Armenian Author
Mikayel Nalbandian
Միքայել Նալբանդյան
1829–1866
Armenian poet, essayist, translator, and reform-minded intellectual who championed modern language and civic freedom.
Poetry
Essays
Political writing
Literary criticism
About Mikayel Nalbandian
Born in New Nakhichevan, Mikayel Nalbandian became a leading voice of the nineteenth-century Armenian cultural awakening. He taught, studied medicine, traveled widely, and helped edit the influential journal Hyusisapayl.
Nalbandian advocated secular education, modern Armenian, social reform, and freedom. His poem Song of an Italian Girl supplied the text later used for Armenia’s national anthem, while his essays and criticism helped shape modern Armenian intellectual life.
