House of Hasan-Jalalyan

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The House of Hasan-Jalalyan (in Armenian: Հասան-Ջալալյաններ) was an Armenian dynasty that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh) from 1214 onwards in what is now the regions of lower Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh and Syunik.^[1] It was named after Hasan Jalal Dawla (Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա), an Armenian feudal prince from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyan family was able to maintain its autonomy throughout several centuries of foreign domination of the region by Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols as they, as well as the other Armenian princes and meliks of Khachen, saw themselves of holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.^[2]

Through their many patronages of Christian churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate the Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 1500s, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish the melikdoms of Gulistan and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda and Dizak, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa."^[3]

[edit] Origins of the dynasty

According to Robert H. Hewsen, a professor at the California State University, Fresno and an expert on the history of the Caucasus during this time period, Hasan Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" Armenian and can be traced back to the fourth century:

In the male line, (1) the princes (who later became kings) of Siunik. Through various princesses, who married his ancestors, Hasan-Jalal was descended from (2) the kings of Armenia or the Bagratuni dynasty, centered at Ani; (3) the Armenian kings of Vaspurakan of the Artsruni dynasty, centered in the region of Van; 4) the princes of Gardman; (5) the Sassanid dynasty of Persia, and (6) the Arsacids, the second royal house of Albania, itself a branch of (7) the kings of ancient Parthia.^[4]

Much of Hasan Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian nakharar families. Hasan Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh.^[5] Hasan I was the husband of Dopi, one of the three sisters of the Zakarid brother-generals Zakare and Ivane who married into the nakharar families.^[6] By marrying Dopi, he received a dowry which helped enlarge his realm of power to the regions of what are now current-day Lake Sevan and the district of Sotk in Syunik. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at Dadivank, and divided his land into three: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tonik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black"; the remainder went to his third son Vasak-Smbat. Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, a progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes.^[7] When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Balk, Mamkan, Hasan Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.^[8]

In the late 1960s and into the 1970s Hasan Jalal’s origins became a part of a larger debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. In addition to the position held almost solely by Azerbaijani historians that much of Artsakh at the time was under heavy Caucasian Albanian influence, they also contend that the population and monuments were not Armenian, but were, in fact, Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument is also used in the regards to Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan).^[9] Among the foremost revisionists who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery by Hasan Jalal, he was an Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, as well the prevailing notion held in Azerbaijan that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture.^[10]

[edit] Reign under Hasan Jalal Dawla

[edit] Culture and religion

With the surrender of Ani to the Byzantine Empire in 1045 and the Byzantine annexation of the Kingdom of Kars in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia, Bagratid Armenia, came to an end. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated Byzantine at the battle of Manzikert in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous kingdoms of Syunik and Lori and in the principality of Khachen.^[11] From the early to mid-1100s, the combined Georgian and Armenian armies were successful in pushing out the presence of the Turks in eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity prior to the appearance of the Mongols.^[12]

Khachen used to be a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown however his reign, beginning in 1214 and ending at the time of his death 1260 in Qazvin, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions.^[7] When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd.^[13] He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; Armenian: թագավոր) or inknakal (self-ruling or autonomous leader; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak-Balk.^[14] The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi extolled Hasan Jalal in his work "History of the Armenians", lacing him with praise for his piety and devotion to Christianity:

He was...a pious and God-loving man, mild and meek, merciful, and a lover of the poor, striving in prayers and entreaties like one who lived in the desert. He performed matins and vespers unhindered, no matter where he might be, like a monk; and in memory of the Resurrection of our Savior, he spent Sunday without sleeping, in a standing vigil. He was very fond of the priests, a lover of knowledge, and a reader of the divine Gospels.^[15]

A further testament to this devotion included Hasan Jalal's commissioning of the Gandzasar Monastery. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos of Albania, the church was consecrated. After the anointment, Hasan Jalal helped serve a feast and passed out the gifts to all the attendants.^[16] The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the house of the catholicos; beginning in the 1400s, the family also monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would pass down from nephew to uncle. Hasan Jalal's son John VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named John, became the second.^[17]

Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim influence in the region had pervaded and taken hold of the culture and customs among the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. The Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond noted that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar."^[18] The image of Hasan Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome, for example, has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court."^[19] Muslim influence was also seen in Hasan Jalal's name: as a fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arabic patronymics (kunya) that lost any "connection with original Armenian names."^[20] Hasan Jalal's Armenian name was Haykazi but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.^[21]

[edit] Mongol invasion

In 1236, the Ilkhanate Mongol armies appeared in the region. The Mongols initially besieged Hasan Jalal's fortress, Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd), but were unsuccessful in taking it. Rather than continuing the siege, the Mongols sued for negotiations with Hasan Jalal: exchanging his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.^[15]

Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan Jalal traveled twice to Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan.^[7] Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Emir Arghun Khan, the ruling regional Mongol leader at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians, that it prompted Hasan Jalal in 1256 to journey to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, the khan drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."^[22]

Hasan Jalal also attempted to strengthen his alliances with the Mongols by having his daughter Rhuzukan marry Bora Noyan, the son of a Mongol leader.^[23] Relations between Armenians and Mongols however, continued to deteriorate and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold what it promised.

Finally, in 1260, Hasan Jalal decided to ally himself with the forces of the Georgian king David Narin who was leading an insurrection against Mongol rule. He was captured several times by the Mongols yet his family was able to free him by paying a ransom. The insurrection eventually failed and under the orders of Arghun Khan, Hasan Jalal was arrested once more and taken to Qazvin, Iran. In accordance to Kirakos Ganzaketsi's History, Rhuzukan appealed to the Hulagu Khan's wife Doquz Khatun, to pressure Arghun to free her father. However, as Arghun Khan learned of this, he had Hasan Jalal tortured and then executed.^[7][24] His son, Atabek, ordered several of his men to Iran to retrieve his father's dismembered body, which had been tossed into a well; upon bringing it back, the body was given a proper burial at Gandzasar monastery.^[24]

[edit] Later family rule

Following his death, the family truncated Hasan Jalal's official title and to the shorter "Princes of Artaskh."^[25] Atabek was ordered by Hulegu to take over his father's position and held the post until 1306. His cousin Vakhtank, whose descendants would become the Melik-Avanyan family, was given control over the region of Dizak. As a method of showing their relation to Hasan Jalal, his descendants adopted Hasan Jalal as their surname and attached -yan to the end to form a suffix.^[21] The family funded numerous architectural and cultural projects which continue to stand today, including Gandzasar monastery and the adjacent Church of St. John the Baptist. In the late 16th century, the family branched out further in its establishing of melikdoms in settlements in Jraberd, Khachen and Gulistan.^[1][26]

During the Turko-Persian wars of the the 1600s and 1700s, the meliks fiercely resisted and fought back against incursions made by both sides. In the latter quarter of the 1700s, they aided the invading Russian armies to help clear the region of both the Turks and Persians. The Hasan-Jalalyans were one of the most prominent of the families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control. Those who were caught sometimes met cruel punishment: in 1786, for example, the Persians executed Catholicos Hovhannes XII Hasan-Jalalyan after discovering that he had been in touch with Catherine the Great's agents in soliciting Russian aid to the region.^[27]

In the course of the period from the 1600s to the early 1800s, the Jalalyan house also proliferated in the establishment of several other Armenian noble houses, including the Melik-Atabekyan family, who became the last rulers of the principality of Jraberd. Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan, who was to die in 1813, was the final melik of Khachen when the Russian Empire first entered the region in 1805 during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813.^[28] In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos.^[29] Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan Jalal's personal dagger, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

[edit] Hasan-Jalalyans today

At the time of the publication of Hewsen's initial article in the journal Revue des etudes Arméniennes, the author was unable to trace any survivors of the house but did note that the final two Catholicoi of Albania, Hovhannes XII (1763-1786) and Sargis II (1794-1815), had a dozen brothers altogether, all who left a "numerous progeny by the middle of the nineteenth century." He was also able to locate a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan as an artist at the turn of 20th century.^[30] In later years, Soviet sources also listed the biography of Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan (1840-1902), an Armenian writer, poet and lawyer who lived in the Russian Empire.^[31]

[edit] See also

List of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh

[edit] External Links

(Armenian) The Hasan Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading