It was ceded to Caucasian Albania following the partition of Armenia between Sassanid Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire in 387 AD.

[5] In Suren Yeremian's view, the name originally referred to the district of Uti Arandznak ('Uti Proper'), where the Utian (utiats’i) tribe lived, and was later applied to the larger province.

[6] It is identified with the place names Otene in Ptolemy's Geography, Otenon in the Latin Ravenna Cosmography,[7] Otena by Pliny,[8] and Ūdh in the Arabic history Futuh al-Buldan by al-Baladhuri.

[9] It is unknown whether this reflects some Albanian or Armenian administrative situation (for example, the primacy of the princes of Utik over the other two) or the decision of the author of the Ashkharhatsuyts to merge the principalities into one province for simplicity's sake.

[c] Yeremian places the city of Ainiana, mentioned by Strabo as being located in Ouitia, at the site of modern Aghdam, but, in Hewsen's view, this is also uncertain.

Herodotus reports that the Outians were located in the fourteenth satrapy of that empire and that they formed part of the Persian army together with the Mykoi at Doriscus.

[33] Some Armenian scholars like Babken Harutiunian[9][5] and Asatur Mnatsakanian[33] believe that Syunik and Utik were already controlled by Armenia under the Orontid dynasty and were reconquered by Artaxias I, but Hewsen writes that there is no evidence to support this claim.

[9][e] Utik remained a part of Armenia for some 500 years after Artaxias's conquest,[7] although the Armenian-Albanian boundary along the Kura River was often overrun by armies of both countries.

[24] In 387 AD,[24] the Sassanid Empire helped the Albanians to seize from the Kingdom of Armenia a number of provinces, including Utik.

[36] The princes of Utik, who formed part of the Armenian nobility, remained as rulers the province under Albanian and, later, Arab rule.

[40] However, different views exist about the exact relationship between the ancient groups called some variation of Udi/Uti, the modern-day Udis, and the toponym Utik.

The issue has occupied a prominent place in the disputes between Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars about the history of Caucasian Albania and the historical eastern regions of Armenia.

The territory of western Utik was the site of many important centers of medieval Armenian culture and learning, such as the monastic schools of Khoranashat and Kayenadzor.

Later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Armenians largely left the flatlands of historical Utik for nearby mountainous areas and foothills, as well as the urban center of Ganja.