Related Research Articles
The Georgians, or Kartvelians, are a nation and indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, Greece, Iran, Ukraine, United States, and European Union.
Kakheti is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eight administrative districts: Telavi, Gurjaani, Qvareli, Sagarejo, Dedoplistsqaro, Signagi, Lagodekhi and Akhmeta. Kakheti is bordered by the Russian Federation with the adjacent subdivisions, the country of Azerbaijan to the southeast, and with the regions of Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kvemo Kartli to the west. Kakheti has a strong linguistic and cultural identity, since its ethnographic subgroup of Kakhetians speak the Kakhetian dialect of Georgian.
Mirian I was a king of Iberia who reigned in the 2nd century BC. An adopted son of his father-in-law King Sauromaces I, he was a Persian-born prince but governed over Iberia as a member of the Pharnavazid dynasty.
Battle of Shamkor was fought on June 1, 1195 near the city of Shamkor, Arran. The battle was a major victory won by the Georgian army, commanded by David Soslan, over the army of the Eldiguzid ruler of Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr.
The Battle of Aspindza was fought on 20 April 1770 between the Georgians, led by king of Kartli-Kakheti Erekle II, and the Ottoman Empire. The Georgians won a victory over the Turks.
Wallace Augustus Rayfield (1874–1941), was an American architect and educator. He was the second formally educated practicing African American architect in the United States.
David Marshall Lang, was a Professor of Caucasian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was one of the most productive British scholars who specialized in Georgian, Armenian and ancient Bulgarian history.
The Literature of Georgia: A History by Donald Rayfield, professor of Russian and Georgian at the University of London, is the first and the most comprehensive study of the literature of Georgia that has ever appeared in English. The work deals with Georgia's 1,500-year literary tradition from 5th-century hagiographic writings to 20th-century poetry and prose. The book explores the diverse influences which have affected the Georgian literature – from Greek and Persian to Russian and modern European, and the folklore of the Caucasus, and also includes translations of several pieces of the Georgian poetry.
Khorashan was a member of the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty, a daughter of King George X of Kartli and a consort of Teimuraz I of Kakheti, whom she married as his second wife in 1612. She spent more than four decades of her life with Teimuraz, whose eventful reign ended with his final overthrow by a pro-Iranian faction in 1648. Khorashan accompanied him in his flights and comebacks. She was involved in diplomacy and patronized Catholic missionaries.
Nestan-Darejan was queen consort of Kartli, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, as the wife of King Simon I, whom she married in 1559. Nestan-Darejan was a daughter of King Levan of Kakheti and a half-sister of Levan's successor to the throne of Kingdom of Kakheti, Alexander II. Her husband spent nearly five decades fighting the Safavid Iranian and Ottoman encroachments on his kingdom, twice losing his throne and personal freedom. Nestan-Darejan suffered further, being humiliated by his half-brother, the king of Kakheti, who capitalized on Simon's difficulties to attack and loot Kartli. After Simon had been sent a prisoner to Iran in 1569, Nestan-Darejan's estates had been pillaged by Prince Bardzim Amilakhori, Alexander's father-in-law; and in 1580, following Simon's return to Kartli and his defeat by Alexander at Dighomi, the latter carried off after the battle his half-sister's drawers on the point of a lance. Nestan-Darejan outlived her husband and died sometime after 1612, having mothered six children, including Simon's successor to the throne of Kartli, George X.
Teimuraz I was a Georgian tavadi ("prince") of the House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the royal Bagrationi dynasty of Kartli, and Prince (Mukhranbatoni) of Mukhrani from 1580 until his death. At the same time, he was an ex officio commander of the Banner of Shida Kartli and regent of Kartli, from 1623 to 1625, during the rebellion against Safavid Iran. Teimuraz was killed at the battle of Marabda against the Iranian punitive army.
Kaikhosro was a Georgian tavadi ("prince") of the House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the royal Bagrationi dynasty of Kartli. He was Prince (Mukhranbatoni) of Mukhrani, ex officio commander of the Banner of Shida Kartli, and regent of Kartli from 1625 to 1626. During the civil war in 1626, Kaikhosro sided with Giorgi Saakadze against Teimuraz I of Kakheti and followed him into exile in the Ottoman Empire, where they both, after three years of military service, were accused of treason and put to death.
