ALEXANDER AKOPYAN, STATE HERMITAGE, 27 OCT.

2016

Monetary Circulation in the Christian Armenian States

of the Bagratid Era (750–1064)

0. The Bagratid era was an important period in the history of medieval

Armenia. At that time the Armenian national forces, which significantly
weakened after the Arab conquest in the seventh century consolidated around
several ancient dynasties, the most important of which being the Bagratuni
dynasty. In the eighth–eleventh centuries these dynasties created several states
with different level of autonomy in the territory of the Armenian Highland and
the surrounding areas. Despite the fact that the Bagratid period of the Armenian
history is well studied, the circulation of money in the territories controlled by
the Armenian Christian sovereigns, haven’t yet become a subject of a special
research.

1. In order to identify the peculiarities of the monetary circulation in

Armenia during the Bagratid period I have analyzed the information on more
than 4,000 coin finds, discovered from the middle of the nineteenth century up
until the present day in the Transaucasus region. This information was obtained
from the areas specified on the slide both as a result of systematic
archaeological excavations that were carried out in Ani, Hlat‘, Gařni, Dvin, Loři
Berd, Dmanisi, Mingechaur, Old Qabala, Old Ganja, Paytakaran (Baylaqān),
Derbent and other territories, and randomly — mainly in the regions of Dvin,
Širak, Syunik‘, Tbilisi, Baylaqān and Qabala. They all are shown on the map.
The amount of the collected data on the coin findings is representative enough
to be analyzed to get the information of interest. It should be noted that there is
very little information about the coin findings of the period we are interested in
from the territory of Western Armenia (Eastern Anatolia). However, since we
know dozens of findings of another period from this territory, the fact that there
are no coins of the eighth–eleventh centuries should be considered as
significant and important. Also, archaeologists know very little about the first
Bagratid capitals — Širakavan and Bagaran located on the right bank of the
Akhuryan river and remaining in the territory of Turkey. However, the
Akhuryan river now separating Armenia and Turkey did not serve as the
geographic or political border in the ancient times, so the well studied monetary

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circulation of Ani, which was also located on this river, is identical to the one on
the other side of the river, in the Armenian region of Širak. In my opinion, the
same situation must be relevant for Bagaran and Širakavan.

2. Earlier, the numismatists considered the eighth–eleventh centuries

primarily from the perspective of accumulating information on the Kufic coins,
issued at the mints of historical Armenia. However, it is extremely important to
note that all these mints were situated outside the very Armenian Christian
states. Here on the slide you can see these three Arabic mints — they are a)
Dvin (Arminiyya), b) Bardaʿa (Arrān), and c) mint on the mine of Apahunik‘
(called as Hārūnābād, al-Hārūniyya, Maʿdan Baḥunays or al-Muḥammadiyya).
Previously no analysis of the hoard materials and the topography of the
findings were carried out, so I am going to do this in the report.
In the course of the research it turned out to be very convenient to divide
the history of the Bagratid Armenia into three periods, characterized by
different levels of autonomy and centralization of the local power. In the first
period, from 750 until 885, on the territory of the Abbasid province of
Arminiyya existed an autonomous Armenian principality, where the princes
were appointed by the Caliph governor of Arminiyya or the whole North. The
area under the authority of the Armenian “prince of the princes” (išxanac‘
išxan) was changing, but in general, we can assume that it occupied the so called
Third Arminiyya except for the three lowland regions (three “fingers”) with the
Muslim population. First of all, it was Dvin the center of the Arminiyya province
and the area to the south of it along the Ararat Valley to Nakhichevan and to the
south towards Persoarmenia. Second “finger” goes from Jazīra through the
Armenian Taurus in the Bałeš / Bidlis area up to Karin / Theodosiopolis / Arẓ al-
Rūm inclusively, where the Arab garrison was based since the second century of
Hijra. Third “finger” was in the Kura–Araxes Mesopotamia from Khudaferin
bridges on Araxes to Tiflis in the North. The Arabs who were initially
concentrated in the key fortresses of the region and settled along the roads
connecting these fortresses, tried to further expand their domination over other
territories, which was called dār al-islām in Arabic.

