Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods, Armenian History, Turkish History, Mongol History, Georgian History, Armeno-Turcica (original) (raw)

(Continued)

by Robert Bedrosian

The Emergence of Georgia

The emergence of Georgia as a great military power in the late eleventh to twelfth centuries temporarily shifted the scales in favor of Caucasian cultural as well as political supremacy in eastern Asia Minor. Because of Georgia's military might, much of northern historical Armenia once again came under the political control of Armenians, though briefly. Those parts that were not were either tributary to Georgia or had made peace with that state. Georgia's successes in this period may be attributed to a number of factors, internal and external. Internally, the royal Bagratid dynasty of Georgia had succeeded in restraining the rebellious and separatist Georgian lords. Externally, Seljuk preoccupation with other neighbors and the Crusades left eastern Asia Minor an easy object of Georgian military ambitions.

During the reign of David (called "the Restorer" and "the Builder," 1089-1125), Georgia had become a haven for Armenian lords and lordless _azat_s displaced by the Seljuk invasions. The historian Matthew of Edessa wrote that David "received and loved the Armenian people; the remnants of the Armenian forces assembled by him." He also built a special city, Gori, for the refugees. According to the medieval Armenian translation of the Georgian History of Kartli, David knew the Armenian language and had as his father-confessor the monophysite vardapet Sarkavag from Haghbat monastery in northeastern Armenia. During the reign of this king, the armies of Georgia commenced clearing southern and southeastern Georgia of nomadic Turkmens, capturing from them Shamshulde and many strongholds in the Armeno-Georgian districts of Somkhiti (1110), Lori, Agarak, and the Kiurikian holdings (1118), Shamakhi, eastern Gugark, western Utik, Gag, Kavazin, Kayian, Kaytson, Terunakan, Norberd, Tavush, Mahkanaberd, Manasgom, and Khalinchkar (1123). The same year Ani was taken, though that city passed back and forth between the Georgian and Muslim emirs many times throughout the twelfth century. During the reigns of David's successors, Demetre I (1125-1155) and Georgi III (1156-1184), the conquests continued though at a slower pace. Throughout this period, [252] the Georgian army was swelling with Armenian volunteers, enthusiastically participating in the liberation of their country. Furthermore, the dynasty of the Georgian Bagratids, itself of Armenian descent, very definitely favored certain Armenian nobles long since established within Georgia and within that country's ruling structure. Such lords as the Zakarian/Mkhargrtselis, Orbelian/Orbelis, and Artsruni/Mankaberdelis not only commanded the victorious armies, but were left in charge of the newly established administrations.

The Georgian Bagratids reached the apogee of their power under Queen Tamar (1184-1213). Under Tamar's generals, the energetic brothers Zakare and Ivane Zakarian, the Armeno-Georgian armies surged ahead reclaiming one after another fortress, city, and district: Anberd in the Aragatsotn district (1196), Shamkor, Gandzak, Artsakh, Siunik, Shirak, the Ayrarat plain and Ani (ca. 1199), Bjni (1201), and Dvin (1203). They now turned upon the southern and western emirates, defeating the renowned sultan of Rum, Rukn al-Din, in the district of Basen (1204). In 1204 or 1205, they reached as far south as Manzikert and Arjesh on the northern shore of Lake Van, although this area was not taken until ca. 1209. Ivane's daughter, Tamta, was married to the Shah-Armen of Khlat in 1210. In a great final burst, General Zakare marched through Nakhichevan and Jugha (Julfa), through (Persian) Azerbaijan to Maran, Tabriz, and Qazvin, looting and sacking Muslim settlements. By the time of Zakare's death in 1213, Georgia was the most powerful state in the region, while the status of the Armenians, be they inhabitants of historical Armenia, of Georgia, or of the numerous small communities stretching in a belt to the southwest to the independent Cilician kingdom had been changed in a very positive way.

The personalities of the dynamic individuals who shaped Armenian affairs in this period may be examined through unique perspectives. Because such people as the Zakarids, Artsrunids, and Orbelians functioned both in Georgian and Armenian milieux, both Georgian and Armenian historians wrote about them. The reader is treated to two sides of their personalities. Thus the information available in the Armenian historians Kirakos Gandzaketsi, Vardan Areveltsi, and Stepanos Orbelian is amplified in the Georgian Chronicle. Furthermore, the lives of Queen Tamar and her Armenian commander-in-chief Zakare are symbolically alluded to in the great Georgian epic of the thirteenth century, the Man in the Panther's Skin. This exquisite creation of the troubadour Shota Rustaveli reveals, among many other things, the chivalrous ideals [253] of the period and the wealth and exoticism of the court which enjoyed war booty, tribute, and the fruits of trade with far-flung states.

The Zakarid Period

The first decades of the thirteenth century in northeastern Armenia are known as the Zakarid period, after its most influential family. In the late twelfth century the Armenian Zakarids were used by the Georgian Bagratid dynasty to counter the native Georgian lords. Zakare and Ivane Zakarian, both notable generals, also held official positions within the Georgian court. Zakare was the commander-in-chief of the army (amirspasalar) as of 1191 and the "grand marshal" (mandaturt-ukhutses) from 1203 on; while his brother, first appointed foremost vizier at court (msakhurt-ukhutses) became atabeg in 1212, an office that was instituted within the Georgian court at Ivane's own request. To reward their military prowess, the Georgian crown entrusted administration of the many liberated districts of northeastern Armenia to Zakare and Ivane. The nature of the Zakarid brothers' service to the Georgian crown seems to have been primarily of a military sort. Armenian lands recaptured from the Turks paid taxes to the Zakarids, who probably paid some taxes to the Georgian Bagratid dynasty. During the Zakarid period, which lasted until about 1260, Armenian economic and cultural life reached a new plateau.

The properties under the overall jurisdiction of amirspasalar Zakare and later of his son Shahnshah were located in the northwestern parts of the reconquered lands: Lori, Ani, Aragatsotn, Bagrevand, Tsaghkotn, Kogovit, Surmari—lands from the Virahayots Mountains to the southern border of Tsaghkotn, from Bolorpahakits to Erevan. Ani was the center of this realm. Subject to Zakare's house were both newly created families (such as the Vachutians) and branches of old nakharar families (such as the Pahlavunis, Artsrunis, Mamikonians, and others).

Under the jurisdiction of atabeg Ivane Zakarian and later of his son Avag were the eastern areas: Bjni, Gegharkunik, Vayots Dzor, most of Artsakh, Siunik, Nakhichevan, Dvin, and Erevan. The center of this realm was first Dvin and later Bjni. Subject to Ivane's house were the Orbelians, Khaghbakians, Dopians, and others. The Orbelians, who originally had been the Zakarids' overlords in Georgia, were, in the changed situation of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, their [254] subordinates in Armenia. Another of Ivane's subordinates was Vasak Khaghbakian, originally from the Khachen area, who had helped in the reconquest of Vayots Dzor, Bjni, and Dvin. This family came to be known as Proshian after Vasak's energetic son Prosh (1223-1284). A number of new and old nakharar families became associated with the Zakarids through marriage alliances with three of Zakare's and Ivane's sisters. Their sister Vaneni was married to Abas II Kiurikian of Matsnaberd. Dopi married Hasan, prince of the old _nakharar_dom of Artsakh in eastern Armenia, receiving as dowry a large area on the southern shore of Lake Sevan and the Sotk district in Siunik. Her descendants are known as the Dopiank. Khorishah Zakarian, another sister, was married to Vakhtang, lord of Khachen district. The family was named after Hasan Jalal, the issue of this union. The Hasan-Jalalians ruled southern Khachen. Within the vast territories under their jurisdiction, the two Zakarid brothers apparently established many of the same offices as existed in the Georgian court. The men chosen by them to fill these offices were those same individuals who had been instrumental as warriors in the reconquest of Armenian lands. The service tendered to the Zakarids by their appointees consisted of military aid and the payment of taxes. Thus, in return for his service, Zakare titled Vache Vachutian his "prince of princes." Members of the Khachen aristocracy served as Zakarid _hejub_s, chamberlains, court directors, and guardians of Zakarid children. Prince Bubak, Ivane's subordinate, is styled "prince of princes" and "the great sparapet" in the sources. Bubak also was known by the Georgian title of _msakhurt-ukhutses_—the same title originally held by Ivane in the Georgian court. This lends credence to the view that the Zakarids created a partial microcosm of the Georgian court hierarchy on their own lands.

The nobility of Armenia in the early thirteenth century consisted of different elements. One substantial group included men of ambition and military talents from newly arisen families, who were rewarded by their Zakarid overlords with grants of land and/or rights of administration. Before and after receiving lands and villages, this category of thirteenth-century lord derived much wealth from booty taken during military campaigns. Another element is referred to in the sources from the twelfth century on as metsatun, which means literally "of a great house." In fact, these were men of great financial wealth who formed the upper class in the many Armenian cities that had recuperated from the Seljuk dislocations. These men, too, lacked antique pedigrees and did not belong to the old nakharar families. Their wealth had been [255] gained through trading and money-lending, and a substantial part of the _metsatun_s' assets were in cash. However, these merchants reinvested their capital in land, buying not only entire estates but also shares of establishments, such as mills. An inscription of one metsatun, Tigran, from the historically unknown family Honents, on the wall of the church of St. Gregory in Ani (ca. 1215) indicates the far-flung and multifaceted nature of metsatun wealth. From the inscription of another metsatun, one learns that about 1242, a certain Umek purchased the church of Getik for "40,000 red [gold] ducats," a currency that clearly indicates that such merchants as Umek were participating in the lucrative international trade with Italian city-states. A third element of the nobility was the high clergy of the church, including bishops and the directors of numerous monasteries founded in this period.

