I have seen more than one daredevil, -
Now they lie in their graves for a long time, And even drive the ant from the face, Those who went to the lions, they cannot.
Hovhannes Tlcurantsi. Armenian medieval lyrics. L. O. publishing house "Soviet writer", 1972
Knights and chivalry of three centuries. In our "journey" through the "era of the chain mail knights" we have already passed many countries and finally, having left Europe, we found ourselves in the Caucasus mountains. And we will start with the Armenian warriors, since the Armenians are one of the most ancient peoples of the Middle East. During the period under review, they inhabited two separate areas, the first of which was their original homeland in northeastern Anatolia, and the second in the Caucasus. There were also a number of Arab-Armenian emirates north of Lake Van. These areas enjoyed varying levels of autonomy under numerous Christian or Muslim princes, but usually remained under Byzantine or Muslim suzerainty. The long struggle for independence led to the fact that in the late 9th - early 10th centuries the Byzantine Empire recognized the fact of Armenia's political hegemony in the Transcaucasus - at least in relation to the Christian states present there. The Armenian kings Ashot I, Smbat I and Ashot II had the title of "archon of archons", which endowed them with supreme power in relation to all other rulers of Transcaucasia who adhered to the Byzantine orientation. The Arab Caliphate, for its part, bestowed upon the Armenian kings the honorary title of shahinshah - “king of kings”, which gave the kings of Armenia the right of legal supremacy over all other landowners in Armenia and the Caucasus. At the same time, the Armenian kings from the Bagratid dynasty managed to return the term "Great Armenia" to use again.
One step from great to insignificant
However, for a number of reasons (one of which was a military defeat) in 1045 Armenia as an independent state ceased to exist and completely passed under the rule of Byzantium. The exodus of Armenians began, leaving the lands in droves, which came under the rule of the Byzantines. The Armenians managed to preserve the remnants of their national state structure only in some places: Syunik (Zangezur), Tashir and in Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1080 in Cilicia, the Armenians also formed their own independent principality, which became a kingdom in 1198 under Levon II. It is also quite clear that it is the Christian Armenians who have been culturally dominant in their region for many centuries, despite the presence of a significant Islamic population present in many Armenian cities.
Happy countries rich in iron
British researcher D. Nicole believes that the traditional military culture of Armenia was similar to the military culture of western Iran and, to a lesser extent, the culture of Byzantium and the Arab lands. The military elite were heavily armored horsemen. Moreover, it was relatively numerous due to the fact that Armenia was rich in iron. Large shields, spears and swords were the favorite weapons of such riders even at the end of the 11th century, when a single-edged saber began to be used as a weapon. Equestrian archery was also known, but was not used as much by the Central Asian nomads at the beginning of the attack and during the pursuit. The horsemen lined up and fired volleys at the enemy. In addition, the Armenians were considered skilled siege engineers.
To the West, to Edessa and Antioch
Before the defeat at Manzikert in 1071, the mass emigration of Armenians was directed westward to Cappadocia. The Armenians who remained in the East, from the 1050s, tried, as far as possible, to defend themselves on their own, but after Manzikert, each local feudal lord had no choice but to defend his own territory and his people himself. The breakthrough of the Turkmen nomads to the central Anatolian plateau led to a second Armenian resettlement, this time southward from Cappadocia to the Taurus Mountains. New cultural centers of Armenians appeared. Among these, the most important were Edessa (Urfa) and Antioch (Antakya), which were controlled by Filaret Varazhnuni, an Armenian military leader who once controlled most of the Byzantine border in southeastern Anatolia. Not succumbing to the Byzantines and Turks, Filaret entered into an alliance with various neighboring Arab princes. By this time, the Armenian "armies" included both infantry and cavalry, as well as a large number of Western European mercenaries - mainly Normans, who had previously served Byzantium. However, even with such troops, Filaret was still defeated by the Seljuk Turks. But they did not begin to smash all the Armenian principalities in a row, and those whose rulers were less ambitious and obstinate, were allowed to retain power, land, and subjects, probably to use them as pawns in a more serious struggle with the Arab emirs of the Euphrates and northern Syria. Urfa was just one of such highly militarized city-states, which, with its permanent garrison and city militia, existed until the First Crusade. Others, such as Antakya, were directly subordinate to the Seljuk rule, and the local military elite was largely "Turkicized" by the time the Crusaders appeared.
