1.
Tributary state
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The term tributary state refers to one of the two main ways in which a pre-modern state might be subordinate to a more powerful state. The heart of the relationship was that the tributary would send a token of submission to the superior power. This token often took the form of a transfer of wealth, such as the delivery of gold, produce, or slaves. John used to send annually to the Viceroy of Sicily in order to rule Malta and it might also involve attendance by the subordinate ruler at the court of the hegemon in order to make a public show of submission. Tributary relations involve no element of control or interference by the hegemon. At most, the hegemonic power might intervene in succession issues, for this reason, the extrapolation from pre-modern inter-state relations to the modern international system is problematic. For instance, Tributaries of Imperial China implies Chinese sovereign claim over territories not now regarded as Chinese, historically, the Emperor of China saw himself as the emperor of the entire civilized world. It was not possible for such an emperor to have diplomatic relations with any other power. Diplomatic missions and trading parties from non-Chinese regions were interpreted in Chinese records as being tributary, in Al Andalus, the last remaining Moorish Nasrid Dynasty in the Emirate of Granada paid tribute to the Christian Kingdom of Castile. Tributary states, usually on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire, were under vassalage in different forms, some were allowed to select their own leaders, while others paid tribute for their lands. In the Western colonial system, non-Western states were incorporated into a European empire as protectorates. In the Philippines, the Datus of the Barangays became vassals of the Spanish Empire and their right to rule was recognized by King Philip II of Spain, on 11 June 1594, under the condition of paying tributes due to the Spanish Crown. For modern forms of subordination, see puppet state, satellite state. Tribute Bunga mas Mandala Suzerainty Vassal state Puppet state Satellite state Client state
2.
Kutaisi
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Kutaisi is the legislative capital of Georgia, and its 3rd most populous city. Situated 221 kilometres west of Tbilisi, it is the capital of the region of Imereti. Kutaisi is located along banks of the Rioni River. The city lies at an elevation of 125–300 metres above sea level, to the east and northeast, Kutaisi is bounded by the Northern Imereti Foothills, to the north by the Samgurali Range, and to the west and the south by the Colchis Plain. Kutaisi is surrounded by deciduous forests to the northeast and the northwest, the low-lying outskirts of the city have a largely agricultural landscape. The city centre has many gardens its streets are lined with high, in the springtime, when the snow starts to melt in the nearby mountains, the storming Rioni River in the middle of the city is heard far beyond its banks. Kutaisi has a subtropical climate with a well-defined on-shore/monsoonal flow during the Autumn. The summers are hot and relatively dry while the winters are wet. Average annual temperature in the city is 14.5 degrees Celsius, january is the coldest month with an average temperature of 5.3 degrees Celsius while July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 23.2 degrees Celsius. The absolute minimum recorded temperature is −17 degrees Celsius and the maximum is 44 degrees Celsius. Average annual precipitation is around 1,530 mm, rain may fall in every season of the year. The city often experiences heavy, wet snowfall in the winter, Kutaisi experiences powerful easterly winds in the summer which descend from the nearby mountains. Kutaisi was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Colchis, archaeological evidence indicates that the city functioned as the capital of the kingdom of Colchis in the sixth to fifth centuries BC. From 978 to 1122 CE, Kutaisi was the capital of the united Kingdom of Georgia, in 1508, the city was captured by Selim I, who was the son of Bayezid II, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. During the seventeenth century, Imeretian kings made many appeals to Russia to help them in their struggle for independence from the Ottomans, all these appeals were ignored as Russia did not want to spoil relations with Turkey. Totleben helped King Solomon I of Imereti to recover his capital, Kutaisi, finally, the Russian-Turkish wars ended in 1810 with the annexation of the Imeretian Kingdom by the Russian Empire. The city was the capital of the Gubernia of Kutaisi, which included much of west Georgia, in March 1879, the city was the site of a blood- libel trial that attracted attention all over Russia, the ten accused Jews were acquitted. Kutaisi was an industrial center before Georgias independence in 1991
3.
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
4.
Middle Georgian
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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
5.
Armenian language
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The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages and it is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups, Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to an extent by Greek, Persian. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible and he is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. W. M. However, unlike shared innovations, the retention of archaisms is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann used the method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. Meillets hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse, eric P. Hamp supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian. Nevertheless, as Fortson comments, by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, graeco--Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC
6.
Kipchak languages
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The Kipchak languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by more than 25 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China. The Kipchak languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together, some of these features are shared with other Turkic languages, others are unique to the Kipchak family. Urum and Crimean Tatar appear to have a Kipchak–Cuman base, but have been influenced by Oghuz languages. The language of the Mamluks in Egypt appears to have been a Kipchak language, Kipchak language Kipchaks Kipchaks in Georgia Cuman people Cuman language Cumania Johanson, Lars, Csató, Éva Ágnes
7.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
8.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
9.
