1.
Khorashan of Kartli
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Khorashan was a member of the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty, a daughter of King George X of Kartli and a consort of Teimuraz I of Kakheti, whom she married as his second wife in 1612. She spent more than four decades of her life with Teimuraz, Khorashan accompanied him in his flights and comebacks. She was involved in diplomacy and patronized Catholic missionaries, Khorashan was a daughter of George X of Kartli by his wife Mariam Lipartiani. Among her four siblings was Luarsab II, George Xs successor to the throne of Kartli and, eventually and this breach of faith offended the ducal family and brought trouble to Luarsab in the following years. A younger brother of Khorashans former fiancé, Zurab, would marry her daughter Darejan in spite of Khorashans opposition to this union. Teimurazs marriage to Khorashan was encouraged and even insisted upon by Abbas I, the Safavid shah of Iran, Teimuraz was initially reluctant as Khorashan was his relative through their common great-grandfather Levan of Kakheti, but he eventually bowed to the shahs will and wed her at Gremi. Khorashan thus became a consort of Teimuraz and his faithful companion for 47 years of the kings turbulent life. Four times, in 1614,1616,1633, and in 1648, the couple was forced into flight from their kingdom as a result of Teimurazs obstinate resistance to the Iranian hegemony. Twice, in 1625 and again in 1633, was Teimuraz able to extend his rule over Kartli, the kingdom of his brother-in-law, Luarsab. In the course of events, Kakheti was devastated and the population shrank significantly as a result of war. At least on one occasion, Khorashan nearly fell into the hands of the Iranian soldiers, according to the Georgian chronicles, Khorashan had a dream that she was attacked and robbed by soldiers. The queen was so alarmed that she retired, with her people. Amirgune Khan appeared at dawn, but he failed to find the fugitives and this description of events is similar to that provided by the contemporary Portuguese Augustinian monk Ambrósio dos Anjos in his account of the martyrdom of Teimurazs mother, Queen Ketevan, in Iran. According to Ambrósio dos Anjos, Shah Abbas intended to take Teimurazs wife Khorashan as his own in order to humiliate the recalcitrant Georgian ruler. The couple eventually ended up in exile in the Kingdom of Imereti in western Georgia in 1648, having lost their son, Prince David. The latest downfall of Teimuraz, which proved to be permanent, was occasioned by the enthronement of Rostom of Kartli, the beleaguered king Teimuraz sent Khorashan to parley, Rostom treated the queen with honor and magnanimously allowed his adversary a safe passage to Imereti. Teimurazs last hopes rested on Russia, whither he departed in 1656 and he returned to Imereti in 1659, with no tangible results, finding his queen already dead. Russian embassies to the Georgian kings, histoire de la Géorgie depuis lAntiquité jusquau XIXe siècle
2.
Roman Catholic
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
3.
