Not surprisingly, the "hellish
and bitter" 14th century did not produce literary historians
such as Kirakos, Vardan, or Step'annos. The disorganized history
of T'ovma Mecop'ec'i (d. ca. 1446) does speak of the last three
decades of the 14th century, but for the first seven decades,
only the humble authors of chronicles and colophons, many of them
anonymous, detail the persecutions, plunderings of churches and
famines. They do not speak of land disputes among naxarars--many
of whom already had quit the country, had apostasized, or been
killed.
In the 1320's, Grigor, bishop of Karin/Erzerum
was killed after refusing to convert (386). In 1334 Christians
were obliged to wear special blue badges as a visible indicator
of their subordinate status (387), just as economically [212]
their subordinate status was made formal years before (1301/2)
by the inception of the kharaj tax, an annual tax on Christians
(388). The requirement of the blue badge, kerchief, or hat, to
set the Christians apart from Muslims was observed by the Bavarian
captive, Johann Schiltberger around 1400, and so was a feature
of the entire 14th century (389).
With the breakdown of the Il-Khanid
government in the 1330's, various Turkmen, Mongol, and Kurdish
bands became completely unchecked. For example, in 1343, the Qara
Qoyunlu (Black Sheep) Turkmens (who had established bases in Bagrewand
and Kajberunik' in the late 13th century) were ceaselessly raiding
around Xlat' (390). The Spanish Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta in
1333 noted that Karin/Erzerum was "mostly in ruins as a consequence
of a factional feud which broke out between two groups of Turkmens
there" (391). During the 1330's and 1340's, the cities of
Erzinjan, Sebastia/Sivas, and Karin/Erzerum were under almost
constant seige by rival nomadic groups (392). [213] Xlat' was
captured by Turkmens in 1359 (393). Furthermore, in the 1380's,
Timur's detachments frequently battled with Qara Qoyunlu and Kurdish
groups. In the Chapaghjur and Mush areas and near Karin/Erzerum,
the Turkmens successfully resisted Timur's advance (394). In 1382
Turkmen groups were fighting in the plain of Artaz (395). During
his second invasion (1395) Timur raided Turkmen areas centered
at Archesh on Lake Van's northern shore (396).
Concomitant with the chaos occasioned
by warring nomads went persecution of Christians--especially of
the clerical nobility. In 1387/88, Step'annos, archbishop of Sebastia/Sivas
was executed for failure to convert. His monastery of St. Nshan
was converted into a dervish sanctuary, and other churches there
were demolished (397). In 1393/94, kat'oghikos Zak'aria
of Aght'amar and the kat'oghikos T'eodoros both were executed
(398). Between [214] 1403 and 1406, according to the Spanish ambassador
Clavijo, Timur demolished the churches of Erznjan and Bekarhich
(399).
The triumph of the Turkmens drained
Armenia in numerous ways. H. Manandyan and L. Babayan have observed
the collapse of Armenia's economy, pointing out the incompatibility
of the nomadic economic system with the agricultural and mercantile
economy of Armenia (400). The Mongols expropriated for their own
use vast tracts of land in Armenia, taking certain choice farming
aress for summer and winter pasturage for their herds. The slopes
of the Aragac' mountains, and the areas of Vayoc' Jor, parts of
the plain of Ayrarat, and areas around Karin/ Erzerum, Van, Berkri,
and Baghesh/Bitlis became summer yaylas, while Vaspurakan,
the Ayrarat plains and the Xarberd region were used for wintering
places (401). These areas formerly had been under intensive agricultural
development, but increasingly in the late 13th and in the 14th
century they became semi-desert (402). Parts of southern [215]
and western Armenia were used almost solely for animal husbandry.
The Mongols and Turkmen nomads used the area between Erznjan,
Bayberd, and Sebastia/Sivas, and areas around Van and in Diyarbakr
for these purposes, also (403). Not only was good farmland allowed
to desiccate, but with the mass enslavings and deportations of
whole villages, there were even fewer farmers; and with the mass
theft of livestock, remaining farmers often were deprived of their
only source of power for pulling the plow.
