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› 1200 AD. Circassian

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According to the Georgian DNA Project, this descendant of an ancient princely house of Georgia is assigned to haplogroup G-M201. Vardan Dadiani, founder of the Megrelian princely house of Dadiani, participated in the revolt against Queen Tamar together with her former husband, Prince Yuri Bogolyubsky of Novgorod.

Source.

In the Black Sea steppes, the Cumans appear — a nomadic people of Turkic origin. At the beginning of the 11th century, they advanced from the Trans-Volga region into the Black Sea steppes, displacing the Pechenegs and Torks. There is an opinion that David IV the Builder, in his struggle against the Turkic Oghuz of the Seljuk Empire, invited and settled in Borchaly and adjacent regions a Kipchak horde numbering 40 thousand warriors, which together with their families totaled about 200 thousand people. More details.

John Tzetzes (12th century), orig. Kissling 1826. Georgica. Information of Byzantine Writers about Georgia. 1967, Vol. VII, 22–26:
"The grandmother (mother's mother) of John Tzetzes was born a Massagetae, in other words a woman of the Abasgians [1]. [...] (585) The Iberians, Abasgians and Alans are of one race [Iberes, Abasgi et Alani, unum genus.] [...] The Massagetae are Abasgians and their women, in former times, fought valiantly together with their men. [...] And let it be known to you that the Abasgians and Alans, Sakas and Dacians, Rosses and Sauromatians, the Scythians proper, and all those tribes that live in the north, are generally called Scythians."

ISAACIUS OR JOHN TZETZES (12th century) EXPLANATION OF LYCOPHRON'S "CASSANDRA"

174. Kiteia — a city in Colchis, from which the poet called Medea herself Kitaean. The Colchians are Indian Scythians, they are also called Laz and live near the Abasgians, the former Massagetae; the poisons of these Colchians kill on the same day. Aeetes arrived in Colchis, dissatisfied with the royal power in Corinth. Aeetes and Aloeus were sons of Helios and Perse, daughter of Oceanus. Helios divided his kingdom among his sons and gave Arcadia to Aloeus, and Corinth to Aeetes. But Aeetes, dissatisfied with Corinth, entrusted it to the guard of Bunus, son of Hermes and a nymph, and himself withdrew to Colchis, entrusting Bunus with guarding the Corinthian kingdom until he himself or one of his descendants should arrive. In Colchis, having married Idyia, daughter of Oceanus, in the city of Kiteia, he produced Medea and Apsyrtus. The sisters of Aeetes and Aloeus, i.e., the daughters of Helios, were Circe and Pasiphae, and according to others, Calypso. About the division of Helios' kingdom between his sons Aeetes and Aloeus, Theopompus of Chios refers to the historical poet Eumelus of Corinth. Note that other historians call Aeetes and Aloeus sons of Perse and Helios, while this Eumelus calls them sons of Antiope and Helios.

175. ...This golden-fleeced skin belonged to the ram that carried Phrixus to Colchis; there Phrixus, as they say, sacrificed it to Zeus Phyxius and hung its skin in Ares' grove on an oak tree; it was guarded by a dragon, "which in thickness and length surpassed a fifty-oared ship," as Pindar says.

So, by his decision, Pelias orders Jason himself to set sail and bring him the fleece. He, having boarded the ship Argo and taken with him 49 other men..., so that there were 50 in all, sailed to Colchis and asks Aeetes to give him the fleece; the latter promised to give it if Jason yoked to the plow the fire-breathing, bronze-footed bulls of Hephaestus and sowed the dragon's teeth which this Aeetes had, since Athena gave him part of those sown by Cadmus in Thebes. Medea, daughter of Aeetes, falling in love with Jason, anointed him with potions, saved him from the fire of the bulls, led him to the fleece at night and, having put the dragon to sleep with charms, stole the golden fleece and sailed away with the Argonauts, taking with her also her brother Apsyrtus. When Aeetes pursued them, she, cutting Apsyrtus into pieces, threw the pieces into the sea; Aeetes, gathering the parts of his son's body, fell behind in the pursuit and then sent the Colchians to pursue them... Of the pursuing Colchians, some settled in the Ceraunian Mountains, others in Illyria and on the Apsyrtian islands, and some in Phaeacia...
Medea, recognized by no one, arrived in Colchis and restored the kingdom to her father, having killed his brother Perses, who had overthrown him from the throne.

