The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times: Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century

383 Pages·1997·13.84 MB·English

by  Richard G. Hovannisian

Also by Richard G. Hovannisian
ARMENIA ON THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA (4 volumes)
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: History, Politics, Ethics (editor)
THE ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN PERSPECTIVE (editor)
THE ARMENIAN IMAGE IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE (editor)
ISLAM’S UNDERSTANDING OF ITSELF (editor)
ETHICS IN ISLAM (editor)
THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD (editor)
THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS IN ARABIC LITERATURE AND
SOCIETY (editor)
THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE
FROM ANCIENT TO
MODERN TIMES
VOLUME I
The Dynastic Periods:
From Antiquity
to the Fourteenth Century
Edited by Richard G. Hovannisian
Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History
University of California, Los Angeles
St. Martin’s Press
New York
as
THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES, VOLUME I
Copyright © Richard G. Hovannisian, 1997. All rights reserved. Printed
in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10010.
ISBN 0-312-10169-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Armenian people from ancient to modem times / edited by Richard
G. Hovannisian.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents : v. 1. The dynastic periods—from antiquity to the
fourteenth century — v. 2 Foreign dominion to statehood—the
fifteenth century to the twentieth century.
ISBN 0-312-10169-4 (v. 1). — ISBN Q-312-10168-6 (v. 2)
l. Armenia—History. 2. Armenians—History. I Hovannisian,
Richard G.
DS175.A715 1997
956.62—dc21 97-5310
CIP
Design by Acme Art, Inc.
First edition: September, 1997
10 98765432 1
CONTENTS
List of Maps and Dynastic Tables..............................................................vi
Introduction............................................................................................... vii
RICHARD G. HOVANNISIAN
Transliteration Systems for Armenian..........................................................xii
1. The Geography of Armenia ....................................................................... 1
ROBERT H. HEWSEN
2. The Formation of the Armenian Nation.....................................................19
JAMES RUSSELL
3. The Emergence of Armenia.........................................................................37
NINA GARSOlAN
4. The ArSakuni Dynasty (A.D. 12-[180?]-428)............................................ 63
NINA GARSOlAN
5. The Marzpanaxc (428-652).......................................................................... 95
NINA GARSOlAN
6. The Arab Invasions and the Rise of the Bagratuni (640-884) ............... 117
NINA GARSOlAN
7. The Independent Kingdoms of Medieval Armenia....................................143
NINA GARSOlAN
8. The Byzantine Annexation of the Armenian Kingdoms in the
Eleventh Century...................................................................................187
NINA GARSOlAN
9. Armenian Literary Culture through the Eleventh Century........................199
ROBERT THOMSON
10. Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods....................................241
ROBERT BEDROSIAN
11. Cilician Armenia.........................................................................................273
ANI AT AMI AN BOURNOUTIAN
12. Medieval Armenian Literary and Cultural Trends
(Twelfth-Seventeenth Centuries)........................................................293
PETER COWE
Bibliography for Volumes I and II..............................................................327
Notes on the Contributors ..........................................................................350
Index ..........................................................................................................352
LIST OF MAPS AND DYNASTIC TABLES
MAPS
1. Armenia in Its Historical Setting.....................................................................3
2. The Armenian Plateau....................................................................................4
3. The Federation of Biainili (Urartu). Ninth-Sixth Centuries B.C.....................21
4. The Achaemenid Satrapy of44Armina.” c.550-330 B.C..................................39
5. The Empire of Tigran the Great, First Century B.C........................................53
6. Arshakuni/Arsacid Armenia, First-Fifth Centuries A.D..................................65
7. The Partitions of Armenia, 387 and 591 AD. . ............................................97
8. Armenia under Arab Domination, 650-C.885 A.D.........................................119
9. Armenia in the Bagratuni/Bagratid Period, c.884-1064 AD.........................145
10. The Armenian State in Cilicia, c. 1080-1375 A.D.........................................275
DYNASTIC TABLES
Eruandid (Ervandian)/Orontid Dynasty.......................................................36
The Arta§£sid (Artashesian)/Artaxiad Dynasty...........................................62
ArSakuni (Arshakuni)/Arsacid Dynasty.......................................................94
Cilician Armenia Dynasties .......................................................................291
INTRODUCTION
Richard G. Hovannisian
The history of the Armenian people is long, complex, and in many
ways epic and heroic. Emerging las an organized state by the middle
of the second millennium b.c., Armenia lay at the ancient crossroads of
orient and Occident on the highland located between the Mediterranean,
Black, and Caspian seas. The Armenian plateau became the buffer and
coveted prize of rival empires: Assyrian, Mede, Achaemenian, Parthian,
Sasanian, Arab, Seljuk, and Mongol from the south and east, and
Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader from the west. Through all
the turbulence, however, the Armenians created a rich and colorful
culture and defensive mechanisms for survival. Even during long peri­
ods of foreign dominion, internal religious and socioeconomic struc­
tures allowed them to preserve their distinct way of life.