Rostom of Kartli
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Rostom or Rustam Khan was a king of Kartli, eastern Georgia, from 1633 until his death. Appointed by a Persian shah as a Wāli of Kartli, he styled himself king of kings, a son of Daud Khan, a Georgian prince and convert to Islam, by a concubine, he was born Khosro Mirza and brought up Muslim at the Persian court. An intelligent and resolute in his decisions, he attracted the attention of Shah Abbas I of Safavid who appointed him, in 1618. In 1626, Khosro Mirza was recalled from Georgia and appointed a commander of the Shahs guard Quli, in 1630, Abbas, lying on a deathbed, urged him to protect a grandson and heir Sam Mirza, the future Shah Safi, whom Khosro served faithfully. In 1630, he led a Persian army which defeated the Ottoman forces, in the early 1630s, he took part in sidelining and destruction of the Undiladze family which had dominated the Saffavid court for years. He adopted a name Rustam and came to Georgia with a large Persian army commanded by his fellow Georgian Rustam Khan and he soon took control of Kartli and garrisoned all major fortresses with Persian forces, bringing them, however, under his tight control. His willingness to cooperate with his suzerain won for Kartli a larger degree of autonomy, a period of relative peace and prosperity ensued, with the cities and towns being revived, many deserted areas repopulated and commerce flourished. Although Muslim, Rostom helped to restore a major Georgian Orthodox cathedral of Living Pillar at Mtskheta, however, Islam and Persian habits predominated at his court. He ruthlessly crushed an opposition of local nobles, putting to death the catholicos Eudemus I of Georgia, throughout his reign, a question of succession appeared to be a challenging task. As he had no children, Rostom intended to make the Imeretian prince Mamuka his heir, the latter, however, was soon suspected to have been involved in a plot, and he had to return to his native Imereti. In 1642, Rostom adopted his kinsman Luarsab, the late Simon Khans grandson, another candidate for the succession, Rostoms stepson Otia, also died young, in 1646. Only in 1653 was able Rostom to choose his successor, Rostom was buried in Qum, Persia, close to his late suzerain Abbas I. After his return to Kartli, he wed c.1635 Ketevan, Marie-Félicité Brosset, followed by Cyril Toumanoff, erred in identifying her surname as Abashidze. The Abashishvili was a branch of the Baratashvili family, the wedding was celebrated in Christian and Muslim rites and Ketevan added a Persian name, Guldukhtar. The marriage was childless and Ketevan died shortly thereafter, in 1638, Rostom concluded a strategic marital alliance with the Dadiani princely dynasty of Mingrelia. His second wife was Mariam, sister of Levan II Dadiani, the reigning Prince of Mingrelia, after Rostoms death, Mariam was married his adopted son and successor, Vakhtang V. Iranian Georgians Brosset, Marie-Félicité. Histoire de la Géorgie depuis lAntiquité jusquau XIXe siècle, S. -Pétersbourg, A la typographie de lAcademie Impériale des Sciences. Edge of Empires, A History of Georgia, iranian-Georgian Relations in the 16th- 19th Centuries Georgians in the Safavid administration
4.
Gorgan
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Gorgan pronunciation (Persian, گرگان, formerly Astrabad or Astarabad, is the capital of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies approximately 400 kilometres to the north east of Tehran, in the 2006 census, its population was 269,226, in 73,702 families. The region is mentioned in Avesta as Vəhrkāna. The name is derived from the Proto-Iranian word *vrka-, meaning wolf, in post-Islamic Persia the city was known as Jurjān, the Arabized form of the Persian word. The Caspian form of the name is Wergen, there are several archaeological sites near Gorgan, including Tureng Tepe and Shah Tepe, in which there are remains dating to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras. According to the Greek historian Arrian, Zadracarta was the largest city of Hyrcania, the term means the yellow city, and it was given to it from the great number of oranges, lemons, and other fruit trees which grew in the outskirts of that city. Hyrcania became part of the Achaemenid Empire during the reign of Cyrus the Great, its founder, the Great Wall of Gorgan, the second biggest defensive wall in the world, was built in the Parthian and Sassanian periods. At the time of the Sassanids, Gurgan appeared as the name of a city, province capital, Gurgan maintained its independence as a Zoroastrian state even after Persia was conquered by the invading Arab Muslims in 8th century. In 1210, the city was invaded and sacked by the army of Kingdom of Georgia under command of the brothers Mkhargrdzeli. The Old Gorgan was destroyed during the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, and the center of the region was moved to what was called Astarabad, Gurgan with its surrounding regions was sometimes considered as part of the Parthia or the Tabaristan regions. Astarabad was an important political and religious city during the Qajar dynasty, the wide Dasht-e Gorgan are located north of the city and geographically bounded by 37°00 - 37°30 north latitude and 54°00 - 54°30 east longitude, covering an area of about 1,700 square kilometres. Some 150 km east of Gorgan is the Golestan National Park, according to Köppen climate classification, Gorgan has a Cfa humid subtropical climate. In general, Golestan has a moderate and humid climate known as the moderate Caspian climate, as a result of the above factors, three different climates exist in the region, plain moderate, mountainous, and semi-arid. Gorgan valley has a semi-arid climate, the average annual temperature is 17.7 °C and the annual rainfall is 601 millimetres. The population of the city has been 329,536 as of 2011, majority of people of Gorgan speak Persian. A big portion of the city are migrants from nearby regions, including Mazanderanis, Azeris, people from Semnan and Khorasan provinces, as well as some Turkmens, and a small population of Kazakhs. Gorgani, a dialect of Mazanderani language, was spoken in the city, but it is extinct now. House of Karen, a feudal family first attested in the Arsacid era
5.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
6.
