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

his pursuers and had, in fact, died in obscurity on an
Island in the Caspian Sea the saae time the Mongols were
entering the Caucasus 1 . The Mongols' route into Armenia
was from the southeast, from western Naxljewan north to
the Aghstev region. A certain disagreement exists among
the sources regarding the location(s) of the Mongols'
first battle(s) with Caucasian forces. But the outcome
apparently was that some 10,000 Armenians and Georgians,
commanded by king Georgi IV LaSa of Georgia and his
atabek Iwane Zak '
arean were defeated in the Kotman area
2
of northeastern Armenia . Through espionage the Mongols
and Sooio-Economic Relations in the XIV-XTth Centuries]'*,
PP. 15-47 particularly; also A.G. Galstyan's Russian
article in lataro-Mongoly v Azii i Evrope (Moscow, 1970)
and the English translation of it in the Armenian Revitew
vol. XXVII (1975), "The Conquest of Armenia by the
Mongol Armies", pp. 356-76 [Hereafter CAMA], CAMA, p. 357;
HAP III p. 600.
1
SMP pp. 309-10.
2
HAP III p. 600; Babayan is challenged by Galstyan in
CAMA, pp. 357-58; The Armenian sources report the following
on early Mongol activities in the Caucasus: 1. Kir-
akos Ganjakec '
i: "...Thus finding many people unconcerned,
they [Mongols] destroyed and ruined many places. Then
they secured their bags and baggage in the marshy, muddy
place which lies between the cities of Bartaw and Belukan
-a very safe place which they call BelameJ-and they
destroyed many districts with brazen attacks", KG p. 202;
2 . Vardan Arewelc'i: The initial penetration of the Caucasus
is presented in chapter 84 of his History. "In 1221...
foreign-looking and foreign-soundin* people called Mulal
and T at '
ar moved from the land of pin and Ma?in and came
to Gugark s meadowlands by way of Albania. There were
some 20,000 of them. They destroyed everything that they
found alive and then quickly turned back. Now [king]
LaSa pursued them with all his forces, reaching [the Mongols]
by the Kotman river. He waa_defeated by them and
saved himself by flight, with Iwane. Some prince had whipped
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