LAVASH LEGEND

According to the legend Ancient Armenia was at wor with the king of Assyria. The battles were led by Aram, a caring, vigorous and patriotic man. Aram couldn’t see his homeland trampled and pillaged by foreigners and neighboring tribes; he would prefer to die instead. This is what happened at one of those battles. King Aram was captured by the enemy, but this doesn’t mean that he was unconditionally defeated. For this reason Assyrian king proposed “ You will not eat for ten days, and on eleventh day you and I will compete in archery. If you wean then you are stronger than me. Only in this case I will set you free”.

All night long Aram was absorbed in this thoughts, and the following morning he asked to bring a beautiful shield from the Armenian army which was stationed nearby. Assyrian King agreed. The messengers of Assyrian king went to Armenians and communicated Aram’s request. The soldiers of Aram contemplated all night to find the hidden reason behind the king’s request. And finally its meaning dawned on them. They hid lavash (Armenian flat bread) under the shield and handed it to the messengers. No one among Assyrians thought that it was possible to hide the bread under an iron shield, as at that time they knew nothing about lavash. When Aram saw the shield he said “ This one is not beautiful enough. Bring me another one tomorrow!” 

So every day the messengers of Assyrian king brought lavash to Aram. On th eleventh day Aram and Assyrian king competed in archery. Assyrian king was sure that starving and exhausted as he was , Aram would not be able to compete with him. But Aram was the winner of contest, and with honors was returned to homeland. It was lavash that saved him. When the king returned to Armenia, he decreed from that time on every type of bread in Armenia should be called lavash.