Life of the kings of K‛art‛li

Life of the kings is exclusively preserved in the historiographical corpus K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba (variants K‛art‛lis c‛xovreba, Kartlis Tskhovreba). It forms the core component of the corpus' initial suite Ts‛khorebay k‛art‛velt‛a mep‛et‛a (C‛xorebay k‛art‛velt‛a mep‛et‛a, Tskhovreba Kartvelta Mepeta), after which the text is named. Most scholars conflate the three distinct components of Ts‛khorebay k‛art‛velt‛a mep‛et‛a into a single text attributed to the eleventh-century archbishop Leonti Mroveli. However, Mroveli was not the original author but an editor who might have been responsible for assembling the initial version of K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba as we know it today.

The work addresses the legendary ethnogenesis of the principal peoples of Caucasia to the eve of the conversion of the first Christian king of eastern Georgia, Mirian, in the 320s. It relies heavily on the lost Hambavi mep‛et‛a (and, through it, the Iranian epic tradition); similar, truncated (but not identical) accounts of the period appear in Primary history of K‛art‛li and the three Royal lists. Some unidentified version of the Alexander romance, perhaps oral, informed this source and probably Hambavi mep‛et‛a. The author of the Life of the kings also exhibits vague familiarity with the Christianization of Constantine the Great (a source called Conversion of the Greeks is cited) and is better acquainted with the conversion of the Armenian king Trdat (a Conversion of the Armenians is cited, which refers to some aspect of the Gregory Cycle attributed to Agathangelus).

There also exists an Armenian adaptation.