Adarnase I of Tao-Klarjeti
Encyclopedia
Adarnase was a late 8th-century nobleman of Iberia
(Kartli
, modern Georgia
) and the founder of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty
. He established himself in Tao-Klarjeti
as a vassal of the Chosroid dynasty
of Iberia and, as a matter of inheritance, acquired more lands, setting stage for the elevation of the Bagratids – in the person of his son Ashot I – to the principate of Iberia
.
History of King Vakhtang Gorgasali, attributed to Juansher
, relates that the prince (mtavari
) Adarnase came to the Georgian Chosroid ruler Archil
and asked for land, agreeing in turn to be his vassal. He was given Shulaveri and Artani (modern Ardahan
, Turkey
). According to the same passage, Adarnase was a descendant of the prophet David
and the nephew or – according to another manuscript – grandson of "Adarnase the Blind"; his father was "related to the Bagratids" and had been set up a duke in the Armenia
n lands by the Byzantines
. Oppressed by the Arab Marwan
, he had arrived to the "children of the curopalates
Guaram III
and remained there."
Professor Cyril Toumanoff
assumes that "Adarnase the Blind" in Juansher – who is unattested elsewhere – is a simple error for Ashot III the Blind
of Armenia (r.
732–748), thus making Adarnase Ashot's grandson, not a nephew, through his son Vasak who might have married the daughter of the Georgian prince Guaram III
and lived as a fugitive at his court after the disastrous rebellion of Armenian nobility against the Arab rule in 772. Vasak is unknown to Georgian records in which the origin of the Georgian Bagratids is largely obscured in favor of the dynasty’s claim of Davidic descent
. Thus, Sumbat Davitisdze
, the 11th-century biographer of the Georgian dynasty, makes only a bypassing reference to Adarnase and projects, erroneously or intentionally, the arrival of Bagratid forefathers back to several centuries earlier.
. Latavri and his late father Adarnase are commemorated in a Georgian inscription
from the Kabeni monastery near Akhalgori
.
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
(Kartli
Kartli
Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari , on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages...
, modern Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
) and the founder of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty
Bagrationi Dynasty
The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...
. He established himself in Tao-Klarjeti
Tao-Klarjeti
Tao-Klarjeti is the term conventionally used in modern history writing to describe the historic south-western Georgian principalities, now forming part of north-eastern Turkey and divided among the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Ardahan and Kars...
as a vassal of the Chosroid dynasty
Chosroid Dynasty
The Chosroids were a dynasty of the kings and later of the presiding princes of the early Georgian state of Iberia, natively known as Kartli, from the fourth to the ninth centuries. Of Iranian origin and a branch of the Mihranid House, the family accepted Christianity as their official religion c...
of Iberia and, as a matter of inheritance, acquired more lands, setting stage for the elevation of the Bagratids – in the person of his son Ashot I – to the principate of Iberia
Principate of Iberia
The Principate of Iberia is a conventional term applied to an aristocratic regime in early medieval Caucasian Georgia that flourished in the period of interregnum between the sixth and ninth centuries, when the leading political authority was exercised by a succession of princes...
.
Origin
The medieval Georgian chronicleThe Georgian Chronicles
The Georgian Chronicles is a conventional English name for the principal compendium of medieval Georgian historical texts Kartlis Tskhovreba , literally "life of Kartli", Kartli being a core region of ancient and medieval Georgia, known to the Classical and Byzantine authors as Iberia...
History of King Vakhtang Gorgasali, attributed to Juansher
Juansheriani
Juansheriani were an offshoot of the royal Chosroid dynasty of Iberia whose appanage consisted of lands in Inner Iberia and in Kakheti....
, relates that the prince (mtavari
Mtavari
Mtavari was a feudal title in Georgia usually translated in English as prince.The earliest instances of the use of mtavari are in the early Georgian hagiographic texts dated to the 5th century. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the title mtavari, along with tavadi, was synonymous with eristavi,...
) Adarnase came to the Georgian Chosroid ruler Archil
Archil of Kakheti
Archil was a Christian prince of the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti who flourished in the eighth century and was executed by the Arabs for having refused to convert to Islam...
and asked for land, agreeing in turn to be his vassal. He was given Shulaveri and Artani (modern Ardahan
Ardahan
Ardahan is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border.-Ancient and medieval:In Ancient times the region was called Gogarene, which is assumed to derive from the name of Gugars, who were a Proto-Kartvelian tribe...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
). According to the same passage, Adarnase was a descendant of the prophet David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
and the nephew or – according to another manuscript – grandson of "Adarnase the Blind"; his father was "related to the Bagratids" and had been set up a duke in the Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n lands by the Byzantines
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. Oppressed by the Arab Marwan
Marwan II
Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan or Marwan II was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 744 until 750 when he was killed. He was the last Umayyad ruler to rule from Damascus.In A.H. 114 Caliph Hisham appointed Marwan governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In A.H...
