| Mamikonian Մամիկոնյան | |
|---|---|
| Country | Armenia Persia |
| Founded | 314 |
| Founder | Artavasdes I |
| Current head | Extinct |
| Final ruler | Musel VI |
| Titles | |
| Dissolution | 1189 |
| Cadet branches | Liparitids Tumanishvili |
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Mamikonian, orMamikonean (Old Armenian:Մամիկոնեան,reformed orthography:Մամիկոնյան,Western Armenian pronunciation:Mamigonian), was anArmenian aristocratic dynasty which dominatedArmenian politics between the 4th and 8th centuries. They were the most notable noble house in Early ChristianArmenia after the rulingArsacid dynasty and held the hereditary positions ofsparapet (supreme commander of the army) anddayeak (royal tutor), allowing them to play the role of kingmaker for the later Armenian kings.[1][2] They ruled over extensive territories, including the Armenian regions ofTayk,Taron,Sasun, andBagrevand, among others.[1] The Mamikonians had a reputation as supporters of theRoman (laterByzantine) Empire in Armenia againstSasanian Iran, although they also served as viceroys underPersian rule.[1][2] Their influence over Armenian affairs began to decline at the end of the 6th century and suffered a final, decisive blow after afailed rebellion against Arab rule over Armenia in 774/75.[1]
The origin of the Mamikonians is unknown.Movses Khorenatsi in hisHistory of Armenia (traditionally dated to the 5th century) claims that in the year of the death ofArdashir I (i.e., 242) a nobleman ofChen (Old Armenian:Ճեն, pluralՃենք,Chenk’, thought to refer toChina) origin named Mamgon fled to the Persian court after being sentenced to death by Arbok Chen-bakur, his foster brother (or half-brother) and the king ofChenk’, due to the scheming of a third brother and prince, Bghdokh. Chen-bakur demanded Mamgon's extradition from Ardashir's successor,Shapur I, who instead exiled the prince to Armenia, where he entered the service of the Armenian king Trdat and received land for him and his entourage to settle, founding the Mamikonian dynasty.[3] A slightly different story is recorded in thePrimary History traditionally attributed toSebeos, according to which two noble brothers fromChenastan named Mamik and Konak, sons of Karnam, fled to Parthia after a failed uprising against their brother, King Chenbakur.[4][5] The Parthian king settled the two brothers and their household in Armenia, where they founded the Mamikonian clan.[4][5] Another 5th-century Armenian historian,Pavstos Buzand, also mentions the reputed Chinese/Chen origin of the Mamikonians.[5] In hisHistory of Armenia, he twice mentions that the Mamikonians descended from the royal house ofChenk’/China and as such were not inferior to theArsacid rulers of Armenia.[6]
Although it seems that the legend of Mamikonian origins, even if untrue, does indeed concern China, more recent scholarship suggests thatChenk’ is to be identified either with theTzans, aKartvelian tribe in the southernCaucasus, or with aCentral Asian group living near theSyr Darya river.[2][6]Nicholas Adontz believed the legend to be "a confusion, prompted by the love of exotic origins, between the ethnicončen and that of the Georgian Čan-ians (Tzanni) orLazi[...] who were settled in the neighbourhood of Tayk῾."[7] He derives the dynasty's name from Georgianmama, meaning father, combined with the Armenian diminutive suffix-ik.[7] This view is shared byCyril Toumanoff, who describes the Mamikonians as the "immemorial dynasts of Tayk῾."[8] Other Armenian dynasties also claimed foreign royal ancestry: theBagratunis claimedDavidic descent and theArtsrunis claimed royalAssyrian ancestry.[6] The later medieval Armenian authorVardan Areveltsi mentions that theChenk’ live in the Caucasus nearDerbend.[9] One scholar argued in the 1920s that theChenk’ were a Turkic group that lived by the Syr Darya.[10][6]
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The Mamikonians feature prominently in the works of most of the classical Armenian historians. Pavstos Buzand speaks highly favorably of the dynasty, while Movses Khorenatsi is noticeably hostile to them and minimizes their role.[11][12] Under the lateArsacidKingdom of Armenia, the family occupied a preeminent position among the Armenian noble houses: they were hereditary commanders-in-chief of the army (sparapet) and royal tutors (dayeak) and controlled large domains, including most ofTaron andTayk. The Mamikonians later increased their property further with the death of the last hereditaryPatriarch of Armenia,Isaac in ca. 428, when they inherited many Church lands through the marriage of his only daughter to Hamazasp Mamikonian.[2]
