206 Spuler p. 26; KG's text ends with
an incomplete description of this invasion, p. 399; VA ch. 98:
"Now at the beginning of 1266/67, the governor of the North
named Berke (Bark'a) who had held the position of Batu and Sartakh
and was a Muslim, heard about the death of great Hulegu and he
came with a multitude [of troops] to the Kur river to display
his forces to the troops on this side of the river--troops of
Abaqa and his brother Ismud, to show that he was alive after the
death of their father. And Berke came and trampled them with little
care, as far as Hechn. All the Muslims there prayed in joy. But
those [people] on this side were terrified by this and walled
off the length of the river called Shibar and kept in all readiness
throughout the winter. Then Berke, having lost hope, returned
to his place. And in the summertime he died. They say that in
behavior he was not an agitator, and that he loathed blood-letting"
(VA p. 162).
207 KC; "During this period the
great Khan Berke came forth on the Darband highway to avenge [the
deaths of] Xut'ar, Balal-, and Ghul. Learning of this, Abaqa-Khan
summoned his army and king David, and set out. But when he realized
the size of Berke's army and its might, he did not cross the Kur,
but went up the banks, leaving troops where the Kur and the Arax
join, from there to Mc'xet'a. Berke ravaged the Shirvan country,
Heret'i, Kaxet'i, and the whole bank of of the Iori. The army
came as far as Tiflis. Countless Christians were killed, while
Berke-Khan encamped in the Garej mountains. Then God pitied the
land and Abaqa-Khan. Berke was seized with some sort of illness
and he died. Now his troops when they saw their Khan's decease,
picked up the corpse and passed through the Darband Gates. So
the land was pacified" (KC pp. 254-55; Mur. p. 126). SMP
p. 356.
208 HAP III p. 632; SEPHA pp. 161-62;
SMP p. 357; According to the KC, in the period prior to the death
of king David (d.1270), Teguder, brother of Baraq-Khan of Turan,
rebelled against Abaqa. The latter had granted Teguder summer
camping grounds on the Ararat mountains, wintering quarters on
the bank of the Arax plus Naxijewan, and tax-collecting rights
over the country belonging to Baraq there. Teguder and his brother
unsuccessfully plotted to overthrow Abaqa. When the plot failed,
Teguder went to Shavsheti and Acharia in Georgia and persuaded
the lord Sargis Jagheli to allow him to pass through. Meanwhile
Abaqa sent a force including Shahnsah's son Iwane the mandat'urt'-uxuc'es
and under the command of Chormahhun's son Shiremun, in pursuit.
Teguder was defeated and lost many men in a landslide. However
he and the survivors managed to reach David in Kutais where he
was royally entertained. "Frequently king David went to Teguder
and managed all the rituals and ceremonies, and so served before
him... The same was done by the queen, the daughter of the great
Palaeologus, ruler of Constantinople" (KC pp. 261-62; Mur.
p. 133). Now as soon as Shiremun returned to Abaqa with the good
news that Teguder was out of the way, a road-guard on the Khorasan
highway arrived saying that Baraq was on the move. Abaqa summoned
David and the Georgian army and they went, with the Georgians
serving as advance-attackers. While this was going on, Teguder
sent three commanders to raid Javaxet 'i. Teguder then ravaged
K'art'li (KC pp. 265-66; Mur. pp. 135-37).
209 HAP III p. 632; Allen p. 117; GA
ch. XVI pp. 375-77.
210 HAP III p. 634; SMP p. 363.
211 Ibid. KC p. 284; Mur. p.
152.
212 SMP pp. 370-71.
213 Het'um pp. 56-59; Abu'l-Fida (Nalb.
p. 238); BH p. 454 describes the capture and robbery of a caravan
of Christian merchants from Cilicia and Rum in 1276: "And
at [this] time (1276) the captain of the host of the fortress
of Zaid (Xarberd) whose name was Bishar, a wicked man and a shedder
of blood, an old man, one hundred years old, made up his mind
to flee to the Egyptians. For he had in his heart a hatred of
Mar Sarkis the bishop of the Armenians in the city of Arzengan,
who was a great man and who was honored by the king of the Huns
(Mongols). He determined to kill him and then to go away. And,
taking certain of his free men with him, he went to the country
of Arzengan. He heard that the saint was in one of his monasteries
preparing for Palm Sunday, and he lay in wait for him on the road.
