The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

in the year 1241/42 (690 A.E. )„..when I was more or less forty
years old" . Consequently the historian was born in the
early part of the 13th century, probably between 1200 and
12102.
Kirakos received his early education at the monastery
of Getik, at that time under the direction of a student of
the great teacher and writer Mxit'ar Gfos (d. 1213) named
Martiros'. However, it was with another of Mxit'ar'a stud-
ents, the historian Yovhannes Vanakan (d. 1251) that Kirakos
sutdied for a prolonged period. Ibis education commenced
at Xoranasat monastery near Tawus fortress, northwest of
Ganjak . When the Khwarazmian sultan Jalal al-Dln ravaged
Xoranasat in 1225, Vanakan fled with his students to a nearby
cave, near the village of Lorut, south of Tawus . He con-
tinued teaching there until 1236 when a Mongol army
under Molar occupied TawuS. Both Vanakan and Kirakos
were taken captive by the Mongols and kept as secretaries
for several months , Vanakan eventually was ransomed by
I Kirakos Ganjakec'i, Patmut'iwn Hayoc* [History of Armenia]
K.A. Melik'OhanJanyan, ed. (Erevan, 1961), hereafter KG, ch.
33 p. 278; "i. Samanaki kenac' meroc * ama k'afaaun pakas ka.-s
aweli".
2 See H. Oskean, "Kirakos Ganjakec'i" KA (1922) p. 89} Alisan,
Kayapatua p. 216 specifies 1203.
5 KG ch. 17 p. 222.
4 KG ch. 15 p. 218.
5 KG ch. 23 PP. 2