Mouschegh II. Mamikonjan

This article deals with the older Muschegh, for other meanings see Muschegh Mamikonjan (Moušeł Mamikonian).

Muschegh B Mamikonjan (also: Moušeł II , Mouschel II Mamikonian ; Armenian Մուշեղ Բ Մամիկոնյան ) was an Armenian nobleman from the Mamikonjan family . He was Sparapet (Ober-General) from 575 and 591 also Marzban (Governor).

Life

Muschegh was one of the 22 signatories to the Second Council of Dvin and the son of Hmyeak Mamikonjan , who was himself a son of Vard Mamikonjan .

In 588 the Persian general Bahram Tschobin (بهرام چوبین, Bahrām-i-Chūbīn) sparked a revolt against the Sassanid great king Hormizd IV. He was already unpopular and was blinded by the mighty of his empire , and his son Chosrau II was enthroned. But Bahram Chobin could not be appeased by this. He had himself proclaimed king under the name "Vahram VI." And marched to Ctesiphon . Chosrau escaped to Byzantium and promised the Emperor Maurikios to cede certain territories, including part of Armenia, in exchange for military support. Vahram, for his part, tried to bribe the Nacharar ', including Mouschegh Mamikonjan, but the majority of the nobles sided with Chosrau and Byzantium , both out of loyalty to the Sassanid dynasty and out of solidarity among Christians.

At the head of an Armenian army of 15,000 men to Mouschegh Mamikonjan joined the Byzantine army that Vahram at Balaroth , near Ganja (in present-day Azerbaijan ), attacked and defeated. Vahram fled but was murdered soon after. Relations between Chosrau and Mouschegh, however, deteriorated rapidly. Due to slander from the area around Chosrau, the Persian demanded that Mouschegh be arrested, but he appeared with an escort of forty soldiers and Chosrau again refrained from his demand. Nevertheless Mouschegh fled to his fiefdoms, to an area that had come under Byzantine sovereignty, but Maurikios did not react to this step because he did not want to endanger the alliance with the Persians. Disappointed by the unfaithful behavior of the Persians and Byzantines, Mouschegh resigned his posts as marzban and sparapet and retired to his lands. According to Sebeos , Maurikios commissioned him with a mission in Europe and did not let him return to Armenia. This was in line with the plan to lure the Armenian leaders out of the country and to disarm and Romanize Armenia. According to Christian Settipani, he died in 593.

Descendants

According to Cyrille Toumanoff , Mouschegh was the father of

• Vahan I the wolf († 606),
• Maria , the wife of Vard I. Artsrouni ,
• possibly also Vardan , bl. 555.

Christian Settipani, on the other hand, suspects that Vahan the wolf is a fictional personality, but attributes Mouschegh to another possible son, Hamasasp, who became Nacharar in 594.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Toumanoff 1990: 506.
2. ^ Settipani 2006: 133-137; Toumanoff 1990: 331.
3. ↑ Grousset 1947: 249-250.
4. ↑ Grousset 1947: 250-251.
5. ↑ Grousset 1947: 253-255.
6. ^ ^{A b} Settipani 2006: 147.
7. ↑ Toumanoff 1990: 331-332.

literature

• René Grousset: Histoire de l'Arménie des origines à 1071. Paris, Payot 1947. (Reprints 1973, 1984, 1995, 2008) p. 302.
• Cyrille Toumanoff: Les dynasties de la Caucasie chrétienne de l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle: Tables généalogiques et chronologiques. Rome 1990. pp. 332-333.
• Christian Settipani: Continuité des élites à Byzance durant les siècles obscurs. Les princes caucasiens et l'Empire du VIe au IXe siècle. de Boccard, Paris 2006. pp. 139-140. ISBN 978-2-7018-0226-8

predecessor	Office	successor
Theodoros Rštuni	Ishkhan Ishkhanats ′ of Armenia 654	Theodoros Rštuni Hamasasp II. Mamikonjan