And when the holy man rose up on the second day [of the week]
of the Sabbath of the Passion to go into the city, his son who
was great and famous, was also with him. And he said unto the
holy man, his father, 'Do thou go into the city, and I want to
go and occupy myself in such and such a village, where they want
to consecrate the church which they have built'. And his father
gave him permission to go, and he was not to stay too long. And
when they had separated from each other, three Turkish horsemen
came and met the holy man, and they dismounted and went to kiss
his hand. And they said unto him, 'An ambassador hath come and
he asketh for thee and thy son also to read the yarlikh
(i.e.,a Mongol patent or administrative order)
which he hath with him'. And the holy man said, 'My son hath gone
to such and such a village, but behold I will come'. And when
they had journeyed on a little farther, there fell upon them about
two hundred Turkish horsemen, and they killed the holy man and
the thirty souls, elders, monks, and other slaves, who were with
him. And they cut off his head, and they took it and went
and seized that village and they surrounded the church (wherein
was the son of the holy man) very carefully. And when they entered
the church they could not find him because there was a heap [of
grain] there, and he had hidden himself inside it. And when they
wanted to depart, one of those accursed infidels said, 'let us
set fire to this heap first, and then we will go forth'. And having
set fire to it the young man came forth only half alive. And the
Turks said unto him, 'Where is your father?' And he replied, He
has gone into the city'. Then they cast down before him his [father's]
head. And when he saw [it] he shrieked and fell down on the head
of his father. And then and there, as he fell down, they hacked
him limb from limb. And after these things that wicked old man
Bishar took his [diss. p. 135] sons and all his company of soldiers
and departed to the lord of Egypt" (BH pp. 455-56). See also
SA p. 162. According to BH, in the late l3th century, bands of
Turkmens, Mongols and Kurds were quite active in western Armenia
and northern Syria to Cilicia. In 1282 nomadic Turkish bands were
raiding around Xarberd (p. 465); 1285 raiding Arbil (p. 475);
1288 Mongols and Kurds were warring near Mosul (p. 477); 1289
marauding around Melitene/Malatya (p. 483-84); in 1290 Mongols
despoiled Kurdish farmers in Diyarbakr (p. 485); in 1291 Geikhatu
went against the Turkmens of Rum (p. 492), but in 1295 the Mongols
and Turkmens were still warring (p. 508);
Throughout the 13th century the Saljuqid
state was constantly being undermined by uncontrollable Turkmen
warriors, who in fact, eventually brought that state down. The
sources note Turkmen rebellions/rampages in 1239-40, 1261-62,
1276, 1277, 1286, 1290 (see DMH pp. 134-35;PT pp. 279, 280, 282,
286-88, 291, 293, 295-97. C. Cahen has observed that the Turkmens
benefitted from the disorganization of cohesive societies (PT
p. 299). Elsewhere, discussing the ethnic evolution of Asia Minor
he wrote: "There has already been occasion more than once
to mention in passing the new peoples which the Mongols' invasion
had driven into Asia Minor, at first by thrusting them back before
their own advance, later by carrying them along in their own ranks.
Some were Iranians, others Turkmens, and there were even Mongols
who were not solely garrison troops, but who settled down with
their livestock and families in the eastern half of the country.
In terms of numbers, there thus ensued an increase--which is impossible
to calculate--in these ethnic groups as compared with the stable
numbers of the natives; and there were also certain qualitative
modifications. Leaving aside the Mongols, the new Turkmens were
not the exact counterparts of the old ones, economically and culturally"...(PT
p. 314).
"The 0ghuz are not the only Turkish
people to have supplied Asia Minor with settlers. Among the Turkish
tribes some of whose members settled down there with the Mongols,
there were some who derived from other Turkish peoples, such as
the Uighur. There can and indeed must have been an absorption
of the Cumans/Qipchaqs whom Theodore Lascaris had installed on
the southern frontiers of the State of Nicea for the express purpose
of resisting the Turkmens. Moreover, the Mongols, who at the start
were an undifferentiated army of occupation, as their Empire disintegrated,
themselves seem to have become divided and reorganized into groups
of tribes. Some of these were named as being still in Anatolia
at the end of the 14th century in the histories of the qadi
Burhan al-Din or of the Karamanids sometimes being associated
with the Turkmens, sometimes hostile to them, in eastern and central
Anatolia, and emancipated from the princes even when the latter
were Mongols. Finally, many Kurds had been displaced. The distribution
of the tribes found in Diyarbakr in the 14th century was no longer
the same as had been known hitherto, and was already as known
in the 16th century. Moreover, it will be remembered, the Kurds
penetrated into Armeman regions where they had never previously
been recorded" (PT p. 316).