Non-noble elements of Armenian society in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, as in earlier centuries, are essentially omitted from the sources. Certain economic historians suggest that the Seljuk invasions of the mid-eleventh century may have had a temporary "liberating" effect on the peasantry, since the economy of the nomads did not require attachment to the soil. As martyrologies of the eleventh to twelfth centuries suggest, conversion to Islam, the religion of the new conquerors, became a means of socioeconomic elevation for many Armenians of different economic classes in Muslim-ruled areas. However, for the bulk of the peasantry that remained Christian, the twelfth to thirteenth centuries brought increasing attachment to the soil. Georgian documents from this period indicate that peasants attached to a particular plot also could be sold with the land they worked. Urban artisans—metalworkers, builders, weavers, and the like—were a group that grew in size during the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Their status as non-noble is clear, though they seem to have acquired certain special rights in this period as well as their own guild organizations.

As in Georgia proper, Rum, and Cilicia, the culture of northeastern Armenia blossomed at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century. The material wealth deriving from international trade was the basis for this. Among the major intellectuals of the period belong the poet-catholicos Nerses Shnorhali, Mkhitar Heratsi (Mekhitar of Her), the author of a medical textbook; grammarians; theologians; and translators such as Shnorhali' s nephew Grigor Tgha; Nerses Lambronatsi (Nerses of Lambron); Mkhitar Gosh, the codifier of Armenian law; Davit Kobayretsi; Grigor Skevratsi; Vardan Aygektsi; Aristakes the Rhetorician; Hovhannes Garnetsi; and Vanakan Vardapet. [256]

The Turco-Mongol Invasions of 1220 to 1230

Beginning in the 1220s, the Caucasus and eastern Asia Minor were subjected to a new round of Turco-Mongol invasions. The fIrst of the thirteenth-century incursions was made in 1220-1221 by a detachment of some 20,000 Mongols who had been sent across Central Asia by Genghis-Khan in pursuit of the shah of Khwarazm. The latter succeeded in evading his pursuers and had, in fact, died in obscurity on an island in the Caspian Sea the same time the Mongols were entering the Caucasus. The Mongol's route into Armenia was from the southeast, from western Nakhichevan north to the Aghstev region. The outcome of this first clash with Caucasian forces was that some 10,000 Armenians and Georgians commanded by King Georgi IV Lasha and his atabeg Ivane Zakarian were defeated in the Kotman area of northeastern Armenia. Northern Armenia and southeastern Georgia were looted before the invaders returned to their base in Utik. Despite its success, this army had not been sent for conquest but to pursue the Khwarazm-Shah and to conduct reconnaissance for future operations. Thus, considering their mission accomplished, the Mongols departed via the Caucasus Mountains to the north, destroying the city of Shamkor en route.

The second invasion of the Caucasus took place immediately after the Mongol departure in 1222, and was caused by it. This time the participants were nomadic Kipchak Turks from the plains to the north. In their turn defeated by the Mongols, one sizable body of Kipchaks fled from them in a southward direction. These nomads pillaged and looted from Darband south to Gandzak in Azerbaijan. Atabeg Ivane mustered troops and went against them, but he was defeated, having underestimated their strength. What was worse, many _nakharar_s were captured, then killed or ransomed for huge sums of money. The Kipchaks continued looting and raiding different parts of the Caucasus until 1223, when Ivane, in alliance with other Caucasian peoples, finally defeated them, killing or selling them into slavery. The Kipchak raids, though less serious than the invasions that preceded and succeeded them, nonetheless contributed to the continued unsettled state of affairs initiated by the Mongols, depleted the Armeno-Georgian military of some capable leaders, and undoubtedly weakened the army's morale.

The third devastation of Armenia took place from 1225 to about 1230, during which time various parts of the country were subjected to raids and invasions by the ethnically diverse armies of the new Khwarazm-Shah, Jalal al-Din Mangubirdi. Like his father, he offered [257] stubborn and occasionally successful resistance to his Mongol pursuers. This was, however, at the expense of other peoples, notably the Armenians and Georgians. At the head of an army of some 60,000 Turkmens and Kipchak mercenaries, Jalal al-Din invaded northeastern Armenia following the age-old route of invasion, through Nakhichevan and northward. He took and devastated Dvin, and at Garni defeated the 70,000-man-strong Armeno-Georgian army commanded by Ivane. This was followed by the capture of Gandzak, Lori, and Tiflis, where a frightful massacre of Christians ensued with the active participation of resident Muslims, who viewed Jalal as a liberator. The northern cities of Ani and Kars and the southern cities of Khlat and Manzikert were besieged unsuccessfully in 1226. Certain areas, such as Tiflis and Dvin, soon were retaken by the Caucasians, but Jalal al-Din continued devastating one or another section of Armenia until 1230, when he was decisively beaten near Erzinjan by a united force composed of troops of Malik Ashraf of Khlat, the Seljuk sultan of Rum, Cilician Armenian, and Crusader detachments. Jalal was murdered the next year by a Kurdish peasant. His raids and devastations had lasted seven years. Not only did he bring mass destruction of human life and property, but also famine and pestilence, since as contemporary historians noted, Jalal al-Din and his unruly troops frequently cut down fruit-bearing trees and vineyards and burned the crops. Furthermore, remnants of his mercenaries continued to practice banditry well into the 1230s in different parts of central Asia Minor. Following the deaths of King Georgi IV Lasha (1223) and Ivane Zakarian (1227), Christian Caucasia, already seriously weakened, was no longer able to offer united resistance against attackers, at the very moment when it was needed most.

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