Aran is the legendary forefather of the Albanians in the Armenian historiographic tradition. Movses Khorenatsi makes him a descendant of the patriarch Hayk through Sisak, appointed by the Arsacid king Vałarsh (Vologases) as governor of the plains and mountains bordering Armenia to the northeast; from him the Aranshahik dynasty and the people of Aghvank are said to descend. The name of the land, Ałuankʿ, is derived by both Khorenatsi and Movses Dasxurantsi from Aran's by-name ału, 'gentle', so that the eponym and the ethnonym are bound together in a single origin legend.