3. As for the coins, I identified 176 findings in the first period, 24 of which
belonged to the territory of the Armenian principality (or 30, considering the
uncertainty of its eastern border), which amounts to 14 or 17% of the total

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number of coins. The Byzantine coins are represented by the single findings,
including four coins from Ani, one coin from Gařni and one coin from Dilijan.
These Byzantine coins either accidentally entered the area, or were found in a
later third period, characterized by a significant penetration of Byzantine coins
into the Transcaucasus region. In my opinion, the second version sounds more
realistic. The amount of the Muslim coin findings in this period is somewhat
bigger.

4. Single findings of both Kufic dirhams and fals belong to the territories
near Dvin — in Yerevan, Arinj, Gařni, and in Martuni region, where was
important crossroad from the Dvin and Nakhichevan to Bardaʿa, as well as close
to Bardaʿa in Step‘anakert. The hoards of long-term accumulation, containing
silver coins, starting from the Sassanid period, were found in Gařni, Martuni
region (two hoards), Syunik‘ village (more than 1900 coins), Dilipi (hoard with
the broken coins), Paravak‘ar and Aghdam. The last three cities were located at
the border of the Armenian principality, and perhaps were not a part of it. The
hoards of solely Kufic coins were registered from Martuni, Varanda and Tauz,
the last two points were also located at the borders of the principality.
This information requires some explanation. First. The discovery of the
hoard and some single Kufic coins in Gařni testifies that this area was situated
on the border of Dvin and more likely belonged to its district (balad). This is
also proved by the large number of Arabic graffiti in Garni, which can be
observed during the inspection even today. Second. The hoard of long-term
accumulation from the village of Syunik‘ containing coins for the period of 280
years is, undoubtedly, a large family treasury and extraordinary compared to
other findings. Hence I can state that the monetary circulation was unusual for
the territory of the Armenian principality except for the border regions (though
their belonging to the territory of the principality is controversial), the “Martuni
crossroad” and the exclusive hoard from the village of Syunik‘. It is also
important to note that in the first period the Caliphate border was
impenetrable for the Byzantine coins (and vice versa).
From the middle of the eighth century various autonomous principalities
existed in the territory of Arminiyya province, which later turned into
kingdoms. Controlled by the strong central power of the Caliphate they did not
have either the stateness or its important attribute according to the Islamic law,
the coinage — jus monetæ (al-sikka). At the same time the Muslim authority

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issued coins of the usual Caliphate type at the several mints of Transcaucasus,
but these coins were obviously not meant for the Christian territories, which
were most likely classified as dār al-daʿwa (recently annexed territories) or dār
al-ḥarb (territory of war).

5. In the following second period, after beginning of the distemper in the

Abbasid caliphate the Armenian territories of Bagratuni and Artsruni Houses
became kingdoms. In addition to these kingdoms there were also several
principalities (Christian states are shown in red). On the way of the old
Muslim penetration into Armenia the amirates began to form. They are shown
on the map in green and blue. In general this whole period is characterized by
the high state fragmentation of the Transcaucasus region.
In the Christian countries there was only one mint operating at that time,
and most likely it was situated in Kutaisi, which issued the coins imitating the
Abbasid coins both with the name of the king Bagrat I Anosid, and without it
(they are represented on the slide). Kuleshov and Jap‘aridze have recently
carried out independent researches and proved that the coinage in the
Abkhazian kingdom started in the eighth century. Apparently, the reason for
coinage in Abkhazia was that they needed to supplement the dirhams with half-
fractions, which circulated here due to the control of the Abkhazian kingdom
over the east coast of the Black Sea, which the Arabs were exploring to find the
ways for trading with the North bypass the hostile Byzantium and Khazaria. The
choice of a pattern for the design of these coins as well as the choice of language
inscriptions on them were dictated by the fact that the local population got used
to the Arab written coins, which passed trough its territory.

