Zabelle C. Boyajian was born in Diyarbakır in the Diyarbekir Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire ( one of the ancient Armenian capitals , Tigranakert ) into the family of the British Vice-Consul in Diyarbakır and Harput Thomas Boyajian and Catherine Rogers , a descendant of the English poet Samuel Rogers . After her father 's murder during the Hamidian massacres , in 1895 , Boyajian , her mother and her brother , Henry , moved to London , where she enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art . She also started writing and illustrating her own books . Her first novel , '' Yestere : The Romance of a Life , '' about the massacres in Sasun , was published under the pen name Varteni ( London , 1901 ) . She was very close with Anna Raffi , the wife of the Armenian novelist Raffi , and her two sons , Aram and Arshak , who had moved to London after Raffi 's death . Boyajian periodically translated and published excerpts from Raffi 's novels in the journal '' Ararat '' and organized various reading events to honor his work . In 1916 , she compiled and translated the anthology '' Armenian Legends and Poems '' ( 1916 ) , which was introduced by Viscount James Bryce and which included several poems in Alice Stone Blackwell 's translation . She traveled widely and in 1938 published her travel notes and illustrations of Greece , '' In Greece with Pen and Palette '' . In 1948 she translated and published Avetik Isahakian 's epic poem '' Abu Lala Mahari '' . Boyajian also wrote essays on Shakespeare , Byron , Euripides , Michael Arlen , Raffi , and Avetik Isahakian , as well as comparative works on English and Armenian literature
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Zabelle C. Boyajian