Bagrat II Bagratouni

Bagrat II Bagratuni (; died after 851) was an Armenian noble of the Bagratuni (Bagratid) family and the presiding prince ("prince of princes") of Arab-ruled Armenia between 830 and 851. He succeeded his father, Ashot IV (Msaker), as ruler of Taron in 826, and was named presiding prince by the Abbasid Caliph in 830. In 849 he began an open rebellion against Abbasid authority in Armenia. The rebellion provoked the dispatch of Bugha al-Kabir to the country, who crushed the revolt in a three-year campaign. Bagrat was treacherously captured during negotiations in 851 and brought captive to the Abbasid capital Samarra. He was succeeded in Taron by his sons, while the title of presiding prince passed to his nephew, the future King Ashot I of Armenia.

Background

In the second half of the 8th century, Armenia was under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate. Following the major uprising of 774–775 (the Battle of Bagrevand), the Armenian nakharar houses had been significantly weakened. In this situation, the Bagratunis, who had suffered less from the uprising, gradually began to come to the forefront, becoming the main political force in Armenia.

Ashot IV (Msaker) (prince c. 790–826) managed to unite the Bagratuni domains, acquiring the cantons of Shirak and Arsharunik from the Kamsarakans, as well as Taron from the Mamikonians. In 804, he was recognized as Presiding Prince of Armenia by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid.

After Ashot Msaker's death (826), his domains were divided among his sons, leading to fraternal conflicts and the weakening of authority, which was exploited by the Arab emirates.

Origins and division of inheritance

Bagrat was the eldest son of Ashot IV Bagratuni,

After his death, Bagrat and his brother Smbat divided their father's inheritance between them: Bagrat took the regions of Taron, Khoith and Sassoun, i.e. the family's domains on the Upper Euphrates, while Smbat received the ancestral lands around Bagaran and the Araxes river. In a calculated effort to keep the two brothers divided, the Abbasid government divided Ashot's authority and conferred on Smbat the title of commander-in-chief (sparapet), while Bagrat was named presiding prince four years after his father's death. In Arabic sources, Bagrat is known by the title batrik al-batarika , meaning "prince of princes".

Relations with his brother

Abbasid calculations proved correct, as the two brothers spent much time quarrelling with each other.

Nevertheless, the Armenian princes were able to use the Caliphate's preoccupation with the Khurramite rebellion of Babak Khorramdin to achieve a significant degree of autonomy during this period.

In 841, under the leadership of the sparapet Smbat, the Armenians revolted against the appointment as caliphal governor of Khalid ibn Yazid al-Shaybani, who in his previous tenures had become enormously unpopular among both the Christian and the Arab princes of the country. The rebels achieved his recall by the Caliph and his replacement with the weaker and more pliant Ali ibn Husayn, to whom the Armenians not only refused to hand over the expected taxes, but whom they promptly blockaded in his capital, Bardaa.

Revolt and capture

In 849, the Caliph appointed a new governor of Arminiya, Abu Sa'id Muhammad al-Marwazi. As he moved to enter Armenia with his army, however, he was met on the border by envoys from Bagrat with gifts and with the promised tribute, in a move calculated to prevent the Arab tax collectors from entering the country. This was an act of open revolt by Bagrat, but Abu Sa'id preferred for the moment to withdraw rather than enter the province.

In the next year, Abu Sa'id sent two local Arab lords, al-Ala ibn Ahmad al-Azdi and Musa ibn Zurara (the emir of Arzen, who was married to a sister of Bagrat), to subdue the two southern provinces of Taron and Vaspurakan on the pretext of raising taxes. This resulted in open conflict between the Arabs and Bagrat and the Artsruni ruler of Vaspurakan, Ashot I Artsruni. Ashot defeated al-Ala and evicted him from his territory, and then went to the assistance of Bagrat. The Armenian armies faced and defeated Musa near the capital of Taron, Mush, and pursued him until Baghesh, stopping only after the entreaties of Musa's wife, the sister of Bagrat. The Armenians then proceeded to massacre the Arab settlers in Aghdznik, prompting the Caliph to intervene in force. where he was forced to convert to Islam and died there.

Aftermath

Bagrat's arrest provoked his subjects into killing Yusuf the next year. Al-Mutawakkil responded by sending a large army under the Turkic general Bugha al-Kabir into the country. Over the course of three years, Bugha methodically re-occupied and subdued the whole province of Arminiya, from the southern regions of Taron and Vaspurakan up to the principalities of Caucasian Albania and most of Iberia in the north. The princes of Armenia remained divided and focused on their own personal rivalries, facilitating the Abbasid re-conquest by fighting alongside the Caliph's troops and handing over their rivals into captivity. The re-imposition of Abbasid authority was also marked by tens of thousands of executions among the male fighting population, and did not spare the princely families, whether Christian or Muslim, either: by the time of Bugha's return to Samarra in 855, most of the princes of Armenia were captives in the Caliph's court along with their sons. Bugha's campaign also resulted in the capture of Bagrat's sons, Ashot and David, who were sent to the Caliph along with their relatives.

Legacy

Bagrat was succeeded in Taron by his sons, Ashot and David-Arkayik, as rulers of Taron, although a portion of the region seems to have passed to a member of the Artsruni family, Gurgen I Artsruni, son of Abu Belj.

Despite Bagrat's defeat, his struggle and sacrifice gained symbolic significance in the formation of Armenian national identity. Bagrat Bagratuni's example showed that even in an unequal struggle, Armenian princes were willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of freedom.

Family

Father — Ashot IV (Msaker) (Prince of Armenia, c. 790–826) Brother — Smbat VIII Bagratuni (Sparapet of Armenia) Sons — Ashot II and David-Arkayik (Princes of Taron) Sister — married to Musa ibn Zurara, emir of Arzen