Principality of Khachen

{{Short description|Medieval Armenian principality}} {{redirect|Khachen|the village in Nagorno-Karabakh|Khachen, Nagorno-Karabakh}} {{See also|Melikdoms of Karabakh}} {{Infobox country | native_name = Խաչենի իշխանություն | conventional_long_name = Principality of Khachen | common_name = Khamsa, Artsakh, Karabakh | year_start = 1261 | year_end = 1603 | date_start = | date_end = | event_start = | event_end = | p1 = Kingdom of Artsakh | p2 = | s1 = Melikdoms of Karabakh | image_flag = Flag of Hasan-Jalalians.svg | flag_type = {{small|Royal standard of the Hasan Jalalyan family}} [https://www.fotw.info/flags/am_early.html] | image_map = Five principalities of karabakh.png | image_map_caption = Territory of the 5 principalities of Karabakh, overlapped by the NKAO | national_motto = | national_anthem = | capital = Gandzasar (Vank), Haterk, Tsar (Vaykunik) | common_languages = Karabakh dialect | religion = Armenian Apostolic | government_type = Monarchy | title_leader = | leader1 = | year_leader2 = | deputy1 = | year_deputy1 = | title_deputy = | stat_year1 = | stat_pop1 = | stat_area4 = | population_density3 = | currency = }} {{History of Nagorno-Karabakh}}

The '''Principality of Khachen''' (Modern Armenian: {{langx|hy|Խաչենի իշխանություն|label=none|Khach’eni ishkhanut’yun}}) was a medieval Armenian principality on the territory of historical Artsakh (present-day Karabakh).<ref>C. J. F. Dowsett, "The Albanian Chronicle of Mxit'ar Goš," ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'' 21 (1958): 482. "Late name of part of pr. Arcax, forming at this time a small independent Armenian principality; the earliest references to Xacen are of the tenth century."</ref><ref name="Abū-Dulaf">''Abū-Dulaf Misʻar Ibn Muhalhil's Travels in Iran (circa A.D. 950)'', ed. and trans. Vladimir Minorsky. Cairo: Cairo University Press, 1955, p. 74. "Khajin (Armenian Khachen) was an Armenian principality immediately south of Barda'a."</ref><ref name="VAS">{{Cite book |last=Shnirelman |first=Victor A. |title=The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia |publisher=National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka |year=2001 |pages=162, 178 |quote=Fourth, the region was called Khachen (after the Armenian “khach” which means cross) in the 10th-13th centuries because it was populated by Armenians and ruled by the Armenian princes of the Aranshakhik Dynasty. |author-link=Victor Schnirelmann}}</ref> The provinces of Artsakh and Utik were attached to the Kingdom of Armenia in antiquity, although they were later lost to Caucasian Albania. In the early medieval period, these provinces were under Sassanid and then Arab suzerainty until the establishment of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia in the 9th century.<ref name="Perry">{{cite book | last =Parry | first =Ken |author2=David J. Melling |author3=Dimitry Brady |author4=Sidney H. Griffith |author5=John F. Healey | title =The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity | publisher =Wiley-Blackwell | date =2001 | pages =335–336}}</ref> From the 12th century, the principality of Khachen dominated the region.<ref name="Perry"/> The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII addressed his letters to the prince of Khachen with the inscription "To Prince of Khachen, Armenia."<ref>Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, ''De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae'', Patrologiae cursiis completus, Series Graeco-Latinaed, vol. 112, ed. J.P. Migne. Paris, 1897, p. 248, {{langx|el|εἰς τὸν ἄρχοντα τοῦ Χατζιένης, Ἀρμενία}}.</ref>

All of the contemporary sources refer to the ruler of the principality an Armenian prince.<ref name="VAS" /> The Armenian princely family of Hasan Jalalyan began ruling much of Khachen and Artsakh in 1214.<ref>{{cite book|last =De Waal|first = Thomas|author-link = Thomas de Waal|title = Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War|publisher = New York University Press|year = 2003|location = New York|page=287}}</ref><ref name="Agop">{{cite book | last =Hacikyan | first =Agop Jack |author2=Gabriel. Basmajian |author3=Edward S. Franchuk | title =The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Sixth to the Eighteenth Century | publisher =Wayne State University Press | year =2002| page =470}}</ref> In 1216, the Jalalyans founded the Gandzasar monastery which became the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Catholicos of Albania, forced to Khachen from Partav (Barda) by the steady Islamization of the city.<ref name="Perry"/> The Khamsa (The Five) principalities maintained Armenian autonomy in the region throughout the Persian-Ottoman Wars. In 1603 the Persians established a protectorate over the Khamsa and sponsored the establishment of a local khanate in 1750.<ref name="Perry"/>

The name ''Khamsa'', which was used by Arabs for the state, refers to the five Armenian Melikdoms who ruled the state.

== References == {{reflist|2}}

==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last1=Akopyan |first1=Alexander V. |title=On the earliest coins of Khachen (Qarabagh) |journal=Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society |date=2015 |volume=222 |pages=6-11 |url=https://www.academia.edu/10287188/On_the_earliest_coins_of_Khachen_Qarabagh_}} * Hewsen, Robert H. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study." ''Revue des Études Arméniennes'' 9 (1972): pp. 255–329.

== External links == *[http://www.gandzasar.com/ Gandzasar.com: Gandzasar Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Principality Of Khachen}} Category:Principality of Khachen Category:Armenian principalities Category:History of Nagorno-Karabakh Category:Medieval history of Azerbaijan Category:States and territories disestablished in the 1600s