Ivane Mkhargrdzeli

Who he is

Name

Ivane Mkhargrdzeli (Zakarian)

Title

Msakhurtukhutsesi (chief of the royal household)

Since

About 1191

Born

Not pinned

Family

Younger son of Sargis Mkhargrdzeli; brother of Zakare. His children Avag (atabeg after him, died 1250) and Tamta (given in marriage to the Ayyubid al-Awhad about 1210) have no recorded birth years; whether either is born by 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Confidence

high

He turned from the Armenian to the Georgian (Chalcedonian) church, 'around 1200' by one account, 'early 13th century' by another; Vardan Areweltsi tells the conversion without a date.

Overlord

Tamar

What it holds

• The office of msakhurtukhutsesi at court
• A share in the brothers' common holdings (drawn under Zakare Mkhargrdzeli)
• Estates in Georgia (not named in the sources read)

How it was acquired

Royal favour; conquest with Zakare.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Zakare, Tamar, the Georgian church. Rivals: the Muslim lords of Bjni and Dvin; later the Akhaltsikheli brothers.

How things stand that morning

At court and in the field with Zakare; Bjni and Dvin, his line's later seats, are still in Muslim hands.

Wealth

His share of the brothers' conquests and war spoils; royal grants.

Military

His retinue; joint command with Zakare.

Threats

• The emirs of Bjni, Dvin and the Ararat plain

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1201 (Vardan: 650 of the Armenian era, about 30 January 1201 to 29 January 1202)Takes Bjni on the Hrazdan with Zakare; it becomes his seat.Depends on: No relief from Dvin or Tabriz Stopped by: A strong garrison and Eldiguzid relief
2. 1203 (Vardan: 652 of the Armenian era)Takes Dvin with Zakare.Depends on: No Eldiguzid relief Stopped by: Abu Bakr defending Dvin
3. 1212-13 (later course)Becomes atabeg after Zakare's death.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia's Ivane and Zakare articles put Dvin, Bjni and other places among conquests of 1193 or 'before about 1199'; Vardan Areweltsi dates Bjni to 650 AE (1201) and Dvin to 652 AE (1203). Vardan is followed: Bjni and Dvin are not Georgian on 1 January 1200.
• The aze sheet anchors Bjni and Hrazdan to georgia; on Vardan's dates they are still Muslim on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Office certain; his own lands on 1 January 1200 are not separable from his brother's.

On the map: No separate land drawn: his share lies inside the brothers' common holdings (Zakare Mkhargrdzeli).

Primary sources for Georgia

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
• The History of Derbent and Shirvan, as preserved in Munejjim-bashi's Jami al-duwal, Anonymous (an 11th-century author of Derbent, excerpted by Munejjim-bashi, died 1702) (about 1075; preserved in an Ottoman compilation of the 1670s). The only local history of the Shirvanshahs and the emirs of Derbent, surviving as extracts in a 17th-century Ottoman compilation.
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. Read online
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online