Georgian history may be said to begin with Pharnavaz, the first
king of the country, who reigned in the third century B.C. It is to
him that the invention of the ordinary civil alphabet is commonly
attributed. From this remote date down to the present time we have an
almost unbroken narrative, the trustworthiness of which is proved
by its agreement with the annals of other lands. Those who are
specially interested in the early history will find in the sequel
such bibliographical references as will enable them to satisfy their
curiosity; but the present sketch will be confined to the more modern
period, beginning in the eleventh century A.D.
In 1089 David II., of the Bagratid line, descended, if we are to
believe tradition, from David the Psalmist (note the harp and the
sling in the royal arms of Georgia), as well as from Pharnavaz,
came to the throne. During the reigns of his immediate predecessors
the land had been mercilessly laid waste by the Seldjukid Turks;
but the successes of the Crusaders, and the temporary decline of the
Mahometan power in the East, enabled him to raise his country to a
very high position. Having boldly attacked the Turks, and driven them
out of every part of his dominions, he set himself to rebuild cities,
fortresses, and churches, purged the state and the church of many
abuses, and liberally encouraged education. These deeds have won for
him the name of David the Renewer. Georgia enjoyed prosperity for
the next hundred years, and then came the zenith of the national glory.
In 1184 Queen Tamara succeeded her father, and reigned twenty-eight
years, the happiest and most glorious period in the history of the
country. The queen had the good fortune to be surrounded by wise
counsellors and brave generals, but it is chiefly to her own virtues
that her success is to be ascribed. The military exploits in which she
was engaged spread her fame throughout the whole of Asia. Erzerum,
Dovin, Trebizond, Sinope, Samsun, Kars, and Ani saw the triumph of
the Georgian arms, the renowned Rokn Eddin was signally defeated,
and the Persians were terror-stricken by her expedition to Khorassan.
Yet she did not neglect home affairs; she was the orphan's mother,
the widow's judge. Religion was the moving force in everything that
she did; when a large booty was captured, a portion of it was always
set aside for the Blessed Virgin, and churches soon sprang up in every
village. She daily spent much time in prayer, and made garments for
the poor with her own fair, queenly hands. There is a tradition to the
effect that she every day did as much work as would pay for her food,
and although this is probably an exaggeration, it serves to show what
the character of the queen was.
Her literary talents were of no mean order; when she had won a battle,
she could, like Deborah, tell forth her triumph in a sweet, glad song
to the Lord of Hosts, and one, at least, of these psalms is still
preserved; but it is chiefly as the inspirer and patroness of poets
that she is famous. Such fragments of her correspondence as we have
before us reveal the fact that she was no mean diplomatist. One of
them especially breathes forth a noble spirit of fearless faith. Rokn
Eddin had raised an army of 800,000 men, and was preparing to march
against Georgia. Before setting out he sent an ambassador to the
queen, asking her to renounce Christianity and become his wife, and
concluding the letter with the threat that if she would not submit,
he would come and make her his mistress. The ambassador who proposed
such insolent terms would have been killed by Tamara's courtiers
if she had not protected him. She wrote back calmly, expressing her
trust in God, and declaring her determination to destroy Rokn Eddin
and his infidel hosts. She finishes with a truly womanly touch:
"Knowing how careless your men are, I do not return this by your
messenger, but send one of my own servants with it."
Not contented with driving the Mahometans out of her own land,
she sent ambassadors to the Christian communities in Alexandria,
Libya, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Greece, and Rumania, to offer
them help if they needed it; and in order to secure orthodoxy in the
theology of her people, she commanded that a great disputation should
be held between the doctors of the Georgian and Armenian Churches.
Her private life was not free from trouble. Three years after
her accession she was prevailed upon to marry a Russian prince,
Bogoliubovskoi, who had been driven out of his dominions in
Muscovy. This individual conducted himself towards his consort in a
shameful manner, and, after enduring his indignities for a long time,
she complained to the ecclesiastical authorities, who granted her a
divorce. She had no children by her first husband, so the nobles of
the kingdom pressed her to marry again, in order that she might have
an heir. Her beauty and her fame brought her suitors from the most
distant lands. Mahometans renounced their religion for her, and there
were many that died for love of her. She chose Prince David Soslan,
an Osset, who, by his bravery and devotion, proved himself worthy to
possess such a pearl among women, and she bore him a son, called Giorgi
Lasha, in 1194, and a daughter, Rusudan, in 1195. Bogoliubovskoi,
although he had been treated far beyond his deserts, twice invaded
Georgia, but without success.
