[9] He was born on 5 December 1936,[3] in Paris to an Armenian father, Kevork Melikian (Georgiy Melikov), and Azerbaijani mother, Kawsar Asadullayeva.
[10] Melikian's paternal grandfather Ambartsum Melikov was an oil billionaire who owned A.S.Melikov and Co in Baku.
After completing high school in Lycee Condorcet, Melikian graduated from the Sorbonne and the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO).
[11] He has served as (since 2005) as Chair of Middle Eastern History at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
[1] He has served as Senior Collections Adviser for the Aga Khan Museum.