Below are excerpts from the book Raffi: The Prophet from Payajuk by Murad Meneshian.
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Raffi (Hakob Melik-Hakobian) embarked on his writing career solely to enlighten his people and liberate them from cultural and spiritual stagnation. He began his chosen path at an early age. At the gymnasium in Tiflis he wrote several poems and began writing his first novel, Salpi. After his travels in Western Armenia, when he was twenty-one-years old, and witnessing the wretchedness of the Armenians, he wrote the long article titled “Aghtamara vanke,” which included the poem Dzayn tur ov tsovak. The article was published in Hiusisapayl, published by Stepanos Nazariants. The article revealed Hakob’s intense patriotism and the extent of his knowledge of religious matters. The article encompassed mainly his conversation with the abbot of the monastery. When at one point the abbot became angry, Hakob responded:
“Dear Reverend Father, I am a servant to your holy right hand. I am perhaps misguided, but you as a knowledgeable priest are obligated to guide me by advising gently and without anger. I am a young man grieving for the nation’s ills; I have come to see Armenia to be somewhat consoled; but just the opposite has happened. From the minute I stepped foot in my sweet fatherland, my heart filled with new aches at every step. Lamentable scenes opened in front of my eyes. I see magnificent cities and ruined monasteries; but when I see my pitiful compatriots, I lose my mind and my eyes dim. These wretched people, who at one time had their glory and nation, are now in obscure darkness and deprived of glory and nation. Covering up the nation’s faults has brought us to this lamentable state. Barbaric nations have become enlightened, but Armenians in our nation’s heartland are surrounded with ignorance.”
Although the article created considerable curiosity among the readers, Hakob Melik-Hakobian remained in obscurity until Mshak published his letters, describing his travels in Persia and Western Armenia, which he signed with the name Raffi. Along with his writing career, Raffi undertook a teaching career to educate the Armenian children. Raffi was a progressive educator who introduced modern educational methods in the schools where he taught. Raffi considered education the most important factor for the advancement and political emancipation of the Armenian people. He was a staunch and zealous advocate for the education and progress of the Armenian woman. Raffi advanced the idea that unless the Armenian women achieved educational equality with the Armenian men, the Armenian people would not achieve either spiritual or political liberty. He said, “Our mothers, who were not educated in the past, did not give us formal education. The Armenian woman has remained the same everywhere. I am not speaking about the exceptions. If we desire to have educated children, we must open girls’ schools to prepare educated mothers. The necessity for such an education is evident among all the Armenian communities. First, the home provides education, then the school. The educated mother must prepare the child in the crib by singing lullabies.”
Yet a young man in Payajuk, Hakob had a clear view of his mission to educate the youth and in turn the public. As it happened one day, he met a young girl by a spring. He was curious about the girl’s education and struck a conversation with her:
“Whose daughter are you?” I asked.
The young girl did not answer and blushed. I felt as if I was talking to the beautiful Rebecca, who sat by such a spring and gave water to Abraham’s elderly servant and his camels. Amazing girl! She radiated the innocence and bashfulness of the dainty Armenian female.
“Do you know how to read?” I asked the girl. A scornful smile appeared on her face, and she answered tersely.
“I am not going to be a priest to know how to read.”
“But how do you keep yourself busy?”
“I do our housework, and when I do not have work, I go to learn sewing.
I departed thinking about the depth of prejudice that had taken root in our people that reading was considered the property of only the clergy.
The girl’s response haunted Hakob; the words reverberated in his head, “I am not going to be a priest to know how to read.” “No!” he thought, “I will get that erroneous idea out of your innocent head, poor girl; reading is more important to you than to the priest. You must educate the new generation. You must prepare our bright future. You must learn to read. Only then will you no longer be poor and unfortunate, and your children will be happy and comfortable.” The truth of the incident was irrelevant because Hakob had already decided the course of his mission. If real, it meant he was practicing his mission at its incipient stages; if imaginary, it was an expression of his mission.