A part of the Caucasian land-owning
class also was deprived of land and driven to bankruptcy by the
Mongols' excessive tax demands. Already by the time of the princes'
rebellion of 1259-61, the sources speak of the impoverishment
of some of the princes:
...With [the rebel king David] went many other great princes of districts who were harassed and harried, bankrupt, and who had mortgaged cities and districts, but were still unable to satiate the evil, leech-like appetite [of the Mongols] (404).
[216] At the same time that certain
large landholders were selling their estates, a few Mongol favorites
such as Sahmadin, Umek, Shnorhawor and Sadun Arcruni were purchasing
them and became landholders after the example of the Mongol aristocrats,
owning huge properties in different states (405). However, the
wealth of these few lords, accumulated from trading and land speculation,
cannot serve as an index of the country's prosperity.
The decline of Armenia's cities in this period was caused by Turkmen ravages, excessive taxation, and by the transferal of the international trade routes. Rashid al-Din speaking about the disastrous situation at the beginning of the 14th century, wrote that five of every ten houses were deserted, and that numerous cities on both sides of the Euphrates had been abandoned (406). Hamd Allah Mustawfi Qazvini noted the decline of cities and towns in Caucasia across the Armenian highlands in his day (1340). Speaking of Georgia and Abxazia, he stated that "revenues in times of their native kings amounted to near 5,000,000 dinars of the present currency; but in our times the goverrment only obtains 1,202,000 dinars" (407). About Rum, which embraced western Armenia, he said: "Its revenues at the present day amount to 3,300,000 [217] dinars as set down in the registers; but during the time of the Saljuqs they were in excess of 15,000,000 dinars of the present currency" (408). The walls of Sebastia/Sivas were in ruins (409);Awnik was in ruins (410); Bayburt "was a large town; it is now but a small one" (411); Mush "in former times a large city, but now a ruin" (412); Berkri "a small town, that was a large place formerly" (413); "Van is a fortress and Vastan (Ostan) was a large town formerly, but now only of medium size" (414). Xlat' "is the capital of this province [Greater Armenia] and its revenues in former days amounted to near 2,000,000 dinars of the present currency; but now the total sum paid is only 390,000 dinars" (415) . Until the Saljuq invasions, Siwnik' had some [218] 1,000 villages, while at the end of the 13th century, the figure had declined by 331 to 677 villages. According to Samuel of Ani and Matthew of Edessa, the former Arcrunid kingdom in Vaspurakan had over 4,000 villages, but 13th and 14th century authors speak of that area with distress, as if describing a desert (416). Furthermore, in the 1350's the trade routes shifted away from the northern cities of Ani and Kars, to southern cities of Xlat' , Mayyafarikin/Np'rkert, and Archesh, helping to impoverish northeastern Armenia (417). Not surprisingly, it is precisely from the mid-14th century that the great naxarar families of northeastern Armenia quickly fade from the sources, literary and inscriptional. Influential Zak'arids, Vach'uteans and Prosheans (known as such, and not by a different surname) are unknown after 1360, and noteworthy Orbeleans and Dop'eans are rnentioned last at the end of the 14th century (418).
An important aspect of the Turkmens'
triumph concerns the settlement of Turco-Mongol populations across
the Armenian highlands. Regrettably, the sources do not contain
much information on this question. The sources mention Mongols
established in the area between Erzinjan, Bayburt, and Sebastia/Sivas;
Qara-Qoyunlu Turkmen in the Lake Van basin; Aq-Qoyunlu Turkmen
in the Amida-Diyarbakr area (419). Presumably some of those areas
of southern and western Armenia which the nomads used for their
yaylas eventually were transformed into sedentary communities.
In the 1403-1406 period, Clavijo encountered but two yaylas,
one near Bekarhich and the other in Ernjak, though clearly there
must have been more (420). Johan Schiltberger speaks of Turkmens
in the Samsun area, renting pasturage (421). With time, more and
more Turkmens began settling in or near cities. Clavijo observed
that both Erzinjan and Ani--two traditionally Armenian cities--had
Turkmen governors, and that Bekarhich had an Armenian and a Turkish
suburb (422).
