Who United Georgia? David III Kouropalates, the Kingdom of Abkhazia, and the Byzantine Empire

This article is devoted to a new consideration of the issue of the “unification” of the Kartvelian lands and the creation of a united Georgian kingdom at the turn of the 10th–11th centuries, as well as their prerequisites and main initiators. Contrary to the generally accepted idea of the leading role of Tao-Klarjeti in the organization of Kartvelian centripetal forces, the authors return to the concept of Giorgi Melikishvili about the primacy of the Abkhazian kingdom in this process, reinforcing it with several new additional arguments: about the structure of the texts “The Chronicle of Kartli” and “Divan of the Abkhazian Kings”, the titles of the first kings of united Georgia, political, ecclesiastical and onomastic succession, etc. In this regard, the relationship of the Abkhazian ruler and the first king-“unifier” of Georgia Bagrat III with his adoptive father, the ruler of South Tao David III Kuropalates is analyzed in detail, and concludes that the policy of the Tao’s prince covered only the interests of the Tao-Klarjeti region and did not imply any unification initiatives on the “all-Georgian” scale. In addition, the policy of the Abkhazian kingdom towards other Kartvelian counterparties from the beginning of its independence acquisition at the end of the 8th century is considered in detail: the key ideas here are remarks about the constant striving of Abkhazia to establish its power in most Kartvelian lands during the period of “disintegration” of the 9th–10th centuries and the certain of a strong Abkhazian-Byzantine alliance from at least the 880s until the “unification” of Georgia. In this regard, the main thesis of the authors is the thought about the interest and support of the Byzantines to the king Bagrat III as well as the process of the “unification” of Georgia, which met the strategic interests of the empire in the South Caucasus.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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