615... After the capture of Troy, Diomedes ... arrived in Italy; finding there the Colchian dragon, which was devastating the land of the Phaeacians, he killed it, holding the golden shield of Glaucus: for the dragon took the shield for the golden fleece of the ram...

630. The Phaeacians, living on the Ionian Sea, will praise and honor Diomedes for killing the dragon that came there from Colchis in search of the golden fleece. Some say that the dragon was a robber:

887. Medea. The Colchians, also called Laz, are settlers from Egypt, living near the Abasgians, also called Massagetae; the Colchians are also called Asian Scythians and White Syrians, they live within the borders of Asia on the Phasis River; and European Scythia lies near Maeotis and the Tanais. The Jew Joseph calls the Alans, living near the same Maeotis and Tanais near the pass of the Hyrcanians and Caspians, which King Alexander closed with iron gates, a tribe of European Scythians.

1109. The Chalybes — a Scythian people, in whose land the best iron is mined.

1312. Kiteia — a city in Colchis; and the Colchians, as I have said in more detail above, are a Lazian tribe, living near the Abasgians. The Libystian and Ligystian regions (of which the first is named after Libya, daughter of Epaphus, and the second after Ligys, brother of Alebion) in Cyrene, Carthage and Alexandria, as I said above, are one and the same region in Libya. But our Lycophron, who introduces many innovations, also calls the land of the Colchians Ligystica.


Materials:

The Great Steppe in Ancient and Byzantine Sources. Garkavets 2005

As a result of the Crusades in the 11th–13th centuries, commercial republics such as Genoa and Venice flourished economically in Italy. Having displaced the Arabs and Byzantines, Italian merchants took over the intermediary trade between Western Europe and the East. Soon they became such powerful trading powers that contemporaries rightly called Genoa the "god of the seas," and Venice — the port city on the Adriatic Sea — the "queen of the Adriatic."

List of Genoese colonies in the Northern Black Sea Region

Territory of present-day Ukraine:

Dniester estuary
Samastro (Moncastro; Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi)
Odessa Bay coast
Ginestra (Odesa-Luzanovka)
Danube estuary
Licostomo (Kiliia)

Territory of present-day Russia:

Don estuary
Tana (Azov)
Territory of present-day Krasnodar Krai
Matrega (Tmutarakan) (now stanitsa Taman)
Copa (Kopyl, now the city of Slavyansk-na-Kubani)
Mapa (Anapa)
Bata (Novorossiysk)
Casto (Khosta)
Liash (Adler)
Mavrolaco (Gelendzhik)
In Crimea — Gazaria:
Caffa (Feodosia)
Cembalo (Balaklava)
Soldaia (Sudak)
Vosporo (Kerch)
Captaincy of Gothia (Capitanatu Gottie)
Consulatus Gorzoni (Gurzuf)
Consulatus Pertinice (Parthenit)
Consulatus Jalite (Yalta)
Consulatus Lusce (Alushta)
Sarsona (Chersonesus Taurica)

Territory of present-day Abkhazia:

Abcasia (Tsandripsh)
Chacari (Gagra)
Santa Sophia (Alakhadzy)
Pesonqa (Pitsunda)
Cavo di Buxo (Gudauta)
Niocoxia (New Athos)
Sebastopolis (Sukhum)

Territory of present-day Georgia:

Lo Vati (Batumi)

Materials:

FORMATION OF THE VENETIAN COLONIAL EMPIRE. N. P. Sokolov 1963

According to D. L. Vateishvili "Georgia and European Countries"

Letter of a crusader knight from the Holy Land.

