Mamia Gurieli ( ka, მამია გურიელი, ) was a member of the

House of Dadiani The House of Dadiani ( ka, დადიანი ), later known as the House of Dadiani- Chikovani, was a Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Mingrelia. The House of Dadiani Th ...

and ''

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

Guria Guria ( ka, გურია) is a region (''mkhare'') in Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 113,000 (2016), with Ozurgeti as the regional capital. Geography ...

in western

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 latter half of the 15th century. He was the first ruler of Guria styled as

Gurieli The House of Gurieli () was a Georgian princely (''mtavari'') family and a ruling dynasty (dukes) of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal rulers of the dynasty ...

, after whom the Dukes and then, Princes of Guria formed one continuous dynasty down to the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

annexation of 1829. Mamia was a younger son of

Liparit I Dadiani Liparit I Dadiani ( ka, ლიპარიტ I დადიანი; died 1470) was a member of the House of Dadiani and '' eristavi'' ("duke") of Odishi, latter-day Mingrelia, in western Georgia from 1414 until his death. Under his rule, Mingrel ...

(died 1470), ''eristavi'' of

Odishi Odishi ( ka, ოდიში) was a historical district in western Georgia, the core fiefdom of the former Principality of Mingrelia, with which the name "Odishi" was frequently coterminous. Since the early 19th century, this toponym has been su ...

(Mingrelia), and brother to Liparit's successor

Shamadavle Dadiani Shamadavle Dadiani (also Shamandavle or Shamandavla; ka, შამადავლე დადიანი; died 1474) was a member of the House of Dadiani and ''eristavi'' ("duke") of Odishi ( Mingrelia) in western Georgia from 1470 until his deat ...

. He is first mentioned in a charter of King

George VIII of Georgia George VIII (Georgian: გიორგი VIII, ''Giorgi VIII''; 1417–1476) was the last king of the united Georgia, though his kingdom was already splintered and embroiled in a civil war, from 1446 to 1465. Defeated by his rivals, he was lef ...

dated to 1460. Mamia was in possession of Guria, which had been a fief of the

secundogeniture A secundogeniture (from la, secundus "following, second," and "born") was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants, creating a cadet branch. This was a special form of inheritance in which the second a ...

of the Dadiani since around 1352. By the 1450s, Georgia was embroiled in a series of internecine conflicts which ultimately led to the division of the

Kingdom of Georgia The Kingdom of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამეფო, tr), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic ...

. The civil war subsided, but only briefly, by 1460, when the Italian envoy

Ludovico da Bologna Ludovico da Bologna ( 1431/1454–1479) was an Italian diplomat and churchman. A lay Franciscan, he traveled extensively on diplomatic missions for both the Holy See and various powers, both Christian and Islamic. The overarching goal of his travel ...

attempted an intercession between the Georgian dynasts to enable their participation in the proposed crusade of

Pope Pius II Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...

against the Ottoman menace. Among the Eastern Christian princes ready to take up arms, the contemporary Western European documents mention Mamia as a marquis of Guria: "Mania, marchio Goriae". Mamia may have been the Georgian ruler who defeated the Burgundians at

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

and imprisoned their leader,

Geoffroy de Thoisy Geoffroy de Thoisy, ''chevalier seigneur de Mimeure'', was a Burgundian naval commander and Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece involved in Philip the Good’s Crusade endeavors in the 1440s. Biography He commanded a Burgundian flotilla o ...

, in 1445. Thoisy was only released through the good services of the Trapezuntine emperor John IV Megas Komnenos. The Gurieli, whose lordship lay between the Trapezuntine theme of Lazia and Mingrelia, had close ties with the Komnenoi.

David Komnenos David Komnenos ( el, Δαβίδ Κομνηνός) (c. 1184 – 1212) was one of the founders of the Empire of Trebizond and its joint ruler together with his brother Alexios until his death. At least two lead seals and an inscription found on a tow ...

sent his wife, Helena, to Mamia for safety just before the Ottoman military advanced to Trebizond in 1461. The chronicle by

Laonikos Chalkokondyles Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Latinized as Laonicus Chalcocondyles ( el, Λαόνικος Χαλκοκονδύλης, from λαός "people", νικᾶν "to be victorious", an anagram of Nikolaos which bears the same meaning; c. 1430 – c. 1470; ...

suggests that Mamia may have been related by marriage in some otherwise unrecorded way to the Trapezuntine Komnenoi. 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, ...

, this means that Mamia was married to a daughter of David of Trebizond.

References

{{s-end 15th-century people from Georgia (country) House of Gurieli