[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]




Footnotes 139-161


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