Islam began to make inroads into the Armenian plateau during the seventh century. Arab, and later Kurdish, tribes began to settle in Armenia following the first Arab invasions and played a considerable role in the political and social history of Armenia.Ter-Ghewondyan, Aram (1976). The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia. Trans. Nina G. Garsoïan. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. With the Seljuk invasions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Turkic element eventually superseded that of the Arab and Kurdish. With the establishment of the Iranian Safavid dynasty, Afsharid dynasty, Zand dynasty and Qajar dynasty, Armenia became an integral part of the Shia world, while still maintaining a relatively independent Christian identity. The pressures brought upon the imposition of foreign rule by a succession of Muslim states forced many lead Armenians in Anatolia and what is today Armenia to convert to Islam. Many Armenians were also forced to convert to Islam, on the penalty of death, during the years of the Armenian Genocide.Vryonis, Speros (1971). The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press.
History First Armenian Muslims Farqad Sabakhi (died 729 AD) was an Armenian Muslim preacher and a companion of Hassan Basri's. As a result, he is considered one of the Tabi'in (the next generation of companions). Farqad Sabakhi was originally a Christian. Farqad Sabakhi probably raised the famous Karkhi, who played a pivotal role in shaping Sufism. Sabakhi was known for his ascetic life and knowledge of the Judeo-Christian scriptures.Historical dictionary of Sufism By John Renard, pg. 87
Arab invasions
The Muslim Arabs first invaded Armenia in 639, under the leadership of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah, 18,000 Arabs penetrated the district of Taron and the region of the Lake of Van.Kurkjian, Vahan M.A History of Armenia hosted by The University of Chicago. New York: Armenian General Benevolent Union of America, 1958 pp. 173–185 Prince Theodoros Rshtuni led the Armenian defense. In about 652, a peace agreement was made, allowing Armenians freedom of religion. Prince Theodoros traveled to Damascus, where he was recognized by the Arabs as the ruler of Armenia, Georgia and Caucasian Albania.On the Arab invasions, see also Aram Ter-Ghewondyan (1996), Հայաստանը VI-VIII դարերում [Armenia in the 6th to 8th centuries]. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences.
By the end of the seventh century, the Caliphate's policy toward Armenia and the Christian faith hardened. Special representatives of the Caliph called ostikans (governors) were sent to govern Armenia. The governors made the city of Dvin their residence. Although Armenia was declared the domain of the Caliph, almost all Armenians, although not all, remained faithful to Christianity. In the beginning of the eighth century, Arab tribes from the Hejaz and Fertile Crescent began migrating to and settling in major Armenian urban centers, such as Dvin, Diyarbekir, Manzikert, and Apahunik'.Ter-Ghevondyan, Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia, pp. 29ff.
Medieval The Muslim element in Armenia grew progressively stronger during the medieval period. Following the Byzantine defeat at Manzikert in 1071, waves of Turkic nomads making their way from Central Asia and northern Iran penetrated and eventually settled throughout the span of Armenia and Anatolia.Cahen, Claude (1988). La Turquie pré-ottomane. Istanbul-Paris: Institut français d’études anatoliennes d’Istanbul.Korobeinikov, Dimitri A. (2008). “Raiders and Neighbours: The Turks (1040–1304),” in The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, c. 500‐1492, ed. Jonathan Shepard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 692–727.
Most Ethnic Armenians remained Christian during this period when Western Armenia was divided between Muslim states after the Seljuk invasion. Although some Armenians converted to Islam and became influential members of Beylik society, Armenian architecture influenced Seljuk architecture, and many Armenian Nakharars remained autonomous leaders of Armenian society under Muslim Emirs In Erzincan, Tayk, Sassoun, and Van. The Muslim Emirs intermarried with Armenians, Notably the Shaddadids of Ani who intermarried with Bagratid women. There was an Emir of Van named Ezdin who had Armenian sympathies and was said to be descended from Seneqerim Hovhannes Artsruni, the king of Vaspurakan. The son of Armenian prince Taharten, governor of Erzinjan, His son by a daughter of the emperor of Trebizond converted to Islam and was made governor of erzincan by Timur.
Under the Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire ruled in accordance to Islamic law. As such, the People of the Book (the Christians and the Jews) had to pay a tax to fulfill their status as dhimmi and in return were guaranteed religious autonomy. While the Armenians of Constantinople benefitted from the Sultan's support and grew to be a prospering community, the same could not be said about the ones inhabiting historic Armenia. During times of crisis the ones in the remote regions of mountainous often also had to suffer (alongside the settled Muslim population) raids by nomadic Kurdish tribes.McCarthy, Justin (1981). The Ottoman Peoples and the End of Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 63. Armenians, like the other Ottoman Christians (though not to the same extent), had to transfer some of their healthy male children to the Sultan's government due to the devshirme policies in place.Kouymjian, Dickran (1997). "Armenia from the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the Forced Migration under Shah Abbas (1604)" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian. New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 12–14. . Zulalyan, Manvel. "«Դեվշիրմեն» (մանկահավաքը) օսմանյան կայսրության մեջ ըստ թուրքական և հայկական աղբյուրների" [The "Devshirme" (Child-Gathering) in the Ottoman Empire According to Turkish and Armenian Sources]. Patma-Banasirakan Handes. № 2–3 (5–6), 1959, pp. 247–256.
