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Principality of Khachen

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Revision as of 14:09, 15 October 2007 by Malikbek (talk | contribs) (The relevance of my changes are to give a balanced understanding to important issues. I have tried yet again to give a new wording that hopefully uncontroversial. Please correct, don't simply revert!)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

The Principality of Khachen (Template:Lang-hy) was a medieval principality, in part of historical Artsakh (present-day Nagorno-Karabakh).

A letter from the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII addressed to the prince of Khachen includes the inscription "To Prince of Khachen, Armenia." According to Abū Dulaf, an Arab traveller of the time, Khachen was an "Armenian principality immediately south of Barda'a".

However, Azerbaijani scholars dispute the fact that Khachen was part of Armenia claiming instead that it was part of Caucasian Albania. This apparently arcane dispute is of considerable political relevance today as both sides in the Nagorno Karabagh conflict try to use fragments of archaeological and literary 'proof' to underline their respective claims to that area. Azerbaijani historians argue that travellers' reports (like those of Abu Dulaf quoted) refered to virtually any Caucasian Christian they met as an Armenian so that while such sources were written in good faith they can't be seen as 'proof' of population being Armenian rather than Albanian.


References

  1. The New Encyclopedia Britannica by Robert MacHenry, Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc, Robert MacHenry, (1993) p.761
  2. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, De ceremoniis aubae byzantinae (Ed. J.P.Migne. Patrologiae cursiis completus, Series Graeco-Latina, 112), p. 248
  4. Abū-Dulaf. Abū-Dulaf Misʻar Ibn Muhalhil's Travels in Iran (circa A.D. 950), Cairo University Press, 1955, p. 74
  5. Azerbaijan Guidebook (Fourth Edition), AzerOlympicInternational Publishing House (2007) p.237

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