NOTEBOOK
The Al pha[et Runs Inom are driving down the street when your eyes catch Armenian letters on a building. You slow dorvn and pay closer attention. Wait a minute - that's not Armenian! The similarities are so striking you are almost fooled. You investigate and are sqprised to find that it is Ethiopian. Ethiopian? Anyone who has seen the Ethiopian alphabet is struck by its similarity to the Armenian. The two have nothing in common structurally; their similarity is only in the way the characters appear. Is it coincidence? Armenians living in Ethiopia had for long thought that Mesrop Mashtots, creator of the Amenian alphabet, also created the Ethiopian script. Howevel research points in the opposite direction; he may have actually used the Ethiopian to design some of the Armenian letters. The late Russian expert on A{rica, Dimitri Olderogge, in his 1968 study, Ancient Relationships Between Armenia and Ethiopia (from his The History of the Alphabet),has concluded that Mashtots must have used the Ethiopian alphabet to design the Armenian. As evidence, he cites the fact that the Ethiopian alphabet was already in use prior to Mashtots. The fact that Mashtots came into contact with Ethiopian priests in Jerusalem and was familiar with their alphabet adds weight to Olderogge\ theory. At the meeting of Chalcedon in 451, the Ethiopians, together with the Armenians and the Copts, split from ByzantineJed Christendom because of disagreements on the nature of Christ. This lead to a strong relationship between the Amenian and Elhiopian Churches to the extent that St Gregory the Illuminator and St Hripsime were both considered saints of the Ethiopian church. Indeed, St Gregory is remembered in the Ethiopian Church three times a year. The Armenian-Ethiopian relationship was not conflned to religion. By the Seventh Century Armenians had settled in Ethiopia, the flrst influx occurring when a large group of Armenians living in the Middle East were cut off from their homeland by the invading Arabs.
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They moved south until they reached the Christian kingdom of e Axum (one of several kingdoms at the time on the land of presentr day Ethiopia). There. they settled on an island, which they named &
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the island still bears this name today. church, St Stepanos, which stood for nine centuries until â‚Ź it was destroyed by Muslim invaders in 152'1 . ,. f" trl r flt^ ' h.ll ! @r"n/l I or\& t + +,4.t6rt Ethiopian kings, who generally were not trusting of white people, ? E lufrlfr, hcn,f,n tr artr+..rk t w*Yn* not only welcomed the Armenians, but cultivated close relationships r r r ar *E2A.b nhrE h@ +S/-,h+h 7?'r.24'l with them. The population of Hayk registered an increase in 1168 I Crf,!+ r i.tr.? r .llhot ,t. 4a.dtT .n JIF JrL ,tl ,I! ? lar ', with the arrival of more Armenians who were fleeing the Kurdish r Sh,t r tt{ | h24,. fidllt f ,t'*"trE 6$ lis 4.q (e q8 F invasion of Egypt. A further immigration took place in 1375 after the Atu*"tn t * . h,oLU" I a1il,?mhou t h .l A.trrf,h ,I{itir.llrt}ct4lcl2ttu^ A e'f,fh,{l 7 downfall of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. 8&&8&r ?. 00-1.rto ? * I d}*Ara,+n ! hr\0 I tILr^, 0 'FEhc.? It is not clear what eventually happened to the Armenian commur.1.d.d{,s c {DhJt,r!,te s drhdt l'l r f (l/l}toa r T n}!qx.T nity of Hayk as there are no records after the i4th Century. Professor T'rtT'cT 7' ,ll? ! {lfa I ,on/bu. r @fi+' E ,FJLpgU Ashot Abrahamian, in his 1964 book, A Brief History of the Armenian trrra*, lrhdrc r ?,ll} I @lr Communities, assumes that it must have died around thel5th Century. r oa6+d d Mrk+ 7.t4l7.t *,+q*9.P. ,, E9 The last wave of Armenians to Ethiopia took place at the end of 6 {5 123 @n,o.i+,llr,nrrh.D.C, t'?r*Ut ?t the 19th Century as a result of the Turkish massacres, first by Abdul tlhdo r eh+ r,{lCI? r r}4*? , tFh{hbtf 20 3t 40 5(,60 70 t0 !0 l0{ Hamid in the1890s and then at the hands of the Young Turks in 1915. ?,l}' 0n&ft, I @8r& : ,lh.f& 1-'1r47? O lfixlo rt . hcft+fl, tlfi,/trr r hr$lb, Most of these immigrants sertled in the capital, Addis Ababa, and .tdldlLt n soon became an important part of Ethiopian society. Some held high positions in the government as advisors and craftsmen. g,. (D. f,* E, L At its peak, the community numbered around 1,500 people. Today, atcdcfgbl.l I I E oopqrs tu? r x f it is down to less than 100. r }r IL iL /L L+ tr, ,L+ h' I, b ,LA L,, L? T h.C IrC LN I [. .E4'LF LTN !P,, ry
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