Stepanos Orbelian

Stepanos Orbelian (Ստեպանոս Օրբելյան; circa 1250 - 1305) was a thirteenth century Armenian historian and the Metropolitan of the province of Syunik. He is best known for his well-researched Patmutyun Nahangin Sisakan, or History of the Province of Syunik, which virtually picks up from where Movses Khorenatsi's History of Armenia left off. Orbelian's other works also called on Armenians to repopulate historic Armenia, then under foreign control, as he "sought 'to apply psychological pressure on the conscience of nobles to return and reestablish an Armenian state.'"

Orbelian was a descendant of Orbelian family of princes and feudal lords that ruled Syunik. He received his education at a religious seminary and in 1285, his father, Tarsayich Orbelian, sent him to Cilician Armenia to be ordained as a metropolitan. He remained there for three months as a guest of King Levon III and finally returned to Syunik in 1287.

Orbelian died in 1305 and was buried in the family mausoleum in the monastery complex at Noravank.

History of the Province of Syunik
Of the three works Orbelian completed in his lifetime, his most prominent is that on the history of Syunik and the Orbelian family. Prior to writing it, he conducted an extensive amount of research, utilizing a wide variety of sources derived from speeches, letters, colophons, previous chronicles by Armenian historians as well as works by Georgian authors. Like other Armenian historians and chroniclers, Orbelian's work briefly concentrates on the beginning of the world with Adam and Eve but soon moves on to document Syunik's history and Armenian history spanning from the time of king Tiridates I to the end of the thirteenth century. Orbelian's work is especially valuable as it notes many previously unknown details about the province and Armenian history.

In 1864 and 1866, Orbelian's work was translated into French by the French orientalist Marie-Félicité Brosset. Some excerpts of History were also translated into Russian and Georgian.

Works

 * (1299) History of the Province of Syunik (Patmutyun Nahangin Sisakan).
 * (1300) Lament on Behalf of the Cathedral (Voghb i dimats surb Katoghikein)
 * (1302) Argument Against Dyophysitism (Hakacharutiun enddem yerkabnakats)