Origins
Movses Kaghankatvatsi wrote that Sahl Smbatjan was a descendant of the ancient Armenian House of Aranshahik (itself a branch of the Syunid dynasty). This dynasty had a blood feud with the Mihranid dynasty,. According to tradition, in the beginning of the 7th century the Mihranids had invited 60 men of the Aranshahiks to a banquet and had killed them all, with the exception of Zarmihr Aranshahik, who had married a Mihranid princess. Hence the Mihranid family had becomen princes of Gardman and presiding princes of all Caucasian Albania. Sahl Smbatjan was a descendant of Zarmihr Aranshahik.
Hence the House of Khachen is regarded as a cadet branch of the House of Aranshahik. Although some historians make a difference between Sahl of Shaki and Sahak of Syunik. According to the historian Robert H. Hewsen, Sahl was a Syunid prince, who seized Gegharkunik from Syunid family domains and established a princedom for himself.
When Sahl came to power, the Mihranid family's power was already weakening. In 822 the last heir of this family, princess Spram Mihranian, married Sahl's son Atrnerseh I in the fortress of Khachen. Subsequently the new princedom expanded to the east and included Artsakh and Gardman.
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