Alaverdi Monastery
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Alaverdi Monastery is a Georgian Eastern Orthodox monastery located 25 km from Akhmeta, in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia. While parts of the date back to 6th century, the present day cathedral was built in the 11th century by Kvirike III of Kakheti. The monastery was founded by the Assyrian monk Joseph Alaverdeli, who came from Antioch and settled in Alaverdi, then a small village and former pagan religious center dedicated to the Moon. At a height of over 55 meters, Alaverdi Cathedral is the second tallest religious building in Georgia, after Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi and its overall size is also smaller than the cathedral of Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta. The monastery is the focus of the religious celebration Alaverdoba. Situated in the heart of the worlds oldest wine region, the monks also make their own wine, ketevan of Kakheti Teimuraz I of Kakheti
7.
House of Gurieli
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The House of Gurieli was a Georgian princely family and a ruling dynasty of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal rulers of the dynasty also rose in the 17th-18th centuries to be kings of the whole western Caucasus in place of the hereditary Bagrationi kings of Imereti. Bearing a hereditary title for governors of Guria since the century, Gurieli was adopted as a dynastic name by the Vardanisdze family. The other notable branch of the Vardanisdze was the Dadiani of Samegrelo, both of these branches occasionally used double names, Gurieli-Dadiani or Dadiani-Gurieli. If the couple had issue, possibly the subsequent ruler Kakhaber, in the 17th and 18th centuries, as many as four Gurieli rulers managed to be chosen kings of the whole Western Caucasus in place of hereditary Bagrationi kings of Imereti. Gurieli kings however are usually characterized as usurpers, or as counter-monarchs of a rival dynasty, on several occasions powerful neighbors also managed to divert the rule of Guria to members of rival branches of the Gurieli dynasty. With the death of David in 1839, his cousin David Gurieli, 1385–1410 – Kakhaber I, son of Giorgi II Dadiani, eristavi of Guria and Svaneti c. 1410–1430 – Giorgi I, son of Kakhaber I c, 1430–1450 – Mamia I, son of Giorgi I c.1780 – Kaikhosro IV, son of Giorgi V, abdicated, died after 1820 c
8.
Prince David of Kakheti
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David also known by the hypocorism Datuna was a prince of the royal house of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. He was the son of King Teimuraz I of Kakheti to have survived into adulthood. He fathered the future King Heraclius I of Kakheti, who continued the line of the Kakhetian Bagrationi. From 1627 until his death in battle with the pro-Persian Georgian ruler Rostom of Kartli, he held sway over the fief of Mukhrani and he was the youngest of Teimurazs sons and the kings only male offspring to have survived into adulthood. In 1633, Teimuraz was overthrown by the seasoned Muslim Georgian prince Rostom Khan, David was able, for the time being, to retain his hold of Mukhrani, and endeavored to meet Rostom for negotiations at Surami, but he suspected treachery and quickly withdrew to his estate. Having taken command of his fathers troops, David was attacked and defeated by Rostoms Persian auxiliaries at Magharo, David himself was killed in battle at the hand of the Kazakh officer Jamal Khan. Davids severed head was delivered to Rostom, Teimuraz lost the crown of Kakheti at once. Through Rostoms magnanimity, he was able to retire to his in-laws in the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti and also have his last son, David, Mukhrani was restored to a member of its earlier princely family, Vakhtang II. David married, in 1628, Princess Elene, former wife of Duke David of Aragvi and daughter of Prince Levan Diasamidze, after Davids death, Elene followed her father-in-law in his Muscovite exile, bringing the son Nikoloz with her in 1653. She died in Georgia and was buried at the Alaverdi cathedral in Kakheti, the couple had four sons and two daughters, Prince Luarsab. Prince Giorgi, he was adopted and designated as heir apparent by his aunts husband, King Alexander III of Imereti, in 1649, Prince Nikoloz, the future king of Kakheti and Kartli under the name of Heraclius I or Nazar Ali Khan. Prince Ioseb, he was affianced in 1646 to a sister of Tsar Alexis of Russia, Princess Anastasia Princess Ketevan, she was married, successively, to King Bagrat V of Imereti, Prince Gogoberidze, and thirdly, to Archil, King of Kakheti and Imereti. She died in Moscow and was buried at the Donskoy Monastery
9.