, he had arrived to the "children of the curopalates
Curopalates
Kouropalatēs, Latinized as curopalates or curopalata and Anglicized as curopalate, was a Byzantine court title, one of the highest from the time of Emperor Justinian I to that of the Komnenoi in the 12th century...
Guaram III
Guaram III of Iberia
Guaram III , of the Guaramid dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia from before 693 to c. 748.Guaram III was bestowed with the Byzantine title of curopalates, and thus, must have succeeded his father or grandfather Guaram II shortly before 693, i.e., before the resurgent Caliphate ousted the...
and remained there."
Professor Cyril Toumanoff
Cyril Toumanoff
Cyril Leo Heraclius, Prince Toumanoff was an United States-based historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, the Byzantine Empire, and Iran...
assumes that "Adarnase the Blind" in Juansher – who is unattested elsewhere – is a simple error for Ashot III the Blind
Ashot III of Armenia
Ashot III Bagratuni also known as Ashot the Blind was a member of the Bagratuni family who was presiding prince of Armenia as a Prince from 726 and as an ishxan from 732 to 748...
of Armenia (r.
Reign
A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation or of a people . In most hereditary monarchies and some elective monarchies A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office...
732–748), thus making Adarnase Ashot's grandson, not a nephew, through his son Vasak who might have married the daughter of the Georgian prince Guaram III
Guaram III of Iberia
Guaram III , of the Guaramid dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia from before 693 to c. 748.Guaram III was bestowed with the Byzantine title of curopalates, and thus, must have succeeded his father or grandfather Guaram II shortly before 693, i.e., before the resurgent Caliphate ousted the...
and lived as a fugitive at his court after the disastrous rebellion of Armenian nobility against the Arab rule in 772. Vasak is unknown to Georgian records in which the origin of the Georgian Bagratids is largely obscured in favor of the dynasty’s claim of Davidic descent
Davidic line
The Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to the King David referred to in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the New Testament...
. Thus, Sumbat Davitisdze
Sumbat Davitis-Dze
Sumbat Davitis-Dze , or Sumbat, son of David, in modern English transliteration, was the 11th-century Georgian chronicler who described in his The Life and Tale of the Bagratids the history of the Bagrationi Dynasty of Georgia from the beginnings until c. 1030. The Georgian scholar Ekvtime...
, the 11th-century biographer of the Georgian dynasty, makes only a bypassing reference to Adarnase and projects, erroneously or intentionally, the arrival of Bagratid forefathers back to several centuries earlier.
Family
Adarnase had two children. His son, Ashot, succeeded him in Tao-Klarjeti and went on to become the first Bagratid presiding prince of Iberia. According to the Chronicle of Kartli, Adarnase also had a daughter, Latavri. She married Juansher, a son of the same prince, Archil, from whom Adarnase received land and patronage. Juansher’s mother was initially opposed to the marriage, as the chronicle claims, because of her ignorance of the Bagratids’ Davidic origin. This dynastic alliance allowed Adarnase to further expand his estates. Archil’s territorial holdings had been divided between three heirs; Juansher was one of them. When Juansher died (c. 806), Adarnase inherited Juansher's third through his daughter and combined it with the lands acquired in the lifetime of his son-in-law, thus laying the foundation to the hereditary fiefdom of the Georgian Bagratids in Tao-Klarjeti and JavakhetiJavakheti
Javakheti is a historical region of the nation of Georgia, in the southeastern part of the country's Samtskhe-Javakheti province. Today it comprises the Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda municipal territories. It was historically bordered in the west with both sides of the Mtkvari river, in the north,...
. Latavri and his late father Adarnase are commemorated in a Georgian inscription
Georgian alphabet
The Georgian alphabet is the writing system used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages , and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus such as Ossetic and Abkhaz during the 1940s...
from the Kabeni monastery near Akhalgori
Akhalgori
Akhalgori or Leningor is a town in South Ossetia, partially recognized republic in the South Caucasus, formerly the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic...
.