Grigor Magistros

Grigor was born into the Armenian princely Pahlavuni family. The Pahlavunis were known as the Kamsarakans prior to the eighth century and ultimately derived from the House of Karen, one of the seven great dynasties of Iran which claimed Arsacid descent. Grigor's father, Vasak Pahlavuni, was the lord of Bjni, and his paternal uncle, Vahram, was the sparapet (supreme military commander) of the Bagratid kingdom of Ani. In 1045, he accompanied Gagik II to Constantinople for negotiations with Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos regarding the fate of the Bagratid kingdom, which had been deeded to the Byzantine emperor by Gagik's predecessor. Another of his sons, Vasak Pahlavuni, was the doux of Antioch in 1078–1079. ==Works==

Grigor Magistros had a variety of interests and wrote works in several genres. Some popular stories and myths have been preserved thanks to his recording them in his letters for didactic purposes. Grigor was one of the first poets to introduce the use of rhyme into Armenian poetry. In Hazartoghyan ar Manuche, he utilized monorhyme, which is typical of the Arabic poetic genre of qasida. All of the poem's lines end in the syllable -in, which "maximized the possibilities for grammatical diversity in Armenian and hence facilitated stylistic variation" Hazartoghyan ar Manuche was held up as a standard for Armenian long narrative poems until the end of the seventeenth century. Grigor Magistros also wrote a commentary on the Grammar of Dionysius Thrax, a work which had earlier been translated into Armenian by authors of the Hellenizing School. He translated Euclid's Geometry into Armenian, but only a brief section of this translation has survived. In his letters, he mentioned that he translated Plato's Timaeus and Phaedo, but these are also apparently lost; the extant Armenian translations of Platonic dialogues (which include Timaeus but not Phaedo) are now considered the work of other translators. == Views and philosophy ==

Sen Arevshatyan describes Grigor Magistros as "one of the most cultured people of [his] time" and an "open-minded intellectual", despite being "an ideologue of his social class". He prioritized secular subjects in his educational program, frequently clashing with those in favor of a purely religious education. He thought that education must begin with reading scripture, then move on to the study of mythology and legends and the memorization of fine passages from "Homeric and Platonic" works. After a student mastered the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), he could progress to the quadrivium (astronomy, arithmetic, music and geometry), which was viewed as the components of mathematics. After mastering mathematics, one could progress from physics to metaphysics. In philosophy, Grigor was a follower of Plato and the Neoplatonist author David the Invincible. However, during his time Neoplatonism in Armenia was already giving way to new schools of philosophy. According to Arevshatyan, Grigor maintained the basic ideas of David the Invincible while moving in the direction of rationalism. He regarded physical and mathematical knowledge as a necessary precondition for recognition of the divine. Knowledge based on the senses is the first step, which is the basis of higher knowledge based on reason. ==Selected publications==

• An English translation, with commentary, by Professor Theo van Lint at Oxford was underway as of 2015. • • ==Notes==