Darejan of Kakheti, Queen of Imereti
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Darejan or Nestan-Darejan was a daughter of King Teimuraz I, a ruler of Kakheti in eastern Georgia, with a notable role in the contemporary politics of Georgia. Her three marriages represented a component of her familys and her own political machinations and her first husband, Zurab, Duke of Aragvi, was put to death at the behest of Darejans father in 1630. She was eventually murdered by members of the party in Kutaisi. Darejan was a daughter of Teimuraz I of Kakheti and his second wife Khorashan, the marriage secured Zurabs support to Teimuraz against the warlord Giorgi Saakadze, in 1626, although Saakadze was himself married to Zurabs sister. Rid of Saakadze, Teimuraz then instigated Zurab to assassinate the rival pro-Persian ruler Simon II of Kartli in 1630, Teimuraz invited his son-in-law to dinner and had him beheaded. He then sent Zurabs severed head to the Persian shah Safi to prove his loyalty, on 14 May 1631, at Saportseli near Gori, Teimuraz married his widowed daughter to Crown Prince Alexander of Imereti. On this occasion, Teimuraz was presented with Shah Safis decree confirmed him as a king of Kartli and Kakheti. Having married Darejan to the Imeretian heir apparent, Teimuraz could now lay a foundation for unification of Georgias three kingdoms, Alexander became king of Imereti in 1638 and died on 1 March 1660. Prior to his death, Alexander, thus, had to recall his son Bagrat from Guria, queen Dowager Darejan crowned Bagrat, but she had no intention of giving up her power. Although both were in their forties, Bagrat had to reckon with his step-mothers ambitions, three days after Alexanders funeral, Darejan made Bagrat marry her niece Ketevan. All documents issued in Imereti during these years bore first Darejans name, as the conflict was brewing, the nobles became divided in two parties. Papuna, duke of Racha, urged Bagrat to employ the Ottoman force to remove Darejan, the matters headed to an open confrontation when Darejan persuaded Bagrat to divorce her niece Ketevan and suggested to the king that he should now marry her. On Bagrats refusal, he was seized by Darejans supporters and blinded, Darejan then offered the crown to her father Teimuraz, who had been ousted from eastern Georgia by the Persians and was then living in the Skanda castle in Imereti. Teimuraz, astounded by his daughters vices, refused, Darejan then seized power, married an insignificant nobleman, Vakhtang Tchutchunashvili, who claimed a Bagrationi descent, and had him crowned king. The people of Imereti were outraged, the nobles of Lower Imereti invited Vameq III Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, and those of Upper Imereti called for Vakhtang V of Kartli to intervene and overthrow Darejan and her husband. Vameq took the prisoner, had Vakhtang blinded, and usurped the throne of Imereti. Darejan appealed to Vakhtang V of Kartli for help, offering her now divorced niece Ketevan for Vakhtang Vs son Archil, Vakhtang of Kartli moved into Upper Imereti in 1661 and Imereti became a battleground for the rulers of Kartli and Mingrelia. Imereti remained in a state of anarchy, the royal couple did not long survive their restoration
10.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
11.