Discovered presumably somewhere in the first half of the 19th century, most likely by Paulin Paris, but definitely in the Royal Library in Paris. Dated to the beginning of the 13th century (according to various opinions from 1202 to 1222). The French translation of the letter was first published in 1847 in Paris ("Histoire littéraire de la France", Paris, 1847), while in the original language it was first published in 1893 ("Regesta Regni Hierosolytani", Ed. R. Rohricht, Oeniponti, 1893), the first Georgian translation in 1929 (Avalishvili Z.G., "From the Era of the Crusaders", Paris, 1929).

Text:

"To the most reverend father in Christ and beloved lord Amedeus **[in the Latin text simply 'A.' - beroma], by God's providence Archbishop of Besançon, G. de Bois, humble knight. Amen.

Since I know that you rejoice in my well-being, let it be known to you that by God's grace I and my wife remain healthy and unharmed. As for the rumors concerning the Promised Land and other regions adjacent to it, I have decided to briefly inform you of the following — not everything, but those things that seem especially remarkable. First of all, know that the kingdom of Jerusalem has a truce with the Saracens, and even the principality of Antioch, although it has suffered countless calamities both from the sultan of Babylon and from the king of Armenia, has long lived in peace with the said sultan. But let something else come to your hearing, something that again arouses wonder.

We heard — and the truth of the matter was confirmed by reliable messengers — that Christians from Iberia, called Georgians, with an innumerable multitude of warriors and foot soldiers, well armed, with God's help, have powerfully risen against the infidel pagans and have already subdued 300 castles and 9 large cities, of which they retained the stronger ones, and put the weaker ones to the flame. One of the said cities, located on the Euphrates, was the most glorious of all pagan cities, and it was great. It was ruled by the son of the sultan of Babylon, who was captured by these Christians and beheaded, although he offered to give countless gold for himself. What more shall I say in detail? These people, such as I have described, are coming to liberate the land of holy Jerusalem, subduing all the lands of the pagans. Their king is noble, 16 years old, equal to Alexander in strength and virtue, surpassing him in faith. This youth carries with him the remains of his mother, the most powerful Queen Tamar, who, while alive, made a vow to visit Jerusalem, the Lord's. He, fulfilling his mother's request, wished to fulfill her vow and bury her in the Holy City, even against the will of the pagans.

And I also inform you, my lord, that soon after we learned of the above, a wonderful, deplorable and terrifying event occurred. In the last week of August, reliable messengers told us something that, although true, is scarcely believable to hear: an earthquake of unprecedented force occurred. It happened on the eve of the vigil of St. John the Baptist in the land of Losoria, which adjoins the domains of the sultan of Iconium. The calamity was so great that many towns and castles collapsed, and two cities and an abbey near a city named Phineadelphia perished with their inhabitants, swallowed by an abyss, so that only a level place remained of them. O wonder, terrifying to all!

There remains to be told, my lord, the most certain news that a certain mountain split in the middle during the earthquake, and on one side it oozed blood all day, and on the other — milk; the following day, most foul-smelling water flowed with a great quantity of sand. Know that the land in which this wonder occurred is inhabited by Christians; that is why I have informed you of it, so that you may announce it to the people." (BNF, ms. Lat. 5137, f.° 1r°.)

** - the only Besançon prelate bearing a name beginning with 'A' is Amedeus de Tremelet, who occupied the see according to various sources from 1195–1221.

