Utik was a historic province of the Kingdom of Armenia and a region of Caucasian Albania

Caucasian Albania

Albania is a name for the historical region of the eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of...

. Most of the region is located within present-day Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

 immediately west of the Kura River

Kura River

Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...

 while a part of it lies within the Tavush

Tavush

Tavush is a province of Armenia. The marz of Tavush is located in the north of Armenia and borders on Georgia and Azerbaijan.It is well known for its mountains. The most part of its territory is situated 800-1,000 m above sea level...

 province of present-day northeastern Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

.

History

According to Anania Shirakatsi

Anania Shirakatsi

Anania Shirakatsi was an Armenian mathematician, astronomer and geographer. He is commonly attributed to having written the Geography .-Life:Scholars are split on where exactly Anania was born...

's Ashkharatsuyts ("Geography" 7th c. AD), Utik was the 12th among the 15 provinces of the Kingdom of Armenia, and belonged, at the time, to the Kingdom of Aghvank (when the Utik and Artsakh

Artsakh

Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...

 provinces were disassociated from Armenia after its partition in the 4th century). Utik was populated by the people called Utis, after whom it received its name. It is documented that after the Armenian reconquest in the 2nd century BC Utik also had Armenian population.

Modern historians agree that "Utis" were a people of non-Armenian origin, and the modern ethnic group of Udi

Udi people

The Udis are one of the most ancient native peoples of the Caucasus.Currently they live in Azerbaijan, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and many other countries. The total number is about 10,000 people. They speak the Udi language. Among them are distributed also Azeri, Russian,...

 is their descendants.

According to the Armenian geographer Anania Shirakatsi

Anania Shirakatsi

Anania Shirakatsi was an Armenian mathematician, astronomer and geographer. He is commonly attributed to having written the Geography .-Life:Scholars are split on where exactly Anania was born...

's Ashkharatsuyts, Utik consisted of 8 cantons (gavars, in Armenian): Aranrot, Tri, Rotparsyan, Aghve, Tuskstak (Tavush), Gardman, Shakashen, and Uti. The province was bounded by the Kura River

Kura River

Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...

 from north-east, river Arax from south-east, and by the province of Artsakh

Artsakh

Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...

 from the west.

Greco-Roman historians of 2nd century BC - 2nd century AD state that Utik was a province of Armenia, with the Kura River

Kura River

Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...

 separating Armenia and Albania. But the Armenian-Albanian boundary along the river Kura, confirmed by Greco-Roman sources, was often overrun by armies of both countries.

According to Strabo, Armenia, which in the 6th c. BC had covered a large portion of Asia, had lost some of its lands by the 2nd c. BC. At the same time Strabo wrote: "According to report, Armenia, though a small country in earlier times, was enlarged by Artaxias and Zariadris". Around 190 BC, under the king Artashes

Artaxias I

Artaxias I was the founder of the Artaxiad Dynasty whose members ruled the Kingdom of Armenia for nearly two centuries....

 I, Armenia re-conquered Vaspurakan

Vaspurakan

Vaspurakan was the first and biggest province of Greater Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered around Lake Van...

 and Paytakaran

Paytakaran

Paytakaran was the easternmost province of the Kingdom of Armenia. The province was located in the area of the lower courses of the rivers of Kura and Araks, adjacent to the Caspian sea. Today, the area is located in the territory of modern day southeastern Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran.-...

 from Media

Medes

The MedesThe Medes...

, Acilisene from Cataonia, and Taron

Taron (historic Armenia)

Taron was a canton of the Turuberan province of Greater Armenia, now in the Muş Province, Turkey. It was divided into four districts: Mamikonian, Palauni, , Artokh Taron was a canton of the Turuberan province of Greater Armenia, now in the Muş Province, Turkey. It was divided into four districts:...

 from Syria. Some have suggested that Utik was among the provinces re-conquered by Artashes I at this time, though Strabo doesn't list Utik among Artashes' conquests.

After the area between the Kura

Kura River

Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...

 and Arax rivers (including Utik) passed to Albania in 387 AD, medieval Armenian historians (5th-7th centuries) referred to it as the "Plain of Aghvank." According to their chronicles, in the 2nd century BC Armenian king Vagharshak established the principality of Aghvank as part of the Kingdom of Armenia , subjugating the "savage tribes" south of the Caucasus mountains, and appointing as its governor an Armenian nobleman by the name of Aran, who descended from the Armenian patriarch Hayk and was from the Armenian princely family of Sisakan. According to this account, members of the Sisakan family inherited Utik as well as the rest of the plain between the Arax and Kura

Kura River

Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...

 rivers, which was later named "Plain of Aghvank" by the Sisakan princes (the entire area under Aran's governorship was named Aghuank (Albania, Greek) after the Sisakan nobles, who had fine (in Armenian--aghu) values).

In 370s, after the King Urnayr of Aghvank had invaded Utik, Armenian sparapet Mushegh Mamikonyan defeated the Albanians, restoring the frontier back to the river Kura. In 387 AD the Sassanid Empire

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

 helped the Albanians to seize from the Kingdom of Armenia a number of provinces, including Utik. Subsequently, medieval Armenian historians often referred to the area as the "Plain of Aghvank."

In the middle of the 5th century by the order of the Persian king Peroz I

Peroz I

Peroz I Peroz I Peroz I (also Pirooz; Peirozes (Priscus, fr. 33); Perozes (Procopius, De Bello Pers. I. 3 and Agathias iv. 27; the modern form of the name is Perooz, Piruz, or the Arabized Ferooz, Firuz; Persian: پیروز "the Victor"), was the seventeenth Sassanid King of Persia, who ruled from 457...

 the king Vache of Aghvank built in Utik the city initially called Perozapat, and later Partaw and Barda

Barda, Azerbaijan

Barda is the capital city of the Barda Rayon in Azerbaijan, located south of Yevlax and on the left bank of the Terter river. Once an Armenian town, and later the capital of Caucasian Albania perhaps since the end of the fourth century, Barda became the chief city of the Islamic province of Arran,...

, and made it the capital of Aghvank.

Starting with the 13th century, the area covered by Utik and Artsakh

Artsakh

Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...

 was called Karabakh

Karabakh

The Karabakh horse , also known as Karabakh, is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse. It is named after the geographic region where the horse was originally developed, Karabakh in the Southern Caucasus, an area that is de jure part of Azerbaijan but the highland part of which is currently...

 by non-Armenians.

Population

In ancient times the area was inhabited by Armenians and "Utis," apparently after whom it was named. Early Armenian chronicles (5th c. AD) state that the local princes of Utik descended from the Armenian noble family of Sisakan and spoke Armenian. The origin of "Utis," whether an Armenian or non-Armenian tribe, remains obscure

Utik had been one of the provinces of Greater Armenia, the population of which is referred to by the name Udini (or Utidorsi) in Latin sources, and by the name Outioi in Greek sources. However, Ancient Greco-Roman writers placed Udis beyond Utik, north of the Kura River

Kura River

Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...

.

Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

calls "Utis" a Scythian tribe and also mentions so called utidors (which was apparently a tribe of mixed origin). Due to this a drift of ethnonym or more complex ethnogenetic processes are possible(for example, settlement of some Iranian-speaking or, less probably, Finno-Ugric peoples and adoption by them of language of the local Caucasian population).