1.
Tao-Klarjeti
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Tao and Klarjeti were originally only the names of the two most important provinces of the Georgian lands that stretched from the Georgian Gorge in the south to the Lesser Caucasus in the north. The landscape is characterised by mountains and the river-systems of the Chorokhi, the principalities of Tao-Klarjeti arose out of the turmoils of the Muslim conquests in the Caucasus in the 7th and 8th centuries, succeeding the early medieval kingdom of Caucasian Iberia. The new era began in Tao-Klarjeti in 813, when the Georgian prince Ashot I of the Bagrationi family made Klarjeti a base in his struggle against the Arab occupation. Recognizing the Byzantine suzerainty, he received a title of κουροπαλάτης, Ashot fought the Arabs from there, gradually incorporating the surrounding lands of Tao, Kola, Artaani and Shavsheti, along with a few other lesser lands, from the Arab dominance. He encouraged resettlement of Georgians in these lands, and patronized monastic life initiated by the prominent Georgian ecclesiastic figure Grigol Khandzteli in Klarjeti, for a long time the region became a cultural safe-house and one of the most important religious centers of Georgia. Ashot’s successors continued fighting for the Kartlian lands, contested also by the Abkhazian dynasty of western Georgia, however, internal feuds, not infrequent in the principality, were an important obstacle. A civil war following the assassination of David I brought the victory of Adarnase I over his rival, Nasra, David’s murderer. During the reign of Adarnase’s son David II the Georgians had also to defend against the Byzantine aggression, the Kingdom of the Kartvels also included several other minor princedoms more or less dependent to the Tao crown. In 958, Bagrat II Regueni, the Simple was crowned King of the Georgians and inherited Northern Tao, while David III received a title of Kuropalates and got Southern Tao in possession. With the strong intention to unite all Georgian lands, he adopted Prince Bagrat, the only setback was the 987–989 unsuccessful conflict with the Byzantine Empire that forced David to agree to cede his dominion to Emperor Basil II on his death. Despite this reverse, Bagrat was able to become the first ruler of the unified Georgian kingdom on his father’s death in 1008, the area continued to remain a Georgian territory and was administered by the princes of Samtskhe-Saatabago until conquered by the Ottomans in 1551. During their rule, a policy of Islamization was implemented and many of the Christian churches were converted into mosques, the Ottoman defeat in World War I allowed the newly created Democratic Republic of Georgia to regain control of the region. Olti district, which was contested between Georgians and Armenians had stayed under Turkish control. Several monuments of medieval Georgian architecture – abandoned or converted churches, monasteries, bridges and castles – are scattered across the area. Best known are the monasteries of Khandzta, Khakhuli, Ancha, F. Macler, 2e partie, livre III, Paris 1917 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, ed. G. Moravcsik and R. J. H. Jenkins, Dumbarton Oaks 1967 Aristakes Lastivert, Récit des malheurs de la nation arménienne, M. Canard and H. Berberian, Brussels 1973 John Scylitzes, Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis historiarum, ed. I. Thurn, Berlin – New York 1973 Elishe, History of Vardan,1982 The Life of Kartli, Das Leben Kartlis. 300-1200, ed. G. Pätsch, Leipzig 1985 Life of John and Euthymius, B. kratchkovsky and A. Vasiliev, Patrologia Orientalis 18, 700-833 “Histoire de Yahya-Ibn-Sa‘ïd d’Antioche”, ed. and transl
2.
Kingdom of Georgia
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The Kingdom of Georgia, also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval monarchy which emerged in circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV, a predominantly Christian, Georgian-speaking realm, it was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia. Lasting for several centuries, the fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. The Kingdoms geopolitical situation further worsened after the Fall of Constantinople, as a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into an isolated, fractured Christian enclave, surrounded by hostile Turco-Iranic neighbors. The ascendancy of the Bagrationi dynasty can be traced to the 8th century, the restoration of the Georgian kingship begins in AD888, when Adarnase IV of Iberia took the title of King of Georgians. The United Kingdom of Georgia was established in 1008, in this year, Bagrat III, son of Gurgen II, became the ruler of the Kingdom of Western Georgia, including the Principalities of Imereti, Samegrelo, Abkhazeti, Guria and Svaneti. Bagrats mother was Queen Gurandukht, a daughter of George II of Abkhazia, the first decades of the 9th century saw the rise of a new Georgian state in Tao-Klarjeti. Ashot Courapalate of the family of Bagrationi liberated from the Arabs the territories of former southern Iberia. In practice, however, the region functioned as an independent country with its capital in Artanuji. The hereditary title of Curopalates was kept by the Bagrationi family, the first united Georgian monarchy was formed at the end of the 10th century when Curopalate David invaded the Earldom of Kartli-Iberia. Three years later, after the death of his uncle Theodosius the Blind, King of Egrisi-Abkhazia, in 1001 Bagrat added Tao-Klarjeti to his domain as a result of Davids death. In 1008–1010, Bagrat annexed Kakheti and Hereti, thus becoming the first king of a united Georgia in both the east and west, in 1071, the Seljuq army destroyed the united Byzantine-Armenian and Georgian forces in the Battle of Manzikert. By 1081, all of Armenia, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syria, in Georgia, only the mountainous areas of Abkhazia, Svaneti, Racha, and Khevi–Khevsureti remained out of Seljuq control and served as a relatively safe havens for numerous refugees. The rest of the country was dominated by the conquerors who destroyed the cities and fortresses, looted the villages, in fact, by the end of the 1080s, Georgians were outnumbered in the region by the invaders. The Golden Age began with the reign of David IV, the son of George II and Queen Helena, in 1121, he decisively defeated much larger Turkish armies during the Battle of Didgori, with fleeing Seljuq Turks being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days. A huge amount of booty and prisoners were captured by Davids army, David IV made particular emphasis on removing the vestiges of unwanted eastern influences, which the Georgians considered forced, in favor of the traditional Christian and Byzantine overtones. As part of this effort he founded the Gelati Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, David also played a personal role in reviving Georgian religious hymnography, composing the Hymns of Repentance, a sequence of eight free-verse psalms. In this emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself as reincarnating the Biblical David, with a relationship to God
3.
Great Seljuq Empire
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The Seljuk Empire or Great Seljuk Empire was a medieval Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia, from their homelands near the Aral sea, the Seljuks advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia. The Seljuk empire was founded by Tughril Beg in 1037, Tughril was raised by his grandfather, Seljuk-Beg, who was in a high position in the Oghuz Yabgu State. Seljuk gave his name to both the Seljuk empire and the Seljuk dynasty, the Seljuks united the fractured political scene of the eastern Islamic world and played a key role in the first and second crusades. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuks also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, the Seljuqs were allied with the Persian Samanid shahs against the Qarakhanids. The Samanid fell to the Qarakhanids in Transoxania, however, whereafter the Ghaznavids arose, the Seljuqs became involved in this power struggle in the region before establishing their own independent base. Tughril was the grandson of Seljuq and brother of Chaghri, under whom the Seljuks wrested an empire from the Ghaznavids, initially the Seljuqs were repulsed by Mahmud and retired to Khwarezm, but Tughril and Chaghri led them to capture Merv and Nishapur. Later they repeatedly raided and traded territory with his successors across Khorasan and Balkh, in 1040 at the Battle of Dandanaqan, they decisively defeated Masud I of the Ghaznavids, forcing him to abandon most of his western territories to the Seljuqs. In 1055, Tughril captured Baghdad from the Shia Buyids under a commission from the Abbasids, arslans decisive victory at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 effectively neutralized the Byzantine resistance to the Turkish invasion of Anatolia. He authorized his Turkmen generals to carve their own out of formerly Byzantine Anatolia. Malikshāh moved the capital from Rey to Isfahan and it was during his reign that the Great Seljuk Empire reached its zenith. The Iqta military system and the Nizāmīyyah University at Baghdad were established by Nizām al-Mulk, the Abbasid Caliph titled him The Sultan of the East and West in 1087. The Seljuq power was at its zenith under Malikshāh I, the Seljuq dominion was established over the ancient Sasanian domains, in Iran and Iraq, and included Anatolia as well as parts of Central Asia and modern Afghanistan. The Seljuk rule was modelled after the organization common in Turkic and Mongol nomads. Under this organization, the member of the paramount family assigned family members portions of his domains as autonomous appanages. When Malikshāh I died in 1092, the split as his brother. Malikshāh I was succeeded in Anatolia by Kilij Arslan I, who founded the Sultanate of Rum, and in Syria by his brother Tutush I. In Persia he was succeeded by his son Mahmud I, whose reign was contested by his three brothers Barkiyaruq in Iraq, Muhammad I in Baghdad, and Ahmad Sanjar in Khorasan
4.