During the Ottoman period many Armenians were forced to convert to Islam throughout Western Armenia through massacres, social pressure, and harsh taxation. Many conversions were noted across eastern Anatolia, particularly in Hamshen, Yusufeli, Tortum, İspir, Bayburt, Erzincan. Notably a mass conversion to Islam was described by Armenian cleric Hakob (Yakob) Karnetsi. In the region of Tayk centered around Tortum, a Muslim cleric named Mullah Jaffar was given charge from the Ottoman government to take census of the Erzurum province and to levy taxes. After Mullah Jaffar placed excessively heavy taxes, the Chalcedonian Armenians who belonged to the Georgian Orthodox Church and made up half of the population in the Tortum valley converted to Islam while the Apostolic Armenians did not, as described by Karnetsi.
In the region of İspir (Sper in Armenian), 100 Armenian villages were burned down in 1723 and much of the population was converted to Islam by force. In the region of Yusufeli (Pertakrak in Armenian), Armenian Catholic priest Inchichian writes that most of the Muslim population was Armenian in origin but had converted to Islam to escape heavy taxation and oppression in the early 1700s; Inchichian visited the village of Khewag (Yaylalar) and met Islamized Armenians in the village. The Armenians of Yusufeli were mostly Chalcedonian like the Armenians of Tortum before their islamization. In the province of Urfa, there were three Islamized Armenian villages recorded to have been speaking a dialect that was similar to classical Armenian. Inchichian also wrote that the region of Kemah in Erzincan used to be Armenian and that its Muslim inhabitants were also of Islamized Armenian descent.
In the early 1500s, the Ottomans brutally enforced taxation by massacring 10,000 Armenians in Bayburt, Erzincan, Ispir, Erzurum, and forcibly converted another 50,000 to Islam. In the region of Dersim, the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople reported that groups of Armenians had converted to Alevi Islam and had assimilated with Kurdish Zazas who had migrated to Armenia during Ottoman rule. similarly in the region of Palu some Armenian villages converted to Sunni Islam and assimilated into the Sunni Zaza community.
Periodic forced conversions created a class of crypto-Christian Armenians called Kes-kes (Half-half) who practiced both Christian and Muslim rituals. The Armenians who converted to Islam lost their Armenian identity because they switched millets, but many kept the Armenian language and culture. In eastern Anatolia, however, they were eventually Turkified except for the Armenians of Hamshen who kept their language in the isolated Pontic Mountains until Turkish Muslim schools were opened in the 1800s and the western Hemshin became Turkified as the Armenian language was condemned as sinful by Muslim teachers. In Turkey only the Hopa Hemshin have preserved their language, which constitutes the Homshetsi dialect of Armenian, in the modern era.
During the Hamidian massacres when Kurdish tribes were incited by the Ottoman government to attack and destroy Armenian settlements many Armenian were forced to convert to Islam throughout eastern Anatolia. In Diyarbakir 20,000 were converted, while many also converted in Mush, Van, and Erzurum. Although some converted back to Christianity after the massacres ended, many remained Muslims and became Kurdified and Turkified. In the region of Sivas in the early 19th century many Armenian villages were forcefully converted to Islam by the local government. The village of Cancova (Cancik) in Zara was a village of 400 Armenian families in 1877, but only 48 families remained Christian by the 20th century. The Catholic Armenians of Perkinik has reported that their neighboring village of Glkhategh (now Uzuntepe) was an Armenian village and the Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam and Turkified.
During the Armenian genocide of 1915, many Armenians converted to Islam to escape deportation and massacre.
Under Iranian Empires
The Iranian Safavids (who had changed from being Sunni to Shia Muslims by then), established definite control over Armenia and far beyond since the time of Shah Ismail I in the early 16th century. Even though they often competed with the Ottomans over the territory, what is today Armenia always stayed an integral part of Persian territory, during the following centuries until they had to cede it to Russia following the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828). Many Armenians joined the Safavid functions, in the civil administration and the military (the so-called ghulams) since the time of Shah Abbas the Great. Especially amongst these elite soldier units, the ghulams (literally meaning slaves), many of them were converted Armenians, alongside the masses of Circassians and Georgians. Before joining these functions, whether in the civil administration or military, they always had to convert to Islam, like in the Ottoman Empire, but the ones who stayed Christian (but couldn't get to the highest functions) did not have to pay extra taxes unlike the Ottoman Empire.
As a part of Abbas's scorched earth policy during his wars against the Ottomans, and also to boost his empire's economy, he alone deported some 300,000 Armenians from the Armenian highlands including the territory of modern-day Armenia, to the heartland of Iran.Avedis Krikor Sanjian. Medieval Armenian Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles University of California Press, 1999. p 39 To fill in the gap created in these regions, he settled masses of Muslim Turcomans and Kurds in the regions to defend the borders against the Ottoman Turks, making the area of Armenia a Muslim dominated one. His successors continued to do more of these deportations and replacements with Turcomans and Kurds.