Background There were several Armenian melikates (dominions ruled by
meliks) in various parts of historical Armenia: in
Yerevan,
Kars,
Nakhichevan,
Gegharkunik,
Lori,
Artsakh,
Utik,
Iranian Azerbaijan and
Syunik. The Five Melikdoms were ruled by dynasties that represented branches of the earlier
Hasan-Jalalyan dynasty and were descendants of the medieval
kings of Artsakh. After the erosion of united Armenian statehood under pressure from the
Seljuk Empire and
Mongols, the Five Melikdoms were the most independent of all analogous Armenian principalities and saw themselves as holding onto the last bastion of Armenian independence.
Autonomy The realm of the meliks in
Karabakh was almost always semi-independent and often fully independent. The meliks had their recruit armies headed by
centurions, their own castles and fortresses. The military complexes that contained recruiting organizations, fortification systems, signal beacons, and logistical support were known as
sghnakhs (). There were two large sghnakhs shared by all meliks of Karabakh - the Major Sghnakh and the Lesser Sghnakh. The Major Sghnakh was located in the melikdoms of Gulistan (Vardut), Jraberd and
Khachen and was supported by the fortresses of Gulistan,
Jraberd, Havkakhaghats, Ishkhanaberd,
Kachaghakaberd and Levonaberd. The Lesser Sghnakh was located in the melikdoms of Varanda and Dizak, and was supported by the fortresses
Shushi, Togh, and Goroz. Both the Lesser and Major Sghnakhs were parts of a legacy defense system that remained from the times of the
Kingdom of Artsakh. The relationship between meliks and their subordinates was that of a military commanding officer and junior officer, and not of feudal lord and a serf. Peasants were often allowed to own land, were free and owned property. The five Armenian principalities (
melikdoms) in Karabakh Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" Armenian according to historian
Robert H. Hewsen. Much of Hasan-Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian
nakharar families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh. In 1182, he stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastery life at
Dadivank, and divided his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vahtang II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory "the Black." Vahtang II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was herself the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the originator of the
Zakarid line of Armenian princes in Georgia. When he married the daughter of the Arranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Mamkan, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands. In medieval times, the Hasan-Jalalyans branched into two functionally separate but connected lines: landed princes who ruled the Melikdom of Khachen and clergymen who manned the throne of
Catholicos of Aghvank at the
Holy See of Gandzasar of the
Armenian Apostolic Church. The clerical branch of the family was especially important. In 1441, a top military commander from the Hasan-Jalalyans in the service of the
Kara Koyunlu orchestrated the return of the Holy See of the
Armenian Apostolic Church from the Mediterranean town of Sis in
Cilicia to its traditional location at
Etchmadzin in Armenia. Shortly after the event, Grigor X Jalalbegiants (1443–1465), representing the clerical branch of the Hasan-Jalalyans, was enthroned as the
Catholicos of All Armenians at
Etchmadzin. The people of the principalities of Karabakh considered themselves direct descendants of the
Kingdom of Armenia, and were recognized as such by foreign powers. The autonomous status of Armenian meliks in Karabakh was confirmed and re-confirmed by successive rulers of Persia. In 1603 Shah
Abbas I recognized their special semi-independent status by a special edict. However, instability in
Safavid Iran and Armenian frustration with
Islamic dominance. in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, turned
Karabakh into the epicenter of plans for an independent
Armenian state. This state, centered on the semi-independent Armenian principalities of
Artsakh and
Syunik, would be allied with
Georgia and both would be protected by fellow Christian Russia and European powers. named
Israel Ori, who had served in the armies of
Louis XIV of France, he tried to convince
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1658–1716),
Pope Innocent XII and the
Emperor of Austria, Leopold I Unfortunately
Ori died in 1711 before securing unified support for
Armenian lands. Another prominent figure from
Nagorno-Karabakh who worked to establish an
independent Armenian entity in his homeland was
Movses Baghramian. Baghramian together with the Armenian patriot
Joseph Emin (1726–1809), lobbied
Karabakh's Armenian meliks to this same effect. In the early 18th century, Persia's
Nader Shah took Karabakh out of control of the
Ganja khans as punishment for their support of the
Safavids, and placed it under his own control in which he granted the Armenian meliks supreme command over neighboring Armenian principalities as well as Muslim
khans in the Caucasus, in return for the meliks' victories over the invading
Ottoman Turks in the 1720s. However, the Armenian meliks were only able to maintain
autonomous control over the region until the mid-18th century.
Karabakh Khanate The beginning of the end of the Khamsa Melikdoms of Karabakh came in the second half of the 18th century, when
Melik Shahnazar II allied himself with the
Khan,
Panah Ali Khan of the
Javanshir clan of the
Afshar-Oghuz Turkic tribe, against the other Armenian meliks which led to the disintegration of the autonomous Armenian Melikdoms of Karabakh into the de facto independent
Karabakh Khanate.
Melik Shahnazar II was the first to accept
Panah-Ali Khan's suzerainty as the first Khan of the
Karabakh Khanate and provided the latter with the strategic fortress of Shushi.
Dissolution and Integration into the Russian Empire The region came under
Russian control in 1806 during the
Russo-Persian War of 1804 to 1813, and was formally annexed in 1813 following the signing of the
Treaty of Gulistan. The
Russian Empire recognized the
sovereign status of the five Armenian princes in their domains by a charter of the Emperor
Paul I dated 2 June 1799. In 1822, the Russian Empire abolished ethnic feudal formations, and the territory previously ruled by the Five Melikdoms subsequently became part of the newly formed
Elisabethpol Governorate, as part of the
Elizavetpol,
Jevanshir,
Jebrail, and
Shusha uezds ("counties"). Meliks preserved their rights and privileges after the rest of
Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire. Many of them became high-ranking military officers in the
Imperial Russian Army.
Legacy The name "Mountainous Karabakh" () came to become the most prominent name for the region controlled by the Five Armenian Melikdoms ("Mountainous" as opposed to the lowland
steppes of the
Karabakh region). It maintained a strong
Armenian presence and identity up into the modern age. It became the scene of several ethnic conflicts with neighboring
Azerbaijanis, including the establishment of the Armenian-populated
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within
Azerbaijan SSR under the
Soviet Union in the early 20th century, and the
Karabakh movement in the late 20th century which led to the
First Nagorno-Karabakh War amid the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the establishment of the Armenian
Republic of Artsakh. == Literature and art ==