The Third Annual International Graduate Student Workshop ...

India. The epitaph in classical Armenian declares that the famous Gharib Khoja Hovhannes, the son of
an Armenian merchant from Julfa, lies buried there. Gharib Khoja Hovhannes' family was among those
Julfan Armenians whom Shah 'Abbas deported in 1604. In some ways, Gharib Khoja Hovhannes
exemplifies how voluntarily and involuntarily crossing borders (his family hailed from the Ottoman
Empire, he was likely raised in New Julfa in the Safavid Empire, and he died in the Mughal Empire)
can condition a “plurality of vision” that encompasses several different cultures at once while still
clearly maintaining degrees of alienation—here foregrounded by his own name—from any one of those
regions at any given time. The epitaph tells passers-by that Gharib Khoja Hovhannes traveled “north,
south, east, and west,” before he died suddenly in the city of Hooghly, finally delivering his soul to the
Angel and resting “here in a foreign land (ōtar erkri), remaining in longing (karōd) for his lodging
place (ōt'evani).” Like Aṛak'el's History as well as Armenian exilic poetry, the gravestone draws
attention to the great distances that Gharib Khoja Hovhannes traveled while constantly longing for a
“lodging,” or ōt'evan..
The Mekhitarist dictionary, Nor Bargirk' Haykazyan Lezui, defines ot'evan as “diversorium,”
“hospitium,” “guest house” (hiwranoc'), “hotel” (pandōk), “dwelling” (ijevan), and “home” (tun),
which hardly evokes a specific hearth or homeland, even though the epitaph states that Hovhannes'
father, Margar, was “nationally” (azgaw) from Julfa. However, in the classical Armenian translation of
the New Testament, Christ declares in John 14:2 that “In my Father's house there are many dwelling
places (ōt'evank'),” 25
which perhaps adds another dimension of meaning to the declaration that
Hovhannes died in “longing for his lodging,” as the following sentence on the gravestone describes the
apocalypse and the second coming of Christ. “The world will be completed,” the epitaph reads, “the
cross will dawn in the east, the trumpet of Gabriel will blow suddenly in the middle of the night,” and
we are told that Gharib Khoja Hovhannes will enter the nupital chamber which the righteous inherit—a
25 Hambardzowmyan, S. A. Nor Baṛgirkʻ Haykazean Lezowi. Hayagitakan Hedazodowtʻyownneri Matenashar.
Erevan: Erevani hamalsarani hradarakchʻowtʻyown, 1979. Print.