered, his family expelled him. [Yusuf] then went
to Sultaniyeh where he was tortured further. Then he went to Samarqand,
thence a fifteen days' journey to the fire-worshippers' land,
he came to Baghdad. Tormented by the Nestorian people, he professed
Christ God. He entered Mashad Ali and secretly remained inside
during the night, and he observed their deceit, for they said
to light a fire in it. He came to us at the blessed congregation
of Metsob in the district of K'ajberunik', for six months. Then
he went to the city of Archesh and professed the most blessed
Trinity. When the infidels saw this they [g76] dug a hole, buried
him to the waist, and stoned him like the proto-martyr Stephen.
Afterwards the mullahs (mollek') freed him, for
they had broken his arm. But six days later, the one who had broken
his arm, named Aramish, died wickedly.
At liberty, he came to us again, then
went to the city of Axalts'xe and assembled Georgian and Armenian
clerics. After eating pork, they placed the pigs' bones in their
mosque. The infidels who were there saw this. The stupid prince
[64] Ivane, son of Aghbugha, had elevated [the infidels] more
than any of the Christian people about him. Treacherously, [the
infidels] took many treasures and went to the tyrant Yusuf at
Vagharshakert in Bagrewand district. They made their evil [intentions]
known to him, they took him to Georgia and gave the city over
to him. Like mad, pitiless beasts, they fell on [the Christians]
with swords and slaughtered them like innocent lambs--killing
more people than the human mind can comprehend. Takinq the entire
land captive, women and children, they filled up the entire world
with Armenian slaves; they made pitiful all the Christian people,
clerical and lay and [the Christians] gave spiritual and temporal
goods for the price of a slave [ew zhogwoy ew
zmarmnoy stats'uatss i gin gerwoyn
etun.]. Some Christians were freed by theft, some by flight,
and some were eaten by wild beasts. Who can relate or put into
writing the calamitous anguish and the racking sobbing and lamentation
of fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. Furthermore, mere
beholders were unable to restrain themselves. Women pawned [their
own] jewelry; men, their animals; priests and clerics demonstrated
their indigency. Whoever had sheep or cattle gave and bought [the
captives].
Return to Historical Sources Menu