Minni

Min'ni (Heb. Minni', מַנַּי, etymology unknown; Sept. παῤ ἐμοῦ,Vulg. Menni) occurs only in Jer 51:27 (and so in the Targ. at Ps 45:9, but wrongly), as the name of an Armenian province, joined with Ararat; i.e., as Bochart well observes (Phaleg, 1:3, page 19, 20), probably the Minyas (Μινύας) of Nicholas of Damascus in Josephus (Ant. 1:3, 6), a tract of Armenia overhung by the mountain Baris, on which are the traces of the ark. St. Martin (Memoires sur l'Armenie, 1:249) rightly compares the region of the Manavasscei, in the middle of Armenia, so called from Manavas, the son of Haigus, who is said to have been the founder of Armenia (Moses Choren. 1:11). Less likely is the supposition (Bochart, ut sup.) that the Greek name Armenia itself sprung from הִראּמַנַּי, "mountain of Minni," since it is rather derived from Aram (see St. Martin, ut sup. page 259). "The name may be connected.with the Minnai of the Assyrian inscriptions, whom Rawlinson (Herod. 1:464) places about lake Urumiyeh, and with the Minuas who appears in the list of Armenian kings in the inscription at Wan (Layard's Nin. and Bab. page 401). At the time when Jeremiah prophesied, Armenia had been subdued by the Median kings (Rawlinson, Herod. 1:103, 177)." SEE ARMENIA.