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Battle of Avarayr

Coordinates: 39°20′20″N 45°3′26″E / 39.33889°N 45.05722°E / 39.33889; 45.05722
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39°20′20″N 45°3′26″E / 39.33889°N 45.05722°E / 39.33889; 45.05722

Battle of Avarayr

A 15th-century Armenian miniature depicting the battle
Date26 May 451[1][2]
Location
Avarayr Plain, Canton of Artaz, Vaspurakan, Greater Armenia
(modern-day Chors, Chaypareh County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran)
Result Sasanian victory[3][4][5]
Belligerents
Sasanian Empire
Pro-Sasanian Armenians		 Christian Armenians
Commanders and leaders
Vasak of Syunik
Mushkan Niusalavurt		 Vardan Mamikonian †
Ghevond Vanandetsi[6]
Strength
300,000[7] Sasanians
60,000 Armenian loyalists[7]
Unknown number of elephants		 66,000 Armenians[7]
(Perhaps exaggerated)[8]
Casualties and losses
3,544 dead[9] 1,036 dead[9]

The Battle of Avarayr (Armenian: Ավարայրի ճակատամարտ, romanized: Avarayri chakatamart) was fought on 26 May 451 on the Avarayr Plain in Vaspurakan between a Christian Armenian army under Vardan Mamikonian and Sassanid Persia. It is considered one of the first battles in defense of the Christian faith.[10][page needed] Although the Persians were victorious on the battlefield, it was a pyrrhic victory. The Armenians were allowed to continue practising Christianity freely.[4][5]

The battle is seen as one of the most significant events in Armenian history.[11] The commander of the Armenian forces, Vardan Mamikonian, is considered a national hero and has been canonized by the Armenian Apostolic Church.[12][13]

Background

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The area of Armenia under Persian rule

The Kingdom of Armenia under the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia was the first nation to officially convert to Christianity, in 301 under Tiridates III. In 428, Armenian nobles petitioned Bahram V to depose Artaxias IV.[14] As a result, the country became a Sassanid dependency with a Sassanid governor. The Armenian nobles initially welcomed Persian rule, provided they were allowed to practise Christianity; but Yazdegerd II, concerned that the Armenian Church was hierarchically dependent on the Latin- and Greek-speaking Christian Church (aligned with Rome and Constantinople rather than the Aramaic-speaking and Persian-backed Church of the East) tried to compel the Armenian Church to abandon Rome and Byzantium in favour of the Church of the East or simply convert to Zoroastrianism. He summoned the leading Armenian nobles to Ctesiphon, and pressured them into cutting their ties with the Orthodox Church as he had intended.[15]

The unsteadiness of the empire was ever-increasing under Yazdegerd II, who had an uneasy relationship with the aristocracy and was facing a great challenge by the Kidarites in the east.[16] Yazdegerd II needed the cooperation of the aristocracy so that he could have an organized government to combat the external and internal issues endangering the empire.[16] His policy of integrating the Christian nobility into the bureaucracy led to a major rebellion in Armenia.[16] The cause of the rebellion was the attempt by his minister Mihr-Narseh to impose the Zurvanite variant of Zoroastrianism in Armenia.[16] His intentions differed from those of Yazdegerd II.[17] As a result, many of the Armenian nobles (but not all) rallied under Vardan Mamikonian, the supreme commander (sparapet) of Armenia.[18] The Armenian rebels tried to appeal to the Romans for help, but to no avail.[19] Meanwhile, another faction of Armenians, led by the marzban (governor) Vasak Siwni allied themselves with the Sasanians.[18]

Battle

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A tactical overview of the battle

