The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian LiteratureRoutledge, 2017 M05 15 - 540 pages Georgian literary sources for Late Antiquity are commonly held to be later productions devoid of historical value. As a result, scholarship outside the Republic of Georgia has privileged Graeco-Roman and even Armenian narratives. However, when investigated within the dual contexts of a regional literary canon and the active participation of Caucasia’s diverse peoples in the Iranian Commonwealth, early Georgian texts emerge as a rich repository of late antique attitudes and outlooks. Georgian hagiographical and historiographical compositions open a unique window onto a northern part of the Sasanian world that, while sharing striking affinities with the Iranian heartland, was home to vibrant, cosmopolitan cultures that developed along their own trajectories. In these sources, precise and accurate information about the core of the Sasanian Empire-and before it, Parthia and Achaemenid Persia-is sparse; yet the thorough structuring of wider Caucasian society along Iranian and especially hybrid Iranic lines is altogether evident. Scrutiny of these texts reveals, inter alia, that the Old Georgian language is saturated with words drawn from Parthian and Middle Persian, a trait shared with Classical Armenian; that Caucasian society, like its Iranian counterpart, was dominated by powerful aristocratic houses, many of whose origins can be traced to Iran itself; and that the conception of kingship in the eastern Georgian realm of K’art’li (Iberia), even centuries after the royal family’s Christianisation in the 320s and 330s, was closely aligned with Arsacid and especially Sasanian models. There is also a literary dimension to the Irano-Caucasian nexus, aspects of which this volume exposes for the first time. The oldest surviving specimens of Georgian historiography exhibit intriguing parallels to the lost Sasanian Xwadāy-nāmag, The Book of Kings, one of the precursors to Ferdowsī’s Shāhnāma. As tangible products of the dense cross-cultural web drawing the re |
Contents
The Vitae of Ŝuŝanik and Evstati | |
Kartlis cxovreba and the Historiographical Mokcevay | |
The Life of the Kings | |
The Life of the Successors of Mirian | |
The Life of Vaxtang Gorgasali | |
Ps Juanŝers Continuation | |
Hambavi mepeta and Sasanian Caucasia | |
Terminological Note | |
Kartvelian Kings and Presiding Princes until | |
Mihrānid Bidaxšes of SomxitiGugark | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
The Sasanian World Through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian ... Stephen H. Rapp No preview available - 2014 |
The Sasanian World Through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian ... Stephen H. Rapp No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
Abibos Abulaże Achaemenid Agat‘angełos Albanian Andronikaŝvili 1966 Armaz Armazi Armenian Armeno-K‘art‘velian Arsacid attested Bagratid Bahrām Bakur bidaxŝ Bielmeier Bolnisi Sioni Braund bumberazi Byzantine C‘xorebay Caucasia Caucasus Ceret‘eli Chosroid Christian Christianisation Church Conversion of K‘art‘li Daryaee eastern Georgia Epic Histories erist‘avi fifth century Garsoïan in Epic Georgian National Gippert Greek hagiographical Hambavi mep‘et‘a Herakleios historiographical inscription Iran Iranian Commonwealth K‘art‘lis c‘xovreba K‘art‘velian K‘art‘velian king Kartli kingship Late Antiquity later Leonti Mroveli manuscripts marchlands marzbān Mc‘xet‘a medieval Middle Persian Mihrānid Mirdat Mok‘c‘evay k‘art‘lisay monarch Movsēs Xorenac‘i MPers narrative Nekresi Nimrod P‘arnavaz P‘arsman Parthian Parthian Arsacid Peter the Iberian pre-Bagratid Primary History Ps.-Juanŝer Qauxč‘iŝvili Qauxč‘iŝvili ed reign Roman Royal List ŝāhan ŝāh Sasanian Sasanian Empire seventh century sources southern Caucasia spaspeti Successors of Mirian Syrian T‘bilisi Thomson trans Toumanoff 1963 Tp‘ilisi tradition Vaxtang Vaxtang Gorgasali Vita Nino K‘C Vita Nino MK Vita Ŝuŝanik Xusrō xwarrah Zoroastrian