Battle of Partskhisi
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The Battle of Partskhisi was fought between the armies of Kingdom of Georgia and Seljuk Empire. After hours of fighting, Georgians won a decisive victory over the Turks. Leaving 48 thousand cavalrymen to Sarang, he ordered another campaign to bring Georgia fully under the dominion of Seljuq Empire, the ruler of Arran, aided by the Muslim rulers of Dmanisi, Dvin and Ganja marched his army into Georgia. The dating of the invasion is disputed among modern Georgian scholars, while the battle is mostly dated in 1074, Prof. Ivane Javakhishvili puts the time somewhere around 1073 and 1074. 19th-century Georgian historian Tedo Jordania dates the battle in 1077, the battle raged on for an entire day, finally ending with a decisive victory for Giorgi II of Georgia. The momentum gained after the victory of an important battle fought in Partskhisi allowed the Georgians to recapture all the territories lost to the Seljuk Empire as well as the Byzantine Empire
5.
Battle of Didgori
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The Battle of Didgori was fought between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the declining Great Seljuq Empire at the place of Didgori,40 km west of Tbilisi, on August 12,1121. The battle resulted in King David IV of Georgia’s decisive victory over a Seljuk invasion army under Ilghazi and the subsequent reconquest of a Muslim-held Tbilisi, the victory at Didgori inaugurated the medieval Georgian Golden Age and is celebrated in the Georgian chronicles as a miraculous victory. Modern Georgians continue to remember the event as an annual September festival known as Didgoroba, the Kingdom of Georgia had been a tributary to the Great Seljuq Empire since the 1080s. David renounced the tribute to the Seljuqs in 1096/7, put an end to the migrations of the Turks into Georgia. By June 1121, Tbilisi had actually been under a Georgian siege, the resurgence of Georgians’ military energies brought about a coordinated Muslim response. Both Georgian and Islamic sources testify that, on the complaints of the Muslims of Tbilisi, muhammad sent an expedition into Georgia in which the Artuqid Ilghazi of Mardin, the Mazyadid Dubays II b. Sadaqa of Al Hillah and the sultan’s brother Tughrul, lord of Arran and Nakhichevan and this combined army under the overall command of Ilghazi entered the valley of Trialeti in eastern Georgia and encamped in the vicinities of Didgori and Manglisi in mid-August 1121. It is also claimed that the Seljuq light cavalry rode in front of the Georgians and started to shoot, there is no evidence of heavy cavalry present on Ilghazis side or any type of cavalry which could have matched the Georgian counterpart. On the other side the Georgians were facing a superior foe in terms of numbers. King Davids decisive reforms turned the Georgian army into an organized and structured military force which saw little analogue in that period. The smallest formations would be equivalents of nowadays squads and platoons, then a group of 100 and so forth all led by servants of higher status, in this particular engagement they were further reinforced with hundreds of crusaders sent by Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Each formation was headed by a great and dense line of horsemen, at the sign of collapse David would then send forward his Kipchak cavalry. Initially the king and all his entourage stayed in the center, during battle David IV would assume command over his armys left wing, while Demetrius was leading the right. The course of the battle is differently related in the historical records. According to the Arab chronicler Ibn al-Athir, David sent a detachment of his men in order to simulate negotiation. Other accounts speak of a hundred supposed deserters requesting an audience with the Seljuq commander, meanwhile, the Georgians successfully managed to deploy a large portion of their force where they would almost encircle the enemy in a pincer movement. Their opponents remained unaware of such activities, the Georgians then began to quickly advance on the flanks in full formation. Najm ad-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq and his son survived the attack on the vanguard but were severely injured during the fight and left the battlefield leaving the Seljuq army virtually leaderless
6.
David IV of Georgia
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David IV, also known as David the Builder, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125. His reforms of the army and administration enabled him to reunite the country, a friend of the church and a notable promoter of Christian culture, he was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Epigraphic data also provide evidence for the use of Davids other epithet. Scholars in Georgia favor David IV, his namesake predecessors being, David I Curopalates, David II Magistros, the year of Davids birth can be calculated from the date of his accession to the throne recorded in the Life of King of Kings David, written c. 1123–1126, as koronikon 309, that is,1089, when he was 16 years old, thus, he would have been born in koronikon 293 or 294, that is, c. According to the source, he died in koronikon 345. Professor Cyril Toumanoff gives 1070 and 24 January 1125 as the dates for David, the earliest known document that makes mention of David is the royal charter of his father, George II of Georgia, granted to the Mghvime monastery and dated to 1073. According to the Life of King of Kings David, David was the son of George II. The contemporaneous Armenian chronicler Matthew of Edessa mentions Davids brother Totorme, the name of Davids mother, Elene, is recorded in a margin note in the Gospel of Matthew from the Tskarostavi monastery, she is otherwise unknown. David bore the name of the biblical king-prophet, from whom the Georgian Bagratids claimed their descent, Davids father, George II, was confronted by a major threat to the kingdom of Georgia. Watching his kingdom slip into chaos, George II ceded the crown to his 16-year-old son David in 1089, Davids formal cooption into government may have occurred even earlier, in 1083, when George II left Georgia for the negotiations at the court of the Seljuq sultan Malik-Shah I. Despite his age, he was involved in Georgia’s political life. Backed by his tutor and an influential churchman George of Chqondidi, David IV pursued a purposeful policy, between 1089–1100, King David organized small detachments of his loyal troops to restore order and destroy isolated enemy troops. David also supported the establishment and gradual expansion of a well-organized and highly effective spy network and he began the resettlement of devastated regions and helped to revive major cities. In 1101, King David captured the fortress of Zedazeni, a point in his struggle for Kakheti and Hereti. In 1093, he arrested the powerful feudal lord Liparit Baghvashi, an enemy of the Georgian crown. After the death of Liparit’s son Rati, David abolished their duchy of Kldekari in 1103, by 1099 David IVs power was considerable enough that he was able to refuse paying tribute to the Turks. By that time, he rejected a Byzantine title of panhypersebastos thus indicating that Georgia would deal with the Byzantine Empire only on a parity basis
7.
Western Europe
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Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
8.
First Crusade
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The First Crusade was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to capture the Holy Land, called by Pope Urban II in 1095. An additional goal became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. During the crusades, nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many regions of Western Europe travelled over land and by sea, first to Constantinople and then on towards Jerusalem. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, launched an assault on the city and they also established the crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. The First Crusade was followed by the Second to the Ninth Crusades and it was also the first major step towards reopening international trade in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The majority view is that it had elements of both in its nature, the origin of the Crusades in general, and particularly that of the First Crusade, is widely debated among historians. The confusion is due to the numerous armies in the first crusade. The similar ideologies held the armies to similar goals, but the connections were rarely strong, the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered Syria, Egypt, and North Africa from the predominantly Christian Byzantine Empire, and Hispania from the Visigothic Kingdom. In North Africa, the Umayyad empire eventually collapsed and a number of smaller Muslim kingdoms emerged, such as the Aghlabids, who attacked Italy in the 9th century. Pisa, Genoa, and the Principality of Catalonia began to battle various Muslim kingdoms for control of the Mediterranean Basin, exemplified by the Mahdia campaign and battles at Majorca and Sardinia. Essentially, between the years 1096 and 1101 the Byzantine Greeks experienced the crusade as it arrived at Constantinople in three separate waves, in the early summer of 1096, the first large unruly group arrived on the outskirts of Constantinople. This wave was reported to be undisciplined and ill-equipped as an army and this first group is often called the Peasants’ or People’s Crusade. It was led by Peter the Hermit and Walter Sans Avoir and had no knowledge of or respect for the wishes of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The second wave was not under the command of the Emperor and was made up of a number of armies with their own commanders. Together, this group and the first wave numbered an estimated 60,000, the second wave was led by Hugh I, Count of Vermandois, the brother of King Philip I of France. Also among the wave were Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse. It was this wave of crusaders which later passed through Asia Minor, captured Antioch in 1098 and finally took Jerusalem 15 July 1099. ”The third wave, composed of contingents from Lombardy, France. At the western edge of Europe and of Islamic expansion, the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was well underway by the 11th century and it was intermittently ideological, as evidenced by the Codex Vigilanus compiled in 881
9.
