Hayasa-Azzi

Hittite inscriptions deciphered in the 1920s by the Swiss scholar Emil Forrer testify to the existence of the mountainous country, Hayasa-Azzi, lying to the east of Hatti in the Upper Euphrates region. Its western border seems to have alternated between Samuha (probably just west of modern Sivas) and Kummaha (likely modern Kemah, Erzincan). These areas later geographically overlapped, at least partially, with the Upper Armenia province of the later Kingdom of Armenia and the neighboring region of Lesser Armenia. or as far east as Lake Van or the Ararat Plain. The name Hayasa might possibly be connected to the / of Urartian texts. Both Hayasa and / have been connected to the Aia of Greek mythology. Alternately, another theory proposes a connection to the , mentioned by the Urartian kings Argishti I and Sarduri II in the 8th century BCE. / and Husa(ni) were both probably located in modern Ardahan Province of Turkey. It is possible that the name Azzi survived into the Classical era as Aza, a city located in the Kelkit River Valley. Alternately, a form of the name Azzi may have continued into the 17th century CE as Azntsik, a district of Ani-Kammahk (Kemah) in Upper Armenia. Azzi is not to be confused with the similarly named Alzi (Alshe), which was located further south. ==Political structure==

The exact nature of Hayasa's and Azzi's relationship is uncertain. They are generally thought to have been a confederation of two different kingdoms in what is now northeastern Turkey: Hayasa, in the north, and Azzi, in the south. While separate entities, the two lands were politically and probably linguistically connected. Vartan Matiossian argues that Hayasa was an ethnonym while Azzi was the polity or land in which the Hayasans lived. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma I's treaty with Hakkani of Hayasa addresses "the people of Hayasa." According to Igor Diakonoff, this likely suggests that the Hayasans had a peoples' assembly or council of elders. ==Early history==

All information about Hayasa-Azzi comes from the Hittites, there are no primary sources from Hayasa-Azzi. As such, the early history of Hayasa-Azzi is unknown. According to historian Aram Kosyan, it is possible that the origins of Hayasa-Azzi lie in the Trialeti-Vanadzor culture, which expanded from Transcaucasia toward northeastern modern Turkey in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The Trialeti-Vanadzor-connected site of Sos Höyük IV, located in the Erzurum region, may have been associated with Hayasa-Azzi. ==Tudhaliya III and Suppiluliuma I (1360s–1320s BCE)==

The Hittite king Tudhaliya III chose to make the city of Samuha, "an important cult centre located on the upper course of the Marassantiya river" as a temporary home for the Hittite royal court sometime after his abandonment of Hattusa in the face of attacks against his kingdom by the Kaska, Hayasa-Azzi and other enemies of his state. Samuha was, however, temporarily seized by forces from the country of Azzi. However, Tudhaliya managed to rally his forces; indeed, the speed and determination of the Hittite king may have surprised Hatti's enemies including the Kaska and Hayasa-Azzi. Tudhaliya sent his general Suppiluliuma, who would later serve as king himself under the title Suppiluliuma I, to Hatti's northeastern frontiers, to defeat Hayasa-Azzi. The Hayasans initially retreated from a direct battle with the Hittite commander. The Hittitologist Trevor R. Bryce notes, however, that Tudhaliya and Suppiluliuma eventually: The Hayasans were now obliged to repatriate all captured Hittite subjects and cede "the border [territory] which Suppiluliuma claimed belonged to the Land of Hatti." Despite the restrictions imposed upon Hakkani, he was not a completely meek and submissive brother-in law of the Hittites in political and military affairs. As a condition for the release of the thousands of Hittite prisoners held in his domain, he demanded first the return of the Hayasan prisoners confined in Hatti. During their reigns, the cuneiform tablets of Boğazköy begin to mention the names of three successive kings who ruled over a state of Hayasa and/or Azzi. They were Karanni (or Lanni), Mariya, and Hakkani (or Hukkana). Hakkani married a Hittite princess. When Suppiluliuma had become king himself, Hakkani proceeded to marry Suppiluliuma's sister. In a treaty signed with Hakkani, Suppiluliuma I mentions a series of obligations of civil right: ==Mursili II (1320s–1290s BCE)==

The kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi remained a loyal Hittite vassal state for a time, perhaps hit by the same plague which claimed Suppiluliuma and his son Arnuwanda II. But, in Mursili's seventh year (three years before Mursili's eclipse – so, 1315 BCE), the "lord of Azzi" Anniya took advantage of Pihhuniya's unification of the Kaskas and raided the Land of Dankuwa, a Hittite border region, where he transported its population back to his kingdom. Cavaignac wrote of that period that Anniya "had sacked several districts and refused to release the prisoners taken." Anniya's rebellion soon prompted a Hittite response. The Hittite King Mursili II, having defeated Pihhuniya, marched to the borders of Hayasa-Azzi where he demanded Anniya return his captured subjects. In the following spring, he crossed the Euphrates and re-organized his army at Ingalova which, about ten centuries later, was to become the treasure-house and burial-place of the Armenian kings of the Arshakuni Dynasty. Despite Mursili's Year 7 and probable Year 8 campaigns against Hayasa-Azzi, Anniya was still unsubdued and continued to defy the Hittite king's demands to return his people at the beginning of Mursili's Ninth year. Worse still, Mursili II was forced to face another crisis in the same year with the death of his brother Sarri-Kusuh, the Hittite viceroy of Syria. This prompted a revolt by the Nuhašše lands against Hittite control. its formal submission did not occur until the following year of the Hittite king's reign. ==Decline of Hayasa==

Mursili, himself, could now take satisfaction in the reduction of the hostile and aggressive kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi once more to a Hittite vassal state. Many of the former districts and towns of Hayasa-Azzi become their own independent city-states following the breakup of the Hayasa-Azzi confederation at the end of the 13th century BCE. The territory of Hayasa-Azzi may have corresponded, at least partially, to Diauehi of Urartian-era texts. ==Hayasa and Armenians==

The similarity of the name Hayasa to the endonym of the Armenians, , and the Armenian name for Armenia, or , has prompted the suggestion that the Hayasa-Azzi confederation was involved in the Armenian ethnogenesis, or perhaps had been an Armenian-speaking state. -assa/-asa are, respectively, Hittite and Hieroglyphic Luwian genitive suffixes. Therefore, Hayasa could have been a Hittite or Luwian name meaning "land of the Hay." While the language or languages spoken in Hayasa-Azzi are unknown, there does seem to have been a prevalent non-Anatolian Indo-European linguistic element. This language seems to have had some similarities to Ancient Greek and could have been an early Armenian dialect. Vartan Matiossian argues instead that this name is a form of Classical Armenian , also meaning 'young man'. Both the Sanskrit and Armenian words ultimately derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root, . A few of the gods of Hayasa-Azzi recorded in treaties with the Hittites could be connected to Armenian or Greek traditions. Unag-Astuas is likely connected, at least etymologically, to Classical Armenian (Modern Armenian: ), which means 'God' and continues to be used in Armenian today. Baltaik could be a goddess connected to West Semitic Ba‘alat (Astarte), with a probable Armenian diminutive suffix (such as is present in the name of the Armenian goddess, Astłik). Terittituniš might be connected to the Triton of Greek mythology. The treasury and royal burials of the Arsacid (Arshakuni) dynasty would be located in this region as well during the 1st millennium BCE. Ani-Kammahk, probably the Kummaha of Hittite sources, was the main cultic center of the goddess Anahit and the location of the Armenian royal tombs during the Classical era. According to the prominent linguist Hrachia Acharian, the name of the city Kummaha could derive from , the Armenian word for 'skeleton'. However, there is almost no evidence of a close Armenian-Phrygian connection. The term Hayastan bears resemblance to the ancient Mesopotamian god Haya (ha-ià) and another western deity called Ebla Hayya, related to the god Ea ( or in Sumerian, in Akkadian and Babylonian). Thus, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia of 1962 posited that the Armenians derive from a migration of Hayasa into Shupria in the 12th century BCE. This is open to objection due to the possibility of a mere coincidental similarity between the two names. Criticism of Armenian connection theory The mentioning of the name Armenia can only be securely dated to the 6th century BCE with the Orontid kings and very little is known specifically about the people of Hayasa-Azzi per se. Igor Diakonoff argues the pronunciation of Hayasa was probably closer to Khayasa, with an aspirated h. According to him, this nullifies the connection to Armenian Hay (հայ). Additionally, he argues that -asa cannot be an Anatolian language suffix as names with this suffix are absent in the Armenian Highlands. Diakonoff's criticisms have been refuted by Matiossian and others, who argue that, as Hayasa is a Hittite (or Hittite-ized) exonym applied to a foreign land, the -asa suffix can still mean "land of." Additionally, Khayasa can be reconciled with Hay as the Hittite h and kh phonemes are interchangeable, a feature present in certain Armenian dialects as well. == See also ==