Toreli and Akhaltsikheli

Who he is

Name

Shalva Akhaltsikheli, with his brother Ivane Akhaltsikheli

Title

Lords of Akhaltsikhe; eristavi of Akhalkalaki

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not pinned

Family

The Akhaltsikheli are the junior branch of the Toreli, named after their original fief of Tori (the Borjomi gorge); the senior branch holds the duchy of Akhalkalaki in Javakheti. Gamrekel Toreli was amirspasalar from 1184 and beat Yury's rebels at Tmogvi and Erusheti in 1191.

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia says the duchy of Akhalkalaki passed to the Akhaltsikheli, with Shalva as duke, after Gamrekel Toreli's death; the date is not given, so whether that is true on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

Tamar

What it holds

• Akhaltsikhe and its district on the upper Kura (the junior branch's fief)
• Javakheti with Akhalkalaki (the senior branch's duchy; passed to Shalva after Gamrekel's death, date not pinned)
• Tori, the Borjomi gorge, the family's original land

How it was acquired

Inheritance and royal grants under George III and Tamar.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Tamar, the Meskhian lords. Rivals: the Mkhargrdzeli (a later enmity), the emir of Kars.

How things stand that morning

Hold Akhaltsikhe and Javakheti; Meskhian forces blockade Kars from time to time before 1206 (the dates are not given).

Wealth

The upper Kura valley, the Javakheti grain and horse pastures, the road to Kars and Ani.

Military

The Meskhian host; castles of Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki and the Kura gorge (Khertvisi).

Threats

• Raids from 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. 1202-03 (later course)Shalva becomes mandaturtukhutsesi after Zakare.
2. 1206-07 (later course)Kars surrenders; Ivane Akhaltsikheli is made its governor.

Places of note

• Khertvisi: Castle on the Kura gorge

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia's Toreli article has the senior branch holding Akhalkalaki; its Shalva article gives Akhalkalaki to Shalva after Gamrekel's death. Both are drawn here under one record.

Evidence: The brothers' deeds are told by the court histories; the dates of their grants are not.

On the map: The Toreli lands are drawn from their names (Tori, Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki); exact bounds are not known.

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