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Prince Ioann of Georgia and his “Kalmasoba”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

David M. Lang
David M. Lang*
Affiliation:
Russian Institute, Columbia University University of London
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Extract

Nearly a century ago, there was found among the posthumous papers of Ioann Batonishvili, son of Giorgi XII, the last king of Georgia, an apparently incomplete manuscript treatise, containing articles in dialogue form on all kinds of topics, and interspersed with lively episodes from Georgian life. This treatise, which became known as the “Kalmasoba,” at once aroused interest, and sections of it were published by the historian D. Bak‘radze in 1862. Only the first part was known to Bak‘radze, however, as the manuscript had been divided into two portions after Ioann's death in 1830: the first portion passed to Ioann's brother-in-law, Grigol Tseret‘eli, the other to his grandson Prince Ivan Gruzinskij and from his collection to the St. Petersburg Public Library. The latter part was long thought in Georgia to be lost, and it was only after the 1917 Revolution, when some of the Georgian manuscripts from Russian collections were transferred to the new University of Tiflis, that the complete text could be reconstituted.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 1952 , pp. 274 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1952

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References

1 Bibliography: Cagareli, A. A., Svedenija o Pamjatnikakh Gruzinskoj Pis'mennosti, Fasc. I (St. Petersburg, 1886), viii–xiGoogle Scholar; Khakhanashvili, A., K'art'uli sitqvierebis istoria, me-XVIII sauk. gasulamde (3rd ed., Tiflis, 1919), pp. 447–49Google Scholar; Karitchashvili, D., “Vin aris Kalmasobis avtori?” in Sak‘art‘velos ark‘ivi (Tiflis, 1927), Vol. II Google Scholar; javakhishvili, G., Kalmasoba (Tiflis, 1933)Google Scholar.

2 Reproduced in Akty sobrannye Kavkazskoju Arkheagrafičeskoju Komissieju (Tiflis, 1869), Vol. III.

3 The account of Ioann's military career is summarized from Akty … , I, 161–75; Brosset, M.-F., Histoire de la Georgie (St. Petersburg, 1857), II, Fasc. II, 256, 261, 269, 271Google Scholar; Dubrovin, N., Georgij XII, poslednij car’ Gruzii (St. Petersburg, 1867)Google Scholar.

4 Akty … , I, 107–8. One of Ioann's judicial decisions, countersigned by his father, is printed in Sak‘art‘velos Sidzveleni, T‘aqaishvili, E., ed. (Tiflis, 1909), II, 466 Google Scholar.

5 Berdzenishvili, N., Javakhishvili, I., and Janashia, S., Istorija Gruzii (Tiflis, 1946), Part I, 447Google Scholar; Cagareli, Svedenija, I, viii.

6 Akty … , I, 184. Ioann was able to enlarge his domains substantially when his uncle Alexander went over to Baba Khan and forfeited his estates. After the annexation of Georgia, these were soon confiscated by the Russian Government.

7 Butkov, P. G., Materialy dlja novo] istorii Kavkaza (St. Petersburg, 1869), II, 469 Google Scholar. Cf. Lazarev's “Circular of December 28, 1800,” in Cagareli, A. A., Gramoty … otnosjaščiesja do Qruzii, II, Fasc. II, 296–97Google Scholar. The Commander-in-Chief, General Knorring, however, disapproved of Ioann's being given precedence over his brother David; see Akty … , I, 191.

8 Ioseliani, Platon, Life of King Giorgi XIII (in Georgian) (Tiflis, 1936), p. 64 Google Scholar.

9 Akty …, I, 234; Brosset, op. cit., p. 272.

10 Akty …, I, 281.

11 Akty … , I, 306,407.

12 See the Despatch of Baron Budberg to General Gudovič, July 14, 1806, in Akty …, III, 175.

13 Akty …, V, 63–80; Baddeley, J. F., The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (London, 1908), pp. 84-86 Google Scholar.

14 Cf. Abuladze, I., Catalogue of the Georgian Manuscripts of the State Museum of Georgia (Tiflis, 1946) (in Georgian), Nos. 195 and 214Google Scholar. A descriptive list of some of Ioann's verse compositions includes a Georgian rendering of part of the Iliad and a poem by Voltaire translated into Georgian via the Russian: E. T‘aqaishvili, “Description of the MSS. of the Library of the Society for Propagation of Literacy among the Population of Georgia,” Sbornik Materialov dlja opisanija mestnostej i piemen Kavkaza, XXXIX (1908), 15–16; Brosset, , “Histoire et littérature de la Géorgie” in Recueil des Actes de l'Académie des Sciences (St. Petersburg, 1837), p. 172 Google Scholar.

