Dzhevanshir

Date of birth unknown; died in 670. Prince of Caucasian Albania (638-70), of the Mekhranid dynasty.

During the reign of Dzhevanshir, the Arabs began their conquest of Caucasian Albania. Together with the Armenian prince Mushegh Mamikonian and Grigorii, the sovereign of Siunik, Dzhevanshir participated in the battle against the Arabs at Qadisiya (637) on the side of the Sassanid forces. In 660 he concluded a treaty with Byzantium against the Arab caliphate. In 667, under the threat of attacks by the Arabs from the south and by the Khazars from the north, Dzhevanshir acknowledged himself a vassal of the caliphate. Dzhevanshir was killed as a result of a conspiracy of powerful feudal lords fighting against the centralized princely power.