House of Hasan-Jalalyan

Royal house
surname =Hasan-Jalalyan
estate =of Artsakh
coat of arms =
country =Khachen
titles =Princes
founder =Hasan-Jalal Dawla, King of Artsakh and Balk
final ruler =Allahverdi II Hasan-Jalalyan
current head =
founding year =1214
dissolution =1813
nationality =Armenian
cadet branches =

The House of Hasan-Jalalyan ( _hy. Հասան-Ջալալյաններ) was an Armenian dynasty that ruled the region of Khachen (Greater Artsakh) from 1214 onwards in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh and Syunik.hy icon Ulubabyan, Bagrat. "«Հասան-Ջալալյաններ»" (Hasan-Jalalyan Family). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences. 1980, p. 246.] 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. [Hewsen, Robert H. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax" in "Medieval Armenian Culture (University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies)". Thomas J. Samuelian and Michael E. Stone (eds.) Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984, pp. 52-53. ISBN 0-8913-0642-0]

Through their many patronages of Christian churches and other monuments, the Hasan-Jalalyans helped cultivate Armenian culture throughout the region. By the late 1500s, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish melikdoms in Gulistan and Jraberd, making them, along with Khachen, Varanda and Dizak, a part of what was then known as the "Melikdoms of Khamsa." [Hewsen, Robert H. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study." "Revue des etudes Arméniennes". NS: IX, 1972, pp. 299-301.]

Origins of the dynasty

According to Robert H. Hewsen, a professor at Rowan University 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:

quotation|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. [Quoted in cite book
last = de Waal
first = Thomas
authorlink = Thomas de Waal
title =Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War
publisher = New York University Press
date =2003
location =New York
pages =pp. 156-157
isbn = 0-8147-1945-7] 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. [Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 47] 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. [Bedrosian, Robert. "Armenia During the Seljuk and Mongol Periods" in "The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century". Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997, pp. 253-254. ISBN 1-4039-6422-X] 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 two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tonkik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, a progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes.hy icon Ulubabyan, Bagrat. "«Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա»" (Hasan-Jalal Dawla). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences 1980, p. 246.] When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands. [Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 49.]

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 Caucasian Albanian in origin (this argument has also been used regarding Armenian monuments in the region of Nakhichevan). [cite book
last = Karny
first = Yo’av
title =Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory
publisher = Douglas & McIntyre
date =2000
location =New York
pages =pp. 373-384
isbn = 0-374-52812-8 ] Among the foremost revisionists who expounded these views were Ziya Bunyadov and Farida Mamedova. Mamedova herself asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based upon her interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar Monastery by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Armenian historians as well as experts of the region such as Hewsen, reject her conclusions, along with the notion, often held in Azerbaijan, that Armenians “stole” Caucasian Albania’s culture. [de Waal. "Black Garden", pp. 152-156.]

Reign under Hasan-Jalal Dawla

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 the Byzantines 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. [cite book
last = Bournoutian
first = George A.
authorlink = George Bournoutian
title = A Concise History of the Armenian People
year = 2006
location = Costa Mesa, CA
pages = pp. 87-88
publisher = Mazda
isbn = 1-5685-9141-1] From the early to mid-1100s, the combined Georgian and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turks out of Eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236. [Bournoutian. "Armenian People", pp. 109-111.]

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 sometime between 1261-1262 in Qazvin, encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd. [Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 50.] He was addressed with the titles "tagavor" (king; Armenian: թագավոր) or "inknakal" (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak-Balk. [Hewsen notes that because of Hasan-Jalal's lineage, he could have "At one and the same time...legitimately style himself King of Siwnik [Syunik] , King of Balk, King of Arc'ax [Artskah] , and King of Albania, not to mention Prince of Gardman, Dizak, and Xac'en [Khachen] - as well as Presiding Prince of Albania - as he chose.": "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", pp. 49-50.] 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:

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 during Vardavar celebrations 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. [Kirakos Gandzaketsi. " [http://rbedrosian.com/kg9.htm History of the Armenians, Chapter 31. Concerning the church (Hassan Jalal) built.] ", [g268-270] ] 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 from thereon in pass down from uncle to nephew. 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. [Hewsen (1972). "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia", p. 317.]

Despite his faithfulness to Christianity, Muslim influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Byzantine art scholar Anthony Eastmond, for example, notes 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." [cite book
last = Eastmond
first = Anthony
title =Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond
publisher = Ashgate
date =2004
location =Burlington,VT
pages =p. 92
isbn = 0-7546-3575-9] The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court." [Ibid., p. 144.] 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 "connexion [sic] with original Armenian names." [Minorsky, Vladimir. "Caucasica IV." "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies". London: University of London, Vol. 15: № 3. 1953, pp. 504-505.] Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person; thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance.hy icon [http://www.gandzasar.am/index1.html Hasan-Jalalyans] . The Hasan-Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development. Retrieved December 24, 2007.]

Hasan-Jalal's Armenian Synaxarion

Gandzasar became home to Armenia's first completed Haysmavurk (Synaxarion in Greek; Armenian: Հայսմավուրկ; also known as the “Book of Saints”), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events. The idea to have a new, better organized Haysmavurk came from Hasan-Jalal himself, who then placed his request with Father Israel (Ter-Israel; Armenian: Տեր-Իսրաել), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since, the Haysmavoork ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel;" it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834. [hy icon Avdalbekyan, M. "«Հայսմավուրկ»" (Haysmavurk). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1980, pp. 202-203.]

Mongol invasion

In 1236, the Ilkhanate Mongol armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Xoxanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered.

