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GEORGIA IN THE REIGN OF GIORGI THE BRILLIANT
(1314-1346)
By D. M.
LANG
HE political career of King Giorgi V of Georgia, commonly known as Giorgi
Brdsqinvale or George the Brilliant, spans an eventful period in the
history of the Near East. When Giorgi first came to the throne in 1299, the
II-Khan dynasty of Persia under the able Ghazan l\fal;tmiid Khan was at the
summit of its power. Ghazan's empire with its vassal states stretched from
India to the Mediterranean and Black Seas. He controlled most of Anatolia,
including the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and the Christian kingdom of Little
Armenia. In 1300 he even seized and held Damascus for a short period. From
these strategic positions, the Mongols of Persia were a constant menace to
both the Mamluks of Egypt and the Khans of the Golden Horde.
But by Giorgi's death in 1346 the II-Khan realm was virtually in ruins.
From Tabriz, Malik Ashraf the Chupanid and his puppet, Aniishirvan Khan,
ruled over only Central Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Eastern Georgia.
Little more than a decade after Giorgi's death, in 1357, Jani-Beg, Khan of the
Golden Horde, was to seize Tabriz and bring the rule of the decayed II-Khans to
an abrupt end.
1
In spite of the length of Giorgi V's reign and the important events in which
he participated, Georgian sources for the period are meagre. One is especially
hampered by the fact that the original text of the great Georgian chronicle,
known as
K'art'lis tskhovreba
or
The Life of Georgia,
breaks off precisely at
Giorgi V's second accession to the throne in or about the year 1314.
The cause of this interruption is twofold. Firstly, from 1346 to 1348, the
Black Death raged in Georgia, and carried off many of the priests and scribes
whose task it was to keep the Georgian Annals up to date.
2
Secondly, from 1386
onwards the country had to endure the devastating incursions of Tamerlane,
who burnt many important monastic libraries, and doubtless killed any potential
Georgian chroniclers who might fall into his hands.
In the form we have it to-day the biography of Giorgi V dates only from the
beginning of the 18th century.
It
was composed by the monk Egnatashvili,
secretary to the Historical Commission set up by King Wakhtang VI to edit
and expand the Georgian Annals. Now in his continuation to these Annals,
1
V. Minorsky, art. 'Tabriz' in
El;
Jacob Manandean,
Critical survey of the history of the
Armenian People
(in Armenian),
nr,
Erivan, 1952, 333.
2
The Black Death originated in Central Asia. Nestorian grave-stones dated 1338-9 mark the
tombs of plague victims near the Issik Ku! lake, in the Semirechinsk district. The Crimean ports
were infected by 1346 and the Caucasus about the same time. In the Near East generally, 'so
great was the mortality that Arabs, Saracens and Greeks throughout the whole of the East gave
themselves up to clamour' (R. Pollitzer, 'Plague Studies, No. 1 ',in
Bulletin of the World Health
Organization,
rv, No. 4, Geneva, 1951, 477-8).
T
GEORGIA IN THE REIGN OF GIORGI THE BRILLIANT
75
Egnatashvili specifically states that he has been unable to find any authentic
contemporary life of King Giorgi V.
1
In view of this admission it is scarcely
surprising that Egnatashvili's account of this reign is filled out with a certain
amount of rhetorical padding.
This does not mean that Egnatashvili's account is devoid of all
histor~cal
foundation. Writing two and a half centuries nearer to the period under review,
Egnatashvili was able to consult original documents and charters now lost to us.
Many of his statements, as will be seen, accord with the evidence of other
sources, including Arabic and Persian historians more nearly contemporary to
Giorgi. Other items in his version stand in need of revision.
The same, naturally enough, applies to the relevant section of the history of
Georgia composed later in the 18th century by Prince Wakhusht, who based
his account of Giorgi V's reign almost exclusively on Egnatashvili's continuation
to the Annals.
In
Brosset's French translation of these Annals the reigns of
Giorgi the Brilliant and of his son David IX are interpolated from the history
of Wakhusht, and so likewise derive from Egnatashvili's narrative.
2
On Giorgi's ancestry and early career the Georgian Annals are precise. He
was the youngest son of King Dimitri the Devoted, who was beheaded in 1289
by the Persian II-Khan Arghiin. Giorgi's elder brother, King David VIII, was
deposed by the II-Khan Ghazan Ma}.imiid in 1299. Giorgi, who had been brought
up by the Atabag or Grand-Constable of Meskhia, in south-western Georgia,
was made king in David's place. He reigned for only a few months before
incurring the displeasure of Ghazan and being deposed in his turn.
