Ostikanate of Arminiya Հայաստանի Օստիկանություն
654–884
Map of the Caucasus and of Arminiya c. 740
Status	Province (largely autonomous vassal principalities) of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates
Capital	Dvin 40°0′16.870″N 44°34′45.012″E / 40.00468611°N 44.57917000°E / 40.00468611; 44.57917000
Common languages	Armenian (native language) Arabic
Religion	Christianity (Armenian Apostolic Church, Paulicianism) Sunni Islam (state)
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Established	654
• Disestablished	884
ISO 3166 code	AM
Preceded by Succeeded by Persian Armenia Byzantine Armenia Albania (satrapy) Principality of Iberia Principality of Hamamshen Bagratid Armenia Bagratid Iberia Kaysites

Historical Arab states and dynasties
Ancient Arab states Kingdom of Qedar 800 BC–300 BC Kingdom of Lihyan 600 BC–100 BC Nabataean Kingdom 400 BC–106 AD Kingdom of Osroene 132 BC–244 AD Emesene Dynasty 64 BC–300s AD Kingdom of Hatra 100s–241 AD Tanukhids 196–1100 AD Ghassanids 220–638 AD Salihids 300s–500s AD Lakhmids 300s–602 AD Kingdom of Kinda 450 AD–550 AD
Arab empires and caliphates Rashidun 632–661 Umayyads 661–750 Abbasids 750–1258 Fatimids 909–1171
Eastern dynasties Emirate of Armenia 654–884 Emirate of Tbilisi 736–1122 Emirate of Crete 824–961 Dulafids 840–897 Habbarids 854–1011 Kaysites 860–964 Shirvanshah 861–1538 Alavids 864–928 Hamdanids 890–1004 Rawadids 955–1071 Mazyadids 961–1150 Jarrahids 970–1107 Uqaylids 990–1096 Numayrids 990–1081 Mirdasids 1024–1080 Munqidhites 1025–1157 Ma'nids 1517–1697 Turabays 1480–1677 Harfushs 1517–1865 Shihabs 1697–1842
Western dynasties and caliphates Salihids 710–1019 Fihrid Emirate 745-757 Umayyad state of Córdoba 756–1031 Muhallabids 771–793 Idrisids 788–974 Aghlabids 800–909 Sulaymanids 814–922 Muslim Sicily 831–1091 Kanzids 1004–1412 Bakrids 1012–1051 Tujibids 1013–1039 Amirids 1020–1086 Abbadids 1023–1091 Yahsubids 1023–1062 Hammudids 1026–1057 Muzaynids 1027–1063 Jawharids 1031–1091 Hudids 1039–1110 Sumadihids 1041–1091 Tahirids 1049–1078 Nasrids 1230–1492 Saadids 1554–1659 Senussids 1837–1969
Arabian Peninsula Imamate of Oman 751–1970 Ziyadids 819–1138 Yufirids 847–997 Ukhaidhirds 865–1066 Rassids 897–1962 Qarmatians 899–1077 Wajihids 926–965 Sharifate of Mecca 968–1925 Sulayhids 1047–1138 Sulaymanids 1063–1174 Uyunids 1076–1253 Zurayids 1083–1174 Nabhanids 1154–1624 Mahdids 1159–1174 Rasulids 1229–1454 Usfurids 1253–1320 Jarwanids 1305–1487 Kathirids 1395–1967 Tahirids 1454–1526 Jabrids 1463–1521 Qasimids 1597–1872 Ya'arubids 1624–1742 Upper Yafa 1800–1967 Muscat and Oman 1820–1970 Rashidids 1836–1921 Qu'aitids 1858–1967 Emirate of Beihan 1903–1967 Idrisids 1906–1934 Mutawakkilite Kingdom 1926–1970
East Africa Makhzumi dynasty (Shewa) 896–1279 Nabahani dynasty (Pate Island) 1203–1894 Mahdali dynasty (Kilwa) 1277–1495 Mazrui dynasty (Mombasa) 1746–1828 Sultanate of Zanzibar 1856–1964 Nabahani dynasty (Wituland) 1858–1895 Tippu Tip's State 1860–1887
Current monarchies 'Alawis (Morocco) 1631–present Al Qasimi (Ras al Khaymah) 1727–present Al Qasimi (Sharjah) 1727–present Al Saud (Saudi Arabia) 1744–present Al Said (Oman) 1749–present Al Sabah (Kuwait) 1752–present Al Nahyan (Abu Dhabi) 1761–present Al Mualla (Umm al-Quwain) 1775–present Al Khalifa (Bahrain) 1783–present Al Nuaimi (Ajman) 1810–present Al Maktoum (Dubai) 1833–present Al Thani (Qatar) 1868–present Al Sharqi (Fujairah) 1900–present Hashemites (Jordan) 1921–present
v t e

