Mamia IV Dadiani

Last updated April 21, 2019

Mamia IV Dadiani (Georgian :მამია IV დადიანი; died 1590) was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1573 to 1578 and again from 1582 until his death. He was a younger son of Levan I Dadiani.

Georgian is a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians. It is the official language of Georgia. Georgian is written in its own writing system, the Georgian script. Georgian is the literary language for all regional subgroups of Georgians, including those who speak other Kartvelian languages: Svans, Mingrelians and the Laz.

The Principality of Mingrelia, also known as Odishi, was a historical state in Georgia ruled by the Dadiani dynasty. Established as an independent Principality in 1557 by Levan I Dadiani as a hereditary mtavari (Prince), it remained independent until it became subject to Imperial Russia in 1803. The principality ultimately came to an end when Prince Niko Dadiani was deposed, and the principality abolished, by Russia in 1867. Prince Niko officially renounced his rights to the throne in 1868.

The House of Dadiani was a Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Samegrelo (Mingrelia) or Odishi.

Mamia Dadiani's career unfolded against the background of an increasingly destructive civil unrest in the successor states of the Kingdom of Georgia in which the rulers of Mingrelia, in the former kingdom's west, played a critical role. His first accession to power was the result of a coup against his own brother, Giorgi III Dadiani, with whom he eventually reconciled in exchange of new estates. His second term, after succeeding on the death of Giorgi III Dadiani, was consumed by wars with his in-laws, the prince of Guria and king of Imereti. The latter, Levan of Imereti, fell in Mamia's hands and died in captivity. Dadiani himself died without seeing his protégé firmly established on the throne of Imereti. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Manuchar I Dadiani.

The Kingdom of Georgia, also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy which emerged circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from 11th to 13th centuries. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East, her pan-Caucasian empire stretching, at its largest extent, from Eastern Europe and the North Caucasus to the northern portion of Iran and Anatolia, while also maintaining religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and the Monastery of Iviron in Greece. It was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.

Giorgi III Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1572 to 1573 and again from 1578 until his death. He was a son and successor of Levan I Dadiani.

The Principality of Guria was a historical state in Georgia. Centered on modern-day Guria, a southwestern region in Georgia, it was located between the Black Sea and Lesser Caucasus, and was ruled by a succession of twenty-two princes of the House of Gurieli from the 1460s to 1829. The principality emerged during the process of fragmentation of a unified Kingdom of Georgia. Its boundaries fluctuated in the course of permanent conflicts with neighboring Georgian rulers and Ottoman Empire, and the principality enjoyed various degrees of autonomy until being annexed by Imperial Russia in 1829.

Career

Early life and first rule

Mamia IV Dadiani was a son of Levan I Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, and younger brother of Levan's successor, Giorgi III Dadiani. He was married to a daughter of Rostom Gurieli, Prince of Guria. In 1573 or, according to the historian Cyril Toumanoff, in 1574,^[1] Mamia deposed his brother with the support of Giorgi Dadiani's old foe and his brother-in-law Giorgi II Gurieli, Prince of Guria, and assumed control of Mingrelia. Giorgi Dadiani fled to Abkhazia and employed the Abkhaz-Circassian forces to reclaim the throne, but Gurieli's army successfully protected Mamia. Giorgi Dadiani, in despair, solicited King George II of Imereti for mediation. A subsequent peace deal brokered by the king restored Giorgi III Dadiani and granted to Mamia Sachilao, the former possessions of the Chiladze noble family, in fief.^[2]^[3]

Rostom Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1534 until his death in 1564. Alongside his royal suzerain, Bagrat III of Imereti, Rostom fought against the expanding Ottoman Empire to which he lost parts of his principality. Rostom's relations with Bagrat III subsequently deteriorated over his support to the king's defiant vassal, Levan I Dadiani.

Cyril Leo Heraclius, Prince Toumanoff was a Russian-born American historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, Iran and the Byzantine Empire. His works have significantly influenced the Western scholarship of the medieval Caucasus.

Giorgi II Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1564 to 1583 and again from 1587 to 1600. Succeeding on the death of his father Rostom Gurieli, Giorgi's rule over his small principality, located in southwest Georgia, was a period of conflict with the neighboring Dadiani of Mingrelia and increasing assertiveness of the Ottomans whom Gurieli submitted in 1581. His reign was interrupted, from 1583 to 1587, by a Mingrelian invasion, but Giorgi was able to resume the throne with Ottoman support.

Second rule

Mamia regained the government of Mingrelia after his brother's death in 1582, whereupon he instigated Gurieli to incarcerate the late Dadiani's underage son Levan. The boy could not tolerate confinement and, while trying to escape, jumped out of window to his death. The ambitious Dadiani then exploited the incident to attack Guria in 1583. Giorgi Gurieli was defeated and fled to Constantinople. He was able to reclaim his principality with the Ottoman support and depose Mamia's candidate, Vakhtang Gurieli, in 1587.^[2]^[3]

Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), of the Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Crusader state known as the Latin Empire (1204–1261), until finally falling to the Ottoman Empire (1453–1923). It was reinaugurated in 324 from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, and dedicated on 11 May 330. The city was located in what is now the European side and the core of modern Istanbul.

