Arrān (Middle Persian form; New Persian: ) is an Iranian toponym which in ancient times referred to the country of Caucasian Albania, which was originally located north of the Kura River but later expanded to territories south of the river as well. In the post-Islamic period, Arran came to signify only the region which lay within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of the Kura and Aras rivers.
The Caucasian Albanian kingdom, which emerged in the 1st century BC, was subject to Sasanian Iran from the 3rd century AD. After 387, Albania expanded its territory across the Kura at Armenia's expense, now encompassing a territory roughly corresponding to that of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan. The Sasanians abolished the local monarchy . After the Islamic conquests, the local princes of Albania continued their existence under caliphal authority, although they became increasingly fragmented over time. Independent Muslim emirates emerged along the Caspian coast after the waning of caliphal power in 9th century; but these did not claim Arran in their titles, and the term Arran came to designate the smaller area between the Kura and Aras rivers.
Albania converted to Christianity between the early 4th and early 5th centuries. Islam spread to the region after the Islamic conquests; the eastern lands of Albania, along the Caspian, appear to have converted earlier, corresponding to the shift of the definition of Albania/Arran in the 10th century. Christians still formed a majority in Arran in the 10th century. The process of Islamization was completed by the Turkic and Mongol invasions in the 11th–13th centuries; this was accompanied by the region's Turkification. The population of Arran which remained Christian was ultimately absorbed by the Armenians and in part by the Georgians; north of the Kura, in historical Caucasian Albania proper, the Udi people maintained their Christian faith and a language which is either directly descended from or closely related to the Caucasian Albanian language. The term Arran had fallen out of common use by the 15th century; the region was associated with Azerbaijan, and the land between the Kura and Aras rivers came to be known as Karabakh.
Today, the term Aran is mainly used in Azerbaijan to indicate territories consisting of Mil and Mughan plains (mostly, Beylagan, Imishli, Kurdamir, Saatly, Sabirabad provinces of the Republic of Azerbaijan). It has also been used by Iranian historian Enayatollah Reza to refer to the country of Azerbaijan, freeing the name "Azerbaijan" to refer to a region within Iran."Arran, the real name of Adjerbadjan", Interview with Reza, Iran Chamber Society, retrieved 2010-02-28.
Name
A(r)rān was the Middle Persian name of the region known to Greek and Roman authors as Albani(a) (whence the modern English term Caucasian Albania). It is probable that the Greco-Roman name and the Armenian term Ałuank or Aghvank () both derive from an Iranian name for the region. In Parthian the region was known as Ardān, which suggests an unattested earlier form *aldwān that could have yielded *alban- / *alwan- and Middle Persian A(r)rān. The Middle Persian name was adopted into Arabic as al-Rān, from which derives Georgian Rani (). The native name of the region is unknown, but it was likely a variant of Ran.
According to the 10th-century Armenian history attributed to Movses Kaghankatvatsi, ArranKirakos' History of the Armenians was the name of the legendary founder of Caucasian Albania, who in some versions was the son of Noah's son Yafet (Japheth) and also, possibly the eponym of the ancient Caucasian Albanians (Aghvan),Moses Kalankatuatsi. History of the country of Aluank. Chapter IV. and/or the Iranian tribe known as Alans (Alani). The nearby Araks (Aras) river was known to Ancient Greek geographers as the Araxes, and has a source near Mount Ararat. James Darmesteter, in his discussion of the geography of the Avesta's Vendidad I, observes that the 12th century Bundahishn (29:12) identified the "Airyana Vaego by the Vanguhi Daitya" on the northern border of Azerbaijan, and did so "probably in order that it should be as near as possible to the seat of the Zoroastrian religion yet without losing its supernatural character by the counter-evidence of facts."Darmesteter, James (trans., ed.). "Vendidad." Zend Avesta I (SBE 4). Oxford University Press, 1880. p. 3, p. 5 n.2,3. Darmesteter further associated the Vanguhi Daitya river with the Araxes, and compared the name "Airyana Vaego" with that of Arran.Darmesteter's translation and notes In some Classical authors one finds the form Arian/Aryan.
Boundaries
In pre-Islamic times, Arran referred to a larger region than it did in Islamic times, covering all of eastern Transcaucasia and roughly corresponding to the territory of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan. However, in post-Islamic times the geographic notion of Arran shrank to the territory between the Kura and Aras rivers.
A medieval chronicle, the Ajayib-ad-Dunya, written in the 13th century by an unknown author, says Arran was 30 parasangs (200 km) in width, and 40 farsakhs (270 km) in length. The entire right bank of the Kura river until it joined with the Aras was attributed to Arran (the left bank of the Kura was known as Shirvan). The boundaries of Arran have shifted throughout history, sometimes encompassing the entire territory of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan, and at other times only parts of the South Caucasus. Sometimes Arran was part of Armenia.Abi Ali Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Rustah, al-A'laq Al-Nafisah, Tab'ah 1, Bayrut : Dar al-Kutub al-ʻIlmiyah, 1998, pg 96-98.
Medieval Islamic geographers gave descriptions of Arran in general, and of its towns, including Barda, Beylagan, and Ganja.
