Prosh Khaghbakian | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proshyan dynasty | |||||
Successor | Amir Hasan I | ||||
Born | 1223 | ||||
Died | 1283 | ||||
Burial | |||||
Spouse | Khut'lu Khat'un | ||||
Issue | Vasak, Amir Hasan I, Papak, Mkdem | ||||
| |||||
Dynasty | Proshyan dynasty | ||||
Father | Vask Khaghbakian |
Prince Prosh Khaghbakian, also Pros Xalbakean or Hasan Brosh (1223-1283), was an Armenian Prince, vassal of the Zakarian princes of Armenia, and founder of the Proshyan dynasty, a family of Armenian nobility. He was a lord of the Khaghabakian or Pŕoshian House in Urkghunk‘, Boloraberd, Eghegiats‘ Dzor and Hrashk‘aberd. [2] He was the Supreme Commander ( Sparapet) of the Zakarian army from 1223 to 1284, succeeding to his father Vasak. [3] He was one of the main Greater Armenian lords to execute the alliance between his suzerain the Georgian King David Ulu and the Mongol Prince Hulagu, during the Mongol conquest of Middle-East (1258-1260). [4] He apparently gained many benefits from his cooperation with the Mongols, including rising to such prominence that he could establish his own dynastic line. [5]
The Mongols had received the assistance of Armenian lords since the 1230s. [6] Numerous Georgian-Armenian military units participated in the Mongol conquest of Alamut in 1256, where they were personally led by David VII of Georgia. [7] [6]
In 1258, Prosh Khaghbakian led Armenian troops to accompany the Mongol Siege of Baghdad, while Zakare III Zakarian was leading the Georgian troops. [8] [9] [2] He is said to have led the negociations with the Caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta'sim, but in vain. [10] Prosh Khaghbakian was the main source for the account of the fall of Baghdad by the Armenian historian Kirakos. [11] [12] The 13th century Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi celebrated this victory as a watershed event against "Muslim tyranny": "Five hundred and fifteen years had passed since the founding of this city. Throughout its supremacy, like an isatiable leech, it had swallowed up the entire world. Now it restored all that had been taken. It was punished for the blood it had shed and the evil it had done; the measure of its inequity was full. The Muslim tyranny had lasted 647 years." [9]
In 1258-1260, Prosh, with his Armenian Zakarid suzerain Shahnshah, [13] led a large force of Georgians and Armenians to support a much smaller force of Mongol troops of Hulegu in the Siege of Mayyāfāriqīn ( Diyarbakır), which was defended by its last Ayyubid ruler Al-Kamil Muhammad. [14] [15] [16] The Armenian Prince Sevata of Kachen was killed in the conflict. [17] When the city was captured at last after a siege of two years, the Muslims were massacred, but the Christians were spared. [17] [13] Christian relics were collected and brought back to Armenia, particularly to the Haghpat Monastery. [18]
Meanwhile Hulegu continued his conquest of the rest of Syria, accompanied by the forces of Hethum I of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and the Crusaders of Bohemond VI of Antioch. [17] [15] The Georgian ruler David VII declined to commit more Georgian-Armenian troops for these Mongol campaigns in Syria, on account that he had suffered huge losses in the 1258 Siege of Baghdad. [19]
Prosh Khaghbakian was involved in the development of the Geghard ( Armenian: Գեղարդ, meaning "spear") medieval monastery in the Kotayk province of Armenia, partially carved out of the adjacent mountain and surrounded by cliffs. [24] He purchased the monastery in the mid-13th century from the Zakarids, and built a series of additional chapels hewn into the rock. Over a short period the Proshyans built the cave structures which brought Geghard well-merited fame — the second cave church, the family sepulcher of zhamatun Papak and Ruzukan, a hall for gatherings and studies (collapsed in the middle of the 20th century) and numerous cells. The chamber reached from the North East of the gavit and became Prince Prosh Khaghbakian's tomb in 1283.
Prince Prosh Khaghbakian also built the fortress of Proshaberd.
The Proshyan/Khaghbakian dynasty supported the building of numerous Christian monasteries, the most renowned of which being Geghard. [3]
A reliquary with a holy spear bears a dedicatory inscription made by Prince Prosh in 1269: [25]
“In the year 1269, I, prince Prosh, son of Vasak, inheritor of this divinely prepared holy spear, embellished it with a precious repository to have it intercede for me in the awesome judgment of Christ, and with great hope I donated it to the monastery of Ayrivank‘, the treasured place of my burial, in perpetual memory of me and my children Papak‘, Amir Hasan, and Vasak, and of my consort Dame Khutlu, who passed away in Christ, and of Mkde‘m and Dame Gohar, who left this world prematurely.”