In 1212, wearied by her continual campaigns, and sorrow-stricken at
the death of her husband and her greatest general, Tamara died, and
left the throne to her son, Giorgi Lasha, at that time eighteen years
of age. The young king was no sooner crowned than Ganja revolted,
and this was soon followed by a still greater calamity, the invasion
of Genghis Khan. Giorgi led 90,000 troops against the Mongols, but
was defeated. In the meantime the Shah of Persia had asked for the
hand of the beautiful Rusudan, and the Shah of Shirvan made a like
demand. Giorgi promised his sister to the latter, but he died in 1223.
Rusudan now became queen, and rejected both suitors in favour of Mogit
Eddin, Lord of Erzerum. The Sultan of Khorassan thereupon desolated
Georgia and took Tiflis, and the Persians and Mongols together made
terrible havoc for a time. Rusudan at last submitted to the Mongols,
and sent her son to the great Khan as a hostage. Georgia had now
sunk very low indeed, and in 1243, on the death of Rusudan, her son,
David IV., and her nephew, David V., divided the kingdom between
them. Henceforth Kartli and Imereti were independent.
For the next 200 years we read of nothing but battles, sieges,
raids, and in 1445 King Alexander completely destroyed the unity
of the kingdom by dividing it among his three sons. He gave Kartli
to Vakhtang, Imereti to Dimitri, Kakheti to Giorgi. In course of
time Mingreli, Guri, Apkhazi, Svaneti, all revolted, and the land
became the prey of Turks and Persians alternately, although even in
its distracted condition, its people never lost their bravery, and
were always respected by their enemies. Now and then the Mahometans
succeeded in conquering one or other of the provinces, but it was
never long before they were driven out again, and fire and sword
carried into their own land.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century we find the country divided
between the two great Mahometan powers, who had long made it their
battle-field. Mingreli, Guri, Saatabago, and Imereti were held by the
Turks; Kartli, Kakheti, Somkheti, and Kartuban voluntarily submitted
to Persia, and were, in consequence, repeatedly devastated by the
Tatar allies of the Ottoman Empire. In 1586 King Alexander II. of
Kakheti sent ambassadors to the Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, asking for
help, and a treaty was signed, according to which the Russian monarch
agreed to protect Kakheti against the Turks, and to send troops to the
Caucasus for this purpose. Shah Abbas the Great made no objection to
this treaty, for he himself was anxious to gain the alliance of the
Muscovites against Turkey.
Early in the seventeenth century King Giorgi of Kartli also sought
Russian protection, and it is probable that Russia and Georgia would
have been brought into very intimate connection by royal marriages,
&c., if the death of Tsar Boris Godunov, and that of King Giorgi,
who was poisoned by order of Shah Abbas, had not broken off the
negotiations. The Persian Shah, suspecting King Alexander of Kakheti
of a treasonable correspondence with the Turks, sent against him his
(Alexander's) own son, Konstantin, who had been brought up at the
Persian Court, and had embraced Islam. This apostate mercilessly
killed his father and brother; but the nobles rose against him,
and almost annihilated his army, whereupon he fled to the Lesghians,
and offered to allow them to plunder Tiflis for three days if they
would help him. They agreed. The nobles were defeated, and the land
was again given up to the devastating infidels.
King Teimuraz of Kakheti, grandson of Alexander, in 1619, from
a hiding-place in the mountains, sent an embassy to the Tsar
Mikhail Feodorovich, beseeching him to have pity on his Georgian
fellow-Christians. The Tsar requested Shah Abbas to cease from
persecuting the Georgians, and his wish was granted in the most
friendly way possible. Not only was Teimuraz allowed to return to
Kakheti, but Kartli also was given to him, and remained a part of his
kingdom until 1634, when it was taken from him and given to Rostom,
a Mahometan. In 1653 Rostom took Kakheti also, and Teimuraz was
obliged to seek refuge at the Court of Imereti, whence he proceeded
to Moscow to ask for help; but in consequence of the war then being
waged against Poland, the Tsar could not spare any troops. Teimuraz
returned to Georgia, and was taken prisoner by the Shah.
