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70-451: Bedia Cathedral was originally built at the close of the 10th century and consecrated in 999 on the behest of King Bagrat II of Abkhazia , who would go on to become the first King of the Georgia as Bagrat III and who was interred at the church after his death. The extant edifices, however, date back to the 13th-14th centuries and include a domed cruciform church , a belltower resting upon

140-457: A vigesimal numeric system like Basque and (partially) French . Numbers greater than 20 and less than 100 are described as the sum of the greatest possible multiple of 20 plus the remainder. For example, "93" literally translates as 'four times twenty plus thirteen' ( ოთხმოცდაცამეტი , otkhmotsdatsamet’i ). One of the most important Georgian dictionaries is the Explanatory dictionary of

210-569: A Roman grammarian from the 2nd century AD. The first direct attestations of the language are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, and the oldest surviving literary work is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli . The emergence of Georgian as a written language appears to have been the result of the Christianization of Georgia in the mid-4th century, which led to

280-665: A capital-like effect called Mtavruli for titles and inscriptions. Georgian is an agglutinative language with a complex verb structure that can include up to eight morphemes , exhibiting polypersonalism . The language has seven noun cases and employs a left-branching structure with adjectives preceding nouns and postpositions instead of prepositions. Georgian lacks grammatical gender and articles, with definite meanings established through context. Georgian's rich derivation system allows for extensive noun and verb formation from roots, with many words featuring initial consonant clusters. The Georgian writing system has evolved from ancient scripts to

350-495: A certain Kavtar Tbeli at their head. The nobles took up defensive positions throughout central Georgia, but the king defeated them in battle at Moghrisi. Bagrat advanced into his own kingdom and took Uplistsikhe back from his mother. Having put down the noble rebellion, he returned to Abkhazia, where he summoned his mother. Bagrat III then began to put Abkhazian affairs in order. He calmed the nobles and established himself as

420-484: A final journey to his homeland. He crossed the whole of his kingdom, from Abkhazia to Hereti , passing through Kartli and Kakheti before finally arriving in Tao , where he spent the winter of 1013-1014 in the fortress of Panaskerti, the former residence of the sovereigns of Tao. He died on 7 May 1014 in his royal residence. Count Zviad Orbeliani, who ruled in a province of Abkhazia, took care of his body, transporting it to

490-625: A gate to the monastery, while from the south the two-storied Episcopal palace is adjoined. Facades of the Bedia church, its interior murals and ecclesiastic objects preserved lapidary inscriptions in Georgian Asomtavruli (uncial) script, bearing evidences on the construction, renovation and restoration of the church. Over the centuries, Bedia Episcopal See was one of the most significant ecclesiastical, cultural and educational centre of Georgia. Archbishop Anton Zhuanisdze had established

560-521: A loyal and honest monarch. A few years later, before 994, the Iberian nobleman Rati, son of Liparit, Duke of Kldekari , emerged as a powerful nobleman in the eastern part of Bagrat III's kingdom. He soon came into possession of the fortress of Ateni and all Kartli south of the Mtkuari , Trialeti , Manglis-khevi, and Skvireti , and then refused to submit to Bagrat III. The latter then marched with

630-481: A powerful army, reinforced by his father Gurgen's militia, against the rebellious nobleman. However, fearing that Bagrat would be more powerful than he was, the king's adoptive father allied himself with Bagrat Regueni , Gurgen's own father, and with the Armenian monarchs Smbat II of Armenia and Abas of Kars , in order to stop Bagrat's intervention. The first battle took place on the plains of Gardatkhinlni, at

700-516: A powerful monarch, thus denying the authority of Bagrat III. In just a few months, he completed the conquest of Tao-Klarjeti , before granting the title of " Magistros " to Gurgen , Bagrat's father, and that of " Kouropalates " to the king himself. He thus tried to set the son against his father, but no conflict arose, as Gurgen was considered an honest and upright man and father. As a result, Bagrat III, in addition to his title of King of Abkhazia, became Kuropalates of Iberia, unifying western Georgia in

