Utik (), also known as Uti, was a historical province and principality within the Kingdom of Armenia. It was ceded to Caucasian Albania following the partition of Armenia between Sassanid Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire in 387 AD. Most of the region is located within present-day Azerbaijan immediately west of the Kura River, while a part of it lies within the Tavush province of present-day northeastern Armenia.
It spread across the plains on the right bank of the Kura River and the northeastern mountainous regions of the Armenian Highlands, occupying the territory stretching from the Aghstev River to the confluence of the Kura and Aras rivers. In the north and east, it bordered Caucasian Albania along the Kura River; in the west, it bordered Gugark along the watershed of the Debed and Aghstev rivers; in the northwest, it bordered Ayrarat and Syunik along the Mrghuz and Sevan mountain ranges; in the southwest, it bordered Artsakh; and in the south, it bordered Paytakaran along the Aras River.
Name In Armenian sources, Utik is also called , , 'land of the people of Utik', 'district of the people of Utik', and 'Utian land/district'. In Suren Yeremian's view, the name originally referred to the district of Uti Arandznak ('Uti Proper'), where the Utian () tribe lived, and was later applied to the larger province. It is identified with the place names in Ptolemy's Geography, in the Latin Ravenna Cosmography, by Pliny,Pliny, Natural History, VI, 42; XII, 28. Cited in and Ūdh in the Arabic history Futuh al-Buldan by al-Baladhuri. It may also be identifiable with the land called Ouitia by Strabo, although others have placed Strabo's Ouitia on the northwestern or southern shore of the Caspian Sea.Akopian 2022, p. 71-72: "Я. А. Манандян и С. Т. Еремян видят прямое упоминание армянской провинции Утик в следующем разделе Страбона в описании Армении: 'Передают также, что некоторая часть энианов поселилась в Уитии, другая же [emphasis Akopian's] – над армянами, за горами Абом и Нибаром'. Однако, как видим, данная фраза противопоставляет с одной стороны Армению, с другой же – Уитию на берегу Каспийского моря, следовательно, вторая не может являться частью первой. Уития в данном разделе не Утик, а та область обитания уитиев, которых Страбон в разделе XI, 7, 1 прямо помещает между амардами и анариаками [Y. A. Manandian and S. T. Yeremian see a direct mention of the Armenian province of Utik in the following section of Strabo in [his] description of Armenia: 'It is also reported that some of the Enians settled in Uitia, while the others settled above the Armenians, behind the mountains Abom and Nibar'. However, as we see, this phrase contrasts Armenia on the one hand, and Ouitia on the shores of the Caspian Sea on the other, therefore, the second cannot be part of the first. Ouitia in this section is not Utik, but the area inhabited by the Ouitians, whom Strabo in section XI, 7, 1 explicitly places between the Amardians and Anariacae]." According to Robert H. Hewsen, the name of Utik is likely connected with the ethnonyms , mentioned by Herodotus, , mentioned by Strabo, and , mentioned by Pliny. Pliny also mentions a group called the , which suggests that this is a separate group from the Udini, and the , whose name is thought to be a combination of and , another group.Akopian 2022, p. 70. Wolfgang Schulze writes that and Uti(k) are not necessarily related and may refer to two distinct regions. Udi-/Uti- may be an old toponym referring to the lowlands between the Kura River, the Arax, and the mountains of Karabakh. The place name is related to the name of the Udi people, who live in the South Caucasus today north of the Kura, mainly in the village of Nij in Azerbaijan (see the Population section below).Schulze 2018, pp. 289–290. Later, Utik and neighboring Artsakh were known as Karabakh, with the territory of Utik forming the lowland or steppe part of Karabakh.Hewsen 1992, p. 195. Its territory also overlapped with the region known as Arran, which in its strict sense referred to the area between the Kur and Arax rivers and in its broader sense encompassed the eastern South Caucasus.
Geography and administration
Districts and borders According to the Armenian geography Ashkharhatsuyts (attributed to Anania Shirakatsi, 7th century), Utik was the twelfth of the fifteen provinces (s) of Greater Armenia, but belonged, at the time, to Caucasian Albania; the provinces of Utik and Artsakh had been lost by Armenia after its partition in the 4th century.Hewsen 1992, pp. 65A, 142. According to Ashkharatsuyts, Utik consisted of eight districts (s in Armenian): Aran-rot (in the valley of the river Goranchay), Tri (later Jraberd, in the valley of the river Tartar), Rot-Parsean (possibly around the confluence of the Kura and Arax or between the Trtu/Tartar and Khachen/Khachinchay), Aghve (, around modern Gülüstan), Tus-Kustak (around Tavush fortress, modern Tovuz), Gardman (modern Qazax District), Shakashen (around modern Ganja), and Uti Arandznak or Ut-rostak ('Uti Proper').Hewsen 1992, pp. 67, 262–263. The province was bounded by the Kura River from the north and east, separating it from Albania. In the southeast, the river Arax divided it from Paytakaran. It was bounded by Artsakh from the west, with the border between the two extending along the foothills of the Karabakh Mountains.Hewsen 1992, p. 261. Although the Ashkharhatsuyts only mentions Utik's districts, the province was actually divided into three principalities: Utik (consisting of the districts of Uti Arandznak, Aghve, and possibly Tri and Rot-Parsean), Gardman (consisting of the districts of Gardman and Tus-Kustak), and Shakashen (consisting of the districts of Shakashen and Tus-Kustak). It is unknown whether this reflects some Albanian or Armenian administrative situation (for example, the primacy of the princes of Utik over the other two) or the decision of the author of the Ashkharhatsuyts to merge the principalities into one province for simplicity's sake.Hewsen 2001, p. 102. Additionally, the districts of Tri and Rot-Parsean may have formed a separate principality of the Gargarians during the Arsacid period.
