Mamia I Gurieli

Last updated April 21, 2019

Mamia I Gurieli (Georgian :მამია I გურიელი; died 1534), of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1512 until his death in 1534. Succeeding on the death of his father Giorgi I Gurieli, Mamia became involved in the conflict between the two eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti in 1520; by force of arms, he compelled David X of Kartli to agree on peace with Levan of Kakheti, his son-in-law. Mamia Gurieli's 1533 campaign, jointly with his namesake Prince of Mingrelia, against the homebase of Circassian pirates ended in a fiasco, with Mamia being captured and ransomed later that year.

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.

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.

Accession and early rule

Mamia was a son of Giorgi I Gurieli, on whose death he succeeded as mtavari ("prince") of Guria, a polity in western Georgia, on the Black Sea coast, which emerged as a sovereign principality after the dissolution of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1491. Mamia acceded to the throne by blessing of King Bagrat III of Imereti, his royal suzerain.^[1] In modern historiography, he is sometimes assigned the regnal number "III" by virtue of his being the third Mamia with the style of Gurieli, the first being a son of Kakhaber I Gurieli and the second being Mamia (II) Gurieli.^[2]

Giorgi I Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was eristavi ("duke") and then mtavari ("prince") of Guria from 1483 until his death in 1512.

Mtavari was a feudal title in Georgia usually translated into English as Prince or Duke.

The Black Sea is a body of water and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Western Asia. It is supplied by a number of major rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Don, and the Rioni. Many countries drain into the Black Sea, including Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

In 1520, Mamia was approached by Levan, king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia, with the request that he marry his daughter to Levan and aid the king against the encroachments of King David X of Kartli. Mamia, having secured for his troops a free passage from the atabeg of Samtskhe, traversed Ghado mountain, advanced into Kartli and defeated David X at Mokhisi. The latter fell back to his capital of Tbilisi and was setting a counter-attack in motion, when a dignitary, sent by Gurieli for parley, persuaded the king to join Mamia and Levan of Kakheti at a peace summit at Mukhrani. After the peace arrangement, Mamia sent his daughter Tinatin to marry Levan.^[1]^[3]

Levan also known as Leon (ლეონი) (1503–1574), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1518/1520 to 1574. He presided over the most prosperous and peaceful period in the history of the Kingdom of Kakheti.

The Second Kingdom of Kakheti was a late medieval/early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Gremi and then at Telavi. It emerged in the process of a tripartite division of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1465 and existed, with several brief intermissions, until 1762 when Kakheti and the neighboring Georgian kingdom of Kartli were merged through a dynastic succession under the Kakhetian branch of the Bagrationi dynasty. Through most of its turbulent history, Kakheti was tributary to the Persians, whose efforts to keep the reluctant Georgian kingdom within its sphere of influence resulted in a series of military conflicts and deportations.

David X (1482–1526) was a king of the Georgian kingdom of Kartli from 1505 to 1525.

Expedition in Zygia

In 1533, Mamia Gurieli joined his forces with Mamia III Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, in an expedition against the piratical Circassian tribe of Zygii, whose vessels frequented the Black Sea coastline of Guria and Mingrelia. A combined navy landed the Mingrelian and Gurian forces on 30 January 1533. The first encounter with the fiercely defending Zygii was won by the allies, but, on the next day, many battle-fatigued Mingrelian nobles defected their lord at the instigation of Tsandia Inal-Ipa, an Abkhaz.^[4] The allies were routed. Mamia Gurieli was taken prisoner, while his son Giorgi and Mamia Dadiani of Mingrelia were killed. Later, Malachias I Abashidze, Catholicos of Imereti and Abkhazia, went to the Zygii and ransomed the survivors and bodies of those who died.^[1]^[5]^[6]^[3] Mamia died in 1534 and was succeeded by his son Rostom Gurieli.^[1]

Mamia III Dadiani was a member of the House of Dadiani and eristavi ("duke") of Odishi, that is, Mingrelia, in western Georgia from 1512 until his death. Mamia was a son and successor of Liparit II Dadiani, who had emerged as a semi-independent ruler in the process of dissolution of the Kingdom of Georgia. Mamia was culturally active in Abkhazia and continued his predecessors' efforts to secure borders against the North Caucasian mountainous tribes of Zygia. His naval expedition against them and landing in Zygia ended in a fiasco and Mamia was killed in battle.

