The Amatuni who was of
Caspio-
Median or
Matianian-
Mannaean origin, is given a specious
Jewish ancestry from descendants of
Samson by the early Armenian tradition (
Moses of Chorene 2.57). Their forefather's name
Manue suggests a possible connection with the royal Assyrian house of
Adiabene. They were variously attributed a descent from
Astyages of
Media and a
Hebrew descent. Also, Armenian princely family of Amatuni believed to be descendants of the kings (chieftains) of the Matienian tribes In addition, in Antiquity besides its original land of Artaz, the Principality of Amatuniq also included in addition the district of the Djur-shrod (Chuash-rot) with the center in the town of Myarakan, located along the river Araxes, southeast of Artaz. Apparently, starting from 336 A.D. the Amatuni princes were in charge of the tax service of the
Armenian kingdom, when the
Arshakids bestowed on them the fortress and possession of
Oshakan in the heart of their
Ayrarat royal domain, not far from the capital of the kingdom
Dvin(
Moses of Chorene 2.57). Historians described the battle that took place in 336 near Oshakan, between Armenians and Persians, in which Armenians won. For his valor in the liberation wars, in 336, the Armenian king Khosrov III presented Oshakan to Vahan Amatuni. During the wars, the Amatuni sent their Suzerain (overlord), the king of Armenia, 500 horses and cavalry soldiers, which shows the political weight and military potential of this grand princely family. At the initiative of the princes Amatuni,
Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the
Armenian alphabet, was buried here. As
Nakharars the Amatuni owned Oshakan until 773, after which these lands came under the control of the
Bagratids[https://www.twirpx.com/file/1316485/. After the
Sassanids of
Iran abolished the
Arsacid monarchy in
Armenia in 428, Vahan (II) Amatuni was appointed by the Great King as assistant governor to the Iranian
marzpan. However, Sassanid propagation of
Zoroastrianism among the Christian Armenians caused the reversal of the Amatuni's loyalty and, in 451, Vahan revolted, only to be banished to
Gorgan. In 451, the famous
Battle of Avarayr between Armenians and Persians took place in Artaz, south of Maku. The transfer of regional power from the Sassanids to Muslim Arab rule provoked a large-scale aristocratic insurrection of 774-75. In the 9th century, when kingdom of Great Armenia was restored, Amatuni still remained in the possession of Artaz, but under the
Artsruni of
Vaspurakan, until 909, when the Vaspurakan kingdom of the Artsrunis separated from the kingdom of Great Armenia, but Artaz remained loyal to the united Armenian kingdom of the Bagratids and remained part of it. Also, the principality of Amatuni (Artaz) has always had its own separate church diocese, the diocese of Amatuniq. A branch of the family still controlled a fiefdom of Artaz in
Maku down to the 1500s when Ottomans and Kurdish tribes toppled Armenian rule in the region. while the branch which ruled
Hamamshen was overthrown in the 15th century after the Ottomans invaded the empire of Trebizond and exiled its last prince Baron David II to
Ispir. == Later family ==