The Mihranids were an Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.^[1][2]

History

The dynasty was founded when a certain Mihran, a distant relative of Sasanian, settled in the region of Gardman in Utik. He was probably a member of a branch of the Mihranid family which was listed among the Seven Great Houses of Iran, and whose two other lines ruled Iberia (Chosroid Dynasty) and Gogarene/Gugark.^[3]

It is uncertain how the Mihranids became Arranshahs (princes of Albania). Their ancestor, Mihran, was said to have received the region of Gardman by the Sasanian monarch Khosrow II (r. 590–628).^[4] In c. 600, the Mihranids who exterminated all of the members of the Aranshahik dynasty with the exception of a certain Zarmihr, who was related to the Mihranids through marriage.^[5] This was due to the Aranshahiks still having some authority in Albania,^[5] which they had originally ruled until their overthrow in the 1st-century.^[6] The Mihranids then conquered all of Albania and assumed the title of Arranshah, but without embracing its royal status.^[7][5] The head of the family's full titulature was thus "Lord of Gardman and Prince of Albania".^[8]

The most prominent representatives of the family in the 7th century were Varaz Grigor, his son Javanshir, and Varaz-Tiridates I. Mihranids assumed a Persian title of Arranshahs (i.e. shahs of Arran, Persian name of Albania). The family's rule came to an end after the assassination of Varaz-Tiridates II by Nerseh Pilippean in 822–23.^[1]

Subsequently Sahl Smbatean, a descendant of the aforementioned Arranshahik (Eṙanšahik) family, assumed the title of Arranshah^[9] and ruled significant part of Caucasian Albania.

Mihranids of Gogarene

• Peroz (330–361)
• Unknown (361–394)
• Bakur I (394–400)
• Arshusha I (400–430)
• Bakur II (430–455)
• Arshusha II (455–470)
• Varsken (470–482)
• Arshusha III (482–540)
• Arshusha IV (540–608)
• Vahram-Arshusha V (608–627)
• Arshusha VI (???–748)

Mihranids of Gardman

• Peroz (330–361)
• Khurs (361–430)
• Barzabod (430–440)
• Varaz-Bakur (440–450)
• Mihr (450–480)
• Armayel (480–510)
• Vard I (510–540)
• Vardan I (540–570)
• Vard II (570–600)

Mihranids of Caucasian Albania

• Varaz Grigor (628–636)
• Javanshir (636–680)
• Varaz-Tiridates I (680–705)
  • Shiruye (699–704, usurper)
• Vardan II (705–740)
• Narseh-Dzndak (740–770)
• Gagikh II (770–790)
• Stephanos I (790–821)
• Varaz-Tiridates II (821–822)

References

Sources

• Baumer, Christoph (2021). History of the Caucasus: Volume 1: At the Crossroads of Empires. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1788310079.
• Bosworth, C. E. (1986). "Arrān". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume II/5: Armenia and Iran IV–Art in Iran I. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 520–522. ISBN 978-0-71009-105-5.
• Daryaee, Touraj (2014). Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0-85771-666-8.
• Dowsett, Charles (1961). The History of the Caucasian Albanians. Oxford University. OCLC 445781.
• Gadjiev, Murtazali (2022). "Religious Life in Caucasian Albania: Christianity vs Zoroastrianism / Религиозная жизнь в Кавказской Албании: христианство vs зороастризм". журнала Вестник древней истории (Herald of Ancient History). 82 (3): 672–699.
• Greenwood, Tim (2022). "Negotiating the North: Armenian Perspectives on the Conquest Era". The Historian of Islam at Work: Essays in Honor of Hugh N. Kennedy. Brill. pp. 591–613. ISBN 978-90-04-52523-8.
• Hacikyan, Agop Jack (2002). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the sixth to the eighteenth century. Vol. II. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814330231.
• Howard-Johnston, James (2010). Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920859-3.
• Howard-Johnston, James (2020). "Caucasian Albania and its historian". In Hoyland, Robert (ed.). From Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds (ca. 330 BCE–1000 CE). Gorgias Press. pp. 351–371. ISBN 978-1463239886.
• Hoyland, Robert G. (2014). In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-991636-8.
• Rapp, Stephen H. (1997). Imagining History at the Crossroads: Persia, Byzantium, and the Architects of the Written Georgian Past, vol. 1. University of Michigan. ISBN 9780591308280.
• Russell, James R. (2020). Poets, Heroes, and their Dragons (2 vols). Brill. ISBN 978-9004460065.
• Vacca, Alison (2020). "Buldān al-Rān: The Many Definitions of Caucasian Albania in The Early Abbasid Period". In Hoyland, Robert (ed.). From Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds (ca. 330 BCE–1000 CE). Gorgias Press. pp. 37–85. ISBN 978-1463239886.
• Shahbazi, A. Shapur (2005). "Sasanian dynasty". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition.
• Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). Studies in Christian Caucasian history. Georgetown University Press.
• Vacca, Alison (2022). "Arrān". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
• Zuckerman, Constantin (2020). "The Caucasus between Byzantium and the Caliphate (9th-10th c.)". In Hoyland, Robert (ed.). From Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds (ca. 330 BCE–1000 CE). Gorgias Press. pp. 149–191. doi:10.31826/9781463239893. ISBN 978-1463239886. S2CID 241889781.