Medieval Greek
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From the 7th century onwards, Greek was the only language of administration and government in the Byzantine Empire. This stage of language is described as Byzantine Greek. The study of the Medieval Greek language and literature is a branch of Byzantine Studies, or Byzantinology, however, this approach is rather arbitrary as it is more an assumption of political as opposed to cultural and linguistic developments. Indeed, by time the spoken language, particularly pronunciation, had already shifted towards modern forms. Medieval Greek is the link between this vernacular, known as Koine Greek, and the Modern Greek language. With the transfer of the Roman imperial court to Byzantium between 324 and 330, the centre of the Roman Empire was moved into an area where Greek was the dominant language. At first, Latin remained the language of both the court and the army and it was used for documents, but its influence soon waned. From the beginning of the 6th century, amendments to the law were written in Greek. Furthermore, parts of the Roman Corpus Iuris Civilis were gradually translated into Greek, under the rule of Emperor Heraclius, who also assumed the Greek title Basileus in 629, Greek became the official language of the Eastern Roman Empire. This was in spite of the fact that the inhabitants of the empire still considered themselves Romaioi until its end in 1453, the number of those who were able to communicate in Greek may have been far higher. In any case, all cities of the Eastern Roman Empire were strongly influenced by the Greek language, alexandria, a center of Greek culture and language, fell to the Arabs in 642. During the seventh and eighth centuries, Greek was replaced by Arabic as a language in conquered territories such as Egypt. Thus, the use of Greek declined early on in Syria, Egypt, from the late 11th century onwards, the interior of Anatolia was invaded by Seljuq Turks, who advanced westwards. Language varieties after 1453 are referred to as Modern Greek, as early as in the Hellenistic period, there was a tendency towards a state of diglossia between the Attic literary language and the constantly developing vernacular Koiné. By late antiquity, the gap had become impossible to ignore, written literature reflecting this demotic Greek begins to appear around 1100. Among the preserved literature in the Attic literary language, various forms of historiography take a prominent place and they comprise chronicles as well as classicist, contemporary works of historiography, theological documents, and saints lives. Poetry can be found in the form of hymns and ecclesiastical poetry, many of the Byzantine emperors were active writers themselves and wrote chronicles or works on the running of the Byzantine state and strategic or philological works. Furthermore, letters, legal texts, and numerous registers and lists in Medieval Greek exist and these are influenced by the vernacular language of their time in choice of words and idiom, but largely follow the models of written Koine in their morphology and syntax
10.
Orthodoxy
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Orthodoxy is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. In the Christian sense the term means conforming to the Christian faith as represented in the creeds of the early Church, the first seven Ecumenical Councils were held between the years of 325 and 787 with the aim of formalizing accepted doctrines. In classical Christian usage, the term refers to the set of doctrines which were believed by the early Christians. A series of councils, also known as the First seven Ecumenical Councils, were held over a period of several centuries to try to formalize these doctrines. The most significant of these decisions was that between the Homoousian doctrine of Athanasius and Eustathius and the Heteroousian doctrine of Arius and Eusebius. The earliest recorded use of the term orthodox is in the Codex Iustinianus of 529–534, following the 1054 Great Schism, both the Western and Eastern Churches continued to consider themselves uniquely orthodox and catholic. Over time, the Western Church gradually identified with the Catholic label and this was in note of the fact that both Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as early as the 2nd and 4th centuries respectively. Today the two largest Orthodox Christian communions are the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy, Orthodox Judaism is split into various different movements and factions. They have different ways of interpreting and following the laws and traditions of Judaism, Orthodox Judaism is distinct from Conservative Judaism. The term Orthodox Islam generally refers to the teachings and religious practices of traditional Sunni Islam. The term Orthodox Hinduism commonly refers to the teachings and practices of Sanātanī. In this sense, the term has a pejorative connotation. Among various orthodoxies in distinctive fields, most common terms are, Political orthodoxy, Social orthodoxy, Economic orthodoxy, Scientific orthodoxy, Orthodoxy is opposed to heterodoxy or heresy. A deviation lighter than heresy is commonly called error, in the sense of not being enough to cause total estrangement. Sometimes error is used to cover both full heresies and minor errors. The concept of orthodoxy is prevalent in many forms of organized monotheism, syncretism, for example, plays a much wider role in non-monotheistic religion. The prevailing governing norm within polytheism is often rather than the right belief of orthodoxy. Henderson, The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy, Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and Early Christian Patterns, SUNY Press 1998
11.
Georgian Orthodox Church
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The Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church in full communion with the other churches of Eastern Orthodoxy. It is Georgias dominant religious institution, and a majority of Georgian people are members and it asserts apostolic foundation, and its historical roots can be traced to the Christianization of Iberia by Saint Nino in the 4th century AD. As in similar autocephalous Orthodox churches, the Churchs highest governing body is the Holy Synod of bishops, the church is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, currently Ilia II, who was elected in 1977. The current Constitution of Georgia recognizes the role of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the countrys history. Government relations are defined and regulated by the Concordat of 2002. The church is the most trusted institution in Georgia, according to a 2013 survey 95% respondents had a favorable opinion of its work. It is highly influential in the sphere and is considered Georgias most influential institution. According to Georgian Orthodox Church tradition, the first preacher of the Gospel in Colchis and Iberia was the apostle Andrew, the First-called. However, modern historiography considers this account mythical, and the fruit of a late tradition, similar traditions regarding Saint Andrew exist in Ukraine, Cyprus and Romania. The Church also claims the presence in Georgia of the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, the propagation of Christianity in present-day Georgia before the 4th century is still poorly known. The first documented event in this process is the preaching of Saint Nino and its consequences, Saint Nino, honored as Equal to the Apostles, was according to tradition the daughter of a Roman general from Cappadocia. She preached in the kingdom of Iberia in the first half of the 4th century, cyril Toumanoff dates the conversion of Mirian to 334, his official baptism and subsequent adoption of Christianity as the official religion of Iberia to 337. From the first centuries C. E. the cult of Mithras, pagan beliefs, the royal baptism and organization of the Church were accomplished by priests sent from Constantinople by Constantine the Great. Conversion of the people of Kartli proceeded quickly in the plains, the conversion of Kartli marked only the beginnings of the formation of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the next centuries, different processes took place that shaped the Church, and gave it, by the beginning of the 11th century, the main characteristics that it has retained until now. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Church of Kartli was strictly subordinate to the Apostolic See of Antioch, in 1010, the Catholicos of Kartli was elevated to the honor of Patriarch. From then on, the hierarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church carried the official title of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. At the beginnings of the Church history, what is now Georgia was not unified yet politically, such division was reflected in major differences in the development of Christianity
12.
Judaism
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Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
13.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
14.