Under Ghazan's successor, the II-Khan Uljaitii Khudabanda (Oljeitii),
. Giorgi acted as regent for his nephew, the infant son of King David VIII,
known as King Giorgi VI, the Little. About 1314 Giorgi the Little disappears
from the scene and his uncle Giorgi the Brilliant rules alone.
Giorgi's second reign falls into two distinct phases. The first covers the
period up to the year 1327, when Giorgi was reigning at Ti:flis as Viceroy and
ally of the II-Khan Abu Sa'id and his all-powerful minister, the regent Chiipan
(Choban).
In
the second phase, from 1327 until his death in 1346, Giorgi V,
as it is proposed to show, lost control of Tillis and most of Eastern Georgia,
but compensated for this loss by reuniting all Western Georgia under his
sceptre.
All sources agree on the cordiality prevailing between King Giorgi V and
the Amir Chiipan. The continuation to the Georgian Annals describes how
Giorgi paid a visit to the Persian capital to offer homage to the II-Khan Abu
Sa'id on the latter's accession in 1316. Giorgi was most favourably received.
To cement good relations Chiipan restored to Georgian control the province of
1
Egnatashvili Beri,
Akhali K'art'lis tskhovreba XVIII s.
damd.,
ed.
I.
A. Javakhishvili, tom.
1,
Tiflis, 1940 (' Monuments historiques georgiens '), p. 5.
2
M.• F. Brosset,
Histoire de
la
Georgie,
tom.
1,
pt. 1, St. Petersburg, 1849, 644-650, corre-
sponding to Wakhusht,
Sak'art'velos istoria,
ed. D. Bak'radze, Tiflis, 1885, 276-281. The few
charters of Giorgi V printed by E. T'aqaishvili in
Sak'art'velos sidzveleni,
11,
Tiflis, 1913, contain
little historical information.
VOL. XVII.
PART
1.
7•
76
D. M. LANG
Meskhet'i, or Samtskhe-Saatabago, in south-western Georgia, which the
II-Khan Abagha had made into an autonomous province dependent directly on
the Persian government.
1
On his return to Tiflis Giorgi profited by the favourable dispositions of the
Persian government to crush the separatist tendencies of the Georgian dukes.
Summoning the insubordinate Erist'avs or Dukes of Kakhet'i, Heret'i, and
Somkhit'i to a meeting on Mount Tsivi, Giorgi there had them executed. He also
defeated and expelled a horde of Ossete tribesmen from the Caucasian heights
who had invaded K'art'li and seized the town of Gori.
2
Fundamental for the history of Georgia during the reign of Giorgi V is the
information given by the Arabic writer al-Qalqashandi and his sources
(14th-15th centuries). The first scholar to draw attention to these was W. von
Tiesenhausen, who in 1886 published and translated into Russian the important
passage on Georgia in the diplomatic vade-mecum by al-Qalqashandi:, known
as the
$ubly, al-a'sha.
3
Al-Qalqashandi, who died in 1418, based this section of
his work on Ab.mad bin Yal;tya, called Ibn FaQ.l Allah, al-'Umari's handbook of
diplomacy and protocol,
al-Ta'rlf bi'l-mu§talaly, al-sharif,
written in A.H. 741/
A.D. 1341, and on the continuation of this treatise composed later in the
14th century by Taqi al-Din 'Abd al-Ral;tman al-QaQ.awi al-Mul;tibbi, under the
title
Tathqif al-Ta'rif bi'l-mu§talaly, al-sharif.
4
As secretary to the Mamluk Sultan al-Malik
al-Na~ir Na~ir
al-Din Mul;tammad
(1293-1341), al-'Umari was well informed on Persian and Georgian affairs. He
died at Damascus in A.H. 749/A.D. 1349, being at the time of his death
47 years old.
5
The kind assistance of Professor A. S. Tritton has made it
possible to compare Tiesenhausen's Russian translation of the section on
Georgia in al-Qalqashandi with the passages in the Cairo printed editions of both
al-Qalqashandi and his source, al-'Umari. In the English rendering which
follows, al-Qalqashandi's text has been divided up in order to show clearly which
portions derive from the earlier sources.
Egnatashvili Beri,
Akhali K'art'lis tskhovreba,
4-5.
N. Berdzenishvili,
I.
Javakhishvili, and S. Janashia,
Istoriya Gruzii,
vol.
