The Abazasdze ( ka, აბაზასძე) were a noble family in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

with a surge in prominence in the 11th century. The Abazasdze are hypothesized by the Georgian historian Nodar Shoshiashvili to have descended from the house of Tbeli of

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...

. Tbeli Abazay, mentioned in an 11th-century Georgian inscription from the Bortsvisjvari church at

Tbeti ka, ტბეთი , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Village , image_skyline = , image_caption = , imagesize = , pushpin_map = South Ossetia#Georgia (country) , push ...

, may have been the family's eponymous founder, while

Ivane Abazasdze Ivane Abazasdze ( ka, იოანე აბაზასძე) was an 11th-century Georgian nobleman of the Abazasdze family, who functioned as an ''eristavi'' ("duke") of Kartli under King Bagrat IV of Georgia (r. 1027-1072). During King Bagrat ...

, ''

eristavi ''Eristavi'' (; literally, "head of the nation") was a Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine ''strategos'' and normally translated into English as "prince" or less commonly as "duke". In the Georgian aristocratic hierarchy, i ...

'' ("duke") of Kartli, could have been his grandson. Ivane Abazasdze wielded influence in the 1030s, during the early reign of

Bagrat IV of Georgia Bagrat IV ( ka, ბაგრატ IV; 101824 November 1072), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereign ...

. The contemporaneous Georgian

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

'' Vita of George the Athonite'' by Giorgi Mtsire described Ivane Abazasdze and his four brothers as "heroic and strong in their wealth and boastful of their arms and proud of the multitude of their army." Their failed plot to assassinate Bagrat IV resulted in the family's loss of much of their influence and prestige. They are only rarely mentioned in subsequent historical records, but the Abazasdze appear to have survived in Upper Kartli as royal vassals, ''

aznauri ''Aznauri'' ( ka, აზნაური, ; pl. ''aznaurni'', აზნაურნი, or ''aznaurebi'', აზნაურები) was a class of Georgian nobility. The word derives from Middle Persian ''āznāvar'', which, in turn, corresponds ...

'', from the 15th century to the 18th. By the closing years of the 14th century, a branch of the family was established in Georgia's eastern region of

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 eigh ...

and, in the person of Khimshia Abazasdze-Marileli ("of Marili"), who had fought

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

's invading army in 1399, was enfeoffed by the Georgian crown of the former estates of the

Abuletisdze Abuletisdze ( ka, აბულეთისძე) was a Georgian noble family – eristavs – with its most prominent members in the 12th and 13th century. The family held appanages in the valleys of Aragvi and Tedzami in the eastern province of K ...

in Eliseni in 1405. According to the historian

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

, the latter-day Kakhetian noble family of Khimshiashvili descended from these "Abazads of Marili".

References

Noble families of Georgia (country) Georgian-language surnames {{Georgia-noble-stub