Raffi was vehemently opposed to corporal punishment, and he emphasized that opposition in his novels and during conversations. He criticized the traditional belief that physical punishment was necessary for learning, and he pointed out that it was not due to some evil trait of a teacher, but the result of the people’s deep conviction that physical punishment was necessary to teach and discipline a child. Raffi knew that beatings and threats harmed the child’s moral education and made him depraved and obstinate. He believed threats made a child timid, cowardly, passive, conforming, and deceitful when he grew up. He said that the use of violence in the educational process must yield to love, which he considered more powerful than force. To force a student to learn by physical punishment was a teacher’s shortcoming. It showed the teacher’s inability to inspire love and respect for him. Raffi believed that mild punishment to prevent a child’s bad behavior was appropriate; otherwise, such behavior would worsen because the child would be convinced that punishment was not forthcoming. Punishment had to be for the committed act—only when certain that the child was at fault. He stressed just punishment for those who were unquestionably responsible for disobedience, not just based on suspicion. Raffi expounded this idea in the novel Kaytser with the example of his teacher, Ter Todik, who had a habit of punishing all the students on the first day of school “in case” they had been unruly during holidays and vacations.
Raffi persisted on the idea that to liberate the nation the Armenians had to be prepared for the opportunity that he knew would certainly arrive someday. He wrote that the condition of a people does not change suddenly; rather, preparations begin long before and are executed at the propitious time.
Raffi rushed to spread his message of preparation with poignant literature that would galvanize the Armenians for action. He wrote that if the Armenians remained indifferent toward weapons and were unable to overcome Christianity’s harmful doctrine of blind obedience, their lot would not change. Unless they took up arms to defend themselves against those who plundered the fruits of their labor, they could not expect help from elsewhere. Preparations by revolutionary groups that he spawned led to the establishment of the Republic of Armenia less than thirty years later.
Raffi considered the liberation of the nation a most sacred endeavor. With his novels, Raffi wanted to instill in the Armenians’ psyche the ideas of self-reliance, love of nation, and freedom. But he fought vigorously against self-deception—Inknakhabeutiun. He wrote:
“Inknakhabeutiun is a simple word, but it is humanity’s misfortune. Someone who is a coward thinks he is lion-hearted, and someone who is ignorant thinks he is genius.
“Inknakhabeutiun has only one eye and sees only good things. Its other eye is blind to ugliness, extravagance, and vices. Although wretched and pitiable, it is content with its condition because it does not see its faults. It stagnates and makes no effort to advance. Thus, self-deception is moral suicide.
“The opposite of self-deception is self-awareness; its father is envy and its mother is discontent. Self-awareness is never satisfied; it has plenty, but always thinks it has less. It constantly looks upward and tries to advance. It has a grasp of all qualities of perfection and is familiar with lofty and noble ideals. For that reason it is always dissatisfied.
“Fortunate is the man who is discontent. That is what drives a person toward continual progress and gives birth to genius, art, and well-being. Discontent is a gentle prod that leads to improvements.
“Many nations are satisfied with their condition, thinking they have everything, but they are unaware of their shortcomings. Some other nations, no matter how much they progress . . . they remain dissatisfied.
“We are in a state of self-deception.
“The family, our nation’s foundation, is spoiled and deteriorating, and extravagance and immorality are gradually destroying what are good and noble characteristics. The family has lost its traditional simplicity and has adopted only the appalling European customs. The most dangerous part is that all these trends start in the family.”
Raffi’s nationalism transcended religious convictions. He placed the love of the nation and fatherland above all other virtues of his people. Raffi elaborated on his idea of national unity in relation to religion:
“We will continually flog all those ill-minded people, whether they are Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Protestant, or Armenian Muslim, who spread discord among our national unity efforts because of religion. We will lovingly embrace our brothers, without hurting their feelings, who endeavor for Armenia and protect the rights of Armenians.
