Simon Simonian (; in Ayntab – 11 March 1986 in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

) was an

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n intellectual who founded the literary and social Armenian periodical '' Spurk'' (Սփիւռք in

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Biography

In 1921 his family, a survivor of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

found refuge in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. From 1930 to 1935 Simonian studied at the

Antelias Antelias () is a city in Lebanon in the Matn District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate. It is located around 5 km to the north of Beirut. Etymology The name is originally Greek, ἀντήλιος – from ἀντί(anti) "contra" and ἥλ� ...

seminary. Returning to Aleppo, he taught Armenian language and history at the city's Haigazian and Gulbenkian schools until 1946. In that period he prepared his first textbooks for Armenian history and was a founder Aleppo's teachers' union. From 1936 he was the president of the Sasun Compatriotic Union. Later on residing in Lebanon, Simonian became the secretary of Catholicos Karekin I Hovsepian. He headed the main archive of the

Holy See of Cilicia The Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia () is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church. Since 1930, the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia has been headquartered in Antelias, Lebanon. Aram I is the Catholicos of C ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, and was responsible for the official Catholicossate publication ''Hask'' between 1947 and 1955. He taught literary Armenian and Armenian history at the catholicossate seminary and edited Karekin I's colossal work ''Hishadagarank Tserakrats'' (the indexation of manuscripts). He also taught Armenological materials at the Lebanese Armenian Hovagimian-Manoukian and Tarouhi Hagopian secondary schools. Simonian authored many short stories and novels, as well as many textbooks on history and language. He authored the ''Sevan Armenian dictionary''. In 1954 he visited Soviet Armenia, where he met the poet

Silva Kaputikyan Silva Kaputikyan () (20 January 1919 – 25 August 2006) was an Armenian poet and political activist. One of the best-known Armenian writers of the twentieth century, she is recognized as "the leading poetess of Armenia" and "the grand lady of t ...

. He was also the director of "Sevan" printshop and publishing house, that he founded in 1957 where he printed about 600 books. Starting 1958, he also published his prominent weekly literary publication '' Spurk'' that continued to publish with Simonian as editor in chief until 1974. Between 1975 and 1989, Kevork Ajemian became the editor of the publication. He followed a strict non-partisan line in the civil political strife in the life of the Armenian diaspora communities in Lebanon and elsewhere.

Personal life

Simonian, born in

Aintab Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medit ...

was the elder son of Ove from

Sasun Sason is a town in the Batman Province of Turkey. It is the seat of the Sason District.İl ...

and Manush from Ayntab, was a survivor of the

.Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide, by Donald E. Miller, Lorna Touryan Miller, University of California Press, 1999, p. 167 In 1946, Simonian married Mary Ajemian, a graduate of the American University of Beirut, a practicing nurse and the sister of the Armenian writer and intellectual Kevork Ajemian. The couple had five children; four sons, Hovig, Vartan, Daron and Sasoun and a daughter Maral.

Books

*''Կը խնդրուի խաչաձեւել'', 1965 *''Խմբապետ Ասլանին աղջիկը'', 1967 *''Լեռնականներու վերջալոյսը'', 1968 ("The Last Scion of the Mountaineers". A work that depicts the struggles of the Sassountsi mountaineers on the plains of Aleppo, in Syria, far from their native mountaintop villages in Sassoun). A monograph about this work was written by Levon Sharoyan, published first in installments in the "Kantsasar" Armenian weekly in Aleppo and later as a book in Armenia. The English translation was published in 2017, making it the first book in English about Simon Simonian. *''Սիփանայ քաջեր'', 1967–70 *''Լեռ եւ ճակատագիր'', 1972 *''Անժամանդրոս'', 1978

Anthologies and Critiques

*Simonian, Simon. Արեւելահայ գրականութիւն. ընտիր էջեր, կենսագրութիւններ, գործերը, բառարան, մատենագիտութիւն astern Armenian Literature: Select Pages, Biographies, Texts, Dictionary and Bibliography(Beirut: Sevan, 1965). *Simonian, Simon. Արեւելահայ գրողներ (''Eastern Armenian Writers'') (1965) *Simonian, Simon. Արեւելահայ գրականութիւն (''Eastern Armenian Literature'') (1965) *Simonian, Simon. ''Stepanos Tashdetsi'' (1981)

Dictionaries

*Simonian, Simon. ''Sevan Large Dictionary'' (1970-1980)

Textbooks

*Simonian, Simon. Արագած. դասագիրք հայերէն լեզուի, Ա. տարի (Beirut: Sevan, 1960), with Onnig Sarkisian *Simonian, Simon. Աշխարհագրութիւն, with Yervant Babayan and Onnig Sarkisian *Simonian, Simon. քերականութիւն with Sarkis Balian *Simonian, Simon. Հայոց պատմութիւն, Ա. եւ Բ. հատոր (Hamazkayin Publishing House)