Mamia IV Gurieli

Last updated April 21, 2019

Mamia IV Gurieli (Georgian :მამია IV გურიელი) (died 1778 or 1784), of the western Georgian House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1726 to 1756 and again from 1758 to 1765 and from 1771 to 1776. Intermissions of his rule was the result of Mamia's rivalry with his younger brother, Giorgi V Gurieli, and complex political situation in the region, including the Ottoman encroachments and efforts by the kings of Imereti to bring western Georgian polities under their supreme authority.

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 House of Gurieli was a Georgian princely (mtavari) family and a ruling dynasty (dukes) of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal rulers of the dynasty also rose in the 17th-18th centuries to be kings of the whole western Caucasus in place of the hereditary Bagrationi kings of Imereti.

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.

Early rule

Mamia was the eldest son of Giorgi IV Gurieli, Prince of Guria, by his wife, Elene née Shervashidze-Eristavi. He was born before 1717, the year when Giorgi divorced Elene in order to marry Khvaramze, daughter of Bezhan Dadiani of Mingrelia. Mamia succeeded on the death of his father in 1726. In 1732, he forged an alliance with King Alexander V of Imereti, marrying the king's daughter Rodam, and rendered support to Alexander against the coalition of western Georgian nobles led by Otia Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, Grigol, Duke of Racha, and Zurab Abashidze, who intended to place Alexander's brother Mamuka on the throne of Imereti. Alexander and Mamia won the bloody encounter at Chikhori.^[1]

Guriis Eristavi or Eristavi of Guria, was a Georgian noble family, a branch of the Shervashidze, dynasts in Abkhazia. Their surname derives from the title of eristavi ("duke") the family held under the suzerainty of the reigning princes of Guria in southwest Georgia. In the 18th century the family bore the name Eristavi-Sharvashidze (ერისთავი-შერვაშიძე). In 1850, the family was received among the princely nobility of the Russian Empire as knyaz Eristov-Guriisky.

Bezhan Dadiani, of the House of Dadiani, was Prince of Mingrelia from 1715 to 1728. He acceded to power in a coup against his own father, Giorgi IV Dadiani, and came to dominate western Georgian politics by asserting tutelage over King Alexander V of Imereti until being murdered by Ottoman agents.

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.

Deposition and comeback

Mamia's relations with Alexander's son and successor, Solomon I, was initially hostile. His involvement in an ultimately unsuccessful coup against Solomon in 1752 cost him the throne of Guria: Solomon returned with Ottoman support in 1756 and deposed Mamia in favor of his younger brother, Giorgi V Gurieli.^[2]^[3] Mamia fled to the mountains of Racha and eventually crossed into eastern Georgia to solicit support from the resurgent king Heraclius II of Kakheti. Through Heraclius's intercession, Mamia garnered favor with the Ottoman pasha of Akhaltsikhe and was restored in Guria in 1758. He reconciled with Solomon and took part in his struggle against the Ottoman encroachments and slave-trading. In 1765, the pasha of Akhaltsikhe overthrew Mamia and replaced him with his more amenable brother, Giorgi V Gurieli.^[2]

Solomon I, "the Great",, of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was King of Imereti from 1752 to 1766 and again from 1768 until his death in 1784.

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.

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1767–1774, Solomon invaded Guria, defeated an Ottoman force marching from Batumi to Imereti, and restored Mamia in his principality. The relations between the two rulers quickly soured as Solomon sought to assert his supremacy in all of western Georgia. In 1775, he twice raided Guria. Mamia's brother and rival Giorgi exploited the instability and forced Mamia into retirement to a monastery.^[2] Mamia died in 1784^[2] (or 1778^[4] according to Cyril Toumanoff).

