The Eurasian State of
Georgia in the Fourteenth Century
(the Mongol Era and Its End)
by
Vazha Kiknadze
Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter:
The Edwin Mellen Press,
2013
This book has awarded
The Adčle Melen Prize
for its distinguished contribution to
scholarship.
Commendatory Foreword by Giorgi L. Kavtaradze
[p.
i]
The monograph by Professor Vazha Kiknadze, "The Eurasian State of Georgia
in the Fourteenth Century", prepared recently for publication in the
United States of America by the Edwin Mellen Publisher, covers a period of
Georgian history which has few written sources or other contemporary
documentary materials. This was a very crucial time in Georgian history, the
days of king George V the Brilliant, who released Georgia from Mongolian
domination and reunited the country.
In addition
to the surviving Georgian and well-known foreign written sources, the author
makes use of previously unknown manuscripts examined by him (Georgian
synaxarions of the 13th and 14th centuries from the libraries of St Petersburg
and the unpublished manuscripts of the most famous Georgian historian of the
end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Ivane Javakhishvili).
On the basis of these materials, first brought to light for scolarly analysis
and interpretation by the author and using all existing primary sources together
with materials of different types, Dr. Kiknadze restores the complex internal
and external political processes that occurred in Georgia from the 1390s until
1490s – the time of the invasions of Tamerlane, and puts forward a quite new
vision of the events of historic character of this period.
Dr. Kiknadze
detected and added to scholarly circulation, among other documents, a letter of
the year 1332 or 1333 of George V the Brilliant to the Valois king of France
Philip VI (1328-1350) who planned together with Edward III of England, [p. ii] a crusade in 1332, which was never
executed and an epistle of the year 1330 from the Catholic bishop of Sukhumi,
Peter Gerald, to the Archbishop of Canterbury – both in Latin. Remarkable is
the fact that in the monograph the data concerning the events of the 14th
century from the “Geography of the Georgian kingdom” by Vakhushti Bagrationi,
which are based on the now lost Georgian written sources of the 13th-14th
century, correlate the foreign sources such as that of Hafizi Abru and Abu Bakr
al-Qutbi al-Ahri. This correlation proved the great importance of the data
appearing in the work of Vakhushti Bagrationi.
A
comprehensive consideration and a new interpretation of the well-known European
historical data, on the one hand, with that of the Middle East, on the other,
permitted Dr. Kiknadze to adopt a thoroughly well-reasoned opinion that the
unification of eastern and western Georgia took place in 1330 AD and that the
final liberation of Georgia from the Mongolian domination was brought about
between 1327 and 1335. This conclusion is a substantial contribution to
Medieval history, not only of Georgia or Transcaucasia, but of the much wider
Middle Eastern area. Dr. Kiknadze’s study sheds light on the nature of
relations between the Georgians and the Mongols; it gives us an opportunity to
reconsider not only the time length, but as well the character of Mongolian
dominance in Georgia.
In the
monograph, special focus is concentrated on the complicated numismatic
situation of 14th century Georgia. The fact that Mongol coins were
still struck in 14th century Georgia is generally explained in literature by
the dominance of the [p. iii]
Mongols in Caucasia at the time, but Dr. Kiknadze proofs that the Georgian
king, George V the Brilliant (1318-1346) and his successor and descendant David
IX (1346-1360), struck coins with the names of the puppet Ilkhanian khans,
whose power in reality had diminished by that time to a mere formality, only
with the aim to strengthen their economic interests and to gain more influence
in the commercial world of the contemporary Middle East.
Such a
pragmatic use of coinage for commercial or political intentions was not rare in
Transcaucasia of the Ilkhan period. We can recall the silver dirham struck in
Tbilisi under the Mongol Ilkhans by Abaqa (1265-1282), son of Hulagu, in the
name of the the Great Khan Khubilai, in the period of undoubted and strong
Mongol dominance. While the obverse side of the coin has a legend and design in
Uyghur, the reverse bears a Christian cross and an Arabic inscription: “in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God”. Abaqa,
son-in-law of the Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII Palaeologus, taking this
step, hoped to form a coalition with Christian powers against the Muslims.
