Moxoene or Mokk' ( hy, Մոկք, translit=Mokkʿ, ku, Miks) was a territory of Kingdom of Armenia and later

Sasanian Armenia Sasanian Armenia, also known as Persian Armenia and Persarmenia ( hy, Պարսկահայաստան – ''Parskahayastan''), may either refer to the periods in which Armenia ( pal, 𐭠𐭫𐭬𐭭𐭩 – ''Armin'') was under the suzerainty of ...

, located east of Arzanene from south of

Lake Van Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...

to north of Bohtan river. The territory was ruled by a local dynasty.

Toponymy

The name ''Moxoene'' only appears in ancient sources in the early fourth century. In later centuries, Armenian sources used the name ''Mokkʿ.'' The ancient name is preserved in modern times with the local Kurds using the name ''Miks'' for the main town of the area. Attempts have been made to find the pre-Armenian attestations of Moxoene and some

ethnonyms An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

have been suggested including ''Μύκοι'' by Herodotus, ''Muški'' from Assyrian sources and ''τῶν Μοσχικῶν ὄρη'' or ''Μοξιανοί'' by Ptolemy as attested by him in ''Geography''. However, none of these fit the geographical and linguistic criteria.

History

In 198, Moxoene was emerged into

Corduene Corduene hy, Կորճայք, translit=Korchayk; ; romanized: ''Kartigini'') was an ancient historical region, located south of Lake Van, present-day eastern Turkey. Many believe that the Kardouchoi—mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis as havin ...

. During the

Battle of Samarra The Battle of Samarra took place in June 363, during the invasion of the Sasanian Empire by the Roman Emperor Julian. After marching his army to the gates of Ctesiphon and failing to take the city, Julian, realizing his army was low on provisio ...

in 363, Roman soldiers likely marched through Moxoene under generals Procopius and Sebastianus to join Arshak II. During the territorial negotiations that same year, the

Sasanian Empire 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 History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

demanded the area of Moxoene. After the war, Moxoene emerged as a new political entity part of the Sasanian Empire. The diocese of Moxoene belonged to

Nestorianism Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

. The settlement was known in Roman times as Moxos, after the 8th century as Mokks or Moks, and after the 18th century as Mukus. Moxoene may have been named after the Bronze Age Mushki people, who according to Assyrian sources, settled in the region.

Notes

References

* * * Provinces of the Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity) History of Van Province History of Kurdistan States and territories established in the 360s {{Armenia-hist-stub