6. The second period is characterized by an even smaller number of coin

findings in the Transcaucasus and adjascent areas of south-eastern Turkey. I
found a total of 33 registrations, predominantly these are single findings or very
small hoards — a hoard with several Byzantine silver coins from Tayk‘ and
single findings of Byzantine coins in the Kingdom of Ani — in Ani, Dmanisi
and Alaškert. In my opinion the small amounts of coins can testify only of their
accidental penetration into the region – the Byzantine coins reached the
Bagratid kingdoms of Tayk‘ and Ani (if these coins were not brought in the third
period), while the Muslim coins reached Syunik‘.

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At the same time, Amirates of Ganja, Dvin and Nakhchivan intensively

used only the Islamic coins in disproportionately large amounts (we know the
hoards with hundreds or thousands of silver or gold coins). There is no
information on the coin findings from Vaspurakan, but even opposed to the
Bagratids this kingdom could unlikely enter the transit zone of the Islamic coins,
getting closer with the neighboring Sajids. Also, there is no information on the
coin findings in the Christian principalities of Mokk‘ and Taron, as well as in
the amirates of Shaybānids, Zurarids, Qaysits, ʿUthmānids and Baylaqān. A
small amount of coin findings in the second period in the Armenian Christian
territories followed by few coins in the findings indicates that the monetary
sphere did not change after the coronation of Bagratids and Artzrunids, as well
as testifies of the continuing coinless period.
In my opinion, the silver coins struck in the first and second periods at the
mints of Arminiyya were intended solely for the circulation in the Muslim lands
(dār al-islām) of the Caliphate and for its foreign trade, but not for the internal
Christian regions of Armenia, whose territory, as previously pointed out, had a
different status. This fact is directly proven by the finding of only two coins from
the mints of Arminiyya in the Armenian principality in the first period (fals of
Arminiyya, AH 164 and a dirham of al-Hārūniyya, AH 169) and only one Sājid
coin of AH 310’s during the second period, from the territory of all the Armenian
states. This is very important — only three finds of Islamic coins known
from the Christian territories within two hundred years! Indirectly, this kind
of zoning of silver circulation within the Caliphate is confirmed by the fact that
issues of the Islamic coins in Arminiyya, reflecting all the ups and downs of the
internal Abbasid political history, absolutely did not respond to the events in
the Armenian state.
It is not known whether a situation like this was a result of a direct
prohibition of the circulation of silver from the Caliphate towards the Christian
lands. The historian Ghevond indicates the prohibitions inside the country, he
also says that only under the Caliph al-Mahdi, the population of Armenia started
using coins, while before taxmans collected the “zuzes”, still circulating Sassanid
silver, but not the Islamic “dramas” (dirhams) already known to the Armenians.
We don’t know any monetary substitutes for the first and second periods, which
would replace the coins. But the lack of findings of Byzantine coins points to the
fact that the king Smbat I was unable to carry out his intention to make the
Kingdom of Ani the area of transit trade (as he wrote to Yūsuf Sājid) between

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the Caliphate and Byzantium. This situation had a parallel from Byzantine side,
as Book of the Eparch directly points to the ban on the export of gold coins
outside the empire and the ban on the sale of gold to the foreigners.
Paradoxically, the Bagratid era, which is usually interpreted as a period of
the cultural and economic recovery, turns out to be a coinless period. It is
known that the Armenian kings paid taxes to the Caliphate in kind, which
according to Hovhannes Drasxanakertc‘i amounted to one fifth of all the horses,
cattle, sheep and harvest. And when considering the amount of tax charges from
the Arminiyya province, which, according to Ibn Khaldūn, was equal to 13
million dirhams in addition to the natural taxes in the reign of Hārūn al-Rashīd,
we have to take into account that the Arminiyya province included both the
Armenian states and the Isalmic amirates, in which the Kufic coins were minted
and circulated. And only in case of a sudden emergency, as in AD 909 for
example, the payment of sixty thousand dahekans (that is, in my opinion, the
general name of coins, that are dirhams) was carried out in the form of money.
But this amount was not collected from the population, because it was
immediately paid from the long-term accumulations of the royal treasury.

