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

ituals and regalia—especially within some of the
Siwnlk' and Xa$en dynasties—unshared by the merchants
or Zak'arid warriors. Yet another segment of the
Zak'arid nobility was composed of prominent clerics,
representatives of various families, administering
their family holdings as religious foundations (see
below).
Nicholas Marr was of the opinion that In the
immediately pre-Uongol and early Mongol periods the
transfer of princely and noble estates into the hands
of merchant-capitalists was taking place . This is
probably true. However, the tendency for urban merchants
to invest in land, and the probably concomitant tendency
for the landed naxarars to diversify into trade makes
any drawing of lines impossible. Indeed, the new
meaning of the term hayrenik' in this period reflects
the same confusion. In the 5th and subsequent centuries
hayrenik * referred to a lord's ancestral patrimony. It
consisted of lands. But in the «rly 13th century,
hayrenik * referred to both moveable and immoveable prop-
erty, hereditary or purchased, and included money and
2
shares in business enterprises as well . Thus at the
opening of the 13th century, the term aaxarar had something
of a catchall sense, exactly as the term meIlk did, two
centuries later .
Manandyan, Trade, p. 186.
pp. 554-55.
of
Armenia(l)", figA. 11(1972)
162