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This article is about the dynasty. There is also a Kurdish tribal federation by the name of Mihrani

The Mihranids were the ruling dynasty of Caucasian Albania. They claimed to be of Sassanian Persian descent but were probably of Parthian origin.

The dynasty was founded when certain Mihran, a distant relative of Sasanids, settled in the region of Gardman in Utik. He was probably a member of a branch of the Mihranid family which was listed among the Seven Great Houses of Iran, and whose two other lines ruled Iberia (Chosroid Dynasty) and Gogarene. Mihran's family came to power, when Mihran's great-grandson killed almost all the members of the previous ruling dynasty – the "ancient Armenian line of Erranshahik" ("Haykazean (Haykid) Eranshahik" in the Russian translation) – and became the ruler of the country. However, according to other scholars, "Haykid" is just a reference to the immemorial origin of the dynasty, i.e. that it had been sovereign for so long that no one remembered its origin.

The most prominent representatives of the family in the 7th century were Varaz-Grigor, his son Javanshir, and Varaz-Trdat I. Mihranids assumed a Persian title of Arranshahs (i.e. shahs of Arran, Persian name of Albania). The family's rule came to an end after the assassination of Varaz-Trdat II by Nerseh Pilippean in 822-23.

Subsequently Sahl Smbatean, a descendant of the old Haykazuni-Arranshahik Family, assumed the title of Arranshah and ruled significant part of Caucasian Albania.

References

1. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica. C. E. Bosworth. Arran
2. Encyclopedia Iranica. M. L. Chaumont. Albania.
3. Toumanoff, Cyril. Chronology of the Early Kings of Iberia. Traditio 25 (1969), p. 22.
4. Movses Kaghankatvatsi. The History of the Caucasian Albanians. Translated by Charles Dowsett. London: Oxford University Press, 1961, II.17, p. 108.
5. Template:Ru icon Movses Kaghankatvatsi, History of Aghvank. Book II, chapter XVII. About the tribe of Mihran, hailing from the family of Khosrow the Sasanian, who became the ruler of the country of Aghvank.
6. Robert H. Hewsen, "Ethno-History and the Armenian Influence upon the Caucasian Albanians," in Thomas J. Samuelian, ed., Classical Armenian Culture: Influences and Creativity. Pennsylvania: Scholars Press, 1982.
7. Template:Ru icon Movses Kaghankatvatsi, History of Aghvank. Book III, chapter XX. About the events that happened in the borders of Aghvank from the beginning of Armenian Era.
8. Template:Ru icon Movses Kaghankatvatsi, History of Aghvank. Book III, chapter XXIII. Brief repetition of the Pedigrees.

• History of Iran
• History of Azerbaijan
• Caucasian Albania