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154-518: The nation of Georgia ( Georgian : საქართველო sakartvelo ) was first unified as a kingdom under the Bagrationi dynasty by the King Bagrat III of Georgia in the early 11th century, arising from several successor states of the ancient kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia . The Kingdom of Georgia flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries under rulers such as King David IV

308-458: A Crown Chancellor (Mtsihnobart Ukhutsesi) of Georgia. In 1103–1105 the Georgian army took over Hereti and made successful raids into still Seljuq-controlled Shirvan . Between 1110 and 1118 David took Lori, Samshvilde, Rustavi and other fortresses of lower Kartli and Tashiri, thus turning Tbilisi into an isolated Seljuq enclave. In 1118–1119, having considerable amounts of free, unsettled land as

462-518: A Georgian army waited in ambush, he offered tribute to Saltukids , ruler of Erzerum and asked the latter to accept him as a vassal. In 1153–1154, Emir Saltuk II marched on Ani, but Shaddad informed his suzerain, the King of Georgia, of this. Demetrius marched to Ani, defeated and captured the emir. At the request of neighboring Muslim rulers and released him for a ransom of 100,000 dinars , paid by Saltuk's sons in law and Saltuk swore not to fight against

616-624: A Kolchis nation or region. The main river was known as the Phasis (now Rioni ) and was, according to some writers the southern boundary of Colchis, but more probably flowed through the middle of that country from the Caucasus west into the Euxine , and the Anticites or Atticitus (now Kuban ). Arrian mentions many others by name, but they would seem to have been little more than mountain torrents:

770-490: A claim to the easternmost Georgian kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti and annexed it in or around 1010, after two years of fighting and aggressive diplomacy. Bagrat's reign, a period of uttermost importance in the history of Georgia, brought about the final victory of the Georgian Bagratids in the centuries-long power struggles. Anxious to create more stable and centralized monarchy, Bagrat eliminated or at least diminished

924-565: A developed agricultural society. However, as Alexander Mikaberidze adds, these explanations for the word Georgians/Georgia are rejected by the scholarly community, who point to the Persian word gurğ/gurğān ("wolf" ) as the root of the word. 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 been established through

1078-649: A diverse population. According to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in Dioscourias (modern Sukhumi) alone. According to Rayfield, the first mention of Colchis is during the reign of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I of the Middle Assyrian Empire (1245–1209 BC) when he mentions "40 kings by the Upper [Black] Sea". Colchis territory is mostly assigned to what

1232-658: A home for waterfowl, while Colchian pheasants were exported to Rome and became a symbol of excess condemned by Roman moralists. The Colchian hinterland lacked salt and demand was satisfied partially by local production on the coast and partially by imports from the northern coast of the Black Sea. Colchis provided slaves as a tribute to the Achaemenid Empire and Colchian slaves are also attested in Ancient Greece. The eastern Black Sea region in antiquity

1386-487: A larger extent in East Georgia and the whole Transcaucasian region. Diauehi , a tribal union of early- Georgians , first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. Archaeological finds and references in ancient sources reveal elements of early political and state formations characterized by advanced metallurgy and goldsmith techniques that date back to the 7th century BC and beyond. Between 2100 and 750 BC,

1540-643: A major uprising against the Roman Empire , which ended unsuccessfully. The lowlands and coastal area were frequently raided by fierce mountain tribes, with the Svaneti and Heniochi being the most powerful of them. Paying a nominal homage to Rome , they created their own kingdoms and enjoyed significant independence. Under Hadrian, the Romans established relations with Colchian tribes. Hadrian sent his advisor, Arrian , to tour Colchis and Iberia. Arrian depicted

1694-534: A nation and Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Georgian kingdoms. Significant Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia , Turkey , Greece , Iran , Ukraine , the United States , and the European Union . Georgians arose from Colchian and Iberian civilizations of classical antiquity ; Colchis

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1848-640: A precious degree of peace at the price of an annual tribute . The struggle against the Seljuq invaders in Georgia was led by the young King David IV of the Bagrationi royal family, who inherited the throne in 1089 at the age of 16 after the abdication of his father George II Bagrationi. Soon after coming to power, David created the regular army and peasant militia in order to be able to resist Seljuq colonization of his country. The First Crusade (1096–1099) and

2002-697: A result of the withdrawal of Turkish nomads, and desperately needing qualified manpower for the army, King David invited some 40,000 Kipchak warriors from North Caucasus to settle in Georgia with their families. In 1120 the ruler of Alania recognized himself as King David's vassal and afterwards sent thousands of Alans to cross the main Caucasus range into Georgia, where they settled in Kartli. The Georgian Royal army also welcomed mercenaries from Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia (all those westerners were defined in Georgia as "the Franks") as well as from Kievan Rus. In 1121,

2156-615: A significant number of irreligious Georgians . Located in the Caucasus , on the continental crossroads of Europe and Asia , the High Middle Ages saw Georgian people form a unified Kingdom of Georgia in 1008 AD, the pan-Caucasian empire, later inaugurating the Georgian Golden Age , a height of political and cultural power of the nation. This lasted until the kingdom was weakened and later disintegrated as

2310-519: A stage of more offensive foreign policy. In the same year of his ascension to the throne, Giorgi launched a successful campaign against the Shah-Armens , raided their lands and turned back with prisoners and booty. In 1161, George III took over Ani and appointed his general Ivane Orbeli as its ruler. A coalition consisting of the ruler of Ahlat, Shah-Armen Sökmen II , the ruler of Diyarbekir , Kotb ad-Din il-Ghazi , Al-Malik of Erzerum, and others

2464-587: A turbulent fluctuation of tribal powers and boundaries, with various hostile and anarchic tribes in the area. The Laz controlled most of coastal Colchis, while other tribes such as the Sanigs and Abasgoi escaped Roman jurisdiction. Other tribes, like the Apsilae , were becoming powerful and their king with the Romanised name Julianus was recognized by Trajan. Arrian listed the following peoples in his Periplus of

2618-459: A vast Greco-Macedonian empire to the south of the Caucasus. Neither Iberia nor Colchis was incorporated into the empire of Alexander or any of the successor Hellenistic states of the Middle East. However, the culture of ancient Greece still had a considerable influence on the region, and Greek was widely spoken in the cities of Colchis. In Iberia Greek influence was less noticeable and Aramaic

2772-467: A viceroy ( pitiaxae / bidaxae ) to keep watch on their vassal. They eventually made the office hereditary in the ruling house of Lower Kartli , thus inaugurating the Kartli pitiaxate , which brought an extensive territory under its control. Although it remained a part of the kingdom of Kartli, its viceroys turned their domain into a center of Persian influence. Sasanian rulers put the Christianity of

2926-521: Is also a small number of Georgian Jews , tracing their ancestors to the Babylonian captivity . In addition to traditional religious confessions, Georgia retains irreligious segments of society , as well as a significant portion of nominally religious individuals who do not actively practice their faith. The Georgian cuisine is specific to the country, but also contains some influences from other European culinary traditions , as well as those from

3080-507: Is derived from the country of Georgia. In the past, lore-based theories were given by the medieval French traveller Jacques de Vitry , who explained the name's origin by the popularity of St. George amongst Georgians, while traveller Jean Chardin thought that "Georgia" came from Greek γεωργός ("tiller of the land"), as when the Greeks came into the region (in Colchis ) they encountered