Arminiya, also known as the Ostikanate of Arminiya (Armenian: Հայաստանի Օստիկանություն,^[1] Hayastani ostikanut'yun) or the Emirate of Armenia (Arabic: إمارة أرمينية, imārat armīniya), was a political and geographic designation given by the Muslim Arabs to the lands of Greater Armenia, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania, following their conquest of these regions in the 7th century. Though the caliphs initially permitted an Armenian prince to represent the province of Arminiya in exchange for tribute and the Armenians' loyalty during times of war, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan introduced direct Arab rule of the region, headed by an ostikan with his capital in Dvin. According to the historian Stephen H. Rapp in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam:^[2]

Early Arabs followed Sāsānian, Parthian Arsacid, and ultimately Achaemenid practice by organising most of southern Caucasia into a large regional zone called Armīniya (cf. the Achaemenid satrapy of Armina covering much of southern Caucasia and the subsequent Kūst-i Kapkōh of the Sāsānians).

Part of a series on the
History of Armenia
Prehistory Shulaveri–Shomu culture Kura–Araxes culture Legend of Hayk Trialeti–Vanadzor culture Armani Lchashen–Metsamor culture Hayasa-Azzi Arme–Shupria Mushki Urumu Nairi Confederation Urartu (Kingdom of Van) Etiuni
Antiquity Satrapy of Armenia Armenia Minor Kingdom of Armenia Armenian Empire Roman Armenia Christianization of Armenia Kingdom of Sophene Commagene Byzantine Armenia Sasanian Armenia Muslim conquest of Armenia
Middle Ages Emirate of Armenia Principality of Hamamshen Kingdom of Armenia Kingdom of Vaspurakan Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget Kingdom of Syunik Kingdom of Artsakh Zakarid Armenia Principality of Khachen Mongol Armenia Kingdom of Cilicia
Early modern age Iranian Armenia Five Melikdoms Ottoman Armenia Russian Armenia Armenian Oblast Armenian question Armenian genocide Western Armenia National movement
Modern age First Republic of Armenia Armenian S.S.R. Republic of Mountainous Armenia Contemporary Armenia Republic of Artsakh
Timeline • Origins • Etymology
v t e

The details of the early conquest of Armenia by the Arabs are uncertain, as the various Arabic sources conflict with the Greek and Armenian sources, both in chronology and in the details of the events. However, the broad thrust of the Arab campaigns is consistent between the sources, allowing for a reconstruction of events by modern scholars.^[3]

According to the Arabic sources, the first Arab expedition reached Armenia in 639/640, on the heels of their conquest of the Levant from the Byzantines and the start of the Muslim conquest of Persia.^[4] The Arabs were led by Iyad ibn Ghanim and penetrated as far as Bitlis. A second expedition occurred in 642, only to be defeated and pushed out of the country.^[4] After this setback, the Arabs only undertook a raid from Adharbayjan in 645, led by Salman ibn Rabi'a, but this only touched the Armenian borderlands.^[4] The Muslim sources place the actual conquest of the country in 645/646, under the command of Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri. The Arabs first moved against the western, Byzantine portion of the country, captured Theodosiopolis and defeated a Byzantine army, before subduing the Armenian princes around Lake Van and marching onto Dvin, the capital of the former Persian portion of Armenia. Dvin capitulated after a few days of siege, as did Tiflis further north in Caucasian Iberia.^[5] During the same time, another Arab army from Iraq, under Salman ibn Rabi'a, conquered Caucasian Albania (Arran).^[6]

Although Arab sources imply that the country was henceforth effectively under Arab rule, modern historians generally consider the contemporary account of the Armenian bishop Sebeos, partly corroborated by the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor more reliable, and have proposed different reconstructions of the early Arab raids between 640 and 650, based on a critical reading of the sources; it is clear, however, that the country did not submit to Arab rule at this time.^[5]