Bagrationi dynasty
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The Bagrationi dynasty is a royal family that reigned in Georgia from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, being among the oldest extant Christian ruling dynasties in the world. In modern usage, this line is often referred to as the Georgian Bagratids. The common origin with the Armenian Bagratuni dynasty has been accepted by scholars, the family, in the person of Ashot I, the great-grandson of the presiding prince of Armenia Ashot III Bagratuni, gained the principate of Iberia at the end of the 8th century. His descendants restored, in 888, the Georgian monarchy and united various native polities into the Kingdom of Georgia, which prospered from the 11th to the 13th century. This period of time, particularly the reigns of David IV the Builder, the dynasty persisted within the Russian Empire as an Imperial Russian noble family until the 1917 February Revolution. The earliest Georgian forms of the name are Bagratoniani, Bagratuniani and Bagratovani. These names as well as the Armenian Bagratuni and the modern designation Bagratid mean the children of Bagrat or the house of/established by Bagrat. A successor, Guaram, was installed as a prince of Kartli under the Byzantine protectorate. Thus, according to version, began the dynasty of the Bagratids. This tradition enjoyed a general acceptance until the early 20th century, the Jewish origin, let alone the biblical descent, of the Bagratids has been discounted by modern scholarship. Adarnase’s son, Ashot I, acquired the principality of Kartli in 813, although certain, the generation-by-generation history of the Bagrationi dynasty begins only in the late 8th century. The Odzrkhe line, known in the annals as the Bivritianis. They cannot, however, be considered the ancestors of the later Bagratids who eventually restored Georgian royal authority. In 813, the new dynasty acquired, with Ashot I, despite the revitalization of the monarchy, Georgian lands remained divided among rival authorities, with Tbilisi remaining in Arab hands. The sons and grandsons of Ashot I established three separate branches – the lines of Kartli, Tao, and Klarjeti – frequently struggling with each other, the Kartli line prevailed, in 888, with Adarnase I, it restored the indigenous Georgian royal authority dormant since 580. In spite of repeated incidents of dynastic strife, the continued to prosper during the reigns of Demetrios I, George III. With the death of George III the main line became extinct. The invasions by the Khwarezmians in 1225 and the Mongols in 1236 terminated Georgia’s golden age, the struggle against the Mongol rule created a dyarchy, with an ambitious lateral branch of the Bagrationi dynasty holding sway over western Georgia
12.
David I of Kakheti
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David I, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from October 1601 until his death in October 1602. David was a son of Alexander II of Kakheti by his wife Tinatin Amilakhvari, in mid-1601, he capitalized on the illness of his father and gained an effective control of the government, sidelining his younger brother George. When Alexander recovered, David refused to relinquish his powers and forced his father into abdication in October 1601, David was crowned king of Kakheti, but his brother, George, masterminded a plot which quickly collapsed and led to repressions. David had George imprisoned while seventeen of his supporters were executed, david’s foreign policy was a continuation of his father’s line. In 1602, he received a Russian embassy and reaffirmed his loyalty to the tsar and he then marched against Nugzar, the defiant lord of the Aragvi and forced him into submission. David suddenly died on October 21,1602, and Alexander II recovered the crown, David is also remembered as a translator of a portion of the Tales of Kalila and Dimna from Persian. 1581, Ketevan, daughter of Ashotan I, Prince of Mukhrani and they were the parents of, Teimuraz I of Kakheti, King of Kakheti Prince Vakhtang Princess Helene, given in marriage to Abbas I of Persia
13.