The family first appears in the early 4th century, although Toumanoff asserts that Mancaeus, who defendedTigranocerta against the Romans in 69 BC, was a member of the dynasty.[8] The first Mamikonian lord, ornakharar, about whom anything certain is known was a certainVache Mamikonian (fl. 330–339). According to Pavstos Buzand, Vache Mamikonian, son of Artavazd andsparapet of Armenia, was ordered by KingKhosrov III to exterminate two feuding noble families, the Manavazians and the Ordunis.[13]Vache also successfully defended Armenia againstSanesan, the invading king of theMaskuts, slaying the latter in a battle nearOshakan Fortress and receiving new holdings as reward.[14] He later fell in battle against the Persians and was succeeded assparapet by his son Artavazd, who was a child at the time, since "no other adult could be found in that clan."[15][16] This episode and others in Pavstos'History illustrate the nature of the office ofsparapet as the exclusive and hereditary possession of the Mamikonian clan.[15]
The family reappears in chronicles in 355, during the reign ofArshak (Arsaces) II. At that point the family chief wassparapetVasak Mamikonian. When Arshak II sided with the Sasanian Empire against the Eastern Roman Empire, Vasak raided Roman lands for six years.[12] After Arshak switched to the Roman side against Persia, Vasak Mamikonian commanded the Armenian defense, winning a series of victories againstShapur II's forces, although he was unable to capture the rebellious Armenian noblemanMeruzhan Artsruni.[17] After years of warfare, multiple other Armenian lords defected to the Persian side, including Vasak's renegade brother Vahan Mamikonian. Vasak was later flayed alive after being lured to Persia for peace negotiations together with Arshak II.[17] Shapur laid waste to Armenia and installed Meruzhan Artsruni and Vahan Mamikonian as governors (according to Pavstos, Vahan was later killed by his own son, Samuel).[17][18]
Vasak was succeeded assparapet by his sonMushegh I Mamikonian,[12] who restored Arshak's heir,Pap, to the throne c. 367/370 with the support of an imperial army sent by the emperorValens.[17] Mushegh drove the Persians out of Armenia and brutally punished the provinces that had revolted against the Arsacid monarchy, restoring the kingdom's former borders.[19] Following Pap's murder in 374, Mushegh acted as regent for the new kingVarazdat (Varasdates). Varazdat attempted to free himself of Mamikonian tutelage by ordering Mushegh's murder and replacing him assparapet with a non-Mamikonian noble, SmbatSaharuni.[19]
On this event, the family leadership passed to Mushegh's brother,Manuel Mamikonian, who had formerly been kept as a hostage in Persia. The Mamikonians at once broke into insurrection and routed Varazdat and Saharuni atKarin. Varazdat fled abroad and Manuel installed the two underage sons of Pap,Vagharshak (Vologases) andArshak as kings of Armenia under the formal regency of their mother,Zarmandukht.[19] Manuel also married his daughterVardandukht to Arshak III and accepted the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire, as Roman power had effectively ended in the East following the defeat atAdrianople in 378.[20] Armenia was to retain its autonomy but be overseen by amarzpan (governor) appointed by the Persian king.[21] Manuel's death c. 385 precipitated thepartition of Armenia between the Sasanians and the Romans.[21] Pavstos writes that Manuel was succeeded by his son Artashir assparapet.[22]
Hamazasp Mamikonian is recorded as the family patriarch in 393. He married Sahakanoysh, daughter of PatriarchIsaac the Great. She was a descendant of the Arsacid kings and SaintGregory the Illuminator. Through this marriage, the Mamikonians gained the western part of Taron centered onAshtishat, as well asBagrevand and Ekegheats (Acilisene).[8] Hamazasp and Sahakanush's eldest childVardan Mamikonian is revered for his leadership of the Armenian rebellion against Persia in 450/451 (calledVardanants’ paterazm in Armenian, meaning "the war of Vardan and his companions").[8]
