Prosh Khaghbakian

Prosh Khaghbakian (Armenian: Պռօշ Խաղբակեան, romanized: Pṙōš Xałbakean; r. 1223–1283), also known as Hasan Prosh, was an Armenian prince who was a vassal of the Zakarid princes of Armenia. He was a member of the Khaghbakian dynasty, which is also known as the Proshian dynasty after him. He was the supreme commander (sparapet) of the Zakarid army from 1223 to 1284, succeeding his father Vasak. He was one of the main Greater Armenian lords to execute the alliance between his suzerain the Georgian king David Ulu and the Mongol Prince Hulagu, during the Mongol conquest of Middle East (1258–1260).^[2]

Prosh Khaghbakian
Donator figure in the "Chapel of the Proshians", Geghard, dedicated by Prince Prosh Khaghbakian in 1283.[1]
Proshyan dynasty
Reign	1223–1283
Predecessor	Vasak
Successor	Amir Hasan I
Died	1283
Burial	Geghard Monastery
Spouse	Khutlu Khatun
Issue	Vasak, Amir Hasan I, Papak, Mkdem
Names Hasan "Prosh" Khaghbakian
Dynasty	Proshyan dynasty
Father	Vasak Khaghbakian

Background

Prosh was the junior son of Prince Vasak Khaghbakian and his wife Mama. He had two brothers named Papak and Mkdem.^[3] The Khaghbakians were originally a noble house in the region of Khachen. Vasak and his sons came to prominence in the Georgian-Armenian wars against the Seljuks. In 1201–1203, they received new hereditary holdings around Garni and in Vayots Dzor from the Zakarid princes of Armenia and were appointed governors of the lands "from Garni to [the fortress in Syunik] Bargushat" in return for their services.^[4] Prosh succeeded his father after his death c. 1223. His elder brother Papak had died in battle against the Kipchaks in 1222, and Mkdem seems to have predeceased his father as well, so the succession passed to Prosh.^[3]

Warfare

The Mongols had received the assistance of Armenian lords since the 1230s.^[2] Numerous Georgian-Armenian military units participated in the Mongol conquest of Alamut in 1256, where they were personally led by David VII of Georgia.^[5][2]

In 1258, Prosh Khaghbakian led Armenian troops to accompany the Mongol siege of Baghdad, while Zakare III Zakarian was leading the Georgian troops.^[6][7][8] He is said to have led the negociations with the Caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta'sim, but in vain.^[9] Prosh Khaghbakian was the main source for the account of the fall of Baghdad by the Armenian historian Kirakos.^[10][11] The 13th-century Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi celebrated this victory as a watershed event against "Muslim tyranny": "Five hundred and fifteen years had passed since the founding of this city. Throughout its supremacy, like an insatiable leech, it had swallowed up the entire world. Now it restored all that had been taken. It was punished for the blood it had shed and the evil it had done; the measure of its inequity was full. The Muslim tyranny had lasted 647 years."^[7]

In 1258-1260, Prosh, with his Armenian Zakarid suzerain Shahnshah,^[12] led a large force of Georgians and Armenians to support a much smaller force of Mongol troops of Hulagu in the Siege of Mayyafariqin, which was defended by its last Ayyubid ruler Al-Kamil Muhammad.^{[13][14] [15]} The Armenian Prince Sevada of Khachen was killed in the conflict.^[16] When the city was captured at last after a siege of two years, the Muslims were massacred, but the Christians were spared.^[16][12] Christian relics were collected and brought back to Armenia, particularly to Haghpat Monastery.^[17]

Meanwhile Hulagu continued his conquest of the rest of Syria, accompanied by the forces of Hethum I of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and the Crusaders of Bohemond VI of Antioch.^[16][18] The Georgian ruler David VII declined to commit more Georgian-Armenian troops for these Mongol campaigns in Syria, on account that he had suffered huge losses in the 1258 Siege of Baghdad.^[19]

• 
  The fortress of Proshaberd was built by Prosh Khaghbakian
• 
  Horseman at Tanahat Monastery, built by Prince Prosh in 1273-1279.^[20]
• 
  Christian cross in the Chapel of the Proshians, dedicated by Prince Prosh in 1283. Geghard

