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Carla Friedman

Carla Friedman

Carla Rachel Friedman is a graduate of Naropa University with a B.A. degree in Poetics and Buddhist Studies. Scribbler of words, beach walker, resting somatic bodyworker, hospice care volunteer, and wandering Jew, she presently dwells in a small cottage on the Central California coast.
Carla Friedman

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36 Comments

  1. Just to complement it, the Armenian poet Vahe Vahian is born in Gurun too, and his family name is Abdalian also.

    • Thx Daniel as well as Armenian Weekly– I am Sheila Abdalian, the daughter of Vahe Vahian aka Sarkis Hagop Abdalian. I m so thrilled from this article– I always lived with hope that one day more relatives would pop up. I wish the reporter can help me with an email address or phone/mobile number to reach Pamela Barsam so as we can be reunited!!

    • The poet Vahe Vahian was Nahabed’s brother. He ended up in Beirut, Lebanon and became a teacher and writer. He would have been Zabelle’s uncle but they never met as the family lost touch with this Abdalian part of the family. – C. Friedman

  4. I wonder if Abdalian is a very common Armenian name. I know it is not uncommon – but same last name, same town. I will investigate :) ~ Carla Friedman, Author of ‘Discovering Zabelle’

    • Dear Carla. Well known educator and pen-named poet Vahe Vahian is born in 1908 in Gurun, as Abdalian. He named his older son Vahram; and it was customary at the time to name your first-borns after your parents. And a search for a Vahram Abdalian in Gurun may come out, with a birth-year around possibly 1880’s (close to Zabelle’s). Also, the poet’s sister was the wife of well-known principal Ara Topjian of Beirut, himself the son of educator Hagop Topjian of Cyprus….

    • Vahe Vahian’s birth-name is Sarkis Abdalian, born in Gurun on Dec.22, 1908.

    • Daniel, vaguely I remember that Vahe Vahian’s son Vahram died tragically very young in a car accident in Saudi Arabia.

    • Dear Carla you can contact me at Sheilavahian@yahoo.com. My father Sarkis Abdalian- better known under his pen name as Vahe Vahian was born in Gurin and he used to tell me their true family name was Harzevartian– but his mum could not have babies fr a long time- until some neighbors told her to go over gypsies called Abdals who used to be nearby and through a potion they offered her she then got 9 children. That’s when people started referring them as Abdalians– coming from Abdals!!

    • Carla, Abdalian is not a common Armenian name. Vahe Vahian (pen name), the writer, brother of Nahabed & Zabel’s uncle explains that his great great grandfather whose male babies tended to die, was advised to dress his newborn son with the shirt of a gypsy (referred to as abdal). Sure enough, that baby boy lived on & became Vahian’s grandfather. Thereafter, the family was referred to as Abdalian!

  5. What a nice and beautiful story you shared. Thank you. Daniel, correct my teacher and poet Vahe Vahian’s family name is Abdalian and he was born in Gurun.

    • Daniel–I really appreciate the info u r giving..but there are some discrepancies..it’s my mum who was the sister of Ara Topjian and not what u ve specified. And my dad also had three children from a previous marriage… Shogher, Vahram and Tsolag.But after his wife died from diabetes he got married with my mum and I was the only offspring!
      Vartan– u r absolutely right–my unforgettable brother Vahram died in 1976 in a car accident in Abu Dhabi and following that my dad wrote an amazing book entitled “Monument To Vahram”.
      By the way I dont think there were other Abdalians in Gurin other than dad’s family–unless I m mistaken and it could have been my grand grandmother who had the fertility prob.

  6. A fascinating story so beautifully told. Relating your identification with the Jewish holocaust to that of the Armenian holocaust was quite moving.
    moving.

  7. Abdal is turkish and is used for men, who are close to God. They are sth. like religious philosoper and mostly poets. They had inspired people in history and their teaching stands for a sense of spiritual mystery, awe, and fascination. Abdals are related to Turkish-Alevi branch of Islam. A good example is Pir Sultan Abdal from the Sivas(Gürün is in Sivas Province) region of Turkey, who had rebelled with his followers against the Ottoman decadence, whereas the poeple were living in poverty.
    He was caught and hanged.

    • Abdal is not Turkish.
      Whatever is related to the religion of Islam, including Sufism and Alevism, has Arab roots.

      Very little that is alleged to be ‘Turkish’ is actually Turkish.
      It has Armenian, Assyrian, Arab, Iranian/Persian, Greek, etc origins.

    • What I remember from my childhood days, ‘abdal’ in Turkish was used to mean stingy.However ‘abdal’ could be the abbreviation of the Arabic name Abdallah which means slave of God, which is quite near to your explanation.

