The House of Rusishvili ( ka, რუსიშვილი) is the name of the
Georgian noble family.
History
The Rusishvili were a princely family, ''
tavadi'', in the eastern Georgian
kingdom of Kakheti. A genealogical tradition enshrined in the writings of Prince
Ioann of Georgia
Ioane ( ka, იოანე ბაგრატიონი) (16 May 1768 in Tbilisi, Georgia – 15 February 1830 in Saint Petersburg, Russia) was a Georgian prince (batonishvili), writer and encyclopaedist.
Life
A son of George XII, the la ...
(1768–1830) traces the family's ancestry to the late 12th century, making them descended from a
Rus
Rus or RUS may refer to:
People and places
* Rus (surname), a Romanian-language surname
* East Slavic historical territories and peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia
** Rus' people, the people of Rus'
** Rus' territories
*** Kievan ...
guardsman of Prince
Yuri of Novgorod, the first husband of Queen Regnant
Tamar of Georgia. Yuri's guardsman is said to have stayed in Georgia and ennobled by Tamar. His progeny allegedly adopted the surname of Rusishvili, literally "children or scions of the Rus". The family is included in the list of the Georgian nobility attached to the Russo-Georgian
treaty of Georgievsk of 1783. Members of the family occupied the office of Chief Treasurer at the court of the kings of Kakheti and, since 1724, the episcopal sea of
Nekresi. After the
Russian annexation of Georgia, the family was confirmed among the princely nobility (
knyaz
, or ( Old Church Slavonic: Кнѧзь) is a historical Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times of history and different ancient Slavic lands. It is usually translated into English as prince or duke, dependi ...
) of the
Russian Empire in 1850. The surname was Russified as Rusiyev (Русиев).
[ Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). ''Studies in Christian Caucasian history'', p. 272. ]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 ...
.[ Grebelsky, P. Kh., Dumin, S.V., Lapin, V.V. (1993), Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 4: Князья Царства Грузинского. (''Noble families of the Russian Empire. Vol. 4: Princes of the Kingdom of Georgia''), p. 194. Vesti.]
The Robitashvili had no officially confirmed
coat of arms, but a drawing of the familial arms is included in Tsikhinsky's unpublished Russian-language catalogue ''The Caucasian Armorial'', dated to 1922.
თავადი რუსიშვილი (''Prince Rusishvili'')
State Council of Heraldry. Accessed October 3, 2012.
References
{{Reflist
Georgian-language surnames
Noble families of Georgia (country)
Russian noble families