Mkhitar Gosh

Mkhitar Gosh was an Armenian scholar, priest and writer who lived from 1130 to 1213 and is counted among the leading figures of the medieval Armenian intellectual revival. Born in Gandzak, in what is now Ganja, Azerbaijan, he founded the monastery of Nor Getik, later renamed Goshavank in his honor. His central achievement was the Datastanagirk, or Book of Law, begun in 1184 and recorded as the first Armenian legal text to address both secular and ecclesiastical matters. The code became the foundation for later Armenian legal practice across Greater Armenia, the Cilician Armenian kingdom and diaspora communities, was later adapted by Sempad the Constable, and remained in use among Armenian communities in Poland under royal sanction until 1772. Gosh also wrote a well known collection of fables.