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Melikdoms of Karabakh

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The Five Melikdoms of Karabakh, also known as Khamsa Melikdoms (Armenian: Խամսայի մելիքություններ, romanized: Khamsayi melikutyunner), were Armenian[1][2] feudal entities on the territory of modern Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring lands, from the dissolution of the Principality of Khachen in the 15th century to the abolition of ethnic feudal entities by the Russian Empire in 1822.

Khamsa Melikdoms
Խամսայի մելիքություններ
1603–1822
The five principalities of Karabakh (16th century)
The five principalities of Karabakh (16th century)
StatusPrincipality
Common languagesArmenian
Religion
Armenian Apostolic
GovernmentPrincipality (Melikdom)
Historical eraIranian Armenia
• Established
1603
• Disestablished
1822
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Principality of Khachen
Russian Empire
Today part of

Etymology

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Khamsa, also spelled Khamse or simply Khams means 'five' in Arabic. The principalities were ruled by meliks. The term melik (Armenian: Մելիք) meliq, from Arabic: ملك malik ('king'), designates an Armenian noble title in various Eastern Armenian lands. The principalities ruled by meliks became known in English academic literature as melikdoms or melikates.

History

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Background

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There were several Armenian melikates (dominions ruled by meliks) in various parts of historical Armenia: in Yerevan, Kars, Nakhichevan, Gegharkunik, Lori, Artsakh, Utik, Iranian Azerbaijan and Syunik.[3]

The Five Melikdoms were ruled by dynasties that represented branches of the earlier Hasan-Jalalyan dynasty and were descendants of the medieval kings of Artsakh.

After the erosion of united Armenian statehood under pressure from the Seljuk Empire and Mongols, the Five Melikdoms were the most independent of all analogous Armenian principalities and saw themselves as holding onto the last bastion of Armenian independence.[4]

Autonomy

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The realm of the meliks in Karabakh was almost always semi-independent and often fully independent. The meliks had their recruit armies headed by centurions, their own castles and fortresses. The military complexes that contained recruiting organizations, fortification systems, signal beacons, and logistical support were known as sghnakhs (Armenian: սղնախ, romanized: sġnax). There were two large sghnakhs shared by all meliks of Karabakh - the Major Sghnakh and the Lesser Sghnakh. The Major Sghnakh was located in the melikdoms of Gulistan (Vardut), Jraberd and Khachen and was supported by the fortresses of Gulistan, Jraberd, Havkakhaghats, Ishkhanaberd, Kachaghakaberd and Levonaberd. The Lesser Sghnakh was located in the melikdoms of Varanda and Dizak, and was supported by the fortresses Shushi, Togh, and Goroz. Both the Lesser and Major Sghnakhs were parts of a legacy defense system that remained from the times of the Kingdom of Artsakh.[5]

The relationship between meliks and their subordinates was that of a military commanding officer and junior officer, and not of feudal lord and a serf. Peasants were often allowed to own land, were free and owned property.[citation needed]

 
Khamsa's five principalities in the 17th—19th centuries (in Armenian).

The five Armenian principalities (melikdoms) in Karabakh[5] were as follows:

  • Melikdom of Gulistan [hy] - under the leadership of the Melik Beglarian family
  • Melikdom of Jraberd [hy] - under the leadership of the Melik Israelian family, followed by the Alaverdians family in the 18th century and finally ruled by the princely house of Atabekian in the 19th century
  • Melikdom of Khachen [hy] - under the leadership of the Hasan-Jalalyans (and at the end of 18th century partially ruled by melik Mirzahanyan)
  • Melikdom of Varanda (until early 17th century part of principality of Dizak) - under the leadership of the Melik Shahnazarian family
  • Melikdom of Dizak - under the leadership of the Melik Avanian family.

The Hasan-Jalalyans, who ruled the Principality of Khachen, were especially important and were considered the most senior of the Five Melikdoms. They symbolised the connection between patriarch Hayk, the eponymous progenitor of the Armenian people, considered as a great-grandson of Noah, and medieval monarchs that ruled Armenia in the Middle Ages.[citation needed]

Hasan-Jalal traced his descent to the Aranshahik, a family that predated the establishment of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia in the region.[6][7] Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" Armenian according to historian Robert H. Hewsen.