Naxarar
reactions to the different control techniques used by the Mongols
before and after their Islamization were varied, but contained
no elements previously unknown in the long history of the naxarars.
We have observed naxarar reaction to the invasions: when
united military resistance proved impossible, the naxarars
holed up in their mountain fortresses; when they learned that
the Mongols spared those submitting peaceably, the naxarars
submitted, making separate often highly advantageous arrangements
with their new overlords. As for the domination, naxarar
reactions to Mongol control techniques in the 13-14th centuries
may be grouped under five major headings. The lords (1) attempted
when possible to exploit the rivalry between different centers
of Mongol authority; (2) rebelled, when feeling themselves sufficiently
powerful or when driven to it by Mongol excesses; (3) emigrated
from the Armenian highlands in large numbers; (4) Islamized in
large numbers, and (5) withstood everything, retaining the Christian
faith and also a certain leverage with the Turco-Mongol regimes.
Some lords of totally impregnable fortresses became caravan-looters
and bandits. Other lords sometimes were able to retain certain
privileges and even family lands through the process of giving
their [221] lands to religious establishments under the control
of clerical representatives of the secular lord's own family.
The naxarars traditionally attempted
to exploit big power rivalries whenever they believed that they
stood to gain leverage thereby. This required the existence of
two or more foreign rivals powerful enough potentially to balance
each other and also willing to intervene militarily or diplomatically
in the Caucasus. Did such a situation exist in the 13-14th centuries?
At certain times it did, although it did not produce the results
hoped for by the naxarars. The two Mongol rivals were the
Il-Khan state in Iran, centered at Tabriz, and the state of the
Norther Tatars (the Golden Horde) centered at Sarai on the Volga
river. The rivalry batween these two, which broke into open warfare
in the mid-1260's, rnanifested itself at least twenty years earlier.
Influence over the Caucasus, which each side regarded as its own,
was but one factor in this dispute, but the crucial one from the
standpoint of certain Caucasian lords seeking maneuverability.
At the time of the Mongol conquest (1236),
queen Rusudan of Georgia fled for safety to the distant city of
Kutais in northwestern Georgia. The Mongols sent emissaries (including
Armenian naxarars) to her demanding her submission and
that she send them her son David Rusudanean [222]:
...But she did not do so, and instead sent Iwane's son Awag who was among/in the Tatar army (= had already submitted) with a few soldiers to the Tatars, saying: "Until the ambassador whom I sent to the Khan your king returns, I cannot come to you" (423).
It was at this point that the enraged
Mongols enthroned Rusudan's nephew, the legitimate heir, David
Lashaean:
Now when David's aunt Rusudan heard about this, she fled to Abxazia and Svanetia with her son, the other David (i.e., David Rusudanean), and sent ambassadors to the other Tatar commander, Batu, a relative of the Khan ...She offered him her submission. Batu ordered her to reside in Tiflis, and no one opposed this, since during this time the [Great] Khan had died (424).
Rusudan's plans were thwarted when the
Mongols decided to enthrone both Davids, indicating that two could
play the same game. But with the deepening of hostilities between
the Il-Khans and the Northern Tatars, the question of Georgian
allegiance became crucial. Indeed, years later, when Hulegu was
planning to kill hostage members of king David Lashaean's family,
he was prudently stopped by his wife:
[223] Remember too that your brother, the great khan Batu's son [Berke] has sent many emissaries and given great gifts [to David] so that they give [him] the Darial [pass] and the western highway, and that both are in his (David's) hands ...for should the army of Batu's ulus and that of the [Georgian] king unite, there shall be great disorder (425).
In the very last years of the 13th century
once again the Georgian king attempted alliance with the Northern
Tatars, sending his son and brother to them. Despite his disloyalty,
the Il-Khans were sufficiently concerned to seek reconciliation
with the king "so that the king would swear an oath of loyalty
to Ghazan, and not permit passage to Batu's grandson, the great
Khan Toqta" (426). With the deterioration of the sources
in the 14th century, references to alliances with the Northern
Tatars disappear. However, the Northern connection remained a
double-edged sword, as the events of the late 1380's were to prove.