Holy Land
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The Holy Land is an area roughly located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that also includes the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River. Traditionally, it is synonymous with both the biblical Land of Israel and historical Palestine, the term usually refers to a territory roughly corresponding to the modern State of Israel, the Palestinian territories, western Jordan, and parts of southern Lebanon and southwestern Syria. It is considered holy by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, many sites in the Holy Land have long been pilgrimage destinations for adherents of the Abrahamic religions, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Baháís. Pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, confirm their beliefs in the context with collective excitation. Jews do not commonly refer to the Land of Israel as Holy Land, the Tanakh explicitly refers to it as holy land in only one passage, in Zechariah 2,16. The holiness of the Land of Israel is generally implied in the Tanakh by the Land being given to the Israelites by God, that is, it is the promised land, an integral part of Gods covenant. In the Torah many mitzvot commanded to the Israelites can only be performed in the Land of Israel, for example, in the Land of Israel, no land shall be sold permanently. Shmita is only observed with respect to the land of Israel, according to Eliezer Schweid, The uniqueness of the Land of Israel is. geo-theological and not merely climatic. This is the land which faces the entrance of the spiritual world, Jerusalem, as the site of the Temple, is considered especially significant. Sacred burials are still undertaken for diaspora Jews who wish to lie buried in the soil of Israel. According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem is Mount Moriah, the location of the binding of Isaac, the Hebrew Bible mentions the name Jerusalem 669 times, often because many mitzvot can only be performed within its environs. The name Zion, which refers to Jerusalem, but sometimes the Land of Israel. The Talmud mentions the religious duty of colonising Israel, so significant in Judaism is the act of purchasing land in Israel, the Talmud allows for the lifting of certain religious restrictions of Sabbath observance to further its acquisition and settlement. Rabbi Johanan said that one who walks a distance of 4 cubits in Israel may be confident of a share in the future world, a story says that when R. Eleazar b. Due to the Jewish population being concentrated in Israel, emigration was generally prevented, many Jews wanted Israel to be the place where they died. R. Anan said, To be buried in Israel is like being buried under the altar, the saying His land will absolve His people implies that burial in Israel will cause one to be absolved of all ones sins. Christian books, including editions of the Bible, often had maps of the Holy Land, for instance, the Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae of Heinrich Bünting, a German Protestant pastor, featured such a map. As a geographic term, the description Holy Land loosely encompasses modern-day Israel, in the Quran, the term الأرض المقدسة is mentioned at least seven times, once when Moses proclaims to the Children of Israel, O my people
10.
Kipchaks
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The Kipchak were a Turkic nomadic people. The Cuman-Kipchak confederation was a predecessor of the Kazakh Khanate and, later, the Kipchaks described their name as meaning hollow tree, as it was, according to them, inside a hollow tree that their original human ancestress gave birth to her son. They are called Polovtsy in Russian and Ukrainian and similar names in other Slavic languages, the Kipchaks were a tribal confederation that originally settled on the River Irtysh, possibly connected to the Kimäks. According to Ukrainian anthropologists, Kipchaks had racial characteristics of Caucasians and Mongoloids, namely a broad flat face, researcher E. P. Alekseeva drew attention to the fact that European Kipchak stone images have both Mongoloid and Caucasoid faces. However, in her opinion, Kipchaks, who settled in Georgia in the first half of the 12th century, were predominantly Caucasoid in appearance with some admixture of Mongoloid traits and they were already joined by Cumans. In the course of the Turkic expansion they migrated into Siberia, eventually they occupied a vast territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea, establishing a state known as Desht-i Qipchaq. Cumans expanded further westward, by the 11th century reaching Moldavia, Wallachia, in 1089, they were defeated by Ladislaus I of Hungary, and again by Knyaz Vladimir Monomakh of the Rus in the 12th century. They were finally crushed by the Mongols in 1241, after the fall of the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde rulers continued to hold Saraj until 1502. The Cumans fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders, members of the Bahri dynasty, the first dynasty of Mamluks in Egypt, were Kipchaks/Cumans, one of the most prominent examples was Sultan Baybars, born in Solhat, Crimea. Some Kipchaks served in the Yuan dynasty and became the Kharchins, the Kipchaks and Cumans spoke a Turkic language whose most important surviving record is the Codex Cumanicus, a late 13th-century dictionary of words in Kipchak, Cuman, and Latin. The presence in Egypt of Turkic-speaking Mamluks also stimulated the compilation of Kipchak/Cuman-Arabic dictionaries, some Kipchaks and Cumans are also known to have converted to Christianity, around the 11th century, at the suggestion of the Georgians as they allied in their conflicts against the Muslims. A great number were baptized at the request of the Georgian king David IV, from 1120, there was a Kipchak national Christian church and an important clergy. Following the Mongol conquest, Islam rose in popularity among the Kipchaks of the Golden Horde, during the 16th and 17th centuries the Turkic language among the Armenian communities of the Kipchak people was Armeno-Kipchak. They were settled in the Lviv and Kamianets-Podilskyi areas of what is now Ukraine, the modern Northwestern branch of the Turkic language is often referred to as the Kipchak branch. The languages in this branch are considered to be descendants of the Kipchak language. Some of the traditionally included are the Karachays, Siberian Tatars, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Volga Tatars. There is also a village named Kipchak in Crimea, kypshak is one of the constituent tribes of the Middle Horde confederation of the Kazakh people. The name Kipchak also occurs as a surname in Kazakhstan, some of the descendants of the Kipchaks are the Bashkirian clan Qipsaq
11.
Crusaders
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The First Crusade arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by Pope Urban II. Urban urged military support for the Byzantine Empire and its Emperor, Alexios I, the response to Urbans preaching by people of many different classes across Western Europe established the precedent for later Crusades. Volunteers became Crusaders by taking a vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church. Some were hoping for apotheosis at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins, others participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain. Many modern Historians have polarised opinions of the Crusaders behaviour under Papal sanction, to some it was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the Crusades, to the extent that on occasions that the Pope excommunicated Crusaders. Crusaders often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of captured territory rather than returning it to the Byzantines. During the Peoples Crusade thousands of Jews were murdered in what is now called the Rhineland massacres, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade rendering the reunification of Christendom impossible. These tales consequently galvanised medieval romance, philosophy and literature, but the Crusades also reinforced the connection between Western Christendom, feudalism, and militarism. Crusade is not a term, instead the terms iter for journey or peregrinatio for pilgrimage were used. Not until the word crucesignatus for one who was signed with the cross was adopted at the close of the century was specific terminology developed. The Middle English equivalents were derived from old French, croiserie in the 13th–15th centuries, croisade appeared in English c1575, and continued to be the leading form till c1760. By convention historians adopt the term for the Christian holy wars from 1095, the Crusades in the Holy Land are traditionally counted as nine distinct campaigns, numbered from the First Crusade of 1095–99 to the Ninth Crusade of 1271/2. Usage of the term Crusade may differ depending on the author, pluralists use the term Crusade of any campaign explicitly sanctioned by the reigning Pope. This reflects the view of the Roman Catholic Church that every military campaign given Papal sanction is equally valid as a Crusade, regardless of its cause, justification, generalists see Crusades as any and all holy wars connected with the Latin Church and fought in defence of their faith. Popularists limit the Crusades to only those that were characterised by popular groundswells of religious fervour – that is, only the First Crusade, Medieval Muslim historiographers such as Ali ibn al-Athir refer to the Crusades as the Frankish Wars. The term used in modern Arabic, ḥamalāt ṣalībiyya حملات صليبية, campaigns of the cross, is a loan translation of the term Crusade as used in Western historiography. The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the resulting unified polity in the seventh and eighth centuries led to a rapid expansion of Arab power. This influence stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, tolerance, trade, and political relationships between the Arabs and the Christian states of Europe waxed and waned
12.
Georgian language
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Georgian is a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians. It is the 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. Georgian is the most pervasive of the Kartvelian languages, a family that also includes Svan and Megrelian and Laz. Dialects of Georgian are from Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Guria, Adjara, Imerkhevi, Kartli, Kakheti, Saingilo, Tusheti, Khevsureti, Khevi, Pshavi, Fereydan, Mtiuleti and Meskheti. Georgian as separate from the other Kartvelian languages would have emerged in the 1st millennium BC in the area known later as the Kingdom of Iberia, the evolution of Georgian into a written language was a consequence of the conversion of the Georgian elite to Christianity in the mid-4th century. The first Georgian texts are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, Georgian has a rich literary tradition. The oldest surviving work in Georgian is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli. In the 11th century, Old Georgian gives rise to Middle Georgian, the Georgian national epic, Shota Rustavelis The Knight in the Panthers Skin, dates from the 12th century. This marked the beginning of the modern Georgian language, symbols on the left are those of the IPA and those on the right are of the modern Georgian alphabet. Opinions also differ on the aspiration of /t͡sʰ, t͡ʃʰ/, as it is non-contrastive, a former distinction between /x/ and /qʰ/ has been lost. Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm, stress is very weak, and linguists disagree as to where stress occurs in words. Jun, Vicenik, and Lofstedt have proposed that Georgian stress and intonation are the result of pitch accents on the first syllable of a word, the rhythm of Georgian speech is syllable-timed. Georgian contains many harmonic clusters involving two consonants of a type which are pronounced with only a single release, e. g. ბგერა bgera, ცხოვრება tskhovreba. There are also frequent consonant clusters, sometimes involving more than six consonants in a row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნი gvprtskvni and მწვრთნელი mtsvrtneli. Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice, Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently the Mkhedruli or Military script is almost completely dominant, the others are used mostly in religious documents, Mkhedruli has 33 letters in common use, a half dozen more are obsolete in Georgian, though still used in other alphabets, like Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. The letters of Mkhedruli correspond closely to the phonemes of the Georgian language, however, the first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD
13.