The dynastic era of Armenian history extended, with interruptions,
over a time span of some two thousand years. The pre-Christian period,
spanning more than one thousand years, was characterized by strong
interchanges with Persian and Hellenistic civilizations. The Ervandian
(Orontid), Artashesian (Artaxid), and Arshakuni (Arsacid) dynastic
families held sway during this epoch, which for a brief historic moment
even gave rise to an Armenian empire in the first century b.c.
The adoption of Christianity as the religion of state at the begin­
ning of the fourth century a.d. introduced a new period that had a
profound effect on the spiritual and cultural life and the political orien­
tation of the Armenian realm. Although untold suffering would befall
the Armenians in the name of their religion, the fusion of Armenian faith
and patriotism provided a powerful defensive weapon in the unceasing
struggle for national survival.
viii Richard G. Hovannisian
The underpinning of Armenian society, before and after the con­
version to Christianity, was the military-feudal nakharar class—often
unruly, divisive, ambitious, and vain, but also valiant and heroic. So
long as the nakharars remained strong and able to rally against external
threats and challenges, the continuum of Armenian life was maintained
whether or not an Armenian monarch reigned. Hence, in the long span
between the end of the Arshakuni dynasty in the fifth century and the
restoration of monarchy under the Bagratunis (Bagratids) in the ninth
century, the nakharars and the Church provided the structures essential
for the continuation of traditional society and a national existence.
The fall of the last major Armenian kingdom on the great plateau
in the eleventh century gave rise to an expatriate kingdom in the region
of Cilicia, which is bounded by the northeastern comer of the Mediter­
ranean Sea. There, the successive royal families of the Rubenians,
Hetumians, and Lusignans came into close contact with the Crusader
states and Europe. In face of the threat posed by resurgent Muslim
powers, attempts were made to overcome the dogmatic and hierarchical
differences separating the Armenian Apostolic, Greek Orthodox, and
Roman Catholic churches. Armenian art, architecture, and literature
flourished during this period. These and other themes are presented in
detail in the first volume of this history.
The fall of the Cilician kingdom late in the fourteenth century left
only isolated pockets of semiautonomous Armenian life: Zeitun in
Cilicia, Sasun in the heart of the Armenian plateau, and Karabagh
(Artsakh) along the eastern perimeter of that highland. Armenia came
under the domination of rival Muslim dynasties: the Turkmen Aq
Qoyunlu and Kara Qoyunlu, the hordes of Tamerlane, the Safavids and
Qajars of Persia, and the Ottoman Turks, who captured Constantinople
in the mid-fifteenth century and extended eastward into both Cilicia and
Armenia proper during the next century.
Thereafter, the subject Armenians existed as a religious-ethnic
minority with the legal status of second-class citizens. Because of the
segregated nature of Muslim-dominated societies and the quasi-the-
ocratic foundation of certain Islamic states, the Armenian Church was
accorded jurisdiction in internal civil and religious matters. In return,
the church hierarchy was held responsible for the conduct of all members
of the ethnic community, their payment of taxes and fulfillment of other
obligations, and their loyalty and devotion to the reigning sultan or shah.
In the Ottoman Empire, this system was undermined by political,
economic, and social decay, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth
INTRODUCTION IX
centuries and by the infiltration of intellectual and political currents
inspired by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. These devel­
opments raised serious questions about the relationship between ruler
and ruled and about the ability and even desirability of maintaining the
status quo in a moribund empire.
The winds of change also affected the Armenian community (millet),
first through an intellectual revival and ultimately through plans and pres­
sure for reforms both within and for the community. The articulation of
Armenian social and political programs reached the table of international
diplomacy at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, but the failure of the powers
to resolve the so-called “Armenian Question” was to lead to the eventual
elimination of the Ottoman Armenians and their removal from most of their
historic lands. The widespread massacres of 1894-1896 were followed by
the Cilician pogroms of 1909 and ultimately by the Armenian Genocide
beginning in 1915 and culminating in 1922 with the burning of Smyrna and
the final Armenian exodus from Cilicia. The “Young Turk” regime, on
which reform-minded Armenians had placed so much hope, became in fact
the catalyst for the annihilation of the Ottoman Armenians.
The eastern reaches of the Armenian plateau were spared this
calamity only because Russian rule had been established there during
the nineteenth century. Despite discriminatory practices and the arbi­
trariness of Romanov governors and bureaucrats, the Russian Arme­
nians made significant organic progress during the century of tsarist rule.
Like the Ottoman Armenians, they experienced an intellectual renais­
sance, which was strongly influenced by European social, political, and
economic thought. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, there were
nearly as many Armenians living in the Russian Empire as in the
Ottoman Empire. They became the fastest-growing and most affluent
element in Transcaucasia, the region extending from the Black Sea to
the Caspian Sea south of the Caucasus Mountains.