Was the Georgian royal family alone
among the lords to attempt using the Golden Horde for leverage?
Apparently not. Hasan Jalal believed that he could achieve maneuverability
similarly. It was from Batu that Hasan received inju status
(ca. 1257) although eventually he too was [224] thwarted by local
Mongols and had to visit the Great Khan Mongke to complain. Probably,
however, naxarar attempts to play off the two inimical
Mongol states were not common.
It is interesting that at the very end
of our period, after all of Timur's decimations, enslavements
and executions we find at least one naxarar seeking leverage
from the rivalry of two strong powers. The Armenian governor of
Erzinjan, called Taharten by Clavijo and T'axrat 'an by T'ovma
Mecop'ec'i, was blamed by Clavijo for causing strife and warfare
between his Ottoman lord Bayazid, and Timur:
Now the causes that led to the Sultan of the Turks having knowledge of the Mongol Tartars and what indeed brought Timur first into Asia Minor, where he afterwards fought and conquered Sultan Bayazid, the causee thereof, I say, were these. The lord of the city of Arzinjan was at that time as already explained, the prince Taharten: and his territories neighbored those of the Turk. The Sultan had lately become most avaricious to possess all that region, and more especially to be master of that strong castle of Camag which Taharten jealously guarded as his own. Sultan Bayazid thereupon was prompted to send to Taharten a message demanding of him that he should pay tribute, and also that he should deliver into his care that castle of Camag.To this Taharten replied that willingly would he pay tribute, acknowledging the Sultan as his overlord, but that the Castle of Camag he would not deliver over to the Turks. To Taharten the answer shortly came back that it would be for his peace to deliver it up, otherwise he would certainly lose both it and his whole territory. Now prince Taharten had by this time already heard of Timur and his mighty deeds, and how he was engaged waging war in Persia, where all the Persian princes had been subjugated. Taharten therefore sent envoys to Timur, with gifts and letters, beseeching him that he would [225] come to his aid against the Turk, and he offered to place both himself and his territories completely at the disposal and service of Timur. Timur on this, despatched an envoy to Sultan Bayazid with letters in which he informed the Sultan that prince Taharten was become his subject and vassal. Hence for his own honor he, Timur, could not allow aught of dishonor to be done to Taharten or the matter should be requited at the Sultan's hands (427).
Another naxarar response to Mongol
control was rebellion and armed resistance. The naxarar
rebellions which already have been discussed in different contexts
in this study, all were caused by Mongol excesses. Nonetheless,
all of them failed because the Mongols controlled the loyalty
of certain principal lords who informed on the conspirators. At
times, Caucasian revolt amounted to little more than flight far
into the inaccessible mountains, but on other occasions, the rebels
did have some leverage or at least aid, be it the real or presumed
assistance (mostly diplomatic) from the Golden Horde, or be it
from alliance with Mongol rebels. The sources contain several
instances of such entente cordiale between Caucasian and
Mongol rebels (428). Given the numerical superiority of Mongol
troops, and their renowned discipline, and given the mountainous
[226] terrain of Caucasia, such revolts always took the form of
guerrilla warfare. It is noteworthy that despite the demonstrated
exhaustion of Armenia during the 14th century, there still was
some scattered resistance offered to Timur:
...Now a pious tanuter named Martiros, an extremely strong warrior from the village of Koghb [in northeastern Armenia], mercifull, a lover of the poor, went up onto Bardogh mountain which others call T'akalt'u. With him were extremely manly and brave youths from the village. They saved all the Believers through a great battle and with the intrepid aiding power of mighty God, Jesus Christ, our Savior. And though [Timur's men] fought many times, they were unable to take that mountain. But subsequently [Martiros] was murdered by an unclean Turkmen named Sahat'--drowned in the waters of the Araz, far from human sight (429).