Tbilisi
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Tbilisi, commonly known by its former name Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of roughly 1.5 million inhabitants. Founded in the 5th century by the monarch of Georgias ancient precursor the Kingdom of Iberia, Tbilisi has since served, with intermissions, as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Under Russian rule, from 1801 to 1917 Tiflis was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy governing both sides of the entire Caucasus. Tbilisis varied history is reflected in its architecture, which is a mix of medieval, classical, Middle Eastern, Art Nouveau, historically, Tbilisi has been home to people of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, though it is overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox Christian. Archaeological studies of the region have indicated human settlement in the territory of Tbilisi as early as the 4th millennium BC, according to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as 458. One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisis founding states that King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia went hunting in the wooded region with a falcon. The Kings falcon allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during the hunt, King Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location. The name Tbilisi derives from Old Georgian Tbilisi, and further from Tpili, the name Tbili or Tbilisi was therefore given to the city because of the areas numerous sulphuric hot springs that came out of the ground. King Dachi I Ujarmeli, who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, Tbilisi was not the capital of a unified Georgian state at that time and did not include the territory of Colchis. It was, however, the city of Eastern Georgia/Iberia. During his reign, King Dachi I oversaw the construction of the wall that lined the citys new boundaries. From the 6th century, Tbilisi grew at a steady pace due to the favourable and strategic location which placed the city along important trade. Tbilisis favourable and strategic location did not necessarily bode well for its existence as Eastern Georgias/Iberias capital, in the year 627, Tbilisi was sacked by the Byzantine/Khazar armies and later, in 736–738, Arab armies entered the town under Marwan II Ibn-Muhammad. After this point, the Arabs established an emirate centered in Tbilisi, in 764, Tbilisi, still under Arab control was once again sacked by the Khazars. In 853, the armies of Arab leader Bugha Al-Turki invaded Tbilisi in order to enforce its return to Abbasid allegiance, the Arab domination of Tbilisi continued until about 1050. In 1068, the city was again sacked, only this time by the Seljuk Turks under Sultan Alp Arslan. In 1122, after fighting with the Seljuks that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded, David moved his residence from Kutaisi to Tbilisi, making it the capital of a unified Georgian State, from 12–13th centuries, Tbilisi became a dominant regional power with a thriving economy and a well-established social system/structure
14.
Georgia (country)
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Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi, Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy, during the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century, a unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various treaties with Iran. Since the establishment of the modern Georgian republic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil, the countrys Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and it contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgias sovereign territory under Russian military occupation. Georgia probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān, starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi, the medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the name Sakartvelo consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i, specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, ancient Greeks and Romans referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians. Today the full, official name of the country is Georgia, before the 1995 constitution came into force the countrys name was the Republic of Georgia. The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era, the proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. The earliest evidence of wine to date has found in Georgia. In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, the classical period saw the rise of a number of early Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the west and Iberia in the east
15.
Tamar of Georgia
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Tamar the Great reigned as the Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. A member of the Bagrationi dynasty, her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title mepe, Tamar was successful in neutralizing this opposition and embarked on an energetic foreign policy aided by the decline of the hostile Seljuq Turks. Tamar was married twice, her first union being, from 1185 to 1187, to the Rus prince Yuri, whom she divorced and expelled from the country, defeating his subsequent coup attempts. For her second husband Tamar chose, in 1191, the Alan prince David Soslan and she remains an important symbol in Georgian popular culture and has been canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church as the Holy Righteous Queen Tamar, with her feast day commemorated on 14 May. Tamar was born in circa 1160 to George III, King of Georgia, and his consort Burdukhan, while it is possible that Tamar had a younger sister, Rusudan, she is only mentioned once in all contemporary accounts of Tamars reign. The name Tamar is of Hebrew origin and, like other biblical names, was favored by the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty because of their claim to be descended from David, the second king of Israel. Tamars youth coincided with an upheaval in Georgia, in 1177, her father. Prince Demna, castrated and blinded on his uncles order, did not survive the mutilation and soon died in prison, once the rebellion was suppressed and the pretender eliminated, George went ahead to co-opt Tamar into government with him and crowned her as co-ruler in 1178. By doing so, the king attempted to preempt any dispute after his death, at the same time, he raised men from the gentry and unranked classes to keep the dynastic aristocracy away from the center of power. For six years, Tamar was a co-ruler with her father upon whose death, in 1184, Tamar continued as the monarch and was crowned a second time at the Gelati cathedral near Kutaisi. She inherited a strong kingdom, but the centrifugal tendencies fostered by the great nobles were far from being quelled. The energetic involvement of Tamars influential aunt Rusudan and the Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Michael IV Mirianisdze was crucial for legitimizing Tamars succession to the throne, however, the young queen was forced into making significant concessions to the aristocracy. She had to reward the Catholicos-Patriarch Michaels support by making him a chancellor and this attempt at feudal constitutionalism was rendered abortive when Tamar had Qutlu Arslan arrested and his supporters were inveigled into submission. Yet, Tamars first moves to reduce the power of the aristocratic élite were unsuccessful and she failed in her attempt to use a church synod to dismiss the Catholicos-Patriarch Michael, and the noble council, darbazi, asserted the right to approve royal decrees. Even the queens first husband, the Rus prince Yuri, was forced on her by the nobles. Pursuant to dynastic imperatives and the ethos of the time, the nobles required Tamar to marry in order to have a leader for the army and to provide an heir to the throne. Their choice fell on Yuri, son of the murdered prince Andrei I Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal, the choice was approved by Tamars aunt Rusudan and the prince was brought to Georgia to marry the queen in 1185. Yuri proved to be an soldier, but a difficult person
16.
David Soslan
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David Soslan was a prince from Alania and second husband of Queen Tamar, whom he married in c. He is chiefly known for his exploits during Georgia’s wars against its Muslim neighbors. David Soslan was a member of the house which ruled Alania, an Orthodox Christian kingdom in the North Caucasus. An anonymous chronicler, writing during the reign of George IV Lasha, according to Vakhushti, David and his descendants - Aton and Jadaron - married into the Alan ruling family and became kings of the Osi. This Jadaron is said to have been Soslans father, while this account is considered credible by the modern scholars such as Mariam Lordkipanidze and Cyril Toumanoff the issue of Soslans origin still remains uncertain. The hypothesis has not been accepted by most Georgian scholars, Tamar married David Soslan at the Didube Palace near Tbilisi between 1187 and 1189 after she divorced her first husband, the Rus prince Yuri Bogolyubsky. In contrast to Yuri who was a candidate of the nobles party. David, a military commander, became Tamars major supporter and was instrumental in defeating the rebellious nobles rallied behind Yuri. Tamar and David had two children, in 1191, the queen gave birth to a son, George – the future king George IV – an event widely celebrated in the kingdom. The daughter, Rusudan, was born c.1193 and would succeed her brother as sovereign of Georgia, David energetically supported Tamars expansionist policy and was responsible for Georgias military successes in a series of conflicts of those years. Medieval Georgian sources praise his handsomeness, military talents, valor, in the 1190s, David Soslan led the Georgian raids against Barda, Erzurum, Gegharkunik, Beylaqan and Ganja. His victories over the Ildegizids of Azerbaijan at Shamkor and the Seljuqids of Rüm at Basian secured the Georgian positions in the eastern and western Caucasian marches, respectively
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Kartli
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Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari, on which Georgias capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a role in the ethnic. Kartli had no defined boundaries and they significantly fluctuated in the course of history. After the partition of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, the historical lands of Kartli are currently divided among several administrative regions of Georgia. The Georgians living in the lands of Kartli are known as Kartleli. Most of them are Eastern Orthodox Christians adhering to the national Georgian Orthodox Church and speak a dialect, the toponym Kartli first emerges in written accounts in the 5th-century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik, the earliest surviving piece of Georgian literature. Kartlos seems to be a medieval contrivance and his being the founder of Kartli is not convincing. The term itself derives from Proto-Kartvelian root *kart-, which is considered an ancient inner-Kartvelian formation by modern linguists. See ქართლი and ქართველი for more, parallels have also been sought with the Khaldi and Carduchi of the Classical sources. The formation of Kartli and its people, the Kartveli is poorly documented, the infiltration of several ancient, chiefly Anatolian, tribes into the territory of modern-day Georgia and their fusion with the autochthons played a decisive role in this process. This might have been reflected in the story of Arian-Kartli, the place of the aboriginal Georgian habitat found in the early medieval chronicle Conversion of Kartli. In the 3rd century BC, Kartli and its original capital Mtskheta formed a nucleus around which the ancient Georgian kingdom known to the Greco-Roman world as Iberia evolved. The role of Kartli as an ethnic and political unit which would form a basis for the subsequent Georgian unification further increased as a result of its Christianization early in the 4th century. Located on the crossroads of the Byzantine and Iranian influences, Kartli developed a vibrant Christian culture, but the Kyrie eleison is said in Greek, which means in Georgian Lord, have mercy or Lord, be merciful to us. After the unification of various Georgian polities into the kingdom of Georgia early in the 11th century, the Georgian circumfix sa-X-o is a standard geographic construction designating the area where X dwell, where X is an ethnonym. Most of these lands are now part of Georgias regions of Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli, but also of Samtskhe-Javakheti, a significant portion of Zemo Kartli is now part of Turkey. With the fragmentation of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, the kings of Kartli did not relinquish the titles of the all-Georgian monarchs whose legitimate successors they claimed to be. The Europeans, thus, knew it as Georgia proper and later also as Kartalinia via the Russian Карталиния, similarly, the toponym Gorjestān was usually used in Persian in the narrower sense of Kartli