214 BH p. 481; SO 176-77; KC pp. 286-92;
Mur. pp. 154-59.
215 HAP III p. 636. Arghun, of course, had done the same: SO p. 172. For the end of the 1290's (c. 1296) both Orbelean and the KC speak of depredations caused by Mongol rebels (SO pp. 217-20; KC pp. 297-300; Mur. pp. 163-65).
216 E. A. Wallis Budge, The Monks
of Kublai Khan (London, 1928), Introduction; A.C. Moule, Christians
in China before 1550 (New York, 1930) ; J. J. Saunders' article,
"The Decline and Fall of Christianity in Medieval Asia",
Journal of Religious History #2 (1968) pp. 93-104; See
SMP ch.7, A. Bausani, "Religion under the Mongols",
pp. 538-49.
217 SMP pp. 370-71.
218 SMP pp. 379-80, 542. During the
first part of Ghazan's reign, persecution was severe (SA p. 164).
King Het'um of Cilician Armenia was able to calm Ghazan's wrath
temporarily, according to BH p. 505. Anti-Christian persecutions
had occurred prior to Ghazan's reign, in 1288 in Mosul (BH p.
482). See Armenian Neo-martyrs, bishop Grigor Karnec'i (d. 1321/22)
pp. 121-22.
219 Step'annos has recorded that Nauruz
received Ghazan's permission to extirpate Christianity: "Within
our borders, they robbed the churches of Naxijewan, enslaved and
tormented the priests; and they hauled off the doors of the chapels
and demolished the altars. However, the great chieftains did not
allow those churches to be pulled down which were respected by
the Georgian troops. They also came to the great [religious] seat
of Siwnik'and wanted to pull down the church, but through bribes
and violence we did not let them. They looted the monasteries
in the district of Naxijewan, but the other Armenian lands on
the other side of the Arax river were left alone, thank God"
(SO p. 221). SO then describes how the Syrian Catholicos was tormented
by the Mongols. King Het'um of Cilicia, enroute to Baidu was
at the Syrian Catholicosate at the time. "They seized the
bishop of Apostles' [church] lord Tirac'u and vilified him by
various indignities, and took all of his things. As for his monastery
which contained the sepulcher of the blessed apostle Thaddeus,
they pulled down the structure, ruined, robbed, and totally destroyed
it" (SO p. 221). King Het'um informed Baidu about the attacks,
and he simply claimed that it was Nauruz' doing, that he was ignorant
of the matter. A decree was promulaged permitting freedom of
worship. Meanwhile the philo-Christian Xut'lushah married Baidu's
daughter, and there was peace for Armenia. See also KC pp. 299-304;
Mur. pp. 165-69.
220 HAP III p. 637; Rashid III p. 171;
SO pp. 224-25.
221 SMP p. 533; HAP III pp. 640-41;
14CC #55 p. 41.
222 Alisan, Hayapatum, p. 526
14CC p 104.
223 SA p. 165 and BH p. 507 state that
already in Ghazan's day this practise was adopted and included
the Jews, who never had been a protected people under the Mongols.
SA p. 168; 14CC #178 p. 138, #61 p. 46,
#62 p. 47, #89 p. 66, #125 p. 92, #130 p. 96, #135 pp. 101-102.
"..In this year [1318/19] the entire Christ-glorifying flock
was troubled by the breath of Gharabandaghul, Khan of the Nation
of the Archers. Inspired by Satan, he ordered that taxes be collected
from all Christians because of their faith in Christ, and he ordered
that a blue mark/badge be sewn on the shoulders of Believers.
