Five principalities of Karabakh

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Five principalities of Karabakh (Golestan, Dschraberd, Chatschen, Waranda and Disak), the last remnants of Armenian statehood in the 16th century

The five principalities of Karabakh , and Armenian Meliktümer of Karabakh , Chams or Machale Chamsse ( Armenian Խամսայի մելիքություններ Chamsaji melikutjunner ) were Armenian principalities in present-day Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions by the end of the domination of the Principality Chat's in the 15th century to the integration into the Khanate Karabakh ( Qarabağ ) in 1750 and finally with the abolition of ethnic principalities in the Russian Empire in 1822.

status

The five principalities also became principalities of Chamse or simply Chams ( Arabic خمسة"Five") called. The rulers bore the title Melik ( Armenian Մելիք , from Arabic ملك, "King"), which was also common in other areas with the aristocracy of Eastern Armenia .

After the fall of the Armenian statehood through the conquest of the Seljuks and as a result of the devastation by Timur , the five principalities of all the Armenian principalities still had the greatest independence, and they saw themselves as the last bastion of Armenian independence. The five principalities were called - in order from north to south - Golestan (Gulstan, Gulistan, Gülistan), Jraberd (Tscharaberd), Chatschen, Waranda and Disak.

Corporate structure

The Meliks had armies led by centurions , their own castles and fortresses, known as the Syghnach Military System . Two large Syghnach were entertained by all Melik of Karabsch: One was in the Malik shrines Golestan , Dschraberd and Chat's and leaning on the fortresses of Golestan, Dschraberd , Hawkachaghaz, Ischchanaberd, Katschaghakaberd and Lewonaberd (hand Aberd) , the other in the Meliktümern Waranda and Disak the fortresses Shushi , Togh and Goro. Both Syghnach were part of a defense system that went back to the times of the Kingdom of Artsakh .

The relationship between Melik and subordinates corresponded to military ranks and was not feudal. The farmers were free and often owned land as well.

Princely houses

The royal families of the Chamsa were descendants of the house of Hassan-Jalaljan von Chatschen, who in turn were traced back to the kings of medieval Arzach . The Russian Empire recognized the sovereignty of the five Armenian princes in their principality in an imperial document from Paul I of Russia dated June 2, 1799 . The ruling princely families were:

  • in Golestan Melik Beglarjan,
  • in Jraberd Melik Israeljan, Allahwedjan from the end of the 18th century, and most recently Atabekjan
  • in Chatschen Melik Hassan-Jalaljan ,
  • in Waranda Melik Shahnasarjan,
  • in Disak Melik Awanjan.

The house of Hassan-Jalaljan , which ruled the principality of Chatschen and was also traced back to the kings of Aghwank (Albania) , had a special position among the Chamsa due to its long history as a principality. They symbolized the connection between the legendary patriarch and forefather of the Armenians Hayk , great-grandson of Noah and the "healing rulers" who ruled Armenia in the Middle Ages. The house Hassan Dschalaljan led his ancestry back to the Armenian dynasty Arranschahik that before the Parthian Arsacid was present in the region. According to Robert H. Hewsen, the Hassan-Jalaljan house was "almost exclusively" of Armenian origin.

Hassan-Jalal's grandfather was Hassan I (or Hassan the Great), who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182 he abdicated as a prince and began a life as a monk in the Dadiwank monastery and divided his land between his two sons: the southern half with the majority of Chatschen went to the older son Wahtang II (also called Tangik), while the northern half went to the younger son Gregor (Krikor) "went to blacks". Wahtang II married Khorishah Zakarjan, daughter of Sargis Zakarian, from whom the Zakarid line of the Armenian princes of Georgia started. When he married the daughter of the Arranschahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hassan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's land.

In the Middle Ages, the Hassan-Jalaljan family divided into two lines that were separate and yet connected in terms of their duties: princes who ruled the Melictum of Khatschen and clerics who occupied the throne of the Catholicos of Aghwank in the Gandsassar monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church . The spiritual branch of the family was particularly important. 1441 saw a military commander from the family Hassan Dschalaljan serving the Kara Koyunlu that the Holy See of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Sis in Cilicia to its original place in the Armenian Echmiadzin returned. Shortly afterwards, Grigor X Jalalbegjanz (1443–1465) from the spiritual branch of the Hassan-Jalaljan family was installed as Catholicos of All Armenians in the Etchmiadzin Cathedral .