“The idea of nationality has been alien to Armenians for a long time. A few intellectuals revived the idea only now during the second half of this century; but they presented it in a confusing manner. The most zealous and sincere patriots were confusing the nation with religion, and religion with the Church. They looked upon those who left the Armenian Church as pagans and not Armenians anymore; thus, they considered the Nation and the Church as an inseparable unit.
“This mentality could not last long; it was contrary to the natural progress of nations. The Armenian nation cannot belong to only one church. During the pre-Christian centuries, the Armenians belonged to different sects; despite them, the nationality did not lose its unity; it was stronger and more powerful than at later times. Our Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and even Muslim brothers are Armenians like us and belong to our nation. We cannot tell them, we do not even have the right to tell them, to change and once again join our Church, that only then will we consider them Armenians.
“Who can deny that the Church has a historic relation with our nationality? Who can deny that the Church has rescued our nation many times from disappearing, and that the Church has harmed our nation many times? If the Armenians abandon their language and homeland, lose their national attributes, and find refuge only in the Church, then they cannot consider themselves a nation anymore. Such a nation will disintegrate, assimilate, and eventually disappear among other nationalities. We are the children of one nation and members of the same family. Over many centuries, religion separated us, but now love of the nation and fatherland must unite us. Catholicism, Protestantism, and even Islam do not prevent an Armenian from being an Armenian; neither does the Armenian Apostolicism make us Armenians. We were Armenian when we were pagan, and we will remain Armenian even if we change our religion a thousand times. Our nationality will not disappear if we preserve all the necessary and essential conditions for the existence of our nation.”
Raffi struggled to awaken his people’s spirit. He met adversaries, but he persevered to deliver his message of enlightenment and freedom. He wrote enthralling novels and became the most ardent and zealous interpreter of Armenians’ bitter and anguished experiences and the most skillful interpreter of the nation’s thought and emotions. He instilled patriotic ideas in his readers and aroused their national pride and bravery and inspired new hopes for a rebirth. He motivated and galvanized a generation and gave the Armenian people personality and character. He was the greatest force behind Armenia’s emancipation and liberation from servitude and domination. He was the apostle of freedom by revolution. He was a tireless advocate of his people’s freedom of thought and conscience.
Raffi followed his convictions at the expense of his comfort and health. Despite being born into wealth, he died in abject poverty without even a clean shirt in his home to dress his body. Indeed, the great novelist and the great patriot entered the literary field without a clean shirt and departed this world without a clean shirt. Instead of a shirt, Raffi weaved and draped the Armenian literature with a royal cloak that will not get old and will not wear out as long as someone can still read in the Armenian language.
Guest Contributor
Mourad Meneshian is to be commended for this magnificent, scholarly study depicting the revolutionary and humanitarian literary work of one of our nation’s foremost intellectual, Raffi. As his Arabic-Persian nom-de-plume indicates he was an “Elevator” of Armenians’ spirit and ethnic-national awareness.
Raffi in his financial poverty was a mental giant, and Mourad has been able to successfully transfer all that to the reader in his 300 page hardcover entitled “Raffi”. It is a must read!
The United States and one lone state in Australia are the only parts of the industrialized world that allow students as young as FOUR to be hit with a wooden paddle in schools. (Corporal punishment may have been abolished in 30 states, but it’s still legal in 20 states, routinely practiced in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee.) This is one thoroughly shameful and shaming practice. It’s an egregious form of adult bullying. And we call it discipline.
20 states school disciplinary practices promote violence and sexual abuse of children. Physical/Corporal Punishment is especially disturbing as today it is legal for teachers to hit school children with wooden paddles to deliberately inflict physical pain and suffering as punishment in schools in 20 U.S. states, (these actions constitute sexual assault when done to a non-consenting adult),when the practice is already illegal in schools in 30 states and prohibited by Federal law in prisons and juvenile detention centers. An Enfield, Conn. High School Teacher is facing sexual assault charges after being accused of spanking a female student in class in stark contrast to a recent incident where over a dozen high school girls in Alabama received “Spankings” for prom dresses that were too revealing. Note the disparity.
