Aryan Kartli or Arian Kartli (meaning "
Iranian Kartli"; ka, არიან-ქართლი) was a country claimed by the medieval
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
chronicle "
The Conversion of Kartli
The ''Conversion of Kartli'' ( ka, მოქცევაჲ ქართლისაჲ ''moktsevay kartlisay'', Asomtavruli: ႫႭႵႺႤႥႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႪႨႱႠჂ, ) is the earliest surviving medieval Georgian historical compendium ...
" (მოქცევაჲ ქართლისაჲ, ''mokc'evay k'art'lisay'') to be the earlier homeland of the
Georgians
The Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, G ...
of
Kartli.
The Georgian Chronicles relate the apocryphal story of
Alexander the Great's campaign into inner Georgia. Alexander reportedly brought
Azoy (Azo), the son of the unnamed "king of Aryan-Kartli", together with followers, to
Mtskheta
Mtskheta ( ka, მცხეთა, tr ) is a city in Mtskheta-Mtianeti province of Georgia. It is one of the oldest cities in Georgia as well as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World. Itis located approximately north of T ...
, principal city of Kartli, and charged him with the administration of Kartli in his absence. The 11th-century Georgian monk Arsen, the author of metaphrastical reduction of "The life of
St. Nino
Saint Nino ( ka, წმინდა ნინო, tr; hy, Սուրբ Նունե, Surb Nune; el, Αγία Νίνα, Agía Nína; sometimes ''St. Nune'' or ''St. Ninny'') ''Equal to the Apostles and the Enlightener of Georgia'' (c. 296 – c. 33 ...
" and tutor of King
David IV of Georgia, comments on this passage: "We, Georgians, are descendants of the newcomers from Aryan-Kartli, we speak their language and all the kings of Kartli are descendants of their kings".
Classical sources scholars have inferred that this land lay within the orbit of the
Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Herodotus' list of the
Achaemenid provinces, which places the proto-Georgian tribes within the 13th and 19th
satrapies, is significant in this regard.
[Rapp (2003), p. 10.] These territories partially correspond to the historical Georgian southwest where a number of Georgian scholars, notably
Giorgi Melikishvili, tend to place Aryan Kartli.
According to the modern historian
Stephen H. Rapp, risen in the last phase of the Achaemenid Empire, Aryan Kartli was the first known autonomous kingdom in eastern Georgia. Even though prior to Aryan Kartli there had been small political entities in the western area's of Georgia, closer to the
Black Sea (such as Egrisi/Colchis), it would be the polities to the east of the
Surami Pass
The Surami Pass ( ka, სურამის უღელტეხილი) is a mountain pass in the Likhi Range of Georgia with an altitude of .
The pass connects the western and eastern part of Georgia. A railroad (in a tunnel) runs throug ...
that "came to embody Georgian political life".
Little is known about Aryan Kartli, however, according to Rapp, it appears to have been an "Achaemenid client on the northern fringe of Iranian domains". Rapp notes that Aryan Kartli "may well be associated with a remarkable palace built according to Achaemenid styles and techniques" at Gumbat'i in Kakheti in eastern Georgia. However, other locations have been proposed as well for Aryan Kartli, including to the southwest of Kartli, in the Armeno-Kartvelian marchlands.
The early Georgian kingdom of Kartli/Iberia, which clearly emerges in historical accounts of
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
period, seems to have shared the Iranian bonds of Aryan Kartli.
equates the region with the Aranē ( el, 'Αράνη) of
Ptolemy (V.6.18) and the
Harrana
Harrana (named after Qasr Kharana, an archeological Umayyad desert palace in the area) is part of the Jordan eastern plateau some 60 kilometers southeast of Amman city.
*Al-Hunjul, Nasfat Gh. The Geology of Qasr Al Harrana: Map Sheet No. 3253-II. ...
of the
Hittites.
[Toumanoff, Cyril (1963), ''Studies in Christian Caucasian History'', pp. 89-90. ]Georgetown University Press
Georgetown University Press is a university press affiliated with Georgetown University that publishes about forty new books a year. The press's major subject areas include bioethics, international affairs, languages and linguistics, political sc ...
, cited in: Rapp (2003), p. 269.
Notes
References
Sources
*Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), ''Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts''. Peeters Bvba .
*{{cite encyclopedia , last1=Rapp , first1=Stephen H. , title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History , entry=Georgia before the Mongols , date=2017 , doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.282 , isbn=9780190277727
*Kavtaradze, Giorgi L
Georgian Chronicles and the raison d'étre of the Iberian Kingdom (Caucasica II).
2009-10-25) ''Orbis Terrarum, Journal of Historical Geography of the Ancient World'' 6, 2000. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001, pp. 177–237.
External links
Conversion of Kartli (in Georgian) The Georgian Chronicles (in Georgian)
Historiography of Georgia (country)
Ancient history of Georgia (country)
Achaemenid Empire