(What follows is the full text of a photocopy of the document
concerned.)
A. Annotations as to the genealogy of Zorabian lineage
generated1
in New Julfa, in India, in the Java island, and in Russia, as
written in 1919 A.D. by Avetik
C. Zorabian of New Julfa.
Zorab 1st. The patriarch of Zorabs, whose inglorious
tomb-stone is found in the public cemetery of New Julfa with
only this script on it. "This is Zorabs."
Has no date of his death, but amongst a number of tomb-stones
of his sons found near by his grave, it is surmised that the
end of his life has been at about 1620 A.D. and that he is one
of the immigrants through Shah Abbas 1st, from the town of Erevan
to the quarter Erevan in New Julfa, whwre (sic) up to this day
in the lane called "Little Shahentz" is found his
house in which now there live some Persians. This house
in the year 1776, according to property distribution certificates
of his grandsons, was allotted to his grandson Manook, who was
the father of George (Gevorg) the millionaire mentioned in the
pedigree.
B. In the pedigree are mentioned Margar, his brother and
sons, generated from Simon, the son of Zorab 1st, and from Astvatzatoor
his grandson, whose names having taken from the memoir of a
booklet called "Stumbling stone" printed in St. Petersburg,
I have added in2
our pedigree.
To this same Margar and his brothers, His Grace the Catholicos
Lucas in 1780 A.D. has written a pastoral letter of blessing
by which in accordance with the testimony of the Archbishop
Hovsep Arghutian, the prelate of the Armenians in Russia, he
has confirmed thatthey (sic) and their ancestors are generated
from the Manucharian noble family (which had been) in the capital
city of Erevan at the time of the great migration of Armenians
to Persia.
As to who these Manoocherians3
were, concerning, (sic) this, His Grace Epraim the Catholicos
gives an illustrations (sic) by his pastoral letter wrtten (sic)
on the first of May 1831 A.D. to Melik Manuchar and his brothers,
Rostom, Mackertich and Asri, confirming that their father, Hovsep
Beg, has been begotten from Melik Moses, (sic) Manucharian,
and Melik Moses, and Melik Poghos (Paul) from Melik Manucharian
and Koli from Melik Baba, and these from Melik Moses, Melik
Moses from the famous Melik Mankasar, and the latter has been
at the time of Shah Abbas 1st.
And this pedigree of theirs is being confirmed by the
edicts issuedthrough (sic) them by Shah-Safavi, by Shah Solaiman,
by Shah Abbas-Shah-Abbas (sic)4
II, and by Nadir Shah; (also) through lettersfor5
(sic) gifts (presen6
(sic) given them by the khans of Garabagh, from Panakhan, from
Ibrahim-khan who was still living then.
As it is seen the Manucharian family is originated from
above mentioned Melik-Mankasar, and the name Mankasar in the
same edicts and lettersof (sic) gifts of the Shahs and khansthrough
anagrammatism of Persian language has been changed into the
name of Manoochar, for in the Persian stories (history) are
found same persons with the name of Manoochar.
It seems probable also that Zorab 1. the head of the Zorabian
family has decended (sic) from above mentioned Melik-Mankasar
whose lineage has been called Manoocharian, as assigned above.
C. Gevork Avet Zakariantz in a booklet of his entitled
"Java" printed in Calcutta in 1852 A.D. on page 56
speaking about the bequest of the late Gevork Manookian, writes
thiswise " As many a time he said (Gevork Manookian) it
might be he wished to establish a school in London in the name
of Manoochariantz, which was impeded by his early early (sic)
death, (sic) Perhaps Gevork Manookian who was the son of first
Zorab's grandson, had also been receiving the Pastoral letter
in confirmation of his and of his predecessors being from the
family of Manoochariantz on account of which he has wished the
school to be called by the name of Manoochariantz.
D. Nearby to the tomb-stone of Zorab 1. in the public
cemetery of New-Julfa are found some medium and high size tombstones
of his generations with inscriptions as these 1.) This is the
grave and tomb of Khoja Petros dated xyz7
= (1629 A.D.) 2.) Petrose's tomb 7
(date) 3.) Astvatsatoor's tomb 7
= (1643) 4.) This is the tomb of Khoja Avetik of Zorabs
xyz7
= (1661). Likely this is also one of the sons of Zorab
1. whose name is not entered into Zorabian genealogy,
formed in the year 1820 A.D. by our grandfather Mackertich Zorabian.
Regarding this also mention is made in the scroll of papers
in memory of donors to All Saviors Church in the Quarter of
Erevan of this place (Julfa), thus " May God have mercy
upon Avetis of Zorabs, who gave a little curtain. 5.)
Tomb of Khatoon Aghsaber (Elizabeth) dated xyz7
= (1661). 6.) This is the grave of Khanoom of Zorabs,
dated xyz7
(1640). 7.) Grigore, xyz7=1637)
(sic).
The names of males mentioned in this same tombstones (sic)
are found in the beginning of Zorabian genealogy, but as for
the females, although not written, it is certain that they are
also (included) amongst the former Zorabian females.
In the genealogy the birth dates of some ones generated
from Zorab II I have marked with the letter "b" and
those of deaths marked +8
and as for the other branches have put down only those who were
known to me, leaving out the dates of birth and deaths of many
unknown to me.
Translated from Classical Armenian ( Grabar ) by Hovanness
Gregorian of Julfa- Isfahan. Dated October 1969.
Notes (by Peter Zohrab)
I have tried to be faithful to the original
text, including its peculiarities as regards English vocabulary,
grammar, spelling, word-spacing, and punctuation. I have
ignored handwritten corrections to the text, except to the
extent that I have mentioned them in these notes.
1 I suppose we might
say "born", "conceived", or "perpetuated".
2 The word "in"
has been corrected to "into" by someone's hand.
3 The word "Manoocherians"
has been corrected to "Manoocheriants" by someone's
hand.
4 The name of the
Shah is obviously repeated in error, because it occurs
at the bottom of page one and then again at the top of
page two.
5 As occurs
elsewhere, there is no space between these two words in
the original text. And someone has written the word
"grants" above them.
6 Here it is clear
that part of at least one word has been left out in the
photocopying process. This may have also been done
to complete short words on one or more other lines.
7 In these spaces
are written by hand what must be three-digit numbers in
some language other than English. In those case,
I have typed "xyz".
In other places I have left a blank space, because there
appears to have been a number which was too faint to survive
the (repeated?) photocopying process.
8 The text has a
handwritten "+" symbol above a handwritten "-"
symbol, but I cannot easily reproduce that on the Web.
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