— Spear reliquary. [25]
He mentions his wife in the inscription, dame Khut'lu Khat'un, [26] as well as his children Papak Proshian (died 1298), [26] Vasak (died 1268-1273), [26], Ami Hasan I (died 1292), [26] and Mkde‘m.
He was brother-in-law of the Court official of the Kingdom of Georgia and Amirspasalar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Georgian Army Khutlubuga. [27]
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
Service to the Mongols could also provide great political benefits to their vassals. The Mongols conferred political power to their most valued vassals by favoring certain houses over others, either through the granting of positions or the redistribution of lands from less favored vassals to the valued. In the case of Greater Armenia, political power granted from the Mongols allowed certain Armenian houses to capitalize on their positions, even after the fall of the Ilkhanate. Such an example was Prosh Khaghbakian, who strengthened the position of his house (later known as the Proshians) through his loyalty and service.
It is true that the Mongols placed considerable trust in certain Armenian lords, such as amirspasalar Shahnshah's son Zakare and Prosh Khaghbakian, who aided in the capture of Baghdad (1258).
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (
link)
Kirakos provides a detailed description of the fall of Baghdad in his History of the Armenians, started in 1241 and completed in 1265. Chapter eleven along with the subsequent ones are devoted to describing the events of his own day; they are considered the most important part of his work due to the details that they contain. His source was the Armenian Prince Prosh Khaghbakian, a participant and eyewitness of the conquest. Kirakos notes in his History that this Armenian lord told him directly about the events surrounding the invasion of Baghdad.
All this was narrated to us by prince Hasan called Prosh, son of the pious Vasak, son of Haghbak, brother of Papak' and Mkdem, father of Mkdem, Papak', Hasan and Vasak who was an eyewitness to the events and also heard about events with his own ears, [a man] enjoying great honor in the Khan's eyes.
Perhaps the most extreme case came when Armenians, including Avag, his cousin Shahnshah and his vassal Hasan Prosh, were required to besiege Mayyafariqin, the northernmost Ayyubid base in the Jazira before the capture of Akhlat. It took two years to reduce the city, leading to a situation far worse than that faced in Akhlat in 1229–30.
Prosh Khaghbakian , together with units of the Cilician army , participated in the siege of the fortress of Mayyāfāriqin in the spring of the same year.
A small Mongol detachment, supported by a much larger force of Georgians and Armenians who saw themselves as participating in a crusade against the Muslims under the command of Georgian leader Hasan Brosh, moved against Diyarbekir, which fell after a long siege. While the siege was under way, Hulagu, together with a Christian army from Lesser Armenia, prepared to conquer Musim Syria. (...) He then crossed the Euphrates, and laid siege to Aleppo on January 18, 1260, with the support of Hethum's Armenians and the Frankish troops supplied by Bohemond VI from Antioch. (....) Operating under the Mongol security umbrella, Bohemond also seized the Muslim coastal enclave at Latakia, thereby resestablishing Frankish control of all land between Tripoli and Antioch for the first time since 1187.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (
link)
When Mayyafariqin finally fell to the Mongols in 1260 the Armenian troops in the army rushed in to rescue Christian relics.The bones of martyrs of Diocletian's persecutions of the third century had been gathered in the city by its bishop, St Maruta (c. 399–410), giving the city its alternative name of Martyropolis, the 'City of Martyrs'. The soldiers then gave these captured relics to their monasteries. Haghbat managed to acquire the hand of the Apostle St Bartholomew: 'And it really is still there.'
The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation in 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh.
The prosperity of the monastery in the thirteenth century was due to the patronage of the Proshyan prince, who carved out the second cave church in 1283, reached through a rock-cut antechamber which served as their mausoleum. The burials are in a recess behind twin arches, over which two felines on leashes and an eagle with a lamb in its talons, the family's armoured bearings have been sculpted in bold relief.
