Zakarids–Mkhargrdzeli

Mkhargrdzeli–Zakarian
მხარგრძელი
Երկայնաբազուկ
Nobility
Country Georgia
Ethnicity Armenian
Founder Khosrov
Titles Amirspasalar
Mandaturtukhutsesi
Atabeg
Msakhurtukhutsesi
Estate(s) Armenian Princedoms
Cadet branches Zakarids, Tmogveli, Gageli

The Zakarids or Zakarians[1][2] (Armenian: Զաքարյաններ, Zak'aryanner), also known by their Georgian name as Mkhargrdzeli (Georgian: მხარგრძელი), were a noble Armenian[3][4]–Georgian dynasty of at least partial Kurdish[5][6][7][8][9] origin. Their name in Georgian, Mkhargrdzeli, or in Armenian: Երկայնաբազուկ, (Yerkaynbazuk) meant long-armed. A family legend says that this name was a reference to their Achaemenid ancestor Artaxerxes II the "Longarmed" (404–358 BC).[10][11] According to Cyril Toumanoff / Encyclopædia Iranica, they were an offshoot of the Armenian Pahlavuni family.[12]

Rise

David IV

The first historically traceable Mkhargrdzeli was Khosrov, who moved from Armenia to southern Georgia during the Seljuk invasions in the early 11th century. When the Georgian King David IV the Restorer liberated Armenian lands from the Seljuq grip, the Mkhargrdzelis came to be loyal vassals of the House of Orbeli.

George III

Under King George III of Georgia, Sargis Mkhargrdzeli was appointed as governor of the Armenian city of Ani in 1161, however it was soon recaptured by the Shaddadids. In 1177, the Mkhargrdzeli seized their chance during the rebellion of Prince Demna and the Orbeli family and supported the monarchy against the insurgents. The King received him amiably and kindly and rendered him homage according to his birth. The uprising was suppressed, and King George III persecuted his opponents and elevated the Mkhargrdzelis.

Queen Tamar

Despite some complications in the reign of George III, the successes continued in the reign of the Queen Tamar.[13] She appointed as Amirspasalar Sargis Mkhargrdzeli, a wellborn valorous man, well trained in battle; she granted him Lore in 1186, the estate of the princes and rulers of Somkhiti, gave presents to his elder son, Zacharia, and his younger son, Ivane, and she made him a member of the Darbazi. Starting in 1190, the Mkhargrdzelis rose quickly in power. In the ninth year of Tamar's reign the Mandaturtukhutsesi and Amirspasalar Zakaria Mkhargrdzeli and his brother Ivane the atabag took Dvin in 1193. They also took Gelakun, Bijnisi, Amberd, and Bargushat, and all the towns above the city of Ani, up to the bridge of Khodaafarin bridge. Around the year 1199, they took the city of Ani, and in 1201, Tamar gave Ani to them as a fief.[13] Eventually, their territories came to resemble those of Bagratid Armenia.[14] Alarmed by the Georgian successes, Süleymanshah II, the resurgent Seljuqid sultan of Rûm, rallied his vassal emirs and marched against Georgia, with an army of 150,000-400,000. Süleymanshah, joined by his vassal beys, crossed into the Georgian marchlands and encamped in the Basiani valley. Georgian troops under David Soslan and amirspasalar Zacharia Mkhargrdzeli made a sudden advance into Basiani and assailed the enemy’s camp in 1203 or 1204.[15][15] Around the same time, Ivane converted to Georgian Orthodox Christianity, while Zakare remained Armenian Apostolic in faith, the latter was founder of Zakarid dynasty. Sargis’ offspring, Zakare (Zakaria) and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, commanded the Georgian armies for almost three decades, achieving major victories at Shamkor in 1195 and Basian in 1203 and leading raids into northern Persia in 1210 and suppression of rebellions of mountaineers in 1212. They amassed a great fortune, governing all of northern Armenia; Zakare and his descendants ruled in northwestern Armenia with Ani as their capital, thuf forming its own dynasty of Zakarids, while Ivane and his offspring ruled eastern Armenia, including the city of Dvin.

Both brothers left several bilingual inscriptions across the Armeno-Georgian border lands and built several churches and forts, such as the Harichavank Monastery and Akhtala Monastery in northern Armenia. The family went in decline with the establishment of Mongol power in the Caucasus.

George IV

During the George IV's reign Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, to whom his mother Tamar honored with the position of atabag (tutor), the position that became prominent was respected even more than certain Eristavis. Mkhargrdzeli was a vizier of the King’s court.

The Mongols made their first appearance in the Georgian possessions when this latter kingdom was still in its zenith, dominating most of the Caucasus. They thrust into Armenia and defeated some 60,000 Georgians and Armenians commanded by King George IV and his amirspasalar (commander-in-chief) Ivane Mkhargrdzeli at the Battle of Khunan on the Kotman River.