Beyond this, they took taxes from clerics, without the Khan's
order. Then the thrice-blessed, holy patriarch Zak'aria went after
the Khan as far as Babylon [and remained] one whole year. He received
from him a yarligh(arhlrhex) freeing the clerics and priests
from taxation, but they collected from the laymen and youths...And
in the spring of this year they collected the tax, but in autumn
the Khan died. Then there came Aghlaghlu, Sint'amur and Hasant'amur
with 1,300 men, and collected the tax a second time, but without
limit, and no one resisted them. The monks who were free, whom
they captured, they tortured with unbelievable torments and collected
limitless fines. The blessed congregation [of Varaga] fell into
their hands. They arrived, suddenly, secretly, at night. Everyone
fled, but those they seized they tortured so, that we are unable
to relate it...Others who had fled did not dare return to the
monastery for [the Mongols] kept coming, day and night troubling
us. Horrified by them, in fear and trembling we spent morning
and evening on the blessed mountain, in caves, and crevices of
rock. But they came every day and opened all the church doors
and small rooms and looted whatever they found...And we bore many
other sorrows, harassments and trials from all sides, in summer
and winter a fugitive, and sleeping out in the open on the blessed
mountain...For a long time we bore these and other troubles, and
for the love of the holy Cross, taking refuge in It, we did not
leave this holy congregation, [People from] the city and country
fled hither and thither, a silent meeting-place remained; but
we stayed firmly in place out of love for the holy Cross"
(14CC #178 p. 138).
Spuler writes: "On embracing Islam
[the Mongols] became of one faith with the numerous Turks of Iran,
who had long been solidly Muslim; and when the two peoples thus
ceased to be kept apart by religion, they fused into a new amalgam,
whose everyday tongue was Turkish. At the beginning of the 14th
century, the various Turkish tribes which, together with later
arrivals, have formed the backbone of the present Turkish-speaking
element in the population of Persia began to take definite shape.
The province of Azarbaijan, which as the center of Il-Khanid power
became the main focus of Turco-Mongol colonization, has remained
solidly Turkish-speaking ever since, the Mongol speech having
soon given way to the Turkish" (Spuler, p. 36).
224 On Ghazan's reforms see Spuler p.
37; SMP ch. 6 pp. 483-537, I.P. Petrushevsky, "The Socio-Economic
Condition of Iran under the Il-Khans", especially pp. 494-500.
For Armenia in particular, HAP III pp. 538-40; SEPHA pp. 273-82.
225 HAP III p. 641; Colophons speak
of religious persecution in Berkri (1318) 14CC #180 p. 144, Sebastia
(1320) #202 p. 162, #284 p. 226; Lorhi, #310 p. 249, Sebastia
again #316 p. 256, and Karin (1335) #333 p. 270. Erzinjan was
being harassed by Chobanids already in 1326/27 (SA p. 167). The
city was beseiged again in 1334 and again in 1336 (SA p. 168 ).
226 Spuler pp. 39-40.
227 See Alisan, Hayapatum, #353
p. 527 where prince K'urd II claims to have serve militarily from
1292-1335. With the Islamization of the Mongols, references to
Christian naxarars' service in the army disappear; See
KC pp. 311-17, 319-24; Mur. pp. 175-81, 183-87.
228 SMP pp. 413-17; 14CC #339 p. 276,
#347 p.281, #348 p. 283, #350 p. 285, #379 p. 306.
229 HAP IV (Erevan, 1972) ch. 1 pp.
15-23, L. A. Xach'ikyan, "Hayastane Chobanyanneri ev Jelairyanneri
tirapetut'yan zhamanakashrjanum [Armenia in the period of
the Domination of the Chobanids and Jalayirids]". HAP IV
pp. 15-16; Sebastia/Sivas was starved into submission in 1339
(SA p.168). 14CC #378 pp. 304-305.
230 HAP IV p. 17; Erzinjan was beseiged
and burned in 1339/40-1341/42 (SA p. 168); 14CC Erzinjan #400
p. 325, Sebastia #414 p. 334, Bayberd #433 p. 346, Vayoc' Jor
#448 p. 369, Divrigi #449 p. 369.
231 HAP IV p. 18; VT pp. 169-70; According
to SA p. 16 in 1348/4 there was famine; scribes from Aght'amar
report harassments in the early 1350's: 14CC #485 p. 405, #489
p. 408, at Erzinjan #493 p. 411; Aght'amar: #496 p. 414.
232 HAP IV p. 18.
233 HAP IV pp. 19-20; Spuler pp. 40-41,
54-55; SA p. 169; 14CC #519 p. 433.