The Circassians, also known by their endonym Adyghe, are a Northwest Caucasian nation native to Circassia, many of whom were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, especially after the Russo-Circassian War in 1864. In its narrowest sense, the term "Circassian" includes the twelve Adyghe princedoms ; Abdzakh, Besleney, Bzhedug, Hatuqwai, Kabardian, Mamkhegh, Natukhai, Shapsug, Temirgoy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai and Zhaney, each star on the Circassian flag representing each princedom. However, due to Soviet administrative divisions, Circassians were also designated as the following: Adygeans, Cherkessians, Kabardians and Shapsugians, although all the four are essentially the same people residing in different political units.

The Zygii or Zygians were described by Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis. He wrote:

And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zygii and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi (Phthirophagi); and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains.

Family

Mamia Gurieli was married to Princess Ketevan (Keteon), whose origin is not known. She is mentioned in two 15th-century church documents, agape records. Mamia had two sons and at least one daughter:^[7]

Agape is a Greco-Christian term referring to love, "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for man and of man for God". The word is not to be confused with philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance. The noun form first occurs in the Septuagint, but the verb form goes as far back as Homer, translated literally as affection, as in "greet with affection" and "show affection for the dead". Other ancient authors have used forms of the word to denote love of a spouse or family, or affection for a particular activity, in contrast to eros.

Prince Rostom (died 1566), Prince-regnant of Guria (1534–1556);
Prince Giorgi (died 1533), killed during the expedition against the Zygii;
Princess Tinatin (died 1591), first wife of King Levan of Kakheti.
Princess N. (died 1585), an anonymous daughter, possibly the first wife of King George II of Imereti.^[2]

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.

Tinatin Gurieli was queen consort of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, as the first wife of King Levan. A daughter of Mamia I Gurieli, Prince of Guria, she married Levan c. 1520 and bore him at least two sons, including the future Alexander II. She divorced Levan at her own will and retired to the Shuamta monastery, which she had built in Kakheti.

Nomen nescio, abbreviated to N.N., is used to signify an anonymous or unnamed person. From Latin nomen, "name", and nescio, "I do not know", it literally means "I do not know the name". The generic name Numerius Negidius used in Roman times was chosen partly because it shared initials with this phrase.

Related Research Articles

Giorgi III Gurieli, of the Georgian House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1669 to 1684 and King of Imereti from 1681 to 1683. He was energetically involved in civil wars in western Georgian polities, which he sought to bring under his sway. He was killed in battle while trying to recover the lost throne of Imereti.

Mamia III Gurieli, also known as Mamia the Great Gurieli or the Black Gurieli, of the western Georgian House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1689 to 1714. Involved in civil wars plaguing western Georgia, he became King of Imereti three times in the years of 1701, 1711–1712, and 1713–1714. After his first reign as king for a year in 1701, he abdicated the throne of Imereti, being unable to tolerate the influence of his father-in-law Giorgi Abashidze. Subsequent periods of his royal career was the result of a feud with Giorgi VII of Imereti. Mamia died while still sitting on the throne of Imereti, which then reverted to his rival Giorgi VII.

Giorgi IV Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1711 to 1726, and a king of Imereti in western Georgia in 1716. He was installed as regent of Guria by his father, Mamia III Gurieli, then the king of Imereti, in 1712. In 1716, he seized the crown of Imereti, but was forced to abandon the enterprise later that year. Returning to Guria, his rule was challenged by a faction of local nobility, which included his mother Elene and brother Kaikhosro III Gurieli. He was finally able to crush the opposition after making peace with Bezhan Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia.

Vakhtang was a Georgian prince of the Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Imereti, a younger son of King Alexander II of Imereti by his wife Tamar.

Levan I Dadiani was a member of the House of Dadiani and ruler of Odishi, that is, Mingrelia, in western Georgia. He succeeded on the death of his father, Mamia III Dadiani, as eristavi ("duke") of Odishi and ex officio mandaturt-ukhutsesi of Imereti in 1533. Dadiani's break with the king of Imereti brought about his downfall and imprisonment in 1546. He was able to escape and regain his possessions, securing Ottoman support for his independence from Imereti.

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.

Mamia IV Dadiani 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.

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Liparit III Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1657 until being deposed in 1658.