Zurab Aragvis Eristavi, also known as Sohrab Aragvis Eristavi, was a Georgian duke (eristavi) of the Duchy of Aragvi (1619—1629), who initially served the Safavids, and played a leading role in Georgian politics in the first decades of the 17th century. Later, he joined Giorgi Saakadze's anti-Persian uprising in 1625–26, switched sides to join Teimuraz I of Kakheti against Saakadze, but was eventually murdered by his new ally.
Nugzar Aragvis Eristavi was a Georgian duke (eristavi) of the Duchy of Aragvi from 1600 to 1611. He was the nephew of the previous duke, Avtandil I. Nugzar was a boy when his uncle died, and he was still young as well when he got control over the duchy from his "illegitimate cousins". In his early years as duke, Nugzar managed to force Mtiuleti into submission. In 1578, Simon I of Kartli was released from captivity by his Safavid overlords in order to fight the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1578–1590. Some months after however, he took revenge on allies of Nugzar – the eristavi of Ksani as well as the Amilakhori family, in retaliation for their behavior during Simon I's first tenure as ruler of Kartli. In 1580, Simon I defeated Alexander II of Kakheti, whom Nugzar was dependent on, but Nugzar himself apparently managed to evade Simon I's wrath. During David I's brief usurpation of the Kakhetian kingdom (1601-1602), Nugzar was defeated by David. Soon after however, Nugzar switched his allegiance to George X of Kartli. The latter had promised Nugzar a daughter in marriage to his eldest son, Baadur (Bahadur). During the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1603–1618, Safavid king Abbas I summoned George X and Nugzar, but he later sent them both back to Kartli in order to bolster their defences. In 1610, when Nugzar received his son-in-law Giorgi Saakadze (Mūrāv-Beg), he was reportedly the master of all lands situated between the three Aragvi streams. His last appearance in the records is in 1611. Nugzar I had two sons; Baadur and Zurab (Sohrab). Baadur succeeded Nugzar as eristavi of the duchy, who in turn was succeeded by Zurab (1619–1629).
The unification of the Georgian realm was the 10th-century political movement that resulted in the consolidation of various Georgian crowns into a single realm with centralized government in 1008, the Kingdom of Georgia, or Sakartvelo. Originally initiated by the powerful local aristocracy of the eristavs, due to centuries-long power struggles and aggressive wars of succession between the Georgian monarchs, arising from their independent ruling traditions of classical antiquity and its Hellenistic-era monarchical establishments in Colchis and Iberia. The initiative was supported by David III the Great of the Bagrationi dynasty, the most powerful ruler in the Caucasus at the time, who would put prince royal Bagrat, his kin and foster-son, on Iberian throne, who would eventually be crowned as a King of all-Georgia. David's Bagratid successors would become the champions of national unification, just like the Rurikids or the Capetians, but despite their enthusiasm, some of the Georgian polities that had been targeted for unification did not join the unification freely and would actively fight against it throughout this process, mostly seeking help and support from the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. Even though, 1008 unification of the realm would unite most of western and central Georgian lands, the process will continue to the east, and eventually, would reach its total completion under King David IV the Builder. This unprecedented political unification of lands and the meteoric rise of Bagrationi power would inaugurate the Georgian Golden Age and creation of the only medieval pan-Caucasian empire attaining its greatest geographical extent, that would dominate entire Caucasus in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The centralizing power of the crown started to weaken in the 14th century, and even though the tide turned back under King George V the Brilliant, the reunification came up to be short-lived; unified realm would evaporate after invasions of Mongols and Timur that would result in its total collapse in the 15th century.
The Kingdom of Western Georgia was a late medieval de facto independent fragmented part of the Kingdom of Georgia that emerged during the Mongol invasions of the realm, led by King David VI Narin in 1259 and later followed by his successors. Over the decades, the monarchy would fall into chaos and transform into a federation of autonomous principalities unruly of the central or regional royal power and authority.