15 Akty …, VIII, 398.

16 This title, it is true, has been supplied by tradition, as the title page of Ioann's manuscript is lost. He himself refers rather noncommittally to the work as “khumarhsdsavla,” i.e., “teaching through jest.” The Prior Dositheus is a real personage, and subsequently was Archbishop of T‘elavi from 1814 to 1817. On the history of the K‘vabt‘akhevi monastery, see Akty … , V, 1037; Ioseliani, Platon, Žizn’ Georgija Saakadze (Tiflis, 1848), pp. 115–60Google Scholar.

17 The antiquity of this custom in Georgia may be judged from a passage in the life of St. Gregory of Khandzt‘a, who died in 951. A certain farmer promised the monks as much corn as they could reap in a day. The proprietor's wife, alarmed at their rapid wielding of the sickle, called off the agreement at midday, as punishment for which she was beset by an evil spirit. The leader of the brethren, conscience-stricken at this, exorcised the demon, for which the monastery was rewarded by the lady with added liberality; see Merchul, Giorgi, Žitie Sv. Grigorija Khandzt‘ijskogo, Marr, N. Ja., ed. (St. Petersburg, 1911), Georgian text, p. 51 Google Scholar.

18 On David Rector, see the article (in Georgian) by V. Beridze in Travaux de l'Université de Tiflis, I (1936).

19 Kalmasoba, V. Dondua, ed. (Tiflis, 1945), p. 45.

20 Ibid., p. xxvii.

21 Karitchashvili, D., “Vin aris Kalmasobis avtori?” in Sak‘art‘velos ark‘ivi, II, 187.Google Scholar

22 See M.-F. Brosset, Discours prononcé à l'Académe des Sciences, le 10 Janvier 1838, summary in Brosset, Laurent, Bibliographie Analytique des ouvrages de Monsieur M.-F. Brosset (St. Petersburg, 1887), p. 116Google Scholar, where there is a reference to Iona Khelashvili and forty-two works written by him. See further Brosset, M.-F., “Inscriptions tumulaires géorgiennes” in Mémoires de l'Académie de St.-Pétersbourg, Series VI (Sciences politiques), IV (1840), 511–12Google Scholar; and Brosset, M.-F., “Histoire et littérature de la Géorgie” in Recueil des Actes de l'Académie des Sciences (St. Petersburg, 1837), pp. 129–30, 165Google Scholar.

23 Extracts from the Kalmasoba, selected apparently with a view to giving the most unfavorable impression of Georgian society at the time of the Russian annexation, are also to be found in Khrestomatija po Istorii SSSR, S. S. Dmitriev and M. V. Nečkina, eds. (2nd ed., Moscow, 1949), II, 271–80.

24 That Tchavtchavadze's conduct was not governed by patriotic altruism alone may be judged from a petition which he and his colleagues presented to Alexander I in 1802, detailing rewards received in the past from the Russian Court, and asking for further bounty; see Cagareli, Gramoty, II, 2, xl.

25 Kalmasoba, p. 123.

26 S. D. Burnašev, Kartina Gruzii, K. N. Begičev, ed. (Tiflis, 1896), pp. 4, 10.

27 Kalmasoba, pp. 8–9.

28 Kalmasoba, p. 22.

29 Kalmasoba, p. 6.

30 Kalmasoba, p. 190.

31 See the chapter on “The Slave Trade” in Allen, W. E. D., A History of the Georgian People (London, 1932)Google Scholar.

32 Kalmasoba, pp. 10–15.

38 Voyages de Mr. le Chevalier Chardin en Terse (Amsterdam, 1711), I, 147–48.

34 Russkij Biografičeskij Slovaf, article “Dadian.”

86 Kalmasoba, pp. 148–51.

36 Kalmasoba, pp. 30–31.

37 Kalmasoba, p. 102.

38 von Haxthausen, A., Transkaukasia (Leipzig, 1856), II, 195 Google Scholar.

39 Kalmasoba, pp. 81–84.

40 Kalmasoba, p. 51.

41 Kalmasoba, p. 42.

42 On Sayat-Nova, see further Leonidze, G., Mgosani Saat‘nova (Tiflis, 1930)Google Scholar; Melik‘set‘-Begi, L., Saiat‘novas vinaoba (Tiflis, 1930)Google Scholar; Shanidze, A., Dzveli k‘art‘uli ena da literatura (9th ed., Tiflis, 1947), pp. 212–18Google Scholar. Reference may also be made to the article of M. Tchéraz, “Saïat Nova: sa vie et ses chansons,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July, 1893. On the monastery of Haghpat where he spent his declining years, see Brosset, M.-F., “Description des Monastères Arméniens d'Haghbat et de Sanahin par l'Archimandrite Jean de Crimée,” in Mémoires de l'Académie de St.-Petersbourg, Series VII, Vol. VI, No. 6 (1863)Google Scholar; and also Khalpakhč'jan, O. Kh., “Arkhitekturnye pamjatniki Akhpata,” in Arkhitektura Respublik Zakavkaz'ja (Moscow, 1951), pp. 321–55.Google Scholar