The 66,000-strong Armenian army took Holy Communion before the battle. The army was a popular uprising, rather than a professional force, but the Armenian nobility who led it and their respective retinues were accomplished soldiers, many of them veterans of the Sassanid dynasty's wars with Rome and the nomads of Central Asia. The Armenians were allowed to maintain a core of their national army led by a supreme commander (sparapet) who was traditionally of the Mamikonian noble family. The Armenian cavalry was, at the time, practically an elite force greatly appreciated as a tactical ally by both Persia and Byzantium. In this particular case, both officers and men were additionally motivated by a desire to save their religion and their way of life. The Persian army, said to be three times larger, included war elephants and the famous Savārān, or New Immortal, cavalry. Several Armenian noblemen with weaker Christian sympathies, led by Vasak Siuni, went over to the Persians before the battle, and fought on their side; in the battle, Vardan won initial successes, but was eventually slain along with eight of his top officers.[citation needed]

Outcome

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Memorial to the Battle of Avarayr in Gyumri, Armenia

Nine generals, including Vardan Mamikonian, were killed, with a large number of the Armenian nobles and soldiers meeting the same fate.[19] The Sasanians, however, had also suffered heavy losses due to the resolute struggle by the Armenian rebels.[19] Yazdegerd II dismissed Vasak Siwni and allowed religious freedom in Armenia.[20] Although tensions continued until 510 when a kinsman of Vardan Mamikonian, Vard Mamikonian, was appointed marzban by Yazdegerd II's grandson, Kavad I (r. 488–531).[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".
  2. ^ Nicholson, Oliver (2018-04-19). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192562463.
  3. ^ Susan Paul Pattie, Faith in History: Armenians Rebuilding Community (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), p. 40.
  4. ^ a b Thomson, Robert W. (August 17, 2011). "Avarayr". Encyclopædia Iranica. So spirited was the Armenian defence, however, that the Persians suffered enormous losses as well. Their victory was pyrrhic and the king, faced with troubles elsewhere, was forced, at least for the time being, to allow the Armenians to worship as they chose.
  5. ^ a b Susan Paul Pattie (1997). Faith in History: Armenians Rebuilding Community. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 40. ISBN 1560986298. The Armenian defeat in the Battle of Avarayr in 451 proved a pyrrhic victory for the Persians. Though the Armenians lost their commander, Vartan Mamikonian, and most of their soldiers, Persian losses were proportionately heavy, and Armenia was allowed to remain Christian.
  6. ^ The Golden Age: Minor Writers, The Heritage of Armenian Literature, Vol. 1, ed. Agop Jack Hacikyan (Wayne State University Press, 2000), 360.
  7. ^ a b c Babessian, Hovhannes (1965). "The Vartanantz Wars". The Armenian Review. 18: 16–19.
  8. ^ Payaslian, Simon (2007). the history of Armenia from origins to present. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-60064-6. p. 44
  9. ^ a b Elishe (1971). О Вардане и войне Армянской [About Vardan and Armenian War] (in Russian). Yerevan: изд-во Армянской ССР. pp. 110-111
  10. ^ Agadjanian, Alexander (2014). "Six: Elements of the Armenian Ethno-Religious Genealogy". Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics and Popular Practice. Routledge. ISBN 978-1472412713.
  11. ^ Hakobyan, Науk (2003). "Ավարայրի ճակատամարտը (պատմաքննական տեսություն) [The Avarayr Battle (historical-critical review)]". Patma-Banasirakan Handes (in Armenian) (1): 40–67.
  12. ^ Robert Armot, Alfred Aghajanian (2007). Armenian literature: comprising poetry, drama, folklore, and classic traditions. Los Angeles: Indo-European Pub. p. 5. ISBN 9781604440003.
  13. ^ Suny, Ronald Grigor (1993). Looking toward Ararat Armenia in modern history. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 4. ISBN 9780253207739.
  14. ^ Introduction to Christian Caucasian History:II: States and Dynasties of the Formative Period, Cyril Toumanoff, Traditio, Vol. 17, 1961, Fordham University, 6.
  15. ^ Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation (Indiana University Press, 1994), 23.
  16. ^ a b c d Sauer 2017, p. 192.
  17. ^ Sauer 2017, p. 193.
  18. ^ a b Avdoyan 2018.
  19. ^ a b c Hewsen 1987, p. 32.
  20. ^ Sauer 2017, pp. 192–193.
  21. ^ Nersessian 2018.

Further reading

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