Armenian histories report that the Arabs first arrived in 642, penetrating the central region of Ayrarat, and sacked Dvin, returning with over 35,000 captives.^[6] In 643, the Arabs invaded again from the direction of Arran, ravaged Ayrarat and reached Iberia, but were defeated in battle by the Armenian leader Theodore Rshtuni and forced back.^[6] After this success, Rshtuni was recognized as ruler of Armenia by the Byzantine emperor Constans II, in exchange for accepting Byzantine suzerainty. When Constans' truce with the Arabs ended in 653, however, to avoid a new Arab invasion, Rshtuni voluntarily agreed to submit to Muslim overlordship.^[6] Emperor Constans then campaigned in person in Armenia, restoring Byzantine rule, but soon after his departure in early 654, the Arabs invaded the country. With their assistance, Rshtuni evicted the Byzantine garrisons from Armenia and secured Arab recognition as the presiding prince of Armenia, Iberia, and Albania.^[6] The Byzantines under general Maurianos tried to recover control of the region, but without success. In 655, even Byzantine Armenia was invaded, and the Arabs occupied Theodosiopolis (Arabic Qaliqala) and cemented their control of the country by taking Rhstuni to Damascus, where he died in 656, and appointing his rival Hamazasp IV Mamikonian in his stead.^[6] However, with the outbreak of the First Muslim Civil War in 657, effective Arab authority in the country ceased, and Mamikonian returned to Byzantine overlordship almost immediately.^[6]

In 661, however, Mu'awiya, now the victor of the Muslim civil war, ordered the Armenian princes to re-submit to his authority and pay tribute. To avoid another war, the princes complied.^[7] The Arab policy of demanding that the tribute be paid in money affected the Armenian economy and society. Coins were struck in Dvin. The Armenians were forced to produce a surplus of food and manufactured goods for sale. A strong urban life was developed in Caucasia as the economy revived.

For most of the second half of the 7th century, Arab presence and control in Armenia was minimal. Armenia was considered conquered land by the Arabs but enjoyed de facto autonomy, regulated by the treaty signed between Rhstuni and Mu'awiya. Indeed, as Aram Ter-Ghewondyan comments, under Arab suzerainty "the country enjoyed a degree of independence such as it had not known since the fall of the Arsacids" in the 5th century.^[8] According to the terms of the treaty, the Armenian princes were submitted to—relatively low—taxation and the obligation to provide soldiers when requested, for which the princes were to be paid an annual subsidy of 100,000 dirhams. In exchange, no Arab garrison or official was installed in Armenian lands, and Arab assistance was even promised in the event of a Byzantine attack.^[8][9]

The situation changed in the reign of the caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705). Beginning in 700, the Caliph's brother and governor of Arran, Muhammad ibn Marwan, subdued the country in a series of campaigns. Although the Armenians rebelled in 703 and received Byzantine aid, Muhammad ibn Marwan defeated them and sealed the failure of the revolt by executing the rebel princes in 705.^[8][10] Armenia, along with the principalities of Caucasian Albania and Iberia (modern Georgia) was grouped into one vast province called al-Arminiya (الارمينيا), with its capital at Dvin (Arabic Dabil), which was rebuilt by the Arabs and served as the seat of the governor (ostikan) and of an Arab garrison.^[10][11] For much of the remaining Umayyad period, Arminiya was usually grouped with Arran and the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) under a single governor into an ad hoc super-province.^[12]

Arminiya was governed by an emir or wali headquartered at Dvin, whose role however was limited to defence and the collection of taxes: the country was largely run by the local princes - the nakharars. The province was divided into four regions: Arminiya I (Caucasian Albania), Arminiya II (Caucasian Iberia), Arminiya III (the area around Aras River), Arminiya IV (Taron).^[13] The local nobility was headed, as in Sasanian times, by a presiding prince (իշխան, ishkhan), a title which in the 9th century, beginning probably with Bagrat II Bagratuni, evolved into the title of "prince of princes" (իշխանաց իշխան, ishkhanac' ishkhan). Acting as the head of the other princes, the ishkhanac' ishkhan was answerable to the Arab governor, being responsible for the collection of the taxes owed to the caliphal government and the raising of military forces when requested.^[14]

A census and survey of Arminiya was undertaken c. 725, followed by a significant increase in taxation so as to finance the Caliphate's increasing military needs in various fronts.^[15] The Armenians participated with troops in the hard-fought campaigns of the Second Arab–Khazar War in the 720s and 730s. As a result, in 732, governor Marwan ibn Muhammad (the future Caliph Marwan II) named Ashot III Bagratuni as the presiding prince of Armenia, an act which essentially re-confirmed the country's autonomy within the Caliphate.^[16]

With the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate after the Abbasid Revolution, a period of repression was inaugurated. This was followed by Caliph al-Mansur revoking the privileges and abolishing the subsidies paid to the various Armenian princes (the nakharars) and imposing harsher taxation, leading to the outbreak of another major rebellion in 774. The revolt was suppressed in the Battle of Bagrevand in April 775.^[11][17] The failure of the rebellion saw the near-extinction, reduction to insignificance or exile to Byzantium of some of the most prominent nakharar families, most importantly the Mamikonian. In its aftermath, the Caliphate tightened its grip on the Transcaucasian provinces: the nobility of neighbouring Iberia was also decimated in the 780s, and a process of settlement with Arab tribes began which by the middle of the 9th century led to the Islamization of Caucasian Albania, while Iberia and much of lowland Armenia came under the control of a series of Arab emirates. At the same time, the power vacuum left by the destruction of so many nakharar clans was filled by two other great families, the Artsruni in the south (Vaspurakan) and the Bagratuni in the north.^[18][19]

Despite several insurrections, the Emirate of Armenia lasted until 884, when the Bagratuni Ashot I, who had managed to win control over most of its area, declared himself "King of the Armenians". He received recognition by Caliph Al-Mu'tamid of the Abbasid dynasty in 885 and Byzantine Emperor Basil I of the Macedonian dynasty in 886.

