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Siege Of Queli
The siege of Q'veli or Siege of Q'ueli ( ka, ყველისციხის ალყა) was the last major military engagement during the Sajid invasion of Georgia in 914. The 28-day long siege resulted in pyrrhic Muslim victory and execution of the Georgian commander Gobron. Despite the important victory, the invaders were unable to maintain a strong foothold in western Georgia and were forced to withdraw. Background The most detailed information about the event is described by a contemporary Georgian hagiographer Stephen of Tbeti in his best-known work ''Passion of Gobron''. Before beginning their destructive campaign in Georgian kingdoms and principalities, the Sajids overran Caucasian Albania and Armenia, executing king Smbat I. After pillaging 87 settlements in eastern Georgia and capturing Ujarma and Bochorma fortresses in Kakheti, the Sajid ruler of Azerbaijan, known as Abu l'Kasim in Georgia and Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj elsewhere, launched his massive army to Uplis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sajid Invasion Of Georgia
Sajid invasion of Georgia was the final attempt to establish Muslim hegemony in the South Caucasus before the Seljuk invasions. Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj, a Sajid emir, whom Georgians knew as Abul-Kasim, invaded Georgian lands in 914, with the purpose to strengthen gradually weakening Arab power and Muslim hold on Georgian principalities. He first reached Tbilisi, then turned towards Kakheti and besieged the fortresses of Ujarma and Botchorma. Later, he made peace with Kvirike, chorepiscopus (ruler) of Kakheti and returned control of Ujarma to him. After this, he marched his forces to Kartli and laid waste to it. Georgians themselves destroyed the fortifications of Uplistsikhe, so it wouldn't fall to the hands of the enemy. The Muslim forces then raided Meskheti as well, but were unable to take the Tmogvi fortress and retreated. On the way they besieged Q'ueli fortress and took it despite stiff resistance. Muslims captured the military commander of the castle, Gobron, and put him to dea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caucasian Albania
Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus: mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among the Udi people, who regard themselves as descended from the inhabitants of Caucasian Albania. However, its original endonym is unknown.Robert H. Hewsen. "Ethno-History and the Armenian Influence upon the Caucasian Albanians", in: Samuelian, Thomas J. (Ed.), ''Classical Armenian Culture. Influences and Creativity''. Chicago: 1982, pp. 27-40. Bosworth, Clifford E.br>Arran ''Encyclopædia Iranica''. The name Albania is derived from the Ancient Greek name and Latin .James Stuart Olson. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. The prefix "Caucasian" is used purely to avoid confusion with modern Albania of the Balkans, which has no known geographical or historical connections to Caucasian Albania. Little is known of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Engines
A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while others have wheels to enable advancing up to the enemy fortification. There are many distinct types, such as siege towers that allow foot soldiers to scale walls and attack the defenders, battering rams that damage walls or gates, and large ranged weapons (such as ballistae, catapults/trebuchets and other similar constructions) that attack from a distance by launching projectiles. Some complex siege engines were combinations of these types. Siege engines are fairly large constructions – from the size of a small house to a large building. From antiquity up to the development of gunpowder, they were made largely of wood, using rope or leather to help bind them, possibly with a few pieces of metal at key stress points. They could launch simple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gurgen II Of Tao
Gurgen II "the Great" (, ''Gurgen Didi'') (died February 14, 941) was a Georgian prince of the Bagratid dynasty of Tao-Klarjeti and hereditary ruler of Tao with the title of ''eristavt-eristavi'', "duke of dukes". He also bore the Byzantine title of magistros. The son of Adarnase III of Tao, Gurgen succeeded on the death of his paternal uncle Ashot Kukhi in 918. He features prominently in the medieval Georgian sources, being nicknamed as "the Great". A patron of local monastic communities, Gurgen presided over the construction of a new cathedral at Khandzta. Gurgen was an energetic ruler and accumulated in his hands much power, ruling over Tao, parts of Klarjeti and Javakheti, and also Adjara and Nigali. The expansion of his territories was at the expense of his cousins and neighbours. Thus, sometime between 923 and 941, he wrested Klarjeti from his father-in-law Ashot "the Prompt", son of Bagrat I, giving him two other domains — western part of Javakheti and Adjara — in ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal allegiance, services and/or payments. The fees were often lands, land revenue or revenue, revenue-producing real property like a watermill, held in feudal land tenure: these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting, fishing or felling trees, monopolies in trade, money rents and tax farms. There never did exist one feudal system, nor did there exist one type of fief. Over the ages, depending on the region, there was a broad variety of customs using the same basic legal principles in many variations. Terminology In ancient Rome, a "benefice" (from the Latin noun , meaning "benefit") was a gif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Q'ueli
