Hasan-Jalalyan ( is a medieval Armenian dynastyS. Peter Cowe, "Patterns of Armeno-Muslim Interchange on the Armenian Plateau in the Interstice between Byzantine and Ottoman Hegemony," in Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia. eds. A.C.S. Peacock, Bruno De Nicola, Sara Nur Yildiz (London: Routledge, 2016), p. 82. "Under its suzerainty, a new cadre of Armenia aristocratic houses (Dop'ean, Vachutean, Proshean, Hasan-Jalalean) rose to prominence."Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog. The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335). Leiden: Brill, 2010, p. 34.: "The subjects of Iwanē's family were the Orbelians, Khaghbakians, Dopians, HasanJalalians, and others...The representatives of these major Armenian families entered into direct contact with the Mongols in order to retain their conquered lands, the discussion of which follows in nest chapters." that ruled over parts of the South Caucasus. From the early thirteenth century, the family held sway in Khachen (Greater Artsakh) in what are now the regions of lower Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Syunik in modern Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ulubabian, Bagrat. s.v. Hasan-Jalalyanner [Hasan-Jalalyans], Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 6, p. 246. The family was founded by Hasan-Jalal Dawla, an Armenian feudal prince from Khachen. The Hasan-Jalalyans maintained their autonomy over the course of several centuries of nominal foreign domination by the Seljuk Turks, Persians and Mongols. They, along with the other Armenian princes and meliks of Khachen, saw themselves as holding the last bastion of Armenian independence in the region.Hewsen, Robert H. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax," in Thomas J. Samuelian and Michael E. Stone, eds., Medieval Armenian Culture, University of Pennsylvania Armenian Texts and Studies (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1984), pp. 52-53.
Through their patronage of churches and monasteries, Armenian culture flourished in the region. By the late sixteenth century, the Hasan-Jalalyan family had branched out to establish principalities in nearby Gulistan and Jraberd. Along with the separately ruled melikdoms of Varanda and Dizak, these five principalities formed the Five Melikdoms of Karabakh, also known as the Melikdoms of Khamsa.Hewsen, Robert H. "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia: A Preliminary Study," Revue des Études Arméniennes 9 (1972): pp. 299-301.
Origins Hasan-Jalal traced his descent to the Armenian Aranshahik dynasty, a family that predated the establishment of the Parthian Arsacids in the region. Hasan-Jalal's ancestry was "almost exclusively" Armenian according to Robert H. Hewsen:
Hasan-Jalal Dawla's family roots were entrenched in an intricate array of royal marriages with new and old Armenian nakharar families. Hasan-Jalal's grandfather was Hasan I (also known as Hasan the Great), a prince who ruled over the northern half of Artsakh.Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax," p. 47.
In 1182, Hasan I had stepped down as ruler of the region and entered monastic life at Dadivank, dividing his land into two: the southern half (comprising much of Khachen) went to his oldest son Vakhtank II (also known as Tangik) and the northern half went to the youngest, Gregory the Black. Vakhtank II married Khorishah Zakarian, who was the daughter of Sargis Zakarian, the progenitor of the Zakarid line of princes. When he married the daughter of Mamkan, the Aranshahik king of Dizak-Balk, Hasan-Jalal also inherited his father-in-law's lands.Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax," p. 49.
In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Hasan-Jalal's origins became embroiled in a debate revolving around the history of Artsakh between Soviet Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars. Azerbaijani scholars have sought to construct a pseudohistorical national past by casting the kingdoms and principalities that were founded on the territory of the modern republic of Azerbaijan during the medieval period as Caucasian Albanian.V.A. Shnirelman, Voiny pamiati: Mify, identinost, i politika v Zakvakaze (Moscow: ITsK Akademkniga, 2003). Based on a dubious rereading and interpretation of primary sources, scholars Ziya Bunyadov and Farida Mammadova both argued in their first publications in the 1950s and 1960s that the leaders and inhabitants of Caucasian Albania, a state established in the 2nd century BC, were the direct ancestors of modern Azeris, thereby establishing a link to the ancient past and the Azerbaijanis' indigeneity to Nagorno-Karabakh. In the process, the Armenians, including Hasan-Jalal Dawla, who inhabited the South Caucasus have been written out of the narrative altogether. Mamedova asserted that Hasan-Jalal, based on a specious interpretation of an inscription carved into the Gandzasar monastery by the prince, was Caucasian Albanian. Her conclusions, and that of the Azerbaijani school, have been roundly rejected by other historians.De Waal. Black Garden, pp. 152-156.
Prince Hasan-Jalal Dawla
Cultural life With the surrender of Ani in 1045 and Kars in 1064, the final independent Armenian state in historic Armenia, the Bagratuni kingdom, was dissolved and incorporated into the domains of the Byzantine Empire. However, despite foreign domination of the region, which became more pronounced after the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Armenians in eastern Armenia were able to maintain autonomy in the two mountainous strongholds in Syunik and Lori and in the principality of Khachen. From the early to mid-12th century, combined Georgian and Armenian armies were successful in pushing the Turkic groups out of eastern Armenia, thereby establishing a period of relative peace and prosperity until the appearance of the Mongols in 1236.Bournoutian. Armenian People, pp. 109-111.