The state is surrounded by enemies
Little Armenia in Cilicia existed for quite a long time, although it was surrounded by enemies from almost all directions and even from the sea. His strength, if not wealth, lay in the Taurus Mountains to the north. This entire region was the border between Byzantium and the Islamic world for centuries and is full of castles and fortresses, although it came under Armenian control by the early 1080s, when most of the local Greek population was expelled from here. And even though a fierce struggle for power was going on in the state all this time, during which rivals swore allegiance and betrayed each other, either submitting to Byzantium, then fighting with it, until this last outpost of Christianity - the state of Little Armenia, existed here for a long time, before than did not finally fall under the blows of the Egyptian Mamluks in 1375.
An army on a salary
However, despite all the internal strife, already from the second half of the XIII century, the rulers of Cilician Armenia had a regular army of 12 thousand horsemen and 50 thousand infantry. In times of peace, this royal army was stationed in various cities and fortresses in the country. A special tax was levied on the population for the maintenance of the army, and the soldiers received a salary for service. During the year of service, the rider received 12 gold coins, and the infantryman - 3 gold coins. The nobles were given "khrog" - that is, a kind of "feeding" from the population, which was assigned to him. And, of course, the warriors were entitled to some of the spoils.
Simple and clear system
At the head of the army of Cilician Armenia was the king himself. But he had a commander-in-chief of the troops, who was called a sparapet, similar to the European constable. The sparapet had two assistants: the marajakht (Armenian “marshal”), who served as the chief intendant, and the sparapet, the chief of the cavalry.
Just like in Europe, the army of Cilician Armenia was formed on the basis of a fief system. All large and small landowners and knights-dziavors had to serve the king without fail. The unauthorized departure of a vassal from the army or his refusal to fulfill the king's demands was considered treason with all the ensuing consequences. But on the other hand, the service was followed by a reward in the form of a land grant. Or the soldiers were simply paid a salary, which was also not bad. He can buy land with this money later.
And here we see "continuation of the same theme." But some warriors have chain mail, while some have armor made of plates.
Armenian knighthood - "dziavors"
Armenian dziavors were real knights. There is an opinion that there were no actually Armenian knightly orders in Cilicia, since there was a regular army there. Nevertheless, the institution of chivalry existed there. The knighting was carried out according to strictly enforced rules and was timed to some worthy event, for example, a coronation or major victories over the enemy. The "Instructions on chivalry" have reached us (the original document has been preserved!), Where it is written that people from among the feudal lords are ordained knights from the age of 14. Dzievor wore a blue robe with a gold-colored cross and a rider representing his ministry. At the same time, chivalry was of two ranks - the highest and the lowest. Well, who fell into what rank depended primarily on … the amount of land holding.
Infantrymen - "Ramiki"
During the war, both townspeople and peasants were drafted into the army, from which the "ramiks" (Armenian "common people") infantry were recruited. With full mobilization, it was possible to collect (according to sources that have come down to us) an army of 80-100 thousand people. In addition to the cavalry, there were detachments of archery, as well as a staff of travel agents, servants and military doctors. Young warriors who did not belong to the nobility, after being drafted, underwent military training.
Betrothed to the sea
At sea, Armenia continuously vied with Genoa and Venice for dominance in the Mediterranean, and often fought with them. These wars often took place in the territorial waters of Cilician Armenia and along its coast. Numerous Armenian and foreign testimonies of eyewitness chroniclers of those events (Sanuto, Dandolo, Genoese anonymous, Hetum and others) have come down to us, therefore, quite a lot is known about all the vicissitudes of these wars today. The ships were built in Armenian shipyards, the sailors on them were also Armenians, and the Armenian merchants were brave sailors, not inferior to the Genoese and Venetians!
