An episode from the history of the origins of Iranian dramaturgy (Melkum Khan and Hagop Baronian)

The article refers to the role played by the Armenian intelligentsia of Istanbul in the modernizing cultural life of Iran and the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. In those countries, the Persian literary tradition formed in the Middle Ages was gradually being modified by the French influence. The contribution of Melkum Khan, an Armenian who converted to Islam and claimed Iranian identity, was great in bringing the European Enlightenment ideas and literary and journalistic methods to Iran. In his homeland, he became the founder of Western-type dramaturgy, following the creative style of Hagop Baronian, an Armenian playwright and satirist who worked in Istanbul and had the best experience of localising French cultural values. Melkum Khan is considered the founder of a new schooling simplifying the Persian literary and publicist language, and many Iranian intellectuals of the time followed the simple style of the newspaper “Qanun” (Law) published by him. The application of the analytical and comparative, as well as descriptive methods of analysis reveals that Armenian intellectuals working in Istanbul in the nineteenth century acted as real cultural mediators between the West and the East.