House of Hasan-Jalalyan
Encyclopedia
The House
of Hasan-Jalalyan ( was an Armenian dynasty
that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh
) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh
, Nagorno-Karabakh
and small part of Syunik
. It was named after Hasan-Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince
from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols
as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and melik
s of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.
Through their many patronages of churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 16th century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan
and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda
and Dizak
, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."
n Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" according to historian Robert H. Hewsen
, a professor at Rowan University
and an expert on the history of the Caucasus
:
Much of Hasan-Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian nakharar
families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian but Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan
). Among the foremost revisionists
who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov
and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery
by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.
to the Byzantine Empire
in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of Kars
in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia
, Bagratid Armenia
, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia
were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori
and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, the combined Georgian
and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.
Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown; however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin
, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak
-Balk. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi
extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, lacing him with praise for his piety
and devotion to Christianity
:
A further testament to this devotion included Hasan-Jalal's commissioning of the Gandzasar Monastery
. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos
of Albania, the church was consecrated. The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 15th century, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.
Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim
influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan-Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arab
ic patronymics (kunya
) that lost any "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.
; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834.
In 1236, the Ilkhanate Mongol
armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum
, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan
. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan
at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan
drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."
Hasan-Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader. Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.
Finally, in 1260, Hasan-Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan-Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin
, (now in Iran
). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan
's wife Doquz Khatun
, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan-Jalal tortured and finally executed. Hasan Jalal's son Atabek ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.
and appended -yan to the end to form a suffix
. The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melik
doms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan
.
-Persian wars of the 17th century and 18th century, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 18th century, they aided the invading Russia
n armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728). In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa
had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori
, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.
In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813
. In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.
, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763–1786) and Sargis II (1794–1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan
as an artist
at the turn of 20th century. In later years, Soviet
sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840–1902), an Armenian writer, poet
and lawyer
who lived in the Russian Empire
.
Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger
, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum
in Saint Petersburg.
of Hasan-Jalalyan ( was an Armenian dynasty
that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh
) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh
, Nagorno-Karabakh
and small part of Syunik
. It was named after Hasan-Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince
from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols
as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and melik
s of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.
Through their many patronages of churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 16th century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan
and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda
and Dizak
, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."
n Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" according to historian Robert H. Hewsen
, a professor at Rowan University
and an expert on the history of the Caucasus
:
Much of Hasan-Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian nakharar
families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian but Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan
). Among the foremost revisionists
who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov
and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery
by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.
to the Byzantine Empire
in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of Kars
in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia
, Bagratid Armenia
, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia
were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori
and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, the combined Georgian
and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.
Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown; however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin
, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak
-Balk. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi
extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, lacing him with praise for his piety
and devotion to Christianity
:
A further testament to this devotion included Hasan-Jalal's commissioning of the Gandzasar Monastery
. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos
of Albania, the church was consecrated. The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 15th century, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.
Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim
influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan-Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arab
ic patronymics (kunya
) that lost any "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.
; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834.
In 1236, the Ilkhanate Mongol
armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum
, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan
. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan
at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan
drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."
Hasan-Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader. Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.
Finally, in 1260, Hasan-Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan-Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin
, (now in Iran
). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan
's wife Doquz Khatun
, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan-Jalal tortured and finally executed. Hasan Jalal's son Atabek ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.
and appended -yan to the end to form a suffix
. The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melik
doms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan
.
-Persian wars of the 17th century and 18th century, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 18th century, they aided the invading Russia
n armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728). In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa
had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori
, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.
In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813
. In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.
, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763–1786) and Sargis II (1794–1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan
as an artist
at the turn of 20th century. In later years, Soviet
sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840–1902), an Armenian writer, poet
and lawyer
who lived in the Russian Empire
.
Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger
, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum
in Saint Petersburg.
of Hasan-Jalalyan ( was an Armenian dynasty
that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh
) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh
, Nagorno-Karabakh
and small part of Syunik
. It was named after Hasan-Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince
from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols
as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and melik
s of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.
Through their many patronages of churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 16th century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan
and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda
and Dizak
, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."
n Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" according to historian Robert H. Hewsen
, a professor at Rowan University
and an expert on the history of the Caucasus
:
Much of Hasan-Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian nakharar
families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian but Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan
). Among the foremost revisionists
who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov
and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery
by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.
to the Byzantine Empire
in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of Kars
in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia
, Bagratid Armenia
, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia
were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori
and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, the combined Georgian
and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.
Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown; however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin
, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak
-Balk. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi
extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, lacing him with praise for his piety
and devotion to Christianity
:
A further testament to this devotion included Hasan-Jalal's commissioning of the Gandzasar Monastery
. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos
of Albania, the church was consecrated. The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 15th century, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.
Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim
influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan-Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arab
ic patronymics (kunya
) that lost any "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.
; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834.
In 1236, the Ilkhanate Mongol
armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum
, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan
. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan
at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan
drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."
Hasan-Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader. Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.
Finally, in 1260, Hasan-Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan-Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin
, (now in Iran
). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan
's wife Doquz Khatun
, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan-Jalal tortured and finally executed. Hasan Jalal's son Atabek ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.
and appended -yan to the end to form a suffix
. The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melik
doms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan
.
-Persian wars of the 17th century and 18th century, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 18th century, they aided the invading Russia
n armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728). In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa
had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori
, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.
In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813
. In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.
, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763–1786) and Sargis II (1794–1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan
as an artist
at the turn of 20th century. In later years, Soviet
sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840–1902), an Armenian writer, poet
and lawyer
who lived in the Russian Empire
.
Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger
, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum
in Saint Petersburg.
Articles
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources Orbeli, Joseph
. Асан Жалал дoла, Kниаз Xaчeнcки (Hasan-Jalal Dawla, Lord of Khachen). IIAN 3 (1909). Reprinted in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1963. Raffi
. The Melikdoms of Khamsa. (Խամսայի մելիքությունները). Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1964. Toumanoff, Cyril
. "Manuel de généalogie et de chronologie pour l'histoire de la Caucasie Chrétienne (Arménie-Géorgie-Albanie)." Edizioni Aquila, Roma, 1976. Ulubabyan, Bagrat
. Խաչենի իշխանությունը, X-XVI դարերում (The Principality of Khachen, From the 10th to 16th centuries). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1975.
Tertiary Sources Ulubabyan, Bagrat. "Hasan-Jalal Dawla" and "Hasan-Jalalyan Family" in Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences]], 1980. Board of editors of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, edited by Tsatur P. Aghayan et al. "Հայ ժողովուրդը Ֆեոդալիզմի վայրԷջքի ժամանակշրջանում, XVI-XVIII դդ" ("The Armenian People and the Period of Decline of Feudalism from the 14th to 18th century") in History of the Armenian People. vol. v. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1976.
Royal House
A royal house or royal dynasty consists of at least one, but usually more monarchs who are related to one another, as well as their non-reigning descendants and spouses. Monarchs of the same realm who are not related to one another are usually deemed to belong to different houses, and each house is...
of Hasan-Jalalyan ( was an Armenian dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh
Artsakh
Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...
) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh
Karabakh
The Karabakh horse , also known as Karabakh, is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse. It is named after the geographic region where the horse was originally developed, Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus, an area that is de jure part of Azerbaijan but the highland part of which is currently...
, Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
and small part of Syunik
Syunik
Syunik is the southernmost province of Armenia. It borders the Vayots Dzor marz to the north, Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave to the west, Karabakh to the east, and Iran to the south. Its capital is Kapan. Other important cities and towns include Goris, Sisian, Meghri, Agarak, and Dastakert...
. It was named after Hasan-Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
s of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.
Through their many patronages of churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 16th century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan
Nor Aznaberd
Nor Aznaberd is a hamlet in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The population of Nor Aznaberd migrated from Aznaberd village of Nakhichevan. Aznaberd was the only Armenian inhabited village in Nakhichevan in 1980s. The villagers called the hamlet Nor Aznaberd , referring to their origin. ...
and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda
Varanda
Varanda may refer to:* Fizuli Rayon, Azerbaijan* Qaradağlı, Khojavend, Azerbaijan...
and Dizak
Hadrut
Hadrut is a province of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It forms the southern border of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the most mountainous parts. Villages are primarily found along two river valleys and scattered in lower elevations on the very southern fringe...
, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."
Origins of the dynasty
Hasan-Jalal traced his descent to the Armenian Arranshahik dynasty, a family that predated the establishment of the ParthiaParthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
n Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" according to historian Robert H. Hewsen
Robert H. Hewsen
Robert H. Hewsen or Hewsenian is Professor Emeritus of History at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and is an expert on the ancient history of the South Caucasus.-Biography:...
, a professor at Rowan University
Rowan University
Rowan University is a public university in Glassboro, New Jersey, USA with a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a twenty-five acre tract of land donated by the town...
and an expert on the history of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
:
Nakharar
Nakharar was a hereditary title of the highest order given to houses of the ancient and medieval Armenian nobility.-Nakharar system:Medieval Armenia was divided into large estates, which were the property of an enlarged noble family and were ruled by a member of it, to whom the title of Nahapet...
families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian but Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan
Nakhichevan
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,363 km² and borders Armenia to the east and north, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest...
