Klarjeti
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 is currently part of the Artvin Province
Artvin Province
Artvin Province is a province in Turkey, on the Black Sea coast in the north-eastern corner of the country, on the border with Georgia.The provincial capital is the city of Artvin.-Geography:...
in northeastern 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...
. Klarjeti, the neighboring province of Tao
Tao (historical region)
Tao is a historical region in the territory of modern Turkey roughly corresponding to the Taochi of Greeks and Tayk of Armenians. It was a province within various Georgian Bagratid states from the 8th to the 16th century, when the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.-External references:*...
and several other smaller districts constituted a larger region with shared history and culture conventionally known as 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...
.
Early history
Klarjeti, traversed by the Chorokhi (Çoruh), stretched from the Arsiani Range westwards, towards the Black SeaBlack Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, and was centred in the key fortified trading town of Artanuji (now Ardanuç
Ardanuç
Ardanuç is a town and district of Artvin Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey located 32 km east of Artvin..- Geography :Ardanuç is a mountainous district, rising from 250 m in the Şavşat River basin up to the highest point, 3050 m Mount Çadır. Other high mountains are Kürdevan, Yalnızçam...
). It was bordered by Shavsheti and Nigali on the north, and the Armeno
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
-Georgian
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
region of Tayk
Tayk
Tayk was a historical province of the Greater Armenia, one of its 15 ashkars . Tayk consisted of 8 cantons:* Kogh* Berdats por* Partizats por* Tchakatk* Bokha* Vokaghe* Azordats por* Arsiats por....
/Tao
Tao (historical region)
Tao is a historical region in the territory of modern Turkey roughly corresponding to the Taochi of Greeks and Tayk of Armenians. It was a province within various Georgian Bagratid states from the 8th to the 16th century, when the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.-External references:*...
on the south. The region roughly corresponds to Cholarzene of Classical
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
sources and probably to Kaţarza or Quturza of the earlier Urartian
Urartu
Urartu , corresponding to Ararat or Kingdom of Van was an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the Armenian Highland....
records.
Klarjeti was one of the south-westernmost provinces 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...
, known to the Greco-Roman authors as Iberia
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...
, which appeared on the Caucasian
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...
political map in the 3rd century BC and was ruled – according to the medieval Georgian chronicles – by the Pharnabazid dynasty
Pharnabazid Dynasty
The Pharnabazid or P’arnavaziani is the name of the first dynasty of Georgian kings of Kartli preserved by the Georgian historical tradition. Their rule lasted, with intermissions, from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD. The main male line is reported to have become extinct early on and...
. From the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD, Klarjeti as well as some other neighboring lands were contested between the kingdom of Iberia and Armenia (Armenians knew Klarjeti as Kļarjk'), and passed to and fro from one state to the other. In the 370s division of Iberia between the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and Iranian empires, Klarjeti passed to the former, but it is unknown whether as a province or as a vassal. The marriage of the Chosroid
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...
king Vakhtang I of Iberia to the Roman princess Helena seems to have enabled the Iberians to regain the province c. 485. Thereafter, Klarjeti remained in the possession of Vakhtang’s younger sons and their Romanophile descendants who formed the house of Guaramids
Guaramid Dynasty
The Guaramid Dynasty was the younger branch of the Chosroid royal house of Iberia . They ruled Iberia as presiding princes in the periods of 588-627, 684-748, and 779/780-786, three with the dignity of curopalates bestowed by the Byzantine imperial court.- History :This branch descended from the...
and maintained themselves in Klarjeti and 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,...
until c. 786, when the Guaramid possessions passed to their resurgent cousins from the Bagratid
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...
family.
Bagratid rule
The Bagratids presided over a period of economic prosperity and cultural revival in the area. The taxes collected at Artanuji were a major factor in the rise of the Bagratid power. Deserted in an Arab invasion, Klarjeti was repopulated and developed into a major centre of Christian culture aided by a large-scale monastic movement initiated by the Georgian monk Gregory of KhandztaGregory of Khandzta
Gregory of Khandzta was a prominent Georgian ecclesiastic figure and a founder and leader of numerous monastic communities in Tao-Klarjeti, historic southwest Georgia....
(759 – 861).
Around 870, Klarjeti became a hereditary fiefdom of one of the three principal branches of the Georgian Bagratids. This line – known in the medieval Georgian records as the Sovereigns of Klarjeti (კლარჯნი ხელმწიფენი, klarjni khelmts'ip'eni) – was eventually dispossessed by their cousin Bagrat III
Bagrat III of Georgia
Bagrat III , of the Georgian Bagrationi dynasty, was King of the Abkhazians from 978 on and King of Georgia from 1008 on. He united these two titles by dynastic inheritance and, through conquest and diplomacy, added some more lands to his realm, effectively becoming the first king of what is...
, the first king of a unified Georgia, in 1010. Klarjeti never fully recovered from a series of Seljuk attacks later in the 11th century and further declined in the Mongol
Mongol invasions of Georgia
The Mongol invasions reached the kingdom of Georgia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in 1234, forcing Georgia into submission by 1238....
and 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 invasions in the 13th and 14th century. After the partition 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, Klarjeti passed to the princes of Samtkshe who lost the area to the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
conquest in 1551.