Much of Hasan-Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian nakharar families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh.[8] In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vahtang II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vahtang II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the originator of the Zakarid line of Armenian princes in Georgia. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.[9]

In medieval times, the Hasan-Jalalyans branched into two functionally separate but connected lines: landed princes who ruled the Melikdom of Khachen and clergymen who manned the throne of Catholicos of Aghvank at the Holy See of Gandzasar of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The clerical branch of the family was especially important. In 1441, a top military commander from the Hasan-Jalalyans in the service of the Kara Koyunlu orchestrated the return of the Holy See of the Armenian Apostolic Church from the Mediterranean town of Sis in Cilicia to its traditional location at Etchmadzin in Armenia.[10] Shortly after the event, Grigor X Jalalbegiants (1443–1465), representing the clerical branch of the Hasan-Jalalyans, was enthroned as the Catholicos of All Armenians at Etchmadzin.[11]

The people of the principalities of Karabakh considered themselves direct descendants of the Kingdom of Armenia, and were recognized as such by foreign powers.[12]

The autonomous status of Armenian meliks in Karabakh was confirmed and re-confirmed by successive rulers of Persia. In 1603 Shah Abbas I recognized their special semi-independent status by a special edict.

However, instability in Safavid Iran and Armenian frustration[13][14][15][16] with Islamic dominance.[17] in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, turned Karabakh into the epicenter of plans for an independent Armenian state.[18][19] This state, centered on the semi-independent Armenian principalities of Artsakh and Syunik, would be allied with Georgia and both would be protected by fellow Christian Russia and European powers.[18] Eventually the meliks agreed to pursue such an alliance. In 1678, Catholicos Hakob Jughayetsi (Jacob of Jugha, 1655–1680) called for a secret meeting in Echmiadzin to which he invited both meliks and clergy. He offered to lead a delegation to Europe, but died shortly after, largely causing the plan to be abandoned, but for the determination of one of the delegates, a young man, the son[17] of Melik Haikazyan of Kashatag / Khnatsakh in Zankezur / Syunik.[20][21][22] named Israel Ori, who had served in the armies of Louis XIV of France, he tried to convince Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1658–1716), Pope Innocent XII and the Emperor of Austria, Leopold I[17] to liberate Armenia from a foreign yoke and to send large amounts of money to the armed forces of Karabakh Armenians.[23] Unfortunately Ori died in 1711 before securing unified support for Armenian lands. Another prominent figure from Nagorno-Karabakh who worked to establish an independent Armenian entity in his homeland was Movses Baghramian.[24] Baghramian together with the Armenian patriot Joseph Emin (1726–1809), lobbied Karabakh's Armenian meliks to this same effect.[25]

In the early 18th century, Persia's Nader Shah took Karabakh out of control of the Ganja khans as punishment for their support of the Safavids, and placed it under his own control[26][27] in which he granted the Armenian meliks supreme command over neighboring Armenian principalities as well as Muslim khans in the Caucasus, in return for the meliks' victories over the invading Ottoman Turks in the 1720s.[28] However, the Armenian meliks were only able to maintain autonomous control over the region until the mid-18th century.[29][30]

 
Armenian autonomy during late 18th to late 19th century in orange, including Karabakh

Karabakh Khanate

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The beginning of the end of the Khamsa Melikdoms of Karabakh came in the second half of the 18th century, when Melik Shahnazar II allied himself with the Khan, Panah Ali Khan of the Javanshir clan of the Afshar-Oghuz Turkic tribe, against the other Armenian meliks which led to the disintegration of the autonomous Armenian Melikdoms of Karabakh into the de facto independent Karabakh Khanate. Melik Shahnazar II was the first to accept Panah-Ali Khan's suzerainty as the first Khan of the Karabakh Khanate and provided the latter with the strategic fortress of Shushi.[31][29][32][33][34][35][36]

Dissolution and Integration into the Russian Empire

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The region came under Russian control in 1806 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804 to 1813, and was formally annexed in 1813 following the signing of the Treaty of Gulistan. The Russian Empire recognized the sovereign status of the five Armenian princes in their domains by a charter of the Emperor Paul I dated 2 June 1799.[37]