Imereti was at this time governed by King Bagrat, who came to
the throne at the age of fifteen, his stepmother, Daredjan, being
appointed regent. Daredjan endeavoured to gain the love of the young
king, who was already married to her niece, and on his refusal to
listen to her incestuous proposals, she had his eyes put out, and
married Vakhtang Dshudshuna, whom she proclaimed king. Assisted by
the Pasha of Akhaltsikhe, the loyal Imeretians replaced Bagrat the
Blind on the throne, and then the eyes of Vakhtang were put out,
and he and Daredjan were imprisoned.
On the death of Rostom, in 1658, Vakhtang IV., of the Mukhran family,
became King of Kartli and Kakheti, and reigned till 1676. When he died
his son Giorgi usurped the throne of Kartli, leaving only Kakheti
to his elder brother Archil, who journeyed to Moscow, but did not
get the desired aid from Russia. He then returned to the Caucasus,
five times succeeded in obtaining the crown of Imereti, and five
times was deposed. He died in Russia in 1713.
In 1703 Vakhtang V. came to the throne of Kartli. The first seven years
of his reign were spent as a prisoner in Ispahan. In 1723 there was a
fresh invasion of Turks, and, thinking his kingdom irrevocably lost,
he fled to Russia, where he died.
Shah Nadir usurped the crown of Persia in 1736, and freed Kartli
and Kakheti from the Turkish yoke. A little before his accession,
in 1732, Russia had renounced in favour of Persia all right to the
land between the Terek and the Kura. Nadir ingratiated himself with
the Georgian nobility, and always gave them the post of honour in
the victorious campaigns for which his reign is famous. Almost all
the great warriors of the land accompanied him on his Indian march of
conquest, and his especial favourite was Irakli, the son of Teimuraz,
King of Kartli and Kakheti. An interesting story is told concerning
the young warrior, in connection with this expedition. Kandahar having
been taken in 1737, Nadir was marching towards Scinde, when he arrived
at a certain column bearing an inscription which foretold death to
those who went beyond it. Irakli, at that time only nineteen years
of age, solved the difficulty by ordering the stone to be placed on
the back of an elephant, which was led before the army. Scinde was
conquered, and Irakli was richly rewarded. The Shah endeavoured to
persuade the young prince to renounce the Christian religion, but
neither threats nor caresses prevailed. India having been conquered,
Nadir dismissed Irakli in 1739, and then invaded Central Asia, taking
Balkh, Bokhara, Samarkand, whence he returned to the Caucasus and
made war on the Lesghians. Irakli continued to distinguish himself
by great bravery. On the Aragva he defeated 2000 Turks and Lesghians,
was the first to cross the swollen river under a heavy musketry fire,
and killed the leader of the enemy with his own hand. For this service
Nadir bestowed upon him the kingdom of Kakheti in 1744.
In 1747 Shah Nadir was assassinated, and a period of anarchy began
in Persia. Aga Mahmad Khan, the chief eunuch, usurped the dignity of
Shah. Teimuraz and Irakli saved Erivan from the Persians in 1748,
and this city paid tribute to Georgia until 1800, when the people,
not wishing to fall into the hands of Russia, invited Persia to take
the place. In 1749 Irakli, with 3000 men, signally defeated 18,000
Persians at Karaboulakh and again saved Erivan; then Granja was
taken, the Lesghians were dispersed, and an alliance was made with
the Cherkesses. Teimuraz went to Russia in 1760; Tsaritsa Elizabeth
received him with great honour, and promised to send troops to Georgia,
but she died in 1761, and Teimuraz only survived her about a fortnight.
Irakli now succeeded to the throne of Kartli, and thus reunited this
kingdom to Kakheti. The Catholicos Antoni, the most learned Georgian
of his time, was recalled from exile in Russia and made patriarch;
he founded at Tiflis and Telav schools where the "new philosophy"
of Bacmeister was taught, translated many educational works into his
native tongue, reformed the Church and encouraged literature.
