SAHAK PARTHEV (d. 439) was chief bishop of Armenia from circa 387 to 439. Sahak, son of Nerses the Great, is surnamed Parthev, or Partʾew ("the Parthian"), because of his descent from Gregory the Illuminator and the Armeno-Parthian Arsacid dynasty. There is very little information about his early years and the first two decades of his pontificate. The fifth-century Armenian historians Koriwn and Lazar of Pʾarpi speak for the most part about his role in the cultural movement at the time of the invention of the Armenian alphabet in 404 CE. Sahak, who presided over the Persian sector of Armenia, patronized the educational, missionary, religious, and literary activities of Mesrop Mashtotsʿ, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet. Sahak was instrumental in the spread of literacy in the royal central provinces of Armenia; he personally revised the Armenian version of the scriptures on the basis of the Septuagint and...