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Javakh
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Samtskhe-Javakheti, is a region formed in the 1995 in southern Georgia from the historical provinces of Meskheti, Javakheti and Tori. The region comprises six districts, Akhaltsikhe, Adigeni, Aspindza, Borjomi, Akhalkalaki. There are 5 town,6 townlets,67 community and village sakrebulos, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the South Caucasus natural gas pipeline, and the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway pass through the region. The current division of Georgia into regions was introduced by the Shevardnadze government in the mid-1990s, partly as a response to the secession of Abkhazia, Samtskhe-Javakheti was basically formed by combining the two traditional provinces of Samtskhe and Javakheti. The ancient tribes of Meskhi and Mosiniks are the first known inhabitants of the area, some scholars credit the Mosiniks with the invention of iron metallurgy. From the 10th to the 15th century it was part of the united Georgian Kingdom, in the 16th century Meskheti was integrated into the Safavid Empire, followed by the Ottoman Empire. After independence from the USSR Meskheti was reinstalled as a province of Georgia, in early sources, the region was recorded as Zabakha in 785 BC owned by the king Argishti I of Urartu as a conquered land. In the 1st century AD king of Kartli Parsman I managed to take Javakheti, in the 5th century during the rule of Vakhtang V Javakheti was a province of Iberia, and after his death his second wife the Byzantinian princess settled in Tsunda. Javakheti was an important part of the Kingdom of Kartli, in the 11th century Akhalkalaki became the center of upper Javakheti, and Tmogvi the center of lower Javakheti. Under the Georgian Kingdom, Javakheti bridges, churches, monasteries, from the 13th century, Javakheti included the territories of Palakatsio and part of Meskheti. In the 15th century, Javakheti was governed by Samtskhe-Saatabago, in the 16th century, it became part of the Safavid Empire, followed by the Ottomans and the Persian against after. The Georgian population of Javakheti was displaced to inner regions of Georgia - part to the Imereti and those who remained in the place became Muslims. As a result of the struggles of the Russian Empire with the Ottomans, Russian authorities settled Christian Armenians, Armenian refugees from the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire came in the early 20th century. Also a large number of Russian Doukhobor sect members settled the region, meskhetian Turks are the former Muslim inhabitants of Meskheti in Georgia, along the border with Turkey. Today, many are still dispersed across those countries, of the 100,000 forcibly deported, a total of 10,000 perished. The Georgian census of 2014 officially recorded 160,504 inhabitants in the region, the most densely populated districts are the Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki municipalities. According to the 2014 census, 93% of the inhabitants of Akhalkalaki municipality, the major tourist attractions are the cave monasteries of Vardzia, Vanis Kvabebi, Rabati Castle and Khertvisi fortress. Also, among national visitors is very popular 10th century Sapara Monastery, Tmogvi fortress, and 8th century Zarzma monastery
19.
Abkhazia
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Abkhazia is a partially recognised state on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus Mountains, south of Russia and northwest of Georgia proper. It covers 8,660 square kilometres and has a population of around 240,000, the separatist Abkhazian polity, formally the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny, is recognised only by Russia and a small number of other countries. The status of Abkhazia is an issue of the Georgian–Abkhazian conflict. The region enjoyed autonomy within Soviet Georgia at the time when the Soviet Union began to disintegrate in the late 1980s, despite the 1994 ceasefire agreement and years of negotiations, the dispute remained unresolved. The long-term presence of a United Nations Observer Mission and a Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping force failed to prevent the flare-up of violence on several occasions. On 28 August 2008, the Parliament of Georgia declared Abkhazia a Russian-occupied territory, the Abkhazians call their homeland Аҧсны, popularly etymologised as a land/country of the soul, yet literally meaning a country of mortals. It possibly first appeared in the century in an Armenian text as Psin. The state is designated as the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny. The Russian Абхазия is adapted from the Georgian აფხაზეთი, in Mingrelian, Abkhazia is known as აბჟუა or სააფხაზო. Between the 9th and 6th centuries BC, the territory of modern Abkhazia was part of the ancient Georgian kingdom of Colchis and this kingdom was subsequently absorbed in 63 BC into the Kingdom of Egrisi, known to Byzantine Roman sources as Lazica. Classical authors described various peoples living in the region and the multitude of languages they spoke. Arrian, Pliny and Strabo have given accounts of the Abasgoi and Moschoi peoples somewhere in modern Abkhazia on the shore of the Black Sea. Around the mid 6th century AD, the Byzantines and the neighbouring Sassanid Persia fought for supremacy over Abkhazia for 20 years, Abkhazia, or Abasgia in classic sources, formerly part of Colchis and later of Egrisi until the late 690s, was a princedom under Byzantine authority. The country was mostly Christian, with the seat in Pityus. An Arab incursion into Abkhazia led by Marwan II, was repelled by Leon I jointly with his Egrisian and Kartlian allies in 736, after acquiring Egrisi via a dynastic union in the 780s the Kingdom of Abkhazia was established and became a dominant power in western Caucasus. During this period the Georgian language replaced Greek as the language of literacy, the western Georgian kingdom flourished between 850 and 950 when it annexed significant parts of central Georgia. In the 16th century, after the break-up of the Georgian Kingdom into small kingdoms and principalities, since the 1570s, when the Ottoman navy occupied the fort of Tskhumi, Abkhazia came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire and Islam. Under Ottoman rule, the majority of Abkhaz elite converted to Islam, the principality retained a degree of autonomy
20.
Svaneti
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Svaneti or Svanetia is a historic province in Georgia, in the northwestern part of the country. It is inhabited by the Svans, a subgroup of Georgians. Situated on the slopes of the central Caucasus Mountains and surrounded by 3, 000–5,000 meter peaks. Four of the 10 highest peaks of the Caucasus are located in the region, the highest mountain in Georgia, Mount Shkhara at 5,201 meters, is located in the province. Prominent peaks include Tetnuldi, Shota Rustaveli, Mount Ushba, Ailama, as well as Lalveri, Latsga and others. Historical Svaneti also included the Kodori Gorge in the rebel province of Abkhazia. Writing in 1848, Bodenstedt said that Upper Svaneti could only be reached by a footpath which was closed in winter. The landscape of Svaneti is dominated by mountains that are separated by deep gorges, most of the region which lies below 1,800 meters above sea level is covered by mixed and coniferous forests. The forest zone is made up of species such as spruce, fir, beech, oak. Other species that are common but may still be found in some areas include chestnut, birch, maple, pine. The zone which extends from 1,800 meters to roughly about 3,000 meters above sea level consists of alpine meadows, eternal snows and glaciers take over in areas that are over 3,000 meters above sea level. The region is notable for its glaciers and picturesque summits, Svanetis signature peak is probably Mount Ushba which towers over the Inguri Gorge and can be seen from many parts of the region. The climate of Svaneti is humid and is influenced by the air coming in from the Black Sea throughout the year. Average temperatures and precipitation vary considerably with elevation, annual precipitation ranges between 1000 and 3200 mm. The highest amount of falls on the Greater Caucasus Mountains. The region is characterized by heavy snowfall in the winter. Snow cover may reach 5 meters in some areas, in general, the lowest regions of Svaneti are characterized by long, warm summers and relatively cold and snowy winters. Middle altitudes experience relatively warm summers and cold winters, areas above 2000 meters above sea level lie within a zone that experiences short, cool summers and long and cold winters
21.
Kakheti
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Kakheti is a region formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. The region comprises eight districts, Telavi, Gurjaani, Kvareli, Sagarejo, Dedoplistsqaro, Signagi, Lagodekhi. Kakheti is bordered by the Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, the Georgian David Gareja monastery complex is partially located in this province and is subject to a border dispute between Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities. It also includes the region of Hereti whose name has fallen into gradual oblivion since the 15th century. It was incorporated into the united Georgian Kingdom at the beginning of the eleventh century, only in the beginning of the twelfth century did Georgian King David the Builder incorporate Kakheti into his Kingdom successfully. After the disintegration of the Georgian Kingdom, Kakheti became an independent Kingdom in the 1460s, from the early 16th century till the early 19th century, Kakheti and its neighboring Kartli came under intermittent Iranian rule. During all these centuries the region was a part of Iran and it supplied many notable generals, administrators, women. In 1762, the Kakhetian Kingdom was united with the neighboring Georgian Kingdom of Kartli into the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti under King Erekle II. Following the Treaty of Georgievsk and the sack of Tblisi by Agha Mohammad Khan, Russian suzerainty over Kakheti and the rest of Georgia was recognized by Qajar Iran in the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan. In 1918–1921 Kakheti was part of the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia, in 1922–1936 part of the Transcaucasian SFSR, since the Georgian independence in 1991, Kakheti has been a region of the republic of Georgia. The travel infrastructure in Kakheti is fast developing, since it is the most visited region of Georgia, one can choose to stay in a guest house, in a small and comfortable hotel, or a beautiful boutique-style hotel while traveling in this region. Telavi and Signagi are the most visited towns, Signagi was renovated three years ago. Until recently there were only some family hotels, but now Signagi features several hotels, list of sovereigns of Kakheti www. kakheti. net - information Kakheti region website Kakheti regional administration website Kakheti travel guide from Wikivoyage
22.
