Материал: Payaslian S., The History of Armenia From the Origins to the Present

Levon I had been successful in ameliorating the tensions between the Rubenian and Hetumian houses, and after his death in 1219 the crown, except for intermittent attempts at usurpation, served as a center for cooperation between the two houses. Although Levon had appointed his daughter Zabel (Isabelle) as his successor, Ruben Raymond (his grandnephew) conspired to usurp the crown, but the pro-Zabel barons swiftly imprisoned him. Zabel assumed the throne, under the care of the Hetumian regent (tagavorahayr) Constantine of Lampron. Constantine’s efforts to strengthen ties with Antioch (through marriage of Philip of Antioch with Zabel) in alliance against the Seljuks failed when Philip, who held a condescending attitude toward all things Armenian and preferred to spend his time in Antioch, was murdered in 1224. Nevertheless, Constantine was successful in establishing the Hetumian kingdom in Cilicia by arranging Zabel’s marriage with his son, Hetum, thus ending the hostility between the Rubenian and Hetumian houses.54

During the reign of Hetum I (r. 1226–1270), Cilicia witnessed rapid cultural and economic development but also constant threats to its security on three fronts: the Seljuk sultanate from the north, the Mamluks from the south, and the Mongols from the east.55 Cilician foreign policy during the reign of Hetum I centered on defending the kingdom primarily against the Seljuks and secondarily against the Mamluks. Hetum initially allied with the Mongols to deter invasions by both enemies. In 1233 and again in 1245–1246, the Seljuks invaded Cilicia, while they clashed with the Mongols across the plain of Erzerum. Hetum sided with the Mongols and in return expected to win their alliance in future conflicts against the Seljuks. Immediately after the Mongolian army defeated the Seljuks at the Battle of Kose Dagh in 1243, Hetum I sent a delegation to establish a military alliance with the Great Khan Mongke. The preliminary diplomatic overtures followed in 1247 by a mission headed by Hetum’s brother, the Constable Smbat, to Qaraqorum (Kara Korum), the capital of the great khan in Central Asia, in preparation for the Hetum-Mongke negotiations, which for political reasons were postponed until 1254.56

In 1247 some Georgian and Armenian princes of the Zakarian dynasty, who decades earlier had briefly established a “kingdom” in the region stretching from Ani to Mount Ararat with aspirations to recover all of the Bagratuni lands,57 conspired to rebel against the Mongols, but their plans were foiled and the culprits captured and sent to Qaraqorum. Upon their return in 1249, they regrouped to organize the rebellion, but spies working for the Mongols again thwarted their plans. The Mongols retaliated with a destructive campaign against both Armenians and Georgians.58

In 1248 Hetum I also sent a delegation to the Crusaders at Cyprus to discuss Cilicia’s participation in the planned invasion and liberation of Syria and Egypt from the Muslims, a situation that became all the more pressing in

1250, when the Mamluks overthrew the Ayyubid dynasty of Salah al-Din in Egypt.

Hetum I finally visited Qaraqorum in the spring of 1254 to formalize an alliance with the Great Khan Mongke.59 The Qaraqorum treaty provided that

1.The signatories maintain mutual security assistance in times of war. Cilician Armenians would assist the Mongols in their military campaigns in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine, while the Mongols agreed to defend the Armenian kingdom against the Seljuks of Konya, the Mamluks of Egypt, and the other surrounding Muslim neighbors;

2.The signatories maintain perpetual peace and friendship;

3.Mongol soldiers and officials enter Cilician territory only with the official approval of the Cilician monarchy; and

4.All former Cilician lands and cities, castles and fortresses, seized by others and now under Mongolian control be returned to the Cilician kingdom.60

This treaty aimed at establishing more than mere mutual security assistance. From Hetum’s perspective, the alliance with the Mongols would protect the Cilician kingdom against Seljuk invasions. He also expected the alliance to provide opportunities for eastward expansion. He did not, however, view this seemingly pro-Mongol policy as necessarily entailing a complete shift in his pro-western policy orientation.