Ketevan the Martyr
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Ketevan the Martyr was a queen of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. She was killed at Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged tortures by the Safavid suzerains of Georgia for refusing to give up the Christian faith and convert to Islam. Ketevan was born to Prince Ashotan of Mukhrani and married Prince David of Kakheti, after David’s death, Ketevan engaged in religious building and charity. According to the Safavid official and chronicler, Fażli Ḵuzāni, Ketevan showed characteristic mercy to Constantines surviving supporters and she ordered that the wounded enemy soldiers be treated accordingly and accepted in service if they desired. The Muslim merchants, who suffered in the war, were compensated, Ketevan had Constantines body laid in rest and sent to Ardebil. After the uprising she negotiated with Shah Abbas I of Iran who was the suzerain over Georgia, to confirm her underage son, Teimuraz I, as king of Kakheti, while she assumed the function of a regent. Portions of her relics were taken by the St. Augustine Portuguese Catholic missioners, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom. The rest of her remains were said to have been buried at the St. Augustine Church in Goa, after several expeditions to Goa in the 21st century to search for the remains, they were believed to be found in late 2013. Queen Ketevan was canonized by Patriarch Zachary of Georgia, and September 13 was instituted by the Georgian Orthodox Church as the day of her commemoration, the Scottish poet William Forsyth composed the poem The Martyrdom of Kelavane, based on Jean Chardins account of Ketevans death. The importance of Queen Ketevan for the Georgian people has led to a hunt during the last decades. These efforts were thwarted because the teams were unable to interpret the Portuguese documents that provided clues as to Ketevans burial place. These historical sources stated that Ketevans palm and arm bone fragments were kept inside a stone urn beneath a window within the Chapter Chapel of the Augustinian convent. Although the stone urn itself was missing, its coping stone, the investigations of the remains revealed an unusual mtDNA haplogroup U1b, which is absent in India, but present in Georgia and surrounding regions. Since the genetic analysis corroborates archaeological and literary evidence, it is likely that the bone belongs to Queen Ketevan of Georgia. Therefore, it would be crucial to determine the sex and the kind of bone of the fragments tested in order to have conclusive results, according to a story in Indias Mint on Sunday newspaper, additional tests confirmed that the U1b bone came from a woman. So, in 2013, it was established that the found in two pieces in 2005 was consistent with being from a Georgian woman. General sources Media related to Ketevan the Martyr at Wikimedia Commons Lang, lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints
14.
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
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Georgia (country)
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Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi, Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy, during the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century, a unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various treaties with Iran. Since the establishment of the modern Georgian republic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil, the countrys Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and it contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgias sovereign territory under Russian military occupation. Georgia probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān, starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi, the medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the name Sakartvelo consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i, specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, ancient Greeks and Romans referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians. Today the full, official name of the country is Georgia, before the 1995 constitution came into force the countrys name was the Republic of Georgia. The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era, the proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. The earliest evidence of wine to date has found in Georgia. In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, the classical period saw the rise of a number of early Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the west and Iberia in the east
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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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Kartli