Rusudan

During Khwarezmian invasion of Georgia in 1225, Dvin was ruled by the aging Ivane, who had given Ani to his nephew Shanshe, son of Zakare. Shalva and his brother Ivane Akhaltsikheli were placed in charge of the vanguard of the Georgian army by the atabeg Ivane Mkhargrdzeli, while Mkhargrdzeli with his more than 50,000 warriors arrived in time and initially kept himself in the background being expected by the other commanders to react on any attack against his vanguard while remaining unnoticed by the enemy. Despite the crucial advantage of the terrain. Mkhargrdzeli as the rival of House of Akhaltsikheli did not allow his army to fight in the battle of Garni and ordered his troops to abandon the battlefield entirely, leaving the other two commanders Shalva and Ivane Akhaltsikheli in their enemies' hands. The results of betrayal was that a quarter of the Georgian army was annihilated, leaving the country poorly steeled against an upcoming Mongol invasion. The capture of Dvin brought about the end of Georgia's medieval heyday. Dvin was lost, but Kars and Ani was kept.[16]

Genealogy

family tree of House of Mkhargrdzeli
Khosrov
Avag-SargisKarim
Zakaria I
SargisVahram
Zakaria IINane
(Inana)		Dopi
(Shushan)		TamtaIvaneZakariaSargis
ShansheTamtaAvagVahramTaki ad-Din
ArtashirZakaria IIIAvag-SargisIvane IIMkhargrdzeliAgbughaBeri
George		AgbughaSargis II
DavidShansheVahramArtashirAgbughaZazaKhoshakVahramZakariaIvane
ZakariaShansheZakaria

References

  1. ↑ Bournoutian, George A. (2003). A concise history of the Armenian people : (from ancient times to the present) (2. ed.). Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers. p. 108. ISBN 1568591411.
  2. ↑ Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities Across the Islamic World. BRILL. 2014. p. 465. ISBN 9004280227.
  3. ↑ Encyclopaedia of Islam. — E. J. BRILL, 1986. — Vol. I. — P. 507 "Ani was for the first time conquered by the Georgians in 1124, under David II, who laid the foundation of the power of the Georgian kings; the town was given as a fief to the Armenian family of the Zakarids, (in Georgian: Mkhargrdzeli = Longimani) "
  4. ↑ Cyril Toumanoff. Armenia and Georgia // The Cambridge Medieval History. — Cambridge, 1966. — vol. IV: The Byzantine Empire, part I chapter XIV. — p. 593—637 "Later, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Armenian house of the Zachariads (Mkhargrdzeli) ruled in northern Armenia at Ani, Lor'i, Kars, and Dvin under the Georgian aegis."
  5. ↑ Alexei Lidov, 1991, The mural paintings of Akhtala, p. 14, Nauka Publishers, Central Dept. of Oriental Literature, University of Michigan, ISBN 5-02-017569-2, ISBN 978-5-02-017569-3, It is clear from the account of these Armenian historians that Ivane's great grandfather broke away from the Kurdish tribe of Babir
  6. ↑ Vladimir Minorsky, 1953, Studies in Caucasian History, p. 102, CUP Archive, ISBN 0-521-05735-3, ISBN 978-0-521-05735-6, According to a tradition which has every reason to be true, their ancestors were Mesopotamian Kurds of the tribe (xel) Babirakan.
  7. ↑ Richard Barrie Dobson, 2000, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J, p. 107, Editions du Cerf, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-227-67931-8, ISBN 978-0-227-67931-9, under the Christianized Kurdish dynasty of Zak'arids they tried to re-establish nazarar system...
  8. ↑ William Edward David Allen, 1932, A History of the Georgian People: From the Beginning Down to the Russian Conquest in the Nineteenth Century, p. 104, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-7100-6959-6, ISBN 978-0-7100-6959-7, She retained and leant upon the numerous relatives of Sargis Mkhargrdzeli, an aznauri of Kurdish origin
  9. ↑ Vardan Arewelts'i's, Compilation of History In these time there lived the glorious princes Zak'are' and Iwane', sons of Sargis, son of Vahram, son of Zak'are', son of Sargis of Kurdish nationality (i K'urd azge') p. 82
  10. ↑ Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, 3th volume
  11. ↑ Paul Adalian, Rouben (2010). Historical Dictionary of Armenia. p. 83.
  12. ↑ Toumanoff 2010, pp. 453–455.
  13. 1 2 Minorsky, Vladimir (1953). Studies in Caucasian History. New York: Taylor’s Foreign Press. pp. 102–103. ISBN 0-521-05735-3.
  14. ↑ Sim, Steven. "The City of Ani: A Very Brief History". VirtualANI. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  15. 1 2 Alexander Mikaberidze, Historical Dictionary of Georgia, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 184.
  16. ↑ Minorsky, Vladimir (1953). Studies in Caucasian History. New York: Taylor’s Foreign Press. pp. 102–103. ISBN 0-521-05735-3.

Sources

  • Sim, Steven. "The City of Ani: A Very Brief History". VirtualANI. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  • Toumanoff, C. (2010). "KAMSARAKAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc. 5. pp. 453–455.
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