3234-451: Is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo , Imereti , Guria , Adjara , Svaneti , Racha ; Abkhazia ; modern Russia 's Sochi and Tuapse districts; and present-day Turkey ’s Artvin , Rize , and Trabzon provinces. Colchis, Kolkha, Qulḫa, or Kilkhi, which existed from the c.  13th to the 1st centuries BC, is regarded as an early ethnically Georgian polity;

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3388-558: Is prepared, always accompanied by large amounts of wine, and dinner can last for hours. In a Georgian feast, the role of the tamada (toastmaster) is an important and honoured position. In countries of the former Soviet Union , Georgian food is popular due to the immigration of Georgians to other Soviet republics, in particular Russia. In Russia all major cities have many Georgian restaurants and Russian restaurants often feature Georgian food items on their menu. The Georgians have historically been classified into various subgroups based on

3542-642: The Colchians , are generally thought to have been mainly an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe ancestral to contemporary western Georgians , namely Svans and Zans . According to David Marshall Lang : "one of the most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus by the Middle Bronze Age ." It has been described in modern scholarship as "the earliest Georgian formation", which, along with

3696-634: The Golden Fleece , and the fire-breathing Colchis bulls and was the destination of the Argonauts . Colchis also is thought to be a possible homeland of the Amazons . Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis. According to the Greek mythology, Colchis was a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world. Here in the sacred grove of

3850-583: The Imereti region for centuries and are now identified as Imeretian or Imeretian-Mingrelians. Last names from mountainous eastern Georgian provinces (such as Kakheti, etc.) can be distinguished by the suffix – uri (ური), or – uli (ული). Most Svan last names typically end in – ani (ანი), Mingrelian in – ia (ია), - ua (უა), or - ava (ავა), and Laz in – shi (ში). The 1897 Russian census (which accounted people by language), had Imeretian, Svan and Mingrelian languages separate from Georgian . During

4004-677: The Kingdom of Abkhazia and a greater portion of Iberia ; Tao had been lost to the Byzantines while a Muslim emir remained in Tbilisi and the kings of Kakheti-Hereti obstinately defended their autonomy in easternmost Georgia. Furthermore, the loyalty of great nobles to the Georgian crown was far from stable. During Bagrat's minority, the regency had advanced the positions of the high nobility whose influence he subsequently tried to limit when he assumed full ruling powers. Simultaneously,

4158-544: The Kingdom of Iberia , would later contribute significantly to the development of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Georgian nation . Colchis is known in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts , as well as the home to Medea and the Golden Fleece . It was also described as a land rich with gold, iron, timber and honey that would export its resources mostly to ancient Hellenic city-states. Colchis likely had

4312-485: The Laz . The language known today as Georgian is a traditional language of the eastern part of the country which has spread to most of the present-day Georgia after the post-Christianization centralization in the first millennium CE. Today, Georgians regardless of their ancestral region use Georgian as their official language. The regional languages Svan and Mingrelian are languages of the west that were traditionally spoken in

4466-499: The Machelones , Heniochi , Zydretae , Lazi , Chalybes , Tibareni / Tubal , Mossynoeci , Macrones , Moschi , Marres , Apsilae , Abasci , Sanigae , Coraxi , Coli , Melanchlaeni , Geloni and Soani (Suani) . The ancients assigned various origins to the tribes that inhabited Colchis. Herodotus regarded the Colchians as "dark-skinned ( μελάγχροες ) and woolly-haired" and calls them Egyptians. Herodotus states that

4620-593: The Patriarch of Jerusalem at that time wrote: There is also in the East another Christian people, who are very warlike and valiant in battle, being strong in body and powerful in the countless numbers of their warriors...Being entirely surrounded by infidel nations...these men are called Georgians, because they especially revere and worship St. George...Whenever they come on pilgrimage to the Lord's Sepulchre , they march into

4774-669: The Shaddadid emir Fadl ibn Mahmud on terms of vassalage and inviolability of the Christian churches. In 1139, Demetrius raided the city of Ganja in Arran . He brought the iron gate of the defeated city to Georgia and donated it to Gelati Monastery at Kutaisi . Despite this brilliant victory, Demetrius could hold Ganja only for a few years. In reply to this, the sultan of the Eldiguzids attacked Ganja several times, and in 1143

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4928-568: The Shulaveri-Shomu culture , where people used local obsidian for tools, raised animals such as cattle and pigs, and grew crops, including grapes. Numerous excavations in tell settlements of the Shulaveri-Shomu type have been conducted since the 1960s. 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

5082-481: The ancient Greeks and Romans as Colchians and Iberians . East Georgian tribes of Tibarenians-Iberians formed their kingdom in 7th century BCE . However, western Georgian tribes ( Colchian tribes ) established the first Georgian state of Colchis ( c.  1350 BCE ) before the foundation of the Kingdom of Iberia in the east. According to the numerous scholars of Georgia, the formations of these two early Georgian kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia, resulted in

5236-436: The fortress of Gagi , laid waste as far as the region of Gagi and Gegharkunik , seized prisoners and booty, and then moved to Ani capturing and granting it to Shaddadid emir Shahanshah ibn Mahmud . The Muslim rulers were jubilant, and they prepared for a new campaign. However, this time they were forestalled by George III , who marched into Arran at the beginning of 1166, occupied a region extending to Ganja , devastated

5390-738: The 16th century Turkish and Iranian forces subjugated western and eastern regions of Georgia, respectively. In 1555, the Ottomans and the Safavids signed the Peace of Amasya following the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–55) , defining spheres of influence in Georgia, assigning Imereti in the west to the Turks and Kartli-Kakheti in the east to the Persians. The treaty, however, was not in force for long as

5544-515: The 17th century, both eastern and western Georgia had sunk into poverty as the result of the constant warfare. The French traveller Jean Chardin , who visited the region of Mingrelia in 1671, noted the wretchedness of the peasants, the arrogance of the nobles and the ignorance of the clergy. Georgian people The Georgians , or Kartvelians ( / k ɑːr t ˈ v ɛ l i ə n z / ; Georgian : ქართველები , romanized : kartvelebi , pronounced [kʰaɾtʰʷelebi] ), are

5698-794: The 1926 Soviet census, Svans and Mingrelians were accounted separately from Georgian. Svan and Mingrelian languages are both Kartvelian languages and are closely related to the national Georgian language . Laz people also may be considered Georgian based on their geographic location and religion. According to the London School of Economics ' anthropologist Mathijs Pelkmans, Lazs residing in Georgia frequently identify themselves as "first-class Georgians" to show pride, while considering their Muslim counterparts in Turkey as "Turkified Lazs". (Shavshians) Throughout history Georgia also has extinct Georgian subdivisions Colchis Its population,

5852-468: The 1st century. The cult of Mithras, distinguished by its syncretic character and thus complementary to local cults, especially the cult of the Sun, gradually came to merge with ancient Georgian beliefs. The eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia became one of the first states in the world to convert to Christianity in 327, when the King of Iberia Mirian III established it as the official state religion . However,

6006-770: The 20th century, due to Soviet anti-religious policies, cultural integration with the national Orthodox majority, and strong missionary efforts by the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the early modern period, converted Georgian recruits were often used by the Persian and Ottoman Empires for elite military units such as the Mameluks , Qizilbash , and ghulams . The Iranian Georgians are all reportedly Shia Muslims today, while Ingiloy (indigenous to Azerbaijan), Laz (indigenous to Turkey), Imerkhevians (indigenous to Turkey), and Georgians in Turkey (who descend from Georgian immigrants) are mostly Sunni Muslim. There