). Among the foremost revisionists
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov
Ziya Bunyadov
Ziya Musa oglu Bunyadov was an Azerbaijani historian, academician, and Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. As a historian, he also headed the Institute of History of the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences for many years...
and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.
Culture and religion
With the surrender of AniAni
Ani is a ruined and uninhabited medieval Armenian city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars, near the border with Armenia. It was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey...
to the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
, Bagratid Armenia
Bagratuni Kingdom of Armenia
The medieval Kingdom of Armenia, also known as Bagratid Armenia , was an independent state established by Ashot I Bagratuni in 885 following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule...
, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert , was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert...
in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia or Caucasian Armenia was the portion of Ottoman Armenia and Persian Armenia that was ceded to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829...
were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori
Kingdom of Lori
Kingdom of Lori alternatively known as the Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget or Kingdom of Albania, was an Armenian kingdom formed during the breakup of Bagratuni Armenia. The kingdom encompassed territories of modern-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia....
and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, the combined Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.
Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown; however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak
Hadrut
Hadrut is a province of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It forms the southern border of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the most mountainous parts. Villages are primarily found along two river valleys and scattered in lower elevations on the very southern fringe...
-Balk. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi
Kirakos Gandzaketsi
Kirakos of Gandzak was an Armenian historian of the 13th century and author of the History of Armenia, a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days. The work concentrates primarily on the history of Medieval Armenia and events...
extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, lacing him with praise for his piety
Piety
In spiritual terminology, piety is a virtue that can mean religious devotion, spirituality, or a combination of both. A common element in most conceptions of piety is humility.- Etymology :...
and devotion to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
:
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos
Catholicos of Armenia
The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...
of Albania, the church was consecrated. The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 15th century, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.
Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan-Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
ic patronymics (kunya
Kunya (Arabic)
A kunya is a teknonym, the name of an adult derived from their child, especially their eldest son, in Arabic names.A kunya is expressed by the use of abū or umm in a genitive construction, i.e "father of" or "mother of" as a honorific in place of or alongside given names in the Arab world and the...
) that lost any "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.
Hasan-Jalal's Armenian Synaxarion
Gandzasar became home to Armenia's first completed Haysmavurk (Synaxarion in GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834.
Mongol invasion
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...
armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum
Karakorum
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...
, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan
Ostikan
Ostikan was the title of various oriental provincial governors.-Arab caliphate:After the prophet Mohammed and his testator heir and successor Abu Bakr has established the theocratic rule of Islam on most of the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula, the armies of the next caliphs victoriously...
at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan
Batu Khan
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...
drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."
Hasan-Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader. Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.
Finally, in 1260, Hasan-Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan-Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, (now in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü, Hulegu , was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia...
's wife Doquz Khatun
Doquz Khatun
Doquz Khatun was a Turkic Kerait princess of the 13th century, who was married to the Mongol ruler Hulagu. Their son Abaqa succeeded Hulagu upon his death.She was known to accompany Hulagu on campaigns...
, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan-Jalal tortured and finally executed. Hasan Jalal's son Atabek ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.
Later family rule
Following his death, the family truncated Hasan-Jalal's official title to the shorter "Princes of Artaskh." Atabek was ordered by Hulegu to take over his father's position and held the post until 1306. His cousin Vakhtank, whose descendants would become the Melik-Avanyan family, was given control over the region of Dizak. As a method of showing their relation to Hasan-Jalal, his descendants adopted Hasan-Jalal as their surnameSurname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
and appended -yan to the end to form a suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
. The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
doms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan
Nor Aznaberd
Nor Aznaberd is a hamlet in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The population of Nor Aznaberd migrated from Aznaberd village of Nakhichevan. Aznaberd was the only Armenian inhabited village in Nakhichevan in 1980s. The villagers called the hamlet Nor Aznaberd , referring to their origin. ...
.
Liberation movement
During the TurkoOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
-Persian wars of the 17th century and 18th century, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 18th century, they aided the invading Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728). In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa
Julfa
Julfa or Culfa may refer to:*Jolfa, a city in the East Azarbaijan Province of Iran*Jolfa County, an administrative subdivision of East Azarbaijan Province of Iran*New Julfa, an Armenian quarter in Isfahan, Iran...
had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori
Israel Ori
Israel Ori was a prominent figure of the Armenian national liberation movement and a diplomat that sought the liberation of Armenia from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.-Early life:...
, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.
