Javakhishvili is a Georgian

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...

 noble family, a branch of the Toreli

Toreli

The Toreli , earlier known as the Gamrekeli , were a noble family in medieval Georgia, known from the 10th century and prominent into the 14th...

 (თორელი), known from the 10th century.

The surname Javakhishvili, literally "son of Javakh", derives from the 14th-century nobleman Javakh (known as Svimon in priesthood), a participant of Georgia’s resistance to Timur

Timur's invasions of Georgia

Georgia, a Christian kingdom in the Caucasus, was subjected, between 1386 and 1404, to several disastrous invasions by the Islamic armies of Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur, whose vast empire stretched, at its greatest extent, from Central Asia into Anatolia.These conflicts were intimately linked with...

’s attacks. Javakh and his household resettled from Javakheti

Javakheti

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,...

 to Inner Kartli, and received from the Crown a series of villages in hereditary possession. After the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Georgia

Kingdom of Georgia

The Kingdom of Georgia was a medieval monarchy established in AD 978 by Bagrat III.It flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries, the so-called "golden age" of the history of Georgia. It fell to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by 1327...

 in the 15th century, the Javakhishvili estates fell under the suzerainty of the Kings 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...

, but the family was able to transform their possessions into a semi-autonomous seigniory (satavado

Tavadi

Tavadi , "prince", lit. "head/chief" [man], from tavi, "head", with the prefix of agent -di) was a feudal title in Georgia first applied in the Late Middle Ages usually translated in English as prince...

) known as Sajavakho (საჯავახო). They held various political and religious posts within the Kingdom of Kartli, but declined in their influence after Russian

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 annexation of Georgia in 1801. A branch of this family, in the person of Shiosh (Simon) Javakhishvili, had emigrated in Russia in the 1720s, and was eventually received among the princely families of Russia as 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....

Zhevakhov . The senior Georgian line of the Javakhishvili were confirmed as a princely house of Dzhavakhov (Джаваховы) by the Russian Senate in 1850.