Origin of the Bagratid dynasties

The Origin of the Bagratid dynasties – Bagratuni (Բագրատունյաց) in Armenia and Bagrationi (ბაგრატიონი) in Georgia – were the longest-reigning royal families in the Caucasus (and in Europe), starting as princely houses and attaining to the royal status in both countries in the 9th century. The origins of the Bagratids are disputed though more widely accepted version has it that the both dynasties had common roots, beginning in Armenia and branching later into Georgia. The main Armenian house went extinct by the 12th century, while the Georgian line, in its minor branch, continues to this day as the nominal Royal House of Georgia. The root of the names Bagrationi and Bagratuni, Bagrat-, derives from the Old Persian Bagadāta, "God-Given". In Armenia and Georgia, the respective names for the Bagratid dynasties literally translate to "The children of/house established by Bagrat" (Bagrat + Classical Greek: - id, "the children").

The Bagratids of Armenia are speculated to have been an offshoot of the Orontid Dynasty, Achaemenid satraps and, later, kings of Armenia (c 400 – c 200 BC). They had their original appanage in Bagrevand in historic north-central Armenia and claimed their descent from a solar deity Angl-Thork, the tutelary god of the Orontids, until their conversion to Christianity. Thereafter, this claim was abandoned in favor of the mythical ancestor of the Armenians, Hayk. Later, under biblical influences, they entertained another, a Hebrew, claim, further elaborated by Moses of Khorene as the well-known myth of their descent from the biblical king-prophet David. This legend, in a modified manner, would later be adopted also by the Georgian Bagratids. The claim is given no credence by modern scholarship, but was accepted in its day and lent prestige to the family. The harp on their Coat of Arms is a mention to that ancestry.

Bagatades, a commander under Tigranes the Great of Armenia and his viceroy in Syria and Cilicia in 83-69 BC, is thought to be the earliest known Bagratid. However, according to Cyril Toumanoff, the first historically chronicled Bagratids appear in 314 AD as the feudatories of Sper in northwestern Armenia (now northeastern Turkey), near the Iberian marchlands. Subsequently they ruled also in Kogovit and Tmoriq. Unlike most hereditary noble families (naxarars) in Armenia they held only strips of land, as opposed to the Mamikonians, who held a unified land territory.

Certain, generation by generation, history of the family begins only in the 8th century, when the downfall of the rival clan of the Mamikonians helped the Bagratids to emerge as a major force in the ongoing struggle against Arab rule and would obtain the royal crown towards the end of the 9th century.

It is generally believed, that it was during one of the Bagratid-led anti-Arab rebellions in 772, when one of the sons of Ashot III the Blind, called Vasak fled into Iberia (Georgia). His son, Adarnase, was granted hereditary possessions in Klarjeti and Samtskhe by the Georgian dynast Archil. Adarnase’s son Ashot gained the principate of Iberia and founded the last royal dynasty of Georgia. The Georgian Bagratids, however, forged their own legend, refusing their immediate connection with the Armenian Bagratids and claiming their direct descent from King David. Moreover, they regarded the 6th-century prince Guaram as the first Bagrationi ruler. This claim had been given general acceptance for centuries. Though the biblical origin of the Bagratids is now largely discounted, some modern scholars, particularly in Georgia, still consider Guaram as the founder of the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty, who had, in their opinion, only remote relation with the Armenian Bagratunis.

See also

• Bagratuni
• Bagrationi

References

• C. Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History.
• R.G. Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation.
• S. Rapp, Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts .