Will you read the Quran in Armenian?

[CatWoman]

I think this is quiet weird AND unnecessary...

Armenian version of Quran near completion

LONDON, July 31 (IranMania) - The job of translating and interpreting the holy Quran into Armenian language which is undertaken by the Iranian Cultural Office in Yerevan is now in its final stage, Iran Daily reported.

Announcing this, Iran's Cultural Attache in Yerevan Reza Atoufi said that given the repeated requests by Armenian scientific, religious, cultural and church figures, initially the last two chapters of the holy book were translated into Armenian language.

Two other chapters of the book were also translated in 2003 while in 2004 five chapters were also published, he noted.

The chief translator of the book is Azim Edward Haqverdian, an Armenian of Iranian origin, who has been residing in that country for 25 years.

Given the progress of the project, the full Armenian version of the holy Quran will be published this year, said Atoufi.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/Articl...rent%20Affairs

[TomServo]

Maybe the Hamshenis wanted this.

[KotayKoskesh]

wow this will surely be the book that will be read the least in Armenia lol

[Murtaza]

Maybe the Hamshenis wanted this.

If you are talking muslim armenians in Turkey, They call themself as Turk. I dont think they will care much for armenians.

[TomServo]

If you are talking muslim armenians in Turkey, They call themself as Turk. I dont think they will care much for armenians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamshenis

You read now!

[Anonymouse]

I have read distinct parts of the Quran. It is not much different from the Bible, except perhaps more poetic. In the end, it is only good for entertainment and literature value.

[karoaper]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamshenis

You read now!

wow, Tom I didn't know about these people. I'd be interested to know when they converted to Islam. I know religion is a personal choice, but for an Armenian to leave Christianity is a BIG SHAME. They probably converted under the threat of death. Not that it's a excuse.

[CatWoman]

Yeah, I read about the Hamshenis a couple of weeks ago actually... very interesting! Though, I still can't imagine Muslim Armenians... I mean, Christianity has played a big role in keeping us united and maintaining our identity and stuff, it's amazing that these people haven't yet assimilated and still consider themselves Armenian.

Here is more about them:

"Hamshen Armenians" call themselves Hamshentsi (Turkish Hemşinli(ler)) - they are a distinct ethnic group (of Armenian origin) in the Black Sea region of Turkey.

Leontius the Priest wrote that in the 8th century, the Armenian princes Hamam and Shapuh Amatuni, who lost their domains in Artaz to Arabs, moved to the Byzantine Empire with 12,000 of their people. They were given the town of Tambut in the mountains (S of Rhizaion). The town was immediately renamed Hamamashen, which evolved to Hamshen (the Armenian and local name for it) or Hemşin (the official and Turkish name today). This pocket of Armenian people prospered in the Pontic Mountains, and, virtually cut of from other Armenian populations, developed it's unique dialect of Armenian.

In the 18th century, these Armenians who formed the diocese of Khachkar, began to convert to Islam. They retained their dialect however, and speak it to this day. These people also retained independence until the 19th century, ruled by their own derebeys (valley lords), all under the voivode (general chief).

The biggest population is still centered in Hemşin, most live in the Futuna (Greek: Pordanis) River valley between Pazar (was Atina) on the coast, and the peak of Kajkar (origin of name is the Armenian Khachkar) Mountain, in the villages of Hemşin, Torasil, Pertewan, Ayren, Tredzor (Dzimla), Yeghiovit (near where St. Khachig Monastery was) and Artashen at their easternmost settlement.

Hamshen Armenians also settled in other areas, some Muslim and some Christian. To the west they reached as far as Samsun, where they live in the village of Khurchunli (near the mouth of the Iris or Yeshil River) among others. To the east and the north they settled in places as far as Sukhumi in Abkhazia (mostly Christian Hamshen), as well as in two villages near the town of Artvin, in Eastern Turkey. In the area of Ardala town there are speakers of a Hamshen subdialect as well. In the district of Hopa, Hamshen form the majority of the population in and around the town of Kemalpaşa.

