Anania Shirakatsi

Anania Shirakatsi was born circa 610 in the Shirak province of Armenia. Eager to master higher sciences, he traveled to Byzantium and Trebizond, studying advanced mathematics, geometry, and astronomy for eight years under the celebrated Greek scholar Tychicus before returning to establish Armenia's first higher academy of sciences.

Centuries ahead of his contemporaries, Shirakatsi maintained that the Earth was spherical and that the Moon had no light of its own, correctly explaining lunar and solar eclipses and describing the Milky Way as a vast concentration of distant stars. He authored the pioneering geographical treatise Ashkharhatsuyts and reformed the Armenian calendar.