Mamikonian

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Royal house Template:History of Armenia

Mamikonian or Mamikonean (Template:Langx)Template:Efn was an Armenian aristocratic dynasty which dominated Armenia between the 4th and 8th centuries—through the late antique kingdom, Sasanian, Byzantine, and Arab dominations. They were the most notable noble house in early Christian Armenia after the ruling Arsacids and held the hereditary positions of Template:Transliteration (supreme commander of the army) and Template:Transliteration (royal tutor), allowing them to play the role of kingmaker for the later Armenian kings.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They ruled over extensive territories, including the Armenian regions of Tayk, Taron, Sasun, and Bagrevand, among others.Template:Sfn The Mamikonians had a reputation as supporters of the Roman (and later Byzantine) empire in Armenia against Sasanian Iran, although they also served as viceroys under Persian rule.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Their influence over Armenian affairs began to decline at the end of the 6th century and suffered a final, decisive blow after a failed rebellion against Arab rule over Armenia in 774/75.Template:Sfn

Origin

The origin of the Mamikonians is unknown. Movses Khorenatsi in his History of Armenia (traditionally dated to the 5th century) claims that in the year of the death of Ardashir I (i.e., 242) a nobleman of Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx, plural Template:Langx, thought to refer to China) 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 of Template:Transliteration, 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.Template:Sfn A slightly different story is recorded in the Primary History traditionally attributed to Sebeos, according to which two noble brothers from Template:Transliteration named Mamik and Konak, sons of Karnam, fled to Parthia after a failed uprising against their brother, King Chenbakur.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn The Parthian king settled the two brothers and their household in Armenia, where they founded the Mamikonian clan.<ref name=":1"/>Template:Sfn Another 5th-century Armenian historian, Pavstos Buzand, also mentions the reputed Chinese/Template:Transliteration origin of the Mamikonians.Template:Sfn In his History of Armenia, he twice mentions that the Mamikonians descended from the royal house of Template:Transliteration/China and as such were not inferior to the Arsacid rulers of Armenia.Template:Sfn

File:Armenian regions-expansion of the House of Mamikonian.gif

Expansion of the territories of the House of Mamikonian.

Although it seems that the legend of Mamikonian origins, even if untrue, does indeed concern China, more recent scholarship suggests that Template:Transliteration is to be identified either with the Tzans, a Kartvelian tribe in the southern Caucasus, or with a Central Asian group living near the Syr Darya river.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Nicholas Adontz believed the legend to be "a confusion, prompted by the love of exotic origins, between the ethnicon čen and that of the Georgian Čan-ians (Tzanni) or Lazi[...] who were settled in the neighbourhood of Tayk῾."Template:Sfn He derives the dynasty's name from Georgian Template:Transliteration, meaning father, combined with the Armenian diminutive suffix Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn This view is shared by Cyril Toumanoff, who describes the Mamikonians as the "immemorial dynasts of Tayk῾,"Template:Sfn and Robert Hewsen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other Armenian dynasties also claimed foreign royal ancestry: the Bagratunis claimed Davidic descent and the Artsrunis claimed royal Assyrian ancestry.Template:Sfn The later medieval Armenian author Vardan Areveltsi mentions that the Template:Transliteration live in the Caucasus near Derbend.Template:Sfn One scholar argued in the 1920s that the Template:Transliteration were a Turkic group that lived by the Syr Darya.<ref>H. Skold, "L'Origine des Mamiconiens", Revue des etudes armeniennes (1925) pp. 134-35.</ref>Template:Sfn

Rise

File:Vardan Mamikonyan 3.jpeg

Illustration of Vardan Mamikonian in the 1898 book Illustrated Armenia and Armenians

File:Vartanantz.jpg

15th-century miniature depicting the Battle of Avarayr (451)

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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Under the late Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia, the family occupied a preeminent position among the Armenian noble houses: they were hereditary commanders-in-chief of the army (Template:Transliteration) and royal tutors (Template:Transliteration) and controlled large domains, including most of Taron and Tayk. The Mamikonians later increased their property further with the death of the last hereditary Patriarch of Armenia, Isaac in ca. 428, when they inherited many Church lands through the marriage of his only daughter to Hamazasp Mamikonian.Template:Sfn

