Konstanti Kakhi
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Konstanti Kakhay or Konstanti Kakhi ( ka, კონსტანტი კახაჲ; კონსტანტი კახი) (768 – November 10, 853) was a
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
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 ...
nobleman from Kartli, who was seized captive by the
Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
general
Bugha al-Kabir Bugha al-Kabir (), also known as Bugha al-Turki (), was a 9th-century Khazar general who served the Abbasid Caliphate. He was of Khazar origin, and was acquired along with his sons as a military slave (''ghulam'') by al-Mu'tasim in 819/820.Gordo ...
during his 853 expedition into the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
. He was subsequently put to death, at the age of 85, for refusing to convert to
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. This made Kostanti a subject of the contemporaneous
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 ...
and a
saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
of the
Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...
.Thomas, David & Roggema, Barbara (ed., 2009), ''Christian-Muslim Relations. a Bibliographical History. Volume 1 (600-900)'', pp. 852-6.
BRILL Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...
, .
Kakhay's capture is also documented in a Georgian inscription from the
Ateni Sioni church The Ateni Sioni Church ( ka, ატენის სიონი) is an early 7th-century Georgian Orthodox church in the village of Ateni, some south of the city of Gori, Georgia. It stands in a setting of Ateni gorge in the Tana River valley ...
and his death as a
martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
is mentioned by the 9th-10th century
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
n chronicler
Tovma Artsruni Tovma Artsruni ( hy, Թովմա Արծրունի; also known in English-language historiography as Thomas Artsruni; precise birth date and date of death unknown) was a ninth-century to tenth-century Armenian historian and author of the ''History o ...
. The Georgian church commemorates him on November 10 ( O.S.).Machitadze, Archpriest Zakaria (2006)
"Great-Martyr Constantine-Kakhi (†852)"
i
''The Lives of the Georgian Saints''
. ''pravoslavie.ru''. Retrieved on 2011-11-23.


''The Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay''

Much of Kostanti-Kakhay's biography is known from the hagiographic work ''The Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay'', the full title of which is "the Life and Passion of the Holy Martyr Kostanti the Georgian, who was Martyred by Jafar, King of Babylonians" (ცხორებაჲ და წამებაჲ წმიდისა მოწამისა კოსტანტი ქართველისაჲ, რომელი იწამა ბაბილონელთა მეფისა ჯაფარის მიერ, ''cxorebaj da c'amebaj c'midisa moc'amisa k'ost'ant'isi kartvelisaj, romeli ic'ama babiloelta mepisa dzaparis mier''). Its anonymous author, apparently a monk, identifies himself as a contemporary of Kostanti, saying that the martyr "lived during our time", when Theodora, the
Byzantine empress This is a list of Roman and Byzantine empresses. A Roman empress was a woman who was the wife of a Roman emperor, the ruler of the Roman Empire. The Romans had no single term for the position: Latin and Greek titles such as '' augusta'' (Greek ...
who opposed
iconoclasm Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...
, reigned as a "servant of God". In the same passage, the author also mentions Theodora's son
Michael III Michael III ( grc-gre, Μιχαήλ; 9 January 840 – 24 September 867), also known as Michael the Drunkard, was Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian (or Phrygian) dynasty. ...
(r. 842-67). In general, ''the Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay'' reflects the rise of Byzantine cultural and political influence and of Georgian nationalism. The text incorporates many other narratives and contains several
biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
allusions. Its opening phrases are a literal translation from George of Alexandria's ''Life of Saint
John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his homilies, preaching and public speaking, his denunciat ...
'' ( 620), a text otherwise unknown in Georgian until 968. It also echoes several passages from the earlier pieces of Georgian hagiography – the anonymous ''Passion of Eustathius of Mtskheta'' (570s) and Ioane Sabanisdze's ''the Passion of
Abo of Tbilisi The ABO blood group system is used to denote the presence of one, both, or neither of the A and B antigens on erythrocytes. For human blood transfusions, it is the most important of the 43 different blood type (or group) classification syste ...
'' ( 790).
Rayfield, Donald Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Josep ...
(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', pp. 47-8.
Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
, .
The earliest extant manuscript of ''the Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay'' dates to the early 18th century. First published by
Mikhail Sabinin Mikhail Pavlovich Sabinin (russian: Михаил Павлович Сабинин, ka, მიხეილ პავლეს ძე საბინინი, monk Gobron, ka, გობრონ; 1845–1900) was a Russia, Russo-Georgia (country) ...
in 1882, it has been translated into
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
(P. Peeters, 1925), Russian (N. Vachnadze and K. Kutsia, 1978), and
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
(M. Abashidze and S.H. Rapp, 2004).Abashidze, Medea & Rapp, Stephen H. Jr. (2004), "The Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kaxay". '' Le Muséon'' 17, 1-2: 137-173.