In 1822, the Russian Empire abolished ethnic feudal formations, and the territory previously ruled by the Five Melikdoms subsequently became part of the newly formed Elisabethpol Governorate, as part of the Elizavetpol, Jevanshir, Jebrail, and Shushi uezds ("counties"). Meliks preserved their rights and privileges after the rest of Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire. Many of them became high-ranking military officers in the Imperial Russian Army.[citation needed]

Legacy

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The name "Mountainous Karabakh" (Russian: Наго́рный Караба́х, romanized: Nagorny Karabakh) came to become the most prominent name for the region controlled by the Five Armenian Melikdoms ("Mountainous" as opposed to the lowland steppes of the Karabakh region). It maintained a strong Armenian presence and identity up into the modern age. It became the scene of several ethnic conflicts with neighboring Azerbaijanis, including the establishment of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within Azerbaijan SSR under the Soviet Union in the early 20th century, and the Karabakh movement in the late 20th century which led to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the establishment of the Armenian Republic of Artsakh.

Literature and art

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The meliks of Karabakh inspired the historical novel David Bek (1882) by Raffi, the opera David Bek (1950) by Armen Tigranian and the novel Mkhitar Sparapet (1961) by Sero Khanzadyan. In 1944, David Bek the movie was filmed and in 1978, Armenfilm in association with Mosfilm produced another movie about the efforts of Davit Bek and Mkhitar Sparapet called Huso Astgh (Star of Hope).[38]

