Artsakh
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Artsakh (Armenian - Template:Hayeren, Azeri - Ərsak Russian - Арцах) was a province of ancient Caucasian Albania, and at times of Greater Armenia, that covered what is now mostly Nagorno-Karabakh. The name today is used mostly by Armenians to refer to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Little is known of the ancient history of the region, primarily because of the scarcity of historical sources. Today the historical ownership of Artsakh, present-day Nagorno-Karabakh is hotly disputed between Azeris and Armenians, both of whom lay historical claims to this territory.
Archaeologists have identified material remains here by the name "Kura-Araxes culture", and early medieval Aghbanian (Caucasian Albanian) and Armenian traditions speak of a son of Japheth named Aran, whose descendants settled the Araks valley. Zoroastrian traditions would make the Aras valley the seat of the Zoroastrian faith, one of the possible birth places of Zoroaster, and according to some, the original location of the "First Created land" - Airyana Vaego.
Artsakh first appeared under the name "Urtehke" or "Urtehini" in Urartian cuneiform writings. Archaeological evidence reflects the competing influence from around 800 BC of the neighboring rival states Urartu, Assyria, and Mannai; and from 616 BC to the 4th century BC, the area, as well as most of the region south of the Kura, was ruled first by the Medes, then by Persian Achaemenids. Following Alexander's conquests, the Medes' former holdings in the area became known as the satrapy of Atropatene.
In ancient times the area was inhabited by Caucasus Albanians.Template:Ref In the 1st millennium BC, the population of the area was comprised of Gargars, Utis, Saks, and Sodes, who along with other tribes, constituted the Albanian tribal union. According to the later Greek historian Strabo, the number of the Albanian tribes reached 26 (Strabo, XI, 4, 6).
In the 2nd-1st centuries BC, the area of Artsakh was a part of the Greater Armenia. Strabo mentions Orhistene as one of three Armenian provinces in his "Geography" (the other two being Phavneni and Kombiseni.) Armenia, according to him, had originally been "a small country" on the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but was expanded by the kings Artaxias (Artashes) and Zariadres {Zareh) (2nd century BC)(Strabo XI, 14, 5).
Strabo, Clavdius Ptolemeus and Plinius Secundos all write that at this time, the border between Iberia (Albania) and the Greater Armenia was along the river Kir or Kura.
In 66 BC, following the defeat of the Armenian king Tigranes II at the hand of the Romans, the Armenian empire lost many of its native territories. At this time, the Albanians regained control over the territory. According to the ancient Armenian historian, Movses Kalankaytuk, author of "History of Aghvank", at this time the southern border of Caucasian Albania was along the Araxes river. Thus, referring to the events in 1st century AD, he mentions "…someone from the family of Sisakan, one of the descendants of Yafet-Aran who inherited the plains and mountains of Albania beginning from the river Yeraskh (Araxes/Araks) up to the castle of Hunarakert." (II, 21). Aran was a legendary ancestor and the eponym of the Albanians. The 5th century Armenian historian Moses of Chorene or Movses Khorensky, who is considered in Armenian historiography as "the father of Armenian history", also confirmed that Caucasian Albania's border was along the Kura in the 1st century AD.
Little is known about the history of Artsakh or of Aghbania in 1st-4th centuries. It is generally agreed that Albanians and Armenians alternated control over the territory until the early 4th century AD. According to Moses, it was in Artsakh that young Grigorius (grandson of Gregory the Illuminator) was buried, after he was killed on the field of Vatnyan (see Moses of Chorene, "History of Armenia", III, chapter 3).
At this time, Albania had a close relationship with Sassanid Iran. In 371 AD, Roman and Sassanid armies clashed in the Dzirav field. In this battle, Albanians supported Sassanids, and Armenians supported Romans. According to the 5th century Armenian historian Favstos Buzand, following the defeat of the Sassanid and Albanian armies, the Armenian king Musheg Mamikonian conquered the right bank of the Kura, including the provinces of Artsakh and Uti, and again made the Kura the border between Armenia and Aghbania.
However, war between the Sassanid Persians and Romans continued, and in 387 AD, according to the peace treaty between the two powers, the Armenian kingdom was partitioned between them. Aghbania, as an ally of the Sassanids, gained all the right bank of the river Kura up to the Araxes, including Artsakh.
In the 5th century, relations between the Sassanids and Albanians deteriorated. Because of the spread of Christianity in Aghbania, the Sassanids feared an increasing rapprochement between Byzantium and Aghbania. In a battle that took place in 451 AD in the Avarayr field, the allied forces of the Armenian, Albanian and Iberian kings, devoted to Christianity, suffered defeat at the hands of the Sassanid army. Many of the defeated Christian nobles took refuge in the impassable mountains and forests of the Caucasus, particularly in Artsakh, that became a center for resistance against Sassanid Iran. (see Egishe, "The Word about the Armenian War", sec 6.) The religious center of the Albanian state also moved here. In 498 AD in the settlement named Aluen (Aguen, present-day Agdam region of Azerbaijan), an Albanian church assembly was held to adopt laws further strengthening the position of Christianity in Albania.
In "The Armenian Geography" (7th century AD), Artsakh was mentioned as the 9th out of 15 provinces of Greater Armenia.
In the 8th century, Artsakh, along with the whole of the Caucasus, was conquered by the Arabs. The Arabs put an end to Aghbania's sovereignty, and subordinated the Albanian church to the Armenian church. This historical event played a crucial role in the gradual dissolution of Albanians as a distinct ethnicity. Albanians living in the lowlands converted to Islam, and were eventually absorbed by Azeris; those living in mountainous areas, especially in Artsakh, preserved Christianity, and under Armenian church influence began to use the Armenian alphabet and language, both in church and in daily life.
The name for the area in later periods (10th century onward) was called Khachin or Khachen, named after the Khachin principality; the Byzantine emperor Konstantinos Porphyrogennetos addressed letters "to prince of Hachen - to Armenia", being the residence of the Armenian prince Sahla Smbatjan.
The name Karabakh for the first time is mentioned since XIV century in the Georgian chronicle of XIV century "Kartlis Tshovreba" (ქართლის ცხოვრება, i.e "Life of Georgians").
References
- Template:Note Gerard Libaridian, The Karabagh file: Documents and facts on the region of Mountainous Karabagh, 1918-1988, Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research & Documentation; 1st ed edition (January 1, 1988) [1]
See also
Historical Sources
- Strabo, Geography, 11.5 (English ed. H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A.)
- Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, (eds. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.)de:Arzach