Battle of Avarayr

Battle of Avarayr
A 15th century Armenian miniature depicting the battle
Date 26 May 451 Location Avarayr Plain, Canton of Artaz, Vaspurakan, Greater Armenia (modern-day Chors, Chaypareh County, West Azarbaijan Province, Iran) Result PyrrhicSassanid military victory
Belligerents
Sassanid Empire Pro-Sassanid Armenians	Christian Armenian rebels
Commanders and leaders
Mushkin Niusalavurd Mihr Narseh Izad Gushnasp Ashtat	Vartan Mamikonian † Ghevond Vanandetsi
Strength
80,000 Sassanids Unknown number of elephants 60,000-20,000 pro-Sassanid Armenians	66,000 Armenian rebels
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Heavy

Coordinates: 39°20′19.65″N 45°3′25.53″E / 39.3387917°N 45.0570917°E / 39.3387917; 45.0570917

The Battle of Avarayr (Armenian: Ավարայրի ճակատամարտ Avarayri čakatamart) was fought on 26 May 451 AD on the Avarayr Plain in Vaspurakan, between the Armenian Army under Vardan Mamikonian and Sassanid Persia. Although the Persians were victorious on the battlefield itself, the battle proved to be a major strategic victory for Armenians, as Avarayr paved the way to the Nvarsak Treaty (484 AD), which affirmed Armenia's right to practice Christianity freely.

The battle is widely seen as one of the most significant events in Armenian history. The commander of the Armenian forces, Vardan Mamikonian, is considered a national hero.

The Kingdom of Armenia under the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia was the first nation to officially convert to Christianity, in 301 AD under Tiridates III. In 428, Armenian nobles petitioned Bahram V to depose Artaxias IV (Artashir IV). As a result, the country became a Sassanid dependency with a Sassanid governor. The Armenian nobles initially welcomed Persian rule, provided they were allowed to practice Christianity; but Yazdegerd II, concerned that the Armenian Church was hierarchically dependent on the Latin- and Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Church (aligned with Rome and Constantinople rather than the Aramaic-speaking, Persian-backed Nestorian Church) tried to compel the Armenian Church to abandon Rome and Byzantium in favor of the Nestorians or simply convert to Zoroastrianism. He summoned the leading Armenian nobles to Ctesiphon, and pressured them into cutting their ties with the Orthodox Church as he had intended. Yazdegerd II himself was a Zoroastrian rather than a Christian, and his concern was not enforcing a Nestorian orthodoxy but securing political loyalty.

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