Mesrop Mashtots

Mesrop Mashtots  listen  (Armenian: Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց; 362 – February 17, 440) was an early medieval Armenian linguist, theologian, statesman and hymnologist. He is best known for having restored or invented the Armenian alphabet c. 405 AD, which was a fundamental step in strengthening Armenian statehood and the bond between the Armenian Kingdom and Armenians living in the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire. He was also, according to a number of scholars and contemporaneous Armenian sources, the creator of the Caucasian Albanian and Georgian alphabets.

Life

Mesrop Mashtots was born in a noble family ("from the house of an azat" according to Anania Shirakatsi) in the settlement of Hatsekats in Taron (identified as the village of Hac'ik in the Mush plain), and died in Vagharshapat. He was the son of a man named Vardan.Koryun, his pupil and biographer, tells us that Mashtots (in his work he does not mention the name Mesrop) received a liberal education, and was versed in the Greek and Persian languages. On account of his piety and learning Mesrop was appointed secretary to King Khosrov IV. His duty was to write in Greek and Persian characters the decrees and edicts of the sovereign.