Nazaryan, Stepan Isayevich

Armenian journalist, educator, literature historian, and orientalist. Philology Doctor (doktor filologii).

Born May 15 (27 according to Gregorian calendar), 1812, in Tiflis, in a family of a clergyman. In 1840, graduated from Philosophy Department of Derpt (now Tartu) University. Since 1849, was a professor of Persian and Arabic philology in Lazarevsky Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow. Authored the works Review of Gaykan Writings since 14th Century until Our Time (1846), Abul Kasem Ferdausi and Tus Book Palace... Shah-name (doctor's thesis, 1849), Brief Review of History of Gaykan Literature of Late 13th Century (1844), and others. Under the influence of the European Enlightenment ideas and Russian social movement of the 1840s, S.I. Nazaryan opposed the feudal regime and its ideology. In 1850s, headed the Armenian Enlightenment Movement. In 1858-1864, published a magazine Yusisapayl (Aurora Borealis) in Armenian language in Moscow, which influenced deeply the development of progressive social though in Armenia. S.I. Nazaryan was one of the first to propose an idea of reforming the entire system of the state education in a new, enlightening spirit and the substitution of the Grabar (ancient Armenian language) with Ashkharabar (new literary language). In philosophy, was a follower of deism. Propagated Russian and foreign literature, translated F. Schiller's dramas.

Deceased on April 27 (May 9), 1879, in Moscow. Buried in Moscow, in the Armenian Cemetery.