The northwestern part of Utik is predominantly an impregnable mountainous region, abundant in forests and alpine meadows. The lowland plains on the right bank of the Kura River, stretching to the confluence of the Kura and Aras rivers, form a fertile plain. The southeastern portion of Utik constitutes a section of the Mughan plain. The east-central part of Utik is mentioned by Tovma Artsruni as the Plain of the Gargarites, while the northwestern part is known as the Shakashen or Sakasene plain. The Gaga plain is located in the region of the lower reaches of the Aghstev River. Numerous rivers and streams flow through Utik, most of which are tributaries of the Kura (Shamkir, Aghstev, Hakhum, Tavush, Zakam, Banants, Voskanapar or Gandzak, Kurak, Geran, Barak, Tartar, Khachenaget, Qarqarcay, etc.). Since ancient times, Utik was renowned for its iron, copper, petroleum, gold, silver, and alum mines. Currently, the territory of Utik is also known for deposits of sulfur pyrites, manganese, barite, gypsum, kaolin, quartzites, building stones, and other minerals. It possesses numerous mineral water springs, which are primarily concentrated in the basins of the Aghstev, Tavush, and Zakam rivers. The mountainous regions of Utik are densely forested. The fauna of Utik is equally diverse. Historical accounts indicate that in ancient times, lions, leopards, and other similar animals were also found in Utik. The lowland regions of Utik have a temperate warm semi-desert and dry steppe climate. Annual precipitation ranges from 300 to 600 mm, reaching up to 900 mm in certain northwestern mountainous areas; the average January temperature ranges from 3°C to -3°C, while the average July temperature is between 20°C and 27°C or higher.
Topography In terms of topography, Utik is divided into two areas: lowland and mountainous. The lowland regions extended along the coastal and riparian areas of the Kura and Tartar rivers, while the mountainous districts were located within the Lesser Caucasus region. In his work, Strabo wrote that Utik was best known for its fertile lands, horse breeding, and particularly its pomegranate and olive orchards, noting that the entirety of their irrigation was carried out using the waters of the Kura River.
Settlements Utik was the site of the settlement of Khaghkhagh, which Agathangelos calls the "winter quarters of the Armenian kings" but which Elishe and Movses Kaghankatvatsi call the quarters of the Albanian kings. Its location is uncertain. Yeremian places the city of Ainiana, mentioned by Strabo as being located in Ouitia, at the site of modern Aghdam, but, in Hewsen's view, this is also uncertain. Utik was the site of a settlement called Tigranakert, built by Tigranes I in the 2nd–1st century BC. It may have been located in Gardman in the valley of the Shamkir (Shamkor) River. Tigranakert of Artsakh is placed in Utik in some sources. The city of Partaw (near today's Barda) was built in the province in the 5th century and grew into a major commercial center in the following centuries. The city of Baylakan was built there under the Sasanian king Kavad I. After the Arab conquests, the city of Ganja was built in the region in the 9th century, possibly on the site of a preexisting town.
History The territory of Utik was controlled by the Achaemenid Empire. Herodotus reports that the Outians were located in the fourteenth satrapy of that empire and that they formed part of the Persian army together with the Mykoi at Doriscus. The Outians and the Mykoi, identified with the Yutiya and Maka of Achaemenid inscriptions, may have been migrants from southeastern Iran, although, according to another view, these groups were only ever located in southeastern Iran.Akopian 2022, pp. 67–68. According to Hewsen, Utik seems to have been part of the satrapy of Media and the succeeding kingdom of Media Atropatene until the 2nd century BC, when, according to Strabo, Artaxias I of Greater Armenia conquered the lands of Syunik and Caspiane and the lands that lay between them, i.e., Utik and Artsakh.Hewsen 1982, p. 32. Some Armenian scholars like Babken Harutiunian and Asatur Mnatsakanian believe that Syunik and Utik were already controlled by Armenia under the Orontid dynasty and were reconquered by Artaxias I, but Hewsen writes that there is no evidence to support this claim.
Utik remained a part of Armenia for some 500 years after Artaxias's conquest, although the Armenian-Albanian boundary along the Kura River was often overrun by armies of both countries. It was lost as a result of the Roman–Persian peace of 363 AD, but, according to the author of Buzandaran Patmut’iwnk’, in 370 AD the Armenian sparapet Mushegh Mamikonian defeated the Albanians and restored the frontier back to the river Kura. In 387 AD, the Sassanid Empire helped the Albanians to seize from the Kingdom of Armenia a number of provinces, including Utik. Although there is some evidence that suggests that Utik remained a part of the Persian-controlled kingdom of Armenia even after 387, it was definitely incorporated into Albania after the abolition of the Armenian kingdom in 428.