World War I, the Armenian Genocide, and the Russian revolutions
and Civil War shattered the Armenian infrastructures in both the Otto­
man and Russian empires. By the end of the world war in 1918, most
Armenians either had been killed or displaced. Yet, there was cause for
great excitement and anticipation. The European Allied Powers, assisted
by the United States of America, had defeated the German Empire and
its ally, the Ottoman Empire, and were publicly committed to the
restoration and rehabilitation of the Armenian people. But the first
modem experiment in Armenian independence lasted less than three
years, from 1918 to the end of 1920. The reluctance of the Allied Powers
X Richard G. Hovannisian
to sustain their pledges with armed force and the collaboration of the
Turkish Nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha and of Soviet Russia
led by V.I. Lenin crushed the Republic of Armenia.
That which remained of historic Armenia, an area of less than 12,000
square miles, was transformed into Soviet Armenia and a part of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics. Seven decades of Soviet rule were character­
ized by heavy centralization and coercion and the attempted suppression of
many traditional ways. Yet, that critical period also gave rise to the contem­
porary Armenian—literate, highly skilled, adept in the arts, and resourceful
individually for self and family and collectively for the preservation of
national traits and ideals under creative guises.
The rapid collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought another
opportunity for Armenian independence, albeit only on this small,
landlocked portion of the ancient and medieval realms. Many of the
problems besetting the first Armenian republic quickly resurfaced,
including an enervative and disruptive territorial dispute with and eco­
nomic blockade by the neighboring Azerbaijani republic. Moreover, the
aspiration to democracy and the setting up of a framework of democratic
institutions have grated roughly against the daily reality of political
inexperience and perpetuation of some of the worst abuses of the Soviet
system. Critical to the welfare of the new republic is its relationship with
the numerous, generally able and affluent, and potentially invaluable
communities of the Armenian diaspora. These and related issues are
addressed in the second volume of this study.
No comprehensive history of the Armenian people exists in the
English language. Many monographs on specific subjects have appeared
in recent years, but the ambitious undertaking to present the entire span
of Armenian history has awaited this endeavor. Those who teach Arme­
nian history have had little choice but to resort to selected readings from
sundry sources in place of a cohesive textbook, and general readers
seeking a reliable history of Armenia written in English have often been
disappointed with the results. It was to meet this long-standing need that
seventeen specialists in various disciplines of Armenian studies were
drawn together as contributors to this two-volume work.
Any publication with multiple authors is likely to have chronolog­
ical and topical gaps, as well as significant differences in organization,
style, and attention to detail in the individual chapters. This work is not
an exception. It would have been desirable, moreover, to incorporate
chapters on art and architecture, music and theater, and other aspects of
culture that are important reflectors of the spirit and soul of a people.
INTRODUCTION XI
Fortunately, a number of excellent monographs and illustrated volumes
have been published in English on these subjects. A bibliography of the
works cited in the two volumes is included in each of them.
The transliteration of Armenian personal and place names into the
Latin alphabet is not consistent in the chapters that follow. As individual
authors have strong personal preferences, the editor has in general
respected those sentiments. Chapters 3 through 8 in volume I use the
modified Hubschmann-Meillet system, which for the uninstructed En­
glish reader will not always seem phonetic. The system uses a single
character, often with diacritical marks, to represent a single Armenian
letter; thus MuSel rather than Mushegh, and Koranac'i rather than
Khorenatsi. And the traditional rendering of “ian” as the suffix of
Armenian family names has been altered to “ean”; thus, Mamikonean
rather than Mamikonian. To assist readers unfamiliar with this system,
the editor has added the phonetic form after the initial use of the term.
A table comparing the Hubschmann-Meillet system with modem
Eastern Armenian and modem Western Armenian pronunciations, with­
out diacritical marks, follows this introduction. By and large, the trans­
literation system used in these volumes is based on the sounds of
Classical and modem Eastern Armenian; thus Trdat rather than Drtad,
and Khachatur Abovian rather than Khachadour Apovian. Exceptions
are made in the case of names with a widely accepted alternative form;
thus Boghos Nubar rather than Poghos Nupar, and Hagop Baronian
rather than Hakob Paronian. Moreover, in chapters 5 and 6 of Volume
II, a mixed system is used, so that the names of Western Armenian
intellectual, political, and clerical figures appear in Western Armenian
pronunciation, whereas the names of Eastern Armenian personages are
shown in Eastern Armenian pronunciation; thus Krikor Odian rather
than Grigor Otian, but Grigor Artsruni rather than Krikor Ardzruni.
The preparation of this history has been long and difficult, and the
challenges and responsibilities facing the editor have been formidable.
A single author may have provided greater consistency in style and
content but could not have offered the expertise or most recent findings
relating to all periods or topics. The editor wishes to commend the
authors for their contribution, cooperation, and forbearance. Robert
Hewsen has meticulously produced the useful maps in the two volumes,
and Simon Winder, formerly of St. Martin’s Press, enthusiastically
initiated the long publication process. It is hoped that this collective
study will bring the reader the rich historical and cultural heritage, and
an appreciation of the continuing saga, of the Armenian people.