In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813
Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)
The 1804-1813 Russo-Persian War, one of the many wars between the Persian Empire and Imperial Russia, began like many wars as a territorial dispute. The Persian king, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, wanted to consolidate the northernmost reaches of his Qajar dynasty by securing land near the Caspian Sea's...
. In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.
Hasan-Jalalyans today
At the time of the publication of Hewsen's initial article in the journal Revue des Études ArméniennesRevue des Études Arméniennes
Revue des Études Arméniennes is a prominent French language academic journal dedicated to the study of Armenian history, art history, philology, linguistics, literature. The journal was founded by two French scholars who specialized in Armenian studies in Paris in 1920, Frédéric Macler and Antoine...
, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763–1786) and Sargis II (1794–1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
as an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
at the turn of 20th century. In later years, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840–1902), an Armenian writer, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who lived in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger
Dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in Saint Petersburg.
See also
- Armenian nobilityArmenian nobilityArmenian nobility has a long history with many interruptions, most notable of which were the Ottoman and Russian occupations of Armenia.-Terminology:...
- Culture of Nagorno-KarabakhCulture of Nagorno-KarabakhCulture of Nagorno-Karabakh includes artifacts of tangible and intangible culture that has been historically associated with Nagorno Karabakh and Artsakh—a historical province in the Southern Caucasus most of which is controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...
- History of Nagorno-KarabakhHistory of Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh is the modern designation for a southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region Karabakh...
- List of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh
External links
- Gandzasar.com: Gandzasar Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic The Hasan-Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development.
Further reading
The HouseRoyal House
A royal house or royal dynasty consists of at least one, but usually more monarchs who are related to one another, as well as their non-reigning descendants and spouses. Monarchs of the same realm who are not related to one another are usually deemed to belong to different houses, and each house is...
of Hasan-Jalalyan ( was an Armenian dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh
Artsakh
Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...
) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh
Karabakh
The Karabakh horse , also known as Karabakh, is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse. It is named after the geographic region where the horse was originally developed, Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus, an area that is de jure part of Azerbaijan but the highland part of which is currently...
, Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
and small part of Syunik
Syunik
Syunik is the southernmost province of Armenia. It borders the Vayots Dzor marz to the north, Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave to the west, Karabakh to the east, and Iran to the south. Its capital is Kapan. Other important cities and towns include Goris, Sisian, Meghri, Agarak, and Dastakert...
. It was named after Hasan-Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
s of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.
Through their many patronages of churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 16th century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan
Nor Aznaberd
Nor Aznaberd is a hamlet in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The population of Nor Aznaberd migrated from Aznaberd village of Nakhichevan. Aznaberd was the only Armenian inhabited village in Nakhichevan in 1980s. The villagers called the hamlet Nor Aznaberd , referring to their origin. ...
and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda
Varanda
Varanda may refer to:* Fizuli Rayon, Azerbaijan* Qaradağlı, Khojavend, Azerbaijan...
and Dizak
Hadrut
Hadrut is a province of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It forms the southern border of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the most mountainous parts. Villages are primarily found along two river valleys and scattered in lower elevations on the very southern fringe...
, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."
Origins of the dynasty
Hasan-Jalal traced his descent to the Armenian Arranshahik dynasty, a family that predated the establishment of the ParthiaParthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
n Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" according to historian Robert H. Hewsen
Robert H. Hewsen
Robert H. Hewsen or Hewsenian is Professor Emeritus of History at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and is an expert on the ancient history of the South Caucasus.-Biography:...
, a professor at Rowan University
Rowan University
Rowan University is a public university in Glassboro, New Jersey, USA with a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a twenty-five acre tract of land donated by the town...
and an expert on the history of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
:
Nakharar
Nakharar was a hereditary title of the highest order given to houses of the ancient and medieval Armenian nobility.-Nakharar system:Medieval Armenia was divided into large estates, which were the property of an enlarged noble family and were ruled by a member of it, to whom the title of Nahapet...
families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian but Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan
Nakhichevan
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,363 km² and borders Armenia to the east and north, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest...
). Among the foremost revisionists
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov
Ziya Bunyadov
Ziya Musa oglu Bunyadov was an Azerbaijani historian, academician, and Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. As a historian, he also headed the Institute of History of the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences for many years...
and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.
Culture and religion
With the surrender of AniAni
Ani is a ruined and uninhabited medieval Armenian city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars, near the border with Armenia. It was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey...
to the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
, Bagratid Armenia
Bagratuni Kingdom of Armenia
The medieval Kingdom of Armenia, also known as Bagratid Armenia , was an independent state established by Ashot I Bagratuni in 885 following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule...
, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert , was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert...
in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia or Caucasian Armenia was the portion of Ottoman Armenia and Persian Armenia that was ceded to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829...
were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori
Kingdom of Lori
Kingdom of Lori alternatively known as the Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget or Kingdom of Albania, was an Armenian kingdom formed during the breakup of Bagratuni Armenia. The kingdom encompassed territories of modern-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia....
and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, the combined Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.
Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown; however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak
Hadrut
Hadrut is a province of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It forms the southern border of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the most mountainous parts. Villages are primarily found along two river valleys and scattered in lower elevations on the very southern fringe...
-Balk. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi
Kirakos Gandzaketsi
Kirakos of Gandzak was an Armenian historian of the 13th century and author of the History of Armenia, a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days. The work concentrates primarily on the history of Medieval Armenia and events...
extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, lacing him with praise for his piety
Piety
In spiritual terminology, piety is a virtue that can mean religious devotion, spirituality, or a combination of both. A common element in most conceptions of piety is humility.- Etymology :...
and devotion to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
:
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos
Catholicos of Armenia
The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...
of Albania, the church was consecrated. The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 15th century, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.
Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan-Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
ic patronymics (kunya
Kunya (Arabic)
A kunya is a teknonym, the name of an adult derived from their child, especially their eldest son, in Arabic names.A kunya is expressed by the use of abū or umm in a genitive construction, i.e "father of" or "mother of" as a honorific in place of or alongside given names in the Arab world and the...
) that lost any "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.
Hasan-Jalal's Armenian Synaxarion
Gandzasar became home to Armenia's first completed Haysmavurk (Synaxarion in GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834.
Mongol invasion
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...
armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum
Karakorum
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...
, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan
Ostikan
Ostikan was the title of various oriental provincial governors.-Arab caliphate:After the prophet Mohammed and his testator heir and successor Abu Bakr has established the theocratic rule of Islam on most of the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula, the armies of the next caliphs victoriously...
at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan
Batu Khan
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...
drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."
Hasan-Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader. Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.
Finally, in 1260, Hasan-Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan-Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, (now in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü, Hulegu , was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia...
's wife Doquz Khatun
Doquz Khatun
Doquz Khatun was a Turkic Kerait princess of the 13th century, who was married to the Mongol ruler Hulagu. Their son Abaqa succeeded Hulagu upon his death.She was known to accompany Hulagu on campaigns...
, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan-Jalal tortured and finally executed. Hasan Jalal's son Atabek ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.
Later family rule
Following his death, the family truncated Hasan-Jalal's official title to the shorter "Princes of Artaskh." Atabek was ordered by Hulegu to take over his father's position and held the post until 1306. His cousin Vakhtank, whose descendants would become the Melik-Avanyan family, was given control over the region of Dizak. As a method of showing their relation to Hasan-Jalal, his descendants adopted Hasan-Jalal as their surnameSurname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
and appended -yan to the end to form a suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
. The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
doms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan
Nor Aznaberd
Nor Aznaberd is a hamlet in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The population of Nor Aznaberd migrated from Aznaberd village of Nakhichevan. Aznaberd was the only Armenian inhabited village in Nakhichevan in 1980s. The villagers called the hamlet Nor Aznaberd , referring to their origin. ...
.
Liberation movement
During the TurkoOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
-Persian wars of the 17th century and 18th century, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 18th century, they aided the invading Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728). In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa
Julfa
Julfa or Culfa may refer to:*Jolfa, a city in the East Azarbaijan Province of Iran*Jolfa County, an administrative subdivision of East Azarbaijan Province of Iran*New Julfa, an Armenian quarter in Isfahan, Iran...
had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori
Israel Ori
Israel Ori was a prominent figure of the Armenian national liberation movement and a diplomat that sought the liberation of Armenia from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.-Early life:...
, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.
In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813
Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)
The 1804-1813 Russo-Persian War, one of the many wars between the Persian Empire and Imperial Russia, began like many wars as a territorial dispute. The Persian king, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, wanted to consolidate the northernmost reaches of his Qajar dynasty by securing land near the Caspian Sea's...
. In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.
Hasan-Jalalyans today
At the time of the publication of Hewsen's initial article in the journal Revue des Études ArméniennesRevue des Études Arméniennes
Revue des Études Arméniennes is a prominent French language academic journal dedicated to the study of Armenian history, art history, philology, linguistics, literature. The journal was founded by two French scholars who specialized in Armenian studies in Paris in 1920, Frédéric Macler and Antoine...
, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763–1786) and Sargis II (1794–1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
as an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
at the turn of 20th century. In later years, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840–1902), an Armenian writer, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who lived in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger
Dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in Saint Petersburg.