The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation In 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh
This is Prosh-Hasan (wife Khut'lu Khat'un) who had died in 1284. The sons of Prosh Hasan were Vasak the junior, Ami Hasan I and Papak', for whom Georg Khubov gives the date 1492. This Vasak Junior had died between the years 1268-1273 and Amir Hasan I had died in 1292,46 while Papak' had passed away in 1298-9
Khutlu - bugha , and in - law Lord Prosh , inspires patriotic feelings and engenders nationalistic motivations in his contemporaries.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)Prosh Khaghbakian | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proshyan dynasty | |||||
Successor | Amir Hasan I | ||||
Born | 1223 | ||||
Died | 1283 | ||||
Burial | |||||
Spouse | Khut'lu Khat'un | ||||
Issue | Vasak, Amir Hasan I, Papak, Mkdem | ||||
| |||||
Dynasty | Proshyan dynasty | ||||
Father | Vask Khaghbakian |
Prince Prosh Khaghbakian, also Pros Xalbakean or Hasan Brosh (1223-1283), was an Armenian Prince, vassal of the Zakarian princes of Armenia, and founder of the Proshyan dynasty, a family of Armenian nobility. He was a lord of the Khaghabakian or Pŕoshian House in Urkghunk‘, Boloraberd, Eghegiats‘ Dzor and Hrashk‘aberd. [2] He was the Supreme Commander ( Sparapet) of the Zakarian army from 1223 to 1284, succeeding to his father Vasak. [3] He was one of the main Greater Armenian lords to execute the alliance between his suzerain the Georgian King David Ulu and the Mongol Prince Hulagu, during the Mongol conquest of Middle-East (1258-1260). [4] He apparently gained many benefits from his cooperation with the Mongols, including rising to such prominence that he could establish his own dynastic line. [5]
The Mongols had received the assistance of Armenian lords since the 1230s. [6] Numerous Georgian-Armenian military units participated in the Mongol conquest of Alamut in 1256, where they were personally led by David VII of Georgia. [7] [6]
In 1258, Prosh Khaghbakian led Armenian troops to accompany the Mongol Siege of Baghdad, while Zakare III Zakarian was leading the Georgian troops. [8] [9] [2] He is said to have led the negociations with the Caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta'sim, but in vain. [10] Prosh Khaghbakian was the main source for the account of the fall of Baghdad by the Armenian historian Kirakos. [11] [12] The 13th century Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi celebrated this victory as a watershed event against "Muslim tyranny": "Five hundred and fifteen years had passed since the founding of this city. Throughout its supremacy, like an isatiable leech, it had swallowed up the entire world. Now it restored all that had been taken. It was punished for the blood it had shed and the evil it had done; the measure of its inequity was full. The Muslim tyranny had lasted 647 years." [9]
In 1258-1260, Prosh, with his Armenian Zakarid suzerain Shahnshah, [13] led a large force of Georgians and Armenians to support a much smaller force of Mongol troops of Hulegu in the Siege of Mayyāfāriqīn ( Diyarbakır), which was defended by its last Ayyubid ruler Al-Kamil Muhammad. [14] [15] [16] The Armenian Prince Sevata of Kachen was killed in the conflict. [17] When the city was captured at last after a siege of two years, the Muslims were massacred, but the Christians were spared. [17] [13] Christian relics were collected and brought back to Armenia, particularly to the Haghpat Monastery. [18]
Meanwhile Hulegu continued his conquest of the rest of Syria, accompanied by the forces of Hethum I of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and the Crusaders of Bohemond VI of Antioch. [17] [15] The Georgian ruler David VII declined to commit more Georgian-Armenian troops for these Mongol campaigns in Syria, on account that he had suffered huge losses in the 1258 Siege of Baghdad. [19]
Prosh Khaghbakian was involved in the development of the Geghard ( Armenian: Գեղարդ, meaning "spear") medieval monastery in the Kotayk province of Armenia, partially carved out of the adjacent mountain and surrounded by cliffs. [24] He purchased the monastery in the mid-13th century from the Zakarids, and built a series of additional chapels hewn into the rock. Over a short period the Proshyans built the cave structures which brought Geghard well-merited fame — the second cave church, the family sepulcher of zhamatun Papak and Ruzukan, a hall for gatherings and studies (collapsed in the middle of the 20th century) and numerous cells. The chamber reached from the North East of the gavit and became Prince Prosh Khaghbakian's tomb in 1283.
Prince Prosh Khaghbakian also built the fortress of Proshaberd.
The Proshyan/Khaghbakian dynasty supported the building of numerous Christian monasteries, the most renowned of which being Geghard. [3]
A reliquary with a holy spear bears a dedicatory inscription made by Prince Prosh in 1269: [25]
“In the year 1269, I, prince Prosh, son of Vasak, inheritor of this divinely prepared holy spear, embellished it with a precious repository to have it intercede for me in the awesome judgment of Christ, and with great hope I donated it to the monastery of Ayrivank‘, the treasured place of my burial, in perpetual memory of me and my children Papak‘, Amir Hasan, and Vasak, and of my consort Dame Khutlu, who passed away in Christ, and of Mkde‘m and Dame Gohar, who left this world prematurely.”
