Muratsan’s Gevorg Marzpetuni is a classic Armenian historical novel about the heroic effort to protect the Armenian homeland from internal rivalry and external foes. Set in the 10th century, it recounts the consolidation of the Bagratuni Kingdom by King Ashot II Yerkat and the role of his dedicated comrade-in-arms, Gevorg Marzpetuni, who always places the good of the nation above all else.
Born in Shushi, Muratsan was keenly aware of the challenges facing the Armenian homeland and nation in his time. Stretching from Artsakh to the Byzantine Empire, Armenia’s situation in Gevorg Marzpetunti’s times was strikingly similar to the circumstances Muratsan and his contemporaries faced 1000 years later, both in political complexity and geographic scope. Muratsan reminded the Armenians of his day of the lessons of history and encouraged them to emulate such figures as Gevorg Marzpetuni as a way to keep hope alive in trying times.
| “In each of my works I kept the Armenian people before my eyes, its past, its history, its sad present. Whether I did it well or badly, all I wished to do was to communicate my thoughts and feelings to my people.” – Muratsan, Autobiography, ca. 1885. (Collected Works, Vol. 7 (Yerevan: Hayastan Press, 1965), p. 141-42) |
Reviving the historical memory of the Armenians was a major theme [of 19th-century Armenian writers] . . . I read Muratsan’s Gevork Marzpetooni . . . that bemoaned divisions and factionalism caused by rival Armenian princes.
Vartan Gregorian, The Road to Home, (NY: Simon & Shuster, 2003), p. 55