6160-533: The Black Sea coast in the 13th century BC under the Kingdom of Colchis in western Georgia. The kingdom of Colchis, which existed from the 6th to the 1st centuries BC is regarded as the first early Georgian state formation and the term Colchians was used as the collective term for early Georgian-Kartvelian tribes such as Mingrelians, Lazs, and Chans who populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea . According to

6314-754: The Builder and Queen Tamar the Great . The kingdom fell to the Mongol invasion by 1243, and after a restoration under George V the Brilliant it fell again to the Timurid Empire in 1403. By 1490, Georgia was fragmented into several petty kingdoms and principalities, which throughout the Early Modern period struggled to maintain their autonomy against Ottoman and Iranian domination until Georgia

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6468-588: The Caesars" and the king "of the Roman-loving Iberians." Emperor Vespasian fortified the ancient Mtskheta site of Armazi for the Iberian kings in 75 AD. In the 2nd century AD, Iberia strengthened her position in the area, especially during the reign of King Pharsman II who achieved full independence from Rome and reconquered some of the previously lost territories from declining Armenia. In

6622-609: The Colchian land. Subsequently, the Colchis people appear to have overthrown the Persian Authority, and to have formed an independent state. According to Ronald Suny this western Georgian state was federated to Kartli-Iberia, and its kings ruled through skeptoukhi (royal governors) who received a staff from the king. According to David Braund's reading of Strabo 's account, the native Colchian dynasty continued ruling

6776-480: The Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians; the Egyptians said that they considered the Colchians part of Sesostris' army. I myself guessed it, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed counts for nothing, since other peoples are, too; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from

6930-551: The Colchians, with the Ancient Egyptians and the Ethiopians , were the first to practice circumcision , a custom which he claims that the Colchians inherited from remnants of the army of Pharaoh Sesostris ( Senusret III ). Herodotus writes: For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and

7084-746: The Crown started losing control over the warlords of Samtskhe (southern provinces of Georgia) who established their own relations with the Mongols and by the year 1266 practically seceded from Georgia. The period between 1259 and 1330 was marked by the struggle of the Georgians against the Mongol Ilkhanate for full independence. The first anti-Mongol uprising started in 1259 under the leadership of King David Narin who in fact waged his war for almost thirty years. The Anti-Mongol strife went on under

7238-718: The Crusaders' offensive against the Seljuq Turks in Anatolia and Syria favored David's successful campaigns in Georgia. By the end of 1099 David had stopped paying tribute to the Seljuqs and had liberated most of the Georgian lands, with the exception of Tbilisi and Hereti . In 1103 he reorganized the Georgian Orthodox Church and closely linked it with the state by appointing as Catholicos (Archbishop)

7392-435: The East and West". Georgian historians often refer to her as "Queen Tamar the Great". The period between the early 12th and the early 13th centuries, and especially the era of Tamar the Great, can truly be considered as the golden age of Georgia. Besides the political and military achievements, it was marked by the development of Georgian culture, including architecture, literature, philosophy and sciences. Jacques de Vitry ,

7546-519: The Euxine Sea written in 130-131 (from south to north): Sanni, Machelones , Heniochi , Zudreitae, Lazi , Apsilae , Abasgoi , Sanigs and Zilchi . According to traditional accounts Christianity began to spread in the early first century by Andrew the Apostle , Simon the Zealot , and Saint Matthias . A change in burial patterns in the 3rd century was possibly due to Christian influence. The Hellenistic civilization , local paganism and Mithraic Mysteries would, however, remain widespread until

7700-410: The Georgian crown was confronted with two formidable external foes: the Byzantine Empire and the resurgent Seljuq Turks . The Seljuk threat prompted the Georgian and Byzantine governments to seek a closer cooperation. To secure the alliance, Bagrat's daughter Marta (Maria) married, at some point between 1066 and 1071, the Byzantine co-emperor Michael VII Ducas . The second half of the 11th century

7854-470: The Georgian language. Colchians in the ancient western Georgian polity of Colchis were another proto-Georgian tribe. They are first mentioned in the Assyrian annals of Tiglath-Pileser I and in the annals of Urartian king Sarduri II, and also included western Georgian tribe of the Meskhetians . Iberians, also known as Tiberians or Tiberanians, lived in the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia. Both Colchians and Iberians played an important role in

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8008-405: The Georgian population, most of whom are ethnic Georgian, follow Eastern Orthodox Christianity. A sizable Georgian Muslim population exists in Adjara . This autonomous Republic borders Turkey, and was part of the Ottoman Empire for a longer amount of time than other parts of the country. Those Georgian Muslims practice the Sunni Hanafi form of Islam. Islam has however declined in Adjara during

8162-404: The Georgians he returned home. Although his reign saw a disruptive family conflict related to royal succession, Georgia remained a centralized power with a strong military. A talented poet, Demetrius also continued his father's contributions to Georgia's religious polyphony . The most famous of his hymns is Thou Art a Vineyard . Demetrius was succeeded by his son George III in 1156, beginning

8316-492: The Georgians to a severe test. They promoted the teachings of Zoroaster , and by the middle of the 5th century Zoroastrianism had become a second official religion in eastern Georgia alongside Christianity . During the 4th and most of the 5th centuries, Iberia (known also as the Kingdom of Kartli) was under Persian control. At the end of the 5th century though, Prince Vakhtang I Gorgasali orchestrated an anti-Persian uprising and restored Iberian statehood, proclaiming himself

8470-526: The Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts , who travelled there in search of the Golden Fleece . Starting around 2000 BC, northwestern Colchis was inhabited by the Svan and Zan peoples of the Kartvelian tribes. Another important ethnic element of ancient Colchis were Greeks who between 1000 and 550 BC established many trading colonies in the coastal area, among them Naessus, Pityus , Dioscurias (modern Sukhumi ), Guenos , Phasis (modern Poti), Apsaros , and Rhizos (modern Rize in Turkey). In

8624-421: The Holy City...without paying tribute to anyone, for the Saracens dare in no wise molest them... In 1225 Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu , the ruler of Khwarezmian Empire , attacked Georgia, defeating its forces in the battle of Garni , and conquered Tbilisi ., after which allegedly a hundred thousand citizens were put to death for not renouncing Christianity . In the 1220s, the South Caucasus and Asia Minor faced

8778-462: The Iranian Median Empire . The case is different for the Achaemenid Persians however. According to Herodotus (3.97), Achaemenid power extended as far as the Caucasus mountains, but the Colchians are not included in his list of the twenty Persian satrapies. Nor are they referred to in the lists of Achaemenid lands (dahyāva) given in the Old Persian inscriptions of Darius and his successors. In Xenophon's Anabasis (7.8.25; probably an interpolation)

8932-454: The King. After this, the armies of Vakhtang launched several campaigns against both Persia and the Byzantine Empire, but his struggle for the independence and unity of the Georgian state did not have lasting success. After Vakhtang's death in 502, and the short reign of his son Dachi (502–514), Iberia was reincorporated into Persia and ruled by a marzpan (governor), who in Georgian were called erismtavari . The Iberian nobility were granted

9086-413: The Kings Demeter II (1270–1289) and David VIII (1293–1311). Finally, it was King George the Brilliant (1314–1346) who managed to play on the decline of the Ilkhanate, stopped paying tribute to the Mongols, restored the pre-1220 state borders of Georgia, and returned the Empire of Trebizond into Georgia's sphere of influence. In 1386–1403, the Kingdom of Georgia faced eight Turco-Mongolic invasions under

9240-426: The Mongols as well as to let them occupy and de facto rule more than half of the remaining territory. Although Mongol-occupied Tbilisi remained the official capital of the kingdom, the Queen refused to return there and stayed in Kutaisi until her death in 1245. In addition to all the above hardships, even the Kingdom of Western Georgia , the part of the kingdom that remained free of the Mongols, started disintegrating:

9394-409: The Ottomans gained the upper hand and launched campaigns during the next Ottoman-Safavid war threatening to end the Persian domination in the region. The Safavid Persians reestablished their hegemony over all lost regions some two decades later including full hegemony over most of Georgia in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18) . After the Turks failed to gain permanent foothold in the eastern Caucasus,

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9548-460: The Ottomans, and the remaining Georgian territories were absorbed by the Russian Empire in a piecemeal fashion through the course of the 19th century. Georgians briefly reasserted their independence from Russia under the First Georgian Republic from 1918 to 1921 and finally in 1991 from the Soviet Union . The Georgian nation was formed out of a diverse set of geographic subgroups, each with its characteristic traditions, manners, dialects and, in

9702-411: The Persian court 100 girls and 100 boys every five years. In 400 BC, shortly after the Ten Thousand reached Trapezus , a battle was fought between them and the Colchis in which the latter were decisively defeated. The influence exerted on Colchis by the vast Achaemenid Empire with its thriving commerce and wide economic and commercial ties with other regions accelerated the socio-economic development of

9856-406: The Persians sought to strengthen their position in the region. During the next 150 years, various eastern Georgian kings and nobles rose into rebellion, while others accepted Persian overlordship for various benefits. In 1616, Abbas I dispatched his troops to Georgia, aiming to suppress the Georgian revolt in Tbilisi . However, his soldiers met heavy resistance from the citizens of Tbilisi. Enraged,

10010-440: The Province of Galatia (63) and later, in Cappadocia (81). Phasis , Dioscurias and other Greek settlements of the coast did not fully recover after the wars of 60-40 BC and Trebizond became the economical and political centre of the region. Despite the fact that all major fortresses along the sea coast were occupied by the Romans, their rule was relatively loose. In 69, the people of Pontus and Colchis under Anicetus staged

10164-440: The Rioni river to the Black Sea. In 189 BC, the rapidly growing Kingdom of Armenia took over more than half of Iberia, conquering the southern and southeastern provinces of Gogarene , Taokhia and Heniochia , as well as some other territories. Between 120 and 63 BC, Armenia's ally Mithridate VI Eupator of Pontus conquered all of Colchis and incorporated it into his kingdom, embracing almost all of Asia Minor as well as

10318-413: The Roman province of Lazicum ruled by Roman legati . Struggles between Rome and neighboring Persia marked the following 600 years of Georgian history. While the Georgian kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman province, Caucasian Iberia freely accepted the Roman Imperial protection. A stone inscription discovered at Mtskheta speaks of the 1st-century ruler Mihdrat I (AD 58–106) as "the friend of

10472-417: The Russians on the political horizon as a possible replacement for the lost Byzantine Empire , "for the sake of the Christian faith". The Georgian kings and Russian tsars exchanged no less than 17 embassies, which culminated in 1783, when Heraclius II of the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti forged an alliance with the Russian Empire . The Russo-Georgian alliance, however, backfired as Russia

10626-475: The Seljuq Sultan Mahmud declared Jihad on Georgia and sent a strong army under one of his famous generals Ilghazi to fight the Georgians. Although significantly outnumbered by the Turks, the Georgians managed to defeat the invaders at the Battle of Didgori , and in 1122 they took over Tbilisi, making it Georgia's capital. Three years later the Georgians conquered Shirvan. As a result, the mostly Christian-populated Gishi-Kabala area in western Shirvan (a relic of

10780-420: The Seljuqs. Following the 1073 devastation of Kartli by the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan, George II successfully repelled an invasion . In 1076, the Seljuk sultan Malik Shah I surged into Georgia and reduced many settlements to ruins. Harassed by the massive Turkic influx, known in Georgian history as the Great Turkish Invasion , from 1079/80 onward, George was pressured into submitting to Malik-Shah to ensure

10934-433: The Shah ordered a punitive massacre, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 130,000 to 200,000 people. Thousands of Georgians from the easternmost province of Kakheti were deported to Persia. During this conflict, Queen Ketevan was sent to negotiate with Abbas, but in an act of revenge for Georgia's stubbornness, the Persian Shah ordered the queen to renounce Christianity, and upon her refusal, had her tortured to death. By

11088-611: The Shirvanshahs to power in Shirvan , installing on the throne Manuchihr II , the husband of his daughter Rusudan . The Shirvanshahs had to provide the Georgian king with troops whenever the latter demanded it. In 1130, Georgia was attacked by the Sultan of Ahlat, Shah-Armen Sökmen II ( c. 1128–1183). This war was started by the passage of Ani into the hands of the Georgians; Demetrius I had to compromise and give up Ani to

11242-613: The Urartians and their territories were themselves conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . According to Svante Cornell , "What could be conceived as the proto Georgian statehood emerged mainly in the Western parts of today's Georgia, with the kingdom of Colchis ( Kolkheti ) in the sixth century BC." Colchis was inhabited by a number of tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea. Chief among those were

11396-477: The adjoining Pontic tribes of the nineteenth satrapy and the Armenians of the thirteenth are mentioned as having paid tribute to Persia, the Colchians and their Caucasian neighbors are not; they had, however, undertaken to send gifts (100 boys and 100 girls) every five years (Herodotus 3.97). At the end of the 4th century BC, southern Iberia witnessed the invading armies of Alexander the Great , who established

11550-584: The ancient Iranian appellation of the near- Caspian region, which was referred to as Gorgan ("land of the wolves" ). Most historians and scholars of Georgia as well as anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists tend to agree that the ancestors of modern Georgians inhabited the southern Caucasus and northern Anatolia since the Neolithic period . Scholars usually refer to them as Proto-Kartvelian (Proto-Georgians such as Colchians and Iberians) tribes. The Georgian people in antiquity have been known to

11704-593: The area survived the invasions by the Hittites , Urartians , Medes , Proto-Persians and Cimmerians . During the same period, the ethnic unity of Proto-Kartvelians broke up into several branches, among them Svans, Zans /Chans, and East-Kartvelians. That finally led to the formation of modern Kartvelian languages : Georgian (originating from East Kartvelian vernaculars), Svan, Megrelian and Laz (the latter two originating from Zan dialects). By that time Svans were dominant in modern Svaneti and Abkhazia , Zans inhabited

11858-576: The autonomy of the dynastic princes. In his eyes, the most possible internal danger came from the Klarjeti line of the Bagrationi. Although seem to have acknowledged Bagrat's authority, they continued to be styled as Kings, and Sovereigns of Klarjeti. To secure the succession to his son, George I , Bagrat lured his cousins, on pretext of a reconciliatory meeting, to the Panaskerti Castle, and threw them in prison in 1010. Bagrat's foreign policy