7. The third period is characterized by the eastward expansion of the

Byzantine Empire and covers the time from the division of the Kingdom of Ani
until its termination and the Seljuq invasion. The activation of Byzantium in the
Transcaucasian direction in the middle of the tenth century virtually cut off the
relations of the Arabs on the Black Sea, as well as changed the political situation
in the Transcaucasus, incorporating the ruling Bagratids into the Byzantine
ranking system. As a result the Bagrat IV the king of united Georgia, which came
to the power at that time (possibly David III of Tao before him) started
minting the coins like this. In the same period Dvin, which received the right
to mint the coins from the Byzantines as well as two other Christian states
minted their own coins in small amounts (the mints are shown on the map
with the purple icons – these are Tašir-Dzoraget and Kakhet‘i). The coinage
in Tayk by David III has now faced some serious doubts, and perhaps they were
minted before the Abkhazian imitations by David I Iberian. This is indicated by
the weight and the manufacturing technology of the coins, which are not similar
to the Byzantine coins, but to the Arab dirhams. Anyway, coins of all of these
countries feature the Christian symbols, but if in Tayk‘, Iberia and Tašir-
Dzoraget were used national languages for the coin protocol, in Kakhet‘i used

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the Arabic language, and in Dvin — the Greek one. The coinage in Iberia and
Tashir-Dzoraget became possible only after the Byzantine Empire started its
active expansion to the Transcaucasus, when the monetary circulation in this
region renewed. The coinage in Kakhet‘i was associated with the resistance
against the Bagratid expansion to the East, and its peculiarities were associated
with the influence of the neighboring Shaddādid amīrate and Shīrwān. The
issue of strongly barbarized coins in Dvin reflects the uniqueness of conformity
to the Byzantines while maintaining the independence of the city.

8. Regarding the monetary circulation, in the third period I have collected

a considerable number of 139 coin findings in the Transaucasus. Only 19
findings of this number consist of the Islamic coins. All of them, except for two,
were found in the territories of the local amirates. The rest of the findings
contain only the Byzantine gold and copper coins. The majority of the
Byzantine coins is known from the territory of the Kingdom of Ani — more than
thousand copper coins found at different times, three hoards of copper coins, 8
gold coins and 5 hoards of gold coins (with up to 100 coins). The absence of the
Byzantine coins is distinctive for the Eastern Transcaucasus — they are absent
in the Hereti, and in the eastern Islamic countries as well. Of course in this case,
the gold coin covered more territories than the copper one, which circulated
only in Ani, Tašir-Dzoraget and West-Georgian kingdoms.
The red line on the slide deliniates the approximate area of the Byzantine
copper coin circulation (that is the limit of the expansion of the Byzantine
authority), the blue line shows the area of the Islamic silver coin circulation
and the yellow one — the spread limits of the Byzantine gold coin. The major
cities of Transcaucasus like Dvin, Ganja and Tiflis show the mixed picture as
they were located in the Christian-Muslim contact areas. Despite the fact that we
have no information on the numismatic findings in Taron, Vaspurakan and the
western amirates of Armenia (Marwānids, Qaysits and in Awnik), which were
vassal to Byzantium, the chances are that the exclusively Byzantine coins were
circulated here in the third period. As in the previous periods, the Christian
regions were closed from the Islamic coins. Perhaps, Vaspurakan was the only
Kingdom using Kufic silver coins (if these lines can be connected), but we do
not have any strong evidence to prove this fact. At the same time, the number of
minted, circulated and hoarded coins significantly reduced in the Islamic

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regions, which indicated the beginning of the silver crisis in the second half of
the eleventh century.

