Mamikonyan

Mamikonyany (armenian Մամիկոնյան ) is one of the largest Armenian Nakharar clans of the 4th - 8th centuries . The Mamikonyans owned vast territories in Taika and Taron, and in the late Middle Ages also owned small principalities in the areas of Dsekh (in Lori ) and Urtsadzor ( Ayrarat ) ^[1] ^[2] . Since the 4th century AD e. Mamikonyans hereditarily held the post of supreme military leader of Armenia.

Content

Origin

In medieval Armenian tradition, there are two variants of the origin of the Mamikonyan clan. According to Movses Khorenatsi and Sebeos, the Mamikonyan clan originated “from the kings of the country of Chenov,” by which was meant China . Two brothers, Mamik (Mamkon, according to Khorenatsi) and Konak, being Chinese princes, rebelled against the emperor of China and after the defeat found shelter with the Persian king Ardashir Papakan . Following the emperor’s demand to extradite the fugitives, the son of Ardashir, Shapur I , sends them to his relative, the king of Armenia. At that time, naharar Slkuni rebelled against the king in Armenia. With the consent of the king, the brothers killed the rebel naharar, for which they received the patrimony and the title of naharar. The brothers settled in Taron near the Sim Mountain and became the progenitors of the Mamikonyan family. The second version of the legend is described in the “History of Taron” by John Mamikonyan . According to him, two Indian princes, Demeter and Gisane, rebelled against the Indian king and after the defeat fled to the Armenian king Vagharshak , who provided them with the principality of Taron, where they built the city of Visap. A few years later, the king killed two brothers and gave the principality to their three sons, who built three cities named in their honor ^[1] ^[3] .

A number of scholars expressed the view that the Mamikonyans were of Chinese mythology. Edward Gibbon in his work “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” believes that the Mamikonyans could have Scythian origin ^[4] . Iranika notes that the origin of the Mamikonyans is not fully understood. The Mamikonians themselves claimed that they came from the royal family of the Chen region. Historical tradition connects the Mamikonyan clan with China (Armenian- style chinastan ). There are versions about the origin of the genus from Central Asia or the Derbent region. Nikolai Adonts ^[5] , and especially Kirill Tumanov ^[6] ^[7] , adhered to the concept of the origin of the Mamikonyans from the historical province of Chenk, today Lazistan (near Trebizond ) ^[8] . The same version is presented by Robert Husen ^[9] . According to Swazyan, the country of Chenes was located in the interfluve of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, on which Maverannahr ^[10] subsequently appeared, which then was part of Parthia, which may indicate the Parthian origin of the genus ^[1] .

Rise and Decline

Under Vardan the Mamikonyan

Vardan Mamikonyan is an Armenian commander. In 432 he took the position of Sparapet of Armenia. In 450–451 he led a rebellion against the rule of Iran . Vardan won a number of victories over the Iranian forces, he was elected head of the rebels. He died in the Battle of Avaraira (451). The movement led by Vardan Mamikonyan Armenia restored internal self-government.

Soon after the defeat in the uprising against Arab rule in 774-775, the Mamikonyan clan ceased to play a prominent role in the political life of Armenia .

In the Middle Ages, the Mamikonyan clan acquired a number of land plots in northern Armenia, in particular, the Urtsaget valley in Airat and the vicinity of Dsekh in Gugark (Lori). From the prince Tuman Mamikonyan who ruled in Dsekh, the Tumanyan clan came from. A branch of this kind entered the service at the Georgian court and gained fame as Tumanishvili . The famous Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan and the historian Kirill Tumanov belonged to the same family.

Famous Representatives

In the Mamikonyan clan there are a number of prominent military leaders who led the struggle of the Armenian people for independence. The Mamikonyans also gave rise to a number of prominent Armenian noble families, such as the Tumanyan clan, the Chilingaryan clan, etc.

Famous representatives of the side branch of the Mamikonyan-Tumanyanov were the famous Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan and the historian and Caucasian historian Kirill Tumanov .

Sparapet Mamikonyan

Artavazd Mamikonyan , Musheh Mamikonyan , Manvel Mamikonyan , Hamazasp Mamikonyan , Vagan Mamikonyan .
Vache Mamikonyan - Armenian commander defeated Sanatruka with the Roman army in 338 .
Vardan Mamikonyan - an outstanding medieval Armenian sparapet .
Vasak Mamikonyan - an Armenian sparapet who led the uprising along with Nerses I.

