Arminiya
emirate
Arminiya, also known as the Ostikanate of Arminiya or the Emirate of Armenia (Arabic: إمارة أرمينية, imārat armīniya), was a political and geographic designation given by the Muslim Arabs to the lands of Greater Armenia, Caucasian Iberia, and Caucasian Albania, following their conquest of these regions in the 7th century. Though the caliphs initially permitted an Armenian prince to represent the province of Arminiya in exchange for tribute and the Armenians' loyalty during times of war, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan introduced direct Arab rule of the region, headed by a governor known as the ostikan with his capital in Dvin.
History
Early period: the Arab conquest of Armenia
The details of the early conquest of Armenia by the Arabs are uncertain, as the various Arabic sources conflict with the Greek and Armenian sources, both in chronology and in the details of the events. However, the broad thrust of the Arab campaigns is consistent between the sources, allowing for a reconstruction of events by modern scholars.
According to the Arabic sources, the first Arab expedition reached Armenia in 639/640, on the heels of their conquest of the Levant from the Byzantines and the start of the Muslim conquest of Persia. The Arabs were led by Iyad ibn Ghanim and penetrated as far as Bitlis. A second expedition occurred in 642, only to be defeated and pushed out of the country. After this setback, the Arabs only undertook a raid from Adharbayjan in 645, led by Salman ibn Rabi'a, but this only touched the Armenian borderlands. The Muslim sources place the actual conquest of the country in 645/646, under the command of Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri. The Arabs first moved against the western, Byzantine portion of the country, captured Theodosiopolis (modern-day Erzurum) and defeated a Byzantine army, before subduing the Armenian princes around Lake Van and marching onto Dvin, the capital of the former Persian portion of Armenia.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2981019. The Library of Congress control number is sh85007269. Authority coordinates are 40.005, 44.579. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arminiya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.