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

principle which has never ceased to operate in Armenian
society—led to a "re-seeding" of what might seen like
classical Arsacid naxararism. but in fact was a structure
resting on a completely different base. It is very
important to underline the fact that in a country with as
developed a historical consciousness as Armenia, and as
ancient a literature, a certain amount of evocation of
the antique past pervades many sources dating from much
later times. Just as the Saaanian Persians hearkened back
to their Achaemenid "forbears" and adopted certain ceremonial
and/or sentimental forms to stress this identification,
so too did the Bagratids and Zak'arids look to the Arsacids
for symbolic identification. Thus certain similarities
of terminology found in Arsacid and Zak'arid sources must
be analyzed on an individual basis, before any assumptions
of identity may be entertained.
It is important in this regard to note that on the
eve of the Turco-Mongol invasions of the 13th century, the
term saxarar already designated different types of lords,
just as (in a later period) the term melik did. As
Keween noted:
By the end of the Mongol period, the Caucasian
social structure had to all intents and purposes been
destroyed in Armenia; its princely houses exterminated,
246