A plot was formed against the king's life in 1765, under the following
circumstances: Elizabeth, Irakli's sister, had been married for
three years to a certain Giorgi, son of Dimitri Amilakhorishvili,
who, for physical reasons, had been unable to consummate the
marriage. Elizabeth applied for and obtained a divorce. Dimitri
thought himself insulted in the person of his son, and he and his
friends began to conspire with Paata, a natural son of Vakhtang V.,
who had been educated in Russia and England, and had just arrived in
Georgia from the Persian court. Paata was to kill Irakli and proclaim
himself king. The conspiracy was discovered in time, and all those
who had taken part in it were punished with death or mutilation.
Solomon, king of Imereti, had, in the meantime, been driven from his
throne by the treachery of some of his nobles, who delivered Kutais,
Shorapan and other fortresses to the Turks. He appealed to Catherine
of Russia for help. Count Todleben arrived in the Caucasus with
5000 men in 1769, and Kutais was taken back, and Imereti freed from
the oppression of the Turks. In the following year a great plague
devastated the whole of Transcaucasia, 5000 died in Tiflis alone. The
Holy Spear from the Armenian Convent at Edchmiadzin was brought out,
and the plague ceased; whereupon the Lesghians demanded that the
precious relic should be sent to them also; a spear was made exactly
like the holy one, and it produced the same beneficent effect. Todleben
was succeeded by Sukhotin, and in 1772, peace having been restored,
the Russians returned homeward. But no sooner were they gone than
the Turks again invaded Imereti; King Solomon, however, defeated them
with great slaughter, killing many with his own hand.
Irakli's kingdom enjoyed comparative peace and prosperity for a time,
and advantage was taken of this to disband the regular army and
organize a militia, for the defence of the country against the raids
of the irrepressible Lesghians. The king and his sons set an example
to the people by subjecting themselves to the same discipline as
private individuals, and those who did not present themselves for
service were sought out and beaten with sticks. In 1779 the Khan
of Erivan refused to pay tribute, and strongly fortified the city;
the Georgians took the place and carried off several Armenians, who
were removed to Tiflis, Gori, and Signakh, where they now constitute
the trading and money-lending community.
In 1795 happened the terrible catastrophe which was to bring about the
ruin of Georgia--the destruction of Tiflis by the Shah Aga Mahmad. The
Persians marched through Armenia in great force, and reached the
banks of the Kura without meeting with any serious opposition. Their
advanced guard was attacked by the Georgians just outside the city,
and was defeated on the 10th of September. Speaking of this battle, the
Shah himself said, "I never saw so valorous a foe." On the following
day the main body arrived, and Tiflis was taken by storm. King Irakli
was so overcome with grief that he must have fallen into the hands
of the enemy had not a few faithful nobles forcibly removed him from
the captured city and conveyed him to Mtiuleti, on the Aragva. Almost
all the Georgian artillery, thirty-five guns, was taken, and the city
and its environs were burnt to the ground.
For six days the work of destruction went on; women and young children
were barbarously murdered, and the stench of rotting corpses made the
place uninhabitable. A Persian historian says, "The brave Persian
army showed the unbelieving Georgians what is in store for them at
the day of judgment." All this havoc might have been prevented if
Russia had sent the troops which she had solemnly promised by her
treaties with Irakli, for the Shah had been making preparations for
the invasion four months before it took place, and both Russia and
Georgia were well aware of this.
Prince Giorgi, unworthy son of such a father, had been repeatedly
ordered to bring his army to Tiflis, but he refused. No sooner did
he hear of the fall of the capital than he prepared to flee from
Signakh, although the place was strongly fortified, and there were
many armed men there; but the inhabitants refused to let him go,
and it was only by bribing his guards that he succeeded in escaping
to Telav. Not one of Irakli's sons served him in the hour of his need.
Mtzkhet was captured and burnt, but the famous cathedral was spared,
at the entreaty of the Khan of Nakhitshevan, who remonstrated against
the desecration of the tomb of so many of Georgia's brave kings.