Original:

"Reverendo in Christo patri et domino diligendo A(madeo) Dei providentia archiepis-copo Bisanc(ino), G. de Boyx humil(is) mil[es.Amen] Cum de prosperitate mea noverim vos letari, sciatis quod Dei gratia ego et uxor mea sani et incolumes permanemus. De rumoribus Terre Promissionis et aliarum regionum circumiacentium hec vobis breviter proposui sig-nificare, etsi поп omnia, tamen aliqua que magis admiranda videntur. In primis sciatis, quod regnum ler(usa)l(e)m treuguas habet cum Sarracenis et etiam principatus Antioch(enus), qui innumeras persequtiones turn per saldanum Babilonie, turn per regem Armenie passus est, per longum tempus treuguas habet cum predicto soldano. Audiatis etiam alia, que nova admiratione consideranda sunt. Audivimus et rei veritatem per c{er)to nuncios didicimus, quod de Hiberia quidam Christiani, qui Georgeni dicuntur, cum innumera multitudine mili-tum et peditum, divino inspirante auxilio, manu fortiter armata, contra infideles paganos insurrexerunt alacriter et iam CCCta castella et IX maximas urbes subiugantes, retinentes forciora, debiliora in cinerem redegerunt. Predictarum urbium quedam sub Eufrate sita cunctarum urbium paganic(arum) erat nobilissima et magna. Dominus huius urbis preerat filius soldani Babilonis, qui captus a predictis Christianis capite truncatus est, quamvis auri infinitam pecuniam promitteret se daturum. Quid dicam per singula? Tales quales predixi ad lerram recuperandam sancte lh(e)r(usa]l(e)m veniunt, totam paganiam subiugantes. Rex eorum nobil(is) sexdecim annos, par Alexandra viribus et probitate, поп tamen in fide, lste puer ossa matris sue regine potentissime nomine Thamar secum portat; que, dum viveret, votum fecit eundi lh(e)r(usa)l(e)m et, si moreretur, rogavit filium suum ut eius ossa ad sepul-crum Domini defferrentur. Iste ergo, precibus matris adquiescens, votum matris sue restau-raro desiderat et earn in sanctam civitatem, volentibus vei nolentibus paganis, promisit [sjepelire. Mando vobis iterum, domine, quod statim post iam dicta scripta didicimus, res est mirabil(is) et miserabil(is) et cunctis pavenda. Notificatum est nobis ultima septimana augusti per veros nuncios quod, quamvis verum, tamen audientibus vix credibile, terre motus tal(is) factus qui nunquam fuerat auditus. Factus e[s]t pridie ante vigiliam sancti lohannis Baptiste in terra Losore, que afinis est soldani d'Encoine, et tam magnus, quod multe ville et castra corruerunt et due civitates et quedam abbacia ante quamdam civitatem nomine Finedelfe in abissum perdite, tamen terra plana in ipsarum loco remanente, cum habitatoribus recesserunt. О mirum et cunctis admirantibus pavendum! Inter hec, que restat dicere, certe res est verissima, domine, quod quidam mons terre motu scissus per medium ex una parte sanguinem, ex alia lac visus est emanare per totam diem et ex eo alia die aqua fetidissima sabulum cum multitudine maxima. Et sciatis quod terra in qua hoc miurabile fac¬tum est Christianorum est, et ideo mandavi vobis ut hec populo annuncietis."

The author was a prisoner among the Abkhazians, as can be inferred from the following words (fol. 107a):

"In Sha'ban 606 (January—February 1210), when I was in the hands of the infidels (kafiran), a messenger arrived to the king of Abkhaz ^[1] from Malik Ashraf ibn Adil."

...

"Alaniye ^[2]. This is a city between Abkhaz and Kipchak ^[3], with many Muslims. Its goods: slaves (ghulam), female slaves (kenyzek), and astrakhan fur" (fol. 192b).

...

"The people of Abkhaz call their padishah tagaver, they stage revolts with the Abkhazians (abkhazan) (fol. 202b). They have a strong fortress."

...

"Sarir — this is a region (vilayet) between Abkhaz, Kipchak, Shirvan and Derbend."


