Phasiane ( ''Phasianoi''; ''Basean;'' ka, ბასიანი ''Basiani'', ) is a

historical region History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

now part of the Eastern Anatolia region of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, as well as the name given to the region where the

Aras River The Aras is a transboundary river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, between Iran and both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, fin ...

originates.

Origin

According to one version, the name is derived from an ancient tribe called the

Phasians The Phasians ( ka, ფაზიელები ''Pazielebi''; ''Phasianoi''; ) were an ancient tribe located in the eastern part of Pontus. The Greek commander Xenophon, who encountered them during his march through Asia Minor to the Black Sea ...

(Phazians), mentioned in The Anabasis of the ancient Greek historian Xenofon (5-4th century BC). The name of this tribe seems to have survived in latter-day regional toponyms –

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

n ''Basiani'',

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''Phasiane'',

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n ''Basean'', and Turkish ''Pasin''.

History

In the 8th and 7th centuries BC the province was part of

Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...

known as Biani ("land of Bia/Bias"). It was then part of the Satrapy of Armenia and the subsequent Kingdom of Armenia. In 384, the region was contested by Rome and

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

. The Persian commander Senitam Khusro defeated the Byzantines in the district of Phasiane, in 605/606. In the 7th century, the province was conquered by an Arab Caliphate. In the 9th century Basean became part of

Bagratid Armenia Bagratid Armenia was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I of the Bagratuni dynasty in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of t ...

. In the 10th century, the border between the Byzantine Empire and expanding early Georgian Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti went along the Aras river, therefore part of northern Basean/Basiani became a domain of the Georgian Bagratids. In 1001, after the death of David Kuropalates, Basean/Basiani were inherited by Byzantine Emperor Basil II, who annexed the Armenian lands (Tayk/Tao, Basean/Basiani), captured by King David Kuropalates to ByzantiumCyril Toumanoff. Armenia and Georgia // The Cambridge Medieval History. — Cambridge, 1966. — Т. IV: The Byzantine Empire, part I, chapter XIV. — P. 593—637. and organized them into the theme of Iberia with the capital at Theodosiopolis, forcing the successor Georgian Bagratid ruler Bagrat III to recognize the new rearrangement. Bagrat's son, George I, however, inherited a long-standing claim to David's succession. While Basil II was preoccupied with his Bulgarian campaigns, George gained momentum to invade Tao and Basiani in 1014, which caused unsuccessful Byzantine-Georgian wars. In 1048 and 1049, the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...

under Ibrahim Yinal made their first incursion into the Byzantine frontier region of Iberia and defeated a combined Byzantine-Georgian army of 50,000 at the Battle of Kapetrou on 10 September 1048. Many of the eastern Byzantine territories were conquered by the

between the 1070s and 1080s, but were then retaken by the Georgian King David IV. In the 13th century, at the

Battle of Basian The Battle of Basiani was fought between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Seljukid Sultanate of Rum in the Basiani Valley, 60 km north-east of the city of Erzurum in what is now northeast Turkey. The date of the battle has been d ...

, Georgians defeated the army of the Rum Sultanate. The province was part of the Kingdom of Georgia, and then of Principality of Samtskhe until 1545, when Basiani was finally conquered by the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. In the 17th century, it became a

sanjak A sanjak or sancak (, , "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (, ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian. Banners were a common organization of nomad ...

of Erzurum Vilayet.

References

{{Coord, 39.9, 41.6, dim:300km, display=title Former regions of Armenia Former provinces of Georgia (country)

Origin

History

See also

Further reading

References