For a real education of what is really happening to our children in our tax-payer funded schools simply type “A Violent Education” and “School is Not Supposed to Hurt” into an internet search engine to review recent shocking reports.
Please don’t allow our children’s fundamental human rights to be Politicized.
Please urge your U.S. Congress Rep. to Co-Sponsor/Support H.R. 5628 “Ending Physical/Corporal Punishment in Schools Act”
Until Congress forces states to stop this practice, kids will still be subjected to beatings in many schools in this country.
Hye, the original book of the English translation of THE FOOL (KHENT), Baikar Press, Boston, Mass. 1950 – Translated from the Armenian by J.S. Wingate.
AN INTRODUCTION By K.A. Sarafian, Head, Department of Education, La Verne College
Visiting Prof. of Education, U. of So. Calif., Summer Sessions).
Sarafian writes: Mrs. Jane S.Wingate, daughter of Reverend John F. Smith, missionary under the American Board of Foreign Missions at Marsovan (Merizifoun) Turkey. Knowing
Armenian from childhood upon graduation from the Girls Boarding School she came to the United States studied and graduated from Monticello College at Alton, Illinois, 1885.
After teaching a year or two in Wisconsin she was invited to teach in her former school in Marsovan; six years later married Reverend Henry Knowles Wingate together went to Caesarea,Turkey, to build up a boys’ school in that city, which later moved to Talas.
While living in a Turkish speaking community,she felt the need of preserving and improving her knowledge of Armenian, devoted herself to study of Armenian literature, ancient and modern commenced translating folklore which she sent to the Folklore Society of England, of which she was a member. Several of these translations were then
published in their magazine FOLKLORE in 1911 and 1912. This scroll in the possession of The Union Theoloical Seminary in New York City. She was honored by Armenian clergy for her interest in Armenian literature. Before leaving Turkey in 1917 she had translated a portion of the Armenian Church Liturgy and Raffi’s THE FOOL. Some learned scholars
from whom she received aid: Minas Tcheraz, Frederic Macler and Basmadjian, and last but not least Dr.K. H. Mallarian of Fargo, North Dakota, without whose assistance the translation of the twelfth century prayer poem “Jesus Son” written by Nerses Shnorhali would never have been completed, published by Delphic Press years ago.
We take this opportunity to extend the heartfelt gratitude of the Armenian people to
Mrs. Wingate for devoting her life to this noble task, to bring to light some of the priceless jewels of Armenian literature by translating them into English for the benefit of a vastly greater reading public, for the connoisseurs of art inthe English speaking world,
who, I am confident, will deeply appreciate her fine translation of this thought-provoking
novel by Raffi.
“The fool rolled a stone into a pit; a hundred wise men came to the rescue but they could not draw it out.”
“While the prudent man is considering the fool is across the river and away.”
“The replies of the fool become the proverbs of the people.”
CHAPTER I…
Bayazid was besieged.
Turks, Kurds, gypsies, vagabonds, and more then twenty thousand lawless freebooters, together with the regular Turkish army, surrounded the half-ruined city. Its firest smoked like a widespreading hearth. The houses of the Armenians seemed deserted. Some of the inhabitants had been put to the sword, and some had been taken captive. Only a small number had escaped, having been warned in time to enable them to flee across the frontier, into Persian territory, toward Macou.
The citadel of BAyazid still remained impregnable.
A few Russian soldiers, together with the Turkish and Armenian militia we entrenched there and were awaiting their doom, with the fortitude of…
(end of first page)
Manooshag… Ashot, having read KHENT in Armenian tells me that the ‘fool’ pretending to be a ‘fool’ was able to move about… learning much… I think KHENT means ‘crazy’.M.