The Mihranids of Gugark were an

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

princely dynasty, which ruled the

Armeno Armeno (Piedmontese and Lombard: ''Armagn'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Novara. Armeno borders the following municipaliti ...

- Iberian frontier region of

Gugark Gugark ( hy, Գուգարք, lat, Gogarene, Greek: ''Γογαρινή'') was the 13th province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It now comprises parts of northern Armenia, northeast Turkey, and southwest Georgia. Etymology Etymologically ...

from to the 8th-century. They held the title of ("

margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

").

History

Albeit the family claimed descent from the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

rulers of Iran, they were in reality a branch of the

House of Mihran The House of Mihrān or House of Mehrān (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭨𐭥𐭠𐭭; new Persian: مهران), was a leading Iranian noble family (''šahrdārān''), one of the Seven Great Houses of the Sassanid Persian Empire which claimed descent f ...

, one of the

Seven Great Houses of Iran The Seven Great Houses of Iran, also known as the seven Parthian clans, were seven feudal aristocracies of Parthian origin, who were allied with the Sasanian court. The Parthian clans all claimed ancestry from Achaemenid Persians. The seven Great ...

. Its first was

Peroz Feroz or Firuz is a Persian name meaning 'victorious', derived from the middle Persian name Peroz or Piruz. Related names are Phiroze, Feroze, and Parviz. It may refer to: People (historical) * Peroz I (), Sasanian king of Iran * Peroz II (), Sa ...

, who dislodged the Gusharid of Gugark, thus initiating Mihranid rule there. During this period, the Mihranids enjoyed warm relations with the newly established

Chosroid dynasty The Chosroid dynasty (a Latinization of ''Khosro anni'', ka, ხოსრო ��ანები), also known as the Iberian Mihranids, were a dynasty of the kings and later the presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia from the 4t ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, also a branch of the Mihranids. Peroz was the son-in-law of

Mirian III Mirian III ( ka, მირიან III) was a king of Iberia or Kartli (Georgia), contemporaneous to the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ( r. 306–337). He was the founder of the royal Chosroid dynasty. According to the early medieval Geo ...

, the first Christian king of Iberia. Although Peroz refused to convert to Christianity, he still remained loyal to the Iberian king. He and his followers finally converted during the rule of the Mirian III's son and successor Aspacures III (). Gugark was normally subject to the Kingdom of Armenia, but fell under the authority of Iberia after the Sasanians and Romans partitioned Armenia in 387. Not much earlier, the Iberian Kingdom had fallen under the authority of the Sasanians after an invasion by the

King of Kings King of Kings; grc-gre, Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων, Basileùs Basiléōn; hy, արքայից արքա, ark'ayits ark'a; sa, महाराजाधिराज, Mahārājadhirāja; ka, მეფეთ მეფე, ''Mepet mepe'' ...

()

Shapur II Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigned fo ...

().

Varsken Varsken (Middle Persian: ''Vazgēn'') was an Iranian prince from the Mihranid family of Gugark, who served as the (margrave) of the region from 470 to 482. He was the son and successor of Arshusha II. Upon the death of his father, Varsken we ...

travelled to the Iranian court in 470, where he converted to Zoroastrianism and shifted his allegiance from the Iberian monarchy to the Sasanian Empire. As a reward for his conversion, he was given the viceroyalty of

Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...

and a daughter of Peroz in marriage. Espousing his pro-Iranian position, he attempted to force his family to convert to Zoroastrianism, including his first wife

Shushanik Shushanik (Shushanika, Vardandukht) _hy.html" ;"title="nowiki/> hy">Շուշանիկ, ka, შუშანიკი; c. 440 – 475was a Christian Armenian woman who was tortured to death by her husband Varsken in the town of Tsurtavi, Georgia. S ...

(a daughter of Vardan), which eventually resulted in her

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external ...

. His policies were unacceptable to the Iberian king

Vakhtang I Vakhtang I Gorgasali ( ka, ვახტანგ I გორგასალი, tr; or 443 – 502 or 522), of the Chosroid dynasty, was a king of Kingdom of Iberia (antiquity), Iberia, natively known as Kartli (eastern Georgia (country), Georgia) ...

(), who had him killed and then revolted against Iran in 482. The Vahram-Arshusha V sided with the Sasanians during the

Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 was the final and most devastating of the Byzantine–Sasanian wars, series of wars fought between the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine / Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire of Iran. The Byzantine–Sasani ...

, and was captured at the Battle of Nineveh on 12 December 627. In the 8th-century, the lands and titles of the Mihranids was acquired by the Armenian Bagratuni princes, thus marking the end of the Mihranids of Gugark.

List of

Based on available sources, the modern historian

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

has deduced a list of the ruling Mihranid of Gugark, albeit it remains incomplete.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{Registration required Mihranids Medieval history of the Caucasus Iranian dynasties