The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

9
before the Georgians (HP p. 50). and obserres the
presence of Armenians in Tabriz (MP, p. 57).
The late 13th centxiry Geoera-phy.. attributed to
Yardan Arewelo'i, apparently in part under the influence
of the 7th century Anania of Sirak, and in
part in reflection of the demographic spread of
Armenians in the late 13th century, draws the borders
of Armenia very wide indeed; including all of historical
Armenia plus Edesga and Aleppo (Geog.. p.21)
Cilicia (p. 24), Azarbaijan (pp. 15-16) andmuch of
Georgia (pp. 17-18). Vardan concludes his Geography
with the crucial expression: "these are the lands and
districts of Arnenla/of the Armenians (aSxar tm ew
yawflrv '
n HnyoeM". Indeed , though he does proviTe
the Arabic or Turkish forms of some Armenian place
names, he nowhere mentions that in his day most of
historical western Armenia no longer was under Armenian
political control [see Vardan*s usages Arzrum for
Karin (p. 18), Tiarpak'ir for Aljnlk* (p. 21). Malat'ia
for Melitene (p. 21), Sewast for Sebastia (p. 23)].
Het'um the Historian, writing in the early 14th
century, extends Armenia from the Darial pass In the
Caucasus to "Media", and includes (as does Vardan)
the city of Tabriz, then an area of Armenian population
(Het'um, p. 14). In describing the "Kingdom of the
Turks" LHum], Het'um wrote: "In the Turkish kingdom
dwell four peoples: the Greeks, Armenians, Jacobites
...and the Turks p. 21).
Ibn Battuta, who visited Asia Minor in the early
1330's wrote of Erziirjan (then almost 300 years under
non-Armenian rule): "a large and populous city, most
of whose Inhabitants are Armenians" (Ibn Battuta, p.
437). To Qazvini in the 1340's, Armenia was divided
into two sections. Greater Armenia was the Lake Van
basin with its capital at Hat', though it extended
"
frgm Arzan-ar-Rum[Erzerum] to Salmas, and from
Arran to the further end of the Akhlat[Xlat'] district"
(Qazvini, p. 100). The "chief dependencies" of Lesser
Armenia were Sis, Cyprus and Trebizond (!), Qarin and
Tarun (p. 100, 258). Schiltberger (who visited the
Armenian highlands in 1402-1405) calls Brznjan the
capital of Lesser Armenia (Schiltberger, p. 21) which
also embraced Bayburt and Kamax (p. 43). Elsewhere
he wrote: "In Armenia are three kingdoms, one is called
Tlflis, the other is called Sis, the third is called
Ersingen,..and that is Lesser Armenia (p. 86). Clavijo
noted large concentrations of Armenians in the Tabriz
area (Clavijo p. 150, 309). He described Khoy as
a city of Upper Armenia with a majority of Armenians
(p. 148). He noted populous Armenian villages south
of Khoy (p. 330) and stayed in Armenian villages during
his transit of central Asia Minor and the Caucasus (pp. 111-
148). Contradictions within and among the sources,
resulting from the frequent changes in the area's political
and military history, preclude a more specific definition
of Armenia in the 13-14th centuries.
93