From Mtiuleti, Irakli proceeded to Ananur. The Shah sent after him
8000 men, guided by one of the king's own courtiers, but they were
defeated. Aga Mahmad then offered to give up all the prisoners as
well as the citadel of Tiflis if Irakli would renounce his treaty with
Russia, and become tributary to Persia; but Irakli would not hear of
any terms, however favourable, which would force him to be false to
his alliance with Russia, although she, on her part, had forsaken
him. He quickly assembled an army and marched to the southward,
met the Persians between Kodjori and Krtsani and defeated them,
re-taking Tiflis on the 6th of October.
A large Russian force now arrived and took Derbent, Shemakha, Baku,
and several other fortresses in Daghestan, but the death of the
Empress Catherine in 1796 put an end to the campaign, for Tsar Paul
recalled all the troops from Transcaucasia. In 1797 Aga Mahmad Khan was
again marching against Georgia, when he was fortunately assassinated,
like his predecessor Nadir. Plague and famine came to slay those who
had escaped the sword of the Persians, and, worst of all, the great
Irakli died in January, 1798, at the age of eighty, after a career
almost unparalleled in history. Frederick of Prussia might well say,
"Moi en Europe, et en Asie l'invincible Hercule, roi de Géorgie."
Giorgi now succeeded to the throne, and entered into negotiations
with Persia, but Tsar Paul heard of the proposed alliance and outbid
the Shah. A treaty was signed, confirming the throne to the Bagratid
dynasty for ever, and promising military aid whenever it might
be necessary. Alexander, the king's brother, now raised a revolt,
which was put down with the help of the Russians; after all he had a
grievance, for Irakli's will declared that he was to succeed Giorgi,
while the Russians had persuaded the king to appoint as his heir
his son David, a major-general in the Russian army. Alexander now
appealed to Persia for aid, which he obtained, and in a three hours'
battle at Kakabeti, on the Iora, he and Omar Khan, with an army of
12,000 men, were defeated. Giorgi died in 1800, and Georgia was then
formally incorporated in the Russian empire.
General Knorring, the first governor, proceeded to the country with
10,000 men, and in the following year, under Tsar Alexander I., the
annexation was confirmed. In 1803 Prince Tsitsishvili, a Georgian,
succeeded Knorring. By his advice all the royal family were summoned
to Russia, "in order to prevent civil dissensions," and this removal
was accompanied by a very unfortunate incident. Queen Maria, widow of
Giorgi, refused to go; General Lazarev proceeded early one morning to
the queen's sleeping apartments with some soldiers and attempted to
force her to accompany him; she killed him with a dagger which she had
concealed under her dress, and her young son and daughter stabbed some
of the soldiers. They were, of course, overpowered and carried off; at
Dariel, in the narrowest part of the pass, a few Tagaur Ossets made a
vain attempt at a rescue. Queen Maria was kept imprisoned in a convent
at Voronezh for seven years, and never saw her native land again.
Tsitsishvili set himself to improve the condition of the country
as much as possible. He began the military road over the Caucasus in
1804. He succeeded in persuading King Solomon of Imereti to acknowledge
the Tsar as his suzerain, but Solomon soon began to intrigue with the
Turks again. After taking Gandja by storm, and subduing a rising of the
mountaineers under Pharnavaz and Iulon, sons of Irakli, Tsitsishvili
marched against Baku, where he was treacherously murdered by the Khan
of that city in 1806.
Count Gudovich was now appointed commander-in-chief, and his courtesy
won for him the friendship of the Georgian people. Kakheti voluntarily
submitted to his rule. He defeated the Turks in several battles, but
was unsuccessful in his attack on Erivan, where he lost 2000 men. He
was then recalled and made governor-general of Moscow. General Tormasov
was the next ruler of Georgia, and he continued the war against the
Turks, who were aided by King Solomon of Imereti. Poti was taken in
1810, and Princess Nina of Mingreli, who was allied to the Russians,
herself led her troops to the assault. Sukhum was also taken. King
Solomon was persuaded to go to a certain village in Kartli to sign a
treaty of peace with Russia. The Russians treacherously seized him
by night, and carried him off to prison in Tiflis, but he escaped
in disguise, and fled to Akhaltsikhe, where he was received by the
Turks with great honour. He returned to Imereti, and the whole country
rose in his favour. There were revolts in Kakheti, and even among the
Ossets, but they were soon crushed by force of numbers. Then came a
plague which carried off vast numbers of victims in Imereti.