Hereti
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The Kingdom of Hereti was a kingdom in the medieval Caucasus on the Georgian-Albanian frontier. Nowadays it roughly corresponds to the corner of Georgias Kakheti region. The area was inhabited in earliest times by Hers, Sujs, Tchilbs, collectively called Hers, these tribes came under the rule of the Caucasian Albania. Hereti was populated by Caucasian Albanians, Dagestani, Armenians, Persians and Georgians and it had flourishing towns that traded with Persia and Armenia. With its decline, the area was incorporated into the Iberian kingdom forming one of its duchies in the 5th century. It was when the name Hereti first appeared in the Georgian sources, according to traditional accounts, the name of the province originated from the legendary patriarch Heroes, the son of Thargamos, who founded the city of Hereti at the Alazani River. As a reward for the contribution in struggle against the Arab occupants, after the death of the last Kartlian erismtavaris John and Juansher, the Heretian lords extended their fiefdoms and, in 787, established an independent principality with the capital in Shaki. The principality gained significant strength and prestige by 893 allowing Prince Hamam to be crowned the king, the allies occupied and divided the country but for a short time as Adarnase Patrikios soon reconquered what had been lost. A son and successor, Ishkhanik ruled together with his mother Dinar, sister of Grand Magister Gurgen IV, under them, Hereti was forced to recognize the supremacy of the stronger neighbour, Principality of Deilam, ruled by the Salarid dynasty. In 950, Ishkhanik took advantage of the power struggle in the Salarid State. It was during his reign, that the Heretians abandoned their Monophysite faith to convert to Georgian Orthodox Christianity, the next Heretian ruler, John added to his kingdom part of the former Albanian kingdom and the eastern Georgian mountainous area Tzanaria. After his death, a local dynasty seems to have ceased to exist, the area then was contested between his successor, David, and the Georgian king Bagrat III who sought to bring all Georgian lands into a single monarchy. The next Kakhetian ruler, already titled as the king, Kvirike III the Great finally absorbed Hereti into his “kingdom of Kakhs, when the Georgian king David the Builder brought the kingdom under his control in 1104, Hereti became a saeristavo within the Georgian realm. Georgian rule of Hereti was interrupted by Atabegs of Azerbaijan, Khwarezmid Empire, after the final disintegration of the unified Georgian monarchy in 1466, Hereti came under the Kakhetian crown. Afterwards the name of the province itself has disappeared from the historic records and public usage due to successively Karakoyunlu, Akkoyunlu, Safavid, Afsharid. Kingdom of the Rans and Kakhs
23.
Military history of Georgia
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The country of Georgia has known a rich military history, both as a battlefield of empires and as an independent political and military power. The strategic significance and natural wealth of its territory made it the target of invasions. The term Caucasian Iberia is used to distinguish it from the Iberian Peninsula, the Caucasian Iberians provided a basis for later Georgian statehood and along with Colchis formed a core of the present day Georgian people. Pompey invades Georgia in 65 BC after making the Kingdom of Armenia a vassal of Rome and he demands vassalage from the Iberians, but the Iberians refuse and begin partisan wars against Pompey. Roman troops are ambushed in arboreous areas. Reportedly, a number of women also participate in this irregular warfare. Later in the year, the Iberians fight a battle against Pompeys main force over the Aragvi river near Mtskheta. Greek historian Plutarch refers to that engagement as a great battle, after subdueing Iberia, Pompey turns towards the Kingdom of Colchis and subjugates its various fortresses and local peoples on the way with both cunning diplomacy and the use of force. In ancient Geography, Colchis or Kolkhis is an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, the Colchians are probably established on the Black Sea coast by the Middle Bronze Age. The War between Armenia and Iberia is known chiefly through its description in Tacitus Annals, fearing usurpation by Rhadamistus, his father convinces him to declare war upon his uncle and claim the Armenian throne for himself. Rhadamistus is unable to take the fortress by assault or by siege, pollio, swayed by bribery from Rhadamistus, induces the Roman soldiers to threaten the capitulation of the garrison. Under this threat, Mithridates leaves the fortress in order to make peace with Rhadamistus, Rhadamistus then executes Mithridates and his sons, despite a promise of non-violence, and becomes King of Armenia. Of this usurpation, Tacitus writes Rhadamistus might retain his ill-gotten gains, as long as he was hated and infamous, shortly after the Iberians are expelled from Armenia by a rebellion of the Armenian nobility which is supported by the Parthian Empire. Both kingdoms would then take sides respectively during the Roman–Parthian War of 58–63, in 327 Georgia adopts Christianity and becomes a Christian state, which causes it to grow more distant from its Zoroastrian neighbor. From 483 to 522 the then Georgian king Vakhtang I turns Georgia into a regional power. Persians refer to him as Gorgasal, which translated means wolf. The king wore that particular piece of armour in battle, military ambitions also grow in that period which is reflected by a large fighting force. King Vakhtang dies during an invasion when an arrow strikes through a gap of his armor, the Iberian War is a conflict between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid Empires over the Georgian kingdom of Iberia, which lasts from 526 to 532
24.
Indiana University Press
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Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana and it publishes 140 new books annually, in addition to 29 academic journals. Its current catalog comprises some 2,000 titles, IU Press also undertakes extensive regional publishing under its Quarry Books imprint. Official website IU Press Journals on JSTOR
25.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
26.
History of Georgia (country)
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The country of Georgia was first unified as a single kingdom in 1008 AD, arising from the ancient predecessor states of Colchis and Iberia. The Kingdom of Georgia flourished and reached its Golden Age during the 10th to 13th centuries under King David IV, lasting for several centuries, the kingdom fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. Throughout the early period, Georgia fell into decline as it clashed against various hostile empires, including Ottoman Empire. The kingdoms geopolitical situation further worsened after the Fall of Constantinople, as a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into an isolated, Christian enclave, surrounded by hostile Turco-Iranic neighbors with which it had little in common. Renewed incursions beginning in 1386 led to the collapse of the kingdom by 1493. Georgia’s geopolitical landscape began to shift in 1783, when the struggling Eastern Georgia forged an alliance with the Russian Empire and this led to the gradual, forced annexation of Georgia by Russia starting in 1801. Present-day Georgia has been independent since the Soviet collapse in 1991, post-communist Georgia was almost immediately beset by Russian-backed separatist rebellions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It also suffered from civil unrest and economic crisis for most of the 1990s and this lasted until the Rose Revolution of 2003, when Georgia pursued a strongly pro-Western foreign policy, introducing major economic and democratic reforms. Notwithstanding these crises and the change of political forces in the country, as a developing economy, Georgia made significant changes, moving from a near-failed state in 2003 to a relatively well-functioning market economy in 2014. In 2014, Georgia joined the European Unions Free Trade Area, evidence for the earliest occupation of the territory of present-day Georgia goes back to c.1.8 million years ago, as evident from the excavations of Dmanisi in the south-eastern part of the country. This is the oldest evidence of humans in Europe, later prehistoric remains are known from numerous cave and open-air sites in Georgia. Numerous excavations in tell settlements of the Shulaveri-Shomu type have been conducted since the 1960s, the earliest evidence of wine to date has been found in Georgia, where 8000-year old wine jars were uncovered. Early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, associated with the Shulaveri-Shomu culture, from the beginning of the 4th millennium, metals became used to larger extend in East Georgia and in the whole Transcaucasian region. These dwellings were circular or oval in plan, a feature being the central pier. These features were used and further developed in building Georgian dwellings, in the Chalcolithic period of the fourth and third millennia BC, Georgia and eastern Asia Minor were home to the Kura-Araxes culture, giving way in the second millennium BC. to the Trialeti culture. Archaeological excavations have brought to light the remains of settlements at Beshtasheni and Ozni, together, they testify to an advanced and well-developed culture of building and architecture. Diauehi, a union of early-Georgians, first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. Between 2100 and 750 BC, the area survived the invasions by the Hittites, Urartians, Medes, at the same period, the ethnic unity of Proto-Kartvelians broke up into several branches, among them Svans, Zans/Chans and East-Kartvelians
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Prehistoric Georgia
