Also by Richard G. Hovannisian ARMENIA ON THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA (4 volumes) THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: History, Politics, Ethics (editor) THE ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN PERSPECTIVE (editor) THE ARMENIAN IMAGE IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE (editor) ISLAM’S UNDERSTANDING OF ITSELF (editor) ETHICS IN ISLAM (editor) THE PERSIAN PRESENCE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD (editor) THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS IN ARABIC LITERATURE AND SOCIETY (editor) THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES VOLUME I The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century Edited by Richard G. Hovannisian Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History University of California, Los Angeles St. Martin’s Press New York as THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES, VOLUME I Copyright © Richard G. Hovannisian, 1997. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. ISBN 0-312-10169-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Armenian people from ancient to modem times / edited by Richard G. Hovannisian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents : v. 1. The dynastic periods—from antiquity to the fourteenth century — v. 2 Foreign dominion to statehood—the fifteenth century to the twentieth century. ISBN 0-312-10169-4 (v. 1). — ISBN Q-312-10168-6 (v. 2) l. Armenia—History. 2. Armenians—History. I Hovannisian, Richard G. DS175.A715 1997 956.62—dc21 97-5310 CIP Design by Acme Art, Inc. First edition: September, 1997 10 98765432 1 CONTENTS List of Maps and Dynastic Tables..............................................................vi Introduction............................................................................................... vii RICHARD G. HOVANNISIAN Transliteration Systems for Armenian..........................................................xii 1. The Geography of Armenia ....................................................................... 1 ROBERT H. HEWSEN 2. The Formation of the Armenian Nation.....................................................19 JAMES RUSSELL 3. The Emergence of Armenia.........................................................................37 NINA GARSOlAN 4. The ArSakuni Dynasty (A.D. 12-[180?]-428)............................................ 63 NINA GARSOlAN 5. The Marzpanaxc (428-652).......................................................................... 95 NINA GARSOlAN 6. The Arab Invasions and the Rise of the Bagratuni (640-884) ............... 117 NINA GARSOlAN 7. The Independent Kingdoms of Medieval Armenia....................................143 NINA GARSOlAN 8. The Byzantine Annexation of the Armenian Kingdoms in the Eleventh Century...................................................................................187 NINA GARSOlAN 9. Armenian Literary Culture through the Eleventh Century........................199 ROBERT THOMSON 10. Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods....................................241 ROBERT BEDROSIAN 11. Cilician Armenia.........................................................................................273 ANI AT AMI AN BOURNOUTIAN 12. Medieval Armenian Literary and Cultural Trends (Twelfth-Seventeenth Centuries)........................................................293 PETER COWE Bibliography for Volumes I and II..............................................................327 Notes on the Contributors ..........................................................................350 Index ..........................................................................................................352 LIST OF MAPS AND DYNASTIC TABLES MAPS 1. Armenia in Its Historical Setting.....................................................................3 2. The Armenian Plateau....................................................................................4 3. The Federation of Biainili (Urartu). Ninth-Sixth Centuries B.C.....................21 4. The Achaemenid Satrapy of44Armina.” c.550-330 B.C..................................39 5. The Empire of Tigran the Great, First Century B.C........................................53 6. Arshakuni/Arsacid Armenia, First-Fifth Centuries A.D..................................65 7. The Partitions of Armenia, 387 and 591 AD. . ............................................97 8. Armenia under Arab Domination, 650-C.885 A.D.........................................119 9. Armenia in the Bagratuni/Bagratid Period, c.884-1064 AD.........................145 10. The Armenian State in Cilicia, c. 1080-1375 A.D.........................................275 DYNASTIC TABLES Eruandid (Ervandian)/Orontid Dynasty.......................................................36 The Arta§£sid (Artashesian)/Artaxiad Dynasty...........................................62 ArSakuni (Arshakuni)/Arsacid Dynasty.......................................................94 Cilician Armenia Dynasties .......................................................................291 INTRODUCTION Richard G. Hovannisian The history of the Armenian people is long, complex, and in many ways epic and heroic. Emerging las an organized state by the middle of the second millennium b.c., Armenia lay at the ancient crossroads of orient and Occident on the highland located between the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian seas. The Armenian plateau became the buffer and coveted prize of rival empires: Assyrian, Mede, Achaemenian, Parthian, Sasanian, Arab, Seljuk, and Mongol from the south and east, and Seleucid, Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader from the west. Through all the turbulence, however, the Armenians created a rich and colorful culture and defensive mechanisms for survival. Even during long peri­ ods of foreign dominion, internal religious and socioeconomic struc­ tures allowed them to preserve their distinct way of