Armenia, Georgia and the eastern reaches of the Anti-Taurus mountains had always been of strategic and political importance to Constantinople. Yet the fragmented mountainous geography of the region stamped its character on political and social structures, which were dominated by numerous competing clans who, in spite of their fiercely independent outlook, readily called upon outsiders to help in their inter-factional rivalries. Both Persians and Romans thus played a key role, and since the Armenians and Georgians had converted to Christianity during the fourth century, the Christian Roman emperors could also claim to intervene in the interests of their Caucasian neighbours. From the later fourth century Armenia, Albania and Lazica had been under Persian rule, through a series of petty client kings and princes. The Roman parts of Armenia, and Georgia were separated by a border stretching from Theodosioupolis (mod. Erzerum, Arm. Karin) in the north to Dara on the upper Euphrates, and were likewise governed through locally-appointed princes with a variety of Roman titles. They were in practice entirely independent. But as a result of east Roman military successes against the Persians in the period from the 560s Constantinople extended its control over a greater area, including Lazica, and the Emperor Heraclius appointed members of the dominant naxarar (noble) clans as isxans or ‘princes’ of Armenia to govern as the emperor’s representative. At the same time the Armenian and Georgian churches, which had in the early sixth century rejected the creed of Chalcedon, were reunited with the imperial church (with the exception of those still under Persian authority in the south and east of the country). While the Georgian church remained in communion with the imperial church, however, the Armenian church fluctuated in its adherence according to circumstances.
The Arab conquests ended this period of Roman hegemony. By the 650s the Constantinople-approved ‘prince’ of Armenia had made a pact with the caliph Mu‘awiya; and although the Romans made several attempts to reimpose their authority, and although many local naxarars rebelled against Arab domination, this was firmly established by the end of the seventh century. The Transcaucasus region now became a bulwark of the Islamic world against the steppe nomads, traditionally allies of the Romans and enemies of the Persians, and now of the Arabs. Only western Georgia, in the form of the kingdom ofAbasgia, remained relatively independent. Islamic rule was continued through the local princes, however, until a great revolt against new taxation policies in the 770s broke out. This was brutally crushed and many leading noble families were more or less wiped out in the aftermath, although at the same time the Abasgians occupied Lazica, and in the late 780s an independent kingdom of Abasgia was established, under Khazar protection.
The results were twofold. First, the two remaining chief clans, the Bagratuni in the north and the Artsruni in Vaspurakan, were gradually able to establish a complete pre-eminence in their own respective areas; and secondly, the caliphs began to settle large numbers of Arabs and others from outside Transcaucasia in the towns and fortresses of the region, arabising and Islamising much of the countryside and many towns in the process. Local princes were no longer trusted to rule, and a number of small emirates sprang up in their place. But although conflict with the caliphate continued (several leading Bagratunis were in contact with Constantinople, for example, and received imperial court titles), and a major revolt was put down in the 850s, the local dominance exercised by these two families and their numerous subordinate branches and kin, each exercising power in their own locality, was such that many of the smaller emirates were extinguished, while the caliphs of the middle and later ninth century recognised the leading princes of the Bagratid clan as ‘prince of princes’ ruling on their behalf. The most important of these, Asot Bagratuni, adroitly exploited the internal troubles of the caliphate to establish the power of his family - through a number of relatives - over Armenia, Albania and the eastern districts of Georgia, and was finally recognised by the caliph al-Mu‘tamid in 884 as King of Armenia.
As these events unfolded the Byzantines were also taking advantage of the decline ofAbbasid power. As first the Paulicians were crushed in the 870s and then Byzantine armies began to push back into the south-eastern regions of Asia Minor, so diplomatic and political relations between Constantinople and Armenian and Georgian princes became more regular. Basil I and Leo VI recognised the Bagratuni position also, but internal rivalries between various naxarar families and resentment at the rise of the Bagratids provoked a Muslim reaction led by the Sajid emir of Armenia and Azerbaijan, resulting in the brief period of Muslim recognition of a member of the Artsrunis, Gagik, as king of part of Armenia and Vaspurakan in 908. Aiot II, the son of the former king Smbat (who had been executed by the emir), ruled the remaining part. But by 915 Byzantine military intervention requested by the naxarars and the Armenian church, partly also to counter the danger posed by the Muslim governor’s dynastic aspirations and his power-base in Azerbaijan, had restored the Bagratid position. In the course of the Byzantine wars of expansion in the later tenth and early eleventh century much of the Muslim-dominated Transcaucasus fell into Byzantine hands, or at least became politically dependent on the empire. At the same time internal factionalism continued, so that Albania and Siounia were drawn more closely to the Byzantine camp, while Vaspurakan split into several separate principalities. The Armenian nobility were nevertheless able to unite under their king Asot III in the mid-970s to ward off the approaching imperial armies under John I Tzimiskes, and a treaty of alliance was concluded between empire and kingdom.
Map 8.5 The Islamic world c. 900-920. (After Kennedy, Historical Atlas of Islam.)
Yet the Armenian kingdom was already beginning to fragment as different claimants to royal authority set themselves up as kings in their own lands. The Georgian prince David of Tayk’ (of the Bagratids) offered military aid to the Emperor Basil II in the war against the rebel Bardas Skleros (976-979), an act which lent the Abasgian kingdom renewed prominence. As Georgian power increased, so Armenian factionalism and strife increased, until Georgia became the dominant force in the region.
World History