The principalities of Karabakh saw themselves as direct descendants of the Kingdom of Armenia and were recognized as such by foreign powers.

The Armenian Meliks had full sovereignty in their principalities until the middle of the 18th century. The autonomous status of the Armenian princes of Karabakh was also confirmed by the successive rulers of Persia . In 1603, Shah Abbas I recognized their partial independence through their own edict.

Early 18th century, the Persian rulers withdrew Nadir Shah Karabakh controlled by the Khans of Ganja to them for their support for the Safavids to punish and put it under his own control

Resistance movements in the 17th and 18th centuries

In 1726 and 1727, the nobility and peasants in Chatschen and the other Armenian principalities jointly resisted the invading Ottoman troops. The Russian Prince Dolgoruki reported with astonishment how the small Armenian armed forces withstood a superior force of 40,000 Turkish soldiers. An alliance with the later Persian ruler Nadir Shah ultimately led to the victory over the Turks and to an autonomy of the Machale Chamsse ("united land of the five melics") under Persian rule.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Nagorno-Karabakh became a center for efforts to re-establish an independent Armenian state. There were ideas that more or less independent Armenian principalities in Artsakh and Syunik could be protected as allies of Georgia by Russia and other European powers. However, rivalries among the Maliks prevented them from becoming a stronger power. In 1678 Catholicos Hakob Jughajezi (Jakob von Jugha, 1655–1680) called for a secret meeting in Etschmiadzin, to which he invited several Meliks and leading clergy. He suggested sending a delegation to Europe, but died shortly afterwards, so the plan was abandoned. One of the delegates, a young man named Israel Ori , son of Melik Hajkasjan of Sangesur , traveled to Venice and on to France, where he served in the army of Louis XIV . He tried to the Palatinate Elector Johann Wilhelm (1658-1716), Pope Innocent XII. and to convince the Emperor of Austria to free Armenia from foreign rule and for this purpose sent a lot of money to the troops of the Armenian principalities of Karabakh, but he died in 1711 without seeing any success in his efforts.

Movses Baghramian , who accompanied the Armenian patriot Joseph Emin (1726–1809) from Hamadan and tried to win support for the Armenian Meliks of Karabakh , also played a role in the Armenians' independence efforts in Karabakh .

The end: Incorporation into the Karabakh Khanate in 1750

In the second half of the 18th century, the Melik Shahnasar of Waranda allied with Panah Ali Khan (1693–1761), the founder of the Karabakh Khanate , against the other Armenian Meliks and thus helped the Khan to smash the Armenian independence in Karabakh. So Panah Ali Khan succeeded in subjugating the Chamsa, and in 1750 the five Armenian principalities were incorporated into the Karabakh Khanate.

1813: Karabakh becomes part of Russia

Through the Treaty of Golestan in 1813, concluded in the seat of the northernmost of the former five Armenian principalities, Persia had to cede most of its possessions north of the Arax to Russia. So the previous khanate Karabakh became part of the Russian Empire . Under Russian rule, members of the Melik families were able to protect their rights, and some became high-ranking officers in the Imperial Russian Army.