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Humans have been living in Georgia for an extremely long time, as attested by the discoveries, in 1999 and 2002, of two Homo erectus skulls at Dmanisi in southern Georgia. The archaeological layer in which the remains, hundreds of stone tools. The site yields the earliest unequivocal evidence for presence of early humans outside the African continent, later Lower Paleolithic Acheulian sites have been discovered in the highlands of Georgia, particularly in the caves of Kudaro, and Tsona. Acheulian open-air sites and find-spots are also known in other regions of Georgia, the first uninterrupted primitive settlement on the Georgian territory dates back to the Middle Paleolithic era, more than 200,000 years ago. Sites of this period have been found in Shida Kartli, Imeretia, Abkhazia, buffered by the Caucasus Mountains, and benefiting from the ameliorating effects of the Black Sea, the region appears to have served as a biogeographical refugium throughout the Pleistocene. These geographic features spared the Southern Caucasus from the climatic oscillations. Upper Paleolithic remains have been investigated in Satsurblia, Devis Khvreli, Sakazhia, Sagvarjile, Dzudzuana, Samertskhle Klde, Gvarjilas Klde, a cave at Dzudzuana has yielded the earliest known dyed flax fibers that date back to 36,000 BP. At that time, the area of the South Caucasus appears to have been sparsely populated in contrast to the valleys of the Rioni River. The Paleolithic ended some 10, 000-12,000 years ago to be succeeded by the Mesolithic culture and it was when the geographic medium and landscapes of the Caucasus were finally shaped as we have them today. Signs of Neolithic culture, and the transition from foraging and hunting to agriculture, the so-called early Neolithic sites are chiefly found in western Georgia. These are Khutsubani, Anaseuli, Kistriki, Kobuleti, Tetramitsa, Apiancha, Makhvilauri, Kotias Klde, Paluri, most of these sites relate to the flourishing late Neolithic/Eneolithic archaeological complex known as the Shulaveri-Shomu culture. Radiocarbon dating at Shulaveri sites indicates that the earliest settlements date from the late sixth − early fifth millennium BC. In the highlands of eastern Anatolia and South Caucasus, the combination of domesticable animals and sowable grains. In this sense, the region can justly be considered one of the cradles of civilization. The entire region is surmised to have been, in the beginning in the last quarter of the 4th millennium BC, inhabited by people who were possibly ethnically related. The ethnic and cultural unity of these 2,000 years is characterized by scholars as Chalcolithic or Eneolithic. Early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, very early metal objects have been discovered in layers of the Neolithic Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture. From the beginning of the 4th millennium metals became used to extend in East Georgia
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Trialeti culture
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The Trialeti culture, is named after the Trialeti region of Georgia. It is attributed to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC, Trialeti culture emerged in the areas of the preceding Kura-Araxes culture. The earliest Shulaveri-Shomu culture existed in the area from 6000 to 4000 BC, the flourishing stage of Trialeti culture began near the end of the third millennium BC. At that time, there was already strong social differentiation indicated by rich mound burials, there are parallels to the Early Kurgan culture. Geographical interconnectedness and links with other areas of the Near East are seen in aspects of the culture. For example, a found in Trialeti is nearly identical to the one from Shaft Grave 4 of Mycenae in Greece. Trialeti-Vanadzor painted monochrome and polychrome pottery is similar to that in the other areas of the Near East. In particular, similar ceramics is known as the Urmia ware, also, similar pottery was produced by the Uzarlik culture, and the Karmirberd-Sevan culture. The site at Trialeti was originally excavated in 1936–1940 in advance of a hydroelectric scheme, a further six barrows were uncovered in 1959–1962. Martqopi kurgans are somewhat similar, and are contemporary to the earliest among the Trialeti kurgans, together, they represent the early stage of the Early Kurgan culture of Central Transcaucasia. This Early Kurgan period, known as Martkopi-Bedeni, has interpreted as a transitional phase. The Trialeti culture was known for its form of burial. The elite were interred in large, very rich burials under earth and stone mounds, also there were many gold objects found in the graves. These gold objects were similar to found in Iran and Iraq. They also worked tin and arsenic and this form of burial in a tumulus or kurgan, along with wheeled vehicles, is the same as that of the Kurgan culture which has been associated with the speakers of Proto-Indo-European. In fact, the black burnished pottery of especially early Trialeti kurgans is similar to Kura-Araxes pottery, in a historical context, their impressive accumulation of wealth in burial kurgans, like that of other associated and nearby cultures with similar burial practices, is particularly noteworthy. This practice was probably a result of influence from the civilizations to the south in the Fertile Crescent. Kura-Araxes culture Shulaveri-Shomu culture Prehistoric Georgia Middle Bronze Age, Trialeti Culture, South Caucasus - collection of articles at academia. edu
29.
Diauehi
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Diauehi or Diaokhi, Daiaeni was a coalition of tribes, or kingdoms, located in northeastern Anatolia, that was formed in the 12th century BC in the post-Hittite period. It is mentioned in the Urartian inscriptions and it is usually identified with Daiaeni of the Yonjalu inscription of the Assyria king Tiglath-Pileser I’s third year. Diauehi is a locus of proto-Kartvelian, it has been described as an important tribal formation of possible proto-Georgians by Ronald Grigor Suny. Most probably, the core of the Diauehi lands may have extended from the headwaters of the Euphrates into the valleys of Çoruh to Oltu. This federation was powerful enough to counter the Assyrian forays, although in 1112 BC its king and he was captured and later released on terms of vassalage. In 845 BC, Shalmaneser III finally subdued Diauehi and downgraded its king, Asia, king Asia of Diauehi was forced to submit to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III in 845 BC, after the latter had overrun Urartu and made a foray into Diauehi. In the early 8th century, Diauehi became the target of the newly emerged regional power of Urartu, both Menua and Argishti I campaigned against the Diauehi king, Utupurshi, annexing his southernmost possessions and forcing him to pay tribute, which included copper, silver and gold. Diauehi was finally destroyed by Colchian incursions by about the 760s BC, antonio Sagona, Claudia Sagona, Archaeology At The North-east Anatolian Frontier, I, An Historical Geography And A Field Survey of the Bayburt Province, Peeters, ISBN 90-429-1390-8 Georgia. Retrieved February 14,2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service Kavtaradze, an Attempt to Interpret Some Anatolian and Caucasian Ethnonyms of the Classical Sources, Sprache und Kultur, #3. The Bulletin of Ancient History, vol, Ancient kingdoms of Anatolia Prehistoric Georgia
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Colchis
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Colchis was an ancient kingdom and region on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Internationally, Colchis is perhaps best known for its role in Greek mythology, most notably as the destination of the Argonauts, as well as the home to Medea and the Golden fleece. Colchis was populated by Colchians, an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe, ancestral to the contemporary Western Georgians, namely Svans and Mingrelians, the kingdom of Colchis, Kolkhis or Qulha which existed from the c. According to the scholar of Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff, Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer. Colchis can be regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian kingdom. It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis. A second South Caucasian tribal union emerged in the 13th century BC on the Black Sea coast. There is some difference in authors as to the extent of the country westward, thus Strabo makes Colchis begin at Trabzon, while Ptolemy, on the other hand. The name of Colchis first appears in Aeschylus and Pindar, the earlier writers only speak about it under the name of Aea, the residence of the mythical king Aeëtes, Kolchian Aia lies at the furthest limits of sea and earth, wrote Apollonius of Rhodes. Scylax mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other writers, the central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sokhumi and Kobuleti, most of that lies on the elevation below 20 m above sea level. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus, the climate is mild humid, near Batumi, annual rainfall level reaches 4,000 mm, which is the absolute maximum for the continental western Eurasia. The dominating natural landscapes of Colchis are temperate rainforests, yet degraded in the part of the region, wetlands. In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been advanced by the end of the 2nd millennium BC. The Colchian Late Bronze Age saw the development of significant skill in the smelting and casting of metals, sophisticated farming implements were made, and fertile, well-watered lowlands and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques. Colchis was inhabited by a number of related but distinct tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea and these Colchian tribes differed so completely in language and appearance from the surrounding Indo-European nations that the ancients provided various wild theories to account for the phenomenon. Herodotus regarded the Colchians as Ancient Egyptian race, Apollonius of Rhodes states that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as heirlooms a number of wooden tablets, which show, with considerable accuracy, seas and highways. Detlev Fehling regards the link between Colchis and Egypt as a clear example of the way Herodotus used spurious sources to back up stories he had made up himself. In the 13th century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region. This power, celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, the home of Medea, the kingdom of Tabal was conquered by the Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser III in the 830s BC
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Kingdom of Iberia
