95–100% | |
90–95% | |
50–55% | |
30–35% | |
10–20% | |
5–10% | |
4–5% | |
2–4% | |
1–2% | |
< 1% |
Islam began to make inroads into theArmenian plateau during the seventh century.Arab, and laterKurdish, tribes began to settle in Armenia following the firstArab invasions and played a considerable role in the political and social history of Armenia.[2] With theSeljuk invasions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, theTurkic element eventually superseded that of the Arab and Kurdish. With the establishment of the IranianSafavid dynasty,Afsharid dynasty,Zand dynasty andQajar dynasty, Armenia became an integral part of the Shia world, while still maintaining a relatively independent Christian identity. The pressures brought upon the imposition of foreign rule by a succession of Muslim states forced many leadArmenians inAnatolia and what is todayArmenia to convert to Islam and assimilate into the Muslim community. Many Armenians were also forced to convert to Islam, on the penalty of death, during the years of theArmenian Genocide.[3]
Farqad Sabakhi (died 729 AD) was an Armenian Muslim preacher and a companion of Hassan Basri's.[2][page needed] As a result, he is considered one of theTabi'in (the next generation of companions). Farqad Sabakhi was originally a Christian. Farqad Sabakhi probably raised the famousKarkhi, who played a pivotal role in shaping Sufism. Sabakhi was known for his ascetic life and knowledge of the Judeo-Christian scriptures.[4]
TheMuslim Arabs firstinvaded Armenia in 639, under the leadership ofAbd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah, 18,000 Arabs penetrated the district ofTaron and the region of the Lake of Van.[5][unreliable source?] PrinceTheodoros Rshtuni led the Armenian defense. In about 652, a peace agreement was made, allowing Armenians freedom of religion. Prince Theodoros traveled toDamascus, where he was recognized by the Arabs as the ruler ofArmenia,Georgia andCaucasian Albania.[6]
By the end of the seventh century, the Caliphate's policy toward Armenia and the Christian faith hardened. Special representatives of the Caliph calledostikans (governors) were sent to govern Armenia. The governors made the city ofDvin their residence. Although Armenia was declared the domain of theCaliph, almost all Armenians, although not all, remained faithful toChristianity. In the beginning of the eighth century, Arab tribes from theHejaz andFertile Crescent began migrating to and settling in major Armenian urban centers, such as Dvin,Diyarbekir,Manzikert, and Apahunik'.[7]
The Muslim element in Armenia grew progressively stronger during the medieval period. Following the Byzantine defeat atManzikert in 1071, waves of Turkic nomads making their way fromCentral Asia and northernIran penetrated and eventually settled throughout the span of Armenia and Anatolia.[8][9]
Most Ethnic Armenians remained Christian during this period when Western Armenia was divided between Muslim states after the Seljuk invasion. Although some Armenians converted to Islam and became influential members of Beylik society, Armenian architecture influenced Seljuk architecture, and many Armenian Nakharars remained autonomous leaders of Armenian society under Muslim Emirs In Erzincan, Tayk, Sassoun, and Van. The Muslim Emirs intermarried with Armenians, Notably the Shaddadids of Ani who intermarried with Bagratid women. There was an Emir of Van named Ezdin who had Armenian sympathies and was said to be descended from Seneqerim Hovhannes Artsruni, the king of Vaspurakan. The son of Armenian princeTaharten, governor of Erzinjan, His son by a daughter of the emperor of Trebizond converted to Islam and was made governor of erzincan by Timur.[10]
TheOttoman Empire ruled in accordance toIslamic law. As such, thePeople of the Book (theChristians and theJews) had to pay atax to fulfill their status asdhimmi and in return were guaranteed religious autonomy. While theArmenians of Constantinople benefitted from theSultan's support and grew to be a prospering community, the same could not be said about the ones inhabitinghistoric Armenia. During times of crisis the ones in the remote regions of mountainous often also had to suffer (alongside the settled Muslim population) raids by nomadicKurdish tribes.[11]Armenians, like the other Ottoman Christians (though not to the same extent), had to transfer some of their healthy male children to the Sultan's government due to thedevshirme policies in place.[12][13]
During theOttoman period many Armenians were forced to convert to Islam throughout Western Armenia through massacres, social pressure, and harsh taxation. Many conversions were noted across eastern Anatolia, particularly inHamshen,Yusufeli,Tortum,İspir,Bayburt,Erzincan. Notably a mass conversion to Islam was described by Armeniancleric Hakob (Yakob) Karnetsi. In the region ofTayk centered aroundTortum, a Muslim cleric named Mullah Jaffar was given charge from the Ottoman government to take census of theErzurum province and to levy taxes. After Mullah Jaffar placed excessively heavy taxes, theChalcedonian Armenians who belonged to theGeorgian Orthodox Church and made up half of the population in the Tortum valley converted to Islam while the Apostolic Armenians did not, as described by Karnetsi.[14]
In the region ofİspir (Sper in Armenian), 100 Armenian villages were burned down in 1723 and much of the population was converted to Islam by force. In the region ofYusufeli (Pertakrak in Armenian),Armenian Catholic priest Inchichian writes that most of the Muslim population was Armenian in origin but had converted to Islam to escape heavy taxation and oppression in the early 1700s; Inchichian visited the village of Khewag (Yaylalar) and met Islamized Armenians in the village. The Armenians ofYusufeli were mostlyChalcedonian like the Armenians ofTortum before their islamization.[15] In the province ofUrfa, there were three Islamized Armenian villages recorded to have been speaking a dialect that was similar toclassical Armenian.[16] Inchichian also wrote that the region ofKemah in Erzincan used to be Armenian and that its Muslim inhabitants were also of Islamized Armenian descent.
