Bagratuni dynasty

Lori, Vaspurakan, Vanand and Taron.^[6] Many historians, such as Cyril Toumanoff, Nicholas Adontz and Ronald Suny, consider them to be the progenitors of the Georgian royal Bagrationi dynasty.^[7][8][9]

Old Iranian name Bagadata ("God-given").^[10] Historian Cyril Toumanoff speculated that a general of King Tigranes II of Armenia (r. 95 – 55 BCE) named Bagadates may have been the earliest known member of the Bagratuni family,^[11] which first emerged as nakharars—members of the hereditary nobility of Armenia—in the early 4th century.^[9] The Arshakuni (Arsacid) dynasty, which ruled Armenia from 52 to 428, granted the family heritable rights. The first Bagratuni prince identified by Toumanoff, Smbat I, lived at the time of the Armenian conversion to Christianity (c. 314).^[12] Starting with Smbat, the Bagratunis held the hereditary titles of aspet, meaning "Master of the Horse" or the commander of the cavalry (although this appears to have been purely ceremonial and not an actual military command), and tagadir, which indicated their privilege of crowning Arshakuni kings upon their accession to the throne.^[13] Their domain included the region of Sper in the Çoruh River valley of Upper Armenia, which was famous for its gold and silver, and Tayk. The medieval Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi claimed they had an ancestor, Smbat, who came to Armenia from Judea in 6th century BCE, but modern historians regard this as an invention to give a biblical origin to the family.^[14] Toumanoff proposed instead that the Bagratunis were descended from the Orontids, the first identifiable ruling dynasty of ancient Armenia.^[12]

Tmorik, Kogovit and their possessions in Vaspurakan, although their losses were less severe than those of the other Armenian noble families.^[15]

Sasun along with the new title "Prince of Princes" (ishkhan ishkhanats), and Smbat "the Confessor", who received the title sparapet and the holdings of Sper and Tayk.^[3] Meanwhile, Ashot Msaker's uncle, Vasak, established himself in the Georgian region of Iberia; Vasak's grandson Ashot I became the first ruler of Iberia from the Bagratuni dynasty c. 813. This branch of the dynasty would rule as kings of Georgia for centuries as the Bagrationis.^[3]

Ani, now famous for its ruins. They kept power by playing off the competition between the Byzantine Empire and the Arabs.^{[citation needed}

Shahanshah).^[2] However, with the start of the 10th century and on, the Bagratunis broke up into different branches, fragmenting the kingdom in a time when unity was needed in the face of Seljuk and Byzantine pressure. The rule of the Ani branch ended in 1045 with the conquest of Ani by the Byzantines.^{[citation needed}

Shaddadid dynasty.^{[citation needed]}