Q'ueli ( ka, ყუელი) or Q'uelis-tsikhe (ყუელისციხე, "fortress of Q'ueli") was a medieval Georgian fortress atop the homonymous mountain of the Arsiani Range (Yalnızçam Dağları), now within the boundaries of Turkey, where it is known as Kol Kalesi or Kuvel Kalesi. Its Georgian name is alternatively transliterated as Qveli, Kveli, K'veli, Qvelis-ts'ikhe or Qvelis-c'ixe.Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). ''Studies in Christian Caucasian History'', pp. 492-495. Georgetown University Press. First appearing in the early 10th-century Georgian sources, Q'ueli was one of the principal fortifications of the province of Samtskhe until being conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The name Q'ueli/Q'uelis-tsikhe literally translates from Georgian as "a cheese fortress", which was a source of the Greek equivalent Tyrokastron (Τυρόχαστρον)—the name by which the fortress is mentioned in Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos's '' De Administrando Imperio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tmogvi
Tmogvi or Tmkaberd ( ka, თმოგვი ; hy, Թմկաբերդ) is a ruined fortress and medieval town in the southern Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, on the left bank of the Kura River, a few kilometers downstream of the cave city of Vardzia. History The name "Tmogvi" is derived from Georgian word ''mogvi'' (მოგვი), meaning "pagan priest" or "magus". The fortress is first mentioned in sources from the 9th century. It was built as a defensive work controlling the ancient trade route between the Javakheti plateau and the gorge of Kura, over a gorge formed by the Kura River. It was a crucial military stronghold in the region of Javakheti. The feudal lords of the region were at that time the Bagratids, the Georgian branch. The Georgian chronicles report numerous attempts to take the castle over, but they were rarely successful. Tmogvi gained importance after the neighboring town and fortress of Tsunda was ruined around 900 AD. In 914 Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Javakheti
Javakheti ( ka, ჯავახეთი ) or Javakhk ( hy, Ջավախք, ''Javakhk'') is a historical province in southern Georgia, corresponding to the modern municipalities of Akhalkalaki, Aspindza (partly), Ninotsminda, and partly to the Turkey's Ardahan Province. Historically, Javakheti borders were defined by the Kura River (Mtkvari) to the west, and the Shavsheti, Samsari and Nialiskuri mountains to the north, south and east, respectively. The principal economic activities in this region are subsistence agriculture, particularly potatoes and raising livestock. In 1995, the Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda districts, comprising the historical territory of Javakheti, were merged with the neighboring land of Samtskhe to form a new administrative region, Samtskhe-Javakheti. As of January 2020, the total population of Samtskhe-Javakheti is 152,100 individuals. Armenians comprise the majority of Javakheti's population. According to the 2014 Georgian census, 93% (41,870) of the in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uplistsikhe
Uplistsikhe ( ka, უფლისციხე ; literally, "the lord's fortress") is an ancient rock-hewn town in eastern Georgia, some 10 kilometers east of the town of Gori, Shida Kartli. Built on a high rocky left bank of the Mtkvari River, it contains various structures dating from the Early Iron Age to the Late Middle Ages, and is notable for the unique combination of various styles of rock-cut cultures from Anatolia and Iran, as well as the co-existence of pagan and Christian architecture.Khimshiashvili (1999)Online version. History Uplistsikhe is identified by archaeologists as one of the oldest urban settlements in Georgia. Strategically located in the heartland of ancient kingdom of Kartli (or Iberia as it was known to the Classical authors), it emerged as a major political and religious center of the country. The town's age and importance led medieval Georgian written tradition to ascribe its foundation to the mythical Uplos, son of Mtskhetos, and grandson of Kartlo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia (Republic of Dagestan) to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. In 1920, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan SSR. The modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the same year. In September 1991, the ethnic Armenian majority of the Nagorno-Karabakh region formed the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kakheti
Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eight administrative districts: Telavi, Gurjaani, Qvareli, Sagarejo, Dedoplistsqaro, Signagi, Lagodekhi and Akhmeta. Kakheti is bordered by the Russian Federation with the adjacent subdivisions ( Chechnya to the north, and Dagestan to the northeast), the country of Azerbaijan to the southeast, and with the regions of Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kvemo Kartli to the west. Kakheti has a strong linguistic and cultural identity, since its ethnographic subgroup of Kakhetians speak the Kakhetian dialect of Georgian. The Georgian David Gareja monastery complex is partially located in this province and is subject to a border dispute between Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities. Popular tourist attractions in Kakheti include Tusheti, Gremi, Signagi, Kveter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bochorma Fortress
The Bochorma fortress ( ka, ბოჭორმის ციხე, tr) is a medieval architectural complex in eastern Georgia (country), Georgia, located in the Tianeti Municipality in the mkhare, region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti. Historically it was part of First Kingdom of Kakheti, principality of Kakheti. Situated on a high mount on the Iori River, the complex consists of a castle and a domed dodecagon, dodecagonal church, both dated to the 10th century, as well as another small hall church, and some other accessory structures. All structures within the complex are half-ruined or significantly damaged. They are all inscribed on the list of the Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance. Architecture The Bochorma complex is located 2 km east of the modern village of Bochorma, on the left bank of the Iori, overlooking the river valley from a 300 m-high mountain ridge on the southwestern slopes of the Tsiv-Gombori Range, Gombori Range. The fortress is relatively easily acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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