Naghach Hovnatan

Naghash Hovnatan (; 1661, Shorot, Nakhijevan, Safavid Iran – 1722, Shorot) was an Armenian poet, ashugh, painter, and founder of the Hovnatanian artistic family. He is considered the founder of the new Armenian minstrel school, following medieval Armenian lyric poetry.

Biography

Hovnatan was born to a priestly family in Nakhijevan (at the time part of the Erivan Province in the Safavid Empire) in the village of Shorot. He studied at the Saint Thomas Monastery in Agulis. Hovnatan spent most of his life in Tbilisi and Yerevan and is considered one of the most prominent representatives of late medieval secular Armenian poetry, his work is closest to the work of ashughs. Hovnatan authored more than a hundred satirical, romantic, drinking, and edifying or admonitory songs and odes. The nickname "naghash" means "painter" in Persian.