770-490: A ri means 'friend'; megobrebi ( megob Ø rebi ) means 'friends', with the loss of a in the last syllable of the word stem. Georgian has seven noun cases: nominative , ergative , dative , genitive , instrumental , adverbial and vocative . An interesting feature of Georgian is that, while the subject of a sentence is generally in the nominative case and the object is in the accusative case (or dative), one can find this reversed in many situations (this depends mainly on

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840-421: A rich library in the Bedia monastery, where old manuscripts were renovated and restored, theological treatises were translated and the library collection was enriched with new manuscripts. Bedia monastic complex is a symbol of unity and indivisibility of Georgia. Bagrat III, the first king of the united Georgian kingdom and his mother, Queen Gurandukht are buried in Bedia. Bedia church landscape characteristic to

910-399: A row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნ ი gvprtskvni 'you peel us' and მწვრთნ ელი mts’vrtneli 'trainer'. Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice and suggests this may be one cue distinguishing ejectives from their aspirated and voiced counterparts. Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently

980-589: A word. Georgian vowels in non-initial syllables are pronounced with a shorter duration compared to vowels in initial syllables. long polysyllabic words may have a secondary stress on their third or fourth syllable. Georgian contains many "harmonic clusters" involving two consonants of a similar type (voiced, aspirated, or ejective) that are pronounced with only a single release; e.g. ბგ ერა bgera 'sound', ცხ ოვრება tskhovreba 'life', and წყ ალი ts’q’ali 'water'. There are also frequent consonant clusters , sometimes involving more than six consonants in

1050-615: A written language began with the Christianization of Georgia in the 4th century. Georgian phonology features a rich consonant system, including aspirated, voiced, and ejective stops , affricates , and fricatives . Its vowel system consists of five vowels with varying realizations. Georgian prosody involves weak stress, with disagreements among linguists on its placement. The language's phonotactics include complex consonant clusters and harmonic clusters. The Mkhedruli script , dominant in modern usage, corresponds closely to Georgian phonemes and has no case distinction, though it employs

1120-409: Is adorned with decorative ornaments. Inter-story roofing was repaired during the restoration of 1968-69 the floor was concreted and onto it, an isolation stratum was arranged from a thin layer of the tar, which prevents the first floor from water leakage. The doorway is located in the western part of the complex, on top of which a bell tower of the church was arranged. On its west, on the façade, there

1190-405: Is an inscription in which Giorgi Dadiani and King Constantine are mentioned, living in the 14th century. The building of the doorway is joined to the palace and is perceived as one whole. The doorway represents a planning square. The church with a cupola is the central building of the complex, typically similar to so-called “inserted cross”. In the plan, it is a cross inscribed in the rectangle. In

1260-481: Is erased exactly in the center of the church. From the outside, the church is built with a cleanly trimmed sandstone. All the windows of the church are preserved. In the interior, their contour is safe. On the facades, besides two of them, all the windows are damaged. They have no adornments. In the end of the 19th century, the Bedia Church already represented a depopulated edifice, covered with plants, however,

1330-415: Is left between the arms of the cross is filled with two-storied store-rooms located beside the apses on the east, and by additional spaces on the west. The smaller floor located beside the apses represents a mass of entire wall, in which a small door is cut. The upper gallery is located on the second floor of the northern and southern naves. One can ascend by a ladder. The church has three entrances. A cupola

