Amilakhvari
Encyclopedia
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...
which rose to prominence in the fifteenth century and held a large fiefdom in central Georgia until the Imperial Russian annexation of the country in 1801. They were hereditary marshals (amilakhvar/amilakhor) of Georgia from c. 1433, from which the family takes its name. Subsequently, the family was received among the princes (knyaz
Knyaz
Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....
) of the Empire under the name of Amilakhvarov and Amilakhvari (Амилахвари, 1850).
History
The House of Zevdginidze (ზევდგინიძე) or Zedginidze (ზედგინიძე), which subsequently assumed the name of its principal office-fief, of Amilakhvari (amirakhori, i.e., Prince-Master of the HorseMaster of the Horse
The Master of the Horse was a position of varying importance in several European nations.-Magister Equitum :...
; deputy Amirspasalar
Amirspasalar
Amirspasalar was the commander in chief of the medieval Georgian army and one of the highest officials of the Kingdom of Georgia, commonly rendered as Lord High Constable in English...
, i.e., Lord High Constable
Lord High Constable
There are two current and one former royal offices in the United Kingdom of Lord High Constable:* The Lord High Constable of England, the seventh of the Great Officers of State, ranking beneath the Lord Great Chamberlain and above the Earl Marshal...
), is traceable in the province of Upper Kartli (now Inner Kartli) to the middle of the fourteenth century. A family legend holds it, though, that they descend from a Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
officer who accompanied Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
on his Caucasia
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
n campaign in 65 BC. His descendants are said to have attained to Georgian nobility in the 11th century.
The family rose to an especial prominence with Joatham Zedginidze, who at the risk of his life saved King George VIII of Georgia
George VIII of Georgia
George VIII was a king of Georgia, though already fragmentised and dragged into a fierce civil war, from 1446 to 1465...
(r. 1446-1465) from the plot formed by the renegade nobles. George VIII must have elevated Joatham’s eldest son, T'aqa II (or Joatham himself before he died of the wounds he had received) to the new title and offices. The family was enfeoffed of the offices of amilakhvari, sardali (commander) of the Banner of Upper Kartli, and mouravi
Mouravi
Mouravi was an administrative and military officer in early modern Georgia, normally translated into English as seneschal, bailiff, or sometimes as constable. Mouravi was an appointed royal official who had a jurisdiction over particular town or district. In towns, mouravi was assisted by a police...
(Palatine
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times...
) of Gori
Gori, Georgia
Gori is a city in eastern Georgia, which serves as the regional capital of Shida Kartli and the centre of the homonymous administrative district. The name is from Georgian gora , that is, "heap", or "hill"...
, as well as of numerous fiefs, including the sepulchral abbey and cathedral of Samtavisi
Samtavisi Cathedral
Samtavisi is an eleventh-century Georgian Orthodox cathedral in eastern Georgia, in the region of Shida Kartli, some 45km from the nation’s capital Tbilisi. The cathedral is now one of the centers of the Eparchy of Samtavisi and Gori of the Georgian Orthodox Church.The cathedral is located on the...
, the town of Kaspi
Kaspi
Kaspi is a town in central Georgia on the Mtkvari River. It is a center of Kaspi district, one of the four districts in Shida Kartli region. Founded in the early Middle Ages, the town turned into possession of the Amilakhvari noble family in the 15th century...
and several villages on the left bank of the Mtkvari River. Their fiefdom was called Saamilakhvro (Samilakhoro), literally meaning "of Amilakhvari." The family briefly held also the duchies of Ksani (1741-1747) and of Argavi
Duchy of Aragvi
The Duchy of Aragvi was an important fiefdom in medieval and early modern Georgia, strategically located in the upper Aragvi valley, in the foothills of the eastern Greater Caucasus crest, and ruled by a succession of eristavi from c...
(1743-1747).
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Zedginidze house ranked as fourth (after the Bagration-Mukhraneli
House of Mukhrani
The house of Mukhrani is a Georgian princely family, a collateral branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi of which it sprung early in the 16th century, and received in appanage the domain of Mukhrani located in Kartli, central Georgia...
, and the eristavi
Eristavi
Eristavi was a Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine strategos and normally translated into English as "duke". In the Georgian aristocratic hierarchy, it was the title of the third rank of prince and governor of a large province...
dynasties of Aragvi
Duchy of Aragvi
The Duchy of Aragvi was an important fiefdom in medieval and early modern Georgia, strategically located in the upper Aragvi valley, in the foothills of the eastern Greater Caucasus crest, and ruled by a succession of eristavi from c...
and of Ksani
Ksani
Ksani is a small river in central Georgia, which rises on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range in South Ossetia and flows into the Kura River. Ksani is often associated with the Medieval Georgian Ksani Fortress which lies close to the Ksani River....
) among the "undivided" princely houses of the Kingdom of 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...
. It was then that the name Amilakhvari became a surname of the heads of the house; the cadets being called Amilakhvarishvili. Beyond this principal line, the dynasty branched out as the Princes Khidirbekishvili in the provinces of Samtskhe and Inner Kartli, and as the Princes Guramishvili
Guramishvili
Guramishvili was a Georgian noble family derived from the House of Zevdginidze and known since the 16th century in the eastern provinces of the country....
and the Princes Tusishvili
Tusishvili
Tusishvili was a Georgian princely family, known in the eastern province of Kakheti from 1469. The Tusishvili branched off the House of Zedginidze. They had their estates at Akhmeta and Gagma-Mkhari on the left bank of the Alazani...
in Kakheti
Kakheti
Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...
. The Emukhvari family of Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
is also supposed to be another line of this dynasty. The Amilakhvari were related through marriage with several other noble houses of Georgia and the royal Bagrationi 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...
. After the Russian annexation of Georgia (1801) the family was received among the princes (knyaz
Knyaz
Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....
) of the Empire under the name of Amilakhvarov (Амилахваровы, Амилохваровы, 1825) and Amilakhvari (Амилахвари, 1850).
Prominent members
- Givi AmilakhvariGivi Amilakhvari200px|thumb|[[Archil of Imereti|Archil II]] and Givi AmilakhvariGivi Amilakhvari was a Georgian nobleman with a prominent role in the politics of eastern Georgia in the first half of the 18th century...
(1689-1754), political and military leader - Alexander AmilakhvariAlexander AmilakhvariPrince Alexander Amilakhvari was a Georgian nobleman and author known as a theoretical supporter of enlightened absolutism, and also for his opposition to King Erekle II’s rule....
(1750-1802), political writer - Ivane AmilakhvariIvane AmilakhvariIvane Amilakhvari was a Georgian nobleman and a military commander in the Imperial Russian service.He was born in the village Chala in what is now Shida Kartli region to a prominent Georgian aristocratic family. Educated at the Tiflis nobility gymnasium, he enrolled in the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon...
(1829-1905), general in Russian service - Dimitri AmilakhvariDimitri AmilakhvariPrince Dimitri Zedguinidze-Amilakhvari, more commonly known as Dimitri Amilakhvari was a French military officer and Lieutenant Colonel of the French Foreign Legion, of Georgian origin who played an influential role in the French Resistance against Nazi occupation in World War II, and became an...
(1906-1942), a French hero of World War II