Monastic patronage

Mausoleum of Prince Prosh Khaghbakian (1283) in Geghard monastery.^[21] The tombs are behind the twin arches.^[22]

Putative arms of the Proshian family

The "Chapel of the Proshians" in Geghard was dedicated by Prince Prosh in 1283.^[21]

Prosh Khaghbakian was involved in the development of the monastery of Geghard in the Kotayk province of Armenia, partially carved out of the adjacent mountain and surrounded by cliffs.^[23] He purchased the monastery in the mid-13th century from the Zakarids and built a series of additional chapels hewn into the rock. Over a short period, the Proshians built the cave structures which brought Geghard fame—the second cave church, the family sepulcher of Papak and Ruzukan in the zhamatun, a hall for gatherings and studies (collapsed in the middle of the 20th century) and numerous cells. The chamber reached from the North East of the gavit and became Prince Prosh Khaghbakian's tomb in 1283.

A reliquary with a holy spear bears a dedicatory inscription made by Prince Prosh in 1269:

In the year 1269, I, prince Prosh, son of Vasak, inheritor of this divinely prepared holy spear, embellished it with a precious repository to have it intercede for me in the awesome judgment of Christ, and with great hope I donated it to the monastery of Ayrivank‘, the treasured place of my burial, in perpetual memory of me and my children Papak‘, Amir Hasan, and Vasak, and of my consort Dame Khutlu, who passed away in Christ, and of Mkdem and Dame Gohar, who left this world prematurely.

— Spear reliquary.^[24]

He mentions his wife in the inscription, Khutlu Khatun, as well as his children Papak Proshian (died 1298), Vasak (died c. 1268–1273), Amir Hasan I (died 1292),^[25] and Mkdem.

He was an in-law of the court official and Amirspasalar (commander-in-chief) of the Georgian army Khutlubuga.^[26]