1400-1003: Is rather light, and in fact Georgian transliterates the tenuis stops in foreign words and names with the ejectives. The coronal occlusives ( /tʰ tʼ d n/ , not necessarily affricates) are variously described as apical dental, laminal alveolar, and "dental". Per Canepari, the main realizations of the vowels are [ i ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ], [ o̞ ], [ u ]. Aronson describes their realizations as [ i̞ ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ] (but "slightly fronted"), [ o̞ ], [ u̞ ]. Shosted transcribed one speaker's pronunciation more-or-less consistently with [ i ], [ ɛ ], [ ɑ ], [ ɔ ], [ u ]. Allophonically, [ ə ] may be inserted to break up consonant clusters, as in /dɡas/ [dəɡäs] . In casual speech, /iV, Vi/ sequences can be realized phonetically as [jV~i̯V, Vj~Vi̯]. Phrase-final unstressed vowels may sometimes be partially reduced. Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm. Stress

1470-506: Is short and little is known about it. It is known that soon after his accession to the throne, the nobles, who had taken advantage of the bad situation in Georgia to recover their former power, began to rebel. In 978, the nobles allied with the new prince of Kakheti , David. He soon seized the fortress of Uplistsikhe and captured the young Bagrat III and his parents as hostages. On hearing the news, David III launched an expedition against

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1540-401: 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 and near the end of a phrase. According to Borise, Georgian has fixed initial word-level stress cued primarily by greater syllable duration and intensity of the initial syllable of

1610-558: Is written with its own unique Georgian scripts , alphabetical systems of unclear origin. Georgian is most closely related to the Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ) and more distantly to Svan . Georgian has various dialects , with standard Georgian based on the Kartlian dialect, and all dialects are mutually intelligible. The history of Georgian spans from Early Old Georgian in the 5th century, to Modern Georgian today. Its development as

1680-458: The Dittionario giorgiano e italiano . These were meant to help western Catholic missionaries learn Georgian for evangelical purposes. On the left are IPA symbols, and on the right are the corresponding letters of the modern Georgian alphabet, which is essentially phonemic. Former /qʰ/ ( ჴ ) has merged with /x/ ( ხ ), leaving only the latter. The glottalization of the ejectives

1750-499: The Mkhedruli script is almost completely dominant; the others are used mostly in religious documents and architecture. 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. According to the traditional account written down by Leonti Mroveli in

1820-516: The Georgian Orthodox Church and together are called Khutsuri 'priest alphabet'. In Mkhedruli , there is no case. Sometimes, however, a capital-like effect, called Mtavruli ('title' or 'heading'), is achieved by modifying the letters so that their vertical sizes are identical and they rest on the baseline with no descenders. These capital-like letters are often used in page headings, chapter titles, monumental inscriptions, and

1890-462: The Georgian Orthodox Church . Georgian language Georgian ( ქართული ენა , kartuli ena , pronounced [ˈkʰartʰuli ˈena] ) is the most widely spoken Kartvelian language ; it serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 88% of its population. Its speakers today amount to approximately 3.8 million. Georgian

1960-531: The Kakhetians who, after negotiations, returned Kartli to the royal family, but retained the fortresses of Gruvi and Tsirkvali. From then on, Queen Gurandukht , mother of Bagrat III, was regent of the kingdom. Meanwhile, in Abkhazia, King Theodosius III's weakness in the face of the nobles further weakened the kingdom. Taking advantage of the situation, Ioane Marushisdze, who had already placed Bagrat on

2030-457: The Kartlian dialect. Over the centuries, it has exerted a strong influence on the other dialects. As a result, they are all, generally, mutually intelligible with standard Georgian, and with one another. The history of the Georgian language is conventionally divided into the following phases: The earliest extant references to Georgian are found in the writings of Marcus Cornelius Fronto ,

2100-588: The duchy of Klarjeti , found himself definitively king of all Georgian lands. But he didn't stop there. He led campaigns in the Caucasus and subjected Arran , Shirvan and, according to contemporary Georgian charters, Armenia to tribute. He allied himself with the Abbasid caliph Al-Qadir and set himself up as an enemy of Basil II . Under his reign, Georgia was united and there were no noble revolts. The king, who held Georgia in his hand like an absolute king,