Feudalism
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Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. There is no commonly accepted definition of feudalism, at least among scholars. Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R, outside a European context, the concept of feudalism is often used only by analogy, most often in discussions of feudal Japan under the shoguns, and sometimes medieval and Gondarine Ethiopia. The term feudalism has also been applied—often inappropriately or pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions, the term féodal was used in 17th-century French legal treatises and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as feodal government. In the 18th century, Adam Smith, seeking to describe systems, effectively coined the forms feudal government. In the 19th century the adjective feudal evolved into a noun, the term feudalism is recent, first appearing in French in 1823, Italian in 1827, English in 1839, and in German in the second half of the 19th century. The term feudal or feodal is derived from the medieval Latin word feodum, the etymology of feodum is complex with multiple theories, some suggesting a Germanic origin and others suggesting an Arabic origin. Initially in medieval Latin European documents, a grant in exchange for service was called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one-hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, the most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch. Bloch said it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. This was known as feos, a term that took on the meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This meaning was then applied to itself, in which land was used to pay for fealty. Thus the old word feos meaning movable property changed little by little to feus meaning the exact opposite and this Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century. Another theory was put forward by Archibald R. Lewis, Lewis said the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious that says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, another theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, indeed, the first use of these terms is in Languedoc, one of the least Germanic areas of Europe and bordering Muslim Spain
15.
Monarchy
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The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
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King of Kings
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The first king known to use the title king of kings was Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria. The title was adopted in Biblical Hebrew, as מֶלֶךְ מְלָכִים, the same usage appears in Aramaic portions of the Book of Daniel 2,37, where Nebuchadnezzar is called מֶלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא. The first written record of consistent use of the dates to the kings of the Achaemenid Empire. The title King of Kings was one of the titles borne by Cyrus the Great, and later all other Achaemenid kings, who were in fact ruling over provincial governors, the Persian usage also appears in Ezra 7,12 in reference to Artaxerxes I. The New Persian word was revived by some Islamic dynasties in Persia with the meaning great king. Alexander the Great had the title, Basileus ton Basileon meaning king of kings and this title was likely given to him to imply that he was a successor of the Persian kings who had the same title. Tigranes II of Armenia used an equivalent to king of kings. The title was used in the Donations of Alexandria ceremony in 34BC, Jesus Christ is called the king of kings once in the First Epistle to Timothy and twice in the Book of Revelation. But king of kings has also used as the title of a monarch in Christian tradition. Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων King of Kings, Ruling over Those who Rule was the motto of the Byzantine Palaiologos dynasty, the Emperors of Ethiopia had the title of king of kings. The title of king of kings is criticized in hadith, Verily, a related phrase is Malik Al-Mulk, one of the 99 names of Allah. The title shahanshah was revived by the Pahlavi dynasty of Persia in the 20th century and it was abolished when the Islamic Revolution toppled the monarchy in Iran. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya claimed to be King of Kings, a title that he subsequently had a gathering of African tribal chiefs endorse in 2008, Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity. Henrik Larsson WWE wrestler Triple H is also dubbed as The King of Kings, in The Simpsons episode A Star Is Burns, an actor starring in Mr. Burns movie A Burns for All Seasons referred to him as being truly The King of Kings. In the movie 300, King Xerxes I referred to himself as King of Kings, in Percy Shelleys sonnet, Ozymandias, Ozymandias refers to himself as King of Kings on line 10. In Family Guy episode Jesus, Mary and Joseph
17.
Bagrat III of Georgia
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Bagrat III, of the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty, was King of Abkhazia from 978 on and King of Georgia from 1008 on. He united these two titles by dynastic inheritance and, through conquest and diplomacy, added more lands to his realm, before Bagrat was crowned as king, he had also reigned in Kartli as co-ruler with his father Gurgen from 976 to 978. Bagrat oversaw the construction of Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi, western Georgia, Bagrat was born in about 960 to Gurgen, a Bagrationi Dynasty prince from Kartli, and his wife, Gurandukht, who was a daughter of the late king George II of Aphkhazeti. Being still in his minority, Bagrat was adopted by his childless kinsman David III Kuropalates, presiding prince of Tao/Tayk, the Abkhazian Kingdom was then under the rule of Theodosius III the Blind, a weak and inauspicious king, who was Bagrat’s uncle by his mother’s side. The kingdom was engulfed into chaos and feudal warfare. Ioane Marushis-dze, the energetic eristavi of Kartli, urged, in 976, David responded vigorously and the Kakhetians had to withdraw to avoid the confrontation. David gave Kartli to Bagrat and installed Gurgen as his regent, the Kakhetians quickly returned to the offensive and seized Bagrat and his parents. However, David promptly interfered and restored his stepson in Kartli, in 978, Ioane Marushis-dze, aided by David, forced Theodosius of Abkhazia to abdicate the throne in favour of his nephew Bagrat. The latter left his mother, Gurandukht, to govern Kartli, within two years, Bagrat assumed full ruling powers. He proved an able ruler and succeeded in restoring law and order in his kingdom, while he was in Kutaisi, the aristocratic opposition of Kartli led by Kavtar Tbeli disregarded Gurandukht’s authority and ran their fiefdoms as semi-independent rulers. When Bagrat returned to Kartli to deal with situation, the nobles offered him an armed resistance, but the king won the battle at Moghrisi. Finally he directed his attention towards Kldekari in Lower Kartli, whose duke Rati continued to ignore the royal authority, the preparations for this expedition, in 989, produced much confusion as David of Tao was misinformed about the true intentions of his stepson. According to Georgian chronicles, Bagrat then went alone, fell at his feet, believed that too and released him in peace. After the reconciliation with his stepfather, Bagrat was finally able to receive fealty from Rati who abandoned his duchy at swordpoint and retired to his patrimony in Argveti. David was murdered by his nobles in 1000, and his possessions, according to the previous agreement, passed to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. Later the same year, Gurgen attempted to take David Kuropalates’ succession by force and this formidable acquisition brought Bagrat’s realm to the neighbourhood of the Shaddadid emirate of Arran in what is now Azerbaijan, whose ruler al-Fadl I b. Muhammad raided Kakheti following its incorporation into Georgia, Bagrat drove back this incursion and, in alliance with the Armenian king Gagik I, successfully campaigned against the Shaddadid city of Shamkir, levying a tribute upon it. Bagrat’s reign, a period of uttermost importance in the history of Georgia, anxious to create more stable and centralized monarchy, Bagrat eliminated or at least diminished the autonomy of the dynastic princes
