Chronologically, the first incursion
was made in 1220/21 by a detachrnent of some 20,000 Mongols who
had been sent across Central Asia by Chingiz-Khan in pursuit of
the Shah of Khwarazm (162). The latter succeeded in evading [95]
his pursuers and had, in fact, died in obscurity on an island
in the Caspian Sea the same time the Mongols were entering the
Caucasus (163). The Mongols' route into Armenia was from the southeast,
from western Naxijewan north to the Aghstev region. A certain
disagreement exists among the sources regarding the location(s)
of the Mongols' first battle(s) with Caucasian forces. But the
outcome apparently was that some 10,000 Armenians and Georgians,
commanded by king Georgi IV Lasha of Georgia and his atabek
Iwane Zak'arean were defeated in the Kotman area of northeastern
Armenia (164) [pages 96-97 are footnotes, continuing note #164).
Through espionage the Mongols [98] learned of an alliance forming
against themselves to include besides Armenians and Georgians,
those forces still loyal to the rulers of Xlat' and Azarbaijan.
Consequently, without delay the Mongols invaded Georgia in January,
1221 taking along an Azarbaijani defector plus his troops of Turkmens
and Kurds whom they obliged to fight in the vanguard--a typical
Mongol battle tactic (165). Northern Armenia and southeastern
Georgia were looted, and then the invaders returned to their base
in Utik' . In spring of the same year they moved south toward
Tabriz, plundering and destroying the cities of Maragheh, Hamadan,
Naxijewan, Ardabil, and later Utik's largest city, Baylakan, carrying
off large herds of horses, mules, donkeys, oxen and sheep (166).
Despite its success, this army had not been sent for conquest
but to pursue the Khwarazm Shah and to conduct reconnaissance
for future operations. Thus, considering their mission accomplished,
the Mongols departed via the Caucasus mountains to the north,
destroying the city of Shamk'or enroute (167). Seen in retrospect,
this Mongol campaign, conducted by a relatively small army of
20,000 was nothing short of astounding, accomplishing the defeat
of 20 peoples and a complete circuit of the Caspian in less than
two years (168).
The second invasion of the Caucasus took place immediately after the Mongol departure in 1222, and was caused by it. This time the participants were nomadic Qipchaq Turks from the plains to the north. In their turn defeated by the Mongols, one sizable body of Qipchaqs fled from them in a southward direction. Requesting dwelling places in the Caucaaus, they were disbelieved and refused at Darband, whereupon they pillaged and looted there;at the Georgian city of Kabala; and all the way south to the city of Ganjak in Caucasian Aghbania (169). [100]
The emir of Ganjak permitted the Qipchaqs
to settle in the environs of the city, intending to use them against
Georgian incursions. The atabek Iwane mustered troops and
went against them, but he was defeated, having underestimated
their strength. What was worse, many naxarars and didebuls
were captured, then killed or ransomed for huge sums of money
(170). The Qipchaqs continued looting and raiding
different parts of the Caucasus
until 1223 when Iwane, in alliance with Azarbaijanis, Lezghians
and other peoples finally defeated the Qipchaqs, killing or selling
them into slavery (171). The Qipchaq raids, though less serious
than the invasions which preceded and succeeded them, nonetheless
contributed to the continued unsettled state of affairs initiated
by the Mongols; depleted the Armeno-Georgian military of some
choice leaders; and undoubtedly weakened the army's morale.