In addition to Koghb, the Prhoshean city of Shahaponk', and Surmari and Bjni also offered resistance to Timur (430). Most remarkable of all were the successes of the Georgian monarch against Timur. In the early yeara of the 15th century, king Giorgi VII undertook a marauding,. expedition of revenge against Muslim settlements. It was reminiscent of amirspasalar Zak'are's final campaign [227] through Naxijewan, Jugha, through Azarbaijan to Marand, Tabriz and Qazvin in 1211-12 (431).
Emigration of naxarars from Armenia
was caused by two factors: the breakdown of conditions deemed
essential by the mecatuns for international trade, and
(from the inception of Islamization) anti-Christian terror aimed
especially at the prominent and well-to-do. Emigration to escape
Mongol domination probably began in the 1220's during the decade
of chaos. Already by the time of the French Franciscan William
of Rubruck's visit to Ani (1255), even the Zakarids were looking
for [228] a way out:
...We came to the country of Sahensa (Shanhnshah) once the most powerful Georgian prince, but now tributary to the Tartars, who have destroyed all its fortified places. His father, Zacharias by name, had got this country of the Armenians, for delivering them from the hands of the Saracens.
I took a meal with this Sahensa; and he showed me great politeness, as did his wife and his son called Zacharias, a very fine and prudent young man, who asked me, whether if he should come to you [the Pope], you would keep him with you; for so heavily does he bear the domination of the Tartars, that though he has abundance of all things, he would prefer to wander in foreign lands to bearing their domination. Moreover, they told me that they were sons of the Roman Church; and if the lord Pope would send them some assistance, they would themselves subject all the neighboring countries to the Church (432).
The sources contain no references to
emigration of naxarars and their dependents en masse,
of the sort known from earlier times. Nor may much specific be
said about emigration in the 13th century generally, beyond the
fact that it occurred (and probably was widespread) , because
of a lack of information. Some 13th century colophons written
by clerics from Greater Armenia merely mention the fact that the
authors themselves fled from the Mongols, sometimes adding the
name of an occasional lord who also left. Cilicia seems to have
been a favorite refuge for many Greater Armenians, though colophons
written in Armenian centers [229] in Italy are not unknown. In
the 14th century, the Crimea became a favorite refuge for mecatun
merchants, and its trading capital of Kafa also became a major
center of Armenian culture (433).
Given the inextricable connection between
the Church and the State in Armenia, it should come as no surprise
that the powerful families diversified their talents and wealth
into both areas in the 13-14th centuries. Just as in Arsacid times,
in this period also the bishop of a given district usually was
the brother or other close relation of the district's secular
lord. When a given regime granted the Church tax-free status or
other privileges, the secular lords attempted to transfer the
family holdings to the (family) Church, to avoid paying taxes,
or to obtain other advantages. Each of the major naxarar
families groomed certain members (sometimes selected at birth)
for specific offices in the Church. Their ideal was the situation
obtaining in the late 13th century in Siwnik', ruled by the secular
naxarar Elikum Orbelean. The metropolitan of Siwnik' was
his brother, Step'annos (434). [230] With increasing frequency
the 13th century inscriptions mention the bestowing of lands and
villages on certain monasteries, and virtually all 14th century
inscriptions speak of it. The granting of land to the naxararized
churches was used as a device not only to avoid onerous land taxes
but also as a means of retaining control of the district in the
event of the naxarars' departure to another land, temporarily
or permanently. The Arcrunids, it will be remembered, had made
such an arrangement already in the 11th century when king Senek'erim
quit Vaspurakan but retained control of numerous monasteries (435).
Over many centuries the Arcrunid Xedenekeans and Sefedineans did
indeed retain control of some parts of Vaspurakan, especially
Aght'amar where they set up their own kat'oghikos in the
early 12th century. It is not impossible that the vardapet
Maghak'ia of the late 14th century, mentioned by T'ovma Mecop'ec'i,
was in eastern Armenia to keep an eye on the property of his prosperous
family, which had moved to the Crimea some time before:
...[Maghak'ia] was from the seaside city of Ghrim (Crimea), son of an extremely wealthy family. He left his inheritance and came to the great vardapet Yovhannes. Receiving from him the authority of vardapet, [Maghak'ia] went to the district of Naxchuan and constructed Armenian monasteries (436).