Notes:

^[1] Refers to the Abkhazian king George IV Lasha (1213–1222), who was co-ruler with his mother, the famous Queen Tamar (1184–1213) from 1207. Abkhaz — Abkhazia, since the ruling Bagratid dynasty in the Middle Ages originated from here, Arabic and Persian-speaking authors extended the name of Abkhazia "Abkhaz" to all of modern Georgia.
^[2] Apparently, we are talking about the famous Alan Gates (Darial Gorge); by city here is meant some settlement located on this route. Cf.: Hudud al-'Alam. Tuman manuscript. With introduction and index by V. Bartold, L., 1930, fols. 8a, 38a; Translated and explained by Minorsky, London, 1937, GMS, N.S., XI, pp. 401, 446).
^[3] Kipchak (in the text Kyfchak) — the steppes lying north of the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas.



Materials:

Miklouho-Maclay N.D. Geographical Work of the 13th Century in Persian // Scientific Notes of the Institute of Oriental Studies. Volume IX. M.-L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1954. pp. 175–219.

In 1213, the son of Queen Tamar, George IV, ascended the Georgian royal throne. George had another name — Lasha, so he entered history under two names: George-Lasha. Examples of letters addressed to the kings and prominent dignitaries of Georgia have survived; in one of them, King George-Lasha is titled "King of Kings of Abkhaz, Shaki and Alan." After Tamar's death and the coming to power of the young king, the vassal countries began to defy Georgia. Ganja was the first to declare its refusal to pay tribute. The Georgian army besieged Ganja. The Ganja atabeg was forced to submit again to the Georgian king and continue to pay him tribute.

George-Lasha was a rather free-spirited person. His beliefs and aspirations were to a certain extent unacceptable to the society of his time. Moreover, the king, like his glorious ancestor David Agmashenebeli, intended to rule alone and did not particularly consider the interests of the didebuls. George-Lasha surrounded himself with peers called rinds. There is no consensus among scholars as to who the rinds were and what they did. However, the rinds mentioned by the chronicler were probably representatives of one of the religious-philosophical movements common in the East.

The feudal lords rudely interfered in the king's personal life. When George IV brought as his wife a woman of low birth and moreover married, he thereby violated the age-old tradition: the kings of a united Georgia brought as wives representatives of the royal family from neighboring states. The king had a son named David by his beloved woman, but as an illegitimate heir he would never have been able to occupy the royal throne. A few years later, the didebuls and clergy separated the king from this woman and returned her to her husband. George-Lasha remained faithful to his love until the end of his life and never married at all.

The contradictions within the royal court naturally affected the general situation of the country. Nevertheless, Georgia remained one of the strong states in the Middle East. The Crusaders expected help from it. In 1217, the Fifth Crusade began. The Georgians were seriously preparing to take part in this campaign, but the unexpected appearance of the Mongols at the borders of Georgia prevented them.

In the winter of 1220, the Mongols invaded Azerbaijan. After that, the Mongols invaded Georgia. The first clash with the Mongols ended in Georgia's defeat, but the Mongols did not attempt to penetrate deep into the country. The second and third battles also ended in Mongol victories. After this, the Mongols left Georgia.

In the struggle against the Mongols, George-Lasha himself was wounded. Apparently, George died from his wound in 1223.


Materials:

All rulers of Abkhazia

Abkhazian Kingdom. 786 CE
Anthroponymic repertoire of the "Divan of the Abkhazian kings". G. A. Amichba
Chronicle of the Abkhazian kings. F. Jordania 1902
Bgazhba O. Kh., Lakoba S. Z. History of Abkhazia from ancient times to the present day. 2007
Culture and ideology of early medieval Abkhazia (5th–10th centuries). Amichba 1999
"History of Abkhazia in dates". T. A. Achugba 2011
Circumnavigation of the Euxine Sea. Flavius Arrian
Naturalis Historia. Pliny the Elder 77–79. Latin-English 1969
Reports of ancient Greek and Latin writers about Scythia and the Caucasus. Latyshev 1947
Constantine Porphyrogenitus. On the Administration of the Empire: Text, translation, commentary. Litavrin 1991