[81] The establishment of Turkish political
overlordship over an overwhelmingly Armenian Monophysite Christian
population in eastern Asia Minor, and over Graeco-Armenian populations
in central Asia Minor did not immediately lead to widespread conversions
to Islam. This was to occur in the 12th and early 13th centuries,
and to resume, after a hiatus, in the early 14th century. But
during the time of the Saljuq invasions, Armenian Islamization
seems to have been limited, restricted mostly to those obliged
to convert to save their lives, and to the tens of thousands of
Armenian women and children forcibly removed from their homes
and sold on the Middle Eastern slave marts entering Muslim harems
and households (139). In this early period too, several influential
Armenian naxarar women were sought after as brides by Saljuq
rulers (140). [82] Presumably many of them Islamized. Subsequently,
after the establishment of Saljuq political control, other Armenians
converted, be they the young Armenian boys, gulams, absorbed
into the Saljuq military schools, or the skilled Armenian bureaucrats
and artisans who dominated numerous important positions within
the various Turkish states, and who figure prominently in Turkish
epic literature (see below) (141).
The upshot of this conversion, forcible
or voluntary, was the creation with time of a distinct group--virtually
excluded from the Armenian sources as "renegades", but
apparently not yet fully accepted by their new Muslim co-religionists
either, who in their sources usually style [83] them "Armenians" (142).
However, it must be underlined that the majority of the Armenians
remained true to their own [84] distinctive form of Christianity.
This fact, coupled with the reality of an Armenian majority in
eastern Asia Minor, in its turn led to yet another phenomenon--also
not new on the highlands, albeit this time affecting the overlorde,
not their subjects, i.e., what might be termed the Armenization
of the Saljuqs (143). Not only did Armenians of different faiths--Apostolic,
Orthodox, Muslim--constitute the bulk of ths population in eastern
Asia Minor during the Saljuq domination, but fairly quickly an
Armeno-Turkish community came into existence through intermarriage
(144). Intermarriage occurred not only between the families of
Armenian civil servants and Turkish lords, but at the very pinnacle
of the state, By the 13th century, few were [85] the Saljuq sultans
and rulers of eastern Asia Minor lacking an Armenian, Georgian
or Greek parent or grandparent (145). Indeed, some have suggested
that the great warlord and founder of the Danishmandid emirate,
hero of the Turkish epic the Danishmend-name, emir Malik
Danishmand himself, was an Armenian Muslim (146). Judging from
the many clearly [86] Armenian names of his comrades-in-arms
who waged holy war against the Byzantine Christian "infidels",
the same applied to his inner circle (147). Danishmandid coinage
usually was stamped with the sign of the Cross and/or a bust of
Christ (148). The hereditary rulers of the powerful emirate of
Xlat' in southern Armenia styled themselves Shah-i-Armen (Persian:
"King of the Armenians"), and married Armenians (149).
Furthermore, Armenization was not solely an ethnic process, but
a cultural one as well. [87] Saljuq architecture not only took
some of its inspiration from Armenian ecclesiastical and civil
structures which graced and still grace the landscape of eastern
Asia Minor, but in the 11-13th centuries, many of the structures
themeelves were designed and constructed by Christian and Muslim
Armenians (150). By the end of the 12th century Armenia was well
on the way to absorbing and transforming its newest residents.
The emergence of Georgia as a great
military power in the late 11-12th centuries radically shifted
the balance scales in favor of complete Caucaaian cultural as
well as political supremacy in eastern Asia Minor. Thanks to Georgia,
much of historical Armenia once again came under Armenian political control--though briefly--and those
parts that were not, were either tributary to Georgia or had made
peace with that state. Beginning in the reign of the Georgian
Bagratid monarch David II, called "the Builder" (1089-1125),
the armies of Georgia commenced clearing southern and southeastern
Georgia of nomadic Turkmens, capturing from them Shamshoylde and
many strongholds in the Armeno-Georgian district of Somxit'i (1110);
Lorhe [88] Agarak and the Kiwrikean holdings (1118) (151); Shamaxi,
eastern Gugark', western Utik', Gag, K'awazin, Kayean, Kaycon,
Terunakan, Nor Berd, Tawush, Mahkanaberd, Manasgom, and Xalinchk'ar
(1123) (152). The same year, Ani was taken, though that city passed
back and forth between the Georgian and the Muslim emirs many
times throughout the 12th century (153). During the reign of David's
successor Demetre I (1125-1155/56) and his successor Georgi III
(1155/56-1184) the conquests continued though at a slower pace.
Through- out this period, the Georgian army was swelling with
Armenian volunteers, enthusiastically participating in the Iiberation
of their country. Furthermore, the Georgian Bagratids,themselves
of Armenian descent, very definitely favored certain Armenian
nobles long since established within Iberia and within that country's
ruling structure (154). Such lords as the Zak'arean/Mxargrcelis,
Orbelean/Orbelis and [89] Arcruni/Mankaberdelis not only commanded
the victorious armies, but were left in charge of the newly established
administrations (155). The Georgian Bagratids reached the apogee
of their power under queen Tamar (1184-1213). Under Tamar's generals,
the energetic brothers Zak'are and Iwane Zak'arean, the Armeno-Georgian
armies surged ahead reclaiming one after another fortress, city
and district; Anberd in Aragacotn district (1196), Shamk'or, Ganjak,
Arc'ax, Siwnik', Shirak, the Ayrarat plain and Ani (ca. 1199);Bjni
(1201); and Dwin (1203) (156). They now turned upon the southern
and western emirates, defeating the renowned sultan of Konya,
Rukn al-Din in the district of Basen (1204) (157). In 1204/5 they
reached as far south [90] as Manazkert and Archesh on the northern
shore of Lake Van, although this area was not taken until ca.
1208/9 (158). Iwane's daughter T'amt'a was married to the Shah
Armen of Xlat' in 1209/10 (159). In a great final burst, general
Zak 'are marched through Naxijewan and Jugha, through Azarbaijan
to Marand, Tabriz and Qazvin, looting and sacking Muslim settlements
(160). By the time of Zak'are's death in 1212, Georgia was the
most powerful state in the region, while the status of the Armenians,
be they inhabitants of historical Armenia--northeastern, southern,
western--of Georgia, or of the plethora of small communities stretching
to the southwest to the independent Cilician kingdom had been
changed in a very positive way. This situation was to be altered
again almost at once.
[91] The great demographic, military,
and political changes which had taken place in the history of
the Armenians in the late 12-early 13th centuries have left their
imprints on the contemporary sources. In the 11-14th century sources
there is justifiable confusion over the borders of Armenia. Political
boundaries, of course, do not always embrace neatly definable
regions of ethnic, linguistic, and cultural entities, and "Armenia"
in the 13-14th centuries was a fine example of this. Because of
large scale emigration, resulting in the creation of new diasporas,
one could draw very wide indeed the cultural boundaries of Armenia,
in this period, even though a delineation of the political boundaries
is well-nigh impossible (161). [pp.92-93 are continuations of
footnote 161]