2170-547: The eristavi (governor) of Kartli, Ioane Marushisdze rebelled against Kvirike II and sought the help of the young Bagrat's adoptive father, David III of Tao. In 975/6, David III expelled the Kakhetians from Kartli. David III, the new liberator of Kartli, offered a kingdom liberated from all its previous overlords to Bagrat who, still young, was placed under his father's regency. The first part of Bagrat III's reign in Kartli

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2240-457: The 11th century, the first Georgian script was created by the first ruler of the Kingdom of Iberia , Pharnavaz , in the 3rd century BC. The first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD. There are now three Georgian scripts, called Asomtavruli 'capitals', Nuskhuri 'small letters', and Mkhedruli . The first two are used together as upper and lower case in the writings of

2310-500: The 19th century onwards. As evidenced by the historic sources, complex was erected in late 10th century, c. 999, by Bagrat III , the first king of the united Georgian Kingdom , who, as stated by the Georgian chronicler, “made a Bishop out of it”. The church of the Virgin, erected in the centre of the monastic courtyard, is the main church of the monastery. To its west is the two-storied palace of metropolitans of Bedia. The church of

2380-513: The Blind (who was also Bagrat's maternal uncle), acceded to the throne and came into conflict with his nobility. Civil war broke out in Abkhazia and chaos spread throughout the country. Exploiting the situation, Kvirike II of Kakheti , who reigned in eastern Georgia , organised raids against Iberia, challenging the power of the Abkhaz monarch. He eventually completely invaded eastern Georgia. However,

2450-736: The Duchy of Upper Tao and had been the Kouropalates of Iberia since 966, and who educated the young prince at his court. At that time, Kartli was under the rule of the Kingdom of Abkhazia . In 780, Abkhazia, which had escaped the Arab invasions , had emancipated itself from Byzantine suzerainty and established itself as a powerful kingdom and master of the region; in 916, the Abkhazian state reached its apogee by invading Iberia and threatening Armenia . But in 975, King Theodosius III , known as

2520-568: The Georgian language ( ქართული ენის განმარტებითი ლექსიკონი ). It consists of eight volumes and about 115,000 words. It was produced between 1950 and 1964, by a team of linguists under the direction of Arnold Chikobava . Georgian has a word derivation system, which allows the derivation of nouns from verb roots both with prefixes and suffixes, for example: It is also possible to derive verbs from nouns: Likewise, verbs can be derived from adjectives, for example: In Georgian many nouns and adjectives begin with two or more contiguous consonants. This

2590-502: The Kartlian throne, tried to bring his protégé to the head of the Kingdom of Abkhazia . The eristavi allied himself with the nobility of Iberia and Abkhazia and they all agreed that a powerful new king was needed to unify the two countries. Bagrat III was invested with the royal attributes and, having reached maturity, saw all the nobility bow at his feet. This event is said to have taken place in 978, but others place it two years later. Bagrat, now master of western and central Georgia, sent

2660-513: The Middle Ages Georgian architecture was being created on such an ensemble of planning. A church capped with a cupola represented the main architectural element of the ensemble. The complex was surrounded with a fence. On its west side, in the line of the fence wall, there is a bishop’s palace and a doorway included. The ruins of the bishop’s palace are located in the west of the church, in approximately 50 meters’ distance. In

2730-576: The Unifier , of the Bagrationi dynasty , was the king ( mepe ) of the Kingdom of Abkhazia from 978 on (as Bagrat II of Abkhazia ) and king of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1008 until his death in 1014. He united these two titles by dynastic inheritance and, through conquest and diplomacy, added more lands to his realm, effectively becoming the first king of the Kingdom of Georgia. Before Bagrat

2800-463: The Virgin was considerably transformed between 13th to 15th centuries. The bell-tower is a 12th-14th cc. structure, while the Bishops' Palace was built in the 16th century by Anton Zhuanisdze , a Georgian Metropolitan of Bedia. Three layers of mural decoration are preserved in the church interior, which date back the 10th-11th, 13th-14th, and 16th-17th cc. bell-tower, ground floor of which functions as