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Iberia, centered on present-day Eastern Georgia, was bordered by Colchis in the west, Caucasian Albania in the east and Armenia in the south. Its population, known as the Iberians, formed the nucleus of the Georgians, Iberia, ruled by Pharnavazid, Arsacid and Chosroid royal dynasties, together with Colchis to its west, would form the nucleus of the unified medieval Kingdom of Georgia under Bagrationi dynasty. In the 4th century, after Christianization of Iberia by Saint Nino during the reign of King Mirian III Christiantity was made the religion of the kingdom. Starting in the early 6th century AD, the position as a Sassanian vassal state was changed into effectively direct Persian rule. In 580, king Hormizd IV abolished the monarchy after the death of King Bakur III, the term Caucasian Iberia is also being used to distinguish it from the Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe. The provenance of the name Iberia is unclear, the letter s in this instance served as a prefix for the root word Ver. Accordingly, in following Ivane Javakhishvilis theory, the designation of Sber, a variant of Sver, was derived from the word Hber. According to another theory, it is derived from a Colchian word, Imer, meaning country on the side of the mountain, that is of the Likhi Range. In earliest times, the area of Caucasian Iberia was inhabited by several related tribes stemming from the Kura-Araxes culture, collectively called Iberians in Greco-Roman ethnography. The Moschi, mentioned by various historians, and their possible descendants. The Moschi had moved slowly to the northeast forming settlements as they traveled, one of these was Mtskheta, the future capital of the Kingdom of Iberia. The Mtskheta tribe was ruled by a prince locally known as mamasakhlisi. The written sources for the periods of Iberias history are mostly medieval Georgian chronicles. Pharnavaz, victorious in a struggle, became the first king of Iberia. His successors managed to control over the mountainous passes of the Caucasus with the Daryal being the most important of them. The period following this time of prosperity was one of incessant warfare as Iberia was forced to defend against numerous invasions into its territories. Some southern parts of Iberia, that were conquered from Kingdom of Armenia, in the 2nd century BC were reunited to Armenia, nineteen years later, the Romans again marched on Iberia forcing King Pharnavaz II to join their campaign against Albania. While another Georgian kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman province, a stone inscription discovered at Mtskheta speaks of the 1st-century ruler Mihdrat I as the friend of the Caesars and the king of the Roman-loving Iberians
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Lazica
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Lazica was the name given to the territory of Colchis during the Roman period, from about the 1st century BC. By the mid-3rd century, Lazica was given autonomy within the Roman Empire. Throughout much of its existence, it was mainly a Byzantine strategic vassal kingdom occasionally coming under Sassanid Persian rule, the kingdom fell to the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. Egrisi in the 8th century successfully repelled the Arab occupation and formed the Kingdom of Abkhazia-Egrisi from c,780, one of the early medieval polities which would converge into the unified kingdom of Georgia in the 11th century. In the early 4th century, the Christian eparchy of Pitiunt was established in this kingdom, other ancient episcopal sees in Lazica include Rhodopolis, Saesina, and Zygana. In 325 among the participants of the First Council of Nicaea was the bishop of Pitiunt, the first Christian king of Lazica was Gubazes I, in the 5th century, Christianity was made the official religion of Lazica. Later, the nobility and clergy of Lazica switched from the Hellenic ecclesiastic tradition to the Georgian, the Bichvinta Cathedral is one of oldest monuments of the Georgian Christian architecture constructed by the Georgian King Bagrat III of the Bagrationi Royal House in the late 10th century. It was under Bagrat III, that Lazica unified with the eastern Georgian lands of Iberia-Kartli to form a united Kingdom of Georgia. 456 –466 Damnazes. –521/522 Tzath I, attested 521/522 – 527/528 Opsites, dates of reign unknown, likely some time before 541 Gubazes II c.541 –555 Tzath II, 556–. 662, mentioned as patricius of Lazica in the Hypomnensticum of Theodosius and Theodore of Gangra Grigor 670 – c.675 Sergius, son of Barnucius, c. 696/697 Culture of Georgia Diaokhi History of Georgia History of Abkhazia Laz people Lazic War Roman Georgia Sanigs http, //web. raex. com/~obsidian/caucasus. html#Colchis www. colchis. de
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Roman Georgia
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Roman Georgia refers to the area of Georgia that was under Roman control. Between the 1st century BC and the 7th century AD Rome, at times, intermittently controlled directly or indirectly the kingdoms of Colchis. Romes conquests reached the Caucasus area at the end of the 2nd century BC, when the Roman Republic started to expand in Anatolia and the Black Sea. In the area of what is now western Georgia there was the Kingdom of Colchis that in those years had fallen under control of the Kingdom of Pontus, Iberia, on the other hand was invaded and became a vassal state of the empire. From this point on Colchis became the Roman province of Lazicum, with Emperor Nero later incorporating it into the Province of Pontus in 63 AD, despite the fact that all major fortresses along the seacoast were occupied by the Romans, their rule was pretty loose. In 69 AD, the people of Pontus and Colchis under Anicetus staged an uprising against the Romans which ended unsuccessfully. Christianity began to spread in the early 1st century, traditional accounts relate the event with Saint Andrew, Saint Simon the Zealot, and Saint Matata. While the Laz peoples kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman province, a stone inscription discovered at Mtskheta speaks of the 1st-century ruler Mihdrat I as the friend of the Caesars and the king of the Roman-loving Iberians. Emperor Vespasian fortified the ancient Mtskheta site of Arzami for the Iberian kings in 75 AD, in the 3rd century AD, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica, locally known as Egrisi. Colchis was a scene of the rivalry between the Eastern Roman/Byzantine and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War from 542 to 562. This new South Western Caucasian state survived more than 250 years until 562 when it was absorbed by the Eastern Roman Empire, during Justinian I. Indeed, in 591 AD Byzantium and Persia agreed to divide Caucasian Iberia between them, with Tbilisi to be in Persian hands and Mtskheta to be under Roman/Byzantine control, at the beginning of the 7th century the temporary truce between the Romans and Persia collapsed again. The Iberian Prince Stephanoz I, decided in 607 AD to join forces with Persia in order to all the territories of Caucasian Iberia. Sebastopolis continued to remain the last Roman/Byzantine stronghold in western Georgia, one of the main legacies of Rome to Georgia is the Christian faith. The final conversion of all Georgia to Christianity in 327 is credited to St. Nina of Cappadocia. She was the daughter of pious and noble parents, the Roman general Zabulon, a relative of the great martyr St. George. Christianity was declared the state religion by King Mirian III of Iberia as early as 327 AD, which gave a stimulus to the development of literature, arts. Petra in Lazica is an ancient bishopric in Georgia that is included in the Catholic Churchs list of titular sees, Roman presence was huge in coastal Georgia, where some Roman Forts were defended for centuries by legionaries
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Principality of Iberia
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Principality of Iberia was an early medieval aristocratic regime in a core Georgian region of Kartli, i. e. Iberia per classical authors. It flourished in the period of interregnum between the sixth and ninth centuries, when the political authority was exercised by a succession of princes. Its borders fluctuated greatly as the princes of Iberia confronted the Persians, Byzantines, Khazars, Arabs. When the king of a unified Iberia, Bakur III, died in 580, Iberia became a Persian province ruled by a marzpan. However, the direct Persian control brought about heavy taxation and a promotion of Zoroastrianism in a largely Christian country. Therefore, when the Eastern Roman emperor Maurice embarked upon a campaign against Persia in 582. Maurice did respond, and, in 588, sent his protégé, Guaram I of the Guaramids, however, Guaram was not crowned as king, but recognized as a presiding prince and bestowed with the Eastern Roman title of curopalates. The Byzantine-Sassanid treaty of 591 confirmed this new rearrangement, but left Iberia divided into Roman-, the presiding princes of Iberia, as the leading local political authority, were to be confirmed and sanctioned by the court of Constantinople. They are variously entitled in Georgian sources, eristavt-mtavari, eris-mtavari, eristavt-eristavi, most of them were additionally invested with various Roman/Byzantine titles. For example, eight out of the fourteen presiding princes held the dignity of curopalates, dispossessed of the principate of Iberia, the Chosroids retired to their appanage in Kakheti where they ruled as regional princes until the family became extinct by the early 9th century. The Guaramids returned to power and faced a difficult task of maneuvering between the Byzantines and Arabs, the Arabs, primarily concerned with maintaining control of the cities and trade routes, dispossessed them of Tbilisi where a Muslim emir was installed in the 730s. The Guaramids were briefly succeeded by the Nersianids between c.748 and 779/80, and had vanished once and for all by 786 and this year witnessed a bloody crackdown upon the rebellious Georgian nobles organized by Khuzayma ibn Khazim, an Arab viceroy of the Caucasus. The extinction of the Guaramids and near-extinction of the Chosroids allowed their cousins of the Bagratid family. Having accepted the Byzantine protection, the Bagratids, from their base in the region of Tao-Klarjeti,590 Stephen I, the Guaramid, c. 590–627 Adarnase I, the Chosroid, 627–637/642 Stephen II, the Chosroid,650 Adarnase II, the Chosroid, c. 650–684 Guaram II, the Guaramid, 684–c,693 Guaram III, the Guaramid, c. 748 Adarnase III, the Nersianid, c, toumanoff, Cyril, Studies in Christian Caucasian History
Kingdom of Georgia
Great Seljuq Empire
