Gardabani ( ka, გარდაბანი) was a region in medieval

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 ...

, in the extreme southeast of the country, centered at the fortress of Khunani. This land roughly corresponds to a district lying south of

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

, west of the

Mtkvari River The Kura is an east-flowing river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus east into the Caspian Sea. It also drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus while its main tributary, the Ar ...

History

The historical geography of Gardabani has caused a certain amount of confusion because medieval Georgian writers call both the Iberian land of Gardabani and the

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

principality of

Gardman Gardman ( hy, Գարդման), also known as Gardmank, was one of the eight cantons of the ancient province of Utik in the Kingdom of Armenia and simultaneously, together with the canton of Tuchkatak, an Armenian principality. It roughly corre ...

by the name "Gardabani". Although these two regions were distinct, the homonymy may be due to an early occupation of both these territories by one ethnic group which left upon them its

onomastic Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...

imprint.Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), ''Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts'', p. 327. Peeters Bvba, . In the 9th century, the Gardabanian nobility, particularly the clan of

Donauri Donauri ( ka, დონაური) was a Georgian noble family to which belonged two ruling princes of the eastern province of Kakheti in the ninth century, and which gave origin to the latter-day noble family of Vachnadze, and, possibly, to tha ...

, dominated the eastern Georgian principality 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 ...

. For this reason, the 9th-century Kakheti is frequently referred to as "Gardabani" in the Georgian chronicles.

References

{{Georgia-geo-stub Former provinces of Georgia (country) Historical regions of Georgia (country) 9th century in Georgia (country)