12012-561: The beginning of the XX century, a researcher of ancient history Peter Ushakov notes: "In ancient times, during the 15th-18th centuries BC, the tribes of the Abkhazian - Circassian group inhabited the entire space of the western half of the Caucasus from the Black Sea province through the whole of Colchis in a continuous strip to the sources of the Euphrates and were divided into four branches:

12166-510: The case of Svans and Mingrelians , own regional languages. The Georgian language , with its own unique writing system and extensive written tradition, which goes back to the 5th century, is the official language of Georgia as well as the language of education of all Georgians living in the country. According to the State Ministry on Diaspora Issues of Georgia , unofficial statistics say that there are more than 5 million Georgians in

12320-399: The cities of Marand , Tabriz (1208), Ardabil (1208), Zanjan , Khoy (1210), and Qazvin (1210), placing part of the conquered territory under a Georgian protectorate. This was the maximum territorial extent of Georgia throughout her history. Queen Tamar was addressed as "The Queen of Abkhazians, Kartvels, Rans, Kakhs and Armenians, Shirvan-Shakhine and Shakh-in-Shakhine, The Sovereign of

12474-529: The consolidation and uniformity of the Georgian nation. According to the renowned scholar of the Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff , the Moschians also were one of the early proto-Georgian tribes which were integrated into the first early Georgian state of Iberia. The ancient Jewish chronicle by Josephus mentions Georgians as Iberes who were also called Thobel (Tubal). David Marshall Lang argued that

12628-534: The country in spite of its fragmentation into skeptoukhies . Gocha R. Tsetskhladze explains that although Colchis and neighboring Iberia were once viewed as not having been under Achaemenid rule, "ever more evidence is emerging to show that they were, forming a lesser part of the Armenian satrapy ". Mithridates VI quelled an uprising in the region in 83 BC and gave Colchis to his son Mithridates , who, soon being suspected in having plotted against his father,

12782-493: The date varies based on numerous accounts and historical documents, which indicate Iberia adopting Christianity as a state religion in 317, 319, 324, 330 etc. According to The Georgian Chronicles , St. Nino of Cappadocia converted Georgia to Christianity in 330 during the time of Constantine the Great . By the middle of the 4th century though, both Lazica (formerly the Kingdom of Colchis) and Iberia adopted Christianity as their official religion. This adoption of Christianity tied

12936-520: The earliest Georgian formation. An FTDNA collection of Georgian Y-DNA suggests that Georgians have the highest percentage of Haplogroup G (39.9%) among the general population recorded in any country. Georgians' Y-DNA also belongs to Haplogroup J (32.5%), R1b (8.6%), L (5.4%), R1a (4.2%), I2 (3.8%) and other more minor haplogroups such as E, T and Q. Georgian is the primary language for Georgians of all provenance, including those who speak other Kartvelian languages : Svans , Mingrelians and

13090-472: The earliest ages, that Sesostris king of Egypt was overcome in Scythia , and put to fight, by the king of Colchis, which if true, that the Colchians not only had kings in those times, but were a very powerful people. Many modern theories suggest that the ancestors of the Laz - Mingrelians constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in

13244-581: 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 southeastern part of the country. This is the oldest evidence of humans anywhere in the world outside Africa. Later prehistoric remains ( Acheulian , Mousterian , and the Upper Palaeolithic ) are known from numerous cave and open-air sites in Georgia. The earliest agricultural Neolithic occupation dates between 6000 and 5000 BC. known as

13398-480: The early 3rd century, Rome had to give up Albania and most of Armenia to Sassanid Persia . The province of Lazicum was given a degree of autonomy that by the end of the century developed into full independence with the formation of a new Kingdom of Lazica-Egrisi on the territories of smaller principalities of the Zans, Svans, Apsyls, and Sanyghs. This new Western Georgian state survived more than 250 years until 562 when it

13552-563: The east by Likhi Range , connecting the Greater and the Lesser Caucasus. The central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sukhumi and Kobuleti ; most of that lies on the elevation below 20 m (66 ft) above sea level. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus and Likhi Range. Its territory mostly corresponds to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses

13706-529: The eastern and northern Black Sea coastal areas. This close association with Armenia brought upon the country an invasion (65 BC) by the Roman general Pompey , who was then at war with Mithradates VI of Pontus , and Armenia. Still, Rome did not establish permanent power over Iberia. Twenty-nine years later (36 BC), the Romans again marched on Iberia forcing King Pharnavaz II to join their campaign against Caucasian Albania . The former Kingdom of Colchis became

13860-681: The eastern part of Georgia, there was a struggle for the leadership among the various Georgian confederations during the 6th–4th centuries BC, which was finally won by the Kartlian tribes from the region of Mtskheta. According to the Georgian tradition, the Kingdom of Kartli (known as Iberia in the Greek-Roman literature) was founded around 300 BC by Parnavaz I , the first ruler of the Parnavazid dynasty . Between 653 and 333 BC, both Colchis and Iberia survived successive invasions by

14014-420: The ethnic and cultural formation of the modern Georgian nation. According to the scholar of the Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff: Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer, Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom ... It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis,

14168-408: The ethnogenesis of the modern Georgians . Pausanias , a 1st-century BC Greek geographer, citing the poet Eumelos, assigned Aeëtes , the mythological first king of Colchis, a Greek origin. The tribes living in the southern Colchis ( Macrones , Moschi , and Marres ) were incorporated into Persia and formed the 19th satrapy , while the northern tribes submitted "voluntarily" and had to send to

14322-511: The first practised circumcision. These claims have been widely rejected by modern historians. It is in doubt if Herodotus had ever been to Colchis or Egypt, and no Egyptian army ever set foot in the Caucasus, a region shielded by states to the south of the Caucasus too powerful for any Egyptian army to pass through, such as Urartu , Hittia , Assyria and Mitanni . According to Pliny the Elder : The Colchians were governed by their own kings in

14476-494: The former Byzantine Lazona and Paryadria with the cities of Atina, Riza , Trebizond , Kerasunt , Amysos , Cotyora , Heraclea and Sinopa . In 1205, the occupied territory was transformed into the Empire of Trebizond , which was dependent on Georgia. Tamar's relative Prince Alexios Komnenos was crowned as its Emperor. In the immediate years after, Georgian armies invaded northern Persia (modern day Iranian Azerbaijan ) and took

14630-517: The former religions except Zoroastrianism, which become a second established religion in Iberia after the Peace of Acilisene in 378. The conversion to Christianity eventually placed the Georgians permanently on the front line of conflict between the Islamic and Christian world. Georgians remained mostly Christian despite repeated invasions by Muslim powers, and long episodes of foreign domination. As

14784-679: The fourth century. Goths , dwelling in the Crimea and looking for new homes, raided Colchis in 253, but were repulsed with the help of the Roman garrison of Pitsunda . By the first century BC, the Lazica (or the Laz) kingdom was established in the region. Lazica became known as Egrisi in 66 BC when Egrisi became a vassal of the Roman Empire after the Caucasian campaign of Pompey . Colchian coins,

14938-446: The genus Darevskia , the Caucasus adder ( Vipera kaznakovi ), Robert's snow vole , and endemic cave shrimp . Millet was the main staple crop in Colchis. Wheat grew in certain regions and was also imported by sea. Similarly, local wines were produced and some wines were brought from overseas. The Colchian plain provided ample grazing land for cattle and horses, with the name of Phasis associated with fine horses. The wetlands were

