Lupenians Explained

The Lupenians 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] They had a main settlement or city which is only known by the foreign names ('[capital] city of the Lupenians' in Armenian) and ('Loubion village' in Greek). 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 and have been suggested as one of the 26 constitutive groups of the Caucasian Albanian kingdom.^[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. 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. Russian historian Igor Semenov put their location near Layzan. Most recently, Murtazali Gadjiev proposed the Shakki region (Georgian Hereti) as the location of the Lupenians.^[8]

Society

The tribe was headed by a chief, whose title is indirectly mentioned by Ibn Khordadbeh as Lbinshāh. This was a title used by the Sasanian king Khosrow I to honor the ruler of the Lupenians.

References

1. Book: Pliny the Elder. Pliny the Elder. 1942. Natural History, Volume II: Books 3–7. H.. Rackham. Loeb Classical Library 352. Harvard University Press. 358–359 (VI, 29). 10.4159/dlcl.pliny_elder-natural_history.1938.
2. Book: Anonymus Ravennas. Cosmographia et Guidonis geographica: Ex libris manu scriptis ediderunt M. Pinder et G. Parthey. Accedit tabula. 1860. Fr. Nicolai (G. Parthey). 68. la.
3. Hewsen. Robert H.. Robert H. Hewsen. On the Location of the Lupenians, A Vanished People of Southeast Caucasia . 1997. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 50. 1/3. 111–116. 23658211 . 0001-6446.
4. Book: Vladimir Minorsky. C. E. Bosworth. Minorsky. V. V.. Hudud al-'Alam 'The Regions of the World' - A Persian Geography 372 A.H. (982 AD). Bosworth. C. E.. 31 January 2015. Gibb Memorial Trust. 978-1-909724-73-0. 454.
5. Book: Schulze, Wolfgang. Peter-Arnold . Mumm . Sprachen, Völker und Phantome . https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110601268-008/html. Caucasian Albanian and the Question of Language and Ethnicity. 22 October 2018. 275–312 . De Gruyter. 978-3-11-060126-8. 10.1515/9783110601268-008. 158465873 .
6. Suren Yeremian. Yeremian. Suren. 1939. Moiseĭ Kalankatuĭskiĭ o posolʹstve albanskogo kniazia Varaz-Trdata k khazarskomu khakanu Alp-Ilitveru. ru: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. Zapiski Instituta Vostokovedeniia Akademii Nauk SSSR. 7. 150.
7. Book: Movsēs Dasxuranc̣i. Movses Kaghankatvatsi. The History of the Caucasian Albanians. Dowsett. C. J. F. 1961. Oxford University Press. London and New York. 154. 445781.
8. Book: Gadjiev, Murtazali . Murtazali Gadjiev . The Mission of Bishop Israyēl in the Context of the Historical Geography of Caucasian Albania . https://www.academia.edu/43005915 . From Caucasian Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus between Antiquity and Medieval Islam (ca. 330 BCE–1000 CE). Rodert G. . Hoyland. Piscataway. Gorgias Press. 2020. 101–120.