References

1. Altınöz 2022, p. 273.
2. Bayarsaikhan 2011, pp. 121, 129: "(...) The main allies of this campaign were King Het‘um from Cilicia, the Greater Armenian lords under the Georgian King David Ulu and the Mongol Prince Hűlegű, who promoted himself as a founder of the Mongol dynasty in this region. (...) In November 1257, Hűlegű set off from Hamadān in the direction of Baghdad. (...) With him were the forces of the Armenian Prince Zak‘arē, the son of Shahnshah Zak‘arian and Prince Pŕosh Khaghbakian. The Mongols placed considerable trust in these Armenian lords, whose assistance they had received since the 1230s". sfn error: no target: CITEREFBayarsaikhan2011 (help)
3. Hovsepyan 1928, pp. 78–79, 85–86.
4. Ulubabyan 1978.
5. Uzelac 2015, pp. 78–79.
6. Bedrosian 2004, p. 264: "It is true that the Mongols placed considerable trust in certain Armenian lords, such as amirspasalar Shahnshah's son Zakare and Prosh Khaghbakian, who aided in the capture of Baghdad (1258)".
7. Grousset 1970, pp. 356–357.
8. Bayarsaikhan 2011, p. 129. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBayarsaikhan2011 (help)
9. Bayarsaikhan 2011, p. 129: "As usual, Hűlegű sent an emissary to the Caliph asking for obedience. According to Kirakos Gandzakets‘i, the Armenian Prince Pŕosh Khaghbakian was entrusted with the very important role of leading this emissary". sfn error: no target: CITEREFBayarsaikhan2011 (help)
10. Neggaz 2020, p. 600: "Kirakos provides a detailed description of the fall of Baghdad in his History of the Armenians, started in 1241 and completed in 1265. Chapter eleven along with the subsequent ones are devoted to describing the events of his own day; they are considered the most important part of his work due to the details that they contain. His source was the Armenian Prince Prosh Khaghbakian, a participant and eyewitness of the conquest. Kirakos notes in his History that this Armenian lord told him directly about the events surrounding the invasion of Baghdad".
11. Bedrosian 1986, p. 320: "All this was narrated to us by prince Hasan called Prosh, son of the pious Vasak, son of Haghbak, brother of Papak' and Mkdem, father of Mkdem, Papak', Hasan and Vasak who was an eyewitness to the events and also heard about events with his own ears, [a man] enjoying great honor in the Khan's eyes".
12. Eastmond 2017, p. 373: "Perhaps the most extreme case came when Armenians, including Avag, his cousin Shahnshah and his vassal Hasan Prosh, were required to besiege Mayyafariqin, the northernmost Ayyubid base in the Jazira before the capture of Akhlat. It took two years to reduce the city, leading to a situation far worse than that faced in Akhlat in 1229–30".
13. Pubblici 2023, p. 721: "Prosh Khaghbakian, together with units of the Cilician army, participated in the siege of the fortress of Mayyāfāriqin in the spring of the same year".
14. Sicker 2000, pp. 111–112: "A small Mongol detachment, supported by a much larger force of Georgians and Armenians who saw themselves as participating in a crusade against the Muslims under the command of Georgian leader Hasan Brosh, moved against Diyarbekir, which fell after a long siege. While the siege was under way, Hulagu, together with a Christian army from Lesser Armenia, prepared to conquer Musim Syria. (...) He then crossed the Euphrates, and laid siege to Aleppo on January 18, 1260, with the support of Hethum's Armenians and the Frankish troops supplied by Bohemond VI from Antioch. (...) Operating under the Mongol security umbrella, Bohemond also seized the Muslim coastal enclave at Latakia, thereby re-establishing Frankish control of all land between Tripoli and Antioch for the first time since 1187".
15. Bayarsaikhan 2011, pp. 133-134: "The Ayyubid ruler of Mayyāfāriqīn and Amida, Al-Kamil Muhammad, had broken his vow to Hűlegű to supply troops for the siege of Baghdad. (...) Hűlegű sent support, in the form of Mongol-Christian troops commanded by a certain Chaghatai and the Armenian Prince Pŕosh Khaghbakian. The Governor of Mosul, Badr al-Dīn Lu’lu’, who was in conflict with al-Kāmil Muhammad, sent a supporting force to the Mongols commanded by his son, along with siege engineers to Mayyāfāriqīn". sfn error: no target: CITEREFBayarsaikhan2011 (help)
16. Grousset 1970, pp. 360–361.
17. Eastmond 2017, p. 374: "When Mayyafariqin finally fell to the Mongols in 1260 the Armenian troops in the army rushed in to rescue Christian relics. The bones of martyrs of Diocletian's persecutions of the third century had been gathered in the city by its bishop, St Maruta (c. 399–410), giving the city its alternative name of Martyropolis, the 'City of Martyrs'. The soldiers then gave these captured relics to their monasteries. Haghbat managed to acquire the hand of the Apostle St Bartholomew: 'And it really is still there.'".
18. Sicker 2000, pp. 111–112: "A small Mongol detachment, supported by a much larger force of Georgians and Armenians who saw themselves as participating in a crusade against the Muslims under the command of Georgian leader Hasan Brosh, moved against Diyarbekir, which fell after a long siege. While the siege was under way, Hulagu, together with a Christian army from Lesser Armenia, prepared to conquer Musim Syria. (...) He then crossed the Euphrates, and laid siege to Aleppo on January 18, 1260, with the support of Hethum's Armenians and the Frankish troops supplied by Bohemond VI from Antioch. (...) Operating under the Mongol security umbrella, Bohemond also seized the Muslim coastal enclave at Latakia, thereby resestablishing Frankish control of all land between Tripoli and Antioch for the first time since 1187".
19. Bayarsaikhan 2011, p. 137: "Hűlegű demanded that the Georgian King David Ulu support his conquest of Syria and Egypt. Surprisingly, David refused. One might have expected that the Georgian king would have been more than interested in liberating the Holy Land. However, David was not only disinterested in this venture, but also bold enough to refuse Hűlegű's order. In addition, he sought a revolt, which was suppressed by Arghun Aqa in Southern Georgia in 1260. David Ulu's refusal to participate in the Mongol campaign in Syria can be explained by his huge loss of men in the battle for Baghdad". sfn error: no target: CITEREFBayarsaikhan2011 (help)
20. Mathews & Sanjian 1991, pp. 14–16.
21. Manoukian & Manoukian 1973, p. 8: "The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation in 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh".
22. UNESCO 2000, "The prosperity of the monastery in the thirteenth century was due to the patronage of the Proshyan prince, who carved out the second cave church in 1283, reached through a rock-cut antechamber which served as their mausoleum. The burials are in a recess behind twin arches, over which two felines on leashes and an eagle with a lamb in its talons, the family's armoured bearings have been sculpted in bold relief".
23. Armenpress 2018.
24. Ballian 2018, p. 256.
25. Nersessian 2017, p. 375: "This is Prosh-Hasan (wife Khut'lu Khat'un) who had died in 1284. The sons of Prosh Hasan were Vasak the junior, Ami Hasan I and Papak’, for whom Georg Khubov gives the date 1492. This Vasak Junior had died between the years 1268-1273 and Amir Hasan I had died in 1292, while Papak’ had passed away in 1298-9".
26. Hairapetian 1995, p. 339: "In this lamentation, written with lyrical outpouring and a wounded spirit, Kecharetsi, remembering heroes of the past, the famous Armenian prince Sadun, his son Khutlu-bugha, and in-law Lord Prosh, inspires patriotic feelings and engenders nationalistic motivations in his contemporaries".