234 HAP IV p. 20.
235 HAP IV p. 21; SA p. 170.
236 HAP IV p. 21; 1368 harassment of
Christians in Mush 14CC #590 p. 483; 1370 Ekegheac' district,
#601 p. 491; Aght'amar #607 p. 495; Kamax #681 p. 546.
237 HAP IV pp. 30-31; Mokk' 14CC #643
p. 520; Taron #652 p. 525.
238 HAP IV pp. 22-23; SA p. 171; 14CC
#700 pp. 559-60; TM pp. 12, 98.
239 J.J. Saunders, op.cit., p.
59.
240 The Continuator of Samuel of Ani
has the followin entry under 1386/87: "The Turks took the
fortress of Orotan and the great vardapet Kaxik went as
a fugitive to Car... In the same year T'oxtamish, Khan of Crimea,
dispatched troops to Persia. They came and entered Tabriz...they
destroyed and captured more than 20 x 10,000 men and women, then
crossed via Naxijewan and Siwnik' and went to their own land.
In the same year Lankt'amur came to Tabriz and Naxijewan and thence
in one day captured as far as Karbi and Bjni, to Garhni, Surmari
and Koghb. Thence he went to Georgia and made holy war (ghaza
arar) against the city of Tiflis. Capturing the king Bagrat,
he made him convert to Islam (tachkac'oyc'), then he went
and wintered in Mughan. At the onset of the next year, on the
day of Easter, he came to Siwnik' and spread all about. He went
after the Turkmens as far as the Amida river, turned back on the
city of Van, and beseiged it for 25 days. He captured it on a
Thursday...and threw everyone down from the fortress: 7,000 men.
Then he went to the land of Samarkand. After six years, once again
Timur came forth, descending into Baghdad where he killed many
people and built six minarets out of heads. He went to Syrian
Mesopotamia and killed many people there. Now the son of sultan
Ahmad was in the fortress of Ernjak. The Georgians came and took
it. When Timur heard this he was angered and came forth in great
rage. He went to Georgia causing much ruin and harm with sword,
fire, and captive-taking. He demolished the grandest churches
in Tiflis and thence descended to Syria. He approached Jerusalem
but did not enter. Then he turned back with much booty and went
to T'axt. The next year he went to Rum and took Kamax and many
other places. In Sebastia he buried more than 2,000 people alive,
then returned to his place. The next year he returned to Rum and
captured khan Yeltrum who had countless cavalry and troops. He
dispersed and captured all" (SA pp. 171-72). 14CC #709 pp.
567-68; Armenian Neo-martyrs, Vanak bishop of Bjni (d.
1387/88) p.136; HAP IV pp. 24-25.
241 HAP IV p. 26; "The commencement
of copying this gospel occurred in the year 1386/87 (A.E. 836)
in a bitter time when many places were devastated because of our
sins. A wicked Mahmetakan tyrant named Lank-T'amur arose in the
East with countless troops and enveloped Persia as far as the
Rum country. Coming to Armenia he demolished and enslaved everything
and pitilessly put to the sword all all the Armenians and Tachiks
whom he found. Oh, who can relate all his evil and the damage
he occasioned in various places. Now...this was finished in the
Kajberunik' country at the retreat called Manuk Surb Nshan, consecrated
by the apostle Thaddeus, and at the foot of [the church of] Georg
the General, during the patriarchate of Armenians of lord Zak'aria,
when the country was controlled by Ghara-Iwsiwf (Qara Yusuf),
a wicked, bitter, loathsome wrecker of the land...May God not
cause us to witness again what we have seen" (14CC #7I0 p.
569).
242 14CC #711 p. 570.
243 SA p. 171; 14CC #717 p. 573, #735
p. 590; 15CC A. pp. 286-87, 277-78; TM p. 30.
244 HAP IV p. 27.
245 TM p. 32.
246 HAP IV p. 28; l4Cc #756 p. 607,
#762 p. 611, #765 p. 613, #772 p. 618.
247 Spuler p. 67.
248 HAP IV p. 29.
249 14CC # 778 p. 621.
250 HAP IV p. 29 n. 43; Allen p. 124;
l4CC #784 p. 629.
251 HAP IV p. 30.
252 HAP IV p. 31.
253 HAP IV pp. 31-32.