The family first appears in the early 4th century, although Toumanoff asserts that Mancaeus, who defended Tigranocerta against the Romans in 69 BC, was a member of the dynasty.Template:Sfn The first Mamikonian lord, or nakharar, about whom anything certain is known was a certain Vache Mamikonian (fl. 330–339). According to Pavstos Buzand, Vache Mamikonian, son of Artavazd and Template:Transliteration of Armenia, was ordered by King Khosrov III to exterminate two feuding noble families, the Manavazians and the Ordunis.Template:Sfn Vache also successfully defended Armenia against Sanesan, the invading king of the Maskuts, slaying the latter in a battle near Oshakan Fortress and receiving new holdings as reward.Template:Sfn He later fell in battle against the Persians and was succeeded as Template:Transliteration by his son Artavazd, who was a child at the time, since "no other adult could be found in that clan."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This episode and others in Pavstos' History illustrate the nature of the office of Template:Transliteration as the exclusive and hereditary possession of the Mamikonian clan.Template:Sfn

The family reappears in chronicles in 355, during the reign of Arshak (Arsaces) II. At that point the family chief was Template:Transliteration Vasak Mamikonian. When Arshak II sided with the Sasanian Empire against the Eastern Roman Empire, Vasak raided Roman lands for six years.Template:Sfn After Arshak switched to the Roman side against Persia, Vasak Mamikonian commanded the Armenian defense, winning a series of victories against Shapur II's forces, although he was unable to capture the rebellious Armenian nobleman Meruzhan Artsruni.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Vasak was succeeded as Template:Transliteration by his son Mushegh I Mamikonian,Template:Sfn who restored Arshak's heir, Pap, to the throne c. 367/370 with the support of an imperial army sent by the emperor Valens.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Following Pap's murder in 374, Mushegh acted as regent for the new king Varazdat (Varasdates). Varazdat attempted to free himself of Mamikonian tutelage by ordering Mushegh's murder and replacing him as Template:Transliteration with a non-Mamikonian noble, Smbat Saharuni.Template:Sfn

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 at Karin. Varazdat fled abroad and Manuel installed the two underage sons of Pap, Vagharshak (Vologases) and Arshak as kings of Armenia under the formal regency of their mother, Zarmandukht.Template:Sfn Manuel also married his daughter Vardandukht to Arshak III and accepted the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire, as Roman power had effectively ended in the East following the defeat at Adrianople in 378.Template:Sfn Armenia was to retain its autonomy but be overseen by a Template:Transliteration (governor) appointed by the Persian king.Template:Sfn Manuel's death c. 385 precipitated the partition of Armenia between the Sasanians and the Romans.Template:Sfn Pavstos writes that Manuel was succeeded by his son Artashir as Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

Hamazasp Mamikonian is recorded as the family patriarch in 393. He married Sahakanoysh, daughter of Patriarch Isaac the Great. She was a descendant of the Arsacid kings and Saint Gregory the Illuminator. Through this marriage, the Mamikonians gained the western part of Taron centered on Ashtishat, as well as Bagrevand and Ekegheats (Acilisene).Template:Sfn Hamazasp and Sahakanush's eldest child Vardan Mamikonian is revered for his leadership of the Armenian rebellion against Persia in 450/451 (called Template:Transliteration in Armenian, meaning "the war of Vardan and his companions").Template:Sfn

After Vardan became Template:Transliteration in 432, the Persians summoned him to Ctesiphon. Upon his return home in 450, Vardan repudiated Zoroastrianism and instigated a great Armenian rebellion against their Sasanian overlords, provoked by Yazdegerd II's attempts to impose Zoroastrianism on Armenia and other outrages. The rebellion was opposed by a party of pro-Persian Armenian nobles led by Template:Transliteration Vasak Siwni. Although Vardan and many other leading Armenian noblemen died at the Battle of Avarayr in 451, the continued insurrection led by Vardan's nephew Vahan Mamikonian and the death of Peroz I resulted in the restoration of Armenian autonomy and religious rights with the Treaty of Nvarsak (484). Vahan was confirmed as Template:Transliteration by the Persians and appointed Template:Transliteration of Armenia in 485.Template:Sfn Vardan Mamikonian, immortalized by the histories of Ghazar Parpetsi and Elishe, is venerated as a saint by the Armenian Church and commemorated by many churches in Armenia and an equestrian statue in Yerevan.Template:Sfn