Mongke Khan died in 1259, and with him died the unity of the Mongol empire created by Genghis Khan, the great khan of khans. Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of Mongke, established the ilkhanate dynasty in Iran after a period of political instability. (The term ilkhanate is derived from il-khan, meaning sub-khanate, representing a subdivision within Genghis Khan’s empire.)61 Both signatories adhered to or ignored the Qaraqorum treaty as dictated by circumstances. At times the Mongols remained aloof from entangling conflicts that posed no direct threat to their interests, as during the armed clashes between Cilicia and the Seljuk sultanate of Konya. Nor did Hetum I provide assistance to Hulagu’s military campaigns in 1258 to capture Baghdad, as the Cilician king saw no tangible benefits from the campaign. Yet when in 1259–1260 Hulagu invaded Syria, a campaign that also served Cilician interests, Armenian forces (by one estimate, consisting of 12,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry) took part in the invasion. According to Arab historians, during their campaign for Aleppo Hetum’s soldiers caused damage to a mosque and the markets in the city and killed several local people.62

It may be argued that the Qaraqorum treaty signified Hetum’s political acumen in assessing the potential importance the Mongols would

assume as an emerging power in the region. There was an inherent dilemma in that alliance, however. On the positive side, Cilicia’s close association with the Mongols, especially in the military campaigns against the Mamluks in Aleppo, Damascus, and Egypt, served the interests of both Sis and Qaraqorum. Hetum I found an ally in the Mongols who could provide much-needed military support, while the Mongols enjoyed the confidence of the Cilician kingdom whose territory allowed access to the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean and served as a buffer or base for further expansion. The Cilician economy also benefited from expanding Sis-Qaraqorum bilateral trade relations.63 On the negative side, Hetum I could play the “Mongol card” so long as the latter remained a powerful force in the region and could protect both Mongol and Armenian interests. A strong Mongol presence became all the more essential for the Armenian monarchy as the alliance intensified Cilicia’s conflicts with the neighboring powers at a time when Armenian military capability alone could not defend its sovereignty. Mongol territorial ambitions included expansion to the important port cities on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and therefore posed a direct challenge to both the Crusaders and the Mamluks, further burdening Cilicia’s association with the Mongols.64

By the early 1260s it had become abundantly clear that the Mongols under Hulago could not, even with Armenian cooperation, withstand the onslaught of Mamluk forces. After his victory in Syria, Hulago had neglected his troops in the region, and his army suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Mamluk military at the Battle of Ayn Jalut in 1260. The Mamluks were in the process of removing the Ayyubid rulers, already weakened by repeated Mongol invasions, from their strongholds across the Middle East. The Mongol army in the meantime withdrew to Iran and became preoccupied with internal political upheavals. By the end of the thirteenth century, the inability of the Mongolian army to check the revolutionary forces at home had led to the disintegration of the empire before the world empire as envisioned by Mongol leaders could materialize. The division of the Mongolian empire thus left the Mamluks, who viewed themselves as the guardians of the dar al-islam (the Islamic lands) against all infidels (non-believers), in control of the Middle East. The vast empire pieced together by the Great Genghis Khan was divided into four states: the Chaghatay khanate in Transoxania, the Golden Horde across the northern steppes and Russia, the ilkhanate in Persia, and the Mongol dynasties in Mongolia and China.65

For the Armenian kingdom, the geopolitical situation further deteriorated as the Persian ilkhanate’s wars with the Golden Horde left Cilicia to its own fate. The Mamluk Sultan Baybars (r. 1260–1277), despite the exchange of ambassadors with Cilicia and efforts by Hetum I to maintain