The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 was an armed conflict that brought Kabardia, the part of the Yedisan between the rivers Bug and Dnieper, and Crimea into the Russian sphere of influence. Though the victories accrued by the Russian Empire were substantial, they gained far less territory than otherwise would be expected. The reason for this was the complex struggle within the European diplomatic system for a balance of power that was acceptable to other European leading states, rather than Russian hegemony. Russia was able to take advantage of the weakened Ottoman Empire, the end of the Seven Years' War, and the withdrawal of France as the continent's primary military power. This left the Russian Empire in a strengthened position to expand its territory but also lose temporary hegemony over the decentralized Poland. The greater Turkish losses were diplomatic in nature seeing its full decline as a threat to Christian Europe, and the beginning of the Eastern Question that would plague the continent until the end of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

Batumi is the capital of Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the second-largest city of Georgia, located on the coast of the Black Sea in the country's southwest. It is situated in a Subtropical Zone at the foot of Caucasus. Much of Batumi's economy revolves around tourism and gambling, but the city is also an important sea port and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town.

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.

Family

Mamia was married twice, first to Rodam, Princess of Imereti, and then to a noblewoman Tavdgiridze. He had three children:^[4]

The Tavdgiridze is a Georgian noble family, known since the 14th century. They hailed from the southern provinces of Georgia which fell under the Ottoman rule in the 16th century. This forced many of the Tavdgiridze to relocate to relatively safer areas such as Kartli, Imereti, and Guria. In the latter province, in the 17th century, the family was bestowed by the local ruling prince Giorgi III Gurieli with an estate in Lower Guria and the hereditary office of Chief Bailiff (bok’auli). The Ottoman expansion into Lower Guria in the 1770s divided the Tavdgiridze family along religious lines. Mamuka Tavdgiridze and his household fled the Ottomans in the north of Guria. His Christian descendants received among the princely nobility of the Russian Empire in 1850. One of Mamuka’s sons, Maxime, became Muslim, adopted the name of Süleyman and was conferred by the Ottoman government with the sanjak of Çürüksu (Kobuleti). His descendants remained loyal local rulers to the Ottoman Empire, fighting the Russians in the wars of 1853-6 and 1877-8. One of these, Hasan-Bey was killed in 1854, while Ali-Paşa and Osman-Paşa had to resettle to Turkey as muhajirs in 1878. Hasan and Ali are satirized in local folk songs of Guria.

Princess Darejan (died 1813), married to Prince Mkheidze;
Prince Giorgi, who died very young;
Princess Tamar.

Mkheidze, originally Mkhetsidze (მხეციძე), also Pkheidze (ფხეიძე), Kheidze (ხეიძე), Mkhetsia (მხეცია), and Khetsia (ხეცია), is a Georgian noble family, known from the eleventh century. This house, centered at the western district of Argveti, has survived to the end of the Georgian kingdoms and the Russian Empire which granted them recognition of their princely title in 1850.

Related Research Articles

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Vakhtang I Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1583 to 1587. He ruled Guria, a small state in southwestern Georgia, as a client of Mamia IV Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, who had deposed Giorgi II Gurieli. Vakhtang was one of the sponsors of the Shemokmedi Monastery, Guria's principal cathedral.

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References

↑ Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T., ed. История Царства Грузинского [History of the Kingdom of Georgia](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 164.
1 2 3 4 Chkhataraishvili, K. (1983). "მამია IV გურიელი [Mamia IV Gurieli]". ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია, ტ. 6[Georgian Soviet Encylopaedia, vol. 6] (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 396.
↑ Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. p. 239. ISBN 1780230303.
1 2 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. 39–41.

Regnal titles
Mamia IV Gurieli House of Gurieli
Preceded by Giorgi IV Gurieli	Prince of Guria 1726–1756	Succeeded by Giorgi V Gurieli
Preceded by Giorgi V Gurieli	Prince of Guria 1758–1765	Succeeded by Giorgi V Gurieli
Preceded by Giorgi V Gurieli	Prince of Guria 1771–1776	Succeeded by Giorgi V Gurieli

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[Vakh-1] Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T., ed. История Царства Грузинского [History of the Kingdom of Georgia](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 164.

[GSE-2] 1 2 3 4 Chkhataraishvili, K. (1983). "მამია IV გურიელი [Mamia IV Gurieli]". ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია, ტ. 6[Georgian Soviet Encylopaedia, vol. 6] (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 396.

[rayfield-3] Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. p. 239. ISBN 1780230303.

[DRRI-4] 1 2 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. 39–41.