His crime was apostasy from the Mohammedan faith.

He was an obscure Armenian, and while under the influence of alcohol had abjured the faith of his fathers, and declared himself a Mohammedan.

He had not submitted, however, to the rite of circumcision before he repented of his rashness.

The penalty of apostasy being death, he fled to Greece.

In about a year, impatient to see his widowed mother, he returned in a Frank dress, but was soon recognized, imprisoned, tortured to induce him to reabandon his original belief, and even paraded through the streets with his hands tied behind his back, as if for execution; but upon his proclaiming aloud his firm belief in Christianity, he was sentenced to decapitation.