The third devastation of Armenia took
place from 1225 to ca. 1230, during which time various parts of
the country were subjected to raids and invasions by the ethnically
diverse armies of the new Khwarazmshah, Jalal al-Din Mangubirdi
(172). Resembling his father, he offered stubborn and occasionally
successful resistance to his Mongol pursuers (173). This was,
however, at the expense [102] of other peoples, notably the Armenians
and Georgians. At the head of an army of some 60,000 Turkmens
and Qipchaq mercenaries, Jalal al-Din invaded northeastern Armenia
following the age-old route of invasion, through Naxijewan and
northward (174). He took and devastated Dwin, and at Garhni defeated
the 70,000 man strong Armeno-Georgian army commanded by Iwane
(175). This was followed by the capture [105] of Ganjak, Lorhi,
and Tiflis in which city a frightful massacre of Christians ensued
with the active participation of resident Muslims who looked upon
Jalal as a Liberator (176). The northern cities of Ani and Kars,
and the southern cities of Xlat' and Manazkert were besieged unsuccessfully
in 1226 (177). Certain areas such as Tiflis and Dwin soon were
[106] retaken by the Caucasians, but Jalal al-Din continued devastating
one or another section of Armenia until 1230 when he was decisively
beaten near Erzinjan by a united force composed of troops of Malik-Ashraf
of Xlat ', the Saljuq sultan of Rum, Kai-Qubad, Cilician and Crusader
detachments (178). Jalal was murdered the next year by a Kurdish
peasant (179). His raids and devastations [107] had lasted seven
years. Not only did he bring mass destruction of human life and
property, but also famine and pestilence, since, as Step'annos
0rbelean noted, Jalal al-Din and his unruly troops frequently
cut down fruit trees and vineyards and burned the crops (180).
[108] Following the deaths of king Georgi IV Lasha (1223) and
Iwane Zak'arean (1227), Christian Caucasia, already seriously
weakened now lost the possibility of united resistance against
attackers, and this at the very moment when it was needed most.
The fourth invasion of Armenia occurred
in 1236. It was short and merciless, and confined to the northeastern
and northern regions. In that year the Mongol general Chormaghun,
now established at the Mongol summer camp in the Mughan plain
of Azarbaijan, sent out detachments under various commanders to
capture all the key fortresses in northeastern Armenia (181).
Unlike the first appearance of the Mongols in the Caucasus which
had been for the pursuit of a fugitive, their reappearance now
was for the purpose of conquest and occupation. On this occasion,
the Mongols travelled with their families, carts, and herds--their
"portable economy" (182). Upon receiving news of the
return of the Mongols, the ruler of Georgia, queen Rusudan (1223-47)
with many of the naxarar/didebuls fled to the security
of western Georgia, while others secured themselves in their fortresses.
But no one was secure. Molar took the territories of Iwane's nephew
Vahram of Gag: Shamk'or, Sagam, Terunakan, Ergevank', Gag, Tawush,
Kacaret', K'awazin. The Kiwrikean fortresses of Macnaberd and
Nor Berd fell, and about the same time the clerical historians
Vanakan and Kirakos Ganjakec'i were captured. Ghatagha-noyin
took Gardman, Ch'arek', Getabek, and Vardanashat. Ghaghatai-noyin
took the Zak'arid holdings of Lorhi; and soon Dmanis, Shamshulde
and Tiflis fell. Iwane's son Awag surrendered when his fortress
of Kayean was beseiged by Dughata-noyin. Upper and Lower
Xach'en were taken by Jughbugha, while Aslan-noyin took
the Siwnik' district (183). [111] As will be seen in the next
chapter, in many cases the local Armenian princes, instead of
resisting surrendered to the Mongols, were spared, reinstated
in their holdings and sometimes even promoted. However, surrender
did not always elicit Mongol sympathy. Fearing the harsh fate
suffered by Ani, Kars surrendered but was devastated nonetheless
(184). Surmari was attacked and ravaged. Shirvan fell (185). Thus,
during the course of 1236 the Mongols [112]subjugated by sword or treaty all of
northeastern and northern Armenia. They met with no serious resistance
anywhere.
