Some abrupt historical documents specify that the first Jews have lived in Armenia at the period when Tyrant was the tsar in Israel and Tigran II in Armenia. The medieval Armenian historian Movses Horenatsi asserts that Tigran II lodged many Jewish captives (on some sources about 300000 people) in cities of Armenia. The Jews were basically populated on the territories near laying to the lake Van. Consequently, these territories were redeemed by a merchant dynasty it came of Shimon Packrat and became a place of rapid development of the Jewish community. In the Armenian historical literature there are mentions of residing of Jews in the district Vagarshapat (today's Echmiadzin). Among the vassal tsars who were appointed by the Romans we should mention the representatives of the dynasty of the Tyrant - Tigran IV (about the 6th century AD) and Tigran V (60-61 AD) in Great Armenia and Aristobul (55-60 AD) in Small Armenia.
   When the Persian shah Shapuh II undertook the mass violent eviction of inhabitants of the Armenian cities to Iran (360-370 AD), the significant part of urban population (about 500000 families) were Jews. The Talmudic science was poorly developed in Great Armenia, though in the Jerusalem Talmud (Gitin 6:7, 48а) is mentioned the rabbi of Armenia - Jacob The Armenian.
   At the end of 19th centuries and even since the beginning of the 20th century, there are fixed data on residing of Jews in the province of Erivanskoj. The Jews of that period were represented by two communities: natives of Poland (Ashkenazi), and natives of Persia.
   Both communities were represented by religious people to which points the presence of the praying houses (Shul) at Ashkenazi’s and the separately built up synagogue of the Persian Jews which referred to "Sheikh Mordechai".