THE WAR OF VARTAN | Page 1 2 3

It seems that the king was coached by his high priest, Denshepuh, for the charges are couched in Zoroastrian theological language. As fire is a sacred element, one "kills" it by extinguishing it. Water, the element of Anahita (or in Armenian Anahit) is also sacred. Dead bodies were exposed on rocks to the birds rather than buried, lest they contaminate the earth, which was sacred to the divinity Spenta Armaiti (called by the ancient Armenians Spandaramet).

The king then threatened to exile the nakharars to Sakastan (modern Seistan, in southeastern Iran) and their people to Khuzhastful (modern Khuzistan, a desert region on the Persian Gulf). The Armenians went through the motions of observing Zoroastrian ritual and were allowed to return home in the company of a number of Zoroastrian priests, who set about enforcing various Zoroastrian practices including the custom of next-of-kin marriage; wearing a pandam (face-mask) while baking, so as not to breathe upon the sacred element of fire; washing with gumez (bull's urine, which was used as an antiseptic); and refraining from killing certain animals considered holy, including otters, foxes, and rabbits.

Of the various nakharars, only Vasak Siuni seems to have taken his conversion seriously. The Bishops of Armenia deplored even the pretense of apostasy, however, and exhorted people not to spare their own relatives, should the latter stray from the Christian faith. Most of the people seem to have heeded the bishops' call, and when the Magi attempted to force their way into a church at Angegh in Tsaghkotn, they were confronted by an angry crowd. The Persians, who decided their policy was not working, counselled Vasak to relent; he told them to be patient, and proceeded with a more native, less rigorous form of proselytism, entertaining the Armenians with their beloved ergs hetbnosakans "heathen songs."

Yeghishe mentions that Mihrnerseh knew both the Parthian and Persian teachings of the Zoroastrian religion, and it may be supposed that Vasak's approach was to temper the activity of the Magi by luring the Armenians with old customs closer to the Parthian than the Persian way.

Vartan decided to raise an army, and Vasak pretended to repent of his pagan lapses. In the summer of 450, the Armenian forces moved against Iran in a three-pronged attack. In the north, Vartan moved east and linked up with the Christian Albanians (Aghvank). Vasak was to cover Ayrarat, and in the south, Nershapuh Rhumbosean moved on Her and Zarevand, on the border of Media-Atropaten (Atrpatakan). Bishop Hovsep, appealed to the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II for aid, but the Christians of the west decided that there was no point in endangering their own security. Armenia, with its Georgian and Albanian allies, were to take on the might of the Sasanian Empire without any Roman help.

The Persians clashed with Vartan at Khaghkhagh, but Vasak had secured the aid of seven other pro-Persian nakharars and was despoiling the rear. Vartan and the Albanians defeated the Persians and hastened to fight Vasak, but the latter fled to his fortress in Siunik and winter was coming on. Vartan dispersed his troops, for it is impossible to fight in the deep snows and bitter cold of winter on the high Armenian plateau.

In the spring, under cover of a false declaration of religious tolerance issued by Yazdagird, Mihrnarseh moved his Persian forces north under the command of Mushkan Niusalavurd through Her and Zaravand, to be joined by Vasak and ten confederate nakharars with their forces.

On May 26, 451, the Sasanian and Christian forces met in battle on the plain of Avarayr, on the shore of the river Tghmut, just to the west of the city of Maku. Maku is still the first city the traveler from Anatolia must pass through in Iran on the main highway linking Tehran with Istanbul and the west. The road passes between towering cliffs of rock that obscure the view of the two peaks of Ararat to the north.

In the battle, Armenian horsemen confronted Sasanian elephants and archers; a country with no king confronted one of the two great world powers of the day. The Armenians were defeated. Vartan was killed, and many others died, either at Avarayr or in Persian captivity and exile. As the battle had begun, the Armenian soldiers had shouted in a joyful voice and loud: "Let our death be as the death of the righteous, and our spilt blood with the blood of the martyrs. May God be pleased with our offering, and may He give His Church not into the hands of the heathens."

The sacrifice made at Avarayr did not, unfortunately, bring about a change of heart, nor should one have expected it to, on the Sasanian side. The Persian victory was costly, but it was a victory all the same, and the Armenians were not a unified people: Vasak had found many supporters, and we have attempted to show that non-Christian practices were still widespread in 4th and 5th century Armenia.

Yeghishe mentions nearly a score of towns where Vartan destroyed fire altars, and it is inconceivable that all of them were purely Persian foundations. Renewed military activity on the eastern frontier distracted the Persians from Armenian for about 10 years, but the dismissal of Catholicos Giut (461-78) marked the beginning of a new wave of proselytizing. Vartan's nephew, Vahan, took advantage of the capture of King Peroz by the Hephthalimes in 481 to begin a revolt against the Magi.

In 484, the successor of Peroz, Balash, finally granted a decree of religious tolerance to the Armenians in a treaty signed at Nevarsak, near modern Khoy. The climate of the time favored friendship and tolerance. For not only did the Sasanians realize the fruitlessness of their aggressive policies; they had other, more pressing troubles on their eastern frontier, and it was wiser to keep Armenia, their buffer against Rome safe and quiet.

On the Armenian side, an accommodation with Iran made good sense, too. The actions of the Byzantine emperors of the late 5th and 6th centuries in the western parts of Armenia they held were calculated to undermine the nakharar system and to bring the Armenian Church under the sway of Byzantium. In 451, while the Armenian Christians were fighting for their very existence, Byzantium had convened an ecumenical council at Chalcedon, from whose doctrines the Armenian Church and many other Orthodox Christians, both Greek and oriental, were to dissent. In the 6th century, anti-Chalcedonian Greeks streamed into Armenia; the paganly philosophical School of Athens was closed in 529, and its scholars found refuge and welcome in the Sasanian city of Gundeshapur.

Armeno-Sasanian relations remained peaceful, and the refugees from Byzantine absolutism contributed to the growth of the Hellenophilic school of literary composition in Armenia and to the elaboration of Sasanian Zoroastrian philosophy.

Religious intolerance, violence, and the fanatical propagation of one's own ideas without regard for the convictions and dignity of others, are the denial of civilization. The later Sasanians recognized that human diversity was part of the scheme of nature, and allowed each keshvar, or "clime" of the earth, to go its own way. The Armenians had always been a special case, close to Iran but not Iranian, yet the Mamigonians and those who fought with them had asserted successfully the right of Armenia to develop its own culture.

The Armenians became more than a culture with Vartan, separating themselves decisively from Iran -- they became a civilization. No king led them into battle, nor did any hope of victory or gain spur them; they fought with simple bravery and fine reluctance, only for the right to be themselves.

Such a nation is so enlightened, cupped in the very hand of God, that it can never really be defeated. Armenia celebrates in Vartan the victory, not of arms, but of an idea. That idea is the freedom of the spirit, the basis of liberty, of creativity, of thought and of life.