Bidaxsh

Bidaxsh (bidakhsh, also spelled Pitiakhsh; in Roman sources Vitaxa) was a title of Iranian origin attested in various languages from the 1st to the 8th-century.[1] It has no identical word in English, but it is similar to a margrave, toparch and marcher lord.[2] The etymology of the term is disputed, and it has been interpreted as literally meaning "the eye of the king," "second ruler" or "vice king."[1] The word was borrowed into Armenian as Bdeašx (բդեաշխ), and into Georgian as Pitiaxshi (პიტიახში) and Patiaxshi (პატიახში).[3]

The title was prominent in Armenia and Georgia, being used by the military governor of a province, and being the hereditary title of the dynasts of Gugark.[1][4] The Armenian sources mention four bdeašxs in the Kingdom of Greater Armenia, who are referred to by different names.[5] Those four were the bdeašxs of Nor Shirakan (New Siracene), Aghdznik (Arzanene), Tsopk (Sophene), and Gugark (Gogarene).[5] According to Cyril Toumanoff, the bdeašxs of Armenia likely emerged in connection with the conquests of Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55 BC) as viceroys tasked with protecting the newly-conquered border territories.[6]

References
  1. Sundermann 1989, pp. 242–244.
  2. Rapp 2014, p. 62.
  3. Rapp 2014, p. 58.
  4. Aleksidze 2018.
  5. Toumanoff 1963, p. 163.
  6. Toumanoff 1963, p. 155.

Sources
  • Aleksidze, Nikoloz (2018). "Pitiakhsh". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
  • Rapp, Stephen H. (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Routledge. ISBN 978-1472425522.
  • Sundermann, Werner (1989). "Bidaxš". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 3. pp. 242–244.
  • Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Georgetown University Press.

Further reading
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