Database: Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP)

Title(s):

Life of Georgia
ქართლის ცხოვრება
(K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba, Life of Georgia)
Georgian royal annals
Պատմութիւն Վրաց
(Patmut‛iwn Vrats‛, History of Georgia)
Georgian chronicles

Author:

Anonymous (Life of Georgia)

Period covered:

Antiquity-14th c.

Language:

Georgian

State of Preservation:

Full

Genre:

Remarks:

The late antique and medieval section of K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba consists of thirteen distinct texts: (1) Life of the kings; (2) Life of Nino; (3) Life of the successors of Mirian; (4) Life of Vakhtang Gorgasali; (5) continuation by Pseudo-Juansher Juansheriani; (6) Life of Arch‛il; (7) Sumbat Davit‛is-dze's Life and tale of the Bagratids; (8) Chronicle of K‛art‛li; (9) Life of king of kings Davit‛; (10) Histories and eulogies of the crowned; (11) Life of monarch of monarchs T‛amar; (12) History of five reigns; and (13) Chronicle of a hundred years. Five of these texts have been combined into distinctive suites or 'mini-corpora': 1+2+3 = Ts‛khorebay k‛art‛velt‛a mep‛et‛a; and 4+5 = Ts‛khorebay vakhtang gorgaslisa. The first six components are directly relevant to the study of Late Antiquity.

The work commences with the ethnogenesis of the principal peoples of Caucasia and continues through the Mongol and Timurid conquests in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. This living compilation was first asembled in the eleventh century

and possibly earlier, but the first manuscripts date to the fourteenth century.There also exists an Armenian adaptation.

Edition - Translation:

I. Abuladze (1998) (ed.) 'K‛art‛lis ts‛khovrebis dzveli somkhuri t‛argmani'. In: K‛art‛lis c‛xovreba: The Georgian royal annals and their medieval Armenian adaptation. Two Volumes, ed. S. Rapp. Delmar (NY) = Abuladze, I. (1953) (ed.) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovrebis dzveli somkhuri t‛argmani [=Patmut‛iwn Vrats‛]. Tbilisi.
M.-F. Brosset (1849) Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle. Volume One. Saint Petersburg. [Brosset’s groundbreaking edition and French translation are based upon the later “Vakhtangiseuli” recension of K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Qaukhch‛ishvili's edition and Thomson's translation is to be preferred.]
S. Jones (2014) (ed.) Kartlis Tskhovreba: A History of Georgia. Tbilisi.
G. Pätsch (1985) (tr.) Das Leben Kartlis: Eine Chronik aus Georgien 300-1200. Leipzig.
S. Qaukhch‛ishvili (1955-1959) (ed.) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Two Volumes. Tbilisi.
R.W. Thomson (1996) Rewriting Caucasian history: The medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles, the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation (Oxford Oriental monographs). Oxford.
R. Metreveli (2008) (ed.) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Tbilisi.

Fragments:

Users:

Sources:

Bibliography:

G. Akhvlediani (1990) 'K‛art‛lis ts‛khovrebis' p‛olkloruli tsqaroebi. Tbilisi.
K. Grigolia (1954) Akhali k‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba: Narkvevebi sak‛art‛velos istoriis tsqarot‛mts‛odneobidan. Volume One. Tbilisi.
I. Javakhishvili (1977) Dzveli k‛art‛uli saistorio mtserloba (V-XVIII ss.). Tbilisi.
G. Kavtaradze (2000) 'Caucasica II: Georgian chronicles and the raison d'être of the Iberian kingdom'. Orbis Terrarum 6: 177-237.
K. Kekelidze (1960) K‛art‛uli literaturis istoria. Volume One. Tbilisi.
M. Lort‘k‘ip‘anidze (1989) Ra aris k‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Tbilisi.
G.A. Melik‘ishvili (1959) K istorii drevnei Gruzii. Tbilisi.
R. Metreveli (2008) (ed.) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Tbilisi.
L. Pataridze (2009) Politikuri da kulturuli identobani IV-VIII ss-is k‛art‛ul ert‛obashi: „K‛art‛lis ts‛khovrebis“ samqaro. Tbilisi [With English summary pp. 174-180: 'Political and Cultural Identities in 4th-8th cc. Georgian Community: The World of Life of Kartli'].
S.H. Rapp (2003) Studies in medieval Georgian historiography: Early texts and Eurasian contexts (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 610: Subsidia, 113). Leuven.
S.H. Rapp (2014) The Sasanian world through Georgian eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian commonwealth in late antique Georgian Literature. Farnham.
R.W. Thomson (1990-1991) 'The Armenian Version of the Georgian Chronicles'. Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 5: 81-90.
C. Toumanoff (1943) 'Medieval Georgian Historical Literature (VIIth-XVth Centuries)'. Traditio 1: 139-182. Reprinted in Rapp - Crego (2012) (eds.) Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Georgian (The Worlds of Eastern Christianity: 300-1500, 5). Farnham: 277-320.
C. Toumanoff (1963) Studies in Christian Caucasian history. Washington D.C.