Paytakaran () was the easternmost

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

( or ) of the Kingdom of Armenia. The province was located in the area of the lower courses of the Kura and Arax rivers, adjacent to the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. It corresponded to the territory known as Caspiane to Greco-Roman sources ( or in Armenian sources). Today, the area is located in the territory of modern-day southeastern

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and northwestern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The centre of the province was the town of Paytakaran, after which it was named.

Etymology

Paytakaran is interpreted as "the land of Pʻayt", applied by Medians to this territory to their north, from

Median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

*''karan''- ("border, region, land", compare with

Lankaran Lankaran (, ) or Lánkon () is a city in Azerbaijan, on the coast of the Caspian Sea, near the southern border with Iran. As of 2021, the city had a population of 89,300. It is next to, but independent of, Lankaran District. The city forms a disti ...

). ' is probably the name of a Caspian tribe. also means "wood" in Armenian, although Heinrich Hübschmann and others reject any connection with this word and believe the etymology to be non-Armenian. In the classical Armenian sources, Paytakaran is mentioned as the name of the province only in the 7th-century geography '' Ashkharatsʻoytsʻ'' and the history of Ghevond, while the city of the same name is mentioned more frequently. Paytarakan/Caspiane/Kaspkʻ is also identified with the region of Balasagan ( in Armenian).

Geography

Paytarakan was located on the right bank of the Arax River, which separated it from the Armenian provinces of Artsakh, Siunik and

Utik Utik (), also known as Uti, was a historical province and principality within the Kingdom of Armenia. It was ceded to Caucasian Albania following the partition of Armenia between Sassanid Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire in 387 AD. Most o ...

to the north, although some authors believe that it included territory on the left bank of the Arax as well. It was separated from Adurbadagan to the south by the Karadagh and Talysh mountains and bordered the Caspian Sea to the east. It is believed to have encompassed the greater part of the Mughan Plain and the Lankaran Lowlands. Paytakaran had a dry climate and is described in ''Ashkharatsʻoytsʻ'' as rich in cotton and wild barley. Suren Yeremyan estimates its area as 21,000 square kilometres.

Cantons

According to the 7th-century Armenian geography '' Ashkharatsʻoytsʻ'', Paytakaran was the 11th of the 15 provinces of the Kingdom of Armenia. ''Ashkharatsʻoytsʻ'' provides the names of 12 cantons of Paytarakan, which at the time were in the possession of Adurbadagan: *Hrakʻot-Perozh (centre: Paytakaran) *Vardanakert (centre: Vardanakert) *Ewtʻnapʻorakean Baginkʻ *Kʻoekyan *Baghanṛot *Ṛot-i-Bagha (appears to be a duplication of Baghanṛot) *Aṛos Pichan (centre: Pichan) *Hani * Atshi-Bagawan (centre: Bagawan) *Spandaran-Perozh (centre: Spandaran) *Ormizd-Perozh *Alewan (centre: Alewan) The precise location of Paytakaran's cantons and its namesake city are unknown. The city of Paytakaran is often identified with the of Arabic sources and sometimes with Beylagan in modern-day Azerbaijan, on the left bank of the Arax. A number of medieval Armenian authors, following Tovma Artsruni's example, misidentify the city of Paytakaran with

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

. The spellings of the names vary greatly in different copies of ''Ashkharatsʻoytsʻ''. Yeremyan reduces the number of cantons to ten by combining the duplicated ''Ṛot-i-Bagha''/''Baghanṛot'' and removing ''Kʻoekyan'', which appears in only two manuscripts. Several of the canton names indicate that they were sites of some religious significance. ''Ewtʻnapʻorakean Baginkʻ'' means "Altars of the Seven Niches", ''Spandaran'' means "place of sacrifices", and ''Atshi-Bagawan'' has been interpreted as "Place of the Fire God".

History

The region was known to Greco-Roman authors as Caspiane, which was once home to a people called the Caspians. Caspiane was contested between the regional powers.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

, writing c. 20 AD, mentions Caspiane among the lands conquered by King Artaxias I of Armenia from the

Medes The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the m ...

in the 2nd century BC, but adds that this land belonged to "the country of the

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

" in his time.

, ''

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

''
11.14
Persus Digital Library. Armenia had lost the territory to

Caucasian Albania Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus, mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among ...

in about 59 BC, when

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

rearranged the political geography of the region after defeating

Tigranes the Great Tigranes II, more commonly known as Tigranes the Great (''Tigran Mets'' in Armenian language, Armenian; 140–55 BC), was a king of Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity), Armenia. A member of the Artaxiad dynasty, he ruled from 95 BC to 55 BC. Under hi ...

. The region was again conquered by the Armenians at some point, most likely during the reign of Vologases I of Armenia. Armenian control over Paytakaran most likely vacillated during the rule of the Artaxiad and Arsacid dynasties. It occupied a strategic position due to its proximity to the Caspian Gates, and nomadic peoples frequently crossed through the region to raid central Armenia and Adurbadagan. Although the documents known as the ''Zoranamak'' (Military Register) and ''Gahnamak'' (Throne-List) mention a prince of ''Kaspkʻ'' who provided a force of 3000 men to the Armenian army and occupied the tenth seat at the royal table, this is considered spurious by Cyril Toumanoff and Robert Hewsen. None of the classical historians mention any princely house of Caspiane, and the region appears to have been a royal domain under Armenian rule. The provincial centre Paytakaran was likely a royal city and served as a royal dungeon under the Arsacids; 438 pre-Christian priests are said to have been imprisoned there by the lord of Angeghtun following the Christianization of Armenia. Paytarakan is said to have been conquered in the early 330s by the Arsacid noble Sanatruk/Sanesan, who made its chief city his temporary capital and attempted to usurp the Armenian throne. The classical Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium names Paytakaran among the provinces that rebelled against King Arsaces II in the 360s. This rebellion was suppressed by ''

sparapet ' () was a military title and office in ancient and medieval Armenia. Under the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, the ' was the supreme commander of the kingdom's armed forces. During the Arsacid period and for some time afterwards, the office was held ...

'' Mushegh Mamikonian in the late 360s during the reign of Pap. Faustus writes that Mushegh sacked the city of Paytakaran, killing many of its inhabitants and taking tribute and hostages. After the partition of Armenia in 387, the province remained a part of eastern Armenia until the dissolution of the Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia in 428, when it was ceded to Adurbadagan.

Population

The region was non-Armenian by ethnic composition. Hewsen describes it as "probably the least Armenian" of the traditional Armenian provinces. Hewsen, Robert H. ''Armenia: A Historical Atlas''. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2000. , p. 102 Strabo writes that the Caspians who once inhabited the region had disappeared by his time, so the Caspians (''Kaspkʻ'') of Armenian sources 400 years later were likely not the same people but rather a "hodgepodge of Albanians, Cadusians,

Amardi The Amardians, widely referred to as the Amardi (and sometimes Mardi), were an ancient Iranian tribe living along the mountainous region bordering the Caspian Sea to the north, to whom the Iron Age culture at Marlik is attributed. They are said ...

ans, Atropatenian Medes, and other nomadic or semi-nomadic Iranian tribes".

References

{{coord, 39.2333, N, 48.4333, E, source:wikidata, display=title Provinces of the Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity) History of Talysh