Battle of Vardanakert

Last updated
Battle of Vardanakert
Datec. 702/703
Location
Varnakert, North to the mountain Ararat, near the riverbanks of Araxes, Armenia
Result Armenian victory
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate Bagratuni
Commanders and leaders
Ostikan of Arminiya Smbat VI Bagratuni
Strength
8,000 2,000

Battle of Vardanakert was fought between an Arab garrison and Armenians. The Armenian prince Smbat VI Bagratuni defeated the 5,000-strong Umayyad army from the garrison in Nakhichevan. [1] Struck by a surprise attack, the remaining Arabs fled to the river Araxes and either drowned or froze to death. [1] Smbat, chosen to rule by Byzantine commission, managed to re-conquer the majority of Armenia and drive the Arabs out of the country. [2]

Contents

Aftermath

Despite this success, the Umayyad generals Muhammad ibn Marwan and Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik soon restored Armenia to subject status. [lower-alpha 1] Muslim control was secured by organizing a large-scale massacre of the princely families ( nakharar ) within the cathedral of Nakhchivan, which was burned, in 704. [2]

Notes

  1. Macler states it was the Arab commander Qasim that invaded and reconquered Armenia. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umayyad Caliphate</span> Second Islamic caliphate (661–750 CE)

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, also known as the Umayyads. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mu'awiya I</span> Founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 680

Mu'awiya I was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashidun ('rightly-guided') caliphs. Unlike his predecessors, who had been close, early companions of Muhammad, Mu'awiya was a relatively late follower of the Islamic prophet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Walid II</span> Eleventh Umayyad caliph (r. 743–744)

Al-Walīd ibn Yazīd usually known simply as Al-Walid II was an Umayyad Caliph who ruled from 743 until his assassination in the year 744. He succeeded his uncle, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yazid III</span> Umayyad caliph in 744

Yazīd ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik usually known simply as Yazid III was the twelfth Umayyad caliph. He reigned for six months, from April 15 to October 3 or 4, 744, and he reigned until his death.

Smbat I was the second king of the medieval Kingdom of Armenia of the Bagratuni dynasty, and son of Ashot I. He is the father of Ashot II and Abas I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arab–Byzantine wars</span> Series of wars between the 7th and 11th centuries

The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim-Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 11th century. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Muslim conquests</span> Historical process in the 7th and 8th centuries CE

The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests, also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He established a new unified polity in Arabia that expanded rapidly under the Rashidun Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate, culminating in Islamic rule being established across three continents. According to Scottish historian James Buchan: "In speed and extent, the first Arab conquests were matched only by those of Alexander the Great, and they were more lasting."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim conquest of Armenia</span> Arab Rashidun Caliphate conquest of Armenia

The Muslim conquest of parts of Armenia and Anatolia was a part of the Muslim conquests after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632 CE. Persarmenia had fallen to the Arab Rashidun Caliphate by 645 CE. Byzantine Armenia was already conquered in 638–639.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arminiya</span> Province of the Arab Caliphates

Arminiya, also known as the Ostikanate of Arminiya or the Emirate of Armenia, was a political and geographic designation given by the Muslim Arabs to the lands of Greater Armenia, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania, following their conquest of these regions in the 7th century. Though the caliphs initially permitted an Armenian prince to represent the province of Arminiya in exchange for tribute and the Armenians' loyalty during times of war, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan introduced direct Arab rule of the region, headed by an ostikan with his capital in Dvin. According to the historian Stephen H. Rapp in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam:

Early Arabs followed Sāsānian, Parthian Arsacid, and ultimately Achaemenid practice by organising most of southern Caucasia into a large regional zone called Armīniya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagratid Armenia</span> Armenian state ruled by the Bagratuni dynasty (885–1045)

Bagratid Armenia was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I Bagratuni of the Bagratuni dynasty in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of the two contemporary powers in the region—the Abbasids and Byzantines—too preoccupied to concentrate their forces in subjugating the region, and with the dissipation of several of the Armenian nakharar noble families, Ashot succeeded in asserting himself as the leading figure of a movement to dislodge the Arabs from Armenia.