Ashot was swiftly able to expand his power. Through family links with the two next most important princely families, the Artsruni and the Siwnis, and through a cautious policy towards the Abbasids and the Arab emirates of Armenia, by the 860s he had succeeded in becoming in fact, if not yet in name, an autonomous king. ^[20]

These are reported as governors under the Caliphs Uthman (r. 644–656) and Ali (r. 656–661), as well as the early Umayyads:

• Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman^{[citation needed]}
• Mughira ibn Shu'ba^{[citation needed]}
• Al-Qasim ibn Rabi'a ibn Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt al-Thaqafi^{[citation needed]}
• Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri^{[citation needed]}
• Al-Ash'ath ibn Qays al-Kindi (ca. 657)^{[citation needed]}
• Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra (ca. 686)^{[citation needed]}

With the submission of Armenia to Muhammad ibn Marwan after 695, the province was formally incorporated into the Caliphate, and an Arab governor (ostikan) installed at Dvin:^[21][22]

• Muhammad ibn Marwan (c. 695–705), represented by the following deputies:
  • Uthman ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba
  • Abdallah ibn Hatim al-Bahili
• Abd al-Aziz ibn Hatim al-Bahili (706–709)
• Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (709–721)
• Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah (721–725)
• Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (725–729)
• Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah (729–730)
• Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (730–732)
• Marwan ibn Muhammad (732–733)
• Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi (733–735)
• Marwan ibn Muhammad (735–744)
• Ishaq ibn Muslim al-Uqayli (744–750)
• Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad (750–753)
• Yazid ibn Asid ibn Zafir al-Sulami (753–755)
• Sulayman (755–?)
• Salih ibn Subai al-Kindi (c. 767)
• Bakkar ibn Muslim al-Uqayli (c. 769–770)
• al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba (770/771–773/774)
• Yazid ibn Asid ibn Zafir al-Sulami (773/774–778)
• Uthman ibn 'Umara ibn Khuraym (778–785)
• Khuzayma ibn Khazim (785–786)
• Yusuf ibn Rashid al-Sulami (786–787)
• Yazid ibn Mazyad al-Shaybani (787–788)
• Ubaydallah ibn al-Mahdi (788–791) (?)
• Abd al-Qadir (791)
• Al-Fadl ibn Yahya al-Barmaki (791–793)
• Umar ibn Ayyub al-Kinani (793)
• ? (793)
• Khalid ibn Yazid al-Sulami (793–794)
• Al-Abbas ibn Jarir ibn Yazid al-Bajali (794)
• Musa ibn Isa ibn Musa al-Hashimi (794–795)
• Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Harashi (795)
• Ahmad ibn Yazid ibn Usayd al-Sulami (795–797)
• Sa'id ibn Salm al-Bahili (797–799)
• Nasr ibn Habib al-Muhallabi (799)
• Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan (799)
• Yazid ibn Mazyad al-Shaybani (799–801)
• Asad ibn Yazid al-Shaybani (801–802)
• Muhammad ibn Yazid al-Shaybani (802–803)
• Khuzayma ibn Khazim (803–?)
• Sulayman ibn Yazid (807–808)
• Asad ibn Yazid al-Shaybani (c. 810)
• Ishaq ibn Sulayman al-Hashimi (c. 813)
• Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mazyad al-Shaybani (813–?) (828–832), (841), (c. 842–844)
• Muhammad ibn Khalid al-Shaybani (c. 842/844–?)
• Abu Sa'id Muhammad al-Marwazi (849–851)
• Yusuf ibn Abi Sa'id al-Marwazi (851–852)
• Bugha al-Kabir (852–855)
• Muhammad ibn Khalid al-Shaybani (857–862)
• Ali ibn Yahya al-Armani (862–863)
• al-Abbas ibn al-Musta'in (863–865)
• Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz (866–867)
• Abi'l-Saj Devdad (867–870)
• Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani (870–875, nominally until 882/3)
• Ja'far Al-Mufawwid (875–878)
• Muhammad ibn Khalid al-Shaybani (878)

• Greater Armenia
• Islam in Armenia

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