Vameq III Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1658 until being deposed in 1661. He was also briefly King of Imereti in 1661. He assumed both Mingrelian and Imeretian thrones and lost them during a messy civil war in western Georgian polities and was killed by assassins while hiding in a refuge of the mountains of Svaneti.

Levan III Dadiani, born Shamadavle (შამადავლე) was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1661 to 1680. His reign unfolded against the background of a series of civil wars in western Georgian polities, in which Levan III was an opponent of King Bagrat V of Imereti to whom he lost a battle and his own wife.

Levan IV Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia from 1681 until 1691, when he was forced to abdicate and retire to Constantinople, where he died. A natural son of the preceding Levan III Dadiani, he was the last of the First House of Dadiani to rule Mingrelia, a principality in western Georgia. The succeeding dynasty were the Chikovani, who assumed the surname of Dadiani and continued to rule Mingrelia until 1867.

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.

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Simon I Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1625 to 1626. He acceded to power in Guria, a small principality in southwest Georgia, after having murdered his father, Mamia II Gurieli, and was dethroned and blinded by his brother-in-law Levan II Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia. Simon thereafter became a monk and retired to Jerusalem.

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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.

Invasion of Jiketi the remarkable event of Grand-duke of Odishi, Mamia III Dadiani (c.1512-1533), which resulted by defeat of allied forces, in 31 January 1533.

References

1 2 3 4 Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T., ed. История Царства Грузинского [History of the Kingdom of Georgia](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 133.
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. p. 36.
1 2 Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 166–167. ISBN 1780230303.
↑ Anchabadze, Zurab (1959). Из истории средневековой Абхазии[From the history of medieval Abkhazia] (in Russian). Sukhumi: Abkhazian State Publishing. p. 258.
↑ Alasania, Giuli, ed. (1991). Парижская хроника (Грузинская хроника XVIII века) [The Parisian Chronicle (A Georgian chronicle of the 18th century)](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba (Online version by the Parliamentary Library of Georgia). pp. 14, 58. ISBN 5-520-01114-1.
↑ Egnatashvili, Beri (2007) [1959]. Kaukhchishvili, Simon, ed. ქართლის ცხოვრება, ტ. 2 [The Georgian Chronicle, Vol. 2, Part No. 497] (in Georgian). TITUS version by Jost Gippert. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
↑ Khakhutaishvili, Davit (2009). "ნარკვევები გურიის სამთავროს ისტორიიდან (XV-XVIII სს.)" [Studies in the history of the Principality of Guria (15th–18th centuries)]. სამტომეული, ტ. 2[Works in three volumes, Vol. 2] (in Georgian). Batumi: Shota Rustaveli State University. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-9941-409-60-8.

Regnal titles
Mamia I Gurieli House of Gurieli
Preceded by Giorgi I Gurieli	Prince of Guria 1512–1534	Succeeded by Rostom Gurieli

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[Vakh-1] 1 2 3 4 Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T., ed. История Царства Грузинского [History of the Kingdom of Georgia](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. p. 133.

[DRRI-2] 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. p. 36.

[ray-3] 1 2 Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 166–167. ISBN 1780230303.

[anch-4] Anchabadze, Zurab (1959). Из истории средневековой Абхазии[From the history of medieval Abkhazia] (in Russian). Sukhumi: Abkhazian State Publishing. p. 258.

[ParCh-5] Alasania, Giuli, ed. (1991). Парижская хроника (Грузинская хроника XVIII века) [The Parisian Chronicle (A Georgian chronicle of the 18th century)](PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba (Online version by the Parliamentary Library of Georgia). pp. 14, 58. ISBN 5-520-01114-1.

[titus1-6] Egnatashvili, Beri (2007) [1959]. Kaukhchishvili, Simon, ed. ქართლის ცხოვრება, ტ. 2 [The Georgian Chronicle, Vol. 2, Part No. 497] (in Georgian). TITUS version by Jost Gippert. Retrieved 24 July 2015.

[7] Khakhutaishvili, Davit (2009). "ნარკვევები გურიის სამთავროს ისტორიიდან (XV-XVIII სს.)" [Studies in the history of the Principality of Guria (15th–18th centuries)]. სამტომეული, ტ. 2[Works in three volumes, Vol. 2] (in Georgian). Batumi: Shota Rustaveli State University. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-9941-409-60-8.