After the country's subjugation by the Persians, the Mamikonians often sided with the Eastern 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.Template:Sfn Vardan's failed revolt marked the beginning of the decline of the Mamikonian dynasty in Armenia.Template:Sfn The power of the Mamikonians waned further with the Arab conquest of Armenia in the late 7th century, especially relative to their great rivals, the Bagratunis (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 of Template:Transliteration to the Bagratunis in the 8th century.Template:Sfn Grigor Mamikonian led a rebellion against Arab rule but was defeated and forced to flee to Byzantium in ca. 748.Template:Sfn By 750, the Mamikonians had lost Taron, Khlat, and Mush to the Bagratunis. In the 770s, the family was led by Artavazd Mamikonian, then by Mushegh IV Mamikonian (+772) and by Samuel II. The latter married his daughter to Smbat VII Bagratuni, constable of Armenia. His grandson Ashot Msaker ("the Carnivorous") became forefather of the Bagratuni rulers of Armenia and Taron.

Decline

The final death-blow to the family's power came in the mid-770s with the defeat and death of Mushegh VI Mamikonian at the Battle of Bagrevand against the Abbasids. After the battle, Mushegh's two sons took refuge in Vaspurakan 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 of Arminiya 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 in Transcaucasia and in Byzantium.Template:Sfn Even in their homeland of Tayk, they were succeeded by the Bagratunis. One Kurdik Mamikonian was recorded as ruling Sasun c. 800, where the Surb Karapet Monastery and family seat was. Half a century later, Grigor Mamikonian lost Bagrevand 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.

Outside Armenia

After their disastrous uprising of 774–775, some of the Mamikonian princes moved to the Georgian lands. The latter-day Georgian feudal houses of the Liparitids-Orbeliani and Tumanishvili (Tumanian) are sometimes surmised to have been descended from those princes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Several scholars—most notably Cyril Toumanoff and Nicholas Adontz—have suggested a Mamikonian origin for a number of leading Byzantine families and individuals, beginning with the emperor Philippikos Bardanes in the early-8th century, the general and usurper Artabasdos in the mid-8th century (741–743),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the families of men like Alexios Mosele or Empress Theodora and her brothers Bardas and Petronas in the 9th century, and the Phokas family in the 10th century. However, as the Armenian historian Nina Garsoïan comments, "[a]ttractive though it is, this thesis cannot be proven for want of sources".Template:Sfn Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon suggested emperor Philippicus (Bardanes) had some connection or affiliation with the Armenian Mamikonians.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Genealogy

File:Vardan Mamikonyan medal.jpg

Republic of Armenia coin depicting Vardan Mamikonian

The history of Mamikonians in the Early 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.

Hamazasp I Mamikonian, married to Sahakanoysh of Armenia

1. Vardan I (+451) (saint)

1.1. Shushanik (+October 17, 475, Tsurtavi, Georgia) (saint)

2. Hmayeak I (+June 02, 451, in Tayk, region, Armenia)

2.1. Vahan

2.1.1. Vard

2.2. Vasak

2.2.1. Manuel

2.2.1.1. Gaghik

2.2.2. Vardan II

2.2.2.3. Mamak (fl. 590)

2.2.3 daughter

2.2.3.1. Mushegh II (+c. 593)

2.2.3.1.1. Kahan Gail (fl. 592-604)

2.2.3.1.1.1. Smbat the Valiant (fl. 604)

2.2.3.1.1.1.1. Mushegh III (+636)

2.2.3.1.1.1.1.1. Grigor I (fl. 650)

2.2.3.1.1.1.1.2. Hamazasp II (fl. 655)

2.3. Artashes

2.4. Vard

3. Hamazaspian

Necropolis

The Surb Karapet Monastery in Taron, near Mush, housed tombs of several Mamikonian princes as it was the dynasty's sepulchral abbey.Template:Sfn The tombs of Mushegh, Vahan the Wolf, Smbat and Vahan Kamsarakan were located near the southern wall of the monastery.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• Vardan Mamikonian
• Saint Shushanik
• Battle of Avarayr
• Union of the Armenian Noblemen
• Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian – French pretender to the throne of the Ancient Kingdom of Armenia

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

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Further reading

• Template:ODLA
• Template:History of Taron