Ghazar Parpetsi, or Lazarus of Pharpi (c. 442-early sixth century), was born in the village of Parpi, in the region of present-day Ashtarak, northwest of the city of Yerevan. He appears to have had close ties with the Mamikonian princely family, who later became his patrons. After the Battle of Avarayr in 451, when Vahan Mamikonian's* widowed mother moved with her entire family to the castle of her brother-in-law, Prince Ashusha, in Gugark, she took with her the young Ghazar, Vahan's childhood companion, and there they both studied under Vahan Mamikonian's uncle, Aghan Artzruni....
* Vahan Mamikonian was the nephew of the martyr-hero of the Battle of Avarayr, Vardan Mamikonian, and became marzpan of Armenia. Vahan's mother, Princess Dzvik, and her sister, Anush-Vram, were highly educated women of the time.
In 486, when Vahan Mamikonian became marzpan (governor-general) of Armenia following his victory of the Persians, he sent for Parpetsi, his boyhood friend, and appointed him abbot of the cathedral and monastery of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin)....
...Vahan Mamikonian commissioned [Ghazar Parpetsi] to write a contemporary history of Armenia...[which] he could not have started writing before 493...
Part 3 [of Parpetsi's History] deals with the Armeno-Persian relations after the Battle of Avarayr and the liberation movement led by Vahan Mamikonian, which was crowned with victory and the signing of the Treaty of Nevarsak in 484. This treaty recognized freedom of worship for Armenians, reestablished the hereditary rights of the nakharars, and opened the way for Vahan Mamikonian to become governor-general of Armenia. 3
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