I,
2nd ed., Tillis,
1950, 289. While Georgian sources place the execution of the Dukes in the second half ofGiorgi's
reign it seems more likely that it occurred while Giorgi enjoyed the support of Chiipan. The name
of the local Mongol governor of Georgia, Armenia, and Diarbakir in 1316 is given as Prince
Erenjen (B. Spuler,
Die Mongolen in Iran,
Leipzig, 1939, 352).
3
V. Tizengauzen, 'Zametka El'kal'kashandi o Gruzinakh ',in
Zapiski Vostochnogo Otdeleniya
Imp. Russkogo Arkheologischeskogo Obshchestva,
tom. r, St. Petersburg, 1886, 208-216.
•Also attributed to Ibn
Na~ir
al-Jaish. On the various manuscripts of these works see
V. Tizengauzen,
Sbornik Materialov, otnosyashchikhsya k istorii Zolotoy Ordy,
tom.
I,
St. Petersburg, 1884, 207-8, 331, 395. Of Al-'Umari's treatise on Protocol, an edition was printed
in Cairo in
A.H.
1312, pp. 53-5 dealing with Georgia. The passage in al-Qalqashandi's
fjublJ,
al-a'sha
concerning Georgia occurs in vol. vnr of the Cairo printed edition, which appeared in
1334/1915. See further W. Bjorkman,
Beitrage zur Geschichte der Staatskanzlei im islamischen
Agypten,
Hamburg, 1928.
•See the excellent biographical notes on this writer by D. S. Rice in
BSOAS,
xnr, 1951,
856-9.
In
this connexion I also have to thank my colleagues Professors
B.
Lewis and P. Wittek
for a number of helpful references and suggestions.
1
2
GEORGIA IN THE REIGN OF GIORGI THE BRILLIANT
EXTRACT FROM AL-QALQASHANDi ON THE GEORGIANS
77
(Cairo edition, vol.
VIII,
1334/1915,
pp.
27-9.)
About the form of address in writing to the Kings of the Unbelievers
in
the
lands of the East.
The total of such lands where there are Kings of the Christians, to whom
official letters are written from this realm [i.e. Egypt], are two in number. The
first is the kingdom of the Kurj [Georgians], made up of Melkite Christians.
1
He [i.e. al-'Umari] said in the
Ta'rif2
:-
' The term used for the Muslim inhabitants is Kurd, for the Christian ones,
Kurj.'
He [al-'Umari] said: 'The situation of this land is between the land ofRiim
[Asia Minor] and the land of Armenia. It is an extensive land and an important
kingdom, and it is as if carved out of those two realms. It has a reigning
sovereign and a durable monarchy. Its capital is the town of Tiflis. The
Sultan of the house of Hulagu, in the kingdom of Iran, has suzerainty over it.
His yarligh has effect there, though the flood [of his might] does not inundate
the country, nor does his cavalry penetrate between the dwellings there for
flaming war. Only he [the Sultan of the house of Hulagu] maintains there one
tiiman (ten thousand) of troops as a protection for its frontier and a support
for its authority. The land of the Georgians is wide in its valleys and the
inhabitants are nomadic, roaming from abode to abode'.
He [al-'Umari] said : ' The last man who had renown in this land-and the
overthrow of whom was a fearsome event-was Shaykh Mal;imiid, son of Jiiban
[the Amir Chiipan]. He was a bold man, whom no one could resist, and he was
a man bitter to the taste [of his foes]. When things went against his father, he
took refuge with the Sultan Uzbek Khan [of the Golden Horde]. Then his life-
span was not long extended, the rings of fate were not loosed for him. His
appointed end came upon him and he could not repel it '.
3
Then he [al-'Umari] said: 'The army of the Georgians is the kernel of the
religion of the Cross and a people of courage and valour. They are a support and
a reserve for the Hulaguid army, who trust in them and rely on them. Especially
the family of Jiiban and his sons and the remainder of their descendants, owing
to the past kindnesses of Jiiban to them [the Georgians] and the favours he
bestowed on them, which were gratefully appreciated. Jiiban was a sincere
friend to their king BR'J_'LMA [or BR'J_'ILMA
=
Bartholomew
4],
planting with
him good acts and consigning trusts to his care. He was his most particular
associate and his truest friend. He called upon him on any important occasion
The second eastern Christian kingdom in question was that of Little Armenia, in Cilicia.
For the extracts from al- 'Umari see
al-Ta'rif
bi'l-mu~falah
al-sharif,
Cairo,
A.H.
1312, 53-5.
