Lupenians

The Lupenians (Old Armenian: Լփինք, romanized: Lpʿinkʿ, Latin: Lupenii) or Lpins were a historical tribe that lived in modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan in antiquity. The Lupenians were mentioned in several sources in different languages. They are equated with Pliny's Lupenii, dwelling south of the tribe of Silvii (Chola), just next to the Diduri and near the frontier of Caucasian Albania.^[1] Agathangelos renders their name in Greek as Lifénnioi (Greek: Λιφέννιοι). The Ravenna Cosmography mentions their land as "Patria Lepon" situated next to Iberia and the Caspian Sea.^[2] The Tabula Peutingeriana also mentions the Lupenii.^[3] Vladimir Minorsky proposed later Arabic versions as well.^[4] They were probably related to the Caucasian Albanians.^[5]

Location

Scholars Suren Yeremian^[6] and Tengiz Papuashvili proposed Iberia, especially the coast of the Alazan river, as a possible dwelling location of the Lupenians. However, Robert Hewsen opposed the idea and suggested their location as near modern Shamakhi, Azerbaijan, instead.^[3] The Lupenians were visited by Bishop Israel, Albanian emissary to the North Caucasian Huns. The History of the Country of Albania mentions them as people professing the Christian faith.^[7] Likewise, at least two catholicoi of the Caucasian Albanian Church - Ter Abas and Viro - were titled Catholicos of Albania, Lupenia and Chola, hinting at the faith of three neighboring regions.^[3] Russian historian Igor Semenov put their location near Layzan. Most recently, Murtazali Gadjiev proposed the Shakki region as the location of the Lupenians.^[8]

Society

The tribe was headed by a chief, whose title was referred to as Lbinshāh by Ibn Khordadbeh.^[8]

References

1. Pliny the Elder (1938). "Natural History": 358–359. doi:10.4159/dlcl.pliny_elder-natural_history.1938. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
2. Ravennas, Anonymus (1860). Cosmographia et Guidonis geographica: Ex libris manu scriptis ediderunt M. Pinder et G. Parthey. Accedit tabula (in Latin). Fr. Nicolai (G. Parthey). p. 68.
3. Hewsen, Robert H. (1997). "On the Location of the Lupenians, A Vanished People of Southeast Caucasia". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 50 (1/3): 111–116. ISSN 0001-6446. JSTOR 23658211.
4. Minorsky, V. V.; Bosworth, C. E. (2015-01-31). Hudud al-'Alam 'The Regions of the World' - A Persian Geography 372 A.H. (982 AD). Gibb Memorial Trust. p. 454. ISBN 978-1-909724-73-0.
5. Schulze, Wolfgang (2018-10-22). "Caucasian Albanian and the Question of Language and Ethnicity". In Mumm, Peter-Arnold (ed.). Sprachen, Völker und Phantome (in German). De Gruyter. pp. 275–312. doi:10.1515/9783110601268-008. ISBN 978-3-11-060126-8. S2CID 158465873.
6. Yeremian, Suren (1939). "Моисей Каланкатуйский о посольстве албанского князя Вараз-Трдата к хазарскому хакану Алп-Илитверу" [Moses Kaghankatvatsi about the embassy of the Albanian prince Varaz-Trdat to the Khazar khagan Alp-Ilitver] (PDF). Записки Института востоковедения Академии наук СССР. 7. Издательство Академии наук СССР: 150.
7. Movses; Dowsett, C. J. F (1961). The history of the Caucasian Albanians. London; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 154. OCLC 445781.
8. Murtazali, Gadjiev. "The Mission of Bishop Israyĕl in the Context of Historical Geography of Caucasian Albania". From Caucasian Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus be-tween Antiquity and Medieval Islam (C. 300 BCE – 1000 AD). Ed. By Rodert G. Hoyland. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2020. P. 101-120.