In the early 1500s, theOttomans brutally enforced taxation by massacring 10,000 Armenians inBayburt,Erzincan,Ispir,Erzurum, and forcibly converted another 50,000 to Islam. In the region ofDersim, theArmenian Patriarchate of Constantinople reported that groups of Armenians had converted toAlevi Islam and had assimilated with KurdishZazas who had migrated to Armenia during Ottoman rule.[16] similarly in the region of Palu some Armenian villages converted toSunni Islam and assimilated into the Sunni Zaza community.[17]
Periodic forced conversions created a class ofcrypto-Christian Armenians calledKes-kes (Half-half) who practiced both Christian and Muslim rituals. The Armenians who converted to Islam lost their Armenian identity because they switchedmillets, but many kept the Armenian language and culture. In eastern Anatolia, however, they were eventuallyTurkified except for the Armenians ofHamshen who kept their language in the isolatedPontic Mountains until Turkish Muslim schools were opened in the 1800s and the westernHemshin became Turkified as the Armenian language was condemned as sinful by Muslim teachers. In Turkey only theHopa Hemshin have preserved their language, which constitutes theHomshetsi dialect ofArmenian, in the modern era.[16]
During theHamidian massacres when Kurdish tribes were incited by theOttoman government to attack and destroy Armenian settlements many Armenian were forced to convert to Islam throughout eastern Anatolia. InDiyarbakir 20,000 were converted, while many also converted inMush,Van, andErzurum. Although some converted back to Christianity after the massacres ended, many remained Muslims and becameKurdified and Turkified. In the region ofSivas in the early 19th century many Armenian villages were forcefully converted to Islam by the local government. The village of Cancova (Cancik) inZara was a village of 400 Armenian families in 1877, but only 48 families remained Christian by the 20th century. The Catholic Armenians of Perkinik has reported that their neighboring village of Glkhategh (now Uzuntepe) was an Armenian village and the Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam and Turkified.[18]
During theArmenian genocide of 1915, many Armenians converted to Islam to escape deportation and massacre.
The IranianSafavids (who had changed from being Sunni to Shia Muslims by then), established definite control over Armenia and far beyond since the time ofShah Ismail I in the early 16th century. Even though they often competed with the Ottomans over the territory, what is today Armenia always stayed an integral part of Persian territory, during the following centuries until they had to cede it to Russia following theRusso-Persian War (1826-1828). Many Armenians joined the Safavid functions, in the civil administration and the military (the so-calledghulams) since the time ofShah Abbas the Great. Especially amongst these elite soldier units, the ghulams (literally meaningslaves), many of them were converted Armenians, alongside the masses ofCircassians andGeorgians. Before joining these functions, whether in the civil administration or military, they always had to convert to Islam, like in the Ottoman Empire, but the ones who stayed Christian (but couldn't get to the highest functions) did not have to pay extra taxes unlike the Ottoman Empire.
As a part of Abbas hisscorched earth policy during his wars against the Ottomans, and also to boost his empire's economy, he alonedeported some 300,000 Armenians from theArmenian highlands including the territory of modern-dayArmenia, to the heartland ofIran.[19] To fill in the gap created in these regions, he settled masses of Muslim Turcomans andKurds in the regions to defend the borders against theOttoman Turks, making the area of Armenia a Muslim dominated one. His successors continued to do more of these deportations and replacements with Turcomans and Kurds.The Safavid suzerains also created theErivan Khanate over the region, making it similar to a system as was made during the Achaemenid times were satraps would rule the area in place of the king letting the entire Armenian highland stay Muslim ruled, until the early 19th century.
By the time the Iranians had to cede their centuries long suzerainty over Armenia, the majority of the population in what is now Armenia were Muslims. (Persians, Azerbaijani's, Kurds and North Caucasians)
Due to the earlyShi'ite zeal of the Safavids to convert all populations of Iran toShia Islam, Many Armenians were heavily pressured to convert throughout Eastern Armenia. A law was passed by Islamic clerics declaring that anyArmenian who converted toIslam would inherit his relative's belongings up to the 7th generation, because of this law many Armenians inSafavid Armenia began to convert to Islam.[20] The Catholic diocese of Nakhichevan reported that in the mid 1600s 130 Armenian families of the villages of Saltaq, Kirne had converted to Islam to avoid losing their belongings. The diocese pleaded with the Pope and the king of Spain to intercede with the Shah of Iran to lessen the persecution of Armenians. In the 1700s Catholic missionaries warned that if the forced conversions didn't stop, the entire Christian Armenian population would disappear from conversions andTurkification, writing that there were only a handful Armenians left in the village of Ganza inOrdubad province.