life. The dynastic era of Armenian history extended, with interruptions, over a time span of some two thousand years. The pre-Christian period, spanning more than one thousand years, was characterized by strong interchanges with Persian and Hellenistic civilizations. The Ervandian (Orontid), Artashesian (Artaxid), and Arshakuni (Arsacid) dynastic families held sway during this epoch, which for a brief historic moment even gave rise to an Armenian empire in the first century b.c. The adoption of Christianity as the religion of state at the begin­ ning of the fourth century a.d. introduced a new period that had a profound effect on the spiritual and cultural life and the political orien­ tation of the Armenian realm. Although untold suffering would befall the Armenians in the name of their religion, the fusion of Armenian faith and patriotism provided a powerful defensive weapon in the unceasing struggle for national survival. viii Richard G. Hovannisian The underpinning of Armenian society, before and after the con­ version to Christianity, was the military-feudal nakharar class—often unruly, divisive, ambitious, and vain, but also valiant and heroic. So long as the nakharars remained strong and able to rally against external threats and challenges, the continuum of Armenian life was maintained whether or not an Armenian monarch reigned. Hence, in the long span between the end of the Arshakuni dynasty in the fifth century and the restoration of monarchy under the Bagratunis (Bagratids) in the ninth century, the nakharars and the Church provided the structures essential for the continuation of traditional society and a national existence. The fall of the last major Armenian kingdom on the great plateau in the eleventh century gave rise to an expatriate kingdom in the region of Cilicia, which is bounded by the northeastern comer of the Mediter­ ranean Sea. There, the successive royal families of the Rubenians, Hetumians, and Lusignans came into close contact with the Crusader states and Europe. In face of the threat posed by resurgent Muslim powers, attempts were made to overcome the dogmatic and hierarchical differences separating the Armenian Apostolic, Greek Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches. Armenian art, architecture, and literature flourished during this period. These and other themes are presented in detail in the first volume of this history. The fall of the Cilician kingdom late in the fourteenth century left only isolated pockets of semiautonomous Armenian life: Zeitun in Cilicia, Sasun in the heart of the Armenian plateau, and Karabagh (Artsakh) along the eastern perimeter of that highland. Armenia came under the domination of rival Muslim dynasties: the Turkmen Aq Qoyunlu and Kara Qoyunlu, the hordes of Tamerlane, the Safavids and Qajars of Persia, and the Ottoman Turks, who captured Constantinople in the mid-fifteenth century and extended eastward into both Cilicia and Armenia proper during the next century. Thereafter, the subject Armenians existed as a religious-ethnic minority with the legal status of second-class citizens. Because of the segregated nature of Muslim-dominated societies and the quasi-the- ocratic foundation of certain Islamic states, the Armenian Church was accorded jurisdiction in internal civil and religious matters. In return, the church hierarchy was held responsible for the conduct of all members of the ethnic community, their payment of taxes and fulfillment of other obligations, and their loyalty and devotion to the reigning sultan or shah. In the Ottoman Empire, this system was undermined by political, economic, and social decay, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth INTRODUCTION IX centuries and by the infiltration of intellectual and political currents inspired by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. These devel­ opments raised serious questions about the relationship between ruler and ruled and about the ability and even desirability of maintaining the status quo in a moribund empire. The winds of change also affected the Armenian community (millet), first through an intellectual revival and ultimately through plans and pres­ sure for reforms both within and for the community. The articulation of Armenian social and political programs reached the table of international diplomacy at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, but the failure of the powers to resolve the so-called “Armenian Question” was to lead to the eventual elimination of the Ottoman Armenians and their removal from most of their historic lands. The widespread massacres of 1894-1896 were followed by the Cilician pogroms of 1909 and ultimately by the Armenian Genocide beginning in 1915 and culminating in 1922 with the burning of Smyrna and the final Armenian exodus from Cilicia. The “Young Turk” regime, on which reform-minded Armenians had placed so much hope, became in fact the catalyst for the annihilation of the Ottoman Armenians. The eastern reaches of the Armenian plateau were spared this calamity only because Russian rule had been established there during the nineteenth century. Despite discriminatory practices and the arbi­ trariness of Romanov governors and bureaucrats, the Russian Arme­ nians made significant organic progress during the century of tsarist rule. Like the Ottoman Armenians, they experienced an intellectual renais­ sance, which was strongly influenced by European social, political, and economic thought. