615) Armenia and Armenians by Kevork Aslan, 1920

IN 1908 the author published at Paris, in the French language, an octavo volume of some 500 pages entitled "Etudes Historiques sur le Peuple Armenian" covering the history of Armenia from the earliest times to the eleventh century. This edition is now out of print. Subsequently there was also published in French a condensed edition of the same work, carrying the story, however, from the earliest times down to the present day. The first edition of this smaller volume having been exhausted a new and revised edition has been prepared for publication in French and it has been thought appropriate to issue contemporaneously therewith an English translation.

The author ventures to express the hope that the English edition of his work will meet with the same favor that has been accorded the original French text.

In issuing this English edition it has been deemed necessary, in quite a number of instances, to depart from the French transliteration of Armenian, Persian and other foreign names. The phonetic value of certain English letters differs somewhat from the sound which the French associate with the same character and this difference has made it necessary to modify the transliteration of the Oriental original.

In other cases it has been found that a well-established English custom has consecrated, as it were, a certain spelling which, from a scientific point of view, is absolutely indefensible and clearly shows that a Greek corruption of the Armenian or Persian form has found its way into English nomenclature. In such instances it has been considered better to fol-low established usages.

Then again as Armenia and the other territory referred to in this volume have been overrun at various times by many different races it has come about that many places are known under different names. Here it has been thought best to adopt what is felt to be more common designation and to add a foot-note indicating some of the other forms.

In order to accentuate the manifold difficulties inherent in a work of the instant character it is now pointed out that there are two ways of pronouncing several Armenian letters ; one mode obtains among the Armenians of the Caucasus, that is to say, in the East, and the other among occidental Armenians and principally among those inhabiting Constantinople.

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