— Spear reliquary. [25]
He mentions his wife in the inscription, dame Khut'lu Khat'un, [26] as well as his children Papak Proshian (died 1298), [26] Vasak (died 1268-1273), [26], Ami Hasan I (died 1292), [26] and Mkde‘m.
He was brother-in-law of the Court official of the Kingdom of Georgia and Amirspasalar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Georgian Army Khutlubuga. [27]
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
Service to the Mongols could also provide great political benefits to their vassals. The Mongols conferred political power to their most valued vassals by favoring certain houses over others, either through the granting of positions or the redistribution of lands from less favored vassals to the valued. In the case of Greater Armenia, political power granted from the Mongols allowed certain Armenian houses to capitalize on their positions, even after the fall of the Ilkhanate. Such an example was Prosh Khaghbakian, who strengthened the position of his house (later known as the Proshians) through his loyalty and service.
It is true that the Mongols placed considerable trust in certain Armenian lords, such as amirspasalar Shahnshah's son Zakare and Prosh Khaghbakian, who aided in the capture of Baghdad (1258).
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (
link)
Kirakos provides a detailed description of the fall of Baghdad in his History of the Armenians, started in 1241 and completed in 1265. Chapter eleven along with the subsequent ones are devoted to describing the events of his own day; they are considered the most important part of his work due to the details that they contain. His source was the Armenian Prince Prosh Khaghbakian, a participant and eyewitness of the conquest. Kirakos notes in his History that this Armenian lord told him directly about the events surrounding the invasion of Baghdad.
All this was narrated to us by prince Hasan called Prosh, son of the pious Vasak, son of Haghbak, brother of Papak' and Mkdem, father of Mkdem, Papak', Hasan and Vasak who was an eyewitness to the events and also heard about events with his own ears, [a man] enjoying great honor in the Khan's eyes.
Perhaps the most extreme case came when Armenians, including Avag, his cousin Shahnshah and his vassal Hasan Prosh, were required to besiege Mayyafariqin, the northernmost Ayyubid base in the Jazira before the capture of Akhlat. It took two years to reduce the city, leading to a situation far worse than that faced in Akhlat in 1229–30.
Prosh Khaghbakian , together with units of the Cilician army , participated in the siege of the fortress of Mayyāfāriqin in the spring of the same year.
A small Mongol detachment, supported by a much larger force of Georgians and Armenians who saw themselves as participating in a crusade against the Muslims under the command of Georgian leader Hasan Brosh, moved against Diyarbekir, which fell after a long siege. While the siege was under way, Hulagu, together with a Christian army from Lesser Armenia, prepared to conquer Musim Syria. (...) He then crossed the Euphrates, and laid siege to Aleppo on January 18, 1260, with the support of Hethum's Armenians and the Frankish troops supplied by Bohemond VI from Antioch. (....) Operating under the Mongol security umbrella, Bohemond also seized the Muslim coastal enclave at Latakia, thereby resestablishing Frankish control of all land between Tripoli and Antioch for the first time since 1187.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (
link)
When Mayyafariqin finally fell to the Mongols in 1260 the Armenian troops in the army rushed in to rescue Christian relics.The bones of martyrs of Diocletian's persecutions of the third century had been gathered in the city by its bishop, St Maruta (c. 399–410), giving the city its alternative name of Martyropolis, the 'City of Martyrs'. The soldiers then gave these captured relics to their monasteries. Haghbat managed to acquire the hand of the Apostle St Bartholomew: 'And it really is still there.'
The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation in 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh.
The prosperity of the monastery in the thirteenth century was due to the patronage of the Proshyan prince, who carved out the second cave church in 1283, reached through a rock-cut antechamber which served as their mausoleum. The burials are in a recess behind twin arches, over which two felines on leashes and an eagle with a lamb in its talons, the family's armoured bearings have been sculpted in bold relief.
The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation In 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh
This is Prosh-Hasan (wife Khut'lu Khat'un) who had died in 1284. The sons of Prosh Hasan were Vasak the junior, Ami Hasan I and Papak', for whom Georg Khubov gives the date 1492. This Vasak Junior had died between the years 1268-1273 and Amir Hasan I had died in 1292,46 while Papak' had passed away in 1298-9
Khutlu - bugha , and in - law Lord Prosh , inspires patriotic feelings and engenders nationalistic motivations in his contemporaries.
{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)