Mkhitar Djrbashian (also M. M. Dzhrbashjan, M. M. Jerbashian; Russian: Мхитар Мкртичевич Джрбашян; Armenian: Մխիթար Մկրտչի Ջրբաշյան

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

mathematician, who made significant contributions to the constructive theory of functions, harmonic analysis, Complex analysis, theory of analytic functions and a fundamental contribution to the classical theory of univalent analytic functions. He was born in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and ...

in a family of refugees from the town Van of

Western Armenia Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, ''Arevmdian Hayasdan'') is a term to refer to the eastern parts of Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that are part of the historical homeland of the Armenians. Weste ...

escaping from the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

of 1915 in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Mkhitar Djrbashian created some well-known mathematical theories (see, e.g.) and did everything possible for the development of Armenian Mathematical School to the high international standards in many branches of mathematics.

Family

Djrbashian was born to an old Van family, established before the fourteenth century, long before the rise of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, by a successful merchant who returned to his homeland from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

and bought a piece of land in the Aygestan (Armenian: Այգեստան, i.e. gardens) district of Van. The community water source was in his land, and his family got the obligation to make a fair distribution of the scarce water among the channels to Aygestan gardens for many centuries, according to quotas established by the community. This was the origin of the family name Jerbashkhian (Armenian: Ջրբաշխյան, i.e. water distributor). Mkhitar Djrbashian's father Mkrtich was one of the seven founders of the Van Guild of Merchants, which anticipated the possibility of Turkish military actions against the civilian population of their town and started collecting weapons for self-defense. In June 1915, he participated as a soldier in people's volunteer corps against the Turkish regular army sent to massacre all Armenian inhabitants and surrounding villages. Thanks to the offensive of the

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...

or, more exactly, its Armenian volunteer unit, the inhabitants of Van and some villagers of the

Vaspurakan Vaspurakan (, Western Armenian pronunciation: ''Vasbouragan'') was the eighth province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered on Lake Van. Located in what is now southeaster ...

Province were saved and then migrated with the Russian Army to the

Erivan Governorate The Erivan Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its centеr in Erivan (present-day Yerevan). Its area was 27,830 sq. kilometеrs, roughly corresponding to what is now most of central A ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. In the first years of the Soviet regime, Mkrtich Jerbashkhian continued importing European goods and selling them in the shops of his commercial company in Yerevan,

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

, and Baku. For this reason, he was deprived of voting rights in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and his elder son Mkhitar was excluded from the last year of school. Mkrtich Jerbashkhian kept secret his fluency in French and German languages and his political views to avoid

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

repression. Other branches of the Jerbashkhian family also were forced to leave their fatherland. Some of them migrated to

and Tiflis, others appeared as refugees in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

. Mkhitar Djrbashian had two sisters: Sirvard (1904–1990) and Gohar (1921–2000), and a brother Eduard Jerbashkhian (1923–1999), a literary critic, full member of the

Armenian National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա, ՀՀ ԳԱԱ, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri az ...

(1982) and the director of its Institute of Literature from 1977 to 1999. The family name Jerbashkhian later was simplified to Jerbashian, and it appears as Dzhrbashjan or Djrbashian in many mathematical publications in accordance with the Russian spelling.

Biography

Mkhitar Djrbashian was born in Yerevan on September 11, 1918. Being deprived of continuing his

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

in Yerevan, he accomplished his school education in Tiflis in 1936, thanks to the assistance of his uncle's family. Back in Yerevan after

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's declaration that "children are not responsible for their parents", Mkhitar Djrbashian could enroll in

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; hy, Երևանի Պետական Համալսարան, ԵՊՀ, ''Yerevani Petakan Hamalsaran''), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919 ...

, where his scientific activities were encouraged by Prof. Artashes Shahinian, a talented teacher who directed his pupils mainly to

Approximation theory In mathematics, approximation theory is concerned with how functions can best be approximated with simpler functions, and with quantitatively characterizing the errors introduced thereby. Note that what is meant by ''best'' and ''simpler'' wil ...

. Mkhitar Djrbashian was greatly influenced by the results of

Rolf Nevanlinna Rolf Herman Nevanlinna (né Neovius; 22 October 1895 – 28 May 1980) was a Finnish mathematician who made significant contributions to complex analysis. Background Nevanlinna was born Rolf Herman Neovius, becoming Nevanlinna in 1906 when his fa ...

in complex analysis, which he studied attending lectures delivered by

Mstislav Keldysh Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh (russian: Мстисла́в Все́володович Ке́лдыш; – 24 June 1978) was a Soviet mathematician who worked as an engineer in the Soviet space program. He was the academician of the Academy o ...

at Yerevan State University in 1944. This directed his scientific research to the field of

complex analysis Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebra ...

. Under the supervision of Prof. Artashes Shahinian, Mkhitar Djrbashian was the first to defend a

Candidate of Sciences Candidate of Sciences (russian: кандидат наук, translit=kandidat nauk) is the first of two doctoral level scientific degrees in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is formally classified as UNESCO's ISCED level 8, " ...

Thesis in mathematics at Yerevan State University in 1945, with some new, original results on weighted Nevanlinna classes of

meromorphic functions In the mathematical field of complex analysis, a meromorphic function on an open subset ''D'' of the complex plane is a function that is holomorphic on all of ''D'' ''except'' for a set of isolated points, which are pole (complex analysis), poles ...

(see Section 216 in ). In 1949 Mkhitar Djrbashian defended his

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

Thesis in

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

with excellent references from Prof.

, Prof.

Alexander Gelfond Alexander Osipovich Gelfond (russian: Алекса́ндр О́сипович Ге́льфонд; 24 October 1906 – 7 November 1968) was a Soviet mathematician. Gelfond's theorem, also known as the Gelfond-Schneider theorem is named after hi ...

and Prof. Alexei Markushevich :ru:Маркушевич, Алексей Иванович. Being the leading figure in the mathematics of Armenia, a Full Member of Armenian Academy of Sciences from 1956, Mkhitar Djrbashian did everything possible for the development of Armenian Mathematical School to the high international standards in many branches of mathematics. He was the founder and the director of

Institute of Mathematics of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia The Institute of Mathematics of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (Armenian: ) is owned and operated by the Armenian Academy of Sciences, located in Yerevan. History The Institute of Mathematics of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia o ...

(1971–1989), then the honorary director of the same institute up to his death on May 6, 1994, of a heart attack. He was the founder of Izvestiya Natsionalnoi Akademii Nauk Armenii, Matematika (English translation: Journal of Contemporary Mathematical Analysis, Armenian Academy of Sciences, Allerton Press Inc.

and its editor in chief (1971–1994), the Dean of the Physical-Mathematical and then Mechanical-Mathematical Department of

(1957–1960), and the head of the Chair of Function Theory (1978–1986).

References

External links

*
Mkhitar Djrbashian
at :en:Mathematical Reviews, MathSciNet
Mkhitar Djrbashian
at

National Academy of Sciences of Armenia The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա, ՀՀ ԳԱԱ, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri az ...

Mkhitar Djrbashian's 90th anniversary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Djrbashian, Mkhitar 1918 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Armenian mathematicians Scientists from Yerevan Moscow State University alumni Yerevan State University alumni Academic staff of Yerevan State University Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Soviet mathematicians