3
Mal,imiid commanded the Mongol garrison in Georgia. He was arrested by his own troops
and executed soon after the fall of his father Chiipan in 1327. (Tiesenhausen, in
Zapiski
Vostochnogo Ot,deleniya,
I,
211;
I;Iafi~-i-Abrii,
Chronique des Rois Mongols en Iran,
texte persan
Mite et traduit par K. Bayani,
II,
Paris, 1936, 107.)
4
This name, which earlier writers have taken for a corruption of the dynastic name Bagration
or of Giorgi's personal epithet Brdsqinvale, ' The Brilliant', is in fact that of the Grand-Duke
Burt'el of Siunia, in Great Armenia. Burt'el (or Biwrt'el, Burde!}, son of Prince Elikum Orbelean,
bore the title of Generalissimus of the Armenians and the Georgians. He is frequently mentioned
between 1300 and 1341 in the colophons of Armenian manuscripts. He died before 1348. (See
L. S. Khachikean,
Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts of the 14th century,
Erivan, 1950, 684.)
It is clear that al-'Umari is here confusing the king with a prominent vassal.
1
2
78
D. M. LANG
and asked his help in difficulties, and counted him a support for his army and
a remover of any unpleasantness '.
He [al-'Umari:] followed these remarks up in that he said: 'This aforesaid
BR'J_'LMA I remember as being alive and flourishing in my time, and he was one
of the greatest of the Kings of the Christians, and the most noble leader of the
sons of baptism. He had written to the Porte of the Sultanate [of the Mamluk
Sultans] about the church of the Men of the Cross, that the all-conquering hands
might be removed from it. Orders commanding obedience were issued, that it
should be returned to them.
It
had been taken from them and turned into
a mosque.
It
is outside the noble Jerusalem. This was highly offensive to the
various scholars and religious men [of Islam], even though it was not done
without due consideration.
It
is said that he [the Georgian king] was trying to
persuade Jiiban to enter the land, using every means of persuasion '.
1
He [al-'Umari:] mentioned that the style of addressing him [the Georgian
king] is as follows : ' May God make permanent the felicity of the exalted
presence, the presence of the great monarch, the hero, the bold, the lion, the
illustrious, the attacker, the dauntless, the enthroned, the crowned, a scholar
in his community, just to his subjects, the successor of the Greek kings, Sultan
of the Georgians, treasure of the kingdom of the seas and gulfs, protector of the
homeland of the knights, the heir of his fathers in thrones and crowns, bulwark
of the lands of Riim and Iran, offspring of the Hellenes, the quintessence of the
kings of the Syrians, the successor of the sons of thrones and crowns, the
strengthener of Christianity, supporter of the religion of Jesus, the anointed
leader of the Christian heroes, who glorifies Jerusalem by sincere purpose, the
pillar of the sons of baptism, the helper of the Bab who is the Pope of Rome,
the lover of the Muslims, the best of close companions, and the friend of Kings
and Sultans '.
He gives in the
Ta'rif
the following prayer suitable to be offered up for him :
'May he [the King of Georgia] protect his kingdom by his friendship, not by his
army, by his fidelity to treaties, not by his troops, nor by stretching out his
military standards, by what we judge to be qualities of beneficence, and not by
any imaginary qualities he thinks he possesses, by what we deem to be
enlightened policy, and not by what kindles fire from flint and steel'.
Note that often it is said: 'The sincere friend of the Muslims' instead of
' the lover of the Muslims '.
In
the
Tathqif
[i.e. the continuation of al-'Umari:'s treatise composed by
al-MuJ.iibbi:], it is said that the Georgians have two kings, one being the lord of
Tiflis, who has been mentioned above.
It
says that his name at that time was
David.
2
The second holds sway in Sukhum and Abkhaz, which are two towns
on the southern shore of the sea of the Crimea, as was mentioned earlier in the
section on the roads and kingdoms of the north, and the lord of these at that
time was Di:yadan.
3
He said : ' The style of address to each one of the two was on half-size paper,
viz. : May God prolong the life of the presence of the great king, the honoured,
the important, the bold, the hero, the sanctified, the spiritual, N.N., the honour
of the people of the Messiah, the treasure of the sect of the Cross, the boast of
1
This phrase, as Baron Rosen justly considered, must mean that Giorgi was urging Chiipan
to conquer Palestine from the Mamluks.
2
David IX, son and successor of Giorgi the Brilliant, who reigned from
1346-1360.
a
The Dadian or Prince-Regnant of Mingrelia, the extensive Georgian province on the Black
Sea coast.

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