See also
- Armenian nobilityArmenian nobilityArmenian nobility has a long history with many interruptions, most notable of which were the Ottoman and Russian occupations of Armenia.-Terminology:...
- Culture of Nagorno-KarabakhCulture of Nagorno-KarabakhCulture of Nagorno-Karabakh includes artifacts of tangible and intangible culture that has been historically associated with Nagorno Karabakh and Artsakh—a historical province in the Southern Caucasus most of which is controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...
- History of Nagorno-KarabakhHistory of Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh is the modern designation for a southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region Karabakh...
- List of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh
External links
- Gandzasar.com: Gandzasar Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic The Hasan-Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development.
Further reading
The HouseRoyal House
A royal house or royal dynasty consists of at least one, but usually more monarchs who are related to one another, as well as their non-reigning descendants and spouses. Monarchs of the same realm who are not related to one another are usually deemed to belong to different houses, and each house is...
of Hasan-Jalalyan ( was an Armenian dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh
Artsakh
Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...
) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh
Karabakh
The Karabakh horse , also known as Karabakh, is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse. It is named after the geographic region where the horse was originally developed, Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus, an area that is de jure part of Azerbaijan but the highland part of which is currently...
, Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
and small part of Syunik
Syunik
Syunik is the southernmost province of Armenia. It borders the Vayots Dzor marz to the north, Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave to the west, Karabakh to the east, and Iran to the south. Its capital is Kapan. Other important cities and towns include Goris, Sisian, Meghri, Agarak, and Dastakert...
. It was named after Hasan-Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
s of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.
Through their many patronages of churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 16th century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan
Nor Aznaberd
Nor Aznaberd is a hamlet in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The population of Nor Aznaberd migrated from Aznaberd village of Nakhichevan. Aznaberd was the only Armenian inhabited village in Nakhichevan in 1980s. The villagers called the hamlet Nor Aznaberd , referring to their origin. ...
and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda
Varanda
Varanda may refer to:* Fizuli Rayon, Azerbaijan* Qaradağlı, Khojavend, Azerbaijan...
and Dizak
Hadrut
Hadrut is a province of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It forms the southern border of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the most mountainous parts. Villages are primarily found along two river valleys and scattered in lower elevations on the very southern fringe...
, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."
Origins of the dynasty
Hasan-Jalal traced his descent to the Armenian Arranshahik dynasty, a family that predated the establishment of the ParthiaParthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
n Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" according to historian Robert H. Hewsen
Robert H. Hewsen
Robert H. Hewsen or Hewsenian is Professor Emeritus of History at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and is an expert on the ancient history of the South Caucasus.-Biography:...
, a professor at Rowan University
Rowan University
Rowan University is a public university in Glassboro, New Jersey, USA with a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a twenty-five acre tract of land donated by the town...
and an expert on the history of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
:
Nakharar
Nakharar was a hereditary title of the highest order given to houses of the ancient and medieval Armenian nobility.-Nakharar system:Medieval Armenia was divided into large estates, which were the property of an enlarged noble family and were ruled by a member of it, to whom the title of Nahapet...
families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian but Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan
Nakhichevan
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic is a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan. The region covers 5,363 km² and borders Armenia to the east and north, Iran to the south and west, and Turkey to the northwest...
). Among the foremost revisionists
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov
Ziya Bunyadov
Ziya Musa oglu Bunyadov was an Azerbaijani historian, academician, and Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. As a historian, he also headed the Institute of History of the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences for many years...
and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.
Culture and religion
With the surrender of AniAni
Ani is a ruined and uninhabited medieval Armenian city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars, near the border with Armenia. It was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey...
to the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
, Bagratid Armenia
Bagratuni Kingdom of Armenia
The medieval Kingdom of Armenia, also known as Bagratid Armenia , was an independent state established by Ashot I Bagratuni in 885 following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule...
, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert , was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert...
in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia or Caucasian Armenia was the portion of Ottoman Armenia and Persian Armenia that was ceded to the Russian Empire following the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829...
were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori
Kingdom of Lori
Kingdom of Lori alternatively known as the Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget or Kingdom of Albania, was an Armenian kingdom formed during the breakup of Bagratuni Armenia. The kingdom encompassed territories of modern-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia....
and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, the combined Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.
Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown; however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak
Hadrut
Hadrut is a province of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It forms the southern border of Nagorno-Karabakh, and one of the most mountainous parts. Villages are primarily found along two river valleys and scattered in lower elevations on the very southern fringe...