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George VIII of Georgia
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It can also refer to George VIII of Imereti. George VIII was the last king of the united Georgia, though his kingdom was already fragmentised and dragged into a civil war. Defeated by his rivals, he was left with an eastern province Kakheti alone and he was the third son of Alexander I of Georgia by his second wife Tamar. Though Demetre, Alexander’s second son, seems to have been a successor to his elder brother Vakhtang IV. The process of the disintegration of the Georgian kingdom had begun and was close to reach its climax. The most troublesome were revolts by the western Georgian nobles and the atabegs of Samtskhe, yet, Georgia was considered as a possible participant of a large anti-Ottoman crusade planned by the Pope Pius II and Western European powers. For this purpose, Ludovicus Bologninus was sent to hold talks in Georgia, georgians hoped to mobilise in total 120,000 soldiers to fight sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and proposed even to continue the Crusade on Jerusalem. The coalition was never formed, however, and the struggles within Georgia were soon resumed. In 1462, George took Samokalako from its owner, a kinsman, Bagrat for his support to the rebel prince Qvarqvare II Jakeli. In 1463, Bagrat allied himself with other oppositionist royal subjects, dukes of Mingrelia, Guria, Svaneti, the rebels met and defeated the king at the Battle of Chikhori. Subsequently, the king lost all western provinces and Bagrat was crowned king of Imereti, in 1465, George attempted to subdue Qvarqvare II of Samtskhe, only to be attacked and taken prisoner at Lake Paravani. The situation was exploited by Bagrat of Imereti, who seized control of Tbilisi. Atabeg Qvarqvare, who now considered Bagrat as his major rival, the latter, unsuccessful in his attempt to recover his crown, was only able to establish himself as a separate king in the easternmost province of Kakheti. There, he reorganised the administration, subdividing the kingdom into much smaller. Unlike to other Georgian polities, he put ecclesiastic lords, generally loyal to the crown than secular nobles, in charge of special military districts. He died in 1476 to be succeeded by Alexander I as king of Kakheti, George VIIIs royal charters make mention of two names of his consort, Tamar and Nestan-Darejan. Two explanations exist to account for this, such polyonymy was not infrequent in Georgia, Toumanoff explains, reflecting the twofold cultural background of the country, Hellenistic-Christian on the one hand, and Caucasio-Iranoid, on the other. She is last mentioned in 1510,1445 and, secondly to Nestan-Darejan, of unknown origin, whom the king took as his wife sometime before 1456
19.
High Middle Ages
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The High Middle Ages or High Medieval Period was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, by 1250 the robust population increase greatly benefited the European economy, reaching levels that would not be seen again in some areas until the 19th century. This trend was checked in the Late Middle Ages by a series of calamities, notably the Black Death but also including numerous wars, from about the year 780 onwards, Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more socially and politically organized. The Carolingian Renaissance led to scientific and philosophical revival of Europe, the first universities were established in Bologna, Paris, Oxford and Modena. The Vikings had settled in the British Isles, France and elsewhere, the Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year 1000, a Christian Kingdom of Hungary was recognized in Central Europe, forming alliances with regional powers. With the brief exception of the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, in the 11th century, populations north of the Alps began to settle new lands, some of which had reverted to wilderness after the end of the Roman Empire. In what is known as the clearances, vast forests. At the same time settlements moved beyond the boundaries of the Frankish Empire to new frontiers in Europe, beyond the Elbe River. The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual, spiritual, the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers of the period to develop Scholasticism, a combination of Catholicism and ancient philosophy. For much of the time period Constantinople remained Europes most populous city, in architecture, many of the most notable Gothic cathedrals were built or completed during this era. The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, beginning at the start of the 14th century, in England, the Norman Conquest of 1066 resulted in a kingdom ruled by a Francophone nobility. The Normans invaded Ireland by force in 1169 and soon established throughout most of the country. Likewise, Scotland and Wales were subdued to vassalage at about the same time, the Exchequer was founded in the 12th century under King Henry I, and the first parliaments were convened. In 1215, after the loss of Normandy, King John signed the Magna Carta into law, from the mid-tenth to the mid-11th centuries, the Scandinavian kingdoms were unified and Christianized, resulting in an end of Viking raids, and greater involvement in European politics. King Cnut of Denmark ruled over both England and Norway, after Cnuts death in 1035, England and Norway were lost, and with the defeat of Valdemar II in 1227, Danish predominance in the region came to an end. Meanwhile, Norway extended its Atlantic possessions, ranging from Greenland to the Isle of Man, while Sweden, under Birger Jarl, however, the Norwegian influence started to decline already in the same period, marked by the Treaty of Perth of 1266. Also, civil wars raged in Norway between 1130 and 1240, by the time of the High Middle Ages, the Carolingian Empire had been divided and replaced by separate successor kingdoms called France and Germany, although not with their modern boundaries. Germany was under the banner of the Holy Roman Empire, which reached its mark of unity
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Late Middle Ages
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The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the modern era. Around 1300, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt, a series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it was before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare, France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict in the Hundred Years War. To add to the problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively these events are called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of progress in the arts. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, eroded the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and cut off trading possibilities with the east. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the expedition of Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of modern history. However, the division is artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result there was continuity between the ancient age and the modern age. Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all, but rather see the period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance. The term Late Middle Ages refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People. Flavio Biondo used a framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire. Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, for 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit
21.
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
22.
