| Arminiya | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of theUmayyad andAbbasid caliphates | |||||||||||||||||||||
| c. 705–884 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 The province of Arminiya under theAbbasid Caliphate, 750–884 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Dvin | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 654 | |||||||||||||||||||||
• Province of Arminiya established | c. 705 | ||||||||||||||||||||
• Ashot I declares himself King of Armenia | 884 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Arminiya, also known as theOstikanate of Arminiya[1] or theEmirate of Armenia (Arabic:إمارة أرمينية,imārat armīniya), was a political and geographic designation given by theMuslimArabs to the lands ofGreater Armenia,Caucasian Iberia, andCaucasian Albania, following their conquest of these regions in the 7th century. Though thecaliphs initially permitted anArmenian prince to represent the province of Arminiya in exchange for tribute and the Armenians' loyalty during times of war, CaliphAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan introduced direct Arab rule of the region, headed by a governor known as theostikan with his capital inDvin.
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The details of the early conquest of Armenia by theArabs are uncertain, as the various Arabic sources conflict with the Greek and Armenian sources, both in chronology and in the details of the events. However, the broad thrust of the Arab campaigns is consistent between the sources, allowing for a reconstruction of events by modern scholars.[2]
According to the Arabic sources, the first Arab expedition reached Armenia in 639/640, on the heels of theirconquest of the Levant from theByzantines and the start of theMuslim conquest of Persia.[3] The Arabs were led byIyad ibn Ghanim and penetrated as far asBitlis. A second expedition occurred in 642, only to be defeated and pushed out of the country.[3] After this setback, the Arabs only undertook a raid fromAdharbayjan in 645, led bySalman ibn Rabi'a, but this only touched the Armenian borderlands.[3] The Muslim sources place the actual conquest of the country in 645/646, under the command ofHabib ibn Maslama al-Fihri. The Arabs first moved against the western, Byzantine portion of the country, capturedTheodosiopolis and defeated a Byzantine army, before subduing the Armenian princes aroundLake Van and marching ontoDvin, the capital of the former Persian portion of Armenia. Dvin capitulated after a few days of siege, as didTiflis further north inCaucasian Iberia.[4] During the same time, another Arab army fromIraq, under Salman ibn Rabi'a, conqueredCaucasian Albania (Arran).[5]
Although Arab sources imply that the country was henceforth effectively under Arab rule, modern historians generally consider the contemporary account of the Armenian bishopSebeos, partly corroborated by the Byzantine chroniclerTheophanes the Confessor more reliable, and have proposed different reconstructions of the early Arab raids between 640 and 650, based on a critical reading of the sources; it is clear, however, that the country did not submit to Arab rule at this time.[4]
Armenian histories report that the Arabs first arrived in 642, penetrating the central region ofAyrarat, and sacked Dvin, returning with over 35,000 captives.[5] In 643, the Arabs invaded again from the direction of Arran, ravaged Ayrarat and reached Iberia, but were defeated in battle by the Armenian leaderTheodore Rshtuni and forced back.[5] After this success, Rshtuni was recognized as ruler of Armenia by theByzantine emperorConstans II, in exchange for accepting Byzantine suzerainty. When Constans' truce with the Arabs ended in 653, however, to avoid a new Arab invasion, Rshtuni voluntarily agreed to submit to Muslim overlordship.[5] Emperor Constans then campaigned in person in Armenia, restoring Byzantine rule, but soon after his departure in early 654, the Arabs invaded the country. With their assistance, Rshtuni evicted the Byzantine garrisons from Armenia and secured Arab recognition as the presiding prince of Armenia, Iberia, and Albania.[5] The Byzantines under generalMaurianos tried to recover control of the region, but without success. In 655, even Byzantine Armenia was invaded, and the Arabs occupied Theodosiopolis (ArabicQaliqala) and cemented their control of the country by taking Rhstuni toDamascus, where he died in 656, and appointing his rivalHamazasp IV Mamikonian in his stead.[5] However, with the outbreak of theFirst Muslim Civil War in 657, effective Arab authority in the country ceased, and Mamikonian returned to Byzantine overlordship almost immediately.[5]
In 661, however, Mu'awiya, now the victor of the Muslim civil war, ordered the Armenian princes to re-submit to his authority and pay tribute. To avoid another war, the princes complied.[6] The Arab policy of demanding that the tribute be paid in money affected the Armenian economy and society. Coins were struck in Dvin. The Armenians were forced to produce a surplus of food and manufactured goods for sale. A strong urban life was developed inCaucasia as the economy revived.
