It is uncertain how the Mihranids became Arranshahs (princes of Albania). Their ancestor, Mihran, was said to have received the region of
Gardman by the Sasanian monarch
Khosrow II (
r. 590–628).[4] In
c. 600, the Mihranids who exterminated all of the members of the Aranshahik dynasty with the exception of a certain Zarmihr, who was related to the Mihranids through marriage.[5] This was due to the Aranshahiks still having some authority in Albania,[5] which they had originally ruled until their overthrow in the 1st-century.[6] The Mihranids then conquered all of Albania and assumed the title of Arranshah, but without embracing its royal status.[7][5] The head of the family's full titulature was thus "Lord of Gardman and Prince of Albania".[8]
Subsequently
Sahl Smbatean, a descendant of the aforementioned Arranshahik (Eṙanšahik) family, assumed the title of Arranshah[9] and ruled significant part of Caucasian Albania.
Bosworth, C. E. (1986).
"Arrān". In
Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume II/5: Armenia and Iran IV–Art in Iran I. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 520–522.
ISBN978-0-71009-105-5.
Howard-Johnston, James (2020). "Caucasian Albania and its historian". In Hoyland, Robert (ed.). From Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds (ca. 330 BCE–1000 CE). Gorgias Press. pp. 351–371.
ISBN978-1463239886.
Vacca, Alison (2020). "Buldān al-Rān: The Many Definitions of Caucasian Albania in The Early Abbasid Period". In Hoyland, Robert (ed.). From Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds (ca. 330 BCE–1000 CE). Gorgias Press. pp. 37–85.
ISBN978-1463239886.