The Mongol conquest of western and southern
Armenia took place between 1242 and 1245. These lands, it will
be remembered, though inhabited by Armenians were under the political
domination of the Saljuqs or, in the case of Xlat', of the Ayyubids
(186). In 1242 Baiju-noyin (the successor of the former
supreme commander Chormaghun who had lost his hearing) took Karin/Erzerum
after a siege of two months. The population was massacred and
led away into slavery (187). The Mongols spent the winter of 1243
at [113] their base in Azarbaijan, but returned in springtime
to crush the forces of the Saljuq sultan of Rum, Ghiyath al-Din
Kai Khusrau at Kose Dagh/Chmankatuk near Erzinjan (188). [115]
The defeat of the Saljuqs at Kose Dagh was an event of the greatest
significance for the Armenians both locally, and abroad in the
independent state of Cilicia. Like dominoes the remaining key
cities of central Asia Minor fell: Erzinjan,Caesarea, Sebastia/Sivas,
Melitene/Malatya, and Divrigi (189). In 1245 Baiju captured Xlat',
Amida, Edessa, [116] and Nisibis (190). By that year the Armenian
populations, be they in Caucasian Armenia, western Armenia, southern
Armenia, or even Cilician Armenia were to a greater or lesser
degree all formally under the overlordship of the Mongols. A unique
situation had been created.
During the more than 100 years of Mongol domination, the Armenians experienced periods of benevolent, even enlightened, rule and of capricious, benighted misrule. From 1236-43 Mongol rule resulted in little if any radical change in the lives of Caucasian Armenians. As was mentioned above, many if not most of the naxarars retained control of their lands. Probably Mongol garrisons were maintained in the key cities, but, as was the case during the Saljuq conquests, it seems unlikely that there would have been enough troops to police all areas. During this early period the sources unanimously note that the Mongols returned each winter to the warm ivIu~han plain of Azarbaijan, so for part of the year the majority of them were outside of Armenia (though hardly very far away) (191). Apparently, prior to 1243 no permanent [117] formal taxes had been imposed on Armenia, the conquerors contenting themselves instead with the rich booty and plunder to be had from the many areas taken by military force (192). But the sources maintain that in 1243 by command [119] of the Great Khan Guyuk himself, taxes amounting to between 1/30th and 1/l0th ad valorem, were imposed on virtually everything movable and immovable and a heavy head tax of 60 silver drams was collected from males (193).
[120] The severity of the taxes and
the brutal manner of their collection triggered an abortive uprising
of the naxarar/didebuls in 1248/49. This rebellion, which
was discovered by the Mongols while still in the planning stages
was crushed at the expense of human and animal lives and crops
in numerous districts of northeastern Armenia and southern Georgia.
Some of the arrested Armenian and Georgian conspirators, unable
to raise the huge ransoms demanded .for their release were tortured
or killed (194). But the main [123] causes of the unrest remained
unaddressed by the Mongols.
After the accession of the Great Khan
Mongke (1251-39) a thorough census was raade of all parts of the
empire during l252-57(195). The Iranian emir Arghun personally
conducted the census of Caucasia in 1254. Although the study made
by Arghun has not survived, modern scholars estimate the Armenian
population of Greater Armenia (excluding Cilicia) to have been
about 4 million in the mid-13th century (196). The thoroughness
of Arghun's work boded ill for Armenian laborers. Kirakos Ganjakec'i
[124] described it as follows:
[Census-takers] also reached the lands
of Armenia, Georgia, Aghbania, and the districts around them,
and began recording all those from 11 years and up. excepting
the women. And they demanded the most severe taxes, more than
a man could bear. And people became impoverished. They harassed
the people with unbelievable beatings, torments, and tortures.
Those who hid were seized and killed. Those who were unable to
pay the rate had their children taken to pay their debt, for [the
census-takers] circulated around with Persian Muslim attendants..
all the artisans, whether in the cities or in villages were taxed.
Furthermore, fishermen of the seas and lakes, miners and blacksmiths
and painters/plasterers [were taxed] ... And they alone profitted.
They took all the salt mines in Koghb and in other regions.
Arghun similarly profitted greatly from
the merchants and heaped up vast quantities of gold, silver, and
precious stones. Thus everything became expensive and the lands
became filled with lamentation and complaints. Then he left in
charge of the lands a wicked governor (ostikan)
who demanded the same amount every year
by list, and in writing (197).