peaceful relations, organized a series of military campaigns with the support of the Ayyubids in Hama and Homs in 1261 and 1262 against Antioch and Aleppo, where he was confronted by joint Armenian-Mongolian forces. Hetum subsequently led his own campaigns into Syria from 1262 to 1264 and dispatched a contingent to join the Mongol attack on al-Bira.66 In 1266 he journeyed to Tabriz to negotiate military assistance from the ilkhanate, a move that elicited a major retaliatory campaign by Baybars. The latter mobilized a force of 30,000 men under the command of alMansur of Hama for a “pedagogical war” against Cilicia. The Mamluk troops, facing a force of no more than 15,000, killed thousands of Armenians, attacked several cities (Sis, Adana, Ayas, Tarsus), destroyed forts, and looted and ravaged much of Cilicia. The Mamluks killed one of Hetum’s sons, Toros, and captured the other, Levon, along with Vasil Tatar, the son of Constable Smbat. The outcome of the conflict must have been quite obvious to Baybars, for he shifted his attention to the military operations against the Franks. The Armenian military was in total disarray, and Hetum had failed to secure a commitment from the ilkhanate for military support. In 1268 his envoys met with Baybars in Cairo to negotiate the terms of armistice with the hope of gaining Levon’s freedom. Hetum agreed to surrender several fortresses and to pay tribute. Although the ilkhanate had refused to grant military aid to Hetum, it handed over Sunqur al-Ashqar, a friend of Baybars and who was captured in the previous Mongol-Mamluk military engagement, to be exchanged for Levon. Nevertheless, the military and diplomatic disasters led to Hetum’s abdication in 1269; he died the following year.67

As the Mongols lost their influence in the Middle East, the Mamluks filled the power vacuum and increasingly posed a serious threat to Cilicia and the Crusaders’ position in the region. The changing power configuration led the Crusaders and Hetum’s son and successor, Levon II (1269–1289), to form an alliance against the Mamluks, which appeared to enhance Cilicia’s geostrategic role. Levon II thus took a decisive turn to the West. The European powers, however, did not view Cilicia as an ally. In 1274 Levon II sent a delegation to the church council being held at Lyon, requesting military support against the neighboring Muslims, but the council did not respond favorably. European powers ignored repeated requests (in 1278, 1279, and 1282). Cilicia thus remained in a precarious situation, suspended in the regional balance of power between a Europe indifferent to its security considerations and the Mamluks, who viewed the avowedly anti-Mamluk kingdom as too European oriented and too anti-Muslim.68

In 1274–75 and 1276, the Mamluks, determined to abolish the Armenian kingdom altogether on their way to unite forces with the sultanate of Rum, invaded. They failed to conquer the country, however, and after the death of

Baybars in 1277, the region enjoyed a short period of peace between the Mamluks and the Armenians. Baybars’s son and successor al-Said Berke Khan resumed the policy of unification with the sultanate of Rum and ordered an invasion of Cilicia. During the campaign Mamluk opposition groups clashed with his government in Cairo, and after a series of coups and countercoups, Sunqur al-Ashqar emerged as the Mamluk Sultan in Damascus in 1280. Prior to his own fall from power the following year, Sunqur launched a major military campaign against Aleppo, which drew in the Armenians and the Mongols, the latter hoping to reassert power in the region. The Mamluks, now under Sultan Sayf al-Din Qalawun, destroyed both armies and marched northward to Cilicia. In May 1285 Levon II, unable to win support from either the Mongols or the Europeans, accepted a treaty that imposed extremely harsh conditions on the Cilician economy.69

The peace treaty of 1285 between Levon II and Sayf al-Din Qalawun contained, in addition to a preamble, thirty articles. It promised peace and security for Cilicia so long as the kingdom fulfilled the following obligations:70

1.The Cilician kingdom would pay each year 500,000 dirhams in silver coins, 50 horses and mules of superior quality, 10,000 iron horseshoes with nails;

2.Levon II agreed to release all Muslim merchants in Cilician prisons regardless of their ethnicity and to return their properties, goods, animals, and slaves;

3.The Mamluk Sultan agreed to free all the Armenian diplomats, state officials, and merchants held captive with their goods in Egypt and Syria;

4.The Cilician kingdom agreed to permit free and safe transit through its borders all merchants and travelers from Iraq, Persia, Seljukid Rum (the eastern lands of the former Roman empire), and so on whose destination was one of the territories of the Mamluk Sultan;

5.Both parties agreed to transfer salvaged goods from capsized ships in their respective territorial waters to the state officials representing the country of the owner;

6.Levon II agreed not to build additional fortresses; and

7.The catholicos and all the Armenian clergy would agree to abide by the conditions of this treaty.71

Included also was a provision for extradition, stipulating that both parties would return all individuals (and all their belongings) found to have escaped from their (Mamluk or Cilician) lands to their respective state, except those Armenians who had converted to Islam and were residing in Mamluk territories, in which case all their belongings (but not the persons) would be returned to Cilicia. The treaty thus placed enormous