  8. Word “abdal” is not Turkish is Arabic, which means servant to god. Abd means servant
    Abdal or Abdul
    Abdal Al Wahab
    Abdal Al Rahman
    Abdal Al Kareem
    Abdal Al Sattar
    Abdal Al Khalik…
    Abd Allah is the most of all names used…
    and so on
    Recent studies show that Turkish language is composed
    of 60% Arabic, 20% Persian and the rest you can count …
    But Turks as usual and expected from them…refuse to confess…
    I wrote many times to them and they answered me their harsh way as usual …!!!
    Sylva

  9. Also Christian Arabs they use name Abdal Al Massih
    Massih in Arabic means Jesus …
    So it means servant of Jesus…
    Sylva

  10. My dad named his son Vahram after his younger brother who died during the march from Gurin to Der Zor. My grandpa s name was Hagop!

  11. Dear Carla. Nahabed “cannot ” be Vahe Vahian’s brother, as there is some 55-year age difference. Further, daughter Sheila (Shoghig) describes how her grandparents had a name-change to Abdalian for some other reason. Dr. Nahabed had long been an Abdalian ( M.D. 1879; US Naturalization…). I’m not sure if they’re even related! Further, looks like Dr. Nahabed Abdalian was practicing in Gurin already (an American doctor!) , when Vahe Vahian’s parents adopted that “notable” name, serving God as “Abdals”, and thus getting rewarded with nine offspring…

  12. @avery
    Of course everything about Islam has arabic roots, as you stated. Look even the prophet was an arab! But only the roots are arabic.I hope you know that Christianity wasn´t born in Armenia and that Jesus was not an armenian. Even in Pakistan or Indonesia poeple have developed their own spiritual Islam/Sufism, Arabs would not be amused of that Islam. Therefore Abdalian is an armenian surname, but from the turkish word Abdal and not from the arabian word Abd Al! I know many Armenians has a tendency to refuse everything turkish, like a sort of counter-denial! But it will not getting better if you keep eating turkish food and listening to turkish music.

    @sylvamdpoetry

    Of course Turkish has many words with arab or persian roots. But these words are not arab or persian, because these words have mostly another meaning in turkish, the pronouncation is completely different. The sentence structure is completely different in turkish, when you integrate these words. Therefore an arab or persian will have great difficulties to recognize these words! Language is something, which is always in steady development. I`m wondering, why you as Armenian have to state this.

    @vartan
    I think, you mean aptal, which stands for idiot in turkish.

    • Hello Daniel, Thank you for your comment. I, myself have no idea. I received this message from Pamela, Zabelle Abdalian’s great neice who I reference in the story. She wrote, “I learned a few years ago that the poet Vahe Vahian was Nahabed’s brother. He ended up in Beirut, Lebanon and became a teacher and writer. He would have been Zabelle’s uncle but they never met as the family lost touch with this Abdalian part of the family”. I know nothing of this history so it’s all ‘Armenian’ to me :)

  14. Dear Carla- thanks for further pursuing the subject. By the way my grandma had also breast feeded her dead sister s niece but we used to call her auntie–her name was Haiganoush- It does ring a bell does not it– repetition of same names in the family.If you are interested further with my dad’s biography here are some further links>>
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahe_Vahian
    http://www.keghart.com/Charles-Vahian
    http://asbarez.com/37108/famous-poet-editor-and-writer-vahe-vahian-dies/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wvNWa_z-VA

    Any students or friends who have stories or memories to share they are welcome to send it to my personal email at sheilavahian@yahoo.com. Thanks in advance.

  16. “A magical convergence of Zabelle’s 19th-century flight of poetic imagination connects forward to her 21st-century Abdalian family and backward to her father’s nephew, Sarkis Hagop Abdalian (penname Vahe Vahian). Despite the devastation of broken families, a consequence of the Armenian Genocide, poetry has fused two families separated by half a world. Beirut, Lebanon journalist and poet Sheila Abdalian introduced herself to [me] on April 8, 2015. We are second cousins lost to each other for over a century, united by Carla Friedman’s indomitable spirit in ‘Discovering Zabelle.’” – Pamela Barsam Brown (Zabelle’s grand neice)

  17. I am the grandson of Nahabed Abdalian. Thanks for all of this information.

  19. Hi David. And how do you fit into the Abdalian puzzle? Are you related to Pamela Barsam-Brown? Related to Sheila? From what country do you hail?

    • Carla,

      Henry Washington Abdalian (1884 – 1971), born in NY, NY, was the first born son of Nahabed. Henry was my grandfather. Zabelle, Jenny and Takohee were Henry’s younger sisters born back in Gurin. My father was Henry Abdalian, Jr, (1926-2016) Pamela is my cousin.

  20. Carla,

    My grandfather, Henry Washington Abdalian lost the Olive ranch in about 1930 when my Dad was 4, and moved to San Jose for work, then San Francisco where he spent the rest of his life. The immediate family all live in the SF Bay Area today.

  21. Vahe Vahian my beloved teacher 1970 to 1975/76; his daughter Shayla my childhood classmate at Demirdjian 1961 (3) until 1970 (12)

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