Another administrative change occurred
regarding Armenia in the mid-l3th century. This was the establishment
of the Il-Khanid Mongol state over the territory of Iran, and
the inclusion of Caucasia into it, beginning in 1256. Prior to
that time the Caucasus had formed a single administrative unit
composed of five yilayets. Of these five, the first two were areas
of Armenian population, namely 1) the Gurjistani
(Georgian) vilayet, and 2) the vilayet of Greater
Armenia. The Gurjistani vilayet consisted of eight tumans
or districts each capable of providing 10,000 soldiers. Three
of the eight tumans in the first vilayet were Armenian
and included Ani, Kars, northeasternmost Armenia, Siwnik' and
Arc'ax, The second vilayet, that.of Greater Armenia embraced
some of the quasi-independent Armenian principalities, such as
the Mamikonean/T'orhnikeans of Sasun and the Arcrunid Xedenekeans
of Vaspurakan. The center of this vilayet was Karin/Erzerum
(198).
Following the granting of Iran as a
hereditary appanage to Hulegu-Khan in 1256, the situation was
somewhat altered. First, Hulegu chose as his residence Mughan
in Azarbaijan which until then had been the camping grounds of
Baiju-noyin. Hulegu ordered the latter and all the [126]
nomadic Mongol and Turkmen warriors subordinate to him to evacuate
the Caucasus, in order to create room for his own entourage. With
considerable grumbling the displaced Baiju and his hosts moved
westward, sacking the cities of Erzerum, Erzinjan Sivas, Caesarea
and Konya as they went (199). Almost simultaneously some of Chingiz-Khan's
grandchildren descended on the Caucaeus through the Caspian Gates
in order to settle near their relation, Hule'gu. [127] This unruly
group also caused much damage as it travelled, and extorted whatever
it could from the sedentary population (200). The establishment
of the Il-Khanid state in 1256 brought about yet another change,
albeit one somewhat more difficult to evaluate than the damage
occasioned by nomads on the move. In the pre-Il-Khanid period,
those Armenian naxarars heading tumans in the two
Caucasian vilayets had had direct access to the Great Khan
of the Mongol empire in Qara-Qorum. Now, with the establishment
of the Il-Khanate (itself a vassal of the Great Khans) these same
nobles) became as it were sub-vassals whose direct access to supreme
and ultimate power was lost (201). On the other hand [128] the
proximity of new powerful masters as of 1256, plus the information
obtained by them from the census of 1254 had yet another immediate
ramification for the Caucasus. Now the naxarars were obliged
to participate in all military ventures of the Il-Khanids on a
regular ongoing basis, providing a specified number of troops
yearly. Armenian and Georgian warriors fought in all the major
Mongol campaigns in the Middle East from 1256 onward. This in
turn resulted in the deaths or enslavements of large numbers of
Christian Caucasians abroad, and, secondly in the absence of native
defenders within the Caucasus itself, where they were needed to
protect that area from the persistent raids and sorties of Mongols,
Turks, and local rebels (202).
Heavy taxation, coupled with the onerous
burden of military service in distant lands led, not unexpectedly,
to rebellion. The second Armeno-Georgian rebellion occurred between
1259 and 1261. Though of longer duration than the rebellion of
1248/49, this one too eventually was brutally crushed (203).
[130] Dealing with the rebellions of
subject peoples and waging war against Muslim powers in the Near
East were not the only military operations occupying Il -Khanid
generals. Beginning with 1261, the Caucasus became an occasional
theater of warfare between Il-Khanids and yet another Mongol state,
that of the Golden Horde centered in the lower Volga with its
capital at Sarai. The organizer of this state, Berke-Khan (1257-66)
a devout Muslim, was outraged by the anti-Muslim policies of the
shamanist Hulegu and especially by his massacre of the Muslim
population of Baghdad in 1258. Not only did Berke and his successors
attempt to infringe on the uncertain boundary between his realm
and Hulegu's (i.e., the Caucasus), but they also entered into
an alliance with the increasingly powerful Mamluk state in Egypt
(204). The latter were the most ferocious enemies of the Il-Khanids
in the Near East, and the only power to have dealt the Mongols
a severe military defeat there in 1260 (205).