Mercenaries in demand
It is also interesting that it was precisely from the territory of compact settlement of Armenians that the bulk of the mercenary troops entered many regions of the Middle East. Most of those who served in the Crusader states were probably from Cilicia, the regions of Taurus or Lesser Armenia, and Armenian mercenaries fought in both cavalry and infantry. For a long time the Armenians also played a prominent role in the Byzantine army. Thus, approximately 50,000 Armenian militias are believed to have been disbanded by the Byzantine authorities in 1044 only, but other Armenian troops, especially from the vassal princes of western Cilicia, were still in the service of the Byzantine emperors over a century later.
But the Armenians were just as noticeable in the armies of the enemies of Byzantium. For example, the Armenians served in the troops of the Seljuk-Roma (Turkish Anatolia), first as allies against the Byzantines during the first phase of the Seljuk invasion, and then submitting to the new conquerors. In fact, a significant part of the Armenian nobility never fled anywhere from their ancestral Eastern Anatolian homeland and subsequently, albeit slowly, was absorbed by the Seljuk military elite. And the Armenians fought side by side with the Seljuks and against the Mongols, and against the Mamluks who fought with the same Mongols! These are the paradoxes of history …
In Syria, the Armenians served as archers in the armies of Sultan Nur ad-Din and his successors. It is also interesting that a detachment of Armenian cavalry stationed in Damascus in 1138 belonged to a heretical sect known as Arevorik, which supposedly believed that Christ was … the sun. That is, even the sectarians had their own military detachments at that time, and were not at all just left fanatics, retired from the world and dressed in rags. However, the Armenians in the Muslim world had a chance to play their main role in the later Fatimid Egypt, where at times they actually ruled this country.
Medieval chroniclers report …
How big was the Armenian army? So, according to the report of the historian Tovma Artsruni, who lived at the turn of the 9th-10th centuries, Smbat I had an army of 100,000 under the command. Reporting on the festivities organized in the capital of Ani on the occasion of the accession to the throne of Gagik I, Mateos Urhaetsi reported: “On that day he held a review of his troops, consisting of 100 thousand chosen men, [who were all] well equipped, glorified in battle and extremely courageous. " In 974, Tsar Ashot III gathered an 80-thousand army against the army of John Tzimiskes, which included mercenaries. The army consisted of two main divisions - marzpetakan and arkunakan. The first gathered throughout the country and was subordinate to the military leader - the marzpet or marzpan. Under Tsar Smbat I, a certain Gurgen Artsruni was marzpan, under Gagik I - Ashot. Moreover, the cavalry in number was half the infantry, that is, approximately 1/3 of the size of the entire army. As in Europe, the feudal troops that were part of the tsarist army had their own senior commanders and their own flags and clothing of the same color. For example, it is reported that the soldiers of King Abas (vassal of Smbate II) wore red clothes.
At the time of the weakening of the Armenian state, in the 1040s, the number of the Armenian army, according to the testimony of contemporaries, totaled 30 thousand people. However, it is emphasized that these are only those people who were recruited in the capital of Ani and in its environs. To what extent these figures can be trusted today is another question.
Armenians are skilled builders
It is also known that the Armenians were skilled builders and erected powerful fortresses in very inaccessible places. As a result of such construction, the Armenian kingdom had a powerful defensive belt of fortresses: the fortresses of Syunik and Artsakh, and also the fortresses of Vaspurakan and Mokka defended it from the east and southeast, in the west were the fortresses of Armenia High and Tsopka. Near the capital of Ani to the west of it stood the Kars fortress and Artagers, Tignis and Magasaberd were in the north, and the fortresses of Garni, Bjni and Amberd defended the approaches to it from the south and east.
References:
1. Gorelik, M. Warriors of Eurasia: From the VIII century BC to the XVII century AD. L.: Montvert Publications, 1995.
2. Sukiasyan A. G. History of the Cilician Armenian state and law (XI-XIV centuries) / otv. ed. Z. G. Bashinjaghyan. Yerevan: Mitk, 1969. S. 158-161.
3. Nicolle, D. Arms and Armor of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350. UK. L.: Greenhill Books. Vol. 2.