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, there were nearly as many Armenians living in the Russian Empire as in the Ottoman Empire. They became the fastest-growing and most affluent element in Transcaucasia, the region extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea south of the Caucasus Mountains. World War I, the Armenian Genocide, and the Russian revolutions and Civil War shattered the Armenian infrastructures in both the Otto­ man and Russian empires. By the end of the world war in 1918, most Armenians either had been killed or displaced. Yet, there was cause for great excitement and anticipation. The European Allied Powers, assisted by the United States of America, had defeated the German Empire and its ally, the Ottoman Empire, and were publicly committed to the restoration and rehabilitation of the Armenian people. But the first modem experiment in Armenian independence lasted less than three years, from 1918 to the end of 1920. The reluctance of the Allied Powers X Richard G. Hovannisian to sustain their pledges with armed force and the collaboration of the Turkish Nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha and of Soviet Russia led by V.I. Lenin crushed the Republic of Armenia. That which remained of historic Armenia, an area of less than 12,000 square miles, was transformed into Soviet Armenia and a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Seven decades of Soviet rule were character­ ized by heavy centralization and coercion and the attempted suppression of many traditional ways. Yet, that critical period also gave rise to the contem­ porary Armenian—literate, highly skilled, adept in the arts, and resourceful individually for self and family and collectively for the preservation of national traits and ideals under creative guises. The rapid collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought another opportunity for Armenian independence, albeit only on this small, landlocked portion of the ancient and medieval realms. Many of the problems besetting the first Armenian republic quickly resurfaced, including an enervative and disruptive territorial dispute with and eco­ nomic blockade by the neighboring Azerbaijani republic. Moreover, the aspiration to democracy and the setting up of a framework of democratic institutions have grated roughly against the daily reality of political inexperience and perpetuation of some of the worst abuses of the Soviet system. Critical to the welfare of the new republic is its relationship with the numerous, generally able and affluent, and potentially invaluable communities of the Armenian diaspora. These and related issues are addressed in the second volume of this study. No comprehensive history of the Armenian people exists in the English language. Many monographs on specific subjects have appeared in recent years, but the ambitious undertaking to present the entire span of Armenian history has awaited this endeavor. Those who teach Arme­ nian history have had little choice but to resort to selected readings from sundry sources in place of a cohesive textbook, and general readers seeking a reliable history of Armenia written in English have often been disappointed with the results. It was to meet this long-standing need that seventeen specialists in various disciplines of Armenian studies were drawn together as contributors to this two-volume work. Any publication with multiple authors is likely to have chronolog­ ical and topical gaps, as well as significant differences in organization, style, and attention to detail in the individual chapters. This work is not an exception. It would have been desirable, moreover, to incorporate chapters on art and architecture, music and theater, and other aspects of culture that are important reflectors of the spirit and soul of a people. INTRODUCTION XI Fortunately, a number of excellent monographs and illustrated volumes have been published in English on these subjects. A bibliography of the works cited in the two volumes is included in each of them. The transliteration of Armenian personal and place names into the Latin alphabet is not consistent in the chapters that follow. As individual authors have strong personal preferences, the editor has in general respected those sentiments. Chapters 3 through 8 in volume I use the modified Hubschmann-Meillet system, which for the uninstructed En­ glish reader will not always seem phonetic. The system uses a single character, often with diacritical marks, to represent a single Armenian letter; thus MuSel rather than Mushegh, and Koranac'i rather than Khorenatsi. And the traditional rendering of “ian” as the suffix of Armenian family names has been altered to “ean”; thus, Mamikonean rather than Mamikonian. To assist readers unfamiliar with this system, the editor has added the phonetic form after the initial use of the term. A table comparing the Hubschmann-Meillet system with modem Eastern Armenian and modem Western Armenian pronunciations, with­ out diacritical marks, follows this introduction. By and large, the trans­ literation system used in these volumes is based on the sounds of Classical and modem Eastern Armenian; thus Trdat rather than Drtad, and Khachatur Abovian rather than Khachadour Apovian. Exceptions are made in the case of names with a widely accepted alternative form; thus Boghos Nubar rather than Poghos Nupar, and Hagop Baronian rather than Hakob Paronian. Moreover, in chapters 5 and 6 of Volume II, a mixed system is used, so that the names of Western Armenian intellectual, political, and clerical figures appear in Western Armenian pronunciation, whereas the names of Eastern Armenian personages are shown in Eastern Armenian pronunciation; thus Krikor Odian rather than Grigor Otian, but Grigor Artsruni rather than Krikor Ardzruni. The preparation of this history has been long and difficult, and the challenges and responsibilities facing the editor have been formidable. A single author may have provided greater consistency in style and content but could not have offered the expertise or most recent findings relating to all periods or topics. The editor wishes to commend the authors for their contribution, cooperation, and forbearance. Robert Hewsen has meticulously produced the useful maps in the two volumes, and Simon Winder, formerly of St. Martin’s Press, enthusiastically initiated the long publication process. It is hoped that this collective study will bring the reader the rich historical and cultural heritage, and an appreciation of the continuing saga, of the Armenian people.