Zar, Azerbaijan
Encyclopedia
Zar is a village in the Kalbajar Rayon of Azerbaijan
, currently under the control of the unrecognized Nagorno Karabakh Republic.
A popular Azeri legend gives an alternative origin. A poor young man named Zasa once lived in this village. He was in love with a girl named Nasy whose parents did not approve of their relationship. Zasa then decided to ask Nadir Shah for help. He planted a watermelon in a jar with a narrow neck. The surprised shah liked it and ordered Nasy to be given to Zasa. However, as soon as Nadir Shah left town, Nasy's family went to Zasa's house, killed him and threw his body into a well. After that, Zasa's mother wept for many days. The name Zar was said to have be derived from this legend because the Azerbaijani
word zarıldamaq (zaryldamag) translates as "to sob."
province's canton of Tsar (which, until the eleventh to twelfth centuries, went by the name of Vaykunik'). In the fourteenth century, the Armenian Dop'ian family established themselves in Tsar and remained there until their fortresses were devastated by the invasions of Tamerlane. But the Armenian lords were able to recover by the fifteenth century, when Tsar was made the center for the Armenian melik
s of Upper Khachen. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the town was enclosed by a line of walls and other defensive fortifications. In the 1730s and 1750s, a large number of Turkic tribes and Kurds from Iran established themselves in Tsar and subsequently renamed the village Zar. In the early nineteenth century, the village was attacked and pillaged by the armies of the Ottoman Empire
.
Despite its ruinous state, in the late 1890s the scholar-bishop Makar Barkhudaryants was able to travel to Tsar and photograph the ruins of the monastery of the Holy Virgin (built in 1225), the chapels of Sts. Sargis and Grigor (built in 1274) and other medieval-era monuments (largely dating to the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries).
Karapetyan has written that the Armenian monuments in Tsar (monasteries, churches and cemeteries) started to be destroyed by Kurds at the end of the nineteenth century, and that the destruction continued on a larger scale during the Soviet period and especially during the 1940s and 1950s. In particular, he documented that a school built in Zar in the 1950s was constructed using stones taken from the fourteenth century Getamijo Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Virgin of the Confluence) monastery that had stood at the edge of Tzar: he identified 133 carved or inscribed stone fragments reused within the walls of the school.
The village fell under the control of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in 1993.
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...
, currently under the control of the unrecognized Nagorno Karabakh Republic.
Etymology
Armenian architectural historian Samvel Karapetyan has written that name Zar is the Turkish pronunciation of the settlement's Armenian name Tsar which, due to its size, was still being referred to as Metzn Tzar (Great Tzar) as late as the eighteenth century.A popular Azeri legend gives an alternative origin. A poor young man named Zasa once lived in this village. He was in love with a girl named Nasy whose parents did not approve of their relationship. Zasa then decided to ask Nadir Shah for help. He planted a watermelon in a jar with a narrow neck. The surprised shah liked it and ordered Nasy to be given to Zasa. However, as soon as Nadir Shah left town, Nasy's family went to Zasa's house, killed him and threw his body into a well. After that, Zasa's mother wept for many days. The name Zar was said to have be derived from this legend because the Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
word zarıldamaq (zaryldamag) translates as "to sob."
History
Zar's history goes back to the early medieval period, when it was the administrative center of the ArtsakhArtsakh
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...
province's canton of Tsar (which, until the eleventh to twelfth centuries, went by the name of Vaykunik'). In the fourteenth century, the Armenian Dop'ian family established themselves in Tsar and remained there until their fortresses were devastated by the invasions of Tamerlane. But the Armenian lords were able to recover by the fifteenth century, when Tsar was made the center for the Armenian melik
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...
s of Upper Khachen. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the town was enclosed by a line of walls and other defensive fortifications. In the 1730s and 1750s, a large number of Turkic tribes and Kurds from Iran established themselves in Tsar and subsequently renamed the village Zar. In the early nineteenth century, the village was attacked and pillaged by the armies of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
Despite its ruinous state, in the late 1890s the scholar-bishop Makar Barkhudaryants was able to travel to Tsar and photograph the ruins of the monastery of the Holy Virgin (built in 1225), the chapels of Sts. Sargis and Grigor (built in 1274) and other medieval-era monuments (largely dating to the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries).
Karapetyan has written that the Armenian monuments in Tsar (monasteries, churches and cemeteries) started to be destroyed by Kurds at the end of the nineteenth century, and that the destruction continued on a larger scale during the Soviet period and especially during the 1940s and 1950s. In particular, he documented that a school built in Zar in the 1950s was constructed using stones taken from the fourteenth century Getamijo Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Virgin of the Confluence) monastery that had stood at the edge of Tzar: he identified 133 carved or inscribed stone fragments reused within the walls of the school.
The village fell under the control of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in 1993.
Further reading
- Karapetyan, Samvel. Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh. Trans. Anahit Martirossian. Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing House of NAS RAA, 2001. Ulubabyan, BagratBagrat UlubabyanBagrat Arshaki Ulubabyan was an Armenian writer and historian, known most prominently for his work on the histories of Nagorno-Karabakh and Artsakh.-Early life and education:...
. Խաչենի իշխանությունը, X-XVI դարերում (The Principality of Khachen, From the 10th to 16th centuries). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1975.