Kingdom of Georgia: Difference between revisions
State in the Caucasus from 1008 to 1490
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Kingdom of Georgia საქართველოს სამეფო |
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Kingdom of Georgia in ~1220, at the peak of its territorial expansion. |
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Administrative division of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 13th century |
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| Capital | |
| Common languages | Middle Georgian Arabic(lingua franca/numismatics/chancery)[4][dubious ],[disputed ] Persian(numismatics)[disputed ] |
| Religion | Eastern Orthodoxy (Georgian Patriarchate) |
| Government | Feudal monarchy |
| King. | |
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• 1008–1014 (first) |
Bagrat III |
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• 1446–1465 (last) |
George VIII |
| Legislature | Council of State |
| Historical era | High Middle Ages to Late Middle Ages |
| c. 1008 | |
| 1122–1226 | |
| 1245–1247 | |
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• East and West division |
1247–1329 |
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• Reunification |
1329 |
| 1463 1490[a] |
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| Currency | Various Byzantine and Sassanian coins were minted until the 12th century. |
The Kingdom of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს სამეფო, romanized: sakartvelos samepo), also known as the Georgian Empire,[7] was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in c. 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from the 11th to 13th centuries. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East and its pan-Caucasian empire[8] and network of tributaries stretching from Eastern Europe to Anatolia and northern frontiers of Iran, while also maintaining religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and the Monastery of Iviron in Greece. It was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.
Lasting for several centuries, the kingdom fell to the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. The following decades were marked by the Black Death, as well as numerous invasions under the leadership of Timur, who devastated the country’s economy, population, and urban centers. The Kingdom’s geopolitical situation further worsened after the conquest of the Byzantine Empire and the Empire of Trebizond by the Ottoman Turks. As a result of these processes, by the end of the 15th century Georgia turned into a fractured entity. This whole series of events also led to the final collapse of the kingdom into anarchy by 1466 and the mutual recognition of its constituent kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti, and Imereti as independent states between 1490 and 1493—each led by a rival branch of the Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities—Odishi, Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Samtskhe.
Background[edit]
Early Georgian kingdoms were reduced to feudal regions over the course of the Roman–Persian wars. The area then fell under the control of the early Muslim conquests of the 7th century.
Iberian princes from the Bagrationi dynasty fought against the Arab occupation and came to rule the Tao-Klarjeti region. They established the Kouropalatate of Iberia as a nominal vassal of the Byzantine Empire. By 888, they had gained control of the central Georgian land, Kartli, and restored the Iberian kingship. The Bagrationi dynasty was unable to maintain their kingdom, and it was divided between the three branches of the family. The main branch controlled Tao, while another controlled Klarjeti.
In 736, Marwan ibn Muhammad’s invasion of Georgia was repelled by Abkhazians, Lazic and Iberian allies. This successful defense along with increasing struggles against Byzantium helped lead to a process of unification of the Georgian states into a single feudal monarchy. The Georgian Church broke away from Constantinople in the 9th century, instead recognizing the authority of the Catholicate of Mtskheta. The church language was changed from Greek to Georgian.[9]
History[edit]
Unification of the Georgian State[edit]
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During the 10th century, David III of Tao invaded the Duchy of Kartli, giving it to his adopted son, who would later be known as Bagrat III of Georgia, with his biological father, Gurgen of Iberia, as regent. In 994, Gurgen was crowned King of the Iberians. In 975, supported by the Duke of Kartli Ivane Marushisdze and David, Bagrat claimed the throne of Kartli,[10]: 108 becoming King of the Kartlians. During this time, the Kingdom of Abkhazia in what is today northeastern Georgia was under the rule of Theodosius the Blind, who did away with Abkhazian traditions. In 978, the Abkhazian aristocracy, dissatisfied with the rule of Theodosius, performed a coup d’état and invited Bagrat to claim the throne of Abkhazia.[11]: 67–68
Gurgen died in 1008, leaving his throne for Bagrat, allowing Bagrat to become the first king of a unified Abkhazia and Iberia. In his early reign, Bagrat pressed a claim to the kingdom of Khakheti-Hereti to the east, and annexed it in 1010. Bagrat also reduced…