[3] In 841, for instance, Bagrat had the Armenian bishops depose the Catholicos of Armenia, John IV, but he was promptly re-installed in his see by Smbat with the assistance of the other princes.
[6] Nevertheless, the Armenian princes were able to use the Caliphate's preoccupation with the Khurramite rebellion of Babak Khorramdin to achieve a significant degree of autonomy during this period.
[9][10] In 841, on the other hand, under the leadership of the sparapet Smbat, the Armenians revolted against the appointment as caliphal governor of Khalid ibn Yazid al-Shaybani, who in his previous tenures had become enormously unpopular among both the Christian and the Arab princes of the country.
The rebels achieved his recall by the Caliph and his replacement with the weaker and more pliant Ali ibn Husayn, to whom the Armenians not only refused to hand over the expected taxes, but whom they promptly blockaded in his capital, Bardaa.
The arrival of the Abbasid army in his lands led Ashot Artsruni to prefer a separate peace with the Arabs, forcing Bagrat too to enter into negotiations with Yusuf.
Over the course of three years, Bugha methodically re-occupied and subdued the whole province of Arminiya, from the southern regions of Taron and Vaspurakan up to the principalities of Caucasian Albania and most of Iberia in the north.
The princes of Armenia remained divided and focused on their own personal rivalries, facilitating the Abbasid re-conquest by fighting alongside the Caliph's troops and handing over their rivals into captivity.