The country where the alphabet is not only used for writing, but also for carrying out complex calculations

[ad_1]

This alphabet is a numerical system used for mathematical calculations and recording dates on the calendar, as well as being a source of national pride Some in groups, others alone, the letters are distributed throughout the park BBC It is a late autumn morning when we leave Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. After driving for approximately half an hour through the country’s highlands, the driver stops the car and my guide, Sofya Hakobyan, signals me to get out of the vehicle. To my left, the snow-capped four-peaked mass of Mount Aragats stands out in the distance, its outlines blurred in the misty sun. The highlands stretch from the sides of the road to the base of Armenia’s highest mountain. The scene looks bleak: a windswept expanse of sandy brown land, dotted with withered bushes. However, a series of human-sized stone sculptures on the hillsides lend a mysterious touch to the desolate terrain. “We’re in Alphabet Park. It was built in 2005 to celebrate the 1,600th anniversary of our Armenian alphabet,” Hakobyan explains to me. The statues, carved from faded pink, light yellow and light black stone, are engraved with flowers and symbols. Some are in groups, others alone, and my guide takes me to a U-shaped statue with a delicate ornament on the bottom right. “This is our capitalized Armenian ‘A’,” she says with a sweeping hand gesture. “What you see around us are the other letters of our alphabet, which was invented by that man, Mesrop Mashtots, just over 1,600 years ago.” I follow his gaze to a majestic sculpture of a bearded old man. Dressed in a loose robe, the enormous pink statue has the expression of an ascetic: calm and slightly bored. I remember the man. Two days ago, I saw his statue at the entrance to Matenadarán. Sacred place Located on a hill at the northern end of Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan, the imposing basalt structure of Matenadarán looks like a fortress, but in reality it is a scriptorium (a library of ancient manuscripts) that also functions as a research institute. I had silently walked through the solemnity of the rooms that displayed permanent exhibitions organized by theme, which included translated literature, philosophy, theology, liberal arts with mathematical sciences and humanities, poetry, law, history, and the arts. The park opened in 2005 GETTY IMAGES/via BBC Emma Horopyan, Matenadarán’s director of public relations, told me that the manuscript library is one of the world’s largest repositories of valuable archival documents and early printed books. Here, a wide range of medieval manuscripts in languages ​​such as Greek, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Latin, Ethiopic, Georgian and Hebrew have been carefully preserved. “This is a sacred place for us,” said Grigor Stepanian. I had encountered Stepanian while admiring a hand-drawn map of the ancient Armenian kingdom in Matenadarán’s grand Central Hall, and now the affable Yerevan architect was guiding me around the rectangular facade of the five-story structure, adorned with statues of philosophers, poets, and medieval scholars who collectively shaped Armenia’s literary and cultural legacy. “But he (Masohtots) remains the most important of all”, highlights Stepanian. The immaculately carved stone statue of Mashtots stood at the entrance, his hands raised in the ageless posture of a master clarifying a point to his disciple (a smaller stone statue) who listens intently at his feet. New identity I was curious to know why the creation of the Armenian alphabet by Mashtots is considered one of the most important events in the history of Armenia. “Mashtots developed the alphabet with the aim of translating the Bible into Armenian,” Stepanian explained to me, as we sipped strong, full-bodied Armenian coffee at a nearby café. The statue of Mesrop Mashtots on the outskirts of Matenadaran highlights his importance as the creator of the Armenian alphabet GETTY IMAGES/via BBC In 301 AD, Armenia became the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. However, for nearly a century afterward, the methods of converting its citizens, who had long worshiped nature, to this religion often remained cruel, Stepanian explained. Mashtots worked as a translator in the Armenian royal chancellery in the last years of the fourth century AD. He witnessed the coercive and often violent ways of forcing the people of this Caucasian nation to adopt a state-sponsored faith that was markedly different from their polytheistic belief system. “What Mashtots did was quite ingenious,” said Stepanian. The linguist realized that his compatriots’ aversion to Christianity was due to their ignorance: the Greek and Syrian translations of Christian liturgy and theology, including the New Testament, were very strange to the Armenians, who had been introduced to the Bible and liturgy orally during the religious services of the targmanicks (a term meaning translator and commentator). Mashtots created his new alphabet in a phonetic style, making it easier for Armenians to adapt to the written form of a language they already spoke, Stepanian noted. “The letters were designed with very distinct shapes, with an independent character, very different from the letters of other written languages ​​of the time,” he added. Thus, his language gave a new identity to the Armenians. Oppression For the next 1,500 years, the alphabet would continue to be a source of national pride, at the core of Armenian cultural identity, an emblem of solidarity for the war-torn land that was almost continually ruled and colonized by foreign forces: Romans, Byzantines, Persians and Ottoman Turks. This almost continuous and relentless saga of oppression and subjugation would come to an end in 1991, when the 69-year Soviet regime collapsed and Armenia became an independent republic. “Without our alphabet, we would have been a lost people,” says Stepanian. Armenia was the first country to establish Christianity as the official state religion GETTY IMAGES/via BBC Hakobyan agrees. “Our country has been invaded, fragmented and looted repeatedly,” he tells me as he drives through the maze of letters arranged in the middle of nature like a giant, disordered puzzle. “But one of the reasons we’ve been able to resist is perhaps because we’ve always known we have a beautiful language, encapsulated by a beautiful set of letters.” As we walk through Alphabet Park, the morning sun shines on the delicate curves of the letters, hand-carved from volcanic toba rock. Overall, Hakobyan tells me, the richness and flexibility of this beautiful set of letters have helped sustain an uninterrupted literary tradition since the beginning of its written form. I knew that the aesthetically eloquent forms of Armenian letters, with their long use in folk art and calligraphy, are on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. But I had no idea that these delicate, artistic designs are also imbued with secret codes and encryptions, endowed with hidden properties. Calculations and Dates “To begin with, the alphabet formed the framework of a complex but sophisticated number system,” says Hakobyan, explaining that Mashtotian letters were also used to perform mathematical calculations. In addition to being part of the alphabet, the original 36 letters also have a numerical value assigned based on their order in the alphabet. In addition to being a writing system, the Armenian alphabet also constitutes a complex numerical system GETTY IMAGES/via BBC When organized into four columns and nine rows, the letters in each column represent, respectively, digits in individual units, tens, hundreds and thousands . Hakobyan adds that they can even be used to determine dates according to the Armenian calendar. We conclude our visit near the statue of Mesrop Mashtots. Located on a small mound, the wise old man watches his feet, with a kind and contemplative gaze that is surprisingly realistic. It was time to resume our journey. A strong wind was blowing over the sunlit valley, and we slowly retraced our steps toward the car parked on the side of the road. Before entering, I look back, reflecting on the incredible legacy of this ancient alphabet. Thick clouds rise up the snowy slopes of Mount Aragats. An Armenian family is arriving at the park. Two girls, dressed in lemon yellow jackets, begin to play happily among the giant letters, a linguistic and cultural legacy they inherited from a perceptive scholar, whose statue stands just a few meters away from them in the windy landscape.

[ad_2]

Source link