Tormasov was replaced by Paulucci, who, after a few months, was,
in his turn, superseded by Rtishtshef. In 1813 took place the famous
storming of Lenkoran, on the Caspian, by General Kotliarevski, followed
by the Gulistan Treaty of Peace, which was signed on behalf of Persia
by Sir Gore Ouseley, British ambassador at Teheran.
King Solomon died at Trebizond in 1815, and with him ended the
troublous existence of Imereti as an independent kingdom. In about
three and a half centuries thirty kings had sat on the Imeretian
throne, twenty-two of them were dethroned (one of them, Bagrat the
Blind, eight times), seven died a violent death, three were blinded.
Yermolov became governor-general in 1816, and soon afterwards
the Chechens and Daghestanians began to give the Russians serious
trouble. Then the clergy raised a national movement in Imereti, in
which Guri and Apkhazi joined, and in Mingreli, hitherto faithful,
the Dadian's brother revolted. All these efforts to shake off the
Russian yoke were, of course, fruitless, and they ended in 1822
with the capture of Zakatali from the Lesghians. Then the Cherkesses
(Circassians) broke into rebellion, and in 1826 Persia again declared
war against Russia and marched 60,000 men into Georgia. Aided by the
Lesghians and the Kakhetians, under Alexander, son of Irakli, they
were at first successful, but the tide turned, and Erivan, Tavriz,
and other places saw Russia victorious.
Paskevich succeeded Yermolov in 1827, and the peace of Turkmenchai
having been concluded with Persia, war was declared against Turkey. The
Russians took Kars, Poti, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Bayazid from the
Turks, and in 1829 the belligerents signed the treaty of Adrianople.
In 1830 Kasi-mullah began his revolt, and brought about a general
rising among the Mahometan peoples of the Caucasus. Baron Rosen, who
took the command of the army in 1831, captured Gimri, and Kasi-mullah
was killed. Golovin (1837), Neidhart (1842), and Prince Vorontsov
(1844-1854) enjoyed comparative peace, and were able to turn their
attention to the internal condition of the country. Prince Vorontsov
especially deserves credit for his honest and painstaking efforts
to ameliorate the economic situation of Georgia, and it flatters our
national pride to remember that that statesman was English by birth
and education, if not by blood.
The pacification of Daghestan did not, as was expected, follow the
death of Kasi-mullah. A greater prophet and warrior arose to take the
place of the vanquished hero of Gimri. Shamil, after carrying on a
guerilla warfare for about ten years, raised the whole of the Eastern
Caucasus in 1843, and continued to inflict a series of crushing defeats
on the Russian generals who were sent to oppose him. The declaration
of war with Turkey in 1853 raised the hopes of the Lesghians, but
the utter incapacity of the Turkish leaders in Armenia prevented the
realization of those hopes. Everybody is familiar with the incidents
of Shamil's career down to the capture at Gunib in 1859; but it seems
to me that too little attention has been devoted to the remarkable
religious system which inspired the Murids to their marvellous deeds
of valour. It is surely a noteworthy fact that the mysticism of the
Sufis should have been found to be compatible with a purely militant
faith like Islam.
During the last thirty years little of interest has happened in
Georgia. The appointment of the Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich to the
lieutenancy of the Caucasus in 1862, the gradual freeing of the serfs,
the construction of railway and telegraph lines of communication,
the founding of one or two banks, schools, and other establishments
of public utility, are the chief events which the annalist has to
chronicle. "Free" Svaneti was conquered a few years ago, and, for the
present, Russia's supremacy is undisputed as far as the frontiers of
Turkey and Persia. Even the last war between Russia and Turkey was not
accompanied by any visible commotion among the peoples of the Caucasus.
There is as yet no history of Georgia in the sense in which we now
understand the word. Those works which are dignified with the name
are merely more or less trustworthy collections of materials, which
in their present form produce only a feeling of bewilderment in the
reader. We trust that a man worthy of the task will seriously take
the annals of his nation in hand, and present them to the world in an
intelligible form; and we also cherish the hope that he will not finish
his task without being able to chronicle the new birth of a strong,
independent state worthy to maintain the fame of Irakli and Tamara.