15092-550: The geographic region which their ancestors traditionally inhabited. Even if a member of any of these subgroups moves to a different region, they will still be known by the name of their ancestral region. For example, if a Gurian moves to Tbilisi (part of the Kartli region) he will not automatically identify himself as Kartlian despite actually living in Kartli. This may, however, change if substantial amount of time passes. For example, there are some Mingrelians who have lived in

15246-509: The invasion of the Mongols . In spite of fierce resistance by Georgian-Armenian forces and their allies, the whole area including most of Georgia, all Armenian lands and Central Anatolia eventually fell to the Mongols in 1236. In 1243, Queen Rusudan of Georgia signed a peace treaty with the Mongols in accordance with which Georgia lost her client-states, ceded western Shirvan, Nakhichevan and some other territories and agreed to pay tribute to

15400-529: The king's half-brother Vakhtang . The King arrested the conspirators and executed one of their leaders, Ioanne Abuletisdze , in 1138 (or 1145). Fadl's successor, Fakr al-Din Shaddad , a Shaddadid emir of Ani asked for Saltuk 's daughter's hand, however Saltuk refused him. This caused a deep hatred in Shaddad towards Saltuk. In 1154 he planned a plot and formed a secret alliance with the Demetrius I. While

15554-699: The kingdom to the Byzantine Empire , which exerted strong cultural influence over it. However, after the emperor Julian was slain during his failed campaign in Persia in 363, Rome ceded control of Iberia to Persia, and King Varaz-Bakur I (Asphagur) (363–365) became a Persian vassal, an outcome confirmed by the Peace of Acilisene in 387. However, a later ruler of Kartli, Pharsman IV (406-409), preserved his country's autonomy and ceased to pay tribute to Persia. Persia prevailed, and Sassanian kings began to appoint

15708-503: The land and turn back with prisoners and booty. The Shaddadids ruled Ani for about 10 years as vassals of Eldgiz, but in 1174 George III took the Shahanshah as a prisoner and occupied Ani once again, appointing Ivane Orbeli as governor. After that, Eldiguz together with other Muslim rulers invaded Georgia twice, the first invasion was successfully repelled by the Georgians, but during the second invasion Georgians lost Ani and in 1175 it

15862-441: The latter being one of the proto-Georgian tribes that emerged as a dominant group in ancient times. Kart probably is cognate with Indo-European gard and denotes people who live in a "fortified citadel ". Ancient Greeks ( Homer , Herodotus , Strabo , Plutarch etc.) and Romans ( Titus Livius , Cornelius Tacitus , etc.) referred to western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians . The term "Georgians"

16016-541: The leadership of Tamerlane . Except in Abkhazia and Svaneti , the invasions devastated Georgia's economy, population, and urban centers. By the middle of the 15th century, most of Georgia's old neighbor-states disappeared from the map within less than a hundred years. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 sealed the Black Sea and cut the remnants of Christian states of the area from Europe and

16170-462: The modern Georgian province of Samegrelo, while East-Kartvelians formed the majority in modern eastern Georgia. As a result of cultural and geographic delimitation, two core areas of future Georgian culture and statehood formed in western and eastern Georgia by the end of the 8th century BC. The first two Georgian states emerged in the west known as the Kingdom of Colchis and in the east the Kingdom of Iberia . A second Georgian tribal union emerged on

16324-628: The most important of them were Charieis, Chobus or Cobus, Singames, Tarsuras, Hippus, Astelephus, Chrysorrhoas, several of which are also noticed by Ptolemy and Pliny . The chief towns were Dioscurias or Dioscuris (under the Romans called Sebastopolis, now Sukhumi ) on the seaboard of the Euxine, Sarapana (now Shorapani ), Phasis (now Poti ), Pityus (now Pitsunda ), Apsaros (now Gonio ), Surium (now Vani ), Archaeopolis (now Nokalakevi ), Macheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium or Aia (now Kutaisi ),

16478-497: The name of the Colchians was used as the collective term for early Kartvelian tribes which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea in Greco-Roman ethnography . According to Donald Rayfield , the ethnic makeup of Colchis is "obscure" and Kartvelian names "are conspicuously absent from the few anthronyms found in Colchian burials." Instead, Greek , Anatolian , Iranian , and possibly Abkhaz names are present. At

16632-570: The neighbouring lands to the emperor on his death. All the efforts by David's stepson and George's father, Bagrat III , to prevent these territories from being annexed to the empire went in vain. Young and ambitious, George launched a campaign to restore the Kuropalates’ succession to Georgia and occupied Tao in 1015–1016. Byzantines were at that time involved in a relentless war with the Bulgarian Empire , limiting their actions to

16786-464: The next three years in the imperial capital of Constantinople and was released in 1025. After George I's death in 1027, Bagrat, aged eight, succeeded to the throne. By the time Bagrat IV became king, the Bagratids ’ drive to complete the unification of all Georgian lands had gained irreversible momentum. The kings of Georgia sat at Kutaisi in western Georgia from which they ran all of what had been

16940-448: The northern limit of the spread of Laz people somewhere between the Phasis (modern. Poti ) and Dioscurias". The Greek name Kolchís ( Κολχίς ) is first used to describe a geographic area in the writings of Aeschylus and Pindar . Earlier writers speak of the "Kolchian" ( Κολχίδα ) people and their mythical king Aeëtes ( Αἰήτης ), as well as his eponymous city Aea or Aia ( Αἶα ) , but don't make explicit references to

17094-438: The oldest of which were dated to the middle of the 6th century BC, served as the primary source of evidence for the Colchian state. A reassessment of the coins, however, has revealed that these early "Colchian" coins actually represent the production of a Achaemenid satrapy. Little is known of the rulers of Colchis. From the fifth century B.C.E. onwards, Colchis was identified as Aea, the mythical home of Aeëtes , Medea ,

17248-484: The once prosperous Albanian Kingdom) was annexed by Georgia while the rest of already Islamicized Shirvan became Georgia's client-state. In the same year a large portion of Armenia was liberated by David's troops and fell into Georgian hands as well. Thus in 1124 David also became the King of Armenians, incorporating Northern Armenia into the lands of the Georgian Crown. In 1125 King David died, leaving Georgia with

17402-505: The other hand, extends Pontus to the Rioni River . Although some ancient authors consider Dioscurias to be the extreme northern settlement point of Colchians (in an ethnic sense), nevertheless "they consider it as a point located on the territory of non-Colchian tribes ( Heniochi , Sanigs )". Since in a later era the name "Colchians" was organically connected with the name " Lazi ", it should be remembered that Byzantine sources saw

17556-506: The people of Mitanni , Colchians, Abasgi and Ubykhs ." The name Colchis is thought to have derived from the Urartian Qulḫa . In the mid-eighth century BC, Sarduri II , the King of Urartu , inscribed his victory over Qulḫa on a stele; however, the exact location of Qulḫa is disputed. Some scholars argue the name Qulḫa (Colchís) originally referred to a land to the west of Georgia. Others argue Qulḫa may have been located in

17710-424: The plain part of the region; wetlands (along the coastal parts of Colchis Plain); subalpine and alpine meadows . Colchis has a high proportion of Neogene and Palaeogene relict plants and animals, with the closest relatives in distant parts of the world: five species of Rhododendrons and other evergreen shrubs, wingnuts , Caucasian salamander , Caucasian parsley frog , eight endemic species of lizards from