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Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari, on which Georgias capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a role in the ethnic. Kartli had no defined boundaries and they significantly fluctuated in the course of history. After the partition of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, the historical lands of Kartli are currently divided among several administrative regions of Georgia. The Georgians living in the lands of Kartli are known as Kartleli. Most of them are Eastern Orthodox Christians adhering to the national Georgian Orthodox Church and speak a dialect, the toponym Kartli first emerges in written accounts in the 5th-century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik, the earliest surviving piece of Georgian literature. Kartlos seems to be a medieval contrivance and his being the founder of Kartli is not convincing. The term itself derives from Proto-Kartvelian root *kart-, which is considered an ancient inner-Kartvelian formation by modern linguists. See ქართლი and ქართველი for more, parallels have also been sought with the Khaldi and Carduchi of the Classical sources. The formation of Kartli and its people, the Kartveli is poorly documented, the infiltration of several ancient, chiefly Anatolian, tribes into the territory of modern-day Georgia and their fusion with the autochthons played a decisive role in this process. This might have been reflected in the story of Arian-Kartli, the place of the aboriginal Georgian habitat found in the early medieval chronicle Conversion of Kartli. In the 3rd century BC, Kartli and its original capital Mtskheta formed a nucleus around which the ancient Georgian kingdom known to the Greco-Roman world as Iberia evolved. The role of Kartli as an ethnic and political unit which would form a basis for the subsequent Georgian unification further increased as a result of its Christianization early in the 4th century. Located on the crossroads of the Byzantine and Iranian influences, Kartli developed a vibrant Christian culture, but the Kyrie eleison is said in Greek, which means in Georgian Lord, have mercy or Lord, be merciful to us. After the unification of various Georgian polities into the kingdom of Georgia early in the 11th century, the Georgian circumfix sa-X-o is a standard geographic construction designating the area where X dwell, where X is an ethnonym. Most of these lands are now part of Georgias regions of Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli, but also of Samtskhe-Javakheti, a significant portion of Zemo Kartli is now part of Turkey. With the fragmentation of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, the kings of Kartli did not relinquish the titles of the all-Georgian monarchs whose legitimate successors they claimed to be. The Europeans, thus, knew it as Georgia proper and later also as Kartalinia via the Russian Карталиния, similarly, the toponym Gorjestān was usually used in Persian in the narrower sense of Kartli
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Safavid dynasty
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The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran, often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history. The Safavid shahs ruled over one of the so-called gunpowder empires, the Safavid dynasty had its origin in the Safaviyya Sufi order, which was established in the city of Ardabil in the Azerbaijan region. The Safavids have also left their mark down to the present era by spreading Shia Islam in Iran, as well as parts of the Caucasus, Anatolia. The Safavid Kings themselves claimed to be Seyyeds, family descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, There seems now to be a consensus among scholars that the Safavid family hailed from Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, finally settling in the 11th century CE at Ardabil. Traditional pre-1501 Safavid manuscripts trace the lineage of the Safavids to the Kurdish dignitary, a massive migration of Oghuz Turks in the 11th and 12th centuries not only Turkified Azerbaijan but also Anatolia. The Azeri Turks are Shiʿites and were founders of the Safavid dynasty, by the time of the establishment of the Safavid empire, the members of the family were native Turkish-speaking and Turkicized, and some of the Shahs composed poems in their native Turkish language. Furthermore, the dynasty was from the very start thoroughly intermarried with both Pontic Greek as well as Georgian lines, Safavid history begins with the establishment of the Safaviyya by its eponymous founder Safi-ad-din Ardabili. In 700/1301, Safi al-Din assumed the leadership of the Zahediyeh, due to the great spiritual charisma of Safi al-Din, the order was later known as the Safaviyya. The Safavid order soon gained great influence in the city of Ardabil, after Safī al-Dīn, the leadership of the Safaviyya passed to Sadr al-Dīn Mūsā. The leadership of the order passed from Sadr ud-Dīn Mūsā to his son Khwādja Ali, when Shaykh Junayd, the son of Ibrāhim, assumed the leadership of the Safaviyya in 1447, the history of the Safavid movement was radically changed. Savory, Sheikh Junayd was not content with spiritual authority and he sought material power, Junayd sought refuge with the rival of Kara Koyunlu Jahan Shah, the Aq Qoyunlu Khan Uzun Hassan, and cemented his relationship by marrying Uzun Hassans sister, Khadija Begum. Junayd was killed during an incursion into the territories of the Shirvanshah and was succeeded by his son Haydar Safavi, Haydar married Martha Alamshah Begom, Uzun Hassans daughter, who gave birth to Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty. Marthas mother Theodora—better known as Despina Khatun—was a Pontic Greek princess and she had been married to Uzun Hassan in exchange for protection of the Grand Komnenos from the Ottomans. After Uzun Hassans death, his son Yaqub felt threatened by the growing Safavid religious influence, Yaqub allied himself with the Shirvanshah and killed Haydar in 