| Siege of Ani | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Byzantine–Seljuk wars | |||||||
 Ani walls. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Byzantine Empire | Seljuk Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Duke Bagrat Gregory | Alp Arslan Nizam al-Mulk | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy | Unknown | ||||||
In 1064, the Seljuk Sultan, Alp Arslan, besieged the fortified city of Ani. After a siege of 25 days, the Seljuks captured the city.
In 961, king Ashot III (953–77) transferred the capital from Kars to Ani. Ani expanded rapidly during the reign of King Smbat II economically and culturally. [1] In the 10th century, the population was perhaps 50,000–100,000. [2] Its renown was such that it was known as the "city of forty gates" and the "city of a thousand and one churches." Ani also became the site of the royal mausoleum of Bagratuni kings. [3]
In 1045, the Byzantine emperor, Constantine IX Monomachos, organized a new expedition for the conquest of the city. assisted by the shaddadid ruler, Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl. The Armenian king, Gagik II, was invited by the emperor to Constantinople, declaring he would be made ruler of Ani and Shirak. Gagik accepted, and thus Ani fell to the Byzantines; however, it was a ruse. The Byzantines deposed Bagratuni dynasty and other local people and appointed mercenaries to rule the city. [4]
During this time, the Seljuks began a military expedition to northeastern Anatolia under Ibrahim Inal and Tughril I. [5]
The newly consolidated Seljuk sultan, Alp Arslan, aimed to increase the size of his borders in 1064, beginning with the wealthy neighboring regions of Armenia and Iberia. Setting out to mount a campaign, he gathered skilled Arab and Persian technicians to outfit his army with siege engines. [6]
Ani served as the campaign's strategic goal. The Sultan proceeded in a circle, subduing the mountainous regions north of Ani before moving on to Georgia, where he defeated and vassalized King Bagrat IV. Before that, the Byzantine strongholds in the Araxes Valley and further west were taken by another division led by Vizier Nizam al-Mulk. These two Seljuk armies joined together on Ani at the start of July 1064. [6]
The city was commanded by two Byzantine generals, Duke Bagrat and Gregory. [7] The city was said to be impossible to conquer. [8] The city was located on a rocky peninsula overhanging a rapid river. A deep ravine to the west of the river protected the city. [9] The Seljuks began setting up their tents, and the garrison cavalry initially thought they were merchants. However, they realized the truth, and they fled to the city. [10]
The defenders were ill-prepared and in short supply, which put them in a difficult situation. In addition, supplies were scarce, and there was a strained relationship between the populace and the commanders. [11] [6] According to Ibn al-Athir, the sultan, realizing he could not breach the walls, ordered the construction of battering rams, placed hay on top of them, and had the soldiers inside to attack. [12]
Meanwhile, the Seljuks managed to destroy a portion of the walls due to undermining works with underground tunnels. The Seljuks entered the city on August 16 after a siege of 25 days. [6] [13] The defenders of the walls escaped and fortified themselves for a while in the citadel, but later escaped. [6] The commanders of the city were captured. [14]
The massive silver cross from the Ani Cathedral was taken down and set down on the Nakhichevan Mosque's doorstep so that worshippers could tread on it as they entered. [6] Alp Arslan made his first Friday prayer in the cathedral, which changed its name to Fethiye Mosque. [15] However, the city was quickly rebuilt. The Sultan had a portion of the prisoners rebuild the destroyed houses and walls and occupy them with new settlers. [16]
The Abbasid caliph, Al-Qa'im, praised the Sultan for his victory and gave him the title "Abul-Fath." [17] The Armenian king of Kars, Gagik, pledged allegiance to the Sultan; however, he left the city and gave his lands to the Byzantines. [18] [19] [20]
Alp Arslan, born Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri, was the second sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, in 1071, ushered in the Turkmen settlement of Anatolia.
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District. As of 2022, its population was 91,450. Kars, in classical historiography (Strabo), was in the ancient region known as Chorzene, part of the province of Ayrarat in the Kingdom of Armenia, and later the capital of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia from 929 to 961. Currently, the mayor of Kars is Türker Öksüz. The city had an Armenian ethnic majority until it was re-captured by Turkish nationalist forces in late 1920.
George II, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king (mepe) of Georgia from 1072 to 1089. He was a son and successor of Bagrat IV and his wife Borena of Alania. Unable to deal effectively with the constant Seljuk Turkish attacks and overwhelmed by internal problems in his kingdom, George was forced to abdicate in favor of his energetic son David IV, to whom he remained a nominal co-ruler until his death in 1112. He also held the high Byzantine titles of curopalates and caesar.