2870-450: The beginning, it consisted of two stories. Nowadays, the second floor is almost totally destroyed, only the fragments of the north-west corner and western wall are remained. The door that leads to the second store-room contains a timpani stone bearing an inscription on it, in which the spiritual Georgian workers of the 16th century such as the archbishop of Bedia, Anton Zhuanidze, and restorer Kirile Zhuanidze, are mentioned. The arc entrance

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2940-403: The big part of the cupola was preserved and the laying of apses was better protected. After this, in the beginning of the 20th century, with the aim to “renovate” the church, Russian monks and nuns totally removed the damaged cupola and took out the easily removable stones. Bagrat III of Georgia Bagrat III ( Georgian : ბაგრატ III ) (c. 960 – 7 May 1014), also known as Bagrat III

3010-647: The border with the Byzantine Empire in the south-west of the country. Since the year 1000 and the death of David III of Tao , who had ceded his domains to Byzantium in his will, Tao-Klarjeti had been part of the Byzantine Empire. For some time, he was ruler of Lower Tao and Javakheti , following the death of his father, but he still had no power over the lands under Byzantine administration. However, between 1011 and 1012, Bagrat chose to regain control of his hereditary lands. He went to war against

3080-403: The center of the church, on the square that we see on the crossroads of the cross arms, a cupola consisting of 14 facets is made by means of sails, in which the windows of the same quantity are cut. The cupola is based on two separately standing pillars in the west, and on the apses in the east. The eastern arm of the cross ends with an apse, whilst the remaining arms are rectangular. The space that

3150-403: The character of the verb). This is called the dative construction . In the past tense of the transitive verbs, and in the present tense of the verb "to know", the subject is in the ergative case. Georgian has a rich word-derivation system. By using a root, and adding some definite prefixes and suffixes, one can derive many nouns and adjectives from the root. For example, from the root - kart -,

3220-571: The churches. According to Vakhushti, writing in the 18th century, it was under Bagrat III's protection that the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral ( Mtskheta ), now the seat of the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, was built, or rather restored, using the ornaments brought back from Kestoria. However, it is now known that this did not happen until the next reign. After defeating the dukes of Klarjeti , Bagrat III undertook

3290-418: The city's defences and granted peace to the vanquished. Fadl was now a vassal of Georgia and was obliged to come to Bagrat's aid in times of need; Ganja also had to pay tribute ( Kharaj ) from then on. The Emir offered many sumptuous gifts to Bagrat, as well as to the nobles who had persuaded Bagrat to conclude the peace without annexing Ganja. After subduing eastern South Caucasus , Bagrat III took charge of

3360-549: The country and decided to unite with Kakheti. Having learned of the revolt in the newly annexed Hereti , Bagrat III decided to unite his troops and returned to the conquest. In a short space of time, he completed the annexation of Hereti, domesticated the local nobility in Imereti , and placed the relics of the country's first Orthodox queen near these nobles. In 1008, Bagrat III began the conquest of Kakheti . He completed it in 1010, without encountering too much opposition. He left

3430-458: The current Mkhedruli, used for most purposes. The language has a robust grammatical framework with unique features such as syncope in morphophonology and a left-branching syntax. Georgian's vocabulary is highly derivational, allowing for diverse word formations, while its numeric system is vigesimal. No claimed genetic links between the Kartvelian languages and any other language family in

3500-410: The deposed king Theodosius III the Blind to his adoptive father David III of Tao as a gift. Having become King of Abkhazia , Bagrat III had to return urgently to Kartli , where his mother, the regent Gurandukht , reigned and wanted to make herself independent. The nobles of Kartli, who appreciated their situation under the regent's reign, refused to recognise Bagrat III as King of Iberia and placed

