Gardman

Gardman (Armenian: Գարդման) was a district in the region of the province of Utik' in the Kingdom of Armenia. Some contemporary authors included Gardman as a part of the southern province of Artsakh.

History

During the reign of the Arshakuni kings of Armenia (66-428 A.D.), Gardman was the seat of the nakharars of Utik' (and for this, it was sometimes called "Gardmantsvots ishkhanutyun", or the pricipality of Gardman). In the seventh century, it came to be ruled by the local Mihranid family of Persian or Parthian origin, which later became the ruling dynasty in the region of Arran. The region was was conquered by the Arabs in 855. Contemporary Armenian historians repeatedly noted the presence of two well known venues in Gardman: a fortress called Getabakk' (in the current-day region of Gadabay) and a copper mine.

In 1601, the Armenians of the region established the melikdom of Gardman. The ruling family belonged to a branch of the House of the Melik-Shahnazaryans, and their residence was in the village of Voskanapat (and for this reasion, the statelet was sometimes referred to as the Voskanapat melikdom). The territorial rights of the meliks were confirmed even after the Russian Empire took control of the region in the early nineteenth century.