Raffi

Hakob Melik Hakobian (Armenian: Յակոբ Մելիք-Յակոբեան), better known by his pen name Raffi (Armenian: Րաֆֆի), is a renowned Armenian author born in 1835 in Payajouk, an Armenian village situated in the Salmas province (presently in the north of Iran, near Urmia Lake) in Persia. He died in 1888 in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). Raffi is a prominent figure of Armenian literature. He came from a family of hereditary Persian gentry, his father being a wealthy farmer, merchant and the highest civil authority of the village. Thus, Raffi’s financial situation, along with his being the eldest of a large family of 13 children, eventually allowed him to benefit from a privileged education in which he was exposed to the full spectrum of classical,...