Great Turkish Invasion
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The term has it origin in the 12th-century Georgian chronicle and is accepted in the modern scholarship of Georgia. The Seljuqs made their first appearances in Georgia in the 1060s and these intruders were part of the same wave of the Turkish movement which inflicted a crushing defeat on the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071. Although the Georgians were able to recover from Alp Arslans invasion, in the 1070s, Georgia was twice attacked by the sultan Malik Shah I, but the Georgian king George II was still able to fight back at times. In 1080, George II was surprised, in the vicinity of Queli, by a large Turkish force led by Aḥmad, probably of the Mamlān dynasty, George was put to flight, through Adjara, to Abkhazia. The Turks conquered Kars from the Georgians and returned to their bases laden with booty and this was soon followed by even larger inroads, led by Yaʿqub and ʿIsā-Böri. The key towns of Kutaisi and Artanuji and the vibrant Christian hermitages of Klarjeti were all burnt down and those who survived the fighting had to flee to the mountains, where many of them found their death of cold and starvation. Georges acceptance of the Seljuq suzerainty did not bring a peace for Georgia. The Turks continued their movement into the Georgian territory to make use of the rich herbage of the Kura valley. These inroads and settlements had an effect on Georgias economic. Cultivated lands were turned into pastures for the nomads and peasant farmers were compelled to seek safety in the mountains, the contemporary Georgian chronicler laments that in those times there was neither sowing nor harvest. The land was ruined and turned into forest, in place of men beasts, insufferable oppression fell on all the inhabitants of the land, it was unparalleled and far worse than all ravages heard of or experienced. A similar situation was found in neighboring Armenia as related in Aristakes Lastivertsis chronicle, to make the things worse, a severe earthquake struck the southern provinces of Georgia, devastating Tmogvi and the surrounding area on April 16,1088. The great nobles of Georgia capitalized on weakening of the power to promote their autonomy. Aghsartan was able to him by offering submission to Malik Shah. Such was the situation in Georgia, when, in 1089, by 1099, the year when Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders, David felt strong enough to withhold annual tribute paid to the Seljuqs. A history of the Georgian people, from the beginning down to the Russian conquest in the nineteenth century, Georgia and the Anatolian Turks in the 12th and 13th centuries. The making of the Georgian nation, thomson, Robert W. Rewriting Caucasian history, the medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles, the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation
23.
Timur's invasions of Georgia
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These conflicts were intimately linked with the wars between Timur and Tokhtamysh, the last khan of the Golden Horde and Timur’s major rival for control over the Islamic world. Timur officially proclaimed his invasions to be jihad against the regions non-Muslims, although he was able to invade parts of Georgia, he was never able to make the country Muslim and even recognized Georgia to be a Christian state. In the first of eight invasions, Timur sacked Georgias capital, Tbilisi, Georgian resistance prompted a renewed attack by the Turco-Mongol armies. Bagrat’s son and successor, George VII, put up a resistance and had to spend much of his reign fighting the Timurid invasions. Timur personally led most of these raids to subdue the recalcitrant Georgian monarch, although he was not able to establish a firm control over Georgia, the country suffered a blow from which it never recovered. By the time George VII was forced to accept Timurs terms of peace and agree to pay tribute, he was a master of more than gutted towns, ravaged countryside. Timurs first appearance in the Caucasus was a response to Khan Tokhtamysh’s marauding inroad into Northern Iran through the Caucasian lands in 1385 and this marked an outbreak of outright hostility between the two Islamic monarchs. Timur responded by launching an invasion of the small frontier countries. After having overrun Azerbaijan and Kars, Timur marched into Georgia, the official history of his reign, Zafarnama, represents this campaign in Georgia as a jihad. Timur set out from Kars and assailed Samtskhe, the southernmost principality within the Kingdom of Georgia later in 1386, from there, he marched against Tbilisi which the Georgian king Bagrat V had fortified. The city fell on November 21,1386, and King Bagrat V was captured and converted to Islam at sword point. The Georgian Chronicle and Thomas of Metsoph mention the apostasy of the king, Bagrat was given some 12,000 troops to reestablish himself in Georgia whose government was run by Bagrat’s son and co-ruler George VII during his father’s absence at Timur’s court. The old king, however, entered in negotiations with George who ambushed Bagrat’s Islamic escort. In the spring of 1387, Timur returned to Georgia to take revenge for the ambush, Bagrat and George managed to evacuate the civilian population of the frontier regions to the mountains and forests, and began organising their defences. Khan Tokhtamysh’s reappearance in Iran forced Timur to temporarily withdraw, however once the Golden Horde was defeated, Timur returned to attack Georgia again. In 1394, he dispatched four generals to the province of Samtskhe and this event prompted Timur to return, later in 1399, to inflict massive revenge on the general population of the region. He took Shekki and devastated the region of Kakheti. In the spring of 1400, Timur moved back to destroy the Georgian state once and he demanded that George VII should hand over the Jalayirid Tahir
24.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
25.
Sasanian Empire
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The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
26.
Dirham
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Dirham, dirhem or dirhm is a unit of currency in several Arab states and formerly, the related unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire and Persian states. The name derives from the ancient Greek currency the drachma, in the late Ottoman Empire, the standard dirham was 3.207 g,400 dirhem equal one oka. In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 troy grains, there is currently a movement within the Islamic world to revive the Dirham as a unit of mass for measuring silver, although the exact value is disputed. The word dirham comes from drachma, the Greek coin, the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. It was this currency which was adopted as an Arab word, then near the end of the 7th century the coin became an Islamic currency bearing the name of the sovereign
27.
Principality of 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
28.
