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Concept
Syunik (historical province)
Summary
Syunik (Սիւնիք) was a region of historical Armenia and the ninth province (nahang) of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 428 AD. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control. In 821, it formed two Armenian principalities: Kingdom of Syunik and principality of Khachen, which around the year 1000 was proclaimed the Kingdom of Artsakh, becoming one of the last medieval eastern Armenian kingdoms and principalities to maintain its autonomy following the Turkic invasions of the 11th to 14th centuries.
The name Syunik is ancient and appears in the earliest Armenian written sources. Sisakan, a later name for the province of Iranian origin, first appears in the 6th-century Syriac chronicle of Pseudo-Zacharias; it is first mentioned in Armenian sources in the history of Movses Khorenatsi, who explains this name as deriving from Sisak, the name of one of the descendants of the legendary Armenian progenitor Hayk. Strabo mentions a region of Armenia called Phaunitis, which some scholars read as *Saunitis and connect with Syunik. If Phaunitis is not to be identified with Syunik, then the earliest mention of the name in Greek sources is by Eusebius in the 4th century, who refers to it as Saunia. Later, in the 6th century, the Byzantine historian Procopius refers to the inhabitants of the province as Sounitai. In the Ravenna Cosmography (700), Syunik is referred to in Latin as Siania Caucasorum. In Georgian sources, Syunik is typically called Sivnieti, while Arabic sources knew it as Sisaǰan, borrowed via Persian.
The ultimate etymology of the name Syunik is unknown. At first glance, it appears to be the plural of Siwni, the name of the ancient princely dynasty of Syunik (the noble house, like the province, is also alternatively called Sisakan). Historian Armen Petrosyan has suggested that Syunik is related to the name of the Urartian sun god Shivini/Siwini (itself a borrowing from the Hittites), noting the similarity between the names and the high number of sun-related placenames in the region. Robert H.
Official source
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