Biography

According to ''the Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay'', Kostanti-Kakhay was born of a noble family of Kartli in 768. "Kakhay" is the sobriquet, indicating his origin from
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 ...
. Kostanti amassed a considerable wealth and publicly professed Christianity at the time when the Abbasid political hegemony was strongly felt in the Georgian lands and an Arab emir sat at
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 ...
, the erstwhile capital of Kartli. He was respected for his generosity and pilgrimage and donations to
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. He was 85, when he was seized, as "a leader and the most noble man in all of Kartli", by Bugha, the Turkic commander of the Abbasid army in the Caucasus, and sent to the court of the
caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
Al-Mutawakkil Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi-ʾllāh ( ar, جعفر بن محمد المعتصم بالله; March 822 – 11 December 861), better known by his regnal name Al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh (, "He who relies on God") was t ...
in
Samarra Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...
. The seasoned captive rejected both offers of wealth in return of apostasy to Islam and threats of torture, remaining steadfast. Two noblemen (''
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 ...
'') from
Somkhiti Somkhiti ( ka, სომხითი ) was an ambiguous geographic term used in medieval and early modern Georgian historical sources to refer to Armenia on one hand and to the Armeno-Georgian marchlands along the river valleys of Debed and Khr ...
, who had agreed to convert to
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, visited Kostanti in prison, first to persuade him and a second time to behead him; in both cases they failed. Then the caliph sent his own servant who put the defiant prisoner to death. The ''Life and Passion of Kostanti-Kakhay'' ends with moralizing:


Further historical evidence

Kostanti's patristic biography is corroborated by a stone inscription in the
Ateni Sioni church The Ateni Sioni Church ( ka, ატენის სიონი) is an early 7th-century Georgian Orthodox church in the village of Ateni, some south of the city of Gori, Georgia. It stands in a setting of Ateni gorge in the Tana River valley ...
in Kartli, near Gori, which relates that "on August 5, a Saturday, in ''koronikon'' 73, the Islamic year 239, Bugha burnt the city of Tbilisi and captured the Emir Sahak and killed him. And also in August, on the 26th, on Saturday, Zirak took Kakha and his son Tarkhuji prisoner." The events described in this inscription were part of Bugha's Caucasian expedition, in the course of which he sacked Tbilisi and had its rebellious Muslim emir
Ishaq ibn Isma'il Ishaq b. Isma'il b. Shuab al-Tiflisi (before 833 – 853), also known as Sahak in Georgian sources, was the emir of Tbilisi between 833 and 853. Under his rule, the emirate reached the apex of its power. He forced Georgian princes to pay tribute ...
("Sahak" of the Georgian sources) executed. Minorsky, Vladimir, "Tiflis", in: M. Th. Houtsma, E. van Donzel (1913-36; reprint 1993), ''E. J. Brill's First
Encyclopaedia of Islam The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...
, 1913-1936'', vol. 8, p. 754. BRILL, .
The Georgian nobles who sided with the emir were also punished in a series of reprisal raids commanded by Bugha and his lieutenant Zirak. Many captives were taken; some of them killed. The 9th-10th-century Armenian historian Tovma Artsruni, while recounting the same events in his ''History of the House of the Artsrunik, mentions the martyrdom of Kakhay, "of the upper land", and his companion Sevordi at the hands of the Muslims. Another Armenian historian of the early 10th century,
Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi ( hy, Յովհաննէս Դրասխանակերտցի, John of Drasxanakert, various spellings exist), also called John V the Historian, was Catholicos of Armenia from 897 to 925, and a noted chronicler and historian. He i ...
, refers to seven men martyred under Bugha in 302 of the Armenian era, which corresponds to the year of Kostanti's death.


References


External links


Martyrium Constantii Cachae
TITUS Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death. Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a mili ...
Old Georgian hagiographical and homiletic texts: Part No. 21. Accessed November 23, 2011. * Tseradze, Tina (2010)
კონსტანტი კახი/კონსტანტინე ქართველთა მთავარი (+ 853 წ.)
(''Konstanti Kakhi/Constantine, Prince of the Georgians 853'). ქართველი ისტორიული მოღვაწენი (''Georgian Historical Figures'') by
Georgian National Center of Manuscripts The Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts ( ka, საქართველოს ხელნაწერთა ეროვნული ცენტრი; formerly the ''Institute of Manuscripts''), located in Tbilisi, Georgia, is a repository ...
. Accessed November 23, 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kostanti-Kakhay 768 births 853 deaths 9th-century Christian saints 9th-century Christian martyrs Christian saints killed by Muslims Eastern Orthodox martyrs Nobility of Georgia (country) Saints of Georgia (country)