After Vardan becamesparapet in 432, the Persians summoned him toCtesiphon. Upon his return home in 450, Vardan repudiatedZoroastrianism and instigated a great Armenian rebellion against their Sasanian overlords, provoked byYazdegerd II's attempts to impose Zoroastrianism on Armenia and other outrages. The rebellion was opposed by a party of pro-Persian Armenian nobles led bymarzpanVasak Siwni. Although Vardan and many other leading Armenian noblemen died at theBattle of Avarayr in 451, the continued insurrection led by Vardan's nephewVahan Mamikonian and the death ofPeroz I resulted in the restoration of Armenian autonomy and religious rights with theTreaty of Nvarsak (484). Vahan was confirmed assparapet by the Persians and appointedmarzpan of Armenia in 485.[23] Vardan Mamikonian, immortalized by the histories ofGhazar Parpetsi andElishe, is venerated as a saint by the Armenian Church and commemorated by many churches in Armenia and an equestrian statue inYerevan.[1]
After the country's subjugation by the Persians, the Mamikonians often sided with theEastern Roman Empire, with many family members entering Byzantine service, most notably Vardan II Mamikonian in the late 6th century after his failed revolt against Persia.[2] Vardan's failed revolt marked the beginning of the decline of the Mamikonian dynasty in Armenia.[1] The power of the Mamikonians waned further with theArab conquest of Armenia in the late 7th century, especially relative to their great rivals, theBagratunis (Bagratids), who were generally favored by the Arabs. Several Mamikonian nobles served as presiding princes of Armenia under Arab rule, but the house lost its traditional office ofsparapet to the Bagratunis in the 8th century.[1]Grigor Mamikonian led a rebellion against Arab rule but was defeated and forced to flee to Byzantium in ca. 748.[2] By 750, the Mamikonians had lost Taron, Khlat, and Mush to the Bagratunis. In the 770s, the family was led by Artavazd Mamikonian, then byMushegh IV Mamikonian (+772) and by Samuel II. The latter married his daughter toSmbat VII Bagratuni, constable of Armenia. His grandsonAshot Msaker ("the Carnivorous") became forefather of the Bagratuni rulers of Armenia and Taron.
The final death-blow to the family's power came in the mid-770s with the defeat and death ofMushegh VI Mamikonian at theBattle of Bagrevand against theAbbasids. After the battle, Mushegh's two sons took refuge inVaspurakan and were murdered by Meruzhan II Artsruni. Mushegh's daughter was married off to Djahap al-Qais, a tribal chief who settled in Armenia and seized part of the former Mamikonian lands and legalized it by marrying the daughter of Mushegh VI, the last living Mamikonian prince. This marriage created the Kaysite dynasty ofArminiya centered in Manzikert, the most powerful Muslim Arab emirate in the Armenian Highlands region, and thus ending the existence of the Mamikonian line in Armenia. Only secondary lines of the family survived thereafter, both inTranscaucasia and in Byzantium.[2] Even in their homeland of Tayk, they were succeeded by the Bagratunis. One Kurdik Mamikonian was recorded as rulingSasun c. 800, where theSurb Karapet Monastery and family seat was. Half a century later, Grigor Mamikonian lostBagrevand to the Muslims, reconquered it in the early 860s and then lost it to the Bagratunis, permanently. After that, the Mamikonians pass out of history.
After their disastrous uprising of 774–775, some of the Mamikonian princes moved to theGeorgian lands. The latter-day Georgian feudal houses of theLiparitids-Orbeliani andTumanishvili are sometimes surmised to have been descended from those princes.[7][24]
Several scholars—most notablyCyril Toumanoff andNicholas Adontz—have suggested a Mamikonian origin for a number of leading Byzantine families and individuals, beginning with the emperorPhilippikos Bardanes in the early-8th century, the general and usurperArtabasdos in the mid-8th century, the families of men likeAlexios Mosele or EmpressTheodora and her brothersBardas andPetronas in the 9th century, and thePhokas family in the 10th century. However, as the Armenian historianNina Garsoïan comments, "[a]ttractive though it is, this thesis cannot be proven for want of sources".[2] Byzantine historiansLeslie Brubaker andJohn Haldon suggested emperorPhilippicus had some connection or affiliation with the ArmenianMamikonians.[25]
The history of Mamikonians in theEarly Middle Ages is quite obscure. In the period between 655 and 750 they are not documented at all. What follows below is their reconstructed genealogy between the 5th and 7th centuries.
The necropolis of the Mamikonian family was at the 4th-centurySaint Karapet Monastery (also known as the monastery of Glak) in the mountains directly northwest of the plain of Mush in Taron.[citation needed]