-Balk. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi
Kirakos Gandzaketsi
Kirakos of Gandzak was an Armenian historian of the 13th century and author of the History of Armenia, a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days. The work concentrates primarily on the history of Medieval Armenia and events...
extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, lacing him with praise for his piety
Piety
In spiritual terminology, piety is a virtue that can mean religious devotion, spirituality, or a combination of both. A common element in most conceptions of piety is humility.- Etymology :...
and devotion to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
:
Gandzasar monastery
Gandzasar monastery is a 10-13th century Armenian monastery situated in the Mardakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh, near the village of Vank. "Gandzasar" means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure in Armenian. The monastery holds relics believed to belong to St. John the Baptist and St Zechariah,...
. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos
Catholicos of Armenia
The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...
of Albania, the church was consecrated. The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 15th century, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.
Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan-Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
ic patronymics (kunya
Kunya (Arabic)
A kunya is a teknonym, the name of an adult derived from their child, especially their eldest son, in Arabic names.A kunya is expressed by the use of abū or umm in a genitive construction, i.e "father of" or "mother of" as a honorific in place of or alongside given names in the Arab world and the...
) that lost any "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.
Hasan-Jalal's Armenian Synaxarion
Gandzasar became home to Armenia's first completed Haysmavurk (Synaxarion in GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834.
Mongol invasion
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...
armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum
Karakorum
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...
, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan
Ostikan
Ostikan was the title of various oriental provincial governors.-Arab caliphate:After the prophet Mohammed and his testator heir and successor Abu Bakr has established the theocratic rule of Islam on most of the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula, the armies of the next caliphs victoriously...
at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan
Batu Khan
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...
drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."
Hasan-Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader. Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.
Finally, in 1260, Hasan-Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan-Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin
Qazvin
Qazvin is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 349,821, in 96,420 families....
, (now in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü, Hulegu , was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia...
's wife Doquz Khatun
Doquz Khatun
Doquz Khatun was a Turkic Kerait princess of the 13th century, who was married to the Mongol ruler Hulagu. Their son Abaqa succeeded Hulagu upon his death.She was known to accompany Hulagu on campaigns...
, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan-Jalal tortured and finally executed. Hasan Jalal's son Atabek ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.
Later family rule
Following his death, the family truncated Hasan-Jalal's official title to the shorter "Princes of Artaskh." Atabek was ordered by Hulegu to take over his father's position and held the post until 1306. His cousin Vakhtank, whose descendants would become the Melik-Avanyan family, was given control over the region of Dizak. As a method of showing their relation to Hasan-Jalal, his descendants adopted Hasan-Jalal as their surnameSurname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
and appended -yan to the end to form a suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
. The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
doms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan
Nor Aznaberd
Nor Aznaberd is a hamlet in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. The population of Nor Aznaberd migrated from Aznaberd village of Nakhichevan. Aznaberd was the only Armenian inhabited village in Nakhichevan in 1980s. The villagers called the hamlet Nor Aznaberd , referring to their origin. ...
.
Liberation movement
During the TurkoOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
-Persian wars of the 17th century and 18th century, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 18th century, they aided the invading Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728). In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa
Julfa
Julfa or Culfa may refer to:*Jolfa, a city in the East Azarbaijan Province of Iran*Jolfa County, an administrative subdivision of East Azarbaijan Province of Iran*New Julfa, an Armenian quarter in Isfahan, Iran...
had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori
Israel Ori
Israel Ori was a prominent figure of the Armenian national liberation movement and a diplomat that sought the liberation of Armenia from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.-Early life:...
, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.
In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813
Russo-Persian War (1804-1813)
The 1804-1813 Russo-Persian War, one of the many wars between the Persian Empire and Imperial Russia, began like many wars as a territorial dispute. The Persian king, Fath Ali Shah Qajar, wanted to consolidate the northernmost reaches of his Qajar dynasty by securing land near the Caspian Sea's...
. In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.
Hasan-Jalalyans today
At the time of the publication of Hewsen's initial article in the journal Revue des Études ArméniennesRevue des Études Arméniennes
Revue des Études Arméniennes is a prominent French language academic journal dedicated to the study of Armenian history, art history, philology, linguistics, literature. The journal was founded by two French scholars who specialized in Armenian studies in Paris in 1920, Frédéric Macler and Antoine...
, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763–1786) and Sargis II (1794–1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
as an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
at the turn of 20th century. In later years, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840–1902), an Armenian writer, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who lived in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger
Dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in Saint Petersburg.
See also
- Armenian nobilityArmenian nobilityArmenian nobility has a long history with many interruptions, most notable of which were the Ottoman and Russian occupations of Armenia.-Terminology:...