Some Muslim Hamshen who settled in Georgia were exiled to Kazakhstan in Stalin's time. There are still problems regarding their return.

Hamshen are known for their folklore - tales, proverbs, jokes, riddles.

A motion picture, Momi (Grandma) was filmed in the Hamshen dialect in 2000. Many (especially younger) Hamshen identify themselves as Armenians.


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The following is an article that should be stripped for it's facts and used either in this, or a seperate entry:

Window on Eurasia: Russian Region Persecutes Armenian Muslims

Paul Goble Paul.Goble @ ecs.ec.ut.ee

Tartu, May 11 - Officials in Krasnodar kray, a Russian region in the north Caucasus, have refused for the fourth time to register the cultural organization of the Khemshils, a small group of Armenian speakers who practice Sunni Islam and who were among those deported by Stalin to Central Asia at the end of World War II.

That has prompted an organization of their co-ethnics and co-religionists in Armenia itself to appeal to the Russian ambassador in Yerevan to get Moscow to intervene in this case and overrule the regional officials who seem intent on preventing the Khemshils from gaining official registration and thus being able to live a normal life.

As a result, this case, involving an ethnic community that numbers no more than 1600 according to the 2002 Russian Federation census, threatens to spill over into an international one involving not only Moscow and Yerevan but quite possibly the leaders of traditionally Muslim countries among the post-Soviet states.

The current situation has been described by the Regnum news agency whose report was expanded upon by the Islam.Ru website last week (http://islam.ru/press/rus/2005-05-06/). The facts of the case appear to be the following:

Since 2000, the Khemshils of Krasnodar have tried four times to
register with the authorities. Each time they have been refused with officials explaining that they have made mistakes in their application. In the most recent case where the authorities gave this excuse, their refusal was handed back to the Khemshils on May 3rd but dated May 4th.

The Hamshen organization in Armenia, which unites the Khemshils there, decided to appeal to the Russian ambassador there to have Moscow to help out. But neither they nor the Khemshils in Krasnodar appear to be very optimistic about their chances for success via this channel.

Indeed, they suspect, according to the words of the appeal published by Regnum, that „by such actions, the representatives of the Main Administration of the Federal Registration Service for Krasnodar kray are creating a precedent for the appearance of yet another people who left Russia as political refugees' and thus lack rights that other residents have.

And one indication of the level of their despair is the fact that the Khemshils of Krasnodar kray are even now working with the International Migration Organization to organize their resettlement to the United States just as the IMO is currently working toward for Meskhetian Turks and Kurmandzh-Kurds living in the Kuban region.

Should the Armenian Muslims of Krasnodar in fact emgrate to the United States, that would be only the latest twist in their complicated history. For more background on this group and its problems, see the report on the status of ethnic minorities in Krasnodar at http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/print/anal...id/592494.html.

Armenians who converted to Islam called themselves „Hamshinli' („Hamshentsi'), and those of them living in Central Asia and the Russian Federation, identify themselves as „Emshil' - which according to the rules of Russian phonetics becomes „Khemshil.'

According to the Kars peace treaty of 1921, several villages in Khopsk kray where the Khamshils lived were joined to Adzharia in what is now Georgia. Then in 1944, Stalin deported them along with other groups in the region to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan from which they returned only in the late 1950s.

Since that time, some 1500 Armenian-speaking Sunni Muslims have been living in the Apsheron and Belorechensk districts of Krasnoyarsk kray, perhaps their last stop on the territory of what was once the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union before they move on to the United States.

Link

[Anonymouse]

What's "Armenian" about them? Their allele patterns? They may as well call themselves Kurdish or Turkish. I'm having a conceptual problem here.

[Siamanto]

What's "Armenian" about them? Their allele patterns? They may as well call themselves Kurdish or Turkish. I'm having a conceptual problem here.

See for yourself, don't they look Armenian? "Hay es" uttered by Koran readers!


Hamshentsi (Large)
Hamshentsi (Small)

(Source: Nouvelles d'Armenie )

I'll try to scan more pictures.