Bagrat IV, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King (mepe) of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuk Empires. In a series of intermingled conflicts, Bagrat succeeded in defeating his most powerful vassals and rivals of the Liparitid family, bringing several feudal enclaves under his control and reducing the kings of Lori and Kakheti-Hereti, as well as the emir of Tbilisi to vassalage. Like many medieval Caucasian rulers, he bore several Byzantine titles, particularly those of Nobilissimus, Kouropalates, and sebastos.
Gagik II was the last Armenian king of the Bagratuni dynasty, ruling in Ani from 1042 to 1045.
Vahram Pahlavuni was an Armenian military commander and official in Bagratuni Armenia. He was the head of the noble family of Pahlavuni, who held the hereditary title of sparapet (general-in-chief) in the Bagratuni kingdom of Armenia.
The Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget, alternatively known as the Kingdom of Lori or Kiurikian Kingdom by later historians, was a medieval Armenian kingdom formed in the year 979 by the Kiurikian dynasty, a branch of the Bagratuni dynasty, as a vassal kingdom of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia. The first capital of the kingdom was Matsnaberd, currently part of modern-day Azerbaijan.
Shirakavan ; founded as Yerazgavors and later Yerazgavork, was a medieval Armenian city and one of the 13 historic capitals of Armenia, serving as a capital city between 890 and 929 during the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia.
Ani is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia.
Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadid dynasty. Between 1049 and 1067 he was the eighth Shaddadid ruler of Arran from Ganja. Prior to that, he ruled the city of Dvin from 1022 as an autonomous lord. A capable warrior, and a wise and cunning ruler, Abu'l-Aswar was engaged in several conflicts with most of his neighbours. During his rule over Dvin, he was mostly involved in the affairs of the Armenian principalities. He collaborated with the Byzantine Empire in its conquest of the last remnants of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, but when the Byzantines later turned on him, he survived three successive offensives that sought to take Ganja. In 1049, a revolt in Ganja overthrew his infant great-great-nephew, Anushirvan. The rebels invited him to take up the family's emirate, and he moved from Dvin to Ganja. Under his rule, the Shaddadid dynasty reached its zenith. He undertook successful campaigns into Georgia and Shirvan, although the limits of Shaddadid power were exposed by his failure to take over the Emirate of Tiflis and by devastating raids by the Alans. At the same time, his reign witnessed the rapid rise of the Seljuk Empire and the extension of its control over the Transcaucasian principalities. Abu'l-Aswar became a Seljuk vassal in 1054/5. Although he gained control over the former Armenian capital of Ani through Seljuk patronage in 1065, this association also paved the way for the dynasty's decline after his death in November 1067.
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 on 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.
Khachik II was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1058 and 1065. He succeeded his uncle Peter I of Armenia still in the city of Ani. He was summoned to Constantinople on the assumption that his uncle had been in possession of the treasures of the Armenian kings which the emperor wanted, but Peter did not have any of it. Khachik remained there for three years and the emperor tried to get the Armenians to switch to using the Greek religious rites. The clergy drew up a statement that they would never submit to the Greek rite, causing the Byzantines to look upon the Armenians as infidels.
John I was an 11th-century Georgian general and duke (eristavi) of Kldekari, Argveti, and Orbeti-Samshvilde of the House of Liparitid-Baguashi from 1059 to 1080/89.
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The Georgian–Seljuk wars, also known as Georgian Crusade, is a long series of battles and military clashes that took place from c. 1048 until 1213, between the Kingdom of Georgia and the different Seljuqid states that occupied most of Transcaucasia. The conflict is preceded by deadly raids in the Caucasus by the Turks in the 11th century, known in Georgian historiography as the Great Turkish Invasion.
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Kingdom of Kars, alternatively known as the Kingdom of Vanand, was a medieval Armenian kingdom formed in the year 963 by the son of Abas I of Armenia, Mushegh Bagratuni. The capital of the kingdom was Kars, currently part of modern-day Turkey.
The Kiurikian or Kiurikid dynasty was a medieval Armenian royal dynasty which ruled the kingdoms of Tashir-Dzoraget (978-1118) and Kakheti-Hereti (1029/1038-1105). They originated as a junior branch and vassals of the Bagratid dynasty, but outlived the main branch of the dynasty after the fall of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia. They became vassals of the Seljuk Turks in the second half of the 1060s. After the fall of the Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget to the Seljuks in the early 12th century, members of the dynasty continued to rule from their fortresses of Tavush, Matsnaberd and Nor Berd until the 13th century.
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