Flags of the Mamikonyan clan

Notes

↑ ¹ ² ³ Alla Ter-Sargsyan. History and culture of the Armenian people. 2nd ed. Moscow. Eastern literature. 2008.
↑ Kirakos Gandzaketsi. History of Armenia. Moscow, Science, 1976, p. 178.
↑ S Haroutyunian. Armenian Epic Tradition and Kurdish Folklore // Iran and the Caucasus , 1997
↑ Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Chapter XIII, Part II, Reign of Diocletian and This Three Associates. Archived July 31, 2001 on the Wayback Machine
↑ Adonts Nikolai Georgievich, Armenia during the Justinian era: Political status on the basis of the Nakhar system, St. Petersburg, 1908, art. 402–405 (Nicholas Adontz, Armenia in the Period of Justinian: The political Conditions Based on the Naxarar System. Trans. Into Eng. With expanded notes, bibliography, and appendices by Nina G. Garsoian, Lisbon, 1970)
↑ Cyril Toumanoff, (en) Studies in Christian Caucasian History (Georgetown University Press, 1963), pp. 209; 211-212, n. 238
- The Princes Mamikonian (the Mamikonids) claimed descent from the Emperors of China and bore the gentilitial title of Chenbakur, but appear to have been the immemorial dynasts of Tayk ', on the Armeno-Georgian confines, possibly of Georgian origin; at any rate, the Mamikonid onomastics, and the dynastic patronymic in the first place, betray a Georgian connexion (Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p. 209).
- The imperial Chinese origin of the Mamikonids is asserted by Faustus, 5.4, 37, Sebēos, 2, and by Ps. Moses, 2.81, the latter two indicating that the title borne by their imperial ancestors was čen-bakur . The first element of that title is the ethnicon 'Chinese', the second, a rendering of the Iranian bağpūr , itself a translation of the Chinese Imperial title of t'ien-tzu ('Son of Heaven'): Markwart, Streifzüge 133— 134; Süd-armenien 77-78 (the thought, however, that it was the King of the Kushans, who also entitled himself 'Son of Heaven' [devaputra], and not the Emperor of China who was meant here); Justi, Namenbuch 240. Actually, the Georgian origin of the Mamikonids seems more likely. In the first place, they were dynasts of the proto-Caucasian and half-Georgian Tayk '; in the second, there are philological data to support it. The basic element of their nomen gentilicium and most likely their gentilitial title, mamik or mamak , is a composite of the Armenian diminutive suffix -ik / -ak and the Georgian word mama or 'father': Adontz, Armenija 402-403, 405. Also, the praenomen Mušeł, found among them, is a Georgian territorial epithet, formed with the addition of the Georgian suffix -el (Armenianized as -eł ) to the name of the chief city of Tarawn, Muš: Adontz, op. cit. 398; Markwart, Süd-armenien 157 n. 1. Adontz explained the Chinese tradition by a confusion, prompted by the love of exotic origins, between the ethnicon čen and that of the Georgian Čan-ians (Tzanni) or Lazi (for whom, see I at n. 55; Gugushvili, Division 56, 64), who were settled in the neighborhood of Tayk '. ... The two Mamikonid princely Houses of Georgia and the Russian Empire are the Liparitids and the T'umanids. The former appeared in Iberia c. 876; was invested with the office of High Constable of Georgia; returned, in the main branch, to Armenia in 1177, or possibly even earlier; and reigned as the Third Dynasty of Siunia [25] from c. 1200 to the mid-fifteenth century. It was subdivided, in the remaining Georgian branch, into the following houses: Jambakur (ian) [= čenbakur ] -Orbeliani, Barat'ašvili, Solağašvili, Kaxaberije-Čiĵavaje, and possibly Abašije. ... The other house of T'umanids, removed to Georgia from Armenia-in-Exille (Cilicia) after the twelfth century: Fifteenth Cent. Bagr. 179 n. 59; Spiski 83-85; Dolgorukov III 483; GHA (f) 2 (1953) 471; cf. Zacharias the Deacon, Sofis 48. (Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p. 211-212, n. 238).
↑ Toumanoff, Cyril. "The Mamikonids and the Liparitids", Armeniaca (Venice, 1969), pp. 125-137
↑ Nina Garsoian. MAMIKONEAN . Last Updated: March 10, 2005 // Iranika
↑ Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. The University of Chicago Press, p. 95. “'The Mamikonids, originally princes of Tayk', climed descent from the emperors of China (Arm. Čen-k '), but appears rather to have been descended from the chieftains of the Čanians (Arm. Čanik; Gk. Sannoi or Tzannoi) and so to have had a Georgian origin, as their name implies (Geo. mama 'father', 'chief'). '»
↑ Swazyan K. S. Chen (country of Chen according to Armenian sources). - IFJ. 1976, No 1 (in Armenian) // given by: Alla Ter-Sargsyan. History and culture of the Armenian people. 2nd ed. Moscow. Eastern literature. 2008