Khachen had once been a part of Syunik until numerous Turkic invasions severed it from the rest of the kingdom. The reign of the Hasan-Jalalyan family was concentrated around the Terter and the Khachenaget rivers. Hasan-Jalal's birth date is unknown․ His reign began in 1214 and ended with his death sometime between 1261 and 1262 in Qazvin. His domain encompassed both Artsakh and the surrounding Armenian regions. Ulubabian, Bagrat. s.v., Hasan-Jalal Dawla, Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 6, p. 246. When his father Vakhtank died in 1214, Hasan-Jalal inherited his lands and took up residence in a castle at Akana in Jraberd.Hewsen. "The Kingdom of Arc'ax", p. 50. He was addressed with the titles tagavor (king; ) or inknakal (autocrat or absolute ruler; ինքնակալ) but took the official title of "King of Artsakh and Balk" when he married the daughter of the final king of Dizak-Balk.Hewsen notes that because of Hasan-Jalal's lineage, he could have "At one and the same time...legitimately style himself King of Siwnik [Syunik], King of Balk, King of Arc'ax [Artskah], and King of Albania, not to mention Prince of Gardman, Dizak, and Xac'en [Khachen] - as well as Presiding Prince of Albania - as he chose.": "The Kingdom of Arc'ax," pp. 49-50. The medieval Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi extolled Hasan-Jalal in his work History of Armenia, showering him with praise for his piety and devotion to Christianity:
A further testament to this devotion included Hasan-Jalal's commissioning of the Gandzasar Monastery. Construction of the monastery began in 1216 and lasted until 1238. On July 22, 1240, amid great celebration during Vardavar (Feast of the Transfiguration) celebrations and in the presence of nearly 700 priests including Nerses, the Catholicos of Albania, the church was consecrated. In 1261, Hasan-Jalalyan further completed a zhamatun next to the church, and left a dedicatory inscription:
The monastery went on to become the residence and sepulcher of the family as well as the residence of the catholicos; beginning in the fifteenth century, the family monopolized control over the seat of Catholicos itself, which would thereon pass down from uncle to nephew. Hasan-Jalal's son Hovhannes VII is considered to be the first to have established this practice when he became the Catholicos whereas his nephew, also named Hovhannes, became the second.Hewsen (1972). "The Meliks of Eastern Armenia", p. 317.
Despite his Christian faith, Muslim influence in the region had pervaded and influenced the culture and customs of the Christians living in Georgia and Armenia, especially after the Seljuk Turks invaded the Caucasus. Antony Eastmond, for example, notes that "many of the outward manifestations of [Hasan-Jalal's] rule were presented through Islamic customs and titles, most notably in his depiction on his principal foundation of Gandzasar." The image of Hasan-Jalal on the drum of Gandzasar's dome has him sitting cross-legged, which Eastmond remarks was a "predominant device for depicting power at the Seljuq court."Eastmond, Art and Identity, p. 144. Hasan-Jalal's name also betrayed Muslim influence: as was the fashion of the time, many Armenians adopted Arabic patronymics (kunya) that lost any "connection with original Armenian names," the Russian orientalist Vladimir Minorsky noted.Minorsky, Vladimir. "Caucasica IV," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 3 (1953): pp. 504-505. Hasan-Jalal's Armenian name was Haykaz but the Arabic words in his name, in fact, described his person: thus, Hasan meant handsome; Jalal, grand; Dawla, wealth and governance. Hasan-Jalalyans . The Hasan-Jalalyans, Charitable, Cultural Foundation of Country Development. Accessed December 24, 2007.
The Armenian Synaxarion Gandzasar served as a scriptorium, and was where the first completed Haysmavurk (Synaxarion), a calendar collection of short lives of saints and accounts of important religious events, was completed in Armenia. Medieval chroniclers attributed the production of the new and better organized Haysmavurk to Hasan-Jalal, who asked Father Israel (Ter-Israel), a disciple of an important Armenian medieval philosopher and Artsakh native known as Vanakan Vardapet, to undertake the work. The Haysmavurk was further developed by Kirakos Gandzaketsi. Ever since the Haysmavurk ordered by Hasan-Jalal became known as "Synaxarion of Ter-Israel"; it was mass printed in Constantinople in 1834. Avdalbekian, M. s.v., "Haysmavurk," Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 6, pp. 202-203.
Mongol invasion
In 1236, the Ilkhanate Mongol armies invaded the Caucasus. Prior to them entering Khachen, Hasan Jalal and his people were able to take refuge at Ishkhanberd (located directly south of Gandzasar; also known by its Persian name of Khokhanaberd). Given its formidable location atop a mountain, the Mongols chose not to besiege the fortress and sued for negotiations with Hasan-Jalal: they exchanged his loyalty and military service to the Mongol Empire in return for some of the immediate lands adjacent to Khachen that they had conquered. In 1240–1242, Hasan Jalal struck coins of common Mongol types in Khachen on the mints of "Qarabāgh" (in Khokhanaberd) and "Lajīn" (in Havkakhaghats berd).Akopyan, A. V. "On the Earliest Coins of Khachen (Qarabagh)," Journal of Oriental Numismatic Society 222 (Spring 2015): 6-11.
Feeling the need to preserve his power, Hasan-Jalal twice undertook a journey to Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol empire, where he was able to obtain special autonomy rights and privileges for himself and the people under his domain from the ruling khan. Despite this arrangement, the Mongols viewed many of the people of the region with contempt and taxed them excessively. Arghun Khan, the regional Mongol ostikan at the time, placed so many restrictions against Armenians that it prompted Hasan-Jalal in 1256 to travel to the capital once more to protest against the encroachments upon Catholicos Nerses. In response, Batu Khan drafted a document "guaranteeing freedom for Lord Nerses, Katolikos of Albania, for all his properties and goods, that he be free and untaxed and allowed to travel freely everywhere in the dioceses under his authority, and that no one disobey what he said."