17864-485: The pre-Christian Kingdom of Colchis , but later lost importance as the unified Kingdom of Georgia emerged. Their decline is largely due to the capital of the unified kingdom, Tbilisi , being in the eastern part of the country known as Kingdom of Iberia effectively making the language of the east an official language of the Georgian monarch. All of these languages comprise the Kartvelian language family along with

18018-520: The present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo , Imereti , Guria , Adjara , Abkhazia , Svaneti , Racha ; the modern Turkey ’s Rize , Trabzon and Artvin provinces ( Lazistan , Tao-Klarjeti ); and the modern Russia ’s Sochi and Tuapse districts. The climate is mild humid; near Batumi , annual rainfall level reaches 4,000 mm (160 in), which is the absolute maximum for continental western Eurasia. The dominating natural landscapes of Colchis are temperate rainforests , yet degraded in

18172-524: The privilege of electing the governors. Georgian nobles urged the Byzantine emperor Maurice to revive the kingdom of Iberia in 582, but in 591 Byzantium and Persia decisively agreed to divide Iberia between them, with Tbilisi to be in Persian hands and Mtskheta to be under Byzantine control. However, by the late 7th century, the Byzantine-Persian rivalry had given way to Arab conquest of

18326-523: The region . In the struggle against the Arab occupation , the Bagrationi dynasty came to rule over Tao-Klarjeti and established Kouropalatate of Iberia as a nominal dependency under the Byzantine Empire . The restoration of the Georgian kingship begins in AD 888, when Adarnase IV took the title of " King of Iberians ". However, the Bagrationi dynasty failed to maintain the integrity of their kingdom which

18480-688: The related language of the Laz people , which has speakers in both Turkey and Georgia. Georgian dialects include Imeretian , Racha - Lechkhumian , Gurian , Adjarian , Imerkhevian (in Turkey), Kartlian , Kakhetian , Ingilo (in Azerbaijan), Tush , Khevsur , Mokhevian , Pshavian , Fereydan dialect in Iran in Fereydunshahr and Fereydan , Mtiuletian , Meskhetian and Javakhetian dialect. According to Orthodox tradition, Christianity

18634-593: The rest of the Christian world. Georgia remained connected to the West through contact with the Genoese colonies of the Crimea . As a result of these changes, the Georgian Kingdom suffered economic and political decline and in the 1460s the kingdom fractured into several kingdoms and principalities: Neighboring large empires subsequently exploited the internal division of the weakened country, and beginning in

18788-647: The result of the 13th–15th-century invasions of the Mongols and Timur , the Black Death , the Fall of Constantinople , as well as internal divisions following the death of George V the Brilliant in 1346, the last of the great kings of Georgia . Thereafter and throughout the early modern period , Georgians became politically fractured and were dominated by the Ottoman Empire and successive dynasties of Iran . Georgians started looking for allies and found

18942-499: The root Tibar gave rise to the form Iber that made the Greeks pick up the name Iberian in the end for the designation of the eastern Georgians. Diauehi in Assyrian sources and Taochi in Greek lived in the northeastern part of Anatolia . This ancient tribe is considered by many scholars as ancestors of the Georgians. Modern Georgians still refer to this region, which now belongs to present-day Turkey, as Tao-Klarjeti , an ancient Georgian kingdom. Some people there still speak

19096-573: 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 Arslan's invasion by securing the Tao ( Theme of Iberia ), a frontier region which had been a bone of contention between Georgia and the Byzantine Empire , the Byzantine withdrawal from Anatolia brought them in more direct contact with

19250-423: 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 justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom. ... It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis, the earliest Georgian formation. According to most Classical-era sources, Colchis

19404-425: The scholar of the Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff : Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer, Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom....It would seem natural to seek the beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis, the earliest Georgian formation. The ancient Greeks knew of Colchis, and it featured in

19558-506: 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. The earliest attestations of the name of Colchis can be found in the 8th century Greek poet Eumelus of Corinth as Κολχίδα and earlier, in Urartian records as Qulḫa mentioned by the Urartian kings, who conquered it in 744 or 743 BC before

19712-549: The son and heir of Zenon, Colchis was part of the Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom . After the death of Polemon (8 BC), his second wife Pythodorida of Pontus retained possession of Colchis as well as of Pontus, although the kingdom of Bosporus was wrested from her power. Her son and successor, Polemon II of Pontus , was induced by Emperor Nero to abdicate the throne, and both Pontus and Colchis were incorporated in

19866-540: The south, near modern Göle, Turkey . According to Levan Gordeziani, while the Greek Colchis etymologically descends from Urartian Qulḫa , the Greeks may have applied the name to a different region (and/or cultures) than the preceding Urartians had. Further confusion rests in possible differences in the Greeks' own usage of the name Colchis in political and mythological contexts (i.e. the relationship between "Aia-Colchis" and "the land of Colchis"). According to

20020-473: The status of a strong regional power. In Georgia, King David is called Agmashenebeli (English: the builder). David Agmashenebeli's successors (Kings Demeter I, David V and George III) continued the policy of Georgia's expansion by subordinating most of the mountain clans and tribes of North Caucasia and further securing Georgian positions in Shirvan. However, the most glorious sovereign of Georgia of that period

20174-408: The surrounding Western Asia. Each historical province of Georgia has its own distinct culinary tradition, such as Megrelian, Kakhetian, and Imeretian cuisines. In addition to various meat dishes, Georgian cuisine also offers a variety of vegetarian meals. The importance of both food and drink to Georgian culture is best observed during a Caucasian feast, or supra , when a huge assortment of dishes

20328-399: The town again fell to the sultan. According to Mkhitar Gosh , Demetrius ultimately gained possession of Ganja, but, when he gave his daughter in marriage to the sultan, he presented the latter with the town as dowry, and the sultan appointed his own emir to rule it. Thus, Ganja once again fell into the hands of the Eldiguzids . In 1130, Demetrius revealed a plot of nobles, probably involving

20482-599: The traditional birthplace of Medea . Scylax mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other writers, makes the birthplace of Medea . In physical geography , Colchis is usually defined as the area east of the Black Sea coast, restricted from the north by the southwestern slopes of the Greater Caucasus , from the south by the northern slopes of the Lesser Caucasus in Georgia and Eastern Black Sea (Karadeniz) Mountains in Turkey, and from

20636-761: The tribes of Colchis and East Pontus are referred to as independent (autónomoi). On the other hand, Herodotus mentioned both the Colchians and various Pontic tribes in his catalogue (7.78–79) of approximately fifty-seven peoples who participated in Xerxes' expedition against Greece in 481–80 BC. As the Encyclopaedia Iranica states, it is thus probable that the Achaemenids never succeeded in asserting effective rule over Colchis, though local tribal leaders seem to have acknowledged some kind of Persian suzerainty. The Encyclopædia Iranica further states, whereas

20790-445: The west. But as soon as Bulgaria was conquered , Basil II led his army against Georgia (1021). An exhausting war lasted for two years, and ended in a decisive Byzantine victory , forcing George to agree to a peace treaty, in which he had not only to abandon his claims to Tao, but to surrender several of his southwestern possessions to Basil, and to give his three-year-old son, Bagrat IV , as hostage. The young child Bagrat IV spent

