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

earliest references to Turkish attacks date from
ca. 1016 at which time the district of Vaspurakan in
southeastern Armenia was raided--not by Turkish armies--
but by Turkic mercenaries serving the Muslim emirs of
Azerbaijan. Around 1021 the area from Naxijewan to
Dwin was raided by Turkmen Oghuz(Ghuzz) nomads serving
in the Persian Dailamite armies . From 1029 onward,
See KJJ.Yuzbasyan, "Deilemity v povestvovanii Aristakesa
LaativerttaiCIhe Dailamites in Aristakes tastivertc'i's
Narration]", Palestinskii Sbornik [PS] #7(70) 1962 pp. 146—
51? S.G. Agadzanov and K.N.Yuzbasyan, "K istorii tiurskikh
nabegov na Armeniiu v XIv [Toward the HTstory of the
Turkish Saids on Armenia in the llth Century]", Pjg #12
(1965) pp. 144-57. The administrative inclusion into one
territorial unit of parts of Caucasian and central Armenia
with the Caucasian areas of Iberia, Atrpatakan and Albania
dates from the 6th century A.D. when this unit constituted
one of four military-administrative districts in the Sasanian
Persian empire. After the Arab conquest of Iran and
Armenia, Caucasian Armenia and formerly Byzantine Armenia
to its west remained in approximately the same association
styled by the Arabs "Armeniya" despite the fact that neither
Iberia to the north ("Armeniya II" ) nor Albania to the
east ("Armeniya I") was ethnically Armenian. Thus "Armenia"
was but a part of what Arabic authors styled "Armeniya".
The two terms should not be confused. During the more
than 200 years of Arab domination (ca. 650-886), Atrpatakan
to the east frequently was united with Armeniya , and its
occasionally dependable Muslim lords sometimes were given
limited control over parts of Caucasian Armenia. As
Aram Ter-iewondyan of Erevan has noted, the attempts of
Atrpatakan's Muslim emirs to subjugate Armenia found
reflection in the wor.ks of 10th century Arab geographers
—such as al-Isfakhri, Ibn JJawkal, and al-Mukadasi—who
regarded Armenia, Arran and Atrpatakan as one province
(see A. Ter-iewondyan, "K'ust-i Kapkoh vargakan miavori
yerapruknera Xalifayut'yan~zainanak [Survivals of the
Administrative Unit of Kust-i Kapkoh in the Time of the
Caliphate]'1, Telekagir #9(i25S) PP. 73-77. The role
played by Atrpatakan/Azarbaijan bordering Caucasian Armenia
on the east in the pre-Mongol period is of interest since
the region's already great importance was in time enhanced
further. Atrpatakan/Azarbaijan which had Islamized early,
became a base of sorts for the Caliphate for controlling
65