Ostikanat Arminiya

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Arminiya approx. 750-885.

Ostikanat Arminiya ( al-Arminiya Arabic الارمينيا; short: Arminiya Armenian Արմինիա ոստիկանություն , Arminia vostikanut'yun , or Emirate Arminia Arabic إمارة أرمينيا, imārat Arminiya ) was the political and geographical name used by the Muslim Arabs for the areas of Greater Armenia (Մեծ Հայք, Mets Hayk), Iberia (იბერია) and Albania ( Աղուանք) after these areas were replaced by the Umayyads had been conquered. Initially, the caliphs installed an Armenian as prince and let the province of Arminiya do it in exchange for tribute and loyalty in times of war. However, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan soon forced direct Arab rule and established an Ostican with the seat of government in Dvin .

history

Start time

The first Arab expedition reached Arminiya around 639 AD. Dvin was captured and pillaged on October 6, 640. Bishop Sebeos wrote in 641 that the Arabs had taken the city of "Tovin" (Dvin) by storm and killed 12,000 Armenians and took 35,000 prisoners. A third invasion occurred in 642–643 and a fourth in 650, in which some areas north of Lake Van were also conquered.

However, Arminiya remained officially under Byzantine rule until 653/654, when Theodore Rshtuni voluntarily recognized Arab sovereignty and was confirmed as an independent prince of Arminiya. As part of this agreement, Arminiya became an autonomous state and had to provide 15,000 men a year for the Arab army. With Arab support, Rhstuni repelled Byzantine attacks; but Arab troops captured Theodosiopolis in 655 and underlined their power by exiling Rhstuni to Damascus , where he died in 656, and by appointing his rival Hamazasp Mamikonian as prince.

With the outbreak of the First Muslim Civil War in 657, the Arab troops withdrew again to Syria and the Byzantines again secured their power over the country with the help of Mamikonian.

In 661, however, Muʿāwiya I , who had emerged victorious from the fighting, asked the Armenian princes to submit to his rule again and to pay tribute. In order to prevent another war, the princes obeyed the order. The tribute demands actually had a positive effect on the Armenian economy and society. Coins were minted in Dvin. The Armenians were forced to produce surpluses and made merchandise. A strong city life developed in the Caucasus .

Direct Muslim rule

In the second half of the 7th century, Arab presence and control in Arminiya were minimal. It was considered a conquered land, but in fact retained its autonomy, which was governed by the treaty that Rhstuni and Mu'awiyah signed in 654. The Armenian princes were only subject to relatively low taxes and had to provide soldiers as required, for which they also had to pay financially through an annual maintenance payment of 100,000 dirhams . In return, no Arab garrison or officials were deployed in the Arminiya area, and support from the Arabs was even promised should the Byzantines attack. However, the situation changed under the rule of Caliph Abd al-Malik (~ 685–705). From 700 the brother of the caliph and governor of Adharbayjan (today's Iranian Azerbaijan ), Muhammad ibn Marwan , subjugated the country in a series of military campaigns. The Armenians revolted and received Byzantine support in 703, but Muhammad ibn Marwan defeated them and completed the defeat by executing the rebellious princes in 705. Armenia was combined with the principalities of Albania and Iberia (today's Georgia ) to form a large province under the name of al-Arminiya (الارمينيا) with the capital in Dvin (Arabic: Dabil ). The Arabs rebuilt the city and installed the governor ( ostikan ) there. They also put an Arab garrison in the city. Later in the Umayyad period was Arminiya broadly with Adharbayjan and Jazirah part of a single super-province.

Arminiya was from an emir or wali ruled, who resided in Dvin. Its role, however, was limited to defense and tax collection: the land was largely administered by local princes, the nakharar . The province (Emirate of Armenia - al-Arminiya) was formally divided into four regions: Arminiya I (Caucasus-Albania), Arminiya II (Caucasus-Iberia), Arminiya III (the area around the Aras ), Arminiya IV ( Taron , Տարոն, Ταρών, Taraunitis). The local nobility was led, as in the Sassanid period , by an Ishkhan , a title that developed in the 9th century, possibly with Bagrat II. Bagratuni, to the title of “Prince of Princes” or “Presiding Prince” (ishkhan ishkhanats ′) . In his capacity as spokesman for the other princes, the ishkhan was obliged to the Arab governor and was responsible for delivering taxes and raising army contingents when requested.