Kingdom of Abkhazia
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Writing the kingdoms primary history was dominated by Georgian and Byzantine sources supported by modern epigraphic and archaeological records. This can be explained by the scarcity of primary sources on these issues. Most Abkhaz historians claim the kingdom was formed as a result of the consolidation of the early Abkhaz tribes that enabled them to extend their dominance over the neighboring areas. This is objected to on the side of the Georgian historians, Abkhazia, or Abasgia of classic sources, was a princedom under Byzantine authority. It had Anacopia as the capital, Abkhazia was ruled by a hereditary archon who effectively functioned as a Byzantine viceroy. The country was chiefly Christian and the city of Pityus was a seat of an archbishop directly subordinated to the Patriarch of Constantinople, another Abasgian episcopal see was that of Soteropolis. The Arabs, pursuing the retreating Georgian princes – brothers Mir of Egrisi, dysentery and floods, combined with a stubborn resistance offered by the archon Leon I and his Kartlian and Egrisian allies, made the invaders retreat. Leon I then married Mir’s daughter, and a successor, Leon II exploited this dynastic union to acquire Egrisi in the 770s, presumably considered as a successor state of Lazica, this new polity continued to be referred to as Egrisi in some contemporary Georgian and Armenian chronicles. The successful defense against the Arabs, and new territorial gains, towards circa 786, Leon won his full independence with the help of the Khazars, he assumed the title of King of the Abkhazians and transferred his capital to the western Georgian city of Kutatisi. According to Georgian annals, Leon subdivided his kingdom into eight duchies, Abkhazia proper, Tskhumi, Bedia, Guria, Racha and Takveri, Svaneti, Argveti, the most prosperous period of the Abkhazian kingdom was between 850 and 950. The increasingly expansionist tendencies of the led to the enlargement of its realm to the east. Beginning with George I, the Abkhazian kings controlled also Kartli, in about 908 King Constantine III had finally annexed a significant portion of Kartli, bringing his kingdom up to the neighborhood of Arab-controlled Tfilisi. Under his son, George II, the Abkhazian Kingdom reached a climax of power, for a brief period of time, Kakheti in eastern Georgia and Hereti in the Georgian-Albanian marches also recognized the Abkhazian suzerainty. As a temporary ally of the Byzantines, George II patronized the missionary activities of Nicholas Mystikos in Alania, george’s successors, however, were unable to retain the kingdom’s strength and integrity. During the reign of Leon III, Kakheti and Hereti emancipated themselves from the Abkhazian rule, a bitter civil war and feudal revolts which began under Demetrius III led the kingdom into complete anarchy under the unfortunate king Theodosius III the Blind. By that time the hegemony in Transcaucasia had finally passed to the Georgian Bagratids of Tao-Klarjeti, in 978, the Bagratid prince Bagrat, nephew of the sonless Theodosius, occupied the Abkhazian throne with the help of his adoptive father David III of Tao. In 1008, Bagrat succeeded on the death of his natural father Gurgen as the King of Kings of the Georgians, thus, these two kingdoms unified through dynastic succession, in practice laying the foundation for the unified Georgian monarchy, officially styled then as the Kingdom of Georgians. Only Abkhazia and the areas of Svanetia, Racha and Khevi-Khevsureti did not acknowledge Seljuk suzerainty
29.
Seljuq Armenia
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Although the native Bagratuni Dynasty was founded under favourable circumstances, the feudal system gradually weakened the country by eroding loyalty to the central government. Thus internally enfeebled, Armenia proved an easy victim for the Byzantines, the Seljuq dynasty under Alp Arslan took the city of Ani in 1064. In 1071, after the defeat of the Byzantine forces by the Seljuq Turks at the Battle of Manzikert, the Saltukids were centered in Arzan ar-Rum following the Battle of Manzikert, who ruled from 1071 to 1202. Shah-Armens were centered in Ahlat on the shore of the Lake Van. They ruled most of modern Bitlis and Van provinces and parts of Batman, Siirt, the Shaddadids were a dynasty of Kurdish origin who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1174. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia. The Kingdom of Syunik-Baghk was an Armenian state that ruled the territories of Syunik, Artsakh, various Armenian villages and towns remained semi-independent under Armenian rule. Among these were Sassun, Moks, the Hayhurum rule of Melitene under Gabriel of Melitene, and other smaller states
30.
Emirate of Tbilisi
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The Emirs of Tbilisi ruled over the parts of today’s eastern Georgia from their base in the city of Tbilisi, from 736 to 1080. Since then, the city has been the capital of Georgia to this day, the Arabs first appeared in Georgia, namely in Kartli in 645. It was not, however, until 735, when they succeeded in establishing their control over a large portion of the country. In that year, Marwan II took hold of Tbilisi and much of the lands and installed there an Arab emir. During the Arab period, Tbilisi grew into a center of trade between the Islamic world and northern Europe, beyond that, it functioned as a key Arab outpost and a buffer province facing the Byzantine and Khazar dominions. Over time, Tbilisi became largely Muslim, but the Islamic influences were strictly confined to the city itself, Tbilisi was a large city with a strong double wall pierced by three gates. It lay on both banks of the Kura River, and the two parts were connected by a bridge of boats, the contemporary geographers especially mention its thermal springs, which supplied the baths with constant hot waters. The houses were built, to the surprise of contemporary Arab travelers. In the first half of the century, Tbilisi is said to have been the second largest, after Derbend. The Abbasid Caliphate weakened after the Abbasid civil war in the 810s, at the same time, the emirate became a target of the resurgent Georgian Bagrationi dynasty who were expanding their territory from Tao-Klarjeti across Georgian lands. The Emirate of Tbilisi grew in strength under Ishaq ibn Ismail. He withheld his annual payment of tribute to Baghdad, and declared his independence from the Caliph, the Abbasids chose not to rebuild the city extensively, and as a result the Muslim prestige and authority in the region began to wane. Beginning in the 1020s, the Georgian kings pursued a contradictory but generally expansionist policy against the emirs of Tbilisi, the territories of the emirate shrank to Tbilisi and its immediate environs. However, the Seljuk invasions of the 1070s–1080s thwarted the Georgian advance, Georgian King David IV’s victories over the Seljuk Turks inflicted a final blow to Islamic Tbilisi, and a Georgian army entered the city in 1122, ending four hundred years of Muslim rule. The office of emir —now an appointed Georgian royal official—survived in Tbilisi, as well as big cities of Georgia, into the 18th century. Khalil Isa b. ash-Sheikh ash-Shayban Ibrahim Gabuloc Jaffar I b, Jaffar Fadlun of Ganja According to Georgian sources between 1062 and 1068 and again between 1080 and 1122 council of elders rule Emirate of Tbilisi
31.
