Taparagan Hrya (Eugene Sue, 1868)
Name/Title
Taparagan Hrya (Eugene Sue, 1868)Secondary Title
Wandering JewDescription
Garabed Utudjian (1823–1904), also known as Karapet Utudjian, was one of the most influential Armenian journalists and intellectuals of 19th century Constantinople. Born in Constantinople, he belonged to the generation of Armenian intellectuals who helped shape the cultural and political awakening of the Ottoman Armenian community. In the 1840s, he taught history, geography, Classical Armenian, and French in Armenian schools in Constantinople. He then went to Paris in 1848, studying economics at the École supérieure de commerce and attending lectures at the Sorbonne and Collège de France. He also visited London during the 1851 Great Exhibition. His greatest contribution came in 1852, when he became the founding editor of Masis, which became one of the most important Armenian newspapers of the Ottoman Empire. He remained its editor for more than three decades, until 1884. Through Masis, Utudjian promoted education, European intellectual currents, and the development of modern Western Armenian as a literary language, helping move Armenian journalism away from the dominance of Classical Armenian. Utudjian was also active in Armenian communal affairs. He was among the first members of the Armenian Education Council, served as a deputy in the Armenian National Assembly, and participated in cultural organizations concerned with Armenian education and national consciousness. From 1885 to 1895, he served as superintendent of schools connected to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. He was also a prolific translator, bringing works by authors such as Silvio Pellico, Oliver Goldsmith, and Eugène Sue into Armenian. In his later years, he published a series of autobiographical recollections of his childhood in Masis.Category
Books