The author
has succeeded in correcting a whole range of historical dates, among them the
years of the reign of various Georgian kings and political figures: George V
the Brilliant, George VI the Small, Vakhtang III and Demetre, the unknown king
of the 14th century, etc. Dr. Kiknadze based his research on the data of
Anonymous Chronicler of the 14th century and of Vakhushti Bagrationi
(1696-1757) and correlating them with the inscription in the church of Daba,
near Borjomi, he [p. iv] came to the
conclusion that the year of the accession of George V the Brilliant to the
throne was 1318 and not 1314, as was traditionally thought, and that the years
of his reign shoud be therefore recorded as from 1318 to 1346. The author
suggests that in the information about George V the Brilliant’s struggle with
the Mongol noyans of Azerbaijan in the 1330s, in reality was meant the invasion
of Chobanid Hasan Küçük.
The author
gives a detailed analysis of the article dedicated to George V the Brilliant by
the well-known British scholar, David M. Lang. Through a detailed study of
documentary material and by discussing nearly all arguments put forth by Dr.
Lang, Dr. Kiknadze makes it obvious that the main conclusions reached by the
British scholar are not entirely accurate.
A separate
chapter is devoted in the book to the problem of identifying the Anonymous
Chronicler of the 14th century. A close examination of the Chronicle allows the
author to consider the Chronicler as a contemporary of the events described and
even as an eyewitness. Moreover, in the person mentioned in the same Chronicle
and referred to as Hieromonk (Priestmonk) Moses, who accompanied the Georgian
king Demetre II the Martyr (1270-1289) to the Mughan Valley and who was present
at the time of his execution there on March 12, 1289, Dr. Kiknadze believes
that the Chronicler himself must be meant.
The author
pays especial attention to the specifying of the reasons contributing to the
country's political integrity; as well
as to the understanding of the causes, which helped Georgia to [p. v] regain its sovereignty in the
background of Georgian-Ilhanian relations and to free the country from the
Mongolian yoke. Moreover, the various aspects of the political development of
Georgia are discussed constantly as a background to the main stages of the
state development of Ilhanian Iran itself. From the author's view-point, as in
the Middle Ages a strong royal power was a helpful circumstance for the
creation of a powerful state, all measures taken by George V the Brilliant,
including the bloody oppression of his opponents, ought to be considered as a
favourable precondition for his future successful fight against his country’s
conquerors – the Mongols.
Dr. Kiknadze
critically analyses the objective causes which helped Georgia to regain its
independence: George V the Brilliant’s successful energetic activities, both
within the country, as well as abroad and the decline and powerlessness of the
Ilkhanian state. Special attention is given to the great importance of what
remained from the period of pre-Mongolian Georgia, i.e. the substrata of the system of feudal state organization.
The monograph
includes a separate chapter dedicated to the material and spiritual heritage
dating from 14th century Georgia, showing the continuity of the local cultural
traditions and the high level of cultural development of Georgia, despite all
the cataclysms characterizing this epoch: invasions, foreign rule, earthquakes
and devastating epidemcs.
Taking into
consideration the vastness of the territory conquered by the Mongols from Japan
to Egypt and from [p. vi] Indochina to Poland
and the significant role they played in the history of the whole of Eurasia, we
hope that the English-speaking reader will be interested in becoming acquainted
with the topic of Mongol rule in Georgia. It is also very interesting which
model of rule the Mongols were using in Georgia and whether it was or was not
unique; when and how the Mongols ran out of power in Georgia, and what factors
determined the country's liberation from their oppressors. This monograph
provides in this regard a new and well substantiated viewpoint, based on
extensive evidence which is partially unknown in scholarly literature and which
was subjected to a thorough and scrupulous analysis.
Professor
Vazha Kiknadze has actually managed to restore our past, the period of the
history of Georgia most shrouded in mist. This past has a special value for us,
– it determines the subsequent development of the Georgian state; the author
has succeeded in running back the pages of history, which were considered as
forever lost, not only to history, but also to a wide circle of readers.
Giorgi Leon
Kavtaradze (Dr. habil., Ph.D.)
Chief
Researcher in the Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History & Ethnology
Tbilisi,
Georgia
Founder of
the Kavtaradze Centre of Caucasian & Anatolian Studies
Giorgi L. Kavtaradze speech delivered at the
presentation of the book launch of Vazha Kiknadze, “The Eurasian State of
Georgia in the Fourteenth Century (the Mongol Era and Its End)”, held on 21th
of March, 2013 at the Ilya Chavchavadze National Parlamentary National Library
of Georgia in Tbilisi:
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I belong to people who believe that some
events in our life are predetermined by our fate.