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". Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol "ostikan" 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, Batu 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." [cite book
last = Lane
first = George E.
title =Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century Iran: A Persian Renaissance
publisher = Routledge
date =2003
location =London
pages =p. 63
isbn = 0-4152-9750-8]

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.Ibid., p. 259.] Relations between Armenians and Mongols continued to deteriorate however, and the document issued by the khan failed to uphold its promises.

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, (now in Iran). According to Kirakos Ganzaketsi, 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 finally executed.Kirakos Gandzaketsi. " [http://rbedrosian.com/kg12.htm History of the Armenians, Chapter 63: The death of pious prince Jalal] ", [g389-392] ] Hasan Jalal's 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 funeral and buried at Gandzasar monastery.

Later family rule

Following his death, the family truncated Hasan-Jalal's official title to the shorter "Princes of Artaskh." [Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 53.] 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. 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. [cite book
last =Hacikyan
first =Agop Jack
coauthors =Gabriel Basmajian, Edward S. Franchuk
title =The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Modern Times, vol. 3
publisher =Wayne State University
date =2005
location =Detroit
pages =p. 470
isbn = 0-8143-3221-8]

Liberation movement

During the Turko-Persian wars of 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 melik families that took up the cause to liberate the region from foreign control; the foremost among them being Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan (? - 1728).hy icon Svazyan, H. "«Եսայի Հասան-Ջալալյան»" (Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. iii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1977, pp. 523-524.] In 1677, Armenian Catholicos Hakob of Julfa had held a secret meeting with the meliks of Karabakh, proposing that a delegation travel to Europe to garner support for a liberation of the region. [Bournoutian. "Armenian People", pp. 236-237.] In 1711, Yesayi, accompanying Israel Ori, traveled to Russia to help build support for an army under Peter the Great. Ori, however, died on the way, and Yesayi soon took over as the lead figure of the movement. He continued negotiations with Peter, and in a letter sent to him in 1718, promised the support of a 10-12,000-man Armenian army as well as support from neighboring Georgian forces. His entreaties continued until 1724, when Peter concluded an agreement with the Ottoman Empire that, oddly, gave the Muslim-populated regions in eastern Transcaucasia to Russia and Christian-populated western regions to the Turks. Russian interest in the Caucasus soon waned after Peter's death in 1725 as its leaders pulled their forces back across the Terek River. [Ibid., pp. 237-238.] Yesai was blamed for this failure by some of the leaders of the Armenian army as they were forced to fend for themselves against the Turkish invasions.

In the course of the period from the 17th century to the early 19th century, 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. [Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 53.] In 1828, following the end of the second Russo-Persian War, the Russians finally dissolved the office of Catholicos. [Hewsen (1972). "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia", p. 318.]

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 identify a woman named Eleanora Hasan-Jalalyan who was living in Yerevan as an artist at the turn of 20th century. [Ibid., pp. 328-329.] 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. [hy icon Saghyan, M. "«Ռուբեն Հասան-Ջալալյան»" (Ruben Hasan-Jalalyan). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1980, p. 246.]

Several artifacts of the Hasan-Jalalyans survive until today, including Hasan-Jalal's personal dagger, complete with an Armenian inscription, which is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. [de Waal. "Black Garden", pp. 151-152.]

ee also

*List of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh

References

External links

hy icon [http://www.gandzasar.am/index1.html The Hasan-Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development] .

Further reading

*Hewsen, Robert H. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax" in "Medieval Armenian Culture (University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies)". Thomas J. Samuelian and Michael E. Stone (eds.) Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984, pp. 42-68, ISBN 0-8913-0642-0
*_______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study." "Revue des etudes Arméniennes". NS: IX, 1972, pp. 255-329.
*_______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: II." "Revue des etudes Arméniennes". NS: X, 1973-1974, pp. 281-303.
*_______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: III." "Revue des etudes Arméniennes". NS: XI, 1975-1976, pp. 219-243.
*_______________. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: IV: The Siwnid Origins of Xac'atur Abovean." "Revue des etudes Arméniennes". NS: XIV, 1980, pp. 459-470.
*Kirakos Gandzaketsi. " [http://rbedrosian.com/kg1.htm History of the Armenians] " (Պատմություն Հայոց). Edited by K. Melik-Ohandjanyan. Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1961. Trans. in English by Robert Bedrosian.
*ru icon Orbeli, Joseph. "Hasan-Jalal Dawla, Lord of Khachen" ("Асан Жалал дoла, Kниаз Xaчeнcки"). IIAN 3 (1909). Reprinted in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1963.
*ru icon Raffi. " [http://armenianhouse.org/raffi/novels-ru/khamsa/meliks1_14.html The Melikdoms of Khamsa] ". (Խամսայի մելիքությունները). Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1964.
*fr icon Stepanos Orbelian, trans. by Marie Brosset, "Histoire de la Sioune par Stephannos Orbelian". St. Petersburg, 1864-1866.
*fr icon Toumanoff, Cyril. "Manuel de généalogie et de chronologie pour l'histoire de la Caucasie Chrétienne (Arménie-Géorgie-Albanie)." "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies". London: University of London, Vol. 41, № 2.
*hy icon Ulubabyan, Bagrat and Murad M. Asratyan "Գանձասար" (Gandzasar). Milan: OEMME edizioni, 1987 ISBN 8-8858-2202-9
*hy icon Ulubabyan, Bagrat. "«Հասան-Ջալալ Դոլա»" (Hasan-Jalal Dawla). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia, vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1980.
*hy icon_________________. "«Հասան-Ջալալյաններ»" (Hasan-Jalalyan Family). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia, vol. vi. Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1980.
*hy icon_________________. "The Principality of Khachen, From the 10th to 16th centuries" ("Խաչենի իշխանություները, X-XVI դարերում"). Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1975.