20944-578: The world. Georgians call themselves Kartveli ( ქართველი , pl. Kartvelebi ქართველები ), their land Sakartvelo ( საქართველო ), and their language Kartuli ( ქართული ). According to The Georgian Chronicles , the ancestor of the Kartvelian people was Kartlos , the great-grandson of the Biblical Japheth . However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts ,

21098-480: Was Queen Tamar (David's great-granddaughter). The kingdom continued to flourish under Demetrius I , the son of David. As soon as he ascended to the throne, the neighboring Muslim rulers began attacking Georgia from all sides. The Seljuqid sultans fought to restore the rule of the Shirvanshahs . Shirvan's large Muslim population rose against Georgia. This probably happened in 1129 or 1130, when Demetrius restored

21252-617: Was absorbed by the Byzantine Empire . In the 3rd century AD , the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica , locally known as Egrisi. Colchis was a scene of the protracted rivalry between the Eastern Roman / Byzantine and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War from 542 to 562. Before Christianization , the cult of Mithras and Zoroastrianism were commonly practiced in Iberia from

21406-620: Was actually divided between the three branches of the family with the main branch retaining Tao and another controlling Klarjeti . At the end of the 10th century Curopalate David of Tao invaded the Earldom of Iberia (Kartli) and gave it to his foster-son Bagrat III and installed Gurgen as his regent , who was later crowned as "King of Kings of the Iberians" on the death of Bagrat the Simple (994). Through his fortunate bloodlines Bagrat

21560-456: Was bordered on the south-west by Pontus , on the west by the Black Sea , as far as the river Corax. To its north was the Greater Caucasus , beyond which was Sarmatia . On its east it bordered the Kingdom of Iberia and Montes Moschici (now the Lesser Caucasus ). The south of Colchis bordered Armenia . The westward extent of the country is considered differently by different authors: Strabo makes Colchis begin at Trabzon , while Ptolemy , on

21714-505: Was destined to sit upon two thrones. Furthermore, through his mother Gurandukht, sister of the childless Abkhazian king Theodosius III , Bagrat was a potential heir to the realm of Abkhazia. Three years later, after the death of Theodosius III, Bagrat III inherited the Abkhazian throne . In 1008, Gurgen died, and Bagrat succeeded him as "King of the Iberians", becoming thus the first King of a unified realm of Abkhazia and Iberia . After he had secured his patrimony, Bagrat proceeded to press

21868-838: Was executed. During the Third Mithridatic War , Mithridates VI made another of his sons, Machares , king of Bosporus and Colchis, who held his power, but only for a short period. On the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus in 65 BC, Colchis was occupied by Pompey , who captured one of the local chiefs (sceptuchus) Olthaces, and installed Aristarchus as a dynast (63–47 BC). On the fall of Pompey, Pharnaces II , son of Mithridates , took advantage of Julius Caesar being occupied in Egypt , and reduced Colchis, Armenia , and some part of Cappadocia , defeating Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus , whom Caesar subsequently sent against him. His triumph was, however, short-lived. Under Polemon I ,

22022-535: Was finally annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. After a brief period of independence as Democratic Republic of Georgia , the country soon ended up being a Soviet Republic until the dissolution of the Soviet Union . The current republic of Georgia has been independent since 1991. The history of Georgia is inextricably linked with the history of the Georgian people . Evidence for

22176-482: Was first preached in Georgia by the Apostles Simon and Andrew in the 1st century. It became the state religion of Kartli (Iberia) in 319 or 326. At the same time, in the first centuries A.D., the cult of Mithras , pagan beliefs, and Zoroastrianism were commonly practiced in Georgia. The conversion of Kartli to Christianity is credited to St. Nino of Cappadocia . Christianity gradually replaced all

22330-467: Was formed as soon as the Georgians seized the town, but the latter defeated the allies. 1162 In the summer, the Georgian army, whose number reached 30,000, took Dvin . In response to this, Eldiguz Soon he proceeded northward to recover the city of Dvin . A coalition of Muslim rulers – Shah-Armen Seyfettin Beytemür, Ahmadili Arslan-Aba, Arzen emir Fakhr ul-Din and Saltuk II , led by Eldiguz took

22484-587: Was generally peaceful and the king successfully maneuvered to avoid the conflicts with both the Byzantine and Muslim neighbors even though David's domains of Tao remained in the Byzantine and Tbilisi in the Arab hands. The major political and military event during George I ’s reign, a war against the Byzantine Empire , had its roots back to the 990s, when the Georgian prince Curopalate David of Tao , following his abortive rebellion against Emperor Basil II , had to agree to cede his extensive possessions in Tao and

22638-418: Was home to the well-developed Bronze Age culture known as the Colchian culture , related to the neighbouring Koban culture , that emerged toward the Middle Bronze Age . In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been well advanced by the end of the second millennium BC. The Colchian Late Bronze Age (fifteenth to eighth century BC) saw the development of significant skill in

22792-442: Was interconnected with the Hellenic world , whereas Iberia was influenced by the Achaemenid Empire until Alexander the Great conquered it. In the early 4th century, the Georgians became one of the first to embrace Christianity and now the majority of Georgians are Orthodox Christians , with most following their national Georgian Orthodox Church , although there are small Georgian Catholic and Muslim communities as well as

22946-403: Was marked by the strategically significant invasion of the Seljuq Turks , who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast empire including most of Central Asia and Persia . The Seljuqs made their first appearances in Georgia in the 1060s, when the sultan Alp Arslan laid waste to the south-western provinces of the Georgian kingdom and reduced Kakheti . These intruders were part of

23100-423: Was not included in the lands of the Georgian Crown, and was left under the nominal rule of local Turkish Emirs and Sultans, Southern Armenia became a protectorate of the Kingdom of Georgia. The temporary fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 to the Crusaders left Georgia and Bulgarian Empire as the strongest Christian states in the whole East Mediterranean area. The same year Queen Tamar sent her troops to take over

23254-461: Was recaptured by Shaddadids . The reign of Queen Tamar represented the peak of Georgia's might in the whole history of the nation. In 1194–1204, Tamar's armies crushed new Turkish invasions from the south-east and south and launched several successful campaigns into Turkish-controlled Southern Armenia. As a result, most of Southern Armenia, including the cities of Karin , Erzinjan , Khelat , Muş and Van , came under Georgian control. Although it

23408-491: Was true elsewhere, the Christian church in Georgia was crucial to the development of a written language, and most of the earliest written works were religious texts. Medieval Georgian culture was greatly influenced by Eastern Orthodoxy and the Georgian Orthodox Church , which promoted and often sponsored the creation of many works of religious devotion. These included churches and monasteries, works of art such as icons , and hagiographies of Georgian saints. Today, 83.9% of

23562-399: Was unwilling to fulfill the terms of the treaty, proceeding to annex the troubled kingdom in 1801 as well as the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti in 1810. There were several uprisings and movements to restore the statehood, the most notable being the 1832 plot , which collapsed in failure. Eventually, Russian rule over Georgia was acknowledged in various peace treaties with Iran and

23716-406: Was widely spoken. Between the early 2nd century BC and the late 2nd century AD both Colchis and Iberia, together with the neighboring countries, became an arena of long and devastating conflicts between major and local powers such as Rome , Armenia and the short-lived Kingdom of Pontus . Pompey's campaign in 66–65 BC annexed Armenia and then he headed north along the Kura river and then west down

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