Now I would like to recall an episode from my childhood. I was about 10-12
years old when the greatest pleasure for me was reading books on the history,
instead of doing my homework. My grandfather (Giorgi Leonidze), bringing my
grandmother and mother to fury, strongly eJncouraged my passion, choosing me
the books which I needed according to his opinion, among them were books of the
so-called anti-Soviet character, too. He spent much time with me, explaining
their meaning and discussed various aspects of the Georgian and not only of the
Georgian history. He used to say, that there is a lack of evidence about the
time of king Giorgi the Brilliant and therefore the circumstances of the end of
Mongol rule in Georgia are the least known. To do everything possible to end
the foreign domination was for the Georgians always the most desirable type of
activity. I think now that he had in his mind the words of Niccolo
Machiavelli:”Everyone who wants to know what will happen ought to examine what
has happened: everything in this world in any epoch has their replicas in
antiquity.” He demanded of me to try to fill this gap, if I would become a
historian. But at that time, when I became a historian, I was very impressed by
the problems of ethnogenesis, so my grandfather’s request, and even the memory
about it, was completely erased from my mind.
But from
your fate there is no escape!
Last
summer, I received a very honorable to me offer from Professor Vazha Kiknadze
to write the Commendatory Foreword to his monograph, “The Eurasian State of
Georgia in the Fourteenth Century (the Mongol Era and Its End)”. The monograph
by Professor Kiknadze namely covers a very crucial time in Georgian history,
the days of king Giorgi V the Brilliant, who released Georgia from Mongolian
domination and reunited the country, so I finally got a chance to go a little
closer to the time of king Giorgi the Brilliant. Dr. Kiknadze’s book was
published this January in the United States of America by Edwin Mellen Publishers
and I’m very glad that I now have the opportunity to say a few words about it.
The
fourteenth century AD is a period of Georgian history which has few written
sources or other contemporary documentary materials. In addition to the
surviving Georgian and well-known foreign written sources, Professor Kiknadze
makes use of previously unknown manuscripts examined by him (i.e. Georgian
synaxarions of the 13th and 14th centuries from the libraries of St Petersburg
and the unpublished manuscripts of the most famous Georgian historian of last
century, Ivane Javakhishvili). On the basis of these materials, first brought
to light for scholarly analysis and interpretation by the author and using all
existing primary sources together with materials of different types, Dr.
Kiknadze restores the complex internal and external political processes that
occurred in Georgia since the late 13th century to the late 14th century – the
time of the invasions of Tamerlane, etc., and puts forward a quite new vision
of the events of historic character of this period.
The author
has actually managed to restore our past, the period of the history of Georgia
most shrouded in mist; he has succeeded in running back the pages of history,
which were considered as forever lost, not only to history, but also to a wide
circle of readers. This past has a special value for us, – it explaines not
only our history, but determines the subsequent development of our state, which
is once again on the verge of two very different worlds – Central Eurasia and
its periphery, also referred to as the Inner Crescent – already Pliny the Elder
(Plinius Magnus), in the first century, mentioned that the Caucasian Gates
(i.e. Darial Gorge) divides the world in two distinct parts (NH, VI, XII, 30).
It should
be noted that Kiknadze’s book came at the most right time. By the opinion of
our colleagues: “as the collapse of the Soviet system and the historical
methodologies it had promoted and enforced left a vacuum in the successor
states, it became obvious that new approaches, rethinking and interpreting of
national narratives were needed” (Eka Avaliani) – Vazha Kiknadze’s work fully
meet these requirements.
Quite
recently, Professor Kiknadze’s monograph has been awarded by The Adčle Mellen
Prize for its distinguished contribution to scholarship. This book is rated as
“the first and only detailed study of Fourteenth Century Eurasia, an often
neglected period in history”. By the way, the monograph of Professor Kiknadze
is the first book published in the United States by a professional Georgian
historian. The significance of this fact is difficult to overestimate. Taking
into consideration the vastness of the territory conquered by the Mongols from
Japan to Egypt and from Indochina to Poland and the significant role they played
in the history of the whole of Eurasia, I think that the English-speaking
reader will be interested in becoming acquainted with the topic of Mongol rule
in Georgia. I would like to express as well the hope that in the future as
Professor Kiknadze, so other his Georgian colleagues, will have again and again
new opportunities to present a long and rich history of Georgia to the
interested readers around the world.
Read by Dr. Nino Lazrishvili
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