Smbat VI Bagratuni was a member of the Bagratuni family who was presiding prince of Armenia with interruptions from 691 to the 710s. During his reign, he frequently shifted alliances between the Byzantines, who gave him the title of kouropalates, and the Umayyads. He was the son of Varaz-Tirots III Bagratuni, and the uncle of Ashot III Bagratuni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim conquest of Transoxiana</span> 7th and 8th-century conquests in Asia

The Muslim conquest of Transoxiana or Arab conquest of Transoxiana were the 7th and 8th century conquests, by Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs, of Transoxiana, the land between the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, a part of Central Asia that today includes all or parts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbasid Revolution</span> 747–750 overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate

The Abbasid Revolution, also called the Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment, was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate, the second of the four major Caliphates in Islamic history, by the third, the Abbasid Caliphate. Coming to power three decades after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyads were an Arab empire ruling over a population which was overwhelmingly non-Arab. Non-Arabs were treated as second-class citizens regardless of whether or not they converted to Islam, and this discontent cutting across faiths and ethnicities ultimately led to the Umayyads' overthrow. The Abbasid family claimed descent from al-Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gagik I Artsruni</span> King of Vaspurakan

Gagik I Artsruni was an Armenian noble of the Artsruni dynasty who ruled over Vaspurakan in southern Armenia, first as prince of northwestern Vaspurakan and after that until his death as King of Vaspurakan, also claiming the title of King of Armenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagratuni dynasty</span> Royal dynasty of Armenia

The Bagratuni or Bagratid dynasty was an Armenian royal dynasty which ruled the medieval Kingdom of Armenia from c. 885 until 1045. Originating as vassals of the Kingdom of Armenia of antiquity, they rose to become the most prominent Armenian noble family during the period of Arab rule in Armenia, eventually establishing their own independent kingdom. Their domain included regions of Armenia such as Shirak, Bagrevand, Kogovit, Syunik, Lori, Vaspurakan, Vanand and Taron. Many historians, such as Cyril Toumanoff, Nicholas Adontz and Ronald Suny, consider them to be the progenitors of the Georgian royal Bagrationi dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relief of Qasr al-Bahili</span> Battle in the Umayyad conquest of Transoxiana

The Relief of Qasr al-Bahili was the successful relief of the Arab garrison of the small fortress of Qasr al-Bahili from the siege by the Turkic Türgesh Khaganate. Sent by the Umayyad Caliphate's governor of Khurasan, an Arab relief force under al-Musayyab ibn Bishr al-Riyahi managed to break the siege and escort the garrison to safety in Samarkand.

The Bukhar Khudahs or Bukhar Khudats were a local Sogdian dynasty, which ruled the city of Bukhara from an unknown date to the reign of the Samanid ruler Isma'il ibn Ahmad, who incorporated Bukhara into the Samanid state.

Abu al-A'war Amr ibn Sufyan ibn Abd Shams al-Sulami, identified with the Abulathar or Aboubacharos of the Byzantine sources, was an Arab admiral and general, serving in the armies of the Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman rejecting the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali, instead serving Umayyad caliph Mu'awiyah.

Tughshada was Bukhar Khudah from 681 to 739. He was the son and successor of Bindu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Jazira (caliphal province)</span> Province of Arab Islamic Caliphates

Al-Jazira, also known as Jazirat Aqur or Iqlim Aqur, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, spanning at minimum most of Upper Mesopotamia, divided between the districts of Diyar Bakr, Diyar Rabi'a and Diyar Mudar, and at times including Mosul, Arminiya and Adharbayjan as sub-provinces. Following its conquest by the Muslim Arabs in 639/40, it became an administrative unit attached to the larger district of Jund Hims. It was separated from Hims during the reigns of caliphs Mu'awiya I or Yazid I and came under the jurisdiction of Jund Qinnasrin. It was made its own province in 692 by Caliph Abd al-Malik. After 702, it frequently came to span the key districts of Arminiya and Adharbayjan along the Caliphate's northern frontier, making it a super-province. The predominance of Arabs from the Qays/Mudar and Rabi'a groups made it a major recruitment pool of tribesmen for the Umayyad armies and the troops of the Jazira played a key military role under the Umayyad caliphs in the 8th century, peaking under the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, until the toppling of the Umayyads by the Abbasids in 750.

References

  1. 1 2 Hoyland 2015, p. 155.
  2. 1 2 3 Macler 1923, p. 156.

Sources

40°17′19″N44°58′46″E / 40.2885°N 44.9795°E / 40.2885; 44.9795