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Artsakh (Armenian - Արցախ, Azeri - Ərsak Russian - Арцах) - a province of ancient Caucasian Albania that covered what is now mostly Nagorno-Karabakh. The name today is used mostly by Armenians to refer to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Little is known of the ancient history of the region, primarily because of the scarcity of historical sources. Today the historical ownership of Artsakh, present-day Nagorno-Karabakh is hotly disputed between Azeris and Armenians, both of whom lay historical claims to this territory.

Archaeologists have identified material remains here by the name "Kura-Araxes culture", and early medieval Aghbanian (Caucasian Albanian) and Armenian traditions speak of a son of Japheth named Aran, whose descendants settled the Araks valley. Zoroastrian traditions would make the Aras valley the seat of the Zoroastrian faith, one of the possible birth places of Zoroaster, and according to some, the original location of the "First Created land" - Airyana Vaego.

Artsakh first appeared under the name "Urtehke" or "Urtehini" in Urartean cuneiform writings.

In the 1st Millennium BC, the population of the area was comprised of Gargars, Utis, Saks, and Sodes, who along with other tribes, constituted the Albanian tribal union. According to the later Greek historian Strabo, the number of the Albanian tribes reached 26.

From the 6th to 4th centuries BC, the area, as well as most of the South Caucasus region, was ruled by the Medes, and by Persian Achaemenids.

In the 2nd-1st centuries BC, the area was conquered by the Armenians. Strabo mentions Orhistene as one of three Armenian provinces in his "Geography" (the other two being Phavneni and Kombiseni.) Armenia, according to him, had originally been "a small country" on the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but was expanded by the kings Artaksi (Artashes) and Zariadrij (2nd c. BC) who created an empire, often mentioned by Armenian historians as Greater Armenia. (Strabo XI, 14, 5)

Strabo, Clavdius Ptolemeus and Plinius Secundos all write that at this time, the border between Iberia (Albania) and the Greater Armenian empire was along the river Kir or Kura.

In 66 BC, following the defeat of the Armenian king Tigranes II at the hand of the Romans, the Armenian empire lost many of its territories. At this time, the Albanians regained control over the territory. According to the ancient Albanian historian, Moses Kalankaytuk, author of "History of Aghvank", at this time the southern border of Caucasian Albania was along the Araxes river. Thus, referring to the events in 1st century AD, he mentions "…someone from the family of Sisakan, one of the descendants of Yafet-Aran who inherited the plains and mountains of Albania beginning from the river Yeraskh (Araxes/Araks) up to the castle of Hunarakert." (II, 21). Aran was a legendary ancestor and the eponym of the Albanians. The 5th c. Armenian historian Moses of Chorene or Movses Khorensky, who is considered in Armenian historiography as "the father of Armenian history", also confirmed that Caucasian Albania's border was along the Araks in the 1st century A.D.

Little is known about the history of Artsakh or of Aghbania in 1st-4th centuries. It is generally agreed that Albanians and Armenians alternated control over the territory until the early 4th century AD. According to Moses, it was in Artsakh that young Grigorius (grandson of Gregory the Illuminator) was buried, after he was killed on the field of Vatnyan (see Movses Khorensky, "History of Armenia", III, chapter 3).

At this time, Albania had a close relationship with Sassanid Iran. In 371 AD, Roman and Sassanid armies clashed in the Dzirav field. In this battle, Albanians supported Sassanids, and Armenians supported Romans. According to the 5th c. Armenian historian Favstos Buzand, following the defeat of the Sassanid and Albanian armies, the Armenian king Musheg Mamikonian conquered the right bank of the Kura, including the provinces of Artsakh and Uti, and again made the Kura the border between Armenia and Aghbania.

However, war between the Sassanid Persians and Romans continued, and in 387 AD, according to the peace treaty between the two powers, the Armenian kingdom was partitioned between them. Aghbania, as an ally of the Sassanids, gained all the right bank of the river Kura up to the Araxes, including Artsakh.

In the 5th century, relations between the Sassanids and Albanians deteriorated. Because of the spread of Christianity in Aghbania, the Sassanids feared an increasing rapprochement between Byzantium and Aghbania. In a battle that took place in 451 AD in the Avarayr field, the allied forces of the Armenian, Albanian and Iberian kings, devoted to Christianity, suffered defeat at the hands of the Sassanid army. Many of the defeated Christian nobles took refuge in the impassable mountains and forests of the Caucasus, particularly in Artsakh, that became a center for resistance against Sassanid Iran. (see Egishe, "The Word about the Armenian War", sec 6.) The religious center of the Albanian state also moved here. In 498 AD in the settlement named Aluen (Aguen, present-day Agdam region of Azerbaijan), an Albanian church assembly was held to adopt laws further strengthening the position of Christianity in Albania. In "The Armenian Geography" (7th cent. AD), Artsakh was mentioned as the 9th out of 15 provinces of Greater Armenia.

In the 8th century, Artsakh, along with the whole of the Caucasus, was conquered by the Arabs. The Arabs put an end to Aghbania's sovereignty, and subordinated the Albanian church to the Armenian church. This historical event played a crucial role in the gradual dissolution of Albanians as a distinct ethnicity. Albanians living in the lowlands converted to Islam, and were eventually absorbed by Azeris; those living in mountainous areas, especially in Artsakh, preserved Christianity, and under Armenian church influence began to use the Armenian alphabet and language, both in church and in daily life.

With the dissolution of Caucasian Albania and the gradual loss of a distinct Albanian ethnicity, the name for the area in later periods (10th C onward) was called Khachin or Khachen, named after the Khachin principality; the Byzantine emperor Constantine Bagrjanorodny addressed letters "to prince of Hachen - to Armenia", being the residence of the Armenian prince Sahla Smbatjan.

From the 14th c. onward, this area was called Karabakh. However, Artsakh is still the name that the local Armenian population prefer to call the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

See also

• Caucasian Albania
• Nagorno-Karabakh

• Azerbaijan
• Armenia