Sumbat I (died 899) was 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...

 prince of the Bagratid dynasty of 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...

 and hereditary ruler of Klarjeti

Klarjeti

Klarjeti was a province of ancient and medieval Georgia, which is currently part of the Artvin Province in northeastern Turkey. Klarjeti, the neighboring province of Tao and several other smaller districts constituted a larger region with shared history and culture conventionally known as...

 from c. 870 until his death.

A son of King Adarnase IV of Iberia

Adarnase IV of Iberia

Adarnase IV was a member of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty of Tao-Klarjeti and prince of Iberia/Kartli, responsible for the restoration of kingship, which had been in abeyance since it had been abolished by Iran in the sixth century, in 888....

, Sumbat received the province of Klarjeti as an appanage where he ruled with the title of mampali

Mampali

Mampali was a dynastic title in medieval Georgia , usually held by high-ranking Bagratid princes who did not possess any Byzantine dignities. It is compound of the words mama, "father", and upali, "lord". The following Bagratid princes held the title of mampali:*Guaram Mampali *Gurgen I Mampali...

, which seems to have passed on to Sumbat and his progeny after the extinction of the line of Guaram Mampali

Guaram Mampali

Guaram, the mampali, was a Georgian Bagratid prince and the youngest son of Ashot I, the founder of the Bagratid dynasty of Iberia/Kartli....

. He also bore the Byzantine title

Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy

The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy, which was inherited from the Roman Empire. At the apex of the pyramid stood the Emperor, sole ruler and divinely ordained, but beneath him a multitude of officials and court functionaries operated the administrative...

 of antipatos

Proconsul

A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...

 patrician (antipatrikios, ανθύπατος πατρίκιος). Sumbat had a residence at Artanuji (modern 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...

, 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...

), which towards the end of the 9th century began to develop into a thriving trading centre. Hence comes his territorial epithet Artanujeli (არტანუჯელი), i.e., "of Artanuji". Sumbat is referred to as "the Great" by Constantine Porphyrogenitus

Constantine VII

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959...

, author of De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio is the Latin title of a Greek work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is...

, where his name is rendered as Symbatius.

Apart from Klarjeti, Sumbat must also have possessed Adjara

Adjara

Adjara , officially the Autonomous Republic of Adjara , is an autonomous republic of Georgia.Adjara is located in the southwestern corner of Georgia, bordered by Turkey to the south and the eastern end of the Black Sea...

 and Nigali, since the latter two appear among the possessions of his son David (died 943). Sumbat also had a younger son Bagrat

Bagrat Mampali

Bagrat I was a Georgian prince of the Bagratid dynasty of Tao-Klarjeti and the ruler of Klarjeti from 889 until his death. There is some confusion in dating Bagrat's death. According to the 11th-century chronicler Sumbat Davitis-Dze, Bagrat died on April 20, Easter Sunday of the year 129 of the...

 (died 900).
The Art Museum of Georgia

Art Museum of Georgia

The Art Museum of Georgia , officially known as Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts , is one of the most important museums in Georgia...

 in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

possesses a late 9th-century reliquary cross whose donation inscription refers to Khosrovanush, wife of Sumbat, and her sons Bagrat and David. Khosrovanush is unattested elsewhere.