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

various Turkmen groups commenced raiding diverse parts of
Armenia, from the direction of Azerbaijan to the east
as well as from northern Mesopotamia . In 1042 some
Caucasian Armenia, Albania, and Ibegia. Subsequently,
be it from the Kurdish Muslim Shaddadids who established
control over the Albanian city of Ganjak/Ganja in the
mid-lOth century or from another branch of the same family
which gained control of the city of Dwin in the mid-llth
century, Armenia was under constant Muslim pressure from
the east. Even before the emergence of the Saljuq Turks
as a force.in th.§ area, exactly what was "Armenian" and
what was "Azarbaijani" territory was not always clear.
Armenia's eastern border was in a constant state of flux.
The expansion, or contraction o f lands held there by
Armenian or Azarbaijani Muslim lords was conditioned
primarily by the ambition and martial prowess of a given
lord or lords. .
1 R. HusseinovCHusseynov], "La conquete de 1'Azerbaidjan
par lea Seldjoucides", Bedj. KarthllaarBKI 48-49 vol.
XiX-XX (1965) PP. 99-108; HAP, pp. 442^3. During the
more than 200 years of Arab domination, the geographical
and demographic conception of Armenia was subject to
alteration in historical southern Armenia also. Southwestern
Armenia especially became an area of heavy settlement
by Arab tribes. Coterminously the Armenian element
in the southwestern districts (the old Armenian districts
of Aljnik' and Hanjit especially) thinned. Indeed, during
this period the Armenian place names themselves were
replaced by Arabic ones there. Unlike the previous
conquerors of Armenian lands, the Arabs left colonies
and emirates behind them, which, as Dr. Ter-lewondyan
stated, "opened the first serious crack in Greater Armenia...
The Arab emirates drove in the wedge which gradually widened
to provide room not only for the Kurds, but also for the
Saljuqs, the presence of whose emirates in Greater Armenia
became one of the main causes for the Armenian state's
failure to survive in the 12th and 13th centuries"
(Aram Ter-Ghewondyan. The Arab Emirates in Bapratid Armenia.
N. Garsolan, trans. (LlsT>onTT976) p. 150). Prior to the
appearance of the Saljuq Turks in the llth century, a
number of emirates had existed in southern and southwestern
Armenia. Among them were the Kaysite emirate, including
the cities of Manazkert, Xlat' and Xnus; and the_emirate
of Aljnik' or Arzn, embracing the cities of Kayyafariqin,
Arzn and Bales/Bitlis. Southern Armenia then$ fairly
early had become an area of foreign settlement. This
tendency was to accelerate with time.
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