Klarjeti and Tao

Who he is

Name

Not pinned. Guzan Abulasanisdze (called Taoeli), son of the amir Abulasan, led the 1191 revolt from these lands; whether he or his kin still hold them on 1 January 1200 is not pinned

Title

Lords of Klarjeti and Tao

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

The Bagratid cradle (Artanuji, the monasteries of Klarjeti) is Georgian; the southern part of Tao (Tortum, Ispir, probably Oltisi) is Saltukid (emi sheet).

Overlord

Tamar

What it holds

• Artanuji and Klarjeti
• Shavsheti
• Northern Tao round the Chorokhi bend
• Kola and Artaani on the upper Kura

How it was acquired

Bagratid patrimony; Kola and Artaani recovered in the 12th century (dates not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Facing the Saltukids of Erzurum and the emir of Kars.

How things stand that morning

Georgian; lords not pinned; the Oltu-Tortum line is a frontier with the Saltukids.

Wealth

The road from Tbilisi and Akhaltsikhe to Trebizond and the Black Sea; mountain farming; the monasteries' estates.

Military

Artanuji fortress.

Threats

• The Saltukids of Erzurum and the emir of Kars

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. 1200No dated event is recorded for this lordship in 1200.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The extent of Georgian Tao in 1200 and its lords are not settled by the sources read.

On the map: The Tao frontier is a guess between Yusufeli (Georgian) and Tortum and Oltu (Saltukid or contested).

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