Albania

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Albania in the 2nd century BC Chr.

Albania (debate [alba'nia] ), ( ancient Greek Ἀλβανία Albania , Azerbaijani Albaniya ) or Aghwank ( altarmenisch Աղուանք Ałwank' ; neuarmenisch Աղվանք Aghwank ), and Caucasian Albania , Alwan or Aluan is by ancient Greek and Latin records in West coined term for an ancient kingdom in the Caucasus , mainly in what is now Azerbaijan . The name of the inhabitants of the empire, like that of their language ( Alwan language ), is not known.

etymology

It is likely that the Greek and Latin name is a translation of the proper name. The name of is James Stuart Olson with mountainous country to translate. Another indication is given by the names of various peoples in the region, such as the Roxolans . Thus, Albania could be the home of the White or Light have been and originally illiterate population was more Sarmatian or alanisch marked (see also: Nart saga ( Narta Mongolian for sun)). The Armenian name for the population is Aghwanzi ( Armenian Աղվանցի ).

history

The empire probably existed from around the end of the 4th century BC. Until the first half of the 9th century more or less sovereign of the neighboring empires. The Albanians were first born in 331 BC. Mentioned at the battle of Gaugamela as part of the troops of the Median satrapy of Persia . But at that time no Albanian city was known. The later capital of Albania was on the coast of the Caspian Sea .

In the 2nd century BC The parts of Albania to the right of the Kura were conquered by Armenia . According to Claudius Ptolemy and Strabo , this river was the border between the two states for a long time. After the conquest of Armenia by the Romans in 66 BC. BC this lost many of its territories, so that the southern border of Albania shifted to the Aras . After that it was also a Roman vassal for a while. From the 1st century AD the Armenians were able to recapture parts of Albania up to the Kura. When Armenia was divided between the Sassanid Empire and Rome in AD 387 , Albania was given back the territories between Kura and Aras as a Persian vassal.

Christianization

Albania about 300 AD

From the 4th century Christianity spread from Armenia to Albania. The Armenian Bishop Gregory the Illuminator is also said to have baptized the Albanian King Urnayr, and the Albanian Church remained closely linked to the Armenian Church in the following centuries. By adopting Byzantine Orthodoxy, there was a rapprochement with Byzantium and a deterioration in the relationship with the Sassanid Empire. After the battle of Avarayr between rebellious Armenians and the Persians in 451 AD, who won the Sassanids, many nobles and clergy fled to the mountainous Arzach . This became a center of resistance against the Persians. In the course of the 5th century, as in the neighboring countries of Armenia and Iberia (Eastern Georgia), a separate native alphabet developed. However, only a few linguistic monuments of the Caucasian-Albanian language have survived; Only the deciphering of the palimpsests discovered a few years ago in St. Catherine's Monastery on Sinai provides more information.

Fall of the Kingdom - Arab Conquests

In 510, after the death of King Vatzagan, the Sassanids abolished the indigenous monarchy in Albania and appointed a Marzban as governor in the capital Partaw. In the later 6th and earlier 7th centuries, Albania was the scene of the wars between the Sassanid Empire and the Eastern Roman and Byzantine Empire. When the Byzantine emperor Herakleios operated in Albania in 624/625, he installed a prince for Albania with Varaz-Grigor von Gardman from the house of the Mihranids ; at the same time, however, the Emperor's Khazarian allies devastated the country heavily. When the Arabs invaded the Caucasus from 640 onwards, Byzantine power was pushed back. From 662, the Mihranid prince Juansher also recognized Arab suzerainty. The initially loose Arab rule made it possible for the Byzantines to penetrate into Armenia and Albania during the weak periods of the caliphate and to find allies among the aristocrats, so that at the end of the 7th century the Arabs Armenia, Iberia and Albania became a major province Arminiya and subordinate them to a governor named in the Armenian sources Vostikan . He also had Arab garrisons and subjected the countries to the Islamic tax system. He resided first in Dwin in Armenia, then in Partaw in Albania. There the house of the Mihranids continued to hold the dignity of princes, but lost more and more power, especially when the Arab governor moved to Partaw and later one of the governor families established an independent state in Azerbaijan and parts of Albania. In 822 the Mihranids died out with Varaz-Trdat, the title of prince passed to the house of Siwnik, who were related by marriage, but in fact Albania disappeared as a Christian state in the course of the 9th and 10th centuries and was largely Islamized and Turkicized. Western parts of the state were conquered by Heretia in the first half of the 9th century.

Only the history of Albania des Movses Daschuranci preserved in Armenian gives more precise information about this empire. Small minorities in today's Azerbaijan, such as the Udines , can be considered to be descendants of the Christian inhabitants of Albania . In the Armenian kingdoms of Sjunik and Arzach and subsequently in the Principality of Khatschen and the Five Armenian Principalities of Karabakh , the Catholic of Aghwank of the Armenian Apostolic Church , whose seat was the Gandsassar Monastery in Khachhen, succeeded the Church of Albania.

See also

Commons : Caucasian Albania  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

literature

swell

  • Movsēs Kałankatuac‛i: Patmut‛iwn Ałowanic ‛ašχarhi. Edited by V. Arak‛elyan. Erewan 1983 (main source on the history of Caucasian Albania preserved in the ancient Armenian language).
  • Movses Daschuranci: The History of the Caucacian Albanians. Transl. by CJF Dowsett. London 1961. (English translation)

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James Stuart Olson : An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Greenwood Press, Westport Conn 1994. ISBN 0-313-27497-5
  2. ↑ Heinz Fähnrich: History of Georgia from the beginnings to Mongol rule , p. 103 ff. Shaker, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-86111-683-9 .
  3. ↑ 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