Vahevuni was one of the ancient noble houses of

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 ...

, believed to derive from

Vahagn Vahagn or Vahakn (), also known as Vahagn Vishapakagh (), is a warrior god in Armenian mythology. Scholars consider him to be either the thunder, or sun and fire god of the pre-Christian Armenian pantheon, as well as the god of war, bravery and ...

, god (dic) of fire and war. According to

Movses Khorenatsi Movses Khorenatsi ( 410–490s AD; , ) was a prominent Armenians, Armenian historian from late antiquity and the author of the ''History of Armenia (book), History of the Armenians''. Movses's ''History of the Armenians'' was the first attempt at ...

, the Vahevunis were ranked in the Gahnamak among the first noble houses of Armenian by King Valarshak. The princely house of Vahevunis traditionally held the title of the high priests (qrmapet) of

. They also possessed the temple town of Ashtishat in the gavarr of Vahevuniq (on the left bank of the Aratzani river in Taron. Most likely, in the pre-Christian Armenia, the Vahevunis also hereditarily held the rank of the Sparapet, i.e. the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Armenian Army. The main known rulers from the Vahevuni family from c. 400–800 are: *Mani Vahevuni c. 445 *Gyut Vahevuni c. 445 *Barshegh (Baršł) Vahevuni c. 480 *Samvel Vahevuni c. 590 *Khosrov c. 595 *Thoros (Theodoros) c. 640

References

Armenian noble families {{armenia-geo-stub

See also

References