«Այբ, բեն, գիմ. Մեսրոպ Մաշտոցի այբուբենը» - Արմեն ՄԵՐՈՒԺԱՆՅԱՆ

Armen Meruzhanyan's article "Ayb, Ben, Gim. The Alphabet of Mesrop Mashtots" is devoted to the history of the creation of Armenian writing and the historical-cultural context that led to its appearance at the beginning of the 5th century.

Introduction and Methodology
The starting point of the narrative is Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's fresco in the Würzburg "Residenz," where among the symbols of the parts of the world, Armenia is represented in the image of Mesrop Mashtots holding a torch and a stylus. This artistic image becomes for the author an occasion for an extensive historical-philological investigation into the circumstances of the emergence of the Armenian alphabet.

Historical Context
The author reconstructs the religious-political situation in Armenia of the 4th–5th centuries:
• divine services were conducted in Greek and Syriac, languages incomprehensible to the majority of the population;
• according to the testimony of Pavstos Buzand, the people remained devoted to paganism, not grasping the meaning of the new faith;
• in 387, under the Peace of Ctesiphon, Armenia was divided between Persia and Byzantium, which intensified the threat of cultural assimilation.

Under these conditions, the creation of an original script is regarded as a national and state task, intended to unite a divided people and strengthen Christian identity.

Biography and Spiritual Path of Mashtots
Meruzhanyan traces the life path of Mesrop Mashtots — from his birth in the village of Hats in Taron, his education at Libanius's school in Antioch, his court and military service, to his withdrawal into hermitage and missionary activity in the region of Gokhtn. Special attention is given to the etymology of the name "Mashtots," which is linked both to the Syriac word for "saint" and to the hypothesis of a priestly origin of his family (the version of Ghevond Alishan).

Central Issue: The Problem of the "Danielian Letters"
The central scholarly problem of the article is the question of the so-called "Danielian letters" — an alphabet of 22 signs brought from Syria by order of King Vramshapuh. The author demonstrates, drawing on Koryun, Movses Khorenatsi, and Vardan Areveltsi, that these letters proved unsuitable for conveying the phonetic structure of the Armenian language and lacked vocalization.

Discussion on the Existence of a Pre-Mashtotsian Script
The author sets forth in detail various scholarly hypotheses:
• regarding Mashtots's borrowing and modification of Greek, Syriac, or Persian script;
• the version of Academician Gurgen Sevak concerning the kinship of the Armenian alphabet with Ethiopic (Sabaean) script, which is rejected due to the fundamental difference between the writing systems (syllabic versus phonemic);
• the position of Nikolai Marr and Iosif Orbeli regarding the existence of a proto-Armenian script, allegedly used and supplemented by Mashtots.

Conclusion
Meruzhanyan emphasizes that the question of the existence of a pre-Mashtotsian script remains open and is confirmed mainly by indirect evidence. At the same time, the author insists that the recognition of a possible earlier script in no way diminishes the greatness of Mesrop Mashtots, who created a coherent and universal system of the Armenian alphabet. The key conclusion of the article is that it was precisely through Mashtots's work that, in Koryun's words, "God spoke Armenian," and that he himself entered history as the creator of a script that became the principal instrument for preserving the national and spiritual identity of the Armenian people in the face of political division and cultural assimilation.