After
457 years, the Kingdom of Armenia was restored in 885 under the
Bagratuni (also called Bagratid) dynasty. The Bagratunis had been one of
the powerful noble families under the Arshakuni (Arsacid) dynasty,
holding the titles of
aspet
(horse-master) and
takatir
(coronant of the king).
In
the eighth century, under Arab domination, the Bagratunis rose to power
after the Mamikonian family lost its preeminence in successive
rebellions against foreign rule. During the rebellion of 852-855, Prince
of Princes Sembat Bagratuni was imprisoned by the Arab general Bugha
and refused to renege his faith. His refusal led to his martyrdom, for
which he later received the surname “Confessor.” Ashot, one of his seven
children, became his successor as
sparapet
(general-in-chief). He was thirty-five-years-old. He was married to princess Katranide and had seven children himself.
Ashot
strengthened the unity of Armenia, intervening to solve conflicts
between princely houses, and established kinship relations between the
Bagratuni, Artzruni (in Vaspurakan), and Siuni (in Siunik) families,
arranging the marriages of his three daughters with prominent members of
the last two families. In 862 Ashot, who ruled over the province of
Ayrarat (the plain of Ararat), received the title of Prince of Prince
from the Arab caliphate and ceded the position of
sparapet
to
his brother Abas. He was allowed by the caliphate, then in a weakened
situation, to become the tax collector for the entire Arab province of
Arminiya, which encompassed Armenia, Iberia (Georgia), and Caucasian
Albania (now Azerbaijan). This recognition of his position,
concentrating the military and economic power of the region, gradually
turned the Arab rule into an administrative formality.
The
support of other Armenian princes helped Ashot wage war against the
Arab emirs in Armenia. He neutralized a conspiracy by the
ostikan
of
Arminiya, the legal representative of the caliphate, and expelled him
from Armenia in 877. On the other hand, Emperor Basil I of Byzantium
(867-886, of Armenian origin) asked the Armenian prince to crown him as
representative of an ancient lineage of coronants and to sign a treaty.
Before him, Patriarch Photius had made a proposal for church unity in
862. However, the religious assembly of Shirakavan, gathered in 869,
rejected the Patriarch’s proposal, but not the political and military
alliance with Byzantium.
At
the same time, Ashot also fortified the links with Iberia and Albania,
where branches of the Bagratunis had taken an important role among the
nobility. The demands of Armenian princes and the Catholicos to
recognize Ashot as king were finally met by Caliph al-Mutamid, who
decided to send a crown to Ashot in 885 with the aim of getting
Armenians out of the Byzantine orbit. On August 26, 885, Catholicos
Gevorg II Garnetsi (877-897) consecrated Ashot I as King of Armenia in
the fortress of Bagaran, Ashot’s residence and new capital of the
country. The new king had also received a crown from Emperor Basil I,
which ensured international recognition. The restoration of the Armenian
monarchy was accompanied by economic and urban growth and a revival of
arts and religion, as well as territorial enlargement. Ashot I restored
the court system existing in the Arshakuni period, with some
modifications. In 887 he crowned the first King of Eastern Georgia,
Atrnerseh IV Bagratuni (Bagrationi, 887-923).
In
890, on his way of return from a trip to Constantinople, Ashot died on
the road. He was buried in Bagaran. He was succeeded by his son Sembat I
(890-914).