1488. By this time, the bulk of the Safaviyya were nomadic Oghuz Turkic-speaking clans from Asia Minor, the Qizilbash were warriors, spiritual followers of Haydar, and a source of the Safavid military and political power. After the death of Haydar, the Safaviyya gathered around his son Ali Mirza Safavi, according to official Safavid history, before passing away, Ali had designated his young brother Ismail as the spiritual leader of the Safaviyya. After the decline of the Timurid Empire, Persia was politically splintered, the demise of Tamerlanes political authority created a space in which several religious communities, particularly Shi’i ones, could come to the fore and gain prominence. Among these were a number of Sufi brotherhoods, the Hurufis, Nuqtawis, of these various movements, the Safavid Qizilbash was the most politically resilient, and due to its success Shah Isma’il I gained political prominence in 1501
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Persian Empire
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Persian Empire refers to any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia. The first of these was the Achaemenid Empire established by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian empires and it covered much of the Ancient world when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. Several later dynasties claimed to be heirs of the Achaemenids, Persia was then ruled by the Parthian Empire which supplanted the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, and then by the Sassanian Empire which ruled up until mid 7th century. It is important to note that many of these empires referred to themselves as Persian, they were often ethnically ruled by Medes, Babylonians. Iranian dynastic history was interrupted by the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia in 651 AD, establishing the even larger Islamic Caliphate, the main religion of ancient Persia was the native Zoroastrianism, but after the seventh century, it was replaced by Islam. Since 1979 and the downfall of the Pahlavi dynasty during Iranian Revolution, Persia has had a Shiah theocratic government
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Persian literature
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Persian literature is one of the worlds oldest literatures. It spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the material has been lost. For instance, Mowlana Rumi, one of best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh or Vakhsh, wrote in Persian, the Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia, Azerbaijan, not all Persian literature is written in Persian, as some consider works written by ethnic Persians in other languages, such as Greek and Arabic, to be included. The bulk of surviving Persian literature, however, comes from the following the Islamic conquest of Iran c.650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power, the Iranians became the scribes and bureaucrats of the Islamic empire and, increasingly, also its writers and poets. The New Persian literature arose and flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana because of political reasons——the early Iranian dynasties such as Tahirids and Samanids were based in Khorasan, Iranians wrote in both Persian and Arabic, Persian predominated in later literary circles. Persian poets such as Ferdowsi, Sadi, Hafiz, Attar, Nezami, Rumi, very few literary works of Achaemenid Iran have survived, due partly to the destruction of the library at Persepolis. Most of what remains consists of the inscriptions of Achaemenid kings, particularly Darius I. Many Zoroastrian writings were destroyed in the Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, the Parsis who fled to India, however, took with them some of the books of the Zoroastrian canon, including some of the Avesta and ancient commentaries thereof. Some works of Sassanid geography and travel also survived, albeit in Arabic translations, no single text devoted to literary criticism has survived from Pre-Islamic Iran. However, some essays in Pahlavi, such as Ayin-e name nebeshtan, some researchers have quoted the Shoubiyye as asserting that the Pre-Islamic Iranians had books on eloquence, such as Karvand. No trace remains of such books, there are some indications that some among the Persian elite were familiar with Greek rhetoric and literary criticism. While initially overshadowed by Arabic during the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphates, New Persian soon became a literary language again of the Central Asian, in short, the ability to write in verse form was a pre-requisite for any scholar. For example, almost half of Avicennas medical writings are in verse, works of the early era of Persian poetry are characterized by strong court patronage, an extravagance of panegyrics, and what is known as سبک فاخر exalted in style. The tradition of patronage began perhaps under the Sassanid era. The Qasida was perhaps the most famous form of panegyric used, khorasani style, whose followers mostly were associated with Greater Khorasan, is characterized by its supercilious diction, dignified tone, and relatively literate language. The chief representatives of this lyricism are Asjadi, Farrukhi Sistani, Unsuri, panegyric masters such as Rudaki were known for their love of nature, their verse abounding with evocative descriptions
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