Kingdom of Kartli
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The Kingdom of Kartli was a feudal Georgian state that existed from 1466/84 to 1762, with the city of Tbilisi as its capital. Through much of period of time the kingdom was a vassal of the Persian empire. Georgia experienced a degree of civil instability, feudal separatism. In 1465, George VIII was captured by Kvarkvare II Jaqeli the Atabeg of Samtskhe, sensing opportunity, Bagrat VI immediately proclaimed himself King of Kartli as well and took control of it in 1466. Bagrat VI continued to rule Kartli until 1478, when he was challenged by yet another pretender to the throne, Constantine II, the attempts of Constantine II, in 1489, to restore his rule over united kingdom of Kartli-Imereti were unsuccessful. In 1490, he was forced to recognize the splitting of Georgian kingdom into kingdoms of Kartli, Imereti, Kakheti. The new realms were not long at peace, soon after coming into power, George II of Kakheti launched an expedition against Kartli, intending to depose King David X and conquer his kingdom. Davids brother Bagrat successfully defended the kingdom and managed to capture George II in an ambush, peace didnt linger in the west either, as David X faced incursions from Alexander II of Imereti, who was somewhat less successful than his Kakhetian counterpart. From the mid-16th century till 1762, Kartli stayed under intermittent Persian rule and was a part of their various dynasties. It regularly paid tribute and sent gifts to the shah in the form of boys and girls for use as slaves, horses, and wines. Following the Treaty of Georgievsk and the sack of Tblisi by Agha Mohammad Khan, Russian suzerainty over Kakheti and the rest of Georgia became finalised with Qajar Iran in 1813 with the Treaty of Gulistan. List of kings of Georgia Kartli kings family tree
32.
Kingdom of Kakheti
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The Second Kingdom of Kakheti was a late medieval/early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Gremi and then at Telavi. A previous Kingdom of Kakheti was created in the 8th century following the rebellion of the mountainous tribes of Tzanaria. The reemergence of the Kingdom of Kakheti was the first step towards the partition of Georgia which had been embroiled in wars since the mid-15th century. Overwhelmed by these difficulties, Constantine II, king of a reduced Georgia, was obliged to sanction the new order of things, in this way the tripartite division of the Kingdom of Georgia was consummated. Unlike other Georgian polities, Kakheti was spared, for the time being, from foreign incursions. Furthermore, it had the advantage over other parts of Georgia of flanking the important Ghilan-Shemakha-Astrakhan “silk route. ”The Kakhetian government sponsored this trade and actively participated in it, closely tying the kingdom to the life of eastern Transcaucasia. This relative stability for a time strengthened the power and increased the number of his supporters among the nobility. Nevertheless, in 1589, Alexander II of Kakheti officially pledged his allegiance to Tsar Feodor I of Russia, with Alexander’s murder in an Iranian-sponsored coup staged by his own son, a Muslim convert Constantine I, in 1605, the fortunes of Kakheti began to reverse. Thus began Teimuraz’s long and difficult reign in conflict with the Safavids, in the mid-1610s, Shah Abbas I renewed his effort to bring Georgia more completely into the Safavid empire and subjected Kakheti to repeated invasions in 1614,1615 and 1616. In a series of Georgian insurrections and Iranian reprisals, sixty to seventy people were killed. The population of Kakheti dropped by two-thirds, once flourishing towns, like Gremi and Zagemi, shrank to insignificant villages, agriculture declined, by 1648, the indefatigable Taimuraz had finally been ousted from Kakheti. The Safavid government tightened its control of Kakheti, implemented a policy of replacing the native population with nomadic Turkic tribes, at the same time, the Dagestani mountaineers started to attack and colonize the Kakhetian marchlands. For a time, the two kingdoms of eastern Georgia were virtually united under Shah-Nawaz and his son, and a period of peace ensued. Making the town of Telavi his capital, in place of Gremi which was ruined by the Iranian invasions, however, the promising situation was of short duration. This latter house finally succeeded, at the expense of their apostasy to Islam, in reestablishing themselves in 1703 and this proved to be of little benefit, however, and the kingdom continued to be plagued by the incessant Dagestani inroads. From 1724 to 1744, Kakheti was subjected to the successive Ottoman and Iranian occupations. Teimuraz II’s cooperation with Nader enabled him to secure his power in both Kakheti and Kartli, and to recognition for himself as king of Kartli, and for his son, Erekle II. Both monarchs were crowned in accordance to a Christian tradition in 1745 and they exploited the turmoil in Iran that followed Nader’s assassination in 1747 and established themselves as virtually independent rulers
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Kingdom of Imereti
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The Kingdom of Imereti was a Georgian monarchy established in 1455 by a member of the house of Bagrationi when the Kingdom of Georgia was dissolved into rival kingdoms. This was due to the Mongolian conquest of the 13th century which decentralized and fragmented Georgia, Imereti was conquered by Giorgi the Brilliant, who was subject to the Mongols, and united with the east Kingdom of Georgia. From 1455 onward, however, the became a constant battleground between Georgian, Persian, and Turkish forces until it was annexed into Russia completely in 1810. Throughout the course of time, Mingrelia, Abkhazia and Guria princedoms declared their independence from Imereti. In Persian - Azeri nomenclature the name of the region is changed to baş açıq which literally means without a head scarf
34.
Samtskhe-Saatabago
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The Principality of Meskheti or Principality of Samtskhe was a Georgian feudal principality existing between 1268 and 1628. Its territory consisted of modern Meskheti and the region of Tao-Klarjeti. Samtskhe-Saatabago was established after the expansion of the dukedom of Samtskhe, dukes of Samstkhe were always distinguished by their longing for higher autonomy from the king of Georgia. Samtskhe-Saatabago managed to remain a culturally developed part of Georgia as well as maintaining territorial integrity, Samtskhe-Saatabago, which was fully independent at a time, was again incorporated in the Georgian Kingdom by George V of Georgia, who claimed maternal descent from the House of Jaqeli. George V made Samtskhe-Saatabago an integral part of Georgia once again, at the end of the 14th century, Timurs forces invaded Samtskhe-Saatabago several times. After the weakening of Georgian monarchy, the rulers of Samtskhe turned to separatism once more, in 1500, Shah Ismail inveigled the atabeg of Samtskhe, king Constantine II and king Alexander II of Imereti to attack Ottoman possessions nearby Tabriz. As a precaution, Ismail had Aleksander send his son Demetre to the conquered region of Shirvan. Ismail promised Constantine, once Tabriz was captured, to cancel the tribute he still paid the Ak Koyunlu Turcomans, each Georgian ruler contributed 3,000 men to the existing Ismails own 7,000. By 1503 they enabled him to recapture Nakhchivan from the Ottomans, but Ismail broke his promise, and made Kartli and Kakheti his vassals
35.