A census of Arminiya was made around 725 and a large increase in taxes was carried out as the caliphate increasingly needed more money for its military operations on different fronts. The Armenians participated with troops in the heavy fighting of the Arab-Khazar war in the 720s and 730s. Thereupon 732 the governor Marwan ibn Muhammad (the future caliph Marwan II. ) Appointed Ashot III. Bagratuni to Ishkhan Ishkhanats ′, which by and large regained the country's autonomy within the caliphate.

Abbasid period until 884

With the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate after the Abbasid uprising , numerous repression developed: Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar , the emir of the Saffarid dynasty, suppressed the Armenian rebellion of 747-750 with great brutality. Thereafter, Caliph al-Mansur revoked the privileges and ended the maintenance payments for the various Armenian princes ( nakharars ). He also enforced higher taxation, which in 774 led to a renewed rebellion. The rebellion was suppressed by the Battle of Bagrevand in April 775. The failure of the rebellion almost led to the extermination, to the condemnation of insignificance, or to the exile of the most prominent families of the nakharar to Byzantium. The best known of these are the Mamikonian . As a result, the Caliphate consolidated its power in the Transcaucasian provinces: the nobility of neighboring Iberia was also decimated in the 780s and a process of settlement by Arabs began, whereby an Islamization of Albania was completed by the middle of the 9th century, during Iberia and much of the lowlands of Armenia came under the control of a number of Arab Emirates. At the same time the power vacuum created by the extinction of many nakharar clans was filled by two other large clans, the Arzruni in the south ( Vaspurakan ) and the Bagratuni in the north.

Despite various uprisings, the emirate of Arminiya remained in existence until 884, when the Bagratuni Ashot I , who was able to gain control over most of his territory, appointed himself "King of the Armenians". He received recognition from Caliph Al-Mu'tamid in 885 and from the Byzantine Emperor Basil I ( Macedonian dynasty ) in 886 .

Ashot was able to expand his power quickly. Through family connections with the other two important princely families, the Arzruni and the Siuni (Սյունիներ) and a careful policy towards the Abbasids and the Arab Emirates of Arminiya, he was able to secure an independent kingship until the 860s, even if not according to the title.

Arab governors of Armenia

The following governors are known among the caliphs ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (~ 644–656) and Ali (~ 656–661), as well as among the early Umayyads:

Emirs (osticans)

From 695 the Arab governor ( ostikan ) was in Dvin:

Ishkhan Ishkhanats ′

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arman Yeghiazaryan: Արմինիա ոստիկանության սահմանները [Limits of the Ostikanat Arminiya] In: Armenian Academy of Sciences : Patma-Banasirakan Handes 2005, 1: 243-258 [1] Yerevan. issn 0135-0536
  2. ^ Morgan 1918: 139
  3. ↑ Histoire d'Héraclius. Trad. Macler, Paris, 1904: 101.
  4. ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976: 20; Whittow 1996: 211
  5. ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976: 20; Blankinship 1994: 107.
  6. ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976: 20; Blankinship 1994: 107.
  7. ↑ Blankinship 1994: 52-54.
  8. ↑ Robert H. Hewsen. Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2001: 107, map 81.
  9. ^ Jones 2007: 1-2.
  10. ^ Blankinship 1994: 123-124.
  11. ^ Blankinship 1994: 153.
  12. ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976: 21; Whittow 1996: 213.
  13. ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976: 21-22; Whittow 1996: 213-215.
  14. ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan 1976: 53ff.
  15. ↑ A. Ter-Ghevondyan's "Chronology of the Ostikans of Arminiya," In: Patma-banasirakan handes 1977, 1: 117-128.

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