Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Oct. 23, 2010)

Athens and Truth
The virtue of the ancient Athenians is very remarkable in the case of Euripides. This great tragic poet, though famous for the morality of his plays, had introduced a person who, being reminded of an oath he had taken, replied, “I swore with my mouth but not with my heart.” The impiety of this sentiment set the audience in an uproar; made Socrates (though an intimate friend of the poet) go out of the theatre with indignation; and gave so great offence, that he was publicly accused, and brought upon his trial, as one who had suggested an evasion of what they thought was the most holy and indissoluble bond of human society. So jealous were these virtuous heathens of the smallest hint that might open a way to perjury.
 
What’s in a Name?
Kasarian/Kasarjian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a trade, a kasarji is one who deals in hatchets, small axes.
Kassarian/Kassarjian: Turkish, borrowed from Persian or Arabic in derivation, identified as a trade, a kassarji is a fuller, one who cleans, shrinks, and thickens cloth with moisture, heat and pressure.
Kiljian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a trade, a kilji mines and sells kil, fuller’s earth/clay used by a kassarji in cleaning cloth.
Dinkjian: Turkish in derivation, identified as a trade, a dinkji deals in fulling mills which the kassarji uses in his trade.
(The first references to fulling mills are reported in Persia in the 10^th century.)

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CK Garabed

Weekly Columnist

C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For the last 30 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

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