History Pre-Islamic
In ancient times, Arran was the Iranian name for Caucasian Albania, a country which was originally located north of the Kura and expanded across the river at the expense of Armenia after 387 AD. A kingdom of Caucasian Albania emerged in the early 1st century BC. The Greek author Strabo (died 1st century AD) reports that Caucasian Albania consisted of 26 tribes with their own languages. It is supposed that most of the tribes were speakers of Lezgic languages, a branch of the Northeast Caucasian languages; however, there were also Iranian and Kartvelian-speaking tribes among them.
A branch of the Parthian Arsacid dynasty came to power in Albania in either the 1st or the 4th century, displacing an earlier dynasty called Aranshahik. The kings of Albania were subject to Sasanian Iran from the 3rd century AD. Within the larger Iranian sphere of influence, Albania was particularly influenced by neighboring Armenia; it was converted to Christianity through Armenian missionary activity between the early 4th and early 5th centuries. After 387, Albania expanded its territory across the Kura at Armenia's expense, acquiring the Armenian districts of Artsakh, Utik, Gardman, and Koght. While allowing Albania to expand across the Kura, the Sasanians established more direct control over the coastal regions of Albania, from the mouth of the Kura to Darband. A Persian marzpan (governor-general) was placed in the old capital of Kabala while the Albanian kings moved to Partaw (or Partav; modern-day Barda), a new capital south of the Kura, in the 5th century.
The Albanians joined forces with the Armenians and Georgians to rebel against the Sasanians when Yazdegerd II attempted to force their conversion to Zoroastrianism; although the Christian forces were defeated at the Battle of Avarayr (451), the Sasanians ultimately allowed the Caucasian Christians to preserve their faith. The Sasanians abolished the local monarchy after the death of King Vachagan the Pious. Another family of Parthian origin, the Mihranids, emerged as princes of Albania (Arranshahs). Their progenitor, Mihran, is said to have received the district of Gardman from the Sasanian king Khosrow (most likely Khosrow II). The Mihranid prince Juansher initially fought on the side of the Sasanians during the Arab invasions but later went to Damascus and allied with Mu'awiya, the Umayyad governor of Syria and future caliph. Islamic
The Arab conquest of Arran occurred in stages and focused on Partaw (Bardha'a in Arabic) from about 645. After the Mihranids accepted caliphal rule, the regions north of the Kura, notably Shamkur, Shakki, and Kabala, were captured. Following the Second Fitna (the Muslim civil war, ), the Umayyads sent governors to rule over Armenia and Arran together. Bardha'a then became a military outpost for the caliphate in its wars with the Khazars. Despite the presence of Muslim garrisons in Bardha'a and other urban centers, caliphal rule was "of necessity light and often uncertain" because of the region's frontier status. The local princes, led by the Mihranids, were left in place and paid tribute to the caliphate. According to the history of Albania attributed to Movses Kaghankatvatsi, the caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (685–705) recognized the primacy of the Armenian Church over the Albanian Church.
Under the Abbasids, Arran was struck by several military conflicts. The Khazars continued their raids, as did the Tsanars (Sanariyya in Arabic), a people from present-day eastern Georgia; the caliph's governors relied on the Albanian cavalry to repel these attacks. In 822, the prince of Arran, Varaz-Trdat, was assassinated, ending the male line of the Mihranid dynasty. This was followed by the primacy of Sahl Smbatean (Sahl ibn Sunbat), the lord of Shakki, who revolted against caliphal rule and defeated Arab armies on more than one occasion. After Sahl handed over the Iranian rebel Babak Khorramdin, the Abbasids reportedly exempted him from paying tribute and presented him with gifts; per Charles Dowsett, this was effectively an official investiture of Sahl as ruler of Arran. Sahl's son and successor Atrnerseh married the daughter of the last Mihranid prince, and he and his descendants strove to recover the old Albanian lands formally inherited through this marriage. In all, six different noble houses claimed at point or another the title of "king of Albania", which implied overlordship over the Christian population on both sides of the Kura.
During the campaign of the Abbasid general Bugha al-Kabir (died 862) in the Caucasus, the provinces of Arran resisted separately but did not form a united front, which shows the continued political fragmentation of the region. After Bugha's campaign, many Albanian princes were deported to the Abbasid capital of Samarra. Political fragmentation increased further after the death of Caliph al-Mutawakkil in 861, which marked the collapse of the Abbasid claim to rule Arran. The lands along the Caspian coast came under the control of independent emirs, such as the Sulami emirs of Darband and the Shirvanshahs. In the 10th century, Arabic geographers still included these territories within Arran, but the emirs themselves did not claim rulership over Arran. The term Arran/Albania came to denote the districts of Utik and Artsakh, south of the Kura and north of the Aras. The princes of the region ruled independently while recognizing the claims of the emirs of Azerbaijan, especially the Sallarids. As a result of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus, Bardha'a was sacked in 943. It never fully recovered and was replaced by Baylaqan as the capital of Arran. In 1008, the Bagrationi kings of Georgia annexed Shakki and Hereti, north of the Kura, after which the kings of Kakheti in eastern Georgia claimed Albania among their titles. In the 11th century, the Bagratuni kings of Armenia and the emirs of Azerbaijan divided Arran south of the Kura.