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i6 A HISTORY OF SHARVAN AND DARBAND
Shakki). After A.D, 387 these provinces were lost by the Armenians,
but we have seen that the conversion of the Albanians to Christianity
and the endowing of the Albanians with an alphabet were the work of the
Armenians, Armenian settlers and cultural elements contributed to the
further absorption of the Albanian nation. The Albanian and Armenian
nobility freely intermarried, with the result that there appeared a mixed
class of Albano-Armenian aristocracy. The later Armenian kingdoms
of Ani and Vaspurakan had little influence in Eastern Transcaucasia1
but the petty Armenian rulers of Siunik' and Artsakh (south of Barda'a)
played a considerable role in the affairs of Albania,
The other Christian neighbours of Albania, the Georgians, had to a
large extent succeeded in preserving their statehood, but their attempts
at expansion were noticeable chiefly along the northerly line Kakhetia-
Shakki. This latter territory (Shakki), situated to the north of the
Kur, had a dynasty of its own, which in the ninth century played some
r&le in the affairs of Arran, see below, p, 83,
The Georgians professed Byzantine Christianity and consequently
were opposed to the Armeno-Albanian Monophysitism, Attempts to
introduce the Greek (Chalcedonian) creed in Albania met with opposition.
When the wife of Varaz-Trdat (d. in 715), with the help of the bishop of
Gardaman, took steps in that direction, the Monophysite clergy rose
against them and even invoked the help of the caliph