Links

[Алла_Тер-Саркисян-1] ¹ ² ³ Alla Ter-Sargsyan. History and culture of the Armenian people. 2nd ed. Moscow. Eastern literature. 2008.

[Киракос_Гандзакеци-2] Kirakos Gandzaketsi. History of Armenia. Moscow, Science, 1976, p. 178.

[3] S Haroutyunian. Armenian Epic Tradition and Kurdish Folklore // Iran and the Caucasus , 1997

[4] Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Chapter XIII, Part II, Reign of Diocletian and This Three Associates. Archived July 31, 2001 on the Wayback Machine

[5] Adonts Nikolai Georgievich, Armenia during the Justinian era: Political status on the basis of the Nakhar system, St. Petersburg, 1908, art. 402–405 (Nicholas Adontz, Armenia in the Period of Justinian: The political Conditions Based on the Naxarar System. Trans. Into Eng. With expanded notes, bibliography, and appendices by Nina G. Garsoian, Lisbon, 1970)

[6] Cyril Toumanoff, (en) Studies in Christian Caucasian History (Georgetown University Press, 1963), pp. 209; 211-212, n. 238
The Princes Mamikonian (the Mamikonids) claimed descent from the Emperors of China and bore the gentilitial title of Chenbakur, but appear to have been the immemorial dynasts of Tayk ', on the Armeno-Georgian confines, possibly of Georgian origin; at any rate, the Mamikonid onomastics, and the dynastic patronymic in the first place, betray a Georgian connexion (Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p. 209).
The imperial Chinese origin of the Mamikonids is asserted by Faustus, 5.4, 37, Sebēos, 2, and by Ps. Moses, 2.81, the latter two indicating that the title borne by their imperial ancestors was čen-bakur . The first element of that title is the ethnicon 'Chinese', the second, a rendering of the Iranian bağpūr , itself a translation of the Chinese Imperial title of t'ien-tzu ('Son of Heaven'): Markwart, Streifzüge 133— 134; Süd-armenien 77-78 (the thought, however, that it was the King of the Kushans, who also entitled himself 'Son of Heaven' [devaputra], and not the Emperor of China who was meant here); Justi, Namenbuch 240. Actually, the Georgian origin of the Mamikonids seems more likely. In the first place, they were dynasts of the proto-Caucasian and half-Georgian Tayk '; in the second, there are philological data to support it. The basic element of their nomen gentilicium and most likely their gentilitial title, mamik or mamak , is a composite of the Armenian diminutive suffix -ik / -ak and the Georgian word mama or 'father': Adontz, Armenija 402-403, 405. Also, the praenomen Mušeł, found among them, is a Georgian territorial epithet, formed with the addition of the Georgian suffix -el (Armenianized as -eł ) to the name of the chief city of Tarawn, Muš: Adontz, op. cit. 398; Markwart, Süd-armenien 157 n. 1. Adontz explained the Chinese tradition by a confusion, prompted by the love of exotic origins, between the ethnicon čen and that of the Georgian Čan-ians (Tzanni) or Lazi (for whom, see I at n. 55; Gugushvili, Division 56, 64), who were settled in the neighborhood of Tayk '. ... The two Mamikonid princely Houses of Georgia and the Russian Empire are the Liparitids and the T'umanids. The former appeared in Iberia c. 876; was invested with the office of High Constable of Georgia; returned, in the main branch, to Armenia in 1177, or possibly even earlier; and reigned as the Third Dynasty of Siunia [25] from c. 1200 to the mid-fifteenth century. It was subdivided, in the remaining Georgian branch, into the following houses: Jambakur (ian) [= čenbakur ] -Orbeliani, Barat'ašvili, Solağašvili, Kaxaberije-Čiĵavaje, and possibly Abašije. ... The other house of T'umanids, removed to Georgia from Armenia-in-Exille (Cilicia) after the twelfth century: Fifteenth Cent. Bagr. 179 n. 59; Spiski 83-85; Dolgorukov III 483; GHA (f) 2 (1953) 471; cf. Zacharias the Deacon, Sofis 48. (Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p. 211-212, n. 238).

