Ekwtime Taqaishvili
Ekwtime Taqaishvili ( Georgian ექვთიმე თაყაიშვილი ; born January 3, 1863 in Lichauri , Kutaisi Governorate , Russian Empire , today Guria , Georgia ; † February 21, 1953 in Tbilisi ) was a Georgian historian, archaeologist and politician.
Life
Historian and archaeologist
He was born the son of nobleman Swimon Taqaishvili. In 1887 he graduated from the historical-philological university of Saint Petersburg from a history degree . From 1887 to 1917 he worked as a teacher at various prestigious high schools in Tbilisi, including the Tiflisser Adels-Gymnasium.
He published scholarly papers, including the 9th century Georgian Conversion Manuscript discovered in 1888 . It is considered one of the most important sources on the early history of Georgia. In 1907 he founded the Society for the History and Ethnography of Georgia and was its chairman until 1921. Between 1907 and 1910 he organized a number of archaeological expeditions, including to Svaneti and the Tao-Klardscheti region (now Turkey ), which was formerly part of Georgia . He carried out excavations in the Wani necropolis .
Vice-President of Parliament
After the February Revolution , he became involved as a politician in the First Republic of Georgia . He became a co-founder of the National Democratic Party of Georgia and in 1918 a member of the Georgian National Assembly (Georgian Dampudsnebeli Kreba ), which elected him its vice-president. In 1918 he was a co-founder of the Tbilisi State University , where he became a professor.
Politician in exile and treasurer
After the occupation of Georgia by the Red Army in 1921, he lost all offices, left the country, settled with the expelled Georgian government, first in Paris , then from 1922 in Leuville-sur-Orge and temporarily taught at Oxford University . On behalf of the Georgian government in exile, he brought countless valuable pieces of Georgian cultural heritage from museums, churches and monasteries to Western Europe in order to save them from destruction and looting by the occupiers. Among them were the golden pectoral cross of Queen Tamara from the 12th century and various ancient manuscripts from the Gelati monastery . The collection, later popularly known as the Georgian State Treasure , arrived in 39 large wooden boxes in Marseille in the same year and was kept there in a bank vault. She was later relocated to Paris.
De jure , the treasure belonged to the Georgian government-in-exile and was de facto administered by Taqaishvili. In the early 1930s, he won a lawsuit against the Countess Salome Obolenskaya, the daughter of the last Mingrelian Prince Nikoloz Dadiani who rose to those parts of the collection claim that from the Dadiani -Palast in Zugdidi came. Despite countless offers from various European museums to purchase parts of the treasure, Taqaishvili has not sold a single piece. He protected the treasure until 1933 when the League of Nations recognized the Soviet Union and the Georgian embassy in Paris was converted into a Georgian office . In the same year, the Georgian treasury came into the possession of the French state.
In 1935 Taqaishvili urged the French government to return the collection to Georgia. But France refused until the end of World War II . He returned the ancient manuscripts to Georgia in 1938. In November 1944, Taqaishvili managed to draw the attention of the Soviet ambassador in Paris, A. Bogomolov, to the treasure. Thanks to Stalin's good relations with Charles de Gaulle , he was able to bring the state treasure to Georgia in 1945.
Homecoming
Taqaishvili was placed under house arrest in Tbilisi . He was spared a lawsuit. He was allowed to continue his scientific studies and receive friends and colleagues at home. He died in 1953.
He was married and had a daughter. In 1985, director Rezo Tabukashvili made a documentary about Taqaishvili and the Georgian treasury.
Awards
After his death he was buried on the Pantheon on Mtatsminda in Tbilisi . The State University of Culture and Art in Tbilisi and the Georgian History Society of the Georgian Academy of Sciences got his name. The Georgian Orthodox Apostle Church canonized him and he was given the honorary name Euthymius the Righteous . A memorial museum was set up at his last residence at 7 Waschlowani Street.
Works
Monographs
- Sami istoriuli k'ronika . Tbilisi 1890
- K'art'lis Tskhovreba . Tbilisi 1906
- Arkheologicheskiia ekskursii, razyskaniia i zamietki . Tip. KP Kozlovskago, Tbilisi 1905
- Khristianskie pamiatniki . Moskva 1909
- Les antiquités géorgiennes . Société géorgienne d'histoire et d'ethnographie, Tbilisi 1909
- Album d'arquitecture géorgienne . Ed. de l'Univ. de Tbilisi, Tbilisi 1924
Journal articles
- Georgian chronology and the beginning of the Bagratid rule in Georgia . In: Georgica . London, vI, 1935
literature
- Elene Kelenjerize: Akademikos Ekvtime Taqaišvilis šromata bibliograpia . Sakartvelos SSR mecnierebata akademiis gamomcemloba, Tbilisi 1963
- Andria Apakidze: Akademikosi Ekvtime Taqaišvili . Mecniereba, Tbilisi 1966
- Elene Kelenjerize: Akademikos Ekvtime Taqaišvilis arkdivi: aceriloba . Mecniereba, Tbilisi 1972
- G. Lomtatize: Kartuli kulturis mematiane: Ekvtime Taqaišvili . Sabcota sakartvelo, Tbilisi 1990
- E. Bubulashvili: Ekvtime Takaishvili's Services to the Church of Georgia . In: Religion . № 10-11-12, Tbilisi 2003
Web links
- Queen Tamara pectoral cross, part of the Georgian treasury evacuated from Taqaishvili (PDF file)
- Ekwtime Taqaishvili's grave on the Tbilisi Pantheon (English, Georgian)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taqaishvili, Ekwtime |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | ექვთიმე თაყაიშვილი (Georgian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Georgian historian and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 3, 1863 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lichauri , Guria, Georgia |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 21, 1953 |
| Place of death | Tbilisi |