page_title: Bagratid Armenia
section_title: Resurgence under Ashot Yerkat
hierarchical_section_title: Bagratid Armenia / History / Resurgence under Ashot Yerkat
caption_attribution_description: English: Smbat and Gurgen Bagratuni, patrons of Sanahin and Haghpat. Original from Sanahin.
context_page_description: The Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia, also known as Bagratid Armenia, was an independent state established by Ashot I Bagratuni in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of the two contemporary powers in the region - the Abbasids and Byzantines - too preoccupied to concentrate their forces in subjugating the people of the region, and with the dissipation of several of the Armenian nakharar noble families, Ashot succeeded in asserting himself as the leading figure of a movement to dislodge the Arabs from Armenia.
  Ashot's prestige rose as both Byzantine and Arab leaders - eager to maintain a buffer state near their frontiers - courted him. The Abbasid Caliphate recognized Ashot as "prince of princes" in 862 and, later on, as king. The establishment of the Bagratuni kingdom later led to the founding of several other Armenian principalities and kingdoms: Taron, Vaspurakan, Kars, Khachen and Syunik. Unity among all these states was sometimes difficult to maintain while the Byzantines and Arabs lost no time in exploiting the kingdom's situation to their own gains.
context_section_description: Yusuf's invasion of Armenia had left the kingdom in ruins and this fact resonated among the Armenian princes who were left aghast in witnessing the Arab ostikan's brutality. Gagik I was especially shaken and he soon disavowed his loyalty to Yusuf and began to campaign against him. With Yusuf distracted by the resistance put up by his former ally, Smbat's son Ashot II felt it appropriate to assume his father's throne. Ashot at once began to drive the Muslims out of his domains. Support for Ashot also arrived from the west: the Byzantine empress Zoe had watched the Arab invasion of Armenia unfold with consternation and so she ordered the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos to write an official letter to the Armenian Catholicos to form a new alliance with Armenia. The Catholicos responded amicably and in 914, Ashot accepted an invitation by Zoe to visit Constantinople. There, Ashot was well received, and a Byzantine force was created to assist Armenia in defeating the Arabs. The force, accompanying Ashot and led by the Domestic of the Schools Leo Phokas, moved out the next year and marched along Upper Euphrates, entering Taron with scant opposition from the Arabs.
  Meanwhile, Yusuf's efforts to crush Gagik had failed miserably; instead, Yusuf turned his attention to Ashot and attempted to weaken his position by crowning Ashot's cousin, Ashot Shapuhyan, king of Armenia. Ashot Shapuhyan's and Yusuf's armies, though, were unable to stop the Byzantine advance, which stopped short of capturing Dvin due to the onset of winter. Nevertheless, the force had returned Ashot to a powerful position in Armenia and managed to inflict heavy casualties against the Arabs. This still left Ashot, the anti-king, in control in Dvin and civil war raged on from 918 to 920, when the pretender finally conceded defeat. Numerous other rebellions in Armenia also took place but Ashot was able to defeat each one of them. In 919, Yusuf had instigated a failed rebellion against the Caliph and was replaced by a far more well-disposed ostikan, Subuk. Subuk recognized Ashot as the legitimate ruler of Armenia and awarded him with the title of Shahanshah, or "king of kings."
  Ironically, the Byzantines were distressed with Ashot's close relations with the Arabs and dispatched a new force under the Armenian Domestic of the Schools John Kourkouas to disrupt Ashot's position as king and to support the rebels fighting him. In 928, Kourkouas reached Dvin in an unsuccessful attempt to capture a city that was defended by both the Arabs and Ashot. In 923, the Caliph, facing troubles at home, released Yusuf, who traveled back to Armenia to unleash his fury against Armenia and especially Gagik I. He began demanding tribute from the Armenians rulers rule but faced considerable resistance by Ashot II. Time and again, Ashot was able to defeat and rout the Arab armies sent against him for several years. Finally, in 929, Yusuf died and an immense power struggle ensued between rival Iranian and Kurdish families in Azerbaijan, thus reducing the Arab threat to Armenia. Byzantine emperor Romanos Lekapenos also turned his attention from the east to fight the Arabs in Syria. Ashot's efforts to preserve and defend the kingdom earned him the epithet "Yerkat", or Iron; he died in 929 and was succeeded by his brother, Abas I.
caption: Relief carvings of Smbat and Gurgen Bagratuni at Sanahin.
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