Melikset-Beg, Leon. Sayat-Nova's Identity: A Critical-Biographical Study (Saiatnovas Vinaoba). 1930. In Georgian.

მელიქსეთ-ბეგი, ლეონ (1890-1963). საიათნოვას ვინაობა : კრიტიკულ-ბიოგრაფიული ეტიუდი.
[ტფილისი] : ქართული წიგნი, 1930 (პოლიგრაფტრესტის მე-3 სტამბა). VIII, 165, 015 გვერდი : ილუსტრაციები (ფაქსიმილური ტაბულები) ; 21 სანტიმეტრი.
დანართები: ა) სტეფანე მკერვლის ლექსები (გვ. 148-157); ბ) Addenda et corrigenda (გვ. 159-161); გ) ცალკე თავფურცლით: "საიათნოვას ავტოგრაფი" - საილუსტრაციო ტაბულები I-V (გვ. 007-015).
***
Melikset-Beg, Leon (1890-1963). Sayat-Nova's Identity: A Critical-Biographical Study. 
[Tbilisi]: "Kartuli Tsigni" (Poligraftrest, 3rd Printing House), 1930. VIII, 165, [15] pp., illustrated with facsimile plates ; 21 cm.
Appendices: a) "Poems of Stepane the Tailor" (pp. 148-157); b) Addenda et corrigenda (pp. 159-161); c) separately titled section "Sayat-Nova's Autograph".
Half-binding: paper-covered boards, cloth spine. Print run of 3,000 copies.
Binding fair: spine worn at head; front board stained. Text block good: clean throughout.

A scarce critical monograph on one of the most contested questions in Caucasian literary history: the ethnic and biographical identity of Sayat-Nova (c. 1712-1795), the celebrated troubadour-poet (ashug) who served at the court of King Erekle II of Kartli-Kakheti and composed with equal mastery in Armenian, Georgian, and Turkic/Azeri. Sayat-Nova was killed during the sack of Tbilisi by the forces of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar in 1795, and his multilingual, multi-ethnic legacy has long been claimed variously by Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani literary traditions. The author, Leon Melikset-Beg (1890-1963), was an Armenian-born historian and philologist who spent his career at Tbilisi State University, where he headed the department of Armenology; his scholarship was distinctively devoted to documenting and reinforcing the historical ties between Armenian and Georgian culture, making him a uniquely positioned, if not uncontroversial, voice on Sayat-Nova's origins. The volume reproduces facsimile plates of Sayat-Nova's autograph manuscripts as primary documentary evidence, and appends a related body of verse attributed to a minor contemporary poet, "Stepane the Tailor," bearing on questions of authorship and attribution within the same manuscript tradition. As an early Soviet-era Georgian contribution to Sayat-Nova studies, predating the mid-century wave of Armenian and Georgian scholarship on the poet, the book holds real interest for specialists in Caucasian literary and cultural history.