References

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  1. ^ Britannica:"In mountainous Karabakh a group of five Armenian maliks (princes) succeeded in conserving their autonomy and maintained a short period of independence (1722–30) during the struggle between Persia and Turkey at the beginning of the 18th century; despite the heroic resistance of the Armenian leader David Beg, the Turks occupied the region but were driven out by the Persians under the general Nādr Qolī Beg (from 1736-47, Nādir Shah) in 1735."
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam. — Leiden: BRILL, 1986. — vol. 1. — p. 639-640:"The wars between the Ottomans and the Safawids were still to be fought on Armenian soil, and part of the Armenians of Adharbaydjan were later deported as a military security measure to Isfahan and elsewhere. Semi-autonomous seigniories survived, with varying fortunes, in the mountains of Karabagh, to the north of Adharbaydjan, but came to an end in the 18th century."
  3. ^ Hewsen, Robert H. (1972). "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study". Revue des Études Arméniennes. IX: 297–308.
  4. ^ Hewsen, Robert H. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax" in Medieval Armenian Culture (University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies). Thomas J. Samuelian and Michael E. Stone (eds.) Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984, pp. 52-53. ISBN 0-8913-0642-0
  5. ^ a b Րաֆֆի (Հակոբ Մելիք-Հակոբյան). Խամսայի մելիքութիւնները: Ղարաբաղի աստղագէտը: Գաղտնիքն Ղարաբաղի, Վիեննա, 1906. [Raffi (Hakob Melik-Hakobyan). The History of Karabagh's Meliks, Vienna, 1906, in Armenian. Another edition is «Խամսայի մելիքությունները», Երկերի ժողովածու, Երևան, 1964. Collection of Yerkrapah, Yerevan, 1964.]
  6. ^ Ulubabyan, Bagrat (1975). Խաչենի իշխանությունը, X-XVI դարերում (The Principality of Khachen, From the 10th to 16th centuries) (in Armenian). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences. pp. 56–59.
  7. ^ Hewsen, Robert (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 162. ISBN 0-2263-3228-4.
  8. ^ Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 47.
  9. ^ Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 49.
  10. ^ Bournoutian, George A. Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001, page 397
  11. ^ Bournoutian, George A. Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001, page 398
  12. ^ Bournoutian, George A. Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001, p. 330, See: "Letter of Meliks of Karabagh to Prince Petemkin, January 23, 1790"
  13. ^ LLC, Helix Consulting. "The Movement History - About Artsakh Republic - Government of Artsakh Republic". gov.nkr.am. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  14. ^ Legvold, Robert; Waal, Thomas De (2003). "Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War". Foreign Affairs. 82 (6): 166. doi:10.2307/20033795. JSTOR 20033795.
  15. ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Nagorny Karabakh (unrecognised state)". Refworld. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  16. ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica, Armeno-Iranian Relations in the Islamic Period, H. Papazian, December 15, 1986, Vol. II, Fasc. 5, pp. 467-478 ARMENIA AND IRAN vi.
  17. ^ a b c Hovannisian, Richard G. (2004). "Eastern Armenia from the Seventeenth Century". The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood vol. 2: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2 (1 ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-4039-6422-9. Retrieved 2012-01-31. Ori, the son of Melik Haikazian of Zanzegur
  18. ^ a b Chorbajian, Levon; Donabedian Patrick; Mutafian, Claude. The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo-Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh. NJ: Zed Books, 1994, p. 72
  19. ^ George A. Bournoutian. A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh. Mazda Publishers, 1994. p. 17. ISBN 1-56859-011-3, 978-1-568-59011-0
  20. ^ Карагезян А. К локализации гавара Кашатаг // Вестн. обществ. наук АН АрмССР. 1987. № 1. С. 44—45.
  21. ^ Кристине Костикян «Քաշաթաղի 17-րդ դարի պատմությանը վերաբերող մի փաստաթուղթ» (Документ относящийся к истории Кашатага в 17 веке) из «Страны и народы Ближнего Среднего Востока. Том XX», стр. 168—171. Институт востоковедения Национальной Академии наук Армении; Ереван, 2001.
  22. ^ И. Петрушевский «Очерки по истории феодальных отношений в Азербайджане и Армении в XVI-начале XIX вв.», стр. 59 и 72
  23. ^ Chorbajian, Levon; Donabedian Patrick; Mutafian, Claude. The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo-Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh. NJ: Zed Books, 1994, p. 73
  24. ^ Life and Adventures of Emin Joseph Emin 1726-1809 Written by himself. Second edition with Portrait, Correspondence, Reproductions of original Letters and Map*. Calcutta 1918. [1]
  25. ^ A.R. Ioannisian. Joseph Emin. Yerevan, 1989, link to full text
  26. ^ (in Russian) Abbas-gulu Aga Bakikhanov. Golestan-i Iram; according to an 18th-century local Turkic-Muslim writer Mirza Adigezal bey, Nadir shah placed Karabakh under his own control, while a 19th-century local Turkic Muslim writer Abbas-gulu Aga Bakikhanov states that the shah placed Karabakh under the control of the governor of Tabriz.
  27. ^ (in Russian) Mirza Adigezal bey. Karabakh-name, p. 48
  28. ^ Walker, Christopher J. Armenia: Survival of a Nation. London: Routledge, 1990 p. 40 ISBN 0-415-04684-X
  29. ^ a b Emin, Joseph; Apcar, Amy (1792). Emin, Joseph (ed.). Life and Adventures of Emin Joseph Emin, 1726-1809 (PDF). Vol. 2. Calcutta: Baptist mission Press. pp. 339, 343–344. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  30. ^ Emin, Aspet. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia" – via www.academia.edu. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  31. ^ Ismailov, Eldar Elkhan (2014). "The Khans of Karabakh: The elder line by generations". Central Asia and the Caucasus. CA&C Press AB Publishing House. Archived from the original on 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  32. ^ Hayrapetyan, Tamar (2012). Suvaryan, Yu. (ed.). Ղարաբաղի առակախոս Պըլ Պուղու սոցիալ-քաղաքական երգիծանքը (The Social and Political Satire of Jester Pele Pughi from Kharabakh). Historico-cultural heritage of the Armenian Highland (in Armenian). Yerevan: Yerevan State University Press. pp. 83–85. ISBN 978-5808416055. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-06-22.
  33. ^ "Principality of Varanda - Amaras Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic". www.amaras.org.
  34. ^ Lalayan, Yervand (1897). "Վարանդա - ՄԻ ԵՐԿՈՒ ԽՕՍՔ ՎԱՐԱՆԴԱՅԻ ՊԱՏՄԱԿԱՆ ԱՆՑԵԱԼԻ ՄԱՍԻՆ". digilib.aua.am.
  35. ^ "Мнения экспертов о происходящем в мире на iz.ru | Известия". iz.ru. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009.
  36. ^ Montgomery, Isobel (28 May 2001). "Obituary: Georgy Shakhnazarov". The Guardian.
  37. ^ Robert H. Hewsen. Russian–Armenian relations, 1700–1828. Society of Armenian Studies, N4, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984, p 37.
  38. ^ "Huso astgh". IMDb.
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