Jalaleddin (novel)

Jalaleddin (Ջալալեդդին, Arm.) was the first of Raffi's famous historical novels and a milestone in modern Armenian literature. First published in May 1878 exactly one year after the events depicted, its title is based on Sheikh Jalaleddin, a Kurdish chieftain who led his forces on a violent campaign against Armenian and Assyrian villages in the eastern part of Van province at the beginning of the last Russo-Turkish War (1877-78). The central theme of the novel is the necessity of self-defense.