| Arakel Babakhanian | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 14, 1860 Shushi, Russian Empire |
| Died | November 14, 1932 (aged 72) Yerevan, Armenian SSR |
| Fields | Armenian studies |
| Institutions | Yerevan State University |
| Known for | History of Armenia (Hayots Patmutyun) (three volumes) |
Arakel Grigori Babakhanian (Armenian: Առաքել Գրիգորի Բաբախանյան, commonly known as Leo (Armenian: Լեո); April 14 [O.S. April 2] 1860 – November 14, 1932) was an Armenian historian, publicist, writer, critic and professor of Yerevan State University (from 1925). He is recognized as an authoritative historian on Armenia and is best known as the author of the multivolume History of Armenia.[1] Leo addressed the difficult issues of Armenian history, history of literature and many key issues of the early 20th century.[2]
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Leo was born in Shushi on April 14, 1860, then a part of the Russian Empire. He graduated from the local school there in 1878. Due to the death of his father Grigor, Leo was unable to attend university to receive higher education and stayed in the region to support his family.[3] He took up several jobs in Shushi and Baku as a notary clerk, telegraphist, and the manager of a publishing press called Aror (Wooden Plough).[2] From 1895 to 1906, Leo worked as a journalist and secretary in Tiflis for the prominent Armenian-language paper Mshak (Tiller).[4] In 1906, he began teaching at the Gevorkyan Religious Seminary at Etchmiadzin, although he returned to Tiflis a year later, dedicating himself to academic work.[2]
Politically, Leo was opposed to the policies of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun political party and was a member of the Populist (Zhoghovrdakan) Party, joining it in 1917.[5] Other prominent positions Leo held include being an adviser to the Seim delegation which held negotiations with the Turks in Trebizond in March 1918 and the president of the Karabakh Armenian Patriotic Association from 1918 to 1920.[6]
Leo's education and knowledge was based almost solely on self-erudition.[7] He had welcomed the sovietization of Armenia in 1920 and offered his services to the newly established state. In 1924, he was invited Yerevan to teach as a professor at Yerevan State University in the field of Armenian studies. He already had worked for numerous publishing houses and published several books on Armenian history but his three volume work, History of Armenia (Patmutyun Hayots, vol. I, Tiflis, 1917; vols. II and III, Yerevan, 1946–1947), is perhaps the most notable.[2][8] After Soviet Russian writer Andrei Bitov visited Yerevan in 1960, he remarked that "he did not enter any house which did not have the familiar three volumes of Leo's History of Armenia."[9] Leo's History traces Armenian history from its beginnings until the end of the nineteenth century, with the exception of the time stretching from the 11th to the 15th centuries (the third volume began from the 16th century, whereas the second volume had ended in the 11th).[10] The work reserves a particular importance to the political, cultural and social issues that surrounded Armenian life and the role Armenia's neighbors played in the country's history.