[7] The Princes Mamikonian (the Mamikonids) claimed descent from the Emperors of China and bore the gentilitial title of Chenbakur, but appear to have been the immemorial dynasts of Tayk ', on the Armeno-Georgian confines, possibly of Georgian origin; at any rate, the Mamikonid onomastics, and the dynastic patronymic in the first place, betray a Georgian connexion (Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p. 209).

[8] The imperial Chinese origin of the Mamikonids is asserted by Faustus, 5.4, 37, Sebēos, 2, and by Ps. Moses, 2.81, the latter two indicating that the title borne by their imperial ancestors was čen-bakur . The first element of that title is the ethnicon 'Chinese', the second, a rendering of the Iranian bağpūr , itself a translation of the Chinese Imperial title of t'ien-tzu ('Son of Heaven'): Markwart, Streifzüge 133— 134; Süd-armenien 77-78 (the thought, however, that it was the King of the Kushans, who also entitled himself 'Son of Heaven' [devaputra], and not the Emperor of China who was meant here); Justi, Namenbuch 240. Actually, the Georgian origin of the Mamikonids seems more likely. In the first place, they were dynasts of the proto-Caucasian and half-Georgian Tayk '; in the second, there are philological data to support it. The basic element of their nomen gentilicium and most likely their gentilitial title, mamik or mamak , is a composite of the Armenian diminutive suffix -ik / -ak and the Georgian word mama or 'father': Adontz, Armenija 402-403, 405. Also, the praenomen Mušeł, found among them, is a Georgian territorial epithet, formed with the addition of the Georgian suffix -el (Armenianized as -eł ) to the name of the chief city of Tarawn, Muš: Adontz, op. cit. 398; Markwart, Süd-armenien 157 n. 1. Adontz explained the Chinese tradition by a confusion, prompted by the love of exotic origins, between the ethnicon čen and that of the Georgian Čan-ians (Tzanni) or Lazi (for whom, see I at n. 55; Gugushvili, Division 56, 64), who were settled in the neighborhood of Tayk '. ... The two Mamikonid princely Houses of Georgia and the Russian Empire are the Liparitids and the T'umanids. The former appeared in Iberia c. 876; was invested with the office of High Constable of Georgia; returned, in the main branch, to Armenia in 1177, or possibly even earlier; and reigned as the Third Dynasty of Siunia [25] from c. 1200 to the mid-fifteenth century. It was subdivided, in the remaining Georgian branch, into the following houses: Jambakur (ian) [= čenbakur ] -Orbeliani, Barat'ašvili, Solağašvili, Kaxaberije-Čiĵavaje, and possibly Abašije. ... The other house of T'umanids, removed to Georgia from Armenia-in-Exille (Cilicia) after the twelfth century: Fifteenth Cent. Bagr. 179 n. 59; Spiski 83-85; Dolgorukov III 483; GHA (f) 2 (1953) 471; cf. Zacharias the Deacon, Sofis 48. (Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p. 211-212, n. 238).

[7] Toumanoff, Cyril. "The Mamikonids and the Liparitids", Armeniaca (Venice, 1969), pp. 125-137

[8] Nina Garsoian. MAMIKONEAN . Last Updated: March 10, 2005 // Iranika

[9] Hewsen, Robert H. (2001). Armenia: A Historical Atlas. The University of Chicago Press, p. 95. “'The Mamikonids, originally princes of Tayk', climed descent from the emperors of China (Arm. Čen-k '), but appears rather to have been descended from the chieftains of the Čanians (Arm. Čanik; Gk. Sannoi or Tzannoi) and so to have had a Georgian origin, as their name implies (Geo. mama 'father', 'chief'). '»

[10] Swazyan K. S. Chen (country of Chen according to Armenian sources). - IFJ. 1976, No 1 (in Armenian) // given by: Alla Ter-Sargsyan. History and culture of the Armenian people. 2nd ed. Moscow. Eastern literature. 2008