3570-505: The entrance to Shavsheti . Gurgen's armies were defeated and the prince had to take refuge in the fortress of Tsepta. King Bagrat III, who had suspended his campaign against Rati, learnt to his great regret that he did not have enough strength to take on the armies of David III of Tao and Bagrat Regueni and began negotiations with the opposing camp. In the end, peace was granted and the so-called "family war" came to an end. Bagrat III returned to Abkhazia and reigned peacefully, leaving Rati,

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3640-498: The following words can be derived: Kart veli ('a Georgian person'), Kart uli ('the Georgian language') and Sa kart velo ('the country of Georgia'). Most Georgian surnames end in - dze 'son' (Western Georgia), - shvili 'child' (Eastern Georgia), - ia (Western Georgia, Samegrelo ), - ani (Western Georgia, Svaneti ), - uri (Eastern Georgia), etc. The ending - eli is a particle of nobility, comparable to French de , Dutch van , German von or Polish - ski . Georgian has

3710-532: The fortress of Bodchorma to Prince Kvirike III of Kakheti , son of Bishop David, but took it from him and annexed the country completely some time later. At the end of this war, Bagrat III found himself absolute master of the whole of Georgia . He had completed the unification of the country and was now "King of the Abkhazians, Kartvels, Rans and Kakhs". As King of Georgia , Bagrat III decided to launch campaigns against neighbouring countries. He chose to attack

3780-605: The lands he had annexed after his victory in the Kartli War of 978. However, the latter refused and announced his intention to go to war. Bagrat III, angered by the Kakhetian's refusal, headed for Kakheti, crossed the Kartli and devastated Hereti, an eastern province of the principality of Kakheti. He appointed a certain Aboulal as mtavari ("count") of the region, but he was overthrown by the local nobility, who took control of

3850-498: The like. This is the Georgian standard keyboard layout. The standard Windows keyboard is essentially that of manual typewriters . Georgian is an agglutinative language . Certain prefixes and suffixes can be joined in order to build a verb. In some cases, one verb can have up to eight different morphemes in it at the same time. An example is ageshenebinat ('you [all] should've built [it]'). The verb can be broken down to parts: a-g-e-shen-eb-in-a-t . Each morpheme here contributes to

3920-472: The meaning of the verb tense or the person who has performed the verb. The verb conjugation also exhibits polypersonalism ; a verb may potentially include morphemes representing both the subject and the object. In Georgian morphophonology , syncope is a common phenomenon. When a suffix (especially the plural suffix - eb -) is attached to a word that has either of the vowels a or e in the last syllable, this vowel is, in most words, lost. For example, megob

3990-531: The neighbouring emirate of Ganja , whose emir, Fadl ibn Muhammad , had been raiding eastern Georgia for some time. To achieve his aims, Bagrat formed an alliance with the Armenian king Gagik I . In 1012, Armenian and Georgian troops joined forces and finally set off for Ganja in Dzoraget . Fadl, who had sworn to the death of all Christians and had never met a ruler who could defeat him up to that point,

4060-466: The north of the country. He was buried in the Bedia Cathedral . He was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church on 22 December 2016, his feast day set for 7 May ( NS 21 May). According to genealogist Cyril Toumanoff , King Bagrat III had a wife, Martha, who bore him a son: George I of Georgia . Other sources tell us of a second child, Basil, who was canonised as Basil of Khakhuli by

4130-525: The northern narthex and the ruins of an old palace. The southern wall of the main church contains fragments of contemporary murals, including the portraits of Bagrat II and the representatives of the Dadiani noble family of Georgia. In the Catholicate of Abkhazia , Bedia was the centre of a diocese and the seat of a bishop. In the 17th century, services were ceased, but resumed from the second half of

4200-527: The princes Sumbat and Gurgen of Klarjeti, who, having submitted to Byzantium, had taken the title of ‘King of Klarjeti ’ and were threatening the power of Georgia. He soon succeeded in defeating them, without any opposition from the Byzantine Empire. In 1012, he had the two brothers Sumbat and Gurgen killed while imprisoned in the fortress of Tmogvi , while he allowed their children to go into exile in Constantinople . Bagrat III, having just annexed