Sources

• Altınöz, Meltem Özkan (25 February 2022). Cultural Encounters and Tolerance Through Analyses of Social and Artistic Evidences: From History to the Present: From History to the Present. IGI Global. ISBN 978-1-7998-9440-7.
• Ballian, Anna (2018). "Liturgical Objects from Holy Etchmiadzin". In Evans, Helen C. (ed.). Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Bayarsaikhan, D. (7 December 2010). The Mongols and the Armenians (1220–1335). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9-0041-8635-4.
• Bedrosian, Robert (2004). "Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods" (PDF). The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. 1 (1st pbk. ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 241–271. ISBN 978-1403964212.
• —— (1986). Kirakos Gandzakets'i's History of the Armenians. New York: Sources of the Armenian Tradition.
• Eastmond, Antony (1 January 2017). Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316711774.014.
• Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-0627-2.
• Hairapetian, Srbouhi (1995). A History of Armenian Literature: From Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century. Caravan Books. ISBN 978-0-88206-059-0.
• Hovsepyan, Garegin (1928). Khaghbakyankʻ kam Pṛoshyankʻ Hayotsʻ patmutʻyan mēj: patmagitakan usumnasirutʻyun [The Khaghbakians or Proshians in Armenian history: a historical study] (in Armenian). Vagharshapat: Pethrat.
• Manoukian, Agopik; Manoukian, Armen; et al., eds. (1973). G(h)eghard. Documents of Armenian Architecture (in English and Italian). Milan: Edizioni Ares.
• Mathews, Thomas F.; Sanjian, Avedis Krikor (1991). Armenian Gospel Iconography: The Tradition of the Glajor Gospel. Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-183-4.
• Neggaz, Nassima (October 2020). "The Many Deaths of the Last 'Abbāsid Caliph al-Musta'ṣim bi-llāh (d. 1258)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 30 (4): 585–612. doi:10.1017/S1356186320000267.
• Nersessian, Vrej Nerses (2017). "Two Armenian manuscripts in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Second Manuscript". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 27 (3): 359–376. doi:10.1017/S1356186317000165. ISSN 1356-1863. JSTOR 26187361.
• Pubblici, Lorenzo (31 July 2023). "Georgia and the Caucasus". In Biran, Michal; Kim, Hodong (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire: Volumes I & II. Cambridge University Press. pp. 707–733. ISBN 9781316337424.
• Sicker, Martin (30 June 2000). The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-0-313-00111-6.
• Ulubabyan, B. (1978). "Khaghbakyanner". In Simonyan, Abel (ed.). Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran [Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia] (in Armenian). Vol. 4. Yerevan: Main editorial office of the Armenian Encyclopedia. pp. 714–715.
• "UNESCO grants Monastery of Geghard status of Enhanced protection". Armenpress. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
• Uzelac, Aleksandar (2015). Pod senkom psa: Tatari i južnoslovenske zemlje u drugoj polovini XIII veka [Under the shadow of the dog: Tatars and the South Slavic lands in the second half of the thirteenth century] (in Serbian). Belgrade: Utopija. ISBN 9788662890504.
• "WHC Nomination Documentation: The Monastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley" (PDF). UNESCO World Heritage Convention. 2 December 2000. Retrieved 13 June 2024.