Hakob Melik Hakobian, better known by his pen name Raffi, is a renowned Armenian author born in 1835 in Payajouk, an Armenian village situated in the Salmas province (presently in the north of Iran, near Urmia Lake) in Persia. He died in 1888 in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). Raffi is a prominent figure of Armenian literature.