In literature and art

The Meliks of Karabach were used as a template for the historical novels The Five Meliktümer (1882) and David Bek (1882) by the Armenian writer Raffi (Hakob Melik-Hakobian, 1835-1888), who was born in northwestern Iran, and for the opera David Bek (1950) by Armen Tigranian and the novel Mkhitar Sparapet (1961) by Sero Khanzadyan. In 1944 the Fild David Bek was completed. In 1978 Armenfilm made another film about David Bek and Mchitar Sparapet in collaboration with Mosfilm, entitled The Star of Hope .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica: Armenia.
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam. Brill, Leiden 1986. Volume 1, pp. 639-640.
  3. ^ Robert Hewsen : The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study. Revue des Études Arméniennes. NS, IX, 1972, pp. 297-308.
  4. ^ Robert H. Hewsen: The Kingdom of Arc'ax. In: Thomas J. Samuelian, Michael E. Stone (eds.): Medieval Armenian Culture. University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies. Scholars Press, Chico (California) 1984, pp. 52-53. ISBN 0-8913-0642-0
  5. ↑ Varsenik Minasyan: The Karabakh conflict since 1988 until today. Contribution to the Symposium: A History of Perpetual Violence? Causes of today's ethnopolitical conflicts in the Caucasus since the 18th century. Lepsiushaus Potsdam, April 22nd to 24th, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b Րաֆֆի (Հակոբ Մելիք-Հակոբյան). Խամսայի մելիքութիւնները: Ղարաբաղի աստղագէտը: Գաղտնիքն Ղարաբաղի, Վիեննա, 1906. [ Raffi (Hakob Melik-Hakobjan). The story of the Chamsa, Vienna 1906 (Armenian). Another edition is «Խամսայի մելիքությունները», Երկերի ժողովածու, Երևան, 1964. Collection of Yerkrapah, Yerevan, 1964.]
  7. ↑ Robert H. Hewsen: Russian – Armenian relations, 1700–1828 . Society of Armenian Studies, N4, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984, p. 37.
  8. ↑ Բագրատ Արշակի Ուլուբաբյան [Bagrat Ulubabyan]: Խաչենի իշխանությունը, X-XVI դարերում [The Principality of Chatschen from the 10th to the 16th century]. Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա [Armenian Academy of Sciences]. Երևան [Yerevan, Armenian SSR] 1975, pp. 56–59.
  9. ^ Robert Hewsen: Armenia: A Historical Atlas. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2001, p. 162, ISBN 0-2263-3228-4
  10. ^ Robert H. Hewsen: The Kingdom of Arc'ax. In: Thomas J. Samuelian, Michael E. Stone (eds.): Medieval Armenian Culture. University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies. Scholars Press, Chico (California) 1984, p. 47.
  11. ^ Robert H. Hewsen: The Kingdom of Arc'ax. In: Thomas J. Samuelian, Michael E. Stone (eds.): Medieval Armenian Culture. University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies. Scholars Press, Chico (California) 1984, p. 49.
  12. ↑ George A. Bournoutian: Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa (California) 2001, p. 397.
  13. ↑ George A. Bournoutian: Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa (California) 2001, p. 398.
  14. ↑ George A. Bournoutian: Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa (California) 2001, p. 330 (Letter of Meliks of Karabagh to Prince Petemkin, January 23, 1790).
  15. ↑ Аббас-Кули-Ага Бакиханов. Гюлистан-и Ирам. От смерти Надир-Шаха до заключения гюлистанского мира между Россией и Персией (1747-1813 гг.).
  16. ↑ Мирза Адигезаль-Бек. Карабаг-Наме, p. 48
  17. ^ Tessa Hofmann, Tessa Savvidis: Approaching Armenia: Past and Present. 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2006, p. 65 f.
  18. ↑ Christopher J. Walker: Armenia: Survival of a Nation . Routledge, London 1990, p. 40. ISBN 0-415-04684-X
  19. ↑ a b Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabedian, Mutafian: The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo-Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh. Zed Books, New Jersey 1994, p. 72.
  20. ↑ George A. Bournoutian. A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh . Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa (California) 1994. p. 17. ISBN 1-56859-011-3 , ISBN 978-1-568-59011-0
  21. ↑ Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabedian, Mutafian: The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo-Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh. Zed Books, New Jersey 1994, p. 73.
  22. ↑ Life and Adventures of Emin Joseph Emin 1726-1809. Written by himself. Second edition with Portrait, Correspondence, Reproductions of original Letters and Map *. Calcutta 1918.
  23. ↑ Абгар Рубенович Иоаннисян: Иосиф Эмин. Հովսեփ Էմին. Издательство АН Армянской ССР, Ереван 1989. Библиотека "Вѣхи", 2007.
  24. ↑ Ken Parry, David J. Melling, Dimitry Brady, Sidney H. Griffith, John F. Healey: The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken (New Jersey) 2001. pp. 335-336, ISBN 0-631-23203-6
  25. ↑ Raffi: Melikdoms of Khamsa.

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