4270-573: The process, but losing a large part of his family heritage. In 1008, he received the hereditary title of "King of the Georgians " and the unified duchy of Lower Tao- Javakheti when his father, Gurgen I of Iberia, died. Having become master of all the lands ruled by members of the Bagrationi dynasty , Bagrat III decided to intervene in Eastern Transcaucasia . He began by claiming from David , prince and Chorbishop of Kakheti [24],

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4340-417: The rank of chief town of a bishopric and also the religious capital of Abkhazia , thus taking this title from Goudakva this title. Georgia's first monarch was also responsible for Bagrati Cathedral , in his capital of Kutaisi , a remarkable religious building, the construction of which was completed in 1003. The monument was part of UNESCO'S World Heritage from the 18th session in 1994 until 2017, when it

4410-521: The rebellious nobleman, to return to his domains. But the king's strategy was to let Rati return to Kartli to make him believe that the conflict was over. So, during the following winter, Bagrat gathered his troops and laid siege to Kldekari , before defeating the insolent duke. Rati was pardoned and made Duke of Argveti , in western Georgia. On 31 March 1000, Bagrat III's adoptive father, David III Kuropalates , died, probably assassinated. The Georgian Chronicle of Vakhushti of Kartli states that when

4480-640: The replacement of Aramaic as the literary language . By the 11th century, Old Georgian had developed into Middle Georgian. The most famous work of this period is the epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin , written by Shota Rustaveli in the 12th century. In 1629, a certain Nikoloz Cholokashvili authored the first printed books written (partially) in Georgian, the Alphabetum Ibericum sive Georgianum cum Oratione and

4550-672: The ruler of Tao died, the region was left desolate. The Byzantine emperor Basil II , to whom David had bequeathed the Tao as a result of his role in the Bardas Phokas revolt , decided to force his way back. However, the emperor, who had just returned from a campaign in Syria against the Fatimid Caliphate and was expecting a difficult campaign, found himself faced with understanding nobles who recognised themselves as vassals of

4620-399: The world are accepted in mainstream linguistics. Among the Kartvelian languages, Georgian is most closely related to the so-called Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ); glottochronological studies indicate that it split from the latter approximately 2700 years ago. Svan is a more distant relative that split off much earlier, perhaps 4000 years ago. Standard Georgian is largely based on

4690-502: Was also loved by his people, and the peasants considered themselves his servants. With the unification of Georgia , King Bagrat III also created the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia , which still exists today. Indeed, before the 1000s, Patriarch John IV bore the title of “Catholicos of Iberia”. A very Christian king, Bagrat III had several churches built, including the Bedia Cathedral , in 999, which he elevated to

4760-567: Was crowned as king, he had also reigned in Kartli as co-ruler with his father Gurgen from 976 to 978. Bagrat was born in the 960s, probably in Kartli . He is the only known son of Gurgen , titular king of Kartli , and Gurandukht , daughter of King George II of Abkhazia . Bagrat was thus heir to the Bagrationi dynasty . Still young, the Crown Prince of Iberia was designated heir by his father's cousin, David III of Tao , who reigned over

4830-521: Was surprised when he learned of the advance of the armies of two countries that worshipped the Cross, and took refuge in a fortress where he prepared for a difficult siege. Bagrat took advantage of the situation to seize the lands of Arran , which he made a Georgian province, and began the siege of Shamkor , the fortified town in which the Shaddadid emir had taken refuge. In just a few days, he overcame

4900-632: Was withdrawn because it was "the subject of a major reconstruction project affecting its integrity and authenticity”. According to Vakhushti Bagrationi and Marie-Félicité Brosset , Emperor Basil II , who did not have such good relations with Georgia , offered the Caucasian Patriarchate the monastery of Kestoria (probably in Greece ). At the same time, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia acquired no less than one hundred and five villages, silver and gold, icons and crosses to decorate

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