Mongol Armenia
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Mongol Armenia or Ilkhanid Armenia refers to the period in which both Armenia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia became tributary and vassal to the Mongol Empire in the 1230s. Armenia and Cilicia remained under Mongol influence until around 1335, during the time period of the later Crusades, there was a short-lived Armenian-Mongol alliance, engaged in some combined military operations against their common enemy, the Mameluks. They succeeded in capturing Baghdad in 1258, but suffered eight years later. The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, or Lesser Armenia was formed in the late 12th century, by refugees, the area was staunchly Christian, as Armenia itself had been the first nation to ever adopt Christianity as its official religion, in the 4th century. Armenians were therefore very friendly to the European Crusaders who began to arrive in the early 12th century, as the Crusades progressed, the Armenian leaders were regular players in the politics of the region, aligning with the Crusader states against the Muslims. Genghis Khan had died in 1227, and by 1241, the Empire was split up into four smaller independent khanates, the southwestern khanate, known as the Ilkhanate, under the leadership of Genghis Khans grandson Hulagu, advanced towards Persia and the Holy Land. City after city fell to the Mongols, including some Christian realms in their path, when the Mongols reached the Caucasus, they conquered Greater Armenia, and various of the Armenian barons opted to swear loyalty to the Mongol Empire. In 1236, the Grand Prince of Karabagh, Hasan Jalal submitted to the Mongols and he also traveled twice to the Mongol capital of Karakorum, where he negotiated further details of the relationship with the khan. To formalize his own relationship with the Mongols, in 1247 Hethum I sent his elder half-brother Sempad the Constable to the Mongol court in Karakorum. Sempad met with Güyük Khan and his successor, Kublai Khans brother Möngke Khan, Sempad was enthusiastic about his travel to the Mongol realm, which lasted until 1250. He discovered many Christians in Mongol lands, even among the Mongols themselves, on February 7,1248, he sent a letter from Samarkand to his brother-in-law Henry I, king of Cyprus. During his visit to the Mongol court, Sempad received a relative of the Great Khan as a bride and he had a child with her, named Vasil Tatar, who would later be captured by the Mamluks at the Battle of Mari in 1266. In 1254, King Hethum himself traveled through Central Asia to the Mongol court and he brought many sumptuous presents, and met with Möngke Khan at Karakorum. Hethum, who came spontaneously as a vassal, was well received by the Mongols. Möngke also informed him that he was preparing to mount an attack on Baghdad, in 1258, the combined forces conquered the center of the most powerful Islamic dynasty in existence at that time, that of the Abbasids in the Siege of Baghdad. From there, the Mongol forces and their Christian allies conquered Muslim Syria and they took the city of Aleppo with the help of the Franks of Antioch, and on March 1,1260, under the Christian general Kitbuqa, they also took Damascus. Following Ain Jalut, the remainder of the Mongol army retreated to Cilician Armenia under the commander Ilka, Hulagu then attempted a counter-attack which briefly occupied Aleppo, but it was repelled by the princes of Hama and Homs, subjects to the Sultan. In 1262, the Mamluk leader Baibars began to threaten Antioch and that summer, Hethum again went to the Mongols to obtain their intervention to deliver the city from the Muslim threat
36.
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
37.
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
38.
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
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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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Caucasian Iberians is a Greco-Roman designation for the population of Caucasian Iberia, a Kartvelian speaking people in the east and southeast Transcaucasus region in Antiquity and Middle Ages. In the southwest, Iberians extended into Anatolia, inhabiting interior lands beside Colchians, ancient Caucasian Iberians are considered to be the ancestors of modern eastern Georgians as well the Laz people, another Kartvelian-speaking group. The area was inhabited in earliest times by several related tribes collectively called Iberians by ancient Greek, Iberians called their country Kartli after a mythic chief, Kartlos. One of the Iberian tribes of Mtskheta dominated the early Kingdom, the Mtskheta tribe was later ruled by a prince locally known as mamasakhlisi. The Roman general Pompey invaded Iberia in 65 BC, during his war with Mithridates VI of Pontus, and Armenia, nineteen years later, the Romans again marched on Iberia, forcing King Pharnavaz II to join their campaign against Albania as their ally. While another kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman province, Iberia freely accepted the Roman Imperial protection, the Iberian king Mirian III adopted Christianity as a state religion in AD327, and Iberia allied itself with the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. The religion would become a strong tie between Iberia and Rome, and would have a large impact on the states culture. The early reign of the Iberian king Vakhtang I dubbed Gorgasali was marked by relative revival of the kingdom, formally a vassal of the Persians, he secured the northern borders by subjugating the Caucasian mountaineers, and brought the adjacent western and southern Iberian lands under his control. He established an autocephalic patriarchate at Mtskheta, and made Tbilisi his capital, in 482, he led a general uprising against Persia. A desperate war for independence lasted for twenty years, but he could not get Byzantine support, Pharnavaz, victorious in the power struggle, became the first king of Iberia. Driving back an invasion, he subjugated the areas, including a significant part of the western state of Colchis. Pharnavaz then focused on projects, including the citadel of the capitol, the Armaztsikhe. He also reformed the Georgian written language and created a new system of administration and his successors managed to gain control over the mountainous passes of the Caucasus, with the Daryal being the most important of them. It may be possible to trace the presence of Caucasian Iberians in the region for several millennia, the Iberian tribes were an indigenous people of the Caucasus region, united by a common language, the ancestor of the Ibero-Caucasian language group. The name Iberian in its own appears in ancient Greek authors who identified early Georgian tribes as Iberoi. The Iberians called their kingdom Kartli, and their nation Kartlians, some theories have proposed common ethnic and linguistic origins of ancient Caucasian Iberians with the Iberians of the Iberian Peninsula, or the modern Basques in Spain
History of Georgia
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