During the late Tsarist period Muslim populations made up substantial populations in the territory of present-day Armenia. In the Russian Imperial Census of 1897 Muslim populations made up 362,565 of a total population of 829,556 in theErivan Governorate, which roughly corresponds to modern-day centralArmenia, theIğdır Province of Turkey, and theNakhchivanexclave ofAzerbaijan.[21] 41,417 Tatar Turks, 27,075 Armenians and 19,099 Kurds lived in theSurmalu uezd, part of Turkey today.[21] In theSharur-Daralayaz uezd, today split across Armenia and Azerbaijan, 20,726 Armenians were likewise outnumbered by the Muslim population, consisting of 3,761 Kurds and 51,560 Tatars.[21] With the influx of Armenian refugees in the aftermath of theArmenian genocide, the demographic balance shifted in favor of Armenian populations.
The government of theFirst Republic of Armenia pursued a policy of ethnic homogenisation in favour of Armenians in the areas under its control. In 1917–1921, Muslims in Armenia were subject to largescale massacres and deportations orchestrated by Armenian partisans, leading to the destruction of dozens of Muslim settlements, killings of thousands of Muslim civilians and the displacement of as many as 235,000.[22][23]
The governance of Armenia was undermined by large-scaleMuslim uprisings encouraged by Turkish andAzerbaijani agents, primarily in theArarat,Kars, andNakhichevan areas, in 1919–1920.[24][25]
With the historical provinces being subsumed within the borders of theRepublic of Turkey in 1923, the remainder of Armenia became a part of theArmenian Soviet Socialist Republic. A small number of Muslims were resident in Armenia while it was a part of theSoviet Union, consisting mainly ofAzeris andKurds, the great majority of whom left in 1988 after theSumgait Pogroms and theFirst Nagorno-Karabakh War, which caused the Armenian and Azeri communities of each country to have something of a population exchange, with Armenia getting around 500,000 Armenians previously living in Azerbaijan outside of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,[26] and the Azeris getting around 724,000 people who were forced from Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.[26]
Since Armenia gained its independence in 1991, the majority of Muslims still living in the country are temporary residents fromIran and other countries. In 2009, thePew Research Center estimated that 0.03%, or about 1,000 people, were Muslims – out of total population of 2,975,000 inhabitants.[27][28]
Population census conducted in 2011 counted 812 Muslims in Armenia,[29] the majority of which were from Iran.[30]
A significant number of mosques were erected in historical Armenia between the Middle Ages and the Modern age[citation needed], though it was not unusual for Armenian and other Christian churches to be converted into mosques, as was the case, for example, of theCathedral of Kars,Cathedral of Ani, andHoly Mother of God Church in Gaziantep.
TheBlue Mosque of Yerevan is the only active mosque in Armenia today, having been restored and opened for religious services in cooperation between Armenian and Iranian authorities following the collapse of the Soviet Union.[31] In 2022, plans were announced in cooperation between Iranian authorities and the Yerevan municipality to renovate the Abbasqoli Khan Mosque (also known as the Thapha Bashi Mosque), an old mosque in ruins, located in theKond quarter of Yerevan.[32]
The first printed version of the Qur'an translated into theArmenian language fromArabic appeared in 1910. In 1912 a translation from aFrench version was published. Both were in theWestern Armenian dialect. A new translation of the Qur'an in theEastern Armenian dialect was started with the help of theembassy of theIslamic Republic of Iran located in Yerevan. The translation was done by Edward Hakhverdyan fromPersian in three years.[33] A group of Arabologists have been helping with the translation. Each of the 30 parts of Qur'an have been read and approved by theTehran Center of Qur'anic Studies.[34] The publication of 1,000 copies of the translated work was done in 2007.
[On] the Igdir front … General Sebo [Sebouh] was holding the Kurds at bay. … [T]owards Ararat … was the Kamarloo [Artashat] front. There the enemy was the Tartar, supported, of course, by Turkish auxiliaries and excited by their agents. Far away in the East is the way to Nahichevan, which was in the possession of the enemy.
By the summer of 1919, the question of repatriation was completely overshadowed by widespread Muslim uprisings. The issues at stake had transformed the repatriation question into a matter of Armenian survival.
The guests had a businesslike meeting at Yerevan city soviet executive committee where an agreement was drafted to repair the capital's 17th century Persian architectural edifice, the Blue Mosque. In keeping with the agreement, Iran will send renovation specialists to Yerevan and will provide the necessary amount of construction material. Plans are to complete the renovation work before 1995.
