Gelowani (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the Svanetian princely houses Gelowani and Dadeschkeliani
Sketch of Princess Anna Gelowani (17th century) by the Georgian painter Don Cristoforo De Castelli (1600–1695)

The Gelovani ( Georgian : გელოვანი ) are a royal house of Georgia consisting of the Georgian counted nation ethnic group of Svans came and until the 16th century of 13 Svaneti dominated and later by the mid-18th century until 1857, the Principality Niederswanetien. A branch line are the princes Dadeschkeliani, who ruled in western Upper Svaneti from the 1720s to 1857 .

origin

In addition to numerous legends, there are only a few hypotheses that can hardly be tested about the origin of the Gelowani. Their own ruling legend claimed that they were keepers of the black stone in the Kaaba in Mecca in pre-Islamic times and that they then emigrated to Georgia. Her name apparently alludes to this legend, which etymologically comes from galav (old Swanian : "stone") and -ani (Georgian: "sons of ...", the suffix was taken from central Iranian languages , where -an -z. mpers. - "son of" means) is traced back, thus means "sons of the stone". This legend is historically very untrustworthy because Armenian, Georgian and other Caucasian princely houses often invoked high foreign origins, such as the Bagratids on King David , the Artsruni on the Assyrian ruling house and the Mamikonian on the Chinese nobility. A historical hypothesis, which is now considered unproven, suspects a descent from the medieval Georgian noble family Kvenipneveli. The family has only been documented in the sources since the 11th century, and a complete genealogy has only been able to be reconstructed since the 18th century . The Svaneti epic song about Giga Glwan seems to refer to an early member of the Gelowani family.

development

Upper Svaneti in Georgia
Lower Swanetia

The Georgian chronicler Vachuschti Bagrationi (18th century) , who wrote in Russian, narrated that in the heyday of unified Georgia in the 13th century, the Georgian Queen Thamar installed her vizier Antoni Gelowani as governor in Svaneti and thus replaced the older Svanetian house Vardanisdze . After the disintegration of Georgia into separate states, the Gelowani ruled as duke ( Eristawi ) over large parts of Svaneti from the 14th century, but were defeated and almost wiped out by the Mingrelian prince Dadiani in the 15th century . A surviving line fled from Lower Svaneti (also called Dadiani-Svaneti), which was ruled by the Dadiani, to Upper Svaneti and fell into feuds with other Svaneti clans, where they were finally expelled from Upper Svaneti by the victorious Dadeschkeliani in the 18th century. There they used the weakness of the Dadiani, who were replaced by the Chikowani branch line , to drive them out and raise themselves to princes of Lower Svaneti, while the Dadeschkeliani ruled in western Upper Svaneti. The conflict between the two families was only ended in 1833 through Russian and Mingrelian mediation and the Gelowani and Dadeschkeliani recognized the Russian protectorate over Svaneti at the same time . In 1857 Svaneti was captured by the Russian army and the principalities were eliminated.

Later, the Gelowani, together with the related Dadeschkeliani, were included in the rankings of the Russian nobility as a princely house . The numerous descendants of the Gelowani family now live in several countries. a. in Georgia, Russia, the USA, Germany and Great Britain.

Well-known representatives

References and comments

  1. ^ Arnaud Chaffanjon, "Le Petit Gotha Illustré" (1968).
  2. ↑ P.Dumin et al. "The Russian Imperial Nobility Encyclopaedia", Vol. IV, 2002
  3. ↑ on the origin cf. Toumanoff, p. 270
  4. ↑ See Sarkisyanz, p. 71.
  5. ↑ See Allen, p. 137
  6. ↑ See Sarkisyanz, p. 83.
  7. ↑ See Sarkisyanz, p. 83.

literature

  • Emanuel Sarkisyanz : History of the oriental peoples of Russia until 1917. Munich 1961
  • William Edward David Allen: A history of the Georgian people: from the beginning down to the Russian conquest in the nineteens century London (2nd ed.) 1971.
  • David Marshall Lang: A Modern History of Georgia. London 1963
  • Cyrill Toumanoff : Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Washington / DC 1963