- Culture of Nagorno-KarabakhCulture of Nagorno-KarabakhCulture of Nagorno-Karabakh includes artifacts of tangible and intangible culture that has been historically associated with Nagorno Karabakh and Artsakh—a historical province in the Southern Caucasus most of which is controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...
- History of Nagorno-KarabakhHistory of Nagorno-KarabakhNagorno-Karabakh is the modern designation for a southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region Karabakh...
- List of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh
External links
- Gandzasar.com: Gandzasar Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic The Hasan-Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development.
Further reading
Articles
- Hewsen, Robert H.Robert H. HewsenRobert H. Hewsen or Hewsenian is Professor Emeritus of History at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey and is an expert on the ancient history of the South Caucasus.-Biography:...
"The Kingdom of Arc'ax" in Medieval Armenian Culture (University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
Armenian Texts and Studies). Thomas J. Samuelian and Michael E. Stone (eds.) Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984, pp. 42–68, ISBN 0-8913-0642-0 - _______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study." Revue des Études ArméniennesRevue des Études ArméniennesRevue des Études Arméniennes is a prominent French language academic journal dedicated to the study of Armenian history, art history, philology, linguistics, literature. The journal was founded by two French scholars who specialized in Armenian studies in Paris in 1920, Frédéric Macler and Antoine...
. NS: IX, 1972, pp. 255–329. - _______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: II." Revue des Études Arméniennes. NS: X, 1973–1974, pp. 281–303.
- _______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: III." Revue des Études Arméniennes. NS: XI, 1975–1976, pp. 219–243.
Primary Sources
- Esayi Hasan Jalaleants. A Brief History of the Aghuank Region. Translated by George BournoutianGeorge BournoutianGeorge A. Bournoutian is a Senior Professor of History at Iona College. He is the author of numerous books on Armenian history and has taught Armenian history at Columbia University, Tufts University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Connecticut, Ramapo College, and...
. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2009. - Kirakos GandzaketsiKirakos GandzaketsiKirakos of Gandzak was an Armenian historian of the 13th century and author of the History of Armenia, a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days. The work concentrates primarily on the history of Medieval Armenia and events...
. History of Armenia (Պատմություն Հայոց). Trans. in English by Robert Bedrosian. Stepanos OrbelianStepanos OrbelianStepanos Orbelian was a thirteenth century Armenian historian and the Metropolitan of the province of Syunik. He is known for writing his well-researched Patmut'yun Nahangin Sisakan, or History of the Province of Syunik.-Biography:...
. Սյունիքի Պատմություն (The History of Syunik). Introduction, translation, and commentary by Ashot A. Abrahamyan. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Sovetakan Grogh, 1986.
Secondary Sources Orbeli, Joseph
Joseph Orbeli
Joseph Orbeli , 1887 – February 2, 1961) was a renowned Soviet orientalist and academician of Armenian descent who specialized in medieval history of Southern Caucasus and administered the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad from 1934 to 1951...
. Асан Жалал дoла, Kниаз Xaчeнcки (Hasan-Jalal Dawla, Lord of Khachen). IIAN 3 (1909). Reprinted in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1963. Raffi
Raffi (poet)
Hakob Melik Hakobian , better known by his pen name Raffi , is a renowned Armenian author born in 1835 in Payajouk, an Armenian village situated in the Salmas province in Persia. He died in 1888 in Tiflis...
. The Melikdoms of Khamsa. (Խամսայի մելիքությունները). Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1964. Toumanoff, Cyril
Cyril Toumanoff
Cyril Leo Heraclius, Prince Toumanoff was an United States-based historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, the Byzantine Empire, and Iran...
. "Manuel de généalogie et de chronologie pour l'histoire de la Caucasie Chrétienne (Arménie-Géorgie-Albanie)." Edizioni Aquila, Roma, 1976. Ulubabyan, Bagrat
Bagrat Ulubabyan
Bagrat Arshaki Ulubabyan was an Armenian writer and historian, known most prominently for his work on the histories of Nagorno-Karabakh and Artsakh.-Early life and education:...
. Խաչենի իշխանությունը, X-XVI դարերում (The Principality of Khachen, From the 10th to 16th centuries). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1975.
Tertiary Sources Ulubabyan, Bagrat. "Hasan-Jalal Dawla" and "Hasan-Jalalyan Family" in Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences]], 1980. Board of editors of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, edited by Tsatur P. Aghayan et al. "Հայ ժողովուրդը Ֆեոդալիզմի վայրԷջքի ժամանակշրջանում, XVI-XVIII դդ" ("The Armenian People and the Period of Decline of Feudalism from the 14th to 18th century") in History of the Armenian People. vol. v. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1976.