9. In the end, on the basis of the abovementioned materials, I would like

to make the following conclusions that are important for the monetary history
of Armenia. Firstly, the numismatic evidence show the different areas of
monetary circulation in the province of Arminiyya and the isolation of the
Armenian Christian lands from the territories under the direct Arab control, as
well as the monetary impenetrability of the Byzantine Caliphate border. In
Arminiyya the mints were based exclusively in the areas populated by the
Arabs, which were directly controlled by the governor of Arminiyya. Their
products were intended for the foreign market and did not penetrate into the
Christian territories. Consequently, the Bagratid renaissance proceeded against
the backdrop of the coinless economy and the change of the Armenia’s status
from the principality to the kingdom did not have any impact on the monetary
situation. At the same time, because of the absolute antagonism between
Muslims and Greeks, the Bagratids failed to make Armenia a transit area
between Byzantium and the Caliphate.

10. Next, I would like to slightly increase the scale of research due to the
fact that an extremely important aspect of the economic life of Caliphate was
that they were trading with the north. Silver coins minted in the Caliphate went
to the north in the enormous amounts in exchange for furs, which the Arabs
considered as a great value and the other northern products and goods. The
slide shows the topography of the Kufic coin hoards of ninth-eleventh centuries
in the Eastern Europe. We see a large concentration of hoards in the Eastern
Germany, Poland and Gotland, but a kind of small amounts of hoards, for
example, in Estonia. This is not directly connected with the amount of coins, as
the hoards from Pomerania are small and amount to approximately one
hundred coins, while the hoards of Estonia contain up to ten thousand coins.
However, all those here present are well aware of this phenomenon and its
peculiarities. The estimated number of the Kufic coins found in the north
amounts to over one hundred thousand coins, which may indicate more than
two hundred million of coins in this region according to the statistical
calculations.

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11. In the aspect of this intense meridian trade I would like to note and
record the fact that the way of Kufic silver to the north did not run through
Armenia. This is relating even to the coins minted in Arminiyya — first they
went to the Muslim regions, where they accumulated with the other coins and
together they got to the North. It is clear because there are no hoards in
Armenia, identical in their composition to those of the Eastern Europe, but there
are hoards of this kind in the Southern Caspian area. I can explain this both by
the fact that the Christian Armenian territories had a different status from the
lands under direct Islamic rule, and it was impossible for Byzantium to
transport goods through them for the following reasons.
In the first period (from the middle of the eighth to the middle of the ninth
centuries) Khazaria, allied to Byzantium and fighting constant wars with the
Arabs at that time, was blocking all their ways through the Caucasian ridge in
order to prevent any relations with the Ruses and other nations. Apparently,
because of this the Arabs were forced to probe the trans-Georgian route from
Arran to the Black Sea, as well as the way through the Central Asia. The latter,
proved to be more promising, because of the weak political structures of this
region but the number of hoards of this period in the Eastern Europe is still
quite small.
From the middle of the ninth century, in the second period, the expansion
of Byzantium blocked all the possible Arab routes through the West
Transcaucasus. In the tenth century Khazaria became hostile both to Byzantium
and the Caliphate standing against the Byzantines in the Crimea, but letting the
Ruses pass to the Caspian Sea and the Transcaucasus and kept the way through
the Caucasian ridge closed. Despite the difficulties associated with crossing the
waterless desert, the Arabs used only the route through the Central Asia leading
to the Middle Volga. Later, when the Khazars were converted to Islam, the way
through the lower reaches of the Volga became open for the Central Asian
silver.
And only at the end of the eleventh century, the fragments of the
Caliphate, independent amirates of Jazīra and South Armenia (Marwānids and
ʿUqaylids) were able to establish the trade relations with Byzantium and learned
the way from Jazīra through Pontus to the Rus’, resulting in the Eastern
European hoards containing the coins from these amirates.

Thank you for attention.