According to the
book by Armèn Joseph, the name "Manuchar" (with
or without the patronymic suffix "-ian(ts)") is a Persian/Iranian
version of the Armenian
name "Mangkasar". This was an Armenian noble family, from
which were drawn some of the "Meliks" (dukes, or minor
kings) of the Persian imperial administration in the Persian
territories in Armenia.
The page http://armenian.name/index.php?a=list&d=1&t=dict&w1=M
states as follows:
'MANGASAR(Mankasar): From Armenian manuk "child"
and Persian sar "head", "mount"
i.e. "head of children", "teacher".
It is out of use now, only the surname Mangasaryan is
met.'
and
'MANUCHAR: From Azerbaijan name Manucher
(Old Persian Manuchikhr), which means "from the kin
of Manu God". This name is very common in Georgia.
We also have the surname Manucharyan.'
I do not know which explanation(s) is/are correct, but
it is possible that they all are correct. Armenians commonly
change their surnames for various (including social-political)
reasons, and it is possible that the Mangkasar clan changed
their name to Manucharian(ts) in order to appear more
Persian during a period when Persia ruled relevant parts
of Armenia.
The page http://armenian.name/index.php?a=list&d=1&t=dict&w1=Z
states as follows:
"ZOHRAB: From Persian name Suhrab which came from
"Shahname" by Firdusi. It was also used as
Zurab, Surab for short (surkh "red" and ab
"water", "bright"). The corresponding
surname is Zohrabyan."
One manuscript claims that the famous Persian poet Firdusi
himself was a member of the Zohrab family.
Being a Christian family in a Moslem country, it is said
to have refused the Persian throne on two occasions --
the first being in "ancient history" and the
second being in the 18th Century
There is a town which apparently used to be called Zhrap
near Kars, just across the Turkish border from present-day
Armenia.
According to the
book by Armèn Joseph, Zohrab
was a descendant of the Mangkasar meliks. He was born in
Yerevan, Armenia, in about 1580, and died in New Julfa,
Isfahan, Iran, in about 1620. "Zohrab" is a common Persian/Iranian
first name -- cf. the poem "Sohrab and Rustum", by Matthew
Arnold.
"The first ancestor of the Zohrab family.
His simple tombstone is to be found in the common cemetery
of New Julfa, on which only the word 'Zorabini' is inscribed.
No date of his death is mentioned, but from the dates
on the tombstones of his sons can be inferred that the
year of his death was about AD 1620" -- extract from the
original Armenian.
Zohrab was one of the people (many of them
skilled in silk-crafts), who were transported in about AD
1605 by Shah Abbas I of Persia from Armenia, which he and
Turkey had partitioned, to New Julfa, the Armenian quarter
of his new capital, Isfahan. The Shah probably wanted his
country to be able to process the raw silk that it produced
-- rather than exporting it to Turkey and then re-importing
the finished product from Turkey. He also probably wanted
to depopulate the border region near Turkey, for security
reasons. See http://isfahan.anglia.ac.uk:8200/jolfa/jolfa.html
.
I have divided Zohrab's known descendants
somewhat arbitrarily as follows:
|
