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

itions of Nauruz (1295/96) during the reign of Ghacan-Khan.
Whether or not Ghazan at firat knew about Nauruz1 activities
ia disputed from source to source. Granted, Nauruz
eventually was hunted down and executed at Shazan's
command, with Christian Caucasians gleefully participating.
But by then, the Turkmans were no longer controllable.
Not surprisingly, the "hellish and bitter" 14th
century did not produce literary historians such as
Kirakos, Vardan, or Step'annos. The disorganized history
of S'ovma Hecop'ec'i (d. ca. 1446) does speak of the
last three decades of the 14th century, but for the
first seven decades, only the humble authors of chronicles
and colophons, many of then anonymous, detail the persec-
utions, plunderings of churches and famines. They do not
speak of land disputes among naxarars—-many of whom
already had quit the country, had apostasized, or been
killed.
In the 1320's, Grigor, bishop of Karin/Erzerum was
killed after refusing to convert . In 1334 Christians
were obliged to wear special blue badges as a visible
indicator of their subordinate status2, just as economically
1
SAp. 167 dates this in 1321/22, while ANM p. 123 has
1326, "V27.
2
SA p. 165.
211