page_title: Mamikonian
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Mamikonian / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Vardan Mamikonyan from an «Illustrated Armenia and Armenians»
context_page_description: Mamikonian or Mamikonean was an aristocratic dynasty which dominated Armenian politics between the 4th and 8th century. They ruled the Armenian regions of Tayk, Taron, Sasun, Bagrevand and others. Their patron saint was Saint Hovhannes Karapet whose monastery of the same name they fiercely defended against the Sassanid invaders.
context_section_description: The family first appears in the early 4th century. Under the late Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia, the family occupied an important position: they were hereditary commanders-in-chief (sparapet) and royal tutors (dayeak) and controlled large domains, including most of Taron and Tayk. The Mamikonian increased their property further with the death of the last hereditary Patriarch of Armenia, Isaac in ca. 428, when they inherited many Church lands through the marriage of his only daughter to Hamazasp Mamikonian.
  The first known Mamikonid lord, or nakharar, about whom anything certain is known was a certain Vatche Mamikonian (fl. 330-339).
  The family reappears in chronicles in 355, when the bulk of their lands lay in the province of Tayk. At that point the family chief was Vassak Mamikonian, who was the sparapetof Armenia. Later, the office of sparapet would become hereditary possession of the Mamikonians. Vassak Mamikonian was in charge of the Armenian defense against Persia but was eventually defeated through the treachery of Merujan Artsruni (c. 367-368).
  Following the defeat, Vassak's brother Vahan Mamikonian and multiple other feudal lords defected to the Persian side. The Emperor Valens, however, interfered in Armenian affairs and had the office of sparapet bestowed on Vassak's son Mushegh I Mamikonian in 370. Four years later Varasdates (Varazdat), a new king, confirmed Mushegh in office. The latter was subsequently assassinated on behest of Sembat Saharuni who replaced him as sparapet' of Armenia.
  On this event, the family leadership passed to Mushegh's brother, Manuel Mamikonian, who had been formerly kept as a hostage in Persia. The Mamikonids at once broke into insurrection and routed Varasdates and Saharuni at Karin. Emmanuel, together with his sons Hemaiak and Artches, took the king prisoner and put him in a fortress, whence Varasdates escaped abroad. Zarmandukht, the widow of Varasdates' predecessor, was then proclaimed queen. Emmanuel came to an agreement with the powerful Sassanids, pledging his loyalty in recompense for their respect of the Armenian autonomy and laws.
  Upon the queen's demise in 384, Manuel Mamikonian was proclaimed Regent of Armenia pending the minority of her son Arsaces III and had the infant king married to his daughter Vardandukht. It was Manuel's death in 385 that precipitated the country's conquest by the Persians in 386-387.
  Hamazasp Mamikonian was recorded as the family leader in 393. His wife is known to have been Sahakanoush, daughter of Patriarch Isaac the Great. She was a descendant of the Arsacid Kings and Saint Gregory the Illuminator. They had a son, Vardan Mamikonian, who is revered as one of the greatest military and spiritual leaders of ancient Armenia.
  After Vardan became sparapet in 432, the Persians summoned him to Ctesiphon. Upon his return home in 450, Vardan repudiated the Persian (Zoroastrian) religion and instigated a great Armenian rebellion against their Sassanian overlords. Although he died in the doomed Battle of Avarayr also known as Battle of Vartanantz (451), the continued insurrection led by Vahan Mamikonian, the son of Vartan's brother, resulted in the restoration of Armenian autonomy with the Nvarsak Treaty (484), thus guaranteeing the survival of Armenian statehood in later centuries. Vardan is venerated as a saint and commemorated by many churches in Armenia and an equestrian statue in Yerevan.
  After the country's subjugation by the Persians, the Mamikonians often sided with the Eastern Roman Empire, with many family members entering Byzantine service, most notably Vardan II Mamikonian in the late 6th century after his failed revolt against Persia.
  With the Arab conquest of Armenia in the late 7th century, the power of the Mamikonian began to decline, especially relative to their great rivals, the Bagratids. Grigor Mamikonian led a rebellion against Arab rule but was defeated and forced to flee to Byzantium in ca. 748. By 750, the Mamikonians had lost Taron, Khelat, and Mouch to the Bagratids. In the 770s, the family was led by Artavizd Mamikonian, then by Mus
caption: Vartan Mamikonian illustration in 1898 book «Illustrated Armenia and Armenians» [8]
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