Melikdoms of Karabakh
Khamsa Melikdoms Խամսայի մելիքություններ | |||||||||
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1603–1822 | |||||||||
Status | Principality | ||||||||
Common languages | Armenian | ||||||||
Religion | Armenian Apostolic | ||||||||
Government | Principality (Melikdom) | ||||||||
Historical era | Iranian Armenia | ||||||||
• Established | 1603 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1822 | ||||||||
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Today part of |
History of Artsakh |
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Antiquity |
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Middle Ages |
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Early Modern Age |
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Modern Age |
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.
Etymology
Khamsa, also spelled Khamse or simply Khams means 'five' in Arabic. The principalities were ruled by lands. The principalities ruled by meliks became known in English academic literature as melikdoms or melikates.
History
Background
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
The realm of the meliks in
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]
The five Armenian principalities (melikdoms) in Karabakh[5] were as follows:
- Melikdom of Gulistan - under the leadership of the Melik Beglarian family
- Melikdom of Jraberd - 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 - 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
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
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
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
However, instability in
In the early 18th century, Persia's
Karabakh Khanate
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 Shusha.[31][29][32][33][34][35][36]
Dissolution and Integration into the Russian Empire
The region came under
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
Legacy
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
The meliks of Karabakh inspired the historical novel
References
- ^ 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."
- ^ 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."
- ^ Hewsen, Robert H. (1972). "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study". Revue des Études Arméniennes. IX: 297–308.
- ISBN 0-8913-0642-0
- ^ 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.]
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 0-2263-3228-4.
- ^ Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 47.
- ^ Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 49.
- ^ Bournoutian, George A. Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001, page 397
- ^ Bournoutian, George A. Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001, page 398
- ^ 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"
- ^ LLC, Helix Consulting. "The Movement History - About Artsakh Republic - Government of Artsakh Republic". gov.nkr.am. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- JSTOR 20033795.
- ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Nagorny Karabakh (unrecognised state)". Refworld. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- ^ 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.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4039-6422-9. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
Ori, the son of Melik Haikazian of Zanzegur
- ^ 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
- ISBN 1-56859-011-3, 978-1-568-59011-0
- ^ Карагезян А. К локализации гавара Кашатаг // Вестн. обществ. наук АН АрмССР. 1987. № 1. С. 44—45.
- ^ 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.
- ^ И. Петрушевский «Очерки по истории феодальных отношений в Азербайджане и Армении в XVI-начале XIX вв.», стр. 59 и 72
- ^ Chorbajian, Levon; Donabedian Patrick; Mutafian, Claude. The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo-Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh. NJ: Zed Books, 1994, p. 73
- ^ 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]
- ^ A.R. Ioannisian. Joseph Emin. Yerevan, 1989, link to full text
- ^ (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.
- ^ (in Russian) Mirza Adigezal bey. Karabakh-name, p. 48
- ISBN 0-415-04684-X
- ^ Calcutta: Baptist mission Press. pp. 339, 343–344. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
- ^ Emin, Aspet. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia" – via www.academia.edu.
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(help) - ^ 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.
- ISBN 978-5808416055. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2021-06-22.
- ^ "Principality of Varanda - Amaras Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic". www.amaras.org.
- ^ Lalayan, Yervand (1897). "Վարանդա - ՄԻ ԵՐԿՈՒ ԽՕՍՔ ՎԱՐԱՆԴԱՅԻ ՊԱՏՄԱԿԱՆ ԱՆՑԵԱԼԻ ՄԱՍԻՆ". digilib.aua.am.
- ^ "Мнения экспертов о происходящем в мире на iz.ru | Известия". iz.ru. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009.
- ^ Montgomery, Isobel (28 May 2001). "Obituary: Georgy Shakhnazarov". The Guardian.
- ^ Robert H. Hewsen. Russian–Armenian relations, 1700–1828. Society of Armenian Studies, N4, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984, p 37.
- ^ "Huso astgh". IMDb.