For most of the second half of the 7th century, Arab presence and control in Armenia was minimal. Armenia was considered conquered land by the Arabs but enjoyedde facto autonomy, regulated by the treaty signed between Rhstuni and Mu'awiya. Indeed, as Aram Ter-Ghewondyan comments, under Arab suzerainty "the country enjoyed a degree of independence such as it had not known since the fall of theArsacids" in the 5th century.[7] According to the terms of the treaty, the Armenian princes were submitted to—relatively low—taxation and the obligation to provide soldiers when requested, for which the princes were to be paid an annual subsidy of 100,000dirhams. In exchange, no Arab garrison or official was installed in Armenian lands, and Arab assistance was even promised in the event of a Byzantine attack.[7][8]
The situation changed in the reign of the caliphAbd al-Malik (r. 685–705). Beginning in 700, the Caliph's brother and governor ofArran,Muhammad ibn Marwan, subdued the country in a series of campaigns. Although the Armenians rebelled in 703 and received Byzantine aid, Muhammad ibn Marwan defeated them and sealed the failure of the revolt by executing the rebel princes in 705.[7][9] Armenia, along with the principalities ofCaucasian Albania andIberia (modernGeorgia) was grouped into one vast province calledal-Arminiya (الارمينيا), with its capital at Dvin (ArabicDabil), which was rebuilt by the Arabs and served as the seat of the governor (ostikan) and of an Arab garrison.[9][10] For much of the remaining Umayyad period,Arminiya was usually grouped with Arran and theJazira (Upper Mesopotamia) under a single governor into anad hoc super-province.[11] According to the historianStephen H. Rapp in the third edition of theEncyclopaedia of Islam:[12]
Early Arabs followedSāsānian,Parthian Arsacid, and ultimatelyAchaemenid practice by organising most of southernCaucasia into a large regional zone called Armīniya (cf. the Achaemenidsatrapy of Armina covering much of southern Caucasia and the subsequent Kūst-i Kapkōh of the Sāsānians).
Arminiya was governed by an emir orwali headquartered at Dvin, whose role however was limited to defence and the collection of taxes: the country was largely run by the local princes – thenakharars. The province was divided into four regions: Arminiya I (Caucasian Albania), Arminiya II (Caucasian Iberia), Arminiya III (the area aroundAras River), Arminiya IV (Taron).[13] The local nobility was headed, as inSasanian times, by a presiding prince (ishkhan), a title which in the 9th century, beginning probably withBagrat II Bagratuni, evolved into the title of "prince of princes" (ishkhanats’ ishkhan). Acting as the head of the other princes, theishkhanats’ ishkhan was answerable to the Arab governor, being responsible for the collection of the taxes owed to the caliphal government and the raising of military forces when requested.[14]
A census and survey ofArminiya was undertakenc. 725, followed by a significant increase in taxation so as to finance the Caliphate's increasing military needs in various fronts.[15] The Armenians participated with troops in the hard-fought campaigns of theSecond Arab–Khazar War in the 720s and 730s. As a result, in 732, governor Marwan ibn Muhammad (the future CaliphMarwan II) namedAshot III Bagratuni as the presiding prince of Armenia, an act which essentially re-confirmed the country's autonomy within the Caliphate.[16]
With the establishment of theAbbasid Caliphate after theAbbasid Revolution, a period of repression was inaugurated. This was followed by Caliphal-Mansur revoking the privileges and abolishing the subsidies paid to the various Armenian princes (thenakharars) and imposing harsher taxation, leading to the outbreak of another major rebellion in 774. The revolt was suppressed in theBattle of Bagrevand in April 775.[10][17] The failure of the rebellion saw the near-extinction, reduction to insignificance or exile to Byzantium of some of the most prominentnakharar families, most importantly theMamikonian. In its aftermath, the Caliphate tightened its grip on the Transcaucasian provinces: the nobility of neighbouringIberia was also decimated in the 780s, and a process of settlement with Arab tribes began which by the middle of the 9th century led to the Islamization ofCaucasian Albania, while Iberia and much of lowland Armenia came under the control of a series of Arab emirates. At the same time, the power vacuum left by the destruction of so manynakharar clans was filled by two other great families, theArtsruni in the south (Vaspurakan) and theBagratuni in the north.[18][19]
Despite several insurrections, the Emirate of Armenia lasted until 884, when the BagratuniAshot I, who had managed to win control over most of its area, declared himself "King of the Armenians". He received recognition by CaliphAl-Mu'tamid of the Abbasid dynasty in 885 and Byzantine EmperorBasil I of theMacedonian dynasty in 886.
Ashot was swiftly able to expand his power. Through family links with the two next most important princely families, the Artsruni and the Siwnis, and through a cautious policy towards the Abbasids and the Arab emirates of Armenia, by the 860s he had succeeded in becoming in fact, if not yet in name, an autonomous king.[20]
These are reported as governors under the CaliphsUthman (r. 644–656) andAli (r. 656–661), as well as the early Umayyads:
With the submission of Armenia to Muhammad ibn Marwan after 695, the province was formally incorporated into the Caliphate, and an Arab governor (ostikan) installed at Dvin:[21][22]
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