The Ottoman Empire, historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Mamia Dadiani then went ahead to extend his influence to the royal court of Imereti. In 1586, he married off his sister Marekh to the young king of Imereti, Levan. In 1588, however, when Levan was attacked by his counterpart from eastern Georgia, King Simon I of Kartli, Dadiani, preoccupied with his own disputes with Gurieli, ignored the king's call to arms. Levan, once recovered from the attack, warred with Dadiani. Mamia advanced and defeated the king in his capital, Kutaisi. Levan was taken prisoner by his victorious brother-in-law and cast in the Skhepi castle, where he died in 1590. Dadiani and Gurieli then advanced rival claimants to the throne of Imereti, Rostom and Bagrat, respectively. Imereti became engulfed in a civil war, which was still raging when Mamia died in 1590, being succeeded by his younger brother, Manuchar I.^[2]^[3]

Simon I the Great also known as Svimon (1537–1611), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a Georgian king of Kartli from 1556 to 1569 and again from 1578 to 1599. His first tenure was marked by war against the Persian domination of Georgia. In 1569 he was captured by the Persians, and spent nine years in captivity. In 1578 he was released and reinstalled in Kartli. During this period, he fought as a Persian subject against the Ottoman domination of Georgia. In 1599 Simon I was captured by the Ottomans and died in captivity. During 1557 to 1569 he was known as Mahmud Khan and from 1578 to 1599 as Shahnavaz Khan

Kutaisi is the 3rd most populous city in Georgia, traditionally, second in importance, after the capital city of Tbilisi. Situated 221 kilometres west of Tbilisi, on the Rioni River, it is the capital of the western region of Imereti. Historically one of the major cities of Georgia, it served as the capital of the Kingdom of Georgia in the Middle Ages, and later as the capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. From October 2012 to December 2018, Kutaisi briefly was the seat of the Parliament of Georgia as an effort to decentralise the Georgian government.

Rostom (1571–1605), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Imereti in the periods of 1588–1589 and 1590–1605. A son of Constantine, sometime claimant to the crown of Imereti, he was raised to the throne through the support of Mamia IV Dadiani, prince of Mingrelia, who had deposed King Leon of Imereti in 1588. Rostom’s authority was defied, however, by his ostensible vassal Giorgi II Gurieli, prince of Guria, who employed an Ottoman force to dethrone the king in favor of Rostom’s relative Bagrat IV. Rostom fled to Mingrelia, from where he continued struggle for the crown. The eastern Georgian king Simon I of Kartli exploited the situation and brought most of Imereti under his control. Rostom fled to Mingrelia, with Manuchar I Dadiani, who rejected Simon's ultimatum and moved into Imereti. He defeated Simon at Opshkviti and ousted him from Imereti in 1590. Rostom was reinstated as king of Imereti and made peace with Simon. His authority was largely nominal though, and the power was effectively held by an aristocratic élite, notably by the prince of Mingrelia. Rostom died childless in 1605 and was succeeded by his half-brother George III.

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Giorgi V Gurieli, of the western Georgian House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1756 to 1758 and again from 1765 to 1771 and from 1776 to 1788.

References

↑ Grebelsky, P. Kh.; Dumin, S.V.; Lapin, V.V. (1993). Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 4: Князья Царства Грузинского[Noble families of the Russian Empire. Vol. 4: Princes of the Kingdom of Georgia] (in Russian). Vesti. pp. 46–47.
1 2 3 Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T., ed. История Царства Грузинского [History of the Kingdom of Georgia](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. pp. 134–136.
1 2 3 Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 175–179. ISBN 1780230303.

Regnal titles
Mamia IV Dadiani House of Dadiani Born: ? Died: 1590
Preceded by Giorgi III Dadiani	Prince of Mingrelia 1573–1578	Succeeded by Giorgi III Dadiani
Preceded by Giorgi III Dadiani	Prince of Mingrelia 1582–1590	Succeeded by Manuchar I Dadiani

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[DRRI4-1] Grebelsky, P. Kh.; Dumin, S.V.; Lapin, V.V. (1993). Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 4: Князья Царства Грузинского[Noble families of the Russian Empire. Vol. 4: Princes of the Kingdom of Georgia] (in Russian). Vesti. pp. 46–47.

[Vakh-2] 1 2 3 Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T., ed